Moving to the sticks (3 Viewers)

rettucs

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Post of the week winner: 22nd March, 2013
Or at least out of/far (ish) away from Dublin.

Anyone have any thoughts of doing this? I'm currently 60/40 on it, specifically to Kilkenny. Already started looking at gaffs there. The idea being that theres 10 years left on the mortgage on the gaff in Dublin but there's enough paid off to be able to sell up, clear the rest of the mortgage and buy something outright, or close to outright. And, get a bigger gaff and live closer to the city.

In a lot of ways its a no-brainer. The only possible spanner in the works could be the work situation. I'm currently fully remote and will be for as long as I'm in this company. But its unlikely this company will be around a year from now. It'll either go to shit, or get bought out.

anyways, anyone else ever think of doing anything similar?
 
Someone I know moved back to the sticks a while ago and couldn't get over that the people he worked with talked non-stop about what the priest had said or done that week
The place of work was at the foot of this mountain. So who knows you might encounter antipodean pop bands making videos. The nearest Aldi and Lidl is a good 20 mins away though

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*Nothing salacious or miraculous, just generic day-to-day priest stuff
I think the only time I've ever even seen a priest round here was that Corpus Christi walk thing, where they ended up giving a mass in the traditional spot. Which someone had carefully placed Pride flags previous night to welcome him and set the mood.

I found out who that was later. She's a legend.
 
My parents spend endless hours pinning down exactly who somebody is. E.g. "Do you remember that girl who worked in the bank in Longford in 1968? Was her father postman in Athlone? No, do you know what it was, her sister was married to a postman in Kerry, he had an old green bike and used to always say "howdy" to the doctor. And his uncle did a line with someone's granny before she got married" etc etc. It drives me up the wall but they seem to enjoy it. Is this common behavior or should I have them committed?
 
My parents spend endless hours pinning down exactly who somebody is. E.g. "Do you remember that girl who worked in the bank in Longford in 1968? Was her father postman in Athlone? No, do you know what it was, her sister was married to a postman in Kerry, he had an old green bike and used to always say "howdy" to the doctor. And his uncle did a line with someone's granny before she got married" etc etc. It drives me up the wall but they seem to enjoy it. Is this common behavior or should I have them committed?
Oh jesus, that's right actually. That's another one.

Do you remember the woman that woman that picked up the census forms, well HER dad would have worked on the lighthouse, and HE would done the best carpentry, and SHE'S away off in <somewhere> now with <fella> who's related to... etc etc.

That's huge one. Good point.
 
I'd want to be near water
Train service to Dublin
Some kind of public amenities nearby - in the form of mountains, hiking, that sort of gear

I'm probably describing Greystones here
But I always thought that Wexford town or even Rosslare would be good.
 
My parents spend endless hours pinning down exactly who somebody is. E.g. "Do you remember that girl who worked in the bank in Longford in 1968? Was her father postman in Athlone? No, do you know what it was, her sister was married to a postman in Kerry, he had an old green bike and used to always say "howdy" to the doctor. And his uncle did a line with someone's granny before she got married" etc etc. It drives me up the wall but they seem to enjoy it. Is this common behavior or should I have them committed?
You mean Mary?

She's grand. Dead now of course. Her son lives in Boston now.
 
Sure didn't her daughter marry some fella from Dublin? The shcandal, but fairplay all the same.

Best response I got from a lad at the bar in the local here was, having sat listening to me talking shit with my mangled accent asked "So, where are you from anyway?".

Dublin.

"Jayzus." Sucks teeth a little bit. "Well I suppose someone has to be."

Fair nuff.
 
All of this parochial riffing we're doing is real and definitely happens.

But, what I have found when I'm home is that everyone has a child who's off doing something mad and interesting in some part of the world.

So there's me coming back from London doing the football or the movies or whatever shite I'm doing. And thinking I'm mister fancypants. And then everyone will have a relative that is doing something that is, to me, much more interesting in a place that is, to me, much more interesting. Managing an oil rig in Kazakhstan is he? With his D3 in foundation maths? Good for him.

All getting paid more than me.

Few of these young people are actually around though. There's a wealth of talent and experience dispersed around the world.

don't know what my point is, it's a bit sad I suppose. I don't think I could ever go back to the sticks.
 
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I was looking at Google Earth this morning and took an online visit back to my home from 1980-87.
there was an old woman and her son living in a house directly across the road (we rarely saw her).
a family living 150 plus metres away were good friends but mostly girls and they went to a different school. about 400 metres away was my father's bosses' house w/ 2 kids younger than me that I had little contact with.
hardly anyone else lived within 1 km of us.

35 years later I still think chilling out at home with the odd trip to the big smoke is a good option.
I don't expect anything exciting to happen here and that's OK. Living in the middle of nowhere served me well.
I mostly chose my interests myself and made sure where I lived had little influence on me.

I should point I don't have a job, so when I meet up with people it's my choice and not forced on me.

But yeah this kind of stuff is strange:
I recently heard someone talking in detail about an old woman a few miles away who had to go into care.
I asked how they knew her. they had never meet her.
 
So there's me coming back from London doing the football or the movies or whatever shite I'm doing. And thinking I'm mister fancypants. And then everyone will have a relative that is doing something that is, to me, much more interesting in a place that is, to me, much more interesting. Managing an oil rig in Kazakhstan is he? With his D3 in foundation maths? Good for him.

All getting paid more than me.

Exactly right. One thing I've noticed since living in the (non sticks) sticks is that you never know who you're talking to. I bought a car off some lad here once and was chatting to his mother, turns out she was head of some dept in UCD, a fella I meet in tracksuits getting coffee writes plays a woman I worked with was a big shot in Intel and her husband is in pharmaceuticals working on some important and interesting stuff. Smart people, getting paid more than me.
 
But I always thought that Wexford town or even Rosslare would be good.
Wexford town is lovely - when I was growing up there I couldn't wait to get out of it, and maybe it's the same still for teenagers, but from a grown-up perspective it's a superior small town. Most of the shopping is still on the main street, there's decent pubs and restaurants, an arts centre, a cinema right in the town, a serious wine shop with an art gallery, and an actual opera house ... not that I'm into fancy wine or opera, but there's a bit of the exotic about the place that you certainly don't get in somewhere like Drogheda. Also v close to some fantastic beaches, and right on the estuary
 
All of this parochial riffing we're doing is real and definitely happens.

But, what I have found when I'm home is that everyone has a child who's off doing something mad and interesting in some part of the world.

So there's me coming back from London doing the football or the movies or whatever shite I'm doing. And thinking I'm mister fancypants. And then everyone will have a relative that is doing something that is, to me, much more interesting in a place that is, to me, much more interesting. Managing an oil rig in Kazakhstan is he? With his D3 in foundation maths? Good for him.

All getting paid more than me.

Few of these young people are actually around though. There's a wealth of talent and experience dispersed around the world.

don't know what my point is, it's a bit sad I suppose. I don't think I could ever go back to the sticks.
About 30 years ago when I left home every time I visited people would ask "Are you in Dublin all the time?" (it's the local colloquialism). I used to be smug in my belief that they imagined I was up to all sorts of "front page of The Sunday World" shenanigans in the big smoke.

Years later when the younger generation started traveling the world and doing extraordinary things I felt like such a failure when people would ask me that. It felt like such a judgment.
 
One thing I've noticed since living in the (non sticks) sticks is that you never know who you're talking to
The lad behind the counter down in the bakery in Slane started mistaking me for the Earl of Slane castle recently (Henry Mountcharles's son) and calling me Alex. Alex also has long grey hair, but he's younger and about a foot taller than me, I thought it was hilarious and said nothing ... and then Mrs. egg_ told me I better let him know I wasn't Alex, in case yer man saw her and me together and told everyone that Alex was having an affair
 
The lad behind the counter down in the bakery in Slane started mistaking me for the Earl of Slane castle recently (Henry Mountcharles's son) and calling me Alex. Alex also has long grey hair, but he's younger and about a foot taller than me, I thought it was hilarious and said nothing ... and then Mrs. egg_ told me I better let him know I wasn't Alex, in case yer man saw her and me together and told everyone that Alex was having an affair
hah!!
 
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