Moving to the middle of nowhere

[crashmonitor]

Just a point re. living in an isolated location re. services. I'd reckon a septic tank and your own fuel supply for heating is almost a given. But try and avoid your own water supply, they require pumps and wells that occasionally dry up in summer . Had this at a former moorland cottage and water running out is bloody stressful. also don't attempt your own electicity generation either unless you possess a degree in mechanics.......get on the grid.

[crashmonitor]

10 minutes ago, hotairmail said:

I would find it hard to imagine anywhere having problems with gays in this day and age, anywhere. It would have to be something like a run down former pit village or something of that ilk I guess. Don't move to Skinninggrove.

I live in Yorkshire. We have a gay couple in the village who moved in a couple of years ago. They are an integral part of the community life.

If anything, everyone trips over themselves not to be characterised as parochial and small minded.

My father's generation are pretty bad actually when it comes to discrimination, those 75 years+. Jeeze my dad even started at Christmas over the death of George Michael and I had to tell him to shut up, we had company.

They were brought up on homosexual activity being criminalised, watching it Aint half hot Mum and being read Rupert Bear on **** Island as a child.

edit...you see this site even edits Rupert Bear stories from the past.

[Hail the Tripod]

32 minutes ago, hotairmail said:

I would find it hard to imagine anywhere having problems with gays in this day and age, anywhere. It would have to be something like a run down former pit village or something of that ilk I guess. Don't move to Skinninggrove.

I live in Yorkshire. We have a gay couple in the village who moved in a couple of years ago. They are an integral part of the community life.

If anything, everyone trips over themselves not to be characterised as parochial and small minded.

I know a lesbian couple who have endless problems with low level vandalism targeted specifically at them by local schoolkids (with whom they have no direct connection whatsoever). At this point they have security cameras fitted all round their house and have submitted films to the police plenty of times, yet it continues. Very sad.

[Riedquat]

9 minutes ago, Hail the Tripod said:

I know a lesbian couple who have endless problems with low level vandalism targeted specifically at them by local schoolkids (with whom they have no direct connection whatsoever). At this point they have security cameras fitted all round their house and have submitted films to the police plenty of times, yet it continues. Very sad.

I'd guess that that's more typical obnoxious little sh1tes who think it's fun to have a go at anyone who doesn't fit into their narrow view of "got to be like us or you're there to be picked on" rather than anything specifically anti-gay. Just typical small-minded bully jerk mentality, with a bit of luck they'll be the type to wrap a car around a tree with themselves splatted against it as soon as they learn to drive.

[Hail the Tripod]

24 minutes ago, hotairmail said:

I guess the issue is potentially one of attribution. They may have a tendency to believe they are being targeted because they are lesbian?

Almost certainly. I would say the one I know well tends to assume when she has a bad interaction with someone it's purely down to homophobia, when in fact she is often quite difficult and confrontational.

24 minutes ago, hotairmail said:

Does no one else locally suffer from low level vandalism?

Probably, but from the few videos i've seen, they do seem to have been targeted specifically. No one else in the street has needed to put chicken wire over the windows facing the road or install security cameras.

24 minutes ago, hotairmail said:

Do they get called names in the street and that sort of thing?

I don't think so.

[Rave]

On 1/4/2017 at 5:49 PM, thecrashingisles said:

These parties must be special if you can get people to fly in for them.

Oh yes they are, Mark is a brilliant host. If you're a quarter as funny and arch IRL as you are on here, well, I can't speak for Mark, but I'd love to make your acquaintance!

Meanwhile Mark, have you considered Dumfries and Galloway? I daresay it's wet, but it's a hell of a lot easier to get to than the far north of Scotland, and yet remote enough that the star gazing is apparently the best in the UK.

[DTMark]

On ‎07‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 1:19 AM, Rave said:

Oh yes they are, Mark is a brilliant host. If you're a quarter as funny and arch IRL as you are on here, well, I can't speak for Mark, but I'd love to make your acquaintance!

Meanwhile Mark, have you considered Dumfries and Galloway? I daresay it's wet, but it's a hell of a lot easier to get to than the far north of Scotland, and yet remote enough that the star gazing is apparently the best in the UK.

January party details soon.. I still have a stinking cold that started on Christmas Day. I keep thinking that it has gone, but like the villain in the horror films, it keeps coming back for one more attack.

I've made a list of all the suggestions and I'll spend tomorrow checking them all out.

You can get "nutters" anywhere so it's just pot luck really.

Thanks for all the posts (any more suggestions, do feel free) and I'll report back.

[GreenDevil]

On 04/01/2017 at 6:01 PM, long time lurking said:

Plenty of places on the west Wales coast south of Newport Pembrokeshier would be my choice .internet is patchy though and forget airports 

If i was in your position work wise there would only be one place  the dingle peninsular south west Ireland

If you like rain, rain and more rain!

[DTMark]

2 minutes ago, GreenDevil said:

If you like rain, rain and more rain!

I recall my late father - who tended to an allotment - once standing by the window in the living room looking out forlornly at the miserable scene and echoing everyone's thoughts.

"Every day it rains".

Perhaps, in this manner, perception can actually be turned into reality.

[The Masked Tulip]

3 minutes ago, DTMark said:

I recall my late father - who tended to an allotment - once standing by the window in the living room looking out forlornly at the miserable scene and echoing everyone's thoughts.

"Every day it rains".

Perhaps, in this manner, perception can actually be turned into reality.

Your dad was right. It does rain every day - somewhere.

[Riedquat]

10 hours ago, DTMark said:

January party details soon.. I still have a stinking cold that started on Christmas Day. I keep thinking that it has gone, but like the villain in the horror films, it keeps coming back for one more attack.

Another one with that, it seems to be doing the same to people across the country, a real stinker that one. Heaven knows how I've managed to avoid it, normally if I caught cricket balls as easily as colds I'd be a professional cricketer.

[MrPin]

I spent the weekend with a good chum in Pembrokeshire. He is lucky enough to have an IT job that he can do remotely over the internet. Smashing place. It's rural, but I wouldn't call it remote, and he gets a good internet connection. Doesn't get very cold down that way, but it does rain.

[DEATH]

Don't do it.

Watch Evil Dead I & II.

Go to Cornwall instead.

[Shamus]

Somerset is a nice county for pretty little villages as long as you avoid the flood plains. Reasonable prices and not too far from Exeter/Bath/Bristol for odd trips and work. Good for access to the Devon and Dorset coast too.

[SarahBell]

On 09/01/2017 at 0:06 AM, DTMark said:

I recall my late father - who tended to an allotment - once standing by the window in the living room looking out forlornly at the miserable scene and echoing everyone's thoughts.

"Every day it rains".

Perhaps, in this manner, perception can actually be turned into reality.

You do pay so much more attention to the weather when you have an outdoor hobby. Which is remarkable seeing how keen the British are about talking about the weather in general.

[Riedquat]

1 hour ago, SarahBell said:

You do pay so much more attention to the weather when you have an outdoor hobby. Which is remarkable seeing how keen the British are about talking about the weather in general.

Although mine of exploring old mines exposed me less to the weather than some (although is underground still outdoors? Often needed to walk some distance to get to the mine anyway).

[Lurkst]

The north coast seems to be getting busier...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-38561628

 

[DTMark]

5 hours ago, Lurkst said:

The north coast seems to be getting busier...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-38561628

 

We're sorting out booking a holiday up there to go and take a look.

Now I wish I still had my Corrado VR6.

[Riedquat]

10 hours ago, hotairmail said:

I have to confess I get mildly f*cking annoyed when I see the quality of the roads in the middle of nowhere.

The picture and the text paint two contradictory pictures. Anyway the Kylesku Bridge is one of the very, very few modern concretey things that somehow manages to not look like a hideous cheap and nasty bodge of uncaring vandalism.

In my experience the more middle of nowhere the more pleasant the driving is, even if it's not fast (stop being in such a hurry!) It doesn't take too many people to come along and start messing that up though, that's yet another problem with people excess though.

[Steppenpig]

The roads north of Inverness are crap. There are occasional bits of good infrastructure. I hadn't heard of the NC500 before. It seems to be just a marketing buzzword, rather than actual toad building. That said, did do a loop of the north a decade ago, and it would be a fun route for people who like narrow roads and hairy bends.

[Riedquat]

4 minutes ago, Steppenpig said:

The roads north of Inverness are crap. There are occasional bits of good infrastructure. I hadn't heard of the NC500 before. It seems to be just a marketing buzzword, rather than actual toad building. That said, did do a loop of the north a decade ago, and it would be a fun route for people who like narrow roads and hairy bends.

Doesn't sound too crap. A crap road isn't one that fails to cater for the chronically impatient.

[FirstTimeBonkers]

We did the NC500 this summer. A really great drive and stunning scenery. I thought the road conditions were pretty good, but there are more than a few single-track sections albeit with plentiful passing places. As well as the obvious, slower traffic ahead uses them to let you pass, which was helpful given the many enormous motorhomes crawling around.

It is for sure a marketing thing - being billed as the "UK's route 66" - but getting increasingly popular. So much so that we had to be pretty flexible to find accomodation that wasn't already booked out in the west coast section.

Agree that normal infrastructural civilisation goes as far as Inverness, but no further. 

[DTMark]

The immediate difficulty with this project is in trying to pin down anywhere specific. We've been looking at Google Maps and Street view but it's all a bit "hit and miss". One perspective is "too remote" and the other "too close". Ideally this needs the hire of a fast helicopter and a pilot for a few days to cover the areas

However earlier today I just happened to catch an episode of "Escape to the Country" on TV. Set in Scotland.

I wouldn't normally watch these programmes as, apart from having no interest, they usually show a retiree couple with a fantastical budget of half a million, moving to somewhere that I'm not interested in.

However spurred on the success of the first episode in opening our eyes we then managed to seek out half a dozen other episodes on YouTube, all set in Scotland.

I have made a list of all the places suggested in this thread, it's just that we started with Scotland.

Nowhere significantly north of Inverness, but some beautiful places; Argyll and Bute especially, and some parts of the Highlands.

Not especially interested in the houses themselves; indeed many of the houses were fair ugly outside and downright affronting inside. After seeing a dozen or so I found myself wanting to seek out the person who thought it a good idea to paint the window frames purple and install mustard-coloured bathroom tiles and ask them what the hell they were thinking.

But it's more about looking at the area, the surroundings, the views.

Then moving to Western Scotland, this hit the spot (time index-linked to that particular segment), for £265,000.. those views. Your very own "log cabin in a picturesque area".

At least two of the episodes mentioned the need for broadband which wasn't covered in the episode, but that's going to have to be satellite based unless 4G has made it that far out, or, if the place is within about 1000m of a BT cabinet offering fibre, which is unlikely in the extreme.

Broadband is the huge compromise. If the phone line, if there is one, can manage half a meg of ADSL (within about 4km of the exchange at most) then that would serve as a backup to the satellite and mean we weren't reliant on one technology.

There are community projects in a few specific areas, some laying fibre to the premises, and those would be ideal areas, so we'd get the best connectivity in the UK, in the middle of nowhere, but that limits this to maybe half a dozen very specific areas.

We're booking a few days away in Scotland soon, so we'll get to experience the cold weather

 

 

[Riedquat]

9 hours ago, DTMark said:

Ideally this needs the hire of a fast helicopter and a pilot for a few days to cover the areas

That won't work. Ideally you need a lot of time and just casually amble around the country, just sticking to B roads or smaller, never getting on a train that goes above 60 mph, possibly a fair amount on bike or foot. "Whizz, tick off the list, whizz" won't tell you anything much. Anything worth doing is worth taking your time over.

[Steppenpig]

BBC 1 3pm Mondays. (edit weekdays)

"I moved to the country"

 

Follows up stories from the similarly titled show. I suspect it is just a cheap reedit-rehash schedule filler with a five minute update, but if genuine, might have some insights. The first episode apparently involves a fire.

 

Edit: just the usual dire rehash trash, plus 10 minutes of, look we bought a new sofa! Look, hubby bakes his own bread! And now let's watch our lucky couple enjoy the country life by attending a pub quiz at their local pub.. Sorry I mentioned it.