| Author | Message | ||
     Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.32.39 |
so if everyone could post a paragraph on where they live and what country etc...Perhaps what they like about it etc... | ||
| Chris_morris (Chris_morris) Username: Chris_morris Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 12.165.240.116 |
Westfield, Indiana, USA. Westfield is two hours south of Chicago. It's an exurb (as they say) of Indianapolis, home to the famous 500. (I've lived in or near Indianapolis all my life and I have yet to attend the race.) I live in a new housing edition surrounded by ranches and farms, with the occasional urban oases of strip malls and McDonalds franchises. What I like about it: well, it's quiet, I guess. It's an okay place to raise a family. I can't say there's much to recommend it. Let's just say Netflix and Amazon are true blessings for the Hoosier horror fan. To be honest, the biggest reason I'm here is simply that I grew up here and couldn't summon the energy and confidence to move blindly into a new city. I reserve the right to change my mind, though. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
Bramley. Leeds. A vile little urban enclave 3 miles from Leeds city centre. Local sights include an ungly 1970s shopping precinct, a shabby train station, and endless housing estates consisting of horrid 1950s semis built when the original little stone dweelings of the village were demolished. The only plus points are the proximity of the motorways and the fact that it's only a 15 minute drive out into the countryside. Hate it; can't wait to move. | ||
| Alansjf (Alansjf) Username: Alansjf Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 94.194.134.45 |
Northolt, Middx, UK. Huh? I hear yo say. Well, exactly. Just look at a tube map and follow the Cenral line all the way to the left and then up a bit. Not a lot to say about it, not a lot to like or really dislike about it. Decent enough public transport to slighly more interesting places such as Harrow-on-the-Hill (north) and - if you really want to go wild - Ealing (south). Eastbound are the wilds of Acton and beyond ... but you'd really have to be crazy to head that way. Been here for 4/5 years, though maybe not for much longer ... | ||
| Alansjf (Alansjf) Username: Alansjf Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 94.194.134.45 |
'yo' isn't a typo; it's how we talk here. | ||
| Simon Strantzas (Nomis) Username: Nomis Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 38.113.181.169 |
Toronto, Ontario Unofficial centre of Canada. I'll live here forever. Quiet, a bit dull, but everything you want you can get. Plus, people are relatively polite and I know my way around. I live in midtown, an affluent neighbourhood close to transit and the highway. I like the place very much. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.130.180 |
Tyseley, Birmingham Has a grid reference. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.210.209.176 |
"I'm from the North. Where we do what we want!" I live in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. It's about twelve miles from Sheffield. I'm quite close to both the M1 and the tranquillity of Sherwood Forest/Derbyshire dales, etc. Rotherham is one of the 'teenage pregnancy hotspots' of the UK. But that's nothing to do with me... | ||
| Steveduffy (Steveduffy) Username: Steveduffy Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 86.159.105.54 |
Betws-yn-Rhos, a small village about four miles inland from the North Wales coast. A village shop, a pub, a chapel, a church. At night, it's very quiet, and if the sky's clear you can trace all the constellations. That's what we do for fun of an evening, yes sirree. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.72 |
Just over the hills from Mirfield, which came second in the Crap Towns of the UK survey of the other year. Boasts a view of Huddersfield sewage works one way, and moorland the other. Famous exports: wool and Islamic terrorists. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.163.6.13 |
Copenhagen, Denmark. Everyone is happy, people wave at you in the sunshine. There is no war, no famine, no crime, people offer lifts to total strangers in the middle of the night. There is no evil. Scandinavian bliss. Everything is at peace. The streets are paved with gold. Everything is good. Innocent. Happy. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.210.209.176 |
Am I reading too much into the fact that everyone who resides overseas loves where they live, and us Brits hate this place? Or is this just a British thing? | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.165.182 |
Swinton, Lancashire. Part of the City of Salford. Many beautiful pockets of greenbelt tucked away in the immediate vicinity, including Silverdale, from which you can see out to Manchester while the evening or dawn chorus almost drowns out the sound of the traffic on the A666 (aka The Devil's Highway.) Has its share of gobshites, fucktards and wankstains, but a high proportion of decent folk who look out for one another. Plus real ale and decent whisky. To be honest, right now, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. | ||
| Laird Barron (Laird) Username: Laird Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 71.212.85.54 |
Olympia, Washington, USA. Olympia is the state capital, a town of 30k nestled in green hills with a lovely inlet harbor. It's located about sixty miles south of Seattle and is bordered to the west by low mountains and large tracts of wilderness . I live fifteen minutes from the heart of the town in the surrounding farmland and greenbelt suburbs. A far cry from the frigid wastes of my youth in Alaska. | ||
| Laird Barron (Laird) Username: Laird Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 71.212.85.54 |
Oh, things to like -- Olympia has bookstores, quaint antique shops, coffee houses and cafes, a brewery, museums, art galleries, playhouse and an independent theatre, and of course, the capitol dome, which is an impressive piece of old architecture...all of which balances the grittier part of town and its tattoo parlors, frieght docks and warehouse rows. It's a good place for a writer. | ||
| Stephen Melling (Steve_melling) Username: Steve_melling Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.115.23.252 |
I haven't posted for a while, but... Grimsargh, Preston; it's a little village on the outskirts, really. Close but not too close to the M6. In the country I suppose. Plenty of places to walk the dogs. Only been here since December; the move was kind of rushed. Also turned out we already know the neighbours! Fields slope toward the River Ribble at the back of us. I can see Pendle hill and Winter hill from my study window. From my boy's room I can see Blackpool Tower and on exceptionally clear days, the Welsh mountains. We get a wide variety of birds in the garden: greater spotted woodpeckers, goldfinch, greenfinch, nuthatch to name a few. Well, we love living here - so far anyway. | ||
| Skunsworth (Skunsworth) Username: Skunsworth Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 88.107.248.2 |
Lancaster, UK - about 60 miles north of Manchester (original stomping ground; thank God I escaped), and about half an hour form God's own place on earth, The Lake District. I actually live about halfway between Lancaster and Morecambe (3rd in the Crap Towns list!), so get the best of both worlds. Both places have started popping up in my stories now... I like it here a lot - quiet, there's some space, people are pretty good, schools are good and it's on a good travel network for my job. Result. S | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.210.209.176 |
Simon, about seven or eight years ago, my wife and I visited Morecambe for the day. I was delighted to find a second-hand bookshop on the seafront - I think it was a converted terraced house - and I spent most of the day in there, browsing the untidy piles of paperbacks that littered the place. It was a fantastic time. Needless to say, my wife's memories of Morecambe are not as complimentary as my own... | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
Am I reading too much into the fact that everyone who resides overseas loves where they live, and us Brits hate this place? I noticed that too, Steve! I'm an ex-pat Yank living oop North. Newcastle generally, but I have to be vague about specifics in case my stalker is listening. It's a small village near a slightly larger town, so I have both the peace and quiet of the countryside and easy access to restaurants and high street shops if I feel the urge to be among the living. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 81.155.19.214 |
I live in Clacton-on-Sea: a saucy seaside resort wih a pier that has daytrippers from the rest of Essex and East London. Many come, it seems to me, to act out or re-enact family arguments amid the bronzed skins, medallions and tattoos. It is where life is the only reality. A good lesson for a writer of fiction. I love the place. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 81.155.19.214 |
Gary, please delete above. And I'll post again. Sorry. des | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.36 |
Ostend, Belgium. I daresay it cannot be all that different from Clacton-on-Sea or Brighton. What I like most? The proximity of the sea, hot summer days on the beach (which amounts to three days or so a year, given the problematical nature of our summers). Off-season melancholy, intimidating winter storms . . . | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.61.140 |
Whitby, UK. Fish 'n' chips, Dracula, Captain Cook, a 14th century abbey and nowhere to fucking park. I love it, tho. After moving from Bradford, it's like coming out of prison after been falsely accused and serving a 36 year sentence. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.210.209.176 |
"I love it, tho. After moving from Bradford, it's like coming out of prison after been falsely accused and serving a 36 year sentence." I love that.  | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.55.38 |
South Yorkshire. In a little market town near the moors. Very quiet. And I missed the word 'about' in the subject line which will annoy me for all eternity. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Wallasey, just across the river from Liverpool - well, actually from Bootle, which has sprouted several windmills in the view from my desk. It's a quietish suburb on the whole, though visitors can be regaled by the screams and other antics of the service users in the supported living facilities that flank our house. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.75.128.187 |
Abingdon, Oxfordshire. Where Ali and I share a house with a cat called Fudge and far too many books and films. After the hell-on-earth that is Reading it was a big relief to move. Then a month and a half after we moved here our house filled with water in the July floods. Despite that, we love it here. Our neighbours are great, the commute to work is easy and Abingdon itself is a decent little town, although the traffic system sucks. | ||
| Michael_kelly (Michael_kelly) Username: Michael_kelly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 174.88.168.249 |
Pickering, Ontario, Canada, just outside Toronto. Your typical big-city suburb with big box stores, and houses crowded like sardines. Lake Ontario is just down the street from me, but there's a giant nuclear reactor on it's shoreline. It's less than idyllic. Nothing remarkable about the place at all. It's close to Toronto, where I work, though. And I can get to the country fairly easily, too. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.0.102 |
Simi Valley, California, on the upper outskirt (i.e., just over the mountain range) of the San Fernando Valley, porn capital to the world. (Someone I know just told me about a "porn house" - houses! - close by: her husband works for the Gas Company, and he was called to service an upscale tract home, at the end of a non-gated housing tract - normal tract houses, families all around, kids - two homes at the very end of this block are dummy houses, nicely furnished, set up for porn shoots. The "actors" were sitting around waiting in their bathrobes, for him to finish getting the heat back in one of the bedrooms... so to speak....) | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.151.123.69 |
Wymondham, Norfolk. A nice market town on the whole, but a few undesirables lurking about in the outlying villages (  ), 20 minutes drive from Norwich and an hour & a half from dat larndon. gcw | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 142.179.24.243 |
Am I reading too much into the fact that everyone who resides overseas loves where they live, and us Brits hate this place? Or is this just a British thing? When I lived and worked in Britain, and people realised from my accent I wasn't British, they often expressed amazement mixed with wonder and incredulity that anyone would voluntarily choose to move from Canada to the U.K. Used to surprise me a lot. | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 142.179.24.243 |
Ashcroft, B.C. A small town (pop. 1600) 200 miles northeast of Vancouver, and 55 miles west of the nearest big city, Kamloops (pop. 80,000). It's semi-desert cattle-ranching country, surrounded by mountains which are modest by Canadian standards but would be huge in the U.K. (Cornwall Mountain, which we see from our front deck, tops out around 6000 feet; there was snow on the cut at the summit until 2 June). To drive in from Highway 1 (the Trans-Canada) from the south you pass through the Ashcroft Indian Band reserve. We get coyotes around the house regularly, and have seen moose on the hills behind us; cougars also make an appearance, as do bears, quite regularly in the fall. Plus ospreys, more bald eagles than you can shake a stick at, rattlesnakes and bull snakes, and chukkar partridges. Lots of sage and cactus and tumbleweeds. The only thing that disturbs the silence at night is the occasional freight train rolling through town, and the sky is so clear, and unmasked by city lights, that at night it's almost frightening. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
A Canadian might get that reaction, Barbara.  But Bush was president when I came over here, so there wasn't much to be amazed about in my case. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
Doh! Cross-posts! I should have quoted. | ||
| Steven_pirie (Steven_pirie) Username: Steven_pirie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.152.253.185 |
Liverpool, about half a mile from where young Rhys Jones was gunned down. Despite that, I live at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac, in a house that backs onto woods and so enjoys fine privacy, and I wouldn't want to move anywhere. Liverpool and its denizens don't always enjoy good press. The fact that most of it is unwarranted matters not to its detractors. Of course, it has its problems, but it's also a vibrant city of much that is good. Then again, I always say home is what you make it. It's been fun reading everyone's thoughts of where they live; thanks ally for the thread. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
Barbara - how would you feel about a lodger. Only a small one; I can sleep in a cupboard. | ||
| Matthew_fell (Matthew_fell) Username: Matthew_fell Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 142.179.24.243 |
Sorry, Gary: all of our cupboards are filled with books. | ||
| Steven_pirie (Steven_pirie) Username: Steven_pirie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.152.253.185 |
... not skeletons... | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.55.38 |
'rattlesnakes and bull snakes' Shiver. | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.161.226 |
"Am I reading too much into the fact that everyone who resides overseas loves where they live, and us Brits hate this place? Or is this just a British thing?" Not everyone overseas likes where they live. Take Emeryville, California . . . please . . . . | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.203.130.37 |
I live in Portishead, close to Bristol in the glorious West Country, where style is not thought of in terms of 'James Dean', 'Marilyn Monroe', or even 'Tom Jones', but rather 'that thing you use to get you over a wooden fence'. I love it down here, mainly because I get to meet such an eclectic mix of people. There are the posh and rich, the posh-but-actually-very-poor (far commoner), lumpy down to earth farmers who frequently go for a wee in their fields, Archbishops (no idea of they go for a wee in their churchyards but it might happen), Glastonbury hippies, goths and weirdoes, art house junkies, stand up comedians, a thriving porn film industry with all the hilarious injuries that can result (and as a consequence some interesting contacts), the chipshop frequenting scantily dressed young ladies of Weston super-mare who attack each other with the condom machines they've wrenched off pub walls while their tattooed boyfriends are engaging in displays of manly prowess by banging each other's head against the toilet cisterns (they're all quite sweet really). There are the BEST graveyards, deserted factories, only slightly less deserted multiplexes, old lighthouses, circles of standing stones, unexplained stone obelisks, villages where No-one Ever Leaves, shops No-one Ever Goes To, vampires, zombies, ghosts, and a mad surgeon Baron who performs the most terrible experiments on the unsuspecting beautiful women who...oh no hang on that's me. As my old boss was fond of saying - all the patients here have come to see the West Country - and then die. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.192.110 |
I live here {image} {image} {image} {image} {image} {image} {image} {image} {image} {image} | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.192.110 |
Oops | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.192.110 |
I mean here           | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.192.110 |
Oops again. They're a bit big. Sorry non-broadband people. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.36 |
Utterly charming, Proto. Whereabouts is that? And what does one do for a living there? | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.203.42 |
About 20 miles north of Dublin, Hubert. You can work on a trawler, though the sea is now full of jellyfish and submarines have been known to drag them to the bottom. Or you can commute to Dublin like me. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.203.42 |
I'm making it sound more like Innsmouth than it really is. It's a pretty normal town which is thankfully just 45 mins from the capital on a good train line. Down a side street there's an old house with dusty items on display in the window and an old lady behind a counter; very little on the shelves. I asked if she had a newspaper and she replied "Oh no, we wouldn't have that." I left, and her ambiguous response means I still don't know if it was a shop or if I'd just walked right into someone's very odd front room. Once I found a newly-lit fire on the desolate beach -- there was nobody in sight, like it was made for me. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.36 |
That desolate row of houses in the third picture looks like something out of The Nameless, and the brooding structure in the seventh pic reminded me of "Reply Guaranteed". Must be the colours. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.179.120 |
I'm from Wales originally but have spent most of my life in other countries. I moved to Germany when I was nine and then to Taiwan a few years later as a teenager, and I've been here ever since (it'll be 28 years next month). I live in the city of Hsinchu (it means 'new bamboo') in the north of the island. It's nicknamed 'feng cheng' (the 'windy city') due to the strong sea winds. Hsinchu is also known as the 'Silicon Valley' of Asia due to the presence of the Science-based Industrial Park. On a clear day I can see the mountains (many of which are 30-40000 feet high) to the east and the South China Sea to the west. Three-quarters of Taiwan consists of mountains covered with dense subtropical rainforest, so most of the island's population of 23 million is concentrated on the urban areas along the coast (mostly on the west coast). Hsinchu itself has a population of around half a million. Things I like: - the friendliness of the people - the countryside and mountains - the architecture (esp. the temples and monasteries) - the festive atmosphere - the food - typhoons - the culture (a mix of Chinese and native Taiwan aboriginal) Things I dislike: - the humidity - the densely populated urban areas can sometimes feel claustrophobic - the huge spiders - earthquakes | ||
| Skunsworth (Skunsworth) Username: Skunsworth Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 88.107.253.221 |
Steve B: The Old Pier Bookshop is still there, going strong, and is (if anything) bigger and fuller than ever! It actually pops up in story of mine called Marley's Haunting (available from Ghostwriter Publications, fact fans!). It's about my favourite bookshop ever. S | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.36 |
I think it might be Balbriggan. There's a lighthouse there that's very similar to the one in the last pic. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.36 |
Huw, any chance on getting some scientific/biological facts on those spiders? I'm curious about the species. Unless I'm mistaken the very aggressive and venomous (but also uncommonly beautiful) Cobalt Blue can be found in your 'hood. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.179.120 |
Hubert, I don't dare look up info on spiders, as such info always seems to be accompanied by big detailed pictures that reduce me to a quivering jelly. I'll ask around, though - maybe my brother will know something. I've always been the one in the family who deals with snakes and cockroaches, while the arachnids are left to those of stouter constitution! | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.117.48 |
'deals with snakes' Shudders again. | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 142.179.24.243 |
You wouldn't like it here, Ally; we have bull snakes, garter snakes, and rattlesnakes. Never actually seen any rattlers, but they're out there. We get bull snakes in the back yard occasionally, and one took up residence in the bushes leading up to the office where I work, to the consternation of many, as it had a habit of going from one side of the walk to the other at unexpected moments. Haven't seen it for a bit, though. Maybe it got tired of the shrieks when someone spotted it. I don't mind snakes, but prefer they give a little advance warning when they're going to appear. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.36 |
A pity about those snakes, for the area around Ashcroft really sounds like hiker's heaven, Barbara! How did you ever get there? | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 142.179.24.243 |
It is hiker's heaven. Our house is on a mesa above the town, and behind us there's nothing except hillside covered in sage and cactus. Lots of trails through it, and over the hills to Barnes Lake a couple of miles beyond. A fair number of people hike them, and you also get motorbikes up there sometimes. My parents began coming up here in the late 1960s, from Vancouver; a friend of Dad's in the Vancouver Junior Chamber of Commerce had an aunt and uncle who had a ranch near here, and the friend bought some property nearby, in the mountains, and a bunch of friends used to come up at weekends (Vancouver's a four hour drive down the Trans-Canada). The friend split the property with two others; one of the cabins on in is where 'Northwest Passage' is set. My folks loved it up here, and used to bring my brother and I up for weekends; we'd stay at the friend's cabin (not the main one in 'NP', although I've stayed there too). No electricity, wood stove to cook on, water was piped in from the spring. It was great fun. When Dad retired from the Mounties he and Mom decided to move up here - into town - and I brought Christopher up here on his first visit to Canada in 1992 (early May; he was thrilled to see a bear). When we decided to move back to Canada in 1997, we decided against Vancouver, and chose Ashcroft instead. Quiet, peaceful, very lovely. An hour from Kamloops for major shopping, four hours from the coast. Kids can play outside all day and you don't have to worry about them; no big-city fears. As for the snakes: as I said, there are rattlers around here, but most folk have never seen one. Bull snakes are much more common, and they're good, because they eat rats and mice. The black widow spiders are a nuisance, though. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.117.48 |
I'd not like it Barbara. A long time ago when camping in France I watched a snake sllither along a path at a great distance.When I visit relatives in Hong Kong - well, Lamma Island, we sometimes walk the path which winds its way up to the old village by the side of the graveyard and they don't call it Snake Path for nothing. Cobras hang out by the bins occasionally waiting for the rats and they have tiny golden cobras too. Never met one - never want to. I watched Kill Bill 2 last night - had a nightmare. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.210.198 |
Hey, you're right, Hubert! How did you know? | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.36 |
Simple: I used Google Earth. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.178.56 |
Ally, the first day we arrived in Taiwan I saw a cobra in our garden. I've seen and caught lots of snakes over the years (I caught them because other people would kill them on sight - I would always throw them over the wall, back into the undergrowth). There are dozens of kinds of snakes here, many of them poisonous. The most common ones are cobras, bamboo vipers, banded kraits and rat snakes. The most feared one is called the 'hundred pacer' - so named because its venom works so fast that you'll die before taking a hundred paces, or so they say (I never got close enough to find out, fortunately!). It's considered sacred by the local aboriginal tribes. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.117.48 |
Snakes alive!!!!Ally has to go for a lie down now....... .....and has just come back from asking a stupid man across the road what his car is doing on her lawn and in her tree. He replied he was rushing in to watch the cricket. I'll go and get the leaves off my car now. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.117.48 |
Huw - do people sit outside with their eyes open on constant alert? Do you sit outside with your eyes open on constant alert? Blimey. I like to doze on the grass over here. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.210.209.176 |
"Steve B: The Old Pier Bookshop is still there, going strong, and is (if anything) bigger and fuller than ever! It actually pops up in story of mine called Marley's Haunting (available from Ghostwriter Publications, fact fans!). It's about my favourite bookshop ever." Simon K U - I've just made a resolution to go there again this summer. I'll fill the boot with books. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.36 |
Thanks, Barbara. Judging from the pix attached to the Google Earth maps the unspoilt nature of the area is so beautiful it almost makes me weep with joy. The water in those lakes looks positively drinkable! | ||
| Skunsworth (Skunsworth) Username: Skunsworth Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 88.107.223.241 |
Steve B: when you decide to come, let me know, we'll meet for coffee. S | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.178.56 |
Ally, it's not so much a problem in the towns and cities these days, as things have become so modern here since the early eighties when I moved here, and there isn't anywhere much for them to live (before it was all rice paddies - now it's big department stores and office blocks everywhere). But as soon as you get to the outskirts of town, you need to keep your eyes open, just in case. Snakes are usually docile enough, and won't attack unless provoked (and sometimes not even then). Some species are aggressive, though - my friend was chased down a river by a bamboo viper once (it was pretty funny actually!). | ||
| Skunsworth (Skunsworth) Username: Skunsworth Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 88.107.155.252 |
Huw, do you laugh when old ladies fall over as well? S | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.36 |
Is the bamboo viper a water snake? But I agree with Huw in that most animals, even tigers and sharks, will leave you alone unless you are bleeding and they are hungry. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Salford, about three miles from Mr bestwick. I share most of his opinions about the place. I live on a street with no real fucktards on so it's quiet by local standards. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.191.148 |
Simon, only if the old lady in question has fallen into a snake pit. Hubert, bamboo vipers (at least, the ones here in Taiwan) are mainly known as tree-dwellers (in fact, we were warned upon arrival here to always be careful when walking under trees because they have a habit of dropping out of them), but I've seen them in rice paddies and streams on occasion. There are a couple of similar looking bright green snakes here, and you can't always tell what species they are unless you are quite close to them, so I could have been mistaken. The bamboo viper often has a reddish tinge on its tail, but it's difficult to make out from a distance. It's pretty aggressive though (I've never seen anyone swim as fast as my friend swam that day!). Here's a sampling of a few of my friends:http://www.formosanfattire.com/feature/snakes_in_taiwan/poisonous_snakes.htm | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.36 |
A beautiful animal. Your friend must be a fast swimmer indeed, for I can't imagine anything faster than a (water) snake . . . A great anecdote, thanks. I suppose everybody avoids orchards and such as the plague? | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.191.148 |
The funniest thing about it was, the snake didn't stop chasing him even after he got out of the water! He high-tailed it up some rocks and the snake followed him, but then disappeared into a hole when he reached the top. The rest of us were on the opposite side of the river, enjoying beer and barbecue in the shade of an old suspension bridge (they look just like the ones you see in Indiana Jones films). I wish I had some pictures from that day... Here are some nice pictures of a young bamboo viper:http://two-ton.blogspot.com/2009/01/bamboo-viper.html And here is some info on the infamous 100 Pacer - good luck understanding the 'legend', which is in the typically charming style of Taiwanese-English: http://www.geocities.com/gnnyil/taiwanwildlife.html | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.10.195 |
No climbing trees for the kids then..or swimming in the river or..... For research puposes I watched a python strangle an Egyptian cobra on YouTube the other day. I'm fascinated but terrified at the same time. I've never seen an adder in England but a neighbour said he saw a 5ft one sunning itself on the road up here near the moors the other year. I live in the second highest market town in England - few trees very cold in winter. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.191.148 |
Hubert, yes - people are generally pretty cautious when in country areas, or even the outskirts of the towns. The jungle is always close by, and where there's jungle, there are snakes. I saw a documentary once in which a university group doing research into the habits of snakes were guided through a forest only about fifteen minutes drive from the capital city, Taipei. The guide stopped and shone a flashlight upward into the trees, and gradually dozens of bamboo snakes came into view, entwined in the branches. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.10.195 |
Ally just fainted...Notice how I'm trying to distance myself from this. From the legend...'But she could not figure out how to wave a beautiful breast pocket to him.' Indeed charming. Go on Huw - try for an interpretation. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
There are no snakes in Australia apparently. The Spiders ate them all... | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.10.195 |
'The guide stopped and shone a flashlight upward into the trees, and gradually dozens of bamboo snakes came into view, entwined in the branches.' And 53 species of snake where you live Huw. I'm beginning to think that they out number the population. Imagine if they all came to town at the same time. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.191.148 |
Here's another amusing snake story:http://www.collegenews.com/index.php?/article/phobia_brought_about_by_a_toilet_s nake_0513200982838525/ Ouch. I like the guy's attitude, though! | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.10.195 |
And they went and asked the neighbours to go and get it to see if it was poisonous!!! Besides doing it very carefully - just how do you capture the snakes you find, Huw, and put them over the wall? | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Teabagging snakes really isn't recommended | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.36 |
My sister lived in Western Samoa for a good year and she tells me finding tarantulas under toilet seats there was not an uncommon occurence. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.191.148 |
We have a special snake-catching pole, Ally. It has an adjustable wire noose-like thing on one end, so you can temporarily incapacitate the snake without hurting it. I haven't used it in years, though. I live in town now, which is snake-free (except for the restaurants that specialise in snake soup). | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.10.195 |
'We have a special snake-catching pole.' I thought that would be it, Huw - so you'd have put it next to the back door where I put my broom. All I have to think about it cobwebs. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.191.70 |
To be honest, cobwebs scare me more than snakes, Ally! I've always loved reptiles, and I can handle most insects, but spiders... that's a different story entirely.  | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.10.195 |
I like most spiders. I always pick them up and put them outside. Mind you they are pretty harmless here. My daughter took a tiny one outside yesterday after it had been hopping around in her bedroom for a while. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
I had a pet spider once. I trained it to come to me when I called it's name. Then one day I pulled all it's legs off and called it and it just stayed where it was. The conclusion of this scientific experiment - if you pull off a spider's legs, it goes deaf. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.191.70 |
I'm fine with the little ones, but anything with a diameter exceeding a couple of inches gives me trouble. Hand-sized spiders are common here, and those are the kind that give me the shivers (literally - I have a nasty physical reaction when confronted by them). Many years ago, I spent the summer teaching English to a class of children, and foolishly I let slip my fear of spiders. You can probably guess what present they brought to class for me the next day... | ||
| Matt_cowan (Matt_cowan) Username: Matt_cowan Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 68.251.97.92 |
I live in Lawrence, Indiana in the U.S. It's where i grew up so I love it. It's a moderate size city with easy access to just about anything I need but we don't have any castles or things like that so I think being in England or there-a-bouts would be much more cool. | ||
| Skunsworth (Skunsworth) Username: Skunsworth Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 88.107.155.252 |
I have a list of places and people to visit and my good friend Huw was just about top of the list. Having heard about Taiwan's snake infestation, however, he's dropped somewhat. Actually, he's right off the list. For ever. S | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.191.70 |
Hey, I thought you liked snakes! What would you do for footwear without them?! | ||
| Skunsworth (Skunsworth) Username: Skunsworth Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 88.107.155.252 |
i don't like my footwear to fight back, though! S | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.36 |
Who needs castles? Lawrence, Indiana is fine by me. Viewed from a certain altitude (as with Google Earth), the streets in your 'hood form a remarkable pattern. | ||
| Richard_gavin (Richard_gavin) Username: Richard_gavin Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.157.29.110 |
I live in the weak and the wounded......Doc..... | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.36 |
Not much is left of those fabled buildings, certainly not the batwing layout. Using Google Earth you can find it at N42°34'51" - W70°58'21". Or simply look for Danvers, MA: the State Hospital is that ovaloid shape slightly to the left of Danvers, at 10:30. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.46.143 |
Simon - 53 different kinds of snakes :>) | ||
| Skunsworth (Skunsworth) Username: Skunsworth Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 88.107.155.252 |
So many potential shoes and boots (and possibly even jackets!), so little time... S | ||
| John (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
Brighton, here, for the last two years at least. Although I'm originally from a little west of Edinburgh. Plenty to do here, although I can't say I'm especially keen on this country at all just now. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
I live in a little village on the outskirts of Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK, and unlike Gary F, I rather like Bradford. It houses the National Media Museum for starters - indeed, it's just been named the world's first City of Film! But the village I live in is right on the edge of Ilkley Moor, so I get the best of both worlds - beautiful countryside and the lure of two big cities (Leeds as well), all on my doorstep. And, thankfully, there are no snakes here at all! Oh, and I originate from the West Country - stone circles, crop circles, flying saucers ("the Warminster Thing"), strange earthmounds (Silbury Hill, etc), hillside chalk drawings, all those kinds of weird and wonderful things. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.234.239 |
"stone circles, crop circles, flying saucers ("the Warminster Thing"), strange earthmounds (Silbury Hill, etc), hillside chalk drawings" I'm a sucker for things like that. Can you be more precise as to where those standing stones in your area can be found? And what is or was The Warminster Thing? Regards, H. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.61.140 |
Caroline, I have a special affection for Bradford. After all, it was my home for 36 years. I'm only joshing when I say I think it's an unutterable dump with all the global aspirations of a one-legged cyclist with a puncture. Honest. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
Sorry Gary, I thought you meant it!  Hubert, the stone circles are in my county of birth, Wiltshire - very famous ones at Stonehenge and the picturesque village of Avebury. Both circles were originally joined by an avenue of stones - now mostly missing I'm afraid. I bet if you Googled Stonehenge and Avebury you'd find out quite a bit about the places. No-one really knows why they were built or how on earth the people at that time (not very good on history so can't tell you the date offhand I'm afraid - but they're VERY old) managed to move the stones in order to bring them there (I think they came from Wales?) or position them. As for the Warminster Thing I don't know if that still "exists" I must admit. When I was a kid living there, there were always supposed sightings of UFOs on a particular stretch of road just outside the town of Warminster. Now bear in mind the countryside to the south of that town (Salisbury Plain) has a lot of Ministry of Defence stuff going on on it (or it used to), and Warminster has (or had?) an RAF base I think. So my theory is that it was something to do with the MOD which they were keeping us in the dark about - but you never know it might have been a real UFO! | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.234.239 |
Yes, Google Earth provides a good view of the stone circles at Stonehenge. Hmm, a ghostly RAF base! That could explain the sightings alright . . . Thanks, Caro. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
>>>Hmm, a ghostly RAF base! That could explain the sightings alright . . .<<< In fact, there's an interesting story idea there, isn't there! | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.166.29.192 |
Lived all my days in West Belfast. After the 'troubles' this city is on the up and up. I can honestly say I wouldn't want to be living anywhere else. The place is one giant building site at the moment. After 30 years of no investment or building, Belfast has sprouted more hotels and apartment blocks in the past 10 than you would believe. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ireland/northern-ireland/belfast Extreme views and behaviour will always make the headlines. But every city has these jokers in different guises. We've come so far now there is a very palpable sense of optimism and 'no turning back now'. This is a VERY different place to the Belfast i grew up in during the 'bangin' 70's. I'm proud of the place now and happy for my kids to grow up here. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
I second that with bells on... being from the place as well. I would add Belfast has the best pub/nightlife scene in the civilised world lol. Bit of a cultural backwater mind you but, by God, the Guinness helps! | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.28.42 |
'the Guinness helps' It certainly helps over here too :>) | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.72.14.113 |
Ah but it loses something magical as soon as it crosses the Irish Sea. You have to try the black stuff in the land of the bogs and the little people Ally lol. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
I have to say, that when I had Guinness in Ireland, it tasted exactly the same as it did in the UK. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
When we were in Dublin Bob Shaw taught me how to drink Guinness - buy two pints per person, and by the time you've drunk the first one the second is at the right temperature. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.230 |
What, it takes only 37 seconds for Guinness to get to the right temperature? | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.72.14.113 |
Bob Shaw sounds like an Irishman and if he isn't he jolly well should be!! Must remember that one... | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
The best pint of Guinness I ever had was in a Cuban-Irish bar in Prague. Go figure. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.72.14.113 |
The worst pint of Guinness I ever had was in the 'supposed' Irish quarter of Sydney, Australia! I mean I looked at the head and thought this doesn't look right (dark brown is not the new white), I sniffed it and thought "you really don't want to do this man", I smiled at my Australian friends and took a hefty swig... I suddenly took an urge to gaze at Sydney harbour under the stars (know what I'm saying). Do the tour of the Guinness brewery in Dublin and I swear you will want to be embalmed in one of those vats. It's true - Nirvana has a name! | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.72.14.113 |
I got my own back though... when they came to visit me I made sure the place was full of cans of Fosters... Never have I seen so many yellow faces!! |