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Cars - a genuine appeal

A virtual pub for off topic, light hearted pub related banter and discussion. No trainers
simsqu
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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449022

Postby simsqu » October 9th, 2021, 11:44 pm

Howard wrote:
We sat out in the garden today in the sunshine. It was completely silent apart from the birds singing in the hedgerow.


All that silence scares the living bejesus out of me. At night all you can hear is the splintering of wood as the local axe murderer bursts through your front door.


Howard wrote: I have become aware that one can smell the traffic fumes walking through busy streets.


Well that's better than the countryside, which absolutely STINKS

Howard wrote: It's nice to get a flavour of how the other half live but it's very relaxing to be able to come back to a village lifestyle.


Yes, but there is absolutely nothing to see or do in a village. For example, where are the independent cinemas or experimental theatre companies?

Howard wrote:I'm glad you enjoy living in a big city. I too enjoy the buzz of an occasional trip to London but I always enjoy coming home.


Ah, but you see, I AM home

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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449035

Postby csearle » October 10th, 2021, 12:48 am

simsqu wrote:...
I think that is why, at the moment, I like living unfar from your metropolis but even less far from the wonderful, wonderful countryside. I feel there is a minimum culture required (music, Japanese restaurant, theater) but for more there is the adjoining city and for less the adjoining countryside. C.

bungeejumper
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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449053

Postby bungeejumper » October 10th, 2021, 10:31 am

A long, long time ago, I used to be on chatting terms with the late Times journalist John Diamond, who was married to Nigella Lawson at the time ;) , but who was tragically dying of a slow cancer. He could be quite a stroppy bastard at times, especially when it hurt, but he had the ironic ability to see himself through others' eyes, and to extract the urine appropriately.

So he would loudly opine that the only purpose of the countryside was for driving through when it was absolutely necessary. And that the greatest pleasure of the city was its theatre and its restaurants and its art and its dinner parties and its highfalutin' culture, not all of which he had much to do with. He did it mostly to annoy us rural dwellers, of course. And yes, he'd have been genuinely spooked by the dead silence of the night, with only the owls and the foxes making conversation, and nobody breaking bottles or ripping the door mirrors off the cars. (The quiet spooks some of our townie visitors too.)

The point was, Diamond said, that it was a good feeling just to know that the delights of the city were always just a cab call away. No matter that you didn't really know any of your neighbours, or that you would bang on the walls if they played their music too loudly, and they'd do the same to you. (Or worse.) He sort-of got the point that rural relationships were more long-term and more genuine, and that we wurzels could rely on our neighbours to help us out even if we didn't particularly like them. But for him, the transience, the dirt and the constant elbow-jostling of the city were all worth it for the buzz.

In return, we decided not to mention that Londoners had their transport massively subsidised, whereas we didn't see a bus from one day to the next. And that the press's infatuation with London theatres, London galleries, London music and London bloody everything, was the welcome price that we had to pay for the privilege of not being overrun by people who couldn't really see our environment as anything more than just a pretty view.

This country mouse spent four years on Fleet Street and couldn't wait to get out of the City. (The internet and WFH eventually made that possible.) There are more psychos and drifters and dangerous people per square kilometre in the city, but heck, everybody knows that. We still envy you your public transport, though. :lol:

BJ

AleisterCrowley
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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449055

Postby AleisterCrowley » October 10th, 2021, 10:51 am

I actually like both - I mostly enjoyed my ten years living in London (preferred N8 to W5 though)
Working in a London office was great, vastly better than all the business park sheds and 'campus style' efforts I've been based at since. Most people got the train in, and there was an after work social life. Now (well pre-Corona) people drive in from all over and disappear again as quickly as possible to avoid the traffic
That was when I was in my 30s and, as a 50-something, I don't think I could go back there to live- unless I win the lottery/inherit a mews flat in Chelsea from a forgotten relation
If I last until retirement, I'm probably heading back to the small market town where I grew up. It's got pubs, shops, some public transport - but you can walk between most points easily

tjh290633
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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449057

Postby tjh290633 » October 10th, 2021, 10:57 am

simsqu wrote:Yes, but there is absolutely nothing to see or do in a village. For example, where are the independent cinemas or experimental theatre companies?

We must be lucky in our village. We have both in the same building.

TJH

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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449078

Postby didds » October 10th, 2021, 12:13 pm

Hmmm... FWIW... our rural town is a mile away from our house.

It has an independent cinema, a theatre, two musicial theatre groups, a chamber choir, an opera company, several mid week choirs, two orchestras/bands, a pub that has featured in the CAMRA good beer guide for over 25 years consecutively, plus several other excellent GBG entries and those that dont quite make the cut, a nationally known brewer and two very local cider farms plus a vintner, a canal with an an engineering marvel, church choir that has sung at St Pauls of late... and several venues that provide pub gigs of bands (slowly getting back into it now post covid).

Its public transport offerings are pretty weak though.

simsqu
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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449134

Postby simsqu » October 10th, 2021, 3:59 pm

didds wrote:It has an independent cinema, a theatre, two musicial theatre groups, a chamber choir, an opera company, several mid week choirs, two orchestras/bands, a pub that has featured in the CAMRA good beer guide for over 25 years consecutively, plus several other excellent GBG entries and those that dont quite make the cut, a nationally known brewer and two very local cider farms plus a vintner, a canal with an an engineering marvel, church choir that has sung at St Pauls of late... and several venues that provide pub gigs of bands (slowly getting back into it now post covid).


That sounds great, but I noted almost all facilities you mention are preceded with the word "a", and I think that's the point. We have such a vast choice of all the things I love. True, I certainly don't do the variety justice, but it's all a quick tube ride away. And the cherry on the cake is the people. They are YOUNG!!

We (4 of us in our mid to late sixties) went to the Arts Club Cocktail bar in Frith Street - the heart of Soho. Quite busy but not squashed together. Loudish music and all the other patrons were - at most - 30 years old and laughing and shouting at the tops of their voices. Couldn't hear a thing but it was fantastic to be surrounded by such happy, young, healthy people having a good time - really lifted our spirits. Then we walked about 2 minutes and had a fabulous Szechuan meal, surrounded by about fifty young Chinese students - heavenly mayhem!!

The thought of sitting in a quiet, miserable "cosy" pub in the middle of nowhere, drinking sewage runoff, aka real ale, and pounding down a soggy sausage roll, surrounded by similar aged people moaning about their ailments and people not respecting their precious village would be enough to make me open a vein.

tjh290633
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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449139

Postby tjh290633 » October 10th, 2021, 5:06 pm

simsqu wrote:We (4 of us in our mid to late sixties) went to the Arts Club Cocktail bar in Frith Street - the heart of Soho. Quite busy but not squashed together. Loudish music and all the other patrons were - at most - 30 years old and laughing and shouting at the tops of their voices. Couldn't hear a thing but it was fantastic to be surrounded by such happy, young, healthy people having a good time - really lifted our spirits. Then we walked about 2 minutes and had a fabulous Szechuan meal, surrounded by about fifty young Chinese students - heavenly mayhem!!

The thought of sitting in a quiet, miserable "cosy" pub in the middle of nowhere, drinking sewage runoff, aka real ale, and pounding down a soggy sausage roll, surrounded by similar aged people moaning about their ailments and people not respecting their precious village would be enough to make me open a vein.

That sounds like the sort of place I would avoid like the plague. Noise, for a start.

You must have had some bad experiences of country pubs. My favourite has a roast lunch on every day, plus a further varied menu. Decent real ale from local small breweries, a nice garden and a friendly family run atmosphere. It's only one of several but they are all different. You obviously would prefer a crowded town pub with muzak and a chain ownership. They have their place as well.

TJH

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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449143

Postby Howard » October 10th, 2021, 5:32 pm

simsqu wrote:
Howard wrote:
We sat out in the garden today in the sunshine. It was completely silent apart from the birds singing in the hedgerow.


All that silence scares the living bejesus out of me. At night all you can hear is the splintering of wood as the local axe murderer bursts through your front door.

Have you been to too many experimental theatre productions? Time for a sedative?

Howard wrote: I have become aware that one can smell the traffic fumes walking through busy streets.


Well that's better than the countryside, which absolutely STINKS

Country air clears your nasal passages and improves sense of smell? Are you sure it's not you? Worth considering a deodorant? ;)

Howard wrote: It's nice to get a flavour of how the other half live but it's very relaxing to be able to come back to a village lifestyle.


Yes, but there is absolutely nothing to see or do in a village. For example, where are the independent cinemas or experimental theatre companies?


I think that’s been answered by others, but it’s probably worth avoiding the “axe murderer” performances now you are in your sixties - blood pressure old chap!


Howard wrote:I'm glad you enjoy living in a big city. I too enjoy the buzz of an occasional trip to London but I always enjoy coming home.


Ah, but you see, I AM home But troubled by the constant noise of builders playing Beethoven? :)


regards

Howard

simsqu
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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449153

Postby simsqu » October 10th, 2021, 6:12 pm

tjh290633 wrote:
You must have had some bad experiences of country pubs. My favourite has a roast lunch on every day, plus a further varied menu. Decent real ale from local small breweries, a nice garden and a friendly family run atmosphere. TJH


Hmmmmm yeah, not really what I had in mind to be honest. I suspect it is just a case of horses for courses. You see, I really don't like any of the things you see as a positive. For example, can't stand Sunday Roasts: heavy, mundane, and unpleasant: the thought of meat and two veg is my idea of food hell, and I avoid them like the plague. Loathe real ale: it all, all of it, tastes like sewage runoff to me. When I say that, people always say, "Oooh no, you clearly have not tried...Old Mother Flummary's Triple matured malt roasted ye olde barley and tripe homebrewed...." you get the picture. Friendly family atmosphere? I'd rather stick needles in my eyes. Friendly family atmosphere to me means screaming kids and either huge beer-bellied types eating chips, or worse, a boring bunch or mums dads and kids having their weekly day-out treat, which does not interest me at all.

tjh290633 wrote: You obviously would prefer a crowded town pub with muzak and a chain ownership.

TJH


Hahaha! That also sounds ghastly, and not sure how you come to that conclusion as being what I might like. If I go out for a drink, which is actually not that often, I like a crowded cocktail bar. And by the way, I also avoid chains like the plague. In fact, I recall I once posted a long diatribe on that very subject in The Other Place.

Still as I said, it's all horses for courses.

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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449156

Postby AleisterCrowley » October 10th, 2021, 6:18 pm

simsqu wrote:......
The thought of sitting in a quiet, miserable "cosy" pub in the middle of nowhere, drinking sewage runoff, aka real ale, and pounding down a soggy sausage roll, surrounded by similar aged people moaning about their ailments and people not respecting their precious village would be enough to make me open a vein.



Fight ! Fight!

Actually I like all sorts - my home town has everything from bars with loud music to real old pubs with log fires.
I love city bars full of people shouting and getting very drunk, and I also love country and market town pubs with real beer.
Vive la différence.
drinking sewage runoff, aka real ale
You are beyond help ! A lot of foodies champion real ale as it's a natural product, often locally sourced, compared with the dreadful tasteless urine brewed on a massive scale in a chemical plant in Northampton
pounding down a soggy sausage roll
Not if you go to the right places (Ludlow, Shropshire had three Michelin starred eateries at one point)

harrumph!

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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449157

Postby bungeejumper » October 10th, 2021, 6:21 pm

tjh290633 wrote:
simsqu wrote:The thought of sitting in a quiet, miserable "cosy" pub in the middle of nowhere, drinking sewage runoff, aka real ale, and pounding down a soggy sausage roll, surrounded by similar aged people moaning about their ailments and people not respecting their precious village would be enough to make me open a vein.

That sounds like the sort of place I would avoid like the plague. Noise, for a start....... You obviously would prefer a crowded town pub with muzak and a chain ownership. They have their place as well.

I fear that perhaps some of us are taking Mr S a little too seriously? A gifted practitioner of the wind-up/send-up persuasion.

Not that the devoutly urban Simsquian instincts aren't profoundly felt, of course, but the scything overstatements here have been turned up to eleven. My study of Jungian analysis confirms that the poor chap was probably frightened at an early age by an unfortunate encounter with a vegetable patch, and that the world outside the M25 has become negatively associated with the moment when a gigantic courgette crossed his path. (Or, as we rural types call it, a small marrow. :lol: )

For the avoidance of doubt, I too have known and enjoyed city life. Eighteen years of London, followed by a couple of years in cold-war Berlin, which could have shown any born Londoner a few things about a high-voltage urban culture. (From my bedroom near Kreuzberg you could hear the automatic fire from no-man's-land during the night. And riding the West Berlin tube under East Berlin, past Hitler's bunker and right under the noses of Kalashnikov-toting police at Potsdamer Platz was a fair bit more exciting than dialing up an Uber to Le Caprice.) I was arrested twice at Checkpoint Charlie, but only deported once, and I was only shot at once. But what the heck, they missed.

London during Big Bang (1986) was a different kind of thrill, but eventually I just got bored with the hyped-up transience of it all and felt the need for some real values. Some do, some don't. To those who worship food, fast talk and fast living, I can only extend my best wishes, and just a little bit of sympathy. ;)

BJ

simsqu
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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449160

Postby simsqu » October 10th, 2021, 6:34 pm

bungeejumper wrote:I fear that perhaps some of us are taking Mr S a little too seriously? A gifted practitioner of the wind-up/send-up persuasion.

Not that the devoutly urban Simsquian instincts aren't profoundly felt, of course, but the scything overstatements here have been turned up to eleven. BJ


Oh BJ how well you know me. I do love my city living, but I also love taking huge swipes at the countryside and all who sail in her.

And I genuinely do hate all so-called real ales. On the rare occasion when I drink "beer" I favour a nice clean lager: Amstel is my favourite (cue cries of WHAT??? Call that beer? It's just watered down Ostrich Urine - bleugggh)

Your time in Berlin sounds - quite literally - like an absolute blast

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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449161

Postby Lootman » October 10th, 2021, 6:41 pm

simsqu wrote:
bungeejumper wrote:I fear that perhaps some of us are taking Mr S a little too seriously? A gifted practitioner of the wind-up/send-up persuasion.

Not that the devoutly urban Simsquian instincts aren't profoundly felt, of course, but the scything overstatements here have been turned up to eleven. BJ

Oh BJ how well you know me. I do love my city living, but I also love taking huge swipes at the countryside and all who sail in her.

And I genuinely do hate all so-called real ales. On the rare occasion when I drink "beer" I favour a nice clean lager: Amstel is my favourite (cue cries of WHAT??? Call that beer? It's just watered down Ostrich Urine - bleugggh)

Your time in Berlin sounds - quite literally - like an absolute blast

There is a third approach and middle way. Structure one's affairs so that you have a mix of the two. My wife and I split our time between London and Devon. In general we prefer London in the winter and during the week, but long weekends in the country, plus a few weeks in the summer, works out well.

I sometimes think that the things I like about London the most are things I do only occasionally (opera, Japanese experimental theatre) whilst the things I like about the country are the things that are relevant all the time e.g. absence of crowds and noise, air quality etc.

Of course some people think that the middle way is the suburbs, but for me that is the worst of both worlds.

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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449171

Postby mc2fool » October 10th, 2021, 8:00 pm

Lootman wrote:Of course some people think that the middle way is the suburbs, but for me that is the worst of both worlds.

Zone 3 leftie stronghold Haringey isn't the suburbs? Don't tell me, you reckon the 'burbs start at zone 4... ;)

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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449175

Postby Lootman » October 10th, 2021, 8:28 pm

mc2fool wrote:
Lootman wrote:Of course some people think that the middle way is the suburbs, but for me that is the worst of both worlds.

Zone 3 leftie stronghold Haringey isn't the suburbs? Don't tell me, you reckon the 'burbs start at zone 4... ;)

Believe me when I say that i am not happy with the politics in my neck of the woods. But at the same time that very political bias is symptomatic of the London Effect which recedes as you move out to what I regard as the true suburbs e.g. Southgate.

I would draw the line at the North Circular, personally. Beyond there people have front gardens. :D

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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449205

Postby didds » October 11th, 2021, 8:23 am

simsqu wrote:
That sounds great, but I noted almost all facilities you mention are preceded with the word "a", .


ity is a town of 13000 population after all!

didds

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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449206

Postby didds » October 11th, 2021, 8:25 am

tjh290633 wrote:You obviously would prefer a crowded town pub with muzak and a chain ownership. They have their place as well.

TJH


If only to encompass those that are content drinking fizzy stuff from a factory rather vthan decent ale and cider etc in a pleasant ambience bereft of "Number 56!" tannoy announcements for food collection.

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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449244

Postby simsqu » October 11th, 2021, 11:02 am

didds wrote:
simsqu wrote:
That sounds great, but I noted almost all facilities you mention are preceded with the word "a", .


it is a town of 13000 population after all!

didds


Fair point!

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Re: Cars - a genuine appeal

#449314

Postby brightncheerful » October 11th, 2021, 3:07 pm

Notwithstanding the op's decision for day-to-day activity, when it came to the crunch (week on the south coast) they used someone else's car (taxi) to get around. Which whilst not negating the savings in not having a car of one's own nevertheless implies that someone somewhere should, if only to avoid absence of variety. Imagine let's go somewhere different for a change being thwarted by somewhere different not beyond a few miles range,

Here is the country - where if i were to risk travelling on a bus and missed it probably I'd have to wait a couple of days for the next one to come along - our dilemma recently having sold our two cars to buy one larger one, with the plan of sharing it, was whether to get a second car.

The few journeys the number of miles that Mrs Bnc incurs yearly does not justify having two cars. But 48 hours without a car of her own was enough to make her regret her decision to sell hers: so now we have two cars again. Mrs Bnc's car is the one with the cobwebs on the wing mirror :) The insurance is also higher so the original plan to also reduce expense has also gone by the board.

Travelling by train to our part of the world is quicker than by car if you want London: direct link to Paddington. Occasionally, the through train has been known to stop some 10 miles away, necessitating the last leg by bus.

For my long-distance work, i have a driver. I have told him that if I won the lottery then i would buy him a car up to £100,000 for his own use provided he would be available to drive me whenever. I haven't told him I don't do the lottery.


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