#224 Town Mouse Vs City Mouse
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It’s now been well over a year since I moved back to my hometown. And I know you’re not supposed to slate where you come from, but as i’ve mentioned before, I just don’t belong here and I have more reasons why I don’t enjoy living here than why I do. I’ve been really down lately, which I think is one of the things causing me not to sleep because I’ve been missing my three best friends. I hate having to turn down plans because I can’t get an overnight babysitter, or even just a day babysitter. As much as I love my family, it’s so dull only having them for company day in and day out, and if they’re busy, like my parents are the next few days, I’m on my own. There are very very few activities for children as young as Little Miss here which brings me back around to the topic for this post, what I miss most about city living.
I know this probably makes me strange as a lot of people crave the country life. I live in a seaside town, and it isn’t a great one these day at that. The town centre is dying and the beach is never cleaned. I feel so out of place which doesn’t help my anxiety. Like with everywhere, there are so good eggs though. And of course, there is my family who have helped me so much over the past year. I would of cracked up a long time ago without my mum.
During the seven years I lived away from home, I spent the majority of them in Lincoln, my university city and two in Newcastle. As far as friends were concerned in Newcastle, I had a really rough ride, but I do miss what Newcastle had to offer and I certainly miss my beautiful apartment. I did find Newcastle very “concrete” I’m more drawn to places of historical beauty which is probably why I do love Lincoln, along with York and Edinburgh. Living in Newcastle did have it’s benefit, the transport was fantastic which is something Lincoln fell short with, the shops available, the restaurants and I did love my job at the Slug and Lettuce. But I loved how the places I loved to drink in Lincoln were all within walking distance, taxiing around Newcastle did make a night out more expensive.
Anyway, today, I’ve compiled a list of things I miss about living in a city in general.
- Big nag now that I push a stroller around, automatic doors to shops in the centre of town! All but two shops here don’t have automatic doors! It makes shopping painful especially in bad weather. I miss when pretty much all shops had automatic doors, and if they didn’t their doors were open or they were small enough to have someone see you come and open the door. The doors here are usually heavy too.
- This goes along with the first point. All the restaurants and coffee shops are small apart from the Weatherspoons. Going out for lunch is a NIGHTMARE! What I’d do for a Zizzis or a Wagamama with lots of space for highchairs or even to park your buggy. Here you have to risk leaving it outside, which I never do. It’s not worth the risk.
- Lack of transport. I don’t drive so getting from a to b is a struggle. The buses run every half an hour and I don’t even live that far from town! It makes grocery shopping hard work or trying to make appointments where someone is watching my child hard as I usually have to leave her an hour earlier than if there was more way to get somewhere!
- I miss the lack of amenities. There are very few groups to take your child too, if you don’t like one well you’re pretty much stuck! Same with schools, the choice is so limited and it’s not like I have the money to go private. The swimming pool is ICE cold, the baby pool is connected to the main pool which I would no way want to expose my daughter too, she’s a skinny little thing that would go blue in a second. I remember living in Lincoln where I could of got the bus to at least 3 pools! There are even only so many places you can walk to, it makes life pretty dull especially when you have no friends.
- Watering holes, aka places to drink. There are very few people who actually enjoy a night out here. Probably because you can only end up in two nightclubs, one so overpriced it makes your eyes water, the other so filthy you could catch something from touching the walls, it also plays rubbish music.
- I miss Starbucks, Lush, Primark, Sainsburys, Mothercare, Nandos and Carvery! There is no where that does proper carvery. Painful.
- THERE IS NO PROPER CINEMA! Just a theatre that shows movies long after they’re available to watch online!
- No where you can eat and let your children to play. I miss restaurants and pubs that offer a soft play/outdoor area.
- There isn’t a university or proper college. Should I want to do a proper degree I’d have to move. There is only a small college attached to the high school.
- It’s also so unfortunate being a blogger here. Blogging has no caught on at all, there are no opportunities, no events. But then again nothing happens that you’d really ever want to write about. No new restaurants opening, no shops doing event days.. The closes is 45+ minutes away which I rarely get invited to. When I was at college, I used to joke I lived in Narnia (I commuted) as once you past Newcastle people forgot it existed, it’s like going through a wardrobe. It also has it’s own weather, it can be the hottest day of the year everywhere else in the country, here it will be freezing cold with thick mist. I kid you not!
- Most of all, I miss my friends. I miss meeting up for coffee, or during our lunch hours for half price burgers on a Tuesday. I miss cinema trips and steak nights. I really miss having a social life.
I won’t lie, I had a wonderful early childhood. It was great until I started wanting more (I clearly think I’m Belle from Beauty and the Beast). One day I want to move away from here, this town doesn’t offer enough for me to feel like I’m giving my daughter the best. But at the moment, I just can’t. I’m a single mum and my other half is my own mum. Without her I would of cracked up a long time ago. I need to be near her until I feel capable to stand on my own two feet again, until then I’ll just have to cope without everything else. I am thankful I lived here this past summer because I was able to spend time with my cousin and her family, see my uncle and support my grandparents through my grandfathers illness. I’m also getting to be part of my nephew’s life which I would of missed out on if I didn’t live here. So I guess, there is still some good points to living here. Just.
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Lincoln, I miss you.
4 Comments
Belle du Brighton
See although I still live in a town, I was pretty happy to be out of the city now we’ve moved. Too many people stopping in the middle of pavements/not moving so you end up wheeling the buggy in the road. So many student tour groups thinking they own the city… I can see how you feel isolated though, but it won’t be forever, i’m certain of that!
Rachael
I grew up in a middle of nowhere town and by the time it came to moving to university, I was more then ready to move out. I actually lived in Newcastle for four years, and although it is a little concrete like you mentioned, there is a tonne of old stuff there – say Grey Street, to the Castle and so many parks! After university I moved back in with my parents in the countryside and it was just awful, there’s nothing in comparison. But now, living in the sprawl of American suburbia, I don’t think I could ever go back to country living – there’s just everything here mind you I miss the history!
Kariss Ainsworth
I miss city life alot! I have no friends in barnsly at the bus issue is the same, theres nothing in my village. I miss how easy it was to see people in Lincoln because everywhere was walkable!
Laura Crawford
I’m pretty sure you’re from the same town I grew up near (in fact, that’s the biggest nearby town haha), and reading this I was nodding along a lot. I was lucky and escaped at 18, having craved the brighter lights of Edinburgh from about 13 years old onwards. I never want to move back to a small town again really x