London

you are so right about the buses around here, (just for clarification purposes, me and jude actually do live very close by) luckily for me, for the next few months, i have a 20 minute walk to work in stoke newington.... i can see the need for a move...

i've lived in london since 1989, when i came i was very excited about the nightlife and went out a lot, now i'm in my late 30s, that part doesn't excite me in the same way, but other things have taken over, the museums, the gallerys, the restuarants, the music venues, the cinemas, i find i still find new stuff to do, which takes over from the stuffi used to do....london has changed and i've changed as well....

i would stay in london jude everywhere is much the same but at least in london you have things to do and lot of theaters ect...

I might be persuaded to stay here if weI could stay in an Edwardian house but alas don't have 5 million to spend. I'd prefer quiet middle class setting somewhere near a medium sized town but with fields and stuff. j

Jude, you have fields across the canal from your gaff...(i know where she lives as i am jude's personal stalker...;_) )

I was in London again this last week on my bank's audit conference. Funnily enough I stayed in the Edgware Road again, sadly I wasn't going to Extra Time but had to wear a suit and hear self-important tossers pontificating for two days - bit like here really but at least this is FUN! I also found out that this was the last time I'd ever see Routemasters on Service 6, it's been converted this weekend. Sad. OK, I'm sad as well to profess interest in buses, I admit it.

dya know my dream in life. I want to eventually live in a boat on little venice and just write my life away, with a bit of luck i will bet there in the next ten years and sail about the riverways of the UK, that is bliss to me, a dream, which will happen.

true oh true MArtin but the other side of my road (up the hill is a shit-heap). And when I get the bus into work with the schoolkids It just riles me this was one conversation I heard yesterday between 2 14 year oldish boys. Boy1:Schoolteachers are right fuck.ing dicks yea Boy2: They tried to make me wear this shit for PE an I said like no way - it aint designer , it ain't even nice like Boy1: Mrs Harding yea, she once nearly send me home for not wearing my tie, i says to her she can stick it and threw it at her. I wish she had sent me home she would have been doing me a favour If I have to listen to drivel like that any longer I will go mad!!! j

...there are so many things I like about London...I moved here aged 18 and to an 18 year old London nightlife and culture is a true Godsend after growing up in semi-rural Surrey then Surrey suburbia. But I'm 27 and a half now and the novelty has worn off, I no longer go clubing and my priorities have changed.

How long is this interim going to last Jude?

I intend on resigning and moving on anytime between 6 and 12 months... Its a case of selling this place and all the logistics...I also plan on travelling India for 2 months with the spoils from house sale before starting postulancy

...most likely scenario is sell up by September September 04 - March 05 I need somewhere to rent - out of London...which is why I am thinking Brighton...I will still be working in London March-May 05...resign, pack rucksack head for India June - enter religious congregation in time to start novitiate in Sept 05

Forget Brighton. Head on down to Croyde in Cornwall (or is it Devon?), or anywhere in Devon or Cornwall. Have a mad, passionate affair with a surfer before donning a nun's habit. Smoke weed and watch the sunsets. Pay careful attention to the waves, for no other reason than that they're important to your lover. It will teach you a love of the balance of nature. Meditating on nature for a summer will help you decide where the important things in life are for you. Pray on the beach while your lover rides the waves.

hmmmm- a little too far to commute...as I said this will be for just a few months in between selling my flat and resigning ...so I need to be in London bridge every day...I think Sussex trains go into london b which is why I was thinking Brighton or Eastbourne

just looked at rail fares ...forget it...I'll just have to stay in London for a few more months!!!