City Saturday versus Silent Sunday

I hate London. I think it's a horrible place :(
I'm pleased to know you are enjoying your garden and that you were glad to return there after your trip to the big smoke.

I couldn't breathe up there Hywel. I have been outside all day today. Tying in my passion fruit and clematis is the most therapeutic thing. I lived there for such a along time only moving out to Suffolk when i was in my twenties. It's just not for me now...I like fresh air to much !

I grew up in the London suburbs so I did enjoy being able to access the city so easily. And the parks there are lovely to be able to wander around.

All our holidays were in the countryside though, mostly camping in borrowed scout tents as dad was a scout leader. I love the fresh air in the countryside.

I would hate to have no garden like many inner city places.

My two sons, who have bought the place in rural Sweden, live in London. They can grow interesting plants in London as it is so warm and sunny.

It was so hot, no air at all...like being in a greenhouse !

So pleased you and your son had a wonderful time . I to hate London with high rises not like it use to be my mum loved London my man had businesses there her favourite place was living there prior coming from Wales then Bristol and loved the hustle and bustle my auntys and cousins lived there to even they have moved out my Aunty lived on a small road which led straight into Richmound Park . I doubt if mum was alive and seen it now she would like it.

i has changed beyond recognition, Charlie hasn't been since a school trip and hes now 17. He was pleased to go but pleased to be home.

I studied in London and loved it very much...also hated the dirt, the sprawl and the loneliness of being a poor student there. But London has such wonderful open spaces and a fantastic climate. Every time I go I know that I could live there very happily...as long as I had plenty of money! You'd need to be very wealthy to enjoy it fully. Still, for me...the best City in the world. I'd love to live just near Kew or any of the big parks. And the range of plants you could grow as Linda says...wonderful weather....can also be bitter when the winds blow. We could perhaps afford a one-bed flat now...so we're staying here! Both my children dislike it though.

For me there is only one good road in London and that is the road out of it. It does have wonderful things to see that are nowhere else but I gladly forego them for living out here where you can breathe clean air and you can safely have conversations with complete strangers. I once asked my way in London - the first time i had been there on my own - and was just told not to speak to strangers . No help at all. I ended up getting a taxi.
I heard someone telling with wonder how she had seen stars in the sky, which I gathered she hadn't seen before - so sad.

Haven't been to London for a while but ex-evacuee still lives there and is well-looked-after. OH isn't keen on driving there and is convinced the car would be stolen if he didn't stay with it. LOL
Ex ev. grows plants on her two balconies. Hasn't a clue what they are and describes them to us as having green leaves!! Not easy to give advice.

Must say when I did visit London I had a great time and explored. Trusted everyone and was never let down. (Wonder if that would be the case today?)

A long time ago my sister and husband spent two weeks in London and visited the theatre practically every week night. The inevitable happened and they turned up with the wrong tickets one night. The Manager was sent for and my BIL said, "look. It's my fault. I should have checked. The Manager gaped and said "No one has ever said that, Sir. I have always been blamed. Come with me" and they ended up seeing the show from a Box!

No wonder in our family we like(d) London!

Having said that we wouldn't swop our rural home.

Great story Eirlys - honesty is the best policy!

I must admit, I talk to everyone in London, in fact I talk to everyone everywhere...in the queue at Tesco, on the bus...over the garden fence.

I wouldnt swap my home in Suffolk for London these days but I do like to dip my toe in the water every now and then.

:)

Yes, thats how I feel too NAT! :)

My favourite thing in the whole wide world is afternoon tea, and you can't Claridges for that :)

Have you been to the Orangery at Kensington Palace Gardens? Excellent afternoon tea there and great for entertainment too...watching the tourists deal with scones, cream and jam is great fun..and some famous faces too.

Well, I still live in West London - I'm lucky because where I live is very green indeed, but London is now absolutely fascinating - its unrecognisable. I went to Paddington Basin one warm evening about a month ago, last time I was there was around 12 years ago, and although I recognised a bit of it, there was masses of it I didn't recognise at all, and they're still building. I even got lost trying to find Kupp, a Danish restaurant there, right on the canal, and round the corner, there's loads of bars facing onto the canal where you can sit outside, its hard to believe it is actually London, could be anywhere in Europe, I love it, all the hustle and bustle, the truly cosmopolitan mix of people, the different languages and accents. But I must say, when I get back home, I'm really, really conscious of how green it is here compared to inner London, and I really wouldn't want to live any further into London than I do.

The view down the river from Chelsea Embankment I also did not recognise - I got home and threw out my ancient A to Z because for sure, it will no longer be relevant! The dirty old London it reflected has practically completely disappeared.

I like Suffolk too, stayed there periodically in a small, quiet town, very peaceful and pretty, but I'm afraid I couldn't bear to live without street lights and pavements, and a 24 hour shop round the corner. I could probably move to Norwich, or Bristol though, but the country, no way, that's just a nice place a visit, preferably during the summer when its green and not brown and muddy. Seems like I'm definitely a metropolitan townie, ancient though I'm becoming!

A trip down the Thames in a fast boat must have been great fun...

What a good thing we are all different! The great thing about the UK is that there are so many different kinds of environments in such a small area - something for everybody! Vive la difference!

I quite agree Steragram :) that's why GOY is so great as it brings us all together

Bamboo: Your post made me feel like a visit to London. As students my friend and I explored but one place we missed was Highgate Cemetery. Other Half looks at me askance when I say I would really like to visit the latter.

I like city lights but am always glad to return to my rural home.

NAT: I have to confess that I talk to strangers! Older Son took me out once and, as he now lived in Surrrey (!), warned me not to speak to anyone on the train. (They were carriages then.) I promised, but the first thing I did was to trip over some poor chap's plaster -casted leg which made me fall into the lap of an Irishman. Not to be recommended, but it did get everyone laughing and talking!

Eirlys, I'm always glad to come back to my quiet, green oasis, although its still in London. I'm guessing Highgate cemetery won't have changed, unlike other large swathes of London.

As for not talking to people, yea, I remember my sons saying that to me, and my sister's daughter says the same to her - they find us crucifyingly embarrassing of course, but I've come to the conclusion they have to put up with it, its part of a parent's job, to be embarrassing! Makes me laugh really, its children who were supposed to be seen and not heard, not parents...

I'm just hitting that embarrassing parent stage...my 17 year old just rolls his eyes and ruffles my hair ! That's what happens I guess when he towers above me :)

Eirlys, that's the best story ever. Now I want to go on a train with you !

17! You're lucky - I remember my eldest son, taking him out for new shoes, asking me to walk behind or in front of him, so he could pretend he wasn't with me at 14, although its true, by then, he was already towering over me at almost six feet. Having told me not to speak to anyone whilst we were out first, of course... I didn't take any notice at all once we were out, ha ha!

Ha ha !

You all sound like going to New York City. wow! try that for change over the years. Can't move, everyone shoving around, People everywhere. However, what an energy builder and fascinating if you like to look at the world swirling around. Not to mention the buildings and Museums. We lived in London for a few years, and just loved it. But the wide open green fields are the Best! so always glad to be out of big cities these days. And PS. My children still tell me, Let's go, you can talk later...

Ha ha, kids don't change - I remember my mother stopping to talk to people when we were out shopping.When I was little, I got impatient,when I was older, I found it sooo embarrassing, so nothing changes much down the generations, does it...