Up North - Down South

Early closing Nfk we haven't had that for about 20 years in the Thames Valley. We seem to be open 24/7.

Our town is buzzing with life most days. I sometimes feel sorry for those obviously on their own when they are surrounded by families and couples.

We do get flooded from the Thames, fortunately we live up a hill.

If you were heading Norfolkwards overthehill you wouldn't be able to get any further north without getting very wet and muddy! That's why few people come here, it's on the way to nowhere.

As for country towns being deserted on a Saturday afternoon, ours is like that most afternoons. We are a slow town. Busy in the morning as folk come in to shop and maybe meet friends for coffee or lunch and then, apart from a small flurry around school time, very quiet. Wednesday is early closing and only the newsagents and supermarkets open on Sundays. Gives time for unwinding.

Overthehill. If you were worried about the weather and you live near London, why didn't you drive down to Dover and get the Ferry to France. Just wondering.

I am not sure why you are amazed that there are so few people around in a country town on a Saturday afternoon, Overthehill Could it just be that there are other things for them to do than mill around a hot dusty town? They have soft green countryside just minutes away . . .

We had a weekend in Liverpool the week before last. It is such a lovely city. We stayed at the Hard Days Night Hotel, went to the Cavern club, and I had my photo taken in the Grapes pub next to a photo of the Beatles sitting in the same seat. A Beatles fan - moi?

I am a Londoner. Could I live elsewhere, maybe but it would have to be a town and sorry not north of Watford.

DH and me take trips into the City and West End regularly as we get free travel on the bus and tubes (wouldn't do it so much otherwise).

Prices of course are horrendous compared to other parts of the country but London is in our bones.

We travel the country a lot and visit all sorts of places in our caravan and love it, then we come home.

What always amazes us, is you can go round a country town on say a Saturday afternoon and there are very few people about. Where we live in a suburb of London there are always lots of people knocking about.

For years we would never travel further than Norfolk because we were afraid the weather would be awful. We have put that behind us now and in the past year we have been to Blackpool, Birmingham and Liverpool. We were pleasantly surprised how nice these places were.

rosesarered No we were both retired when we came here, My DH had never even been to Scotland when I met him 1995. I have always been drawn to Islands I dont really know why. There was to many stairs where we lived on the south coast of Devon, so we would of had to move sometime, somewhere, my search just kept creeping up the country. so to cut a long story short we sold up, put all our worldly goods in a transit, which we lived in for 9 months while we were building our home.

I love the North!
Actually I live about 30 miles south of Manchester and we are in the rain shadow of the North Wales mountains which relieves us of an awful lot of the rain from the west.

Manchester is becoming a good vibrant city. We have lovely countryside on our doorstep. The Peak District is a wonderful area, it may not be as high as the lake district but it is my favourite part of the UK.

My son went to university there and left to go and live near to his girlfriend. I think he would have been happy to stay in Manchester area otherwise.

There's lovely sunny weather here in Chester today which bodes well for the Cheshire Show. It's on today and tomorrow at the Tabley showground near Knutsford.

HollyDaze the mini-roundabout description should be filmed with the soundtrack of The Good The Bad And The Ugly.
Newist what led you to move to The Hebrides? Was it a job?

We used to live in Heywood, moved over to Lincolnshire in 1977. Every time we go over to visit family, we always chuckle when we get to the bit on the M62 with the stone with the red rose on it, as that`s where the weather usually turns to rain!

You live over on the West side then. Every time we visit my BiL in the Wirral, we wave goodbye to the sunshine somewhere around Leicester. I think we have had about half an hour in total during all the years they have lived there - and that was in late June on a day trip to Chester! I remember it well because I said to DBH, if only the weather here was better I wouldn't mind living here. Wet weather makes me very creaky. I don't mind rain, I do mind pain.

Sorry upsydaisy but your post made me chuckle - in a sympathetic way though Here - have some sunshine on me

Ohhhh, don't even get me started on the weather. We must live in one of the worst places in the whole country for cloud. It's incessant. Everyone says what a good summer we had last year, well it must have passed us by because it certainly doesn't stick in my memory as being any different from any other year. I suffer terribly from sunshine envy. Where I used to work, there was a TV in reception where we had New 24 on all day Every time they interviewed someone outside the Houses of Parliament which was more or less every day, they would have a back drop of brilliant sunshine and blue sky, I would look out of the window and it would be raining or freezing or both and that saying always sprung to mind - how the sun shines on the righteous, so why does it shine there? has it lost it's way?

Ah - the opposite to my attempts

You probably will pick it up when you hear enough of it - some words I can say but no idea how to spell them. I agree though, it's lovely to hear these old languages, a glimpse of our past

The difference here is its always been used, its just so natural, I love to hear it. If anyone has a need to ring the council they always answer Gaelic then quickly change when they realise I haven't a clue what they are saying. I am not doing very well speaking it, Gaelic with a Geordie accent is something to behold.

There was a time, newist that I would have echoed my mother and said 'what's the point of learning dead languages' but now I see the whole point of it. It's part of our past isn't it. Do you speak Gaelic? I know a few Manx words but not many - my favourite sayings is 'traii da looar' which means 'time enough'.

That is a very casual remark from the police, "just the one" they must be used to them escaping We have always said if a space ship landed here no one would take any notice, because strange happenings are normal.
The local nursery only use Gaelic so by the time the children start school they are all bilingual, It is interesting because in the local shops they just switch between languages, they are very respectful in the way they use it.
The girl on the till at the co-op learns me a new word each time I shop

That is a select population newist (I prefer that term to 'small') and that's a high percentage of Gaelic speakers - do they speak it daily? The education board here is trying to get Manx Gaelic up and running again and it seems quite popular with a fair few adults and children.

16 cattle on walkabout! It can come as a shock can't it. We have a wildlife park on the island and animals are always escaping from there (usually wallabees (sp?)) but my daughter, who lives relatively close to Park, heard her dog barking like mad one day in the garden. She looked out to see what he was barking at and it was a monkey of some description in her garden. She rang the local police (as she was worried it would attack her dog) and all the officer said was 'just the one is it miss' and hung up! Two hours later they're all over the place trying to find the missing monkey!

These city folk don't know what they're missing do they

Its round about 1300, 61% speak Gaelic so its very interesting. Last week 16 Highland cattle went walkabouts, we had to Shoo them out of our garden

Only 2 main junctions? I feel positively cosmopolitan now

Ah, sheep - the great escape artists. It's what I've never understood about sheep grazing either side of the mountain road - they sometimes get through the fence and onto the road. We don't have any deer - they were probably all eaten out of existence some time ago.

How many live on your Island?

On this Island there is, really only 2 main junctions, where there is restrictions, that's only because one would end up in deep water, testing the amphibious quality of the car. The other restrictions are at 3 schools and the ferry port. The cyclists this time of the year are a major hazard, because they often pedal 3 abreast. The sheep and the deer don't help either.

Sometimes janerowena, I feel I am living on the set of The Vicar of Dibley

I missed your description somehow - hilarious! I can see it on the tv now...

newist I'd give in first

The mountain road is treated like a motorway here and when I see tourists park on it and strolling up and down to enjoy the view, it worries the heck out of me. It's only a normal two-lane road, there are no double yellows (not even single ones) to warn visitors not to park - it must frighten the life out of them when the locals fly past doing any speed they like (often in excess of 100mph) - there is no national speed limit up there either.

How many of your roads have no speed restrictions? Here, it's only really when you are approaching, and in, villages and towns.