mpgrewal

Well said I miss my rustic village back in India after reading your description

Living in suburb is not a privilege but a necessity because you won't get ease of transport and facilities like restaurants, plazas, gyms, jobs, unis in a village. Everyone loves to live a village but these addictions stop them I would love to live in a Victorian village if I can manage an IT job near it

BadgeIsBack

I don't want plazas and gyms. We do have a supermarket, hardware store, baker, milk bar, hairdresser, steak house, chemist, another restaurant, and a CFA station.

I commute - currently a 25 min drive.

BadgeIsBack

I know - it was a flippant remark. I'm not talking say about suburban estates. Some of these houses are in suburbia on main roads in locations where you never see anyone. Knowing the sorts of things we get up to in the street, I sometimes wonder what these people do. Obviously it's a matter of degrees and certainly lifestyle!

renth

Sounds just like my street. Nice people (mostly) and everyone gets on. All the kids play together in the street. Lots of impromptu street parties and organised ones for Xmas/Nears and Halloween.

HUP

Do you know what Badge, sometimes you talk the biggest load of bollocks I have ever heard

Do you ever look back and read something you've read and think "Hmm that might be offensive to some people."

Why would living where you live give you more to do than where I live. I have been to your place and I don't see you having more options than I do.

fripouille

Okay guys, I didn't mean for the question to end up in a slinging match. Everyone's entitled to an opinion I suppose

I was just wondering if it was any different from the UK. Here in the West Midlands I live in a pretty multi-cultural area and different groups do tend to keep themselves to themselves most of the time which I find pretty sad but inevitable I suppose. Have you found it easy to fit in/be accepted being Brits amongst the Aussie's?

Bermudashorts

Absolutely.

hevs

Well, some perspective...

We have lived in both since being here. The "Village" became hard work when the teens hit because there was no public transport and, at the time, I was the only driver and was sick sick sick of running the car up and down the hill every 5 mins! I was also over the fact we had no mains gas or water and winter was cold! The house, being an older style, was hard to heat and too small so a move became the cheapest option (seriously! the extention was gonna cost more)

So we moved to the burbs....much bigger house, much smaller block...much nearer to facilities (especially now the eldest has a job) and easier for the middle one to catch up with friends and be independant.

Truthfully I find the neighbour situation the same, chat to them to pass the time of day but not our age so dont socialise. Our groups of best friends are a ride away where ever we lived so makes no difference...

As for having northing to do? As my eloquent husband says, what a load of bollocks! We actually have heaps more to do, and guess what we even go walking ON PATHS!!! We have a botanic park in walking distance, we also have 4 other parks around us, not to mention a skate park for the boy and a selection of play parks for the other boy. Then theres Berwick main for brekkie and mooching and casey arc, cinema, gym, bowling within 2 mins. So yeah its boring as bat shit and cant wait to turn on the DVD player tonight

moneypenny20

Knew it. He's always right at the end of the day.

Hebe

We do plenty - We run, walk, cycle, entertain, go out for dinner either locally or in town. We go to concerts (in fact in the last few months we have seen, Manic Street Preachers, Blonde, Bon jovi, The Eagles and U2). We travel, we go away for weekends - and low and behold we watch TV!! OMG how boring our life must be living on a fairly busy road in suburbia!!!

Cheetah7

It is nice Renth, how lucky are we to have this, that is what I say

When my husband came out of hospital, the neighbours opposite bought fruit from their trees, chooks eggs and even popped round to see if he was OK.

We have lovely neighbours, Mr PP was at work the other week and one of the elderly neighbours invited me round to his house for a glass of wine, I know his family well.

We have a good sense of community spirit where I live. On xmas day I was going to drive two of my friends that house share down the road to the local beach, but in the end they didnt go till much later but if they need a lift I will take them and I know I am always welcome round their house.

And it isnt a 'rich' suburb, it isnt a Pommie suburb which some people seem to prefer, in fact we are the only POMs on the street, it is a nice suburb with decent people on it, people you could call on in an emergency and you can count on to stand by you.

They dont have 4WDs in their garage nor do they have boats and huge houses that some seem to judge people by. But they are worth a whole lot more than many other people I have met that judge you by where you live and who you hang around with and the value of your salary.

BadgeIsBack

You're being too literal. There are places in suburbia that are nothing like where we live - people often make a point about suburban living. As for comparisons, don't you want to move back to a larger block?

I don't care if I cause offence - some of these things are well known and worthy of discussion. (And my point about longevity was a bit of a throw away comment as my wife was discussing it). In the long run, suburbia, in my opinion, is something that won't suit some people and a lot of people report that they are disappointed.

BadgeIsBack

Indeed - I'm not saying that you personally (and HUP) do nothing at all.

Has it occured to you that I might not be talking about your situation and your life? The street(s) I had in mind was one of several I drive down to get to work and it is different to the streets we live in.

Different strokes for different folks. Some people find suburbia a real problem and I think a lot of migrants don't realise how suburban Australian cities can be - especially those who move from villages.

Geordie George

That's the crux of it. Mr GG and I spent a few years living in rural Oxfordshire. Some of that time was spent living in a proper chocolate box cottage, complete with thatched roof, open fireplaces and a butler's bell for a doorbell. Some of it was spent living on a barn conversion in the middle of a farm, where it was over 1 km down the drive just to the nearest road. We used to regularly get woken up by shotguns (people hunting rabbits) and on more than one occasion got caught up in the local hunt (we'd be driving down a road and all of a sudden a lot of dogs, horses and Landrovers would appear). Quintessential British village living.

It didn't suit us at all; we spent most weekends heading back to civilisation. And it was a great relief to move from that lifestyle to the one offered us by where we chose to live in Sydney. Not everyone loves living in a village.

hevs

Yes! we do for sure. However dont want to be in the arse end of nowhere either with bugger all facilities, this is proving hard. However we have found that there are places out there that do both, its just fnding a block thats not on the side of a mountain thats proving very very hard. I want the land to be useable.