Wednesday 27 September 2023
I have been away from Scotland for just over two weeks, in Lanzarote for eight days and London for eight days and probably another few days. I have thought a lot about the differences in my daily life in Scotland compared to London and where I want to be. There are no revelations but as the initial purpose of this writing was to think about the pros and cons of moving out of London, now seems a good time to write about that.
It’s 06:50 and I’m sitting on my favourite, big, green, hug of an armchair in our flat in Lewisham, right next to the balcony door, which is open. The sun hasn’t quite risen (06:54 in Lewisham and 07:07 around Selkirk) but it is getting lighter. I can hear constant city noises, mainly a bit of traffic and trains, but the traffic sounds more like a constant hum and I can now hear a distant siren approaching. I have the balcony door open because the flat, as usual, is hot. Since I got back from sunny Lanzarote (temperatures up to 30°C), I have still worn short sleeves and thin tops and it’s been on/off sunny and comfortably warm, occasionally too hot for me (but my threshold for heat tolerance is about 18°C before I start grumbling about being too hot). I have seen Chris on video chat wearing his thick winter roll neck and layers. I also know there has been a significant amount of wind and rain up there. Nothing of the sort down here.
So, weather. Yes, it’s a lot less wet and windy in London than Scotland. It is also more sunny and hotter. I prefer less wind and rain but I’m happy about it not being hotter. But the biggest issue with Scotland is that there is noticeably less sunshine. However, when it is sunny in Scotland, it is magnificent and almost – almost – makes all the rain and greyness worth it. Overall, except for exceptionally high temperatures in London and exceptionally rainy (because of flooding) and icy conditions in Scotland, I prefer – oh, I actually don’t know. In summer, I prefer Scotland. In winter, I prefer Scotland. Hmm, I really don’t know. There are pros and cons to both but a cooler summer and pretty snow and frost in winter make Scotland better, but more sun and fewer rain and ice extremes make London better.
It is significantly easier to have a more varied day in London than where we live in Scotland. Yesterday, for example, I worked at home, walked out to two different supermarkets, quickly and easily recycled a bag of used batteries (they’d been piling up and annoying me), took the rubbish out (communal bin store; so much easier and quicker than fortnightly collections, alternating weekly between recycling, but not glass, and general rubbish), met my friend Duncan for a long walk, had a takeaway coffee sitting with Duncan in a park, admired a few herons in the parks (plural) that we walked through and later ran a bath that took about a quarter of the time to fill than it would have in Scotland. I also used super-fast fibre broadband, though that we have almost no WiFi in Scotland is more of a glitch, I hope – we are actually getting even-faster super-fast fibre broadband connected next month if all goes to plan (and it could easily not go to plan, but we have at least started the ball rolling for that).
Had I been at the house in Scotland yesterday, my day would have been more outdoorsy (hmm, lots of rain though), quieter and calmer and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to meet up with a friend or walk out for coffee or shops. Where would I rather have been? Yesterday, I was happy to be in London. Today, a day of quiet and countryside would be good, but I know there’s a major storm heading for Scotland so maybe I’m better off where I am.
To sum up, I still don’t know where I prefer, London/city or Scottish Borders/rural, but I still appreciate a lot about both and that I have an opportunity to spend time in each extreme.
