Hello from London, UK

[Sulevia]

Hi everyone,

New member here from London, UK (although I am French); I've been living in London for over 20 years, and having just been made redundant for the umpteenth time, I knew what was coming, so I used my redundancy notice to pay off debt, stock up on food a little, and generally to psych myself up to face it all once more...

I've never had an extravagant lifestyle and have always enjoyed the simple life, but being unemployed and looking for work at fifty does not really fill me with great enthusiasm, so joining a group of people who enjoy simple living will probably help me in through these times...

I'm looking forward to meeting you all: I love cooking and a lot of things, so I think I'll start out by contributing a recipe or two...

By the way, are people who enjoy 'simple living' called 'simple lifers'? :)

Off to write up my bread and kefir cheese recipe!

S.

[cdttmm]

Welcome, Sulevia! Looking forward to reading more from you on the forums!

[Ali]

Hello ... From just by Stonehenge :-)

[Gardenarian]

Hello and welcome!

[Sulevia]

Hi cdttmm - that's a difficult name to pronounce :~)

and hello to you Ali... Stonehenge! indeed, not too far. Love Stonehenge and Avebury, and the whole region there... lucky you!

[Sulevia]

oh hi, Gardenarian! cool name!

[ToomuchStuff]

By the way, are people who enjoy 'simple living' called 'simple lifers'? :)


They are called humans.

Welcome aboard.

[Marion]

Bienvenue from a Parisian who is planning to move to London sometime in the future :)

[Selah]

Welcome! I spent a few delightful years living in London about twenty years ago and absolutely loved it. Back then, I read a book called "How To Feed Your Family on 5 GP Pounds a Day," by an Englishwoman who was a recently widowed and made-redundant worker. I still have that book and that's how I learned how to make my own bread. But now I'm going to try kefir, as you so kindly instructed us on how to do. Thanks!

[Sulevia]

Bonjour Marion! Are you a 'real' parisian? or adopted? ;) I lived in Paris for a few years after uni (chambre de bonne, pas loin de Beaubourg... je suis du sud, née à Carcassonne, mais ai grandi dans le Tarn) and was puzzled to find no one wanted to claim to be a 'parisian' all were bretons, auvergnats, du sud, de l'est..... it is the same in London, no one seems to be 'from around here'!!! Vous voulez visiter ou vous installer à Londres?

Hi Shelah,
London has some great offerings, from free museums, to great parks, to lots of little pockets of alternative lifestyles.... I am still discovering new stuff, endlessly, plus so many things are changing all the time you end up having to re-discover places you knew again.... I am sure you would not recognise some of it if you came back. Where did you stay when you came?

You made me laugh - yes, it seems that things have not moved forward much here, still the same! people trying to make do with nothing... If you are interested, there is a great site called London's Poverty Profile which gives a very clear picture of what the situation really is (actually, their most recent stats seem to date from 2012 - things have got much worse since then!) here, really really far from the 'greatest place in the world' picture they like to put out to the world. According to official statistics, 28% of Londonners live under the poverty line, with 57% of the adult and children poor to be found in working families!!!

I am going to check out this book, is that the one written by a certain 'Bernadine Lawrence'? Maybe I can locate it in a library somewhere...

[SteveinMN]

Welcome! You certainly have found a like-minded crowd here. :)