GR
A bookshop in a country area - you must be a very lucky man indeed. The tablelands are lovely. I remember a trip on the Kuranda rail as a kid, some memorable photos in the photo album when my brother and I were knee high.

C'mon Pericles I will get you out milking those cows or goats yet. The important thing is to know ourselves well enough to know what makes us happy. There are things I still love about cities. I loved living in Vienna for a short time and have enjoyed short stints in Adelaide and Sydney. Would have loved to live in London for a bit too, but that never happened.

We have been watching Gourmet Farmer on SBS and his tree change is what we are aiming for (probably more me than my better half). The idea of going out finding food is attractive to me too whether it be foraging in woods or in the ocean. The English love their cockles straight off the beaches.

Hasbeen
A big job is only a status symbol - your life sounds much more interesting.

The best advice I have had from a friend is that the reality may not be as warm and fuzzy as the ideal. It does mean some hard work and extra effort. I know people who moved down to the Sth Coast of NSW and came back after a two years because of lack of medical services and difficulty in finding a niche and friends. Others have done so without as much trouble. We are all different

Nope Pericles, no kidding, its the latest in dairy technology.
The first ones I heard about were installed in Victoria ( I know
as I subscribe to their Weekly Times farming paper amongst many
others).

The thing is, cows don't feel really comfortable with full udders
so milking is a relief for them. The grain etc provided is also
their favourite food. Next you have huge labour savings, as
people don't really like getting up at 3am every day etc.

Its European technology.

But of course sitting down milking Daisy the cow with a bucket
and then squirting the cat as she walks past is fun too :)

I watched Gourment Farmer too Pelican and I loved it.

Pelican, I can agree with the fact that the retirement move can be less than good.

A mate of mine was a real estate in the little resort town of Burrum Heads.

He told me that he regularly sold many of the same homes about every 3 years. People who had holidayed there quite a few times, would buy in town. After a while the 50Km trip to see a doctor, dentist ect, & the big fortnightly shop, done to keep petrol costs down, got them down.

Many, mothers particularly, missed family.

People who easily found friends while in holiday accommodation, found it harder as a resident.

About 60% sold up, & went "home" after about 3 years.

Wow. So it is

>>Pericles, no kidding, its the latest in dairy technology<<

"When the cow elects to enter the milking unit (due to highly palatable feed that she finds in the milking box), a cow ID sensor reads an identification tag on the cow and passes the cow ID to the control system. If the cow has been milked too recently, the automatic gate system sends the cow out the unit. If the cow may be milked, automatic teat cleaning, milking cup application, milking, and teatdipping takes place. As an incentive to attend the milking unit, concentrated feedstuffs needs to be fed to the cow in the milking unit." - Wikipedia

I'm racking my brains to think of an application for people. I'll keep you posted.

>>C'mon Pericles I will get you out milking those cows or goats yet.<<

Not now I know about the milking machines you won't, pelican.

At least, not until I have lived for a while in (order of preference) New York, Paris (again), Berlin (again), London (again), San Francisco, Rio de Janiero... and a few more besides.

Since I'm unlikely to get through the whole list before I pop my clogs, I'll have to make do with the occasional visit to the countryside and the seaside. Both of which, I can assure you, I enjoy very much indeed.

I just couldn't live there.

*Many, mothers particularly, missed family.*

Hasbeen, you hit the nail on the head with that one.
Once menopause and grandmommy hormones kick in, many
women focus on their grandkids and want to be close by
to "help" them. I've seen plenty move and sell up
for that very reason. The blokes then commonly have
to decide wether to tag along or not.

50km in the country is not really very far, its like
half an hour. Many take longer to get to work in
their city jobs.

Pericles, if I may ask, what is it about city life
and the cities you mention, that you are chasing?

I lived in Paris for a couple of years in the early
70s. It was great fun having car races around the
Arc de Triomphe at 4 am after a night out, lots of
great memories, but every 2 weeks I needed to get out
of the place for a while.

The thing is, where I live, I hear nothing but birds
tweeting when I wake up. The stars shine brightly,
nearly every night. I don't need to lock up anything
really, nothing has ever been stolen in all these years.

In the city they all seem terrified of each other, worried
if they will be robbed, or mugged, or assaulted in some way.

Half the time they can't even park their cars without paying.
Fair enough, many love it, but from my perspective it beats
me why.

Not sure I understand the "chasing" part, Yabby.

>>Pericles, if I may ask, what is it about city life and the cities you mention, that you are chasing?<<

I just get very easily bored outside cities, whereas I never ever get bored in one.

>>The thing is, where I live, I hear nothing but birds tweeting when I wake up<<

That would quickly drive me to drink. What is it about silence that you find so attractive? I find the constant background hum of a city, interspersed with the occasional siren, extremely reassuring.

>>The stars shine brightly, nearly every night.<<

There are just so many minutes that I can stare at the stars without thinking "there must be more to life than this"

>>I don't need to lock up anything really, nothing has ever been stolen in all these years.<<

I've lived most of my life in cities. I have never been burgled.

Once when I lived in London in the early seventies I had the radio stolen from my car. Fortunately the insurance company paid - and for a brand new soft top. Since then, I've never locked my car. And only once has anything been nicked - and that was just the loose change in the ashtray.

>>In the city they all seem terrified of each other, worried if they will be robbed, or mugged, or assaulted in some way.<<

"They", Yabby? Who are "they"?

I can honestly say that I have never felt uncomfortable walking around cities. But hey, I might just have been lucky, all these years. One of my favourite pubs, when I was in London, was the Blind Beggar in Whitechapel. Never felt threatened. Not once.

>>Half the time they can't even park their cars without paying.<<

Use public transport - which in most cities is phenomenally cheap and easy to use - and you won't have to worry.

Or park "inventively", as the natives tend to. Especially in Paris and Berlin...

Your turn.

What is so attractive about living in the country? Apart from the tweeting birds and the sparkling stars, that is...