This is me in the kitchen of our home. I thought it fitted with today’s theme.
If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
Funnily enough, I asked the Panther of News this the other day and, without a beat, he answered: “New Zealand.”
“But it’s so far away. And you’ve never been.”
“I know but it I just know it would be right.”
I don’t have anything like that power of certainty. There are places I see that make me nod inside and imagine myself inhabiting every day, but nothing I’d be sure of. I’ve learned, you see, that places, in the main, have people in them – and, if you live there, one of whom will be you. And that’s where the success or failure of a place will lie.
That said, watching the enormous adventure of blogger Dorkymum upping her sticks and taking them to Tasmania has sparked a little something in me, possibly envy, maybe a whiff of possibility.
The thing is, everywhere I’ve ever lived has been because circumstance chucked me there. Not that it’s a bad thing, just I didn’t give it much thought, hardly any.
Here’s where I lived:
- Penrith – I was little
- Aberdeen – I stayed on after university
- Edinburgh – seemed like a good idea and I knew someone there who had flat to let
- Troon – I was in to sailing at the time
- Edinburgh – then the only place to study journalism
- Glasgow – I had a job there
- Boats, various
- Hamble – it’s where the last boat tied up
- Glasgow – I could get work
- Gran Canaria – seemed like a good idea etc
- Kilmacolm – Close enough to Glasgow where I could get work and yet somehow suitable for the baby. Plus I’d been there once before and it seemed quite nice
- Bridge of Weir – See above, plus in catchment for the good school… 11 years later we’re still here.
I love inland Provence and would live there as soon as I won the lottery. I love the language and the landscape and the fierce sun and the scent of thyme on the light breeze.
If not France, I'd move out further into the gentle Kent countryside to be near my cousins in the (relative) peace and quiet and have a cosy house with an Aga and a view of gently rolling green hills from my windows,
But I live in Beckenham because it's less than an hour's commuting distance for my husband and we still have trees and gardens and streets that are (just) not filled with nose-to-tail cars.
Ah yes – an Aga. That would be on my list of things my ideal home would have.
I love new Zealand but for us it is just too far from family. Having lived in Glasgow for so long I don't think we have yet truly called it home! Now by this time next year we will be somewhere new again. There are pieces of me in Jamaica & Italy too but doubt it is ever where we will live. It's a tough and loaded question for me.
Where are you moving to?
Sheffield, some time early next year.
I can be as certain as the Panther…. Tampa Florida. Would go today if I could and I know Ruth is nearly as certain as me (family more of an issue than me) but we have a problem as we create to much of a risk to the American workforce and can't get work permits and green cards. We have and many of our friends have tried for us with no luck. I even worked for Boeing and still could not get there. They prefer as do we in the UK the people that will do the work they don't want to. Wow that sounds more biter than I wanted it to 🙂
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Maybe you can retire there eventually. Pity you can't just go now though – you'd have no shortage of visitors 😉
We moved up here when I was young. My mo's family is all from around here. Then I met my, now husband and her always lived around here. By the time I wanted to move away my kids had friends, and my mom is getting older and I would not want to be away from her
Such a good question and one I think we ask ourselves a lot in Winter but I think your right a place is more about the people and culture. I stayed in America (before kids) for a little while and could not wait to leave Glasgow but very soon I was hankering for the seasons and the good old Scottish people. Suppose the grass isn't always greener!!