I lived there for sixteen years, all throughout my twenties and thirties, and it was fantastic.
Well, fantastic once you get used the fact that you have to switch on your auto-pilot, if you don't want to go stark raving mad.
The nightlife is amazing. If you want to go clubbing on a Saturday afternoon, and via different clubs, not come home until Monday morning you can do. Happy days.
I was talking to Lettie and Sparks this week, whilst sipping a glass of Merlot in the Octagon Theatre bar, about the fact that we have a much better arts scene in the north west, than London does. Besides the Battersea Arts Centre, the Royal Court, and the Round House, theatre in London is pretty much about getting tourist bums on seats. The theatre we have an hours drive from Hyndburn, is much more challenging.
I'll never regret living there. I loved my job, had good friends, made a packet by buying my flat at the very bottom of the slump, and had some wild old times, and did some amazing things. Though I'm glad I moved back when I did. London wouldn't be much fun when you're old and frail. I've seen elderly people mugged and attacked, as well as pushed from pillar to post on the tube. I worry about old Teabag, now he's getting on.
"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson
You're wrong Doctor Johnson. Life outside of London is pretty damn good. It's just that we're just keeping it quiet, so we don't get too many ignorant gits, with flat Thames Estuary vowels, moving up here.