Country bumpkin

It’s official; I moved to the middle of nowhere and am no longer a city girl.

I’m being dramatic, I don’t really live in the middle of nowhere, but considering I spent the last fifteen years next to a London underground central line station and now I have a castle down the road – it can definitely be considered a transformation. 

Now there are most certainly lessons to be learnt when a self proclaimed ‘city girl’ moves out to the country, the first relating to transportation. In the country, there are two cab services, and they rarely have cabs available – I wouldn’t be surprised if each cab company consisted of one driver. A bus is like the Loch Ness monster, you’ve heard about it, you may even have seen it, but when you go looking for it then it decides not to show its face. Trains come about every hour, if you miss one you won’t just be a few minutes late; you’ll miss the whole appointment. Thus the main lesson to be learnt is every time you leave the house, consider your travel options. 

The second lesson to be learnt is that after work drinks will require a marathon to get home, making it no longer fun and resulting in you only being sociable on weekends. It’s ok though, just plan your weekends in advance to make sure nobody is neglected and embrace feeling like an old lady when you run straight home after work – it does result in more productive evenings and a constant state of being well-rested. 

After a while, being in ‘the middle of nowhere’ becomes second nature and all the glorious reasons for being outside the city become apparent. Sunset is visible, not clogged with congestion fumes, but gleaming orange, yellow and red. The seaside is 10 minutes down the road, with doughnuts, ice cream and a pier full of arcade games. There are ruins of a castle around the corner, on top of a hill overlooking the town, not to mention a horse sanctuary (but we’ll talk about that later). 

I will forever be in love with London, but I’m beginning to fall for weekends by the beach, countless beautiful cycling routes on my doorstep and fresh air. Oh how I love to breath fresh clean air, the type that makes your head feel all light and fluffy. I think if anything has transformed my way of thinking and convinced me that life outside the city exists, it’s definitely the fresh air.