Home town or nomad?

[Boots]

hmmm, I guess I am a nomad, though I do like to settle when I do stop and have always participated in the communities that I live in.

I grew up with 6 month shuffles around Adelaide, but my grandparents were stationary and provided me with a sense of stability there. By ten I was relocated into a mission community for 18 months, then up to Queensland where the moving really began I guess. Have lived in or around most major towns and cities here, and tried the capitals back down the coast and through to my home town. Spent 3 months in Sydney, and I'm sorry Nev , jumped in a truck and took off vowing never to return (...but I have somewhat begrugingly).

I really doubt I could count my moves, to be honest I think it would take me at least a day to do it and would have to out number my years... My girls are born 17 months apart and we had 5 house moves/3 town moves just in that space. There have been a couple of long periods of frequent transience and then small spurts where I settle for a few years as I have now.

I don't feel like a nomadic person... I guess I have always just considered myself Australian, so I feel at home anywhere here. I like new communities and enjoy change and have never left a place without leaving friends behind. I tell my kids there is no better teacher than travel, and they both enjoy it too.

I realised yesterday what I do... I build dreams and then chase them... and once I have them, I have to think up new ones! I have known many lifestyles and I guess I am kind of looking back now and trying to work out which one I enjoyed the most and what I want to do now...

...this may seem like total blasphemy on this site... but I am growing weary of the self sufficient lifestyle. It is hard work and it is lonely and I have no idea what the future holds for us, but change feels very close at the moment.

[ina]

I gave up counting when I got to more than 25 addresses... My brother complained, he had to have a several pages in his address book just for my frequent changes! Been here now at this address (and in this job) for more than 3 years, and apart from childhood, which was spent in one little town up to the age of 19, that's the longest at one adress. And almost the longest in one job, too. OK, 12 years in the town where I went to uni - but 5 different adresses within that town, plus a 6 months stint in France in between.

[Millymollymandy]

I think this thread is really interesting. We seem to be either all or nothing here!

[Clara]

Nomad turned settler.

Grew up in one house in the Peak District, my parents aren´t the type to explore their horizons, so needless to say at 18 I was keen to get out and explore.

Moved to Derby whilst at Uni - 5 addresses in 2 years.
Then to Brighton 5 years in the same place, Tunbridge Wells for 2, 6 months in a van around the south of France and Catalunya, Back to Kent for a year. 10 addresses in the 10 years since leaving home.

Now in the South of Spain, with my own house and a little tinker. Found where I want to be and I´m not moving! It´s amazing if I leave my land more than once a week (I make an exception for market day!).

I expect that though my daughter will grow up happy in this quite and beautiful part of the world, she too will want to head for the big city lights when it comes her turn

Clara x.

[hamster]

Not really sure. I'm nomadic in that I love travelling and going off to far-flung parts of the world to meet new people and experience new things, but I like having somewhere to come home to as well!

I lived in a couple of places in Solihull when I was tiny, and moved up north when I was 5, so I effectively think of myself as Northumbrian (bred if not born...). My parents are still in the same house and are unlikely to move.

Now in Oxford, where I've lived in various different halls of residence. And last year I lived in Togo and then Paris.

My boyfriend and I are moving in together next year near Reading cos he has a job there. We'll be there for at least the next five years, probably longer. (God, this is really scary, seeing it written down!)

But I secretly believe I belong further north, where there are more mountains. And of course, eventually I want to live in a huge, rambling house in the middle of nowhere, with beams, and an Aga, and a fantastic view, and a massive garden, where I can grow things and keep hens.....

*pinches herself*

*wakes up*

[ohareward]

I was born in Ashburton, which is in South Canterbury. Lived most of my life in Christchurch, South Island. Three years in Wellington, capital of NZ. Worked my passage on a ship to UK in 1961. Joined British Army for six years. Lived in Germany, Malaysia for three and a half years, Hong Kong six months. Returned home to NZ in 1967. Met my wife ( who is from Cumbria) and Zoe, she has never forgiven her parents for taking her away from Harrow at the age of 17. Where we are now is great and will probably stay until too old to crawl around the plot.

Robin

[mithril]

Born in North London but my parents moved when I was 6 to Northamptonshire. Had 3 addresses in the same town with them and a further 10 moves around the town on my own! Have been at my present address for 9 years now! I've got absolutely no reason to move now as I love our little house and I'm country enough to have lots of fields within easy walking distance but there are fairly good road and rail connections too so it's the best of both worlds for me!
mithril.

[Wormella]

Left Cardiff to go to uni in Stafford, apart from coming back at holidays moved from Stafford to Liverpool to do my MA.

Ironically, of all the places to move on from Liverpool we're moving back to Stafford because thats where my job is (at the university I went to as a undergrad).

I'd happily move again, all my family have moved from South Wales so I've no ties to anywhere, But I love my job so that's where we'll be putting down roots for a little while.

[circlecross]

14 adresses in 14 years, not counting crashing between jobs or while looking for somewhere to live. Allegedly our careers offer us settling down potential now (from theatre, to teaching)but we might have to move again to be nearer dh's job! No wonder I am a container gardener! dh is worse - he lived overseas, plus uk and had shorter contracts than me!

[Wombat]

...this may seem like total blasphemy on this site... but I am growing weary of the self sufficient lifestyle. It is hard work and it is lonely and I have no idea what the future holds for us, but change feels very close at the moment.

And that's OK.

In a small way I understand where you are coming from Boots. Even Jackie French, to paraphrase her, said that being totally self sufficient was a drag.

I suppose that each of us has to find the level of being "self Sufficientish" that we are comfortable with. It is a personal journey, we all live and learn along the way. And that's OK too.

No blasphemy Boots, just that your journey may be taking another turn soon. Just promise me that if you are passing through Sydney that you will drop in and say "g'day".

Nev

[chadspad]

Edgware, St.Neots, Milton Keynes, Stanton, Thetford, Milton Keynes again and Thetford again all by time I was 14 from Dad work moving him and I hated it. Stayed in Thetford then until I was 32 then moved to France. Best thing I have ever done. Altho the situation isnt perfect and I would like to move agina but in this area, its beautiful!

[Cornelian]

Hmmm - born on an isolated farm in S-E Australia, moved to Adelaide, South Australia, lived there for many ears, then followed a job to Bendigo in Victoria, and now live in Cornelian Bay in Tasmania. I have covered a fair bit of territory but not so many major moves (not counting all the flatting things I did as a youngster LOL). Oh, and I have lived in London and the US as well - how in the world did I manage to forget those! To be honest, I can find my way about London far easier than I can about any Australian city.

[Muddypause]

...this may seem like total blasphemy on this site... but I am growing weary of the self sufficient lifestyle. It is hard work and it is lonely and I have no idea what the future holds for us, but change feels very close at the moment.

I wouldn't want to persuade you otherwise, Boots, 'cos we've all got to find our own personal place in the world. And you've obviously given self-sufficiency a better try than some of us.

But I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that you've entertained us mightily with your posts, and the forum would clearly be a lesser place if you moved on.

In any case, isn't it an internet rule that once you have made more than 1,000 posts to a forum you are there forever? You can check out, but you can never leave.

[Boots]

Aw, Muddy and Nev. The world is a better place for having met up with you pair... you are both great guys and I am heaps happy to call you both my mates.

The thinking will never leave me... it is just there. I am way too independent and almost obscenely capable... and I think I need to get back to functioning among other people, practicing patience, kick up my heels a bit and just stop hiding away out here (as another friend put it). It is time for me and the girls to leave the farm. They are young and beautiful, and have so much to offer the world, and the older they get the more I think I am ripping them off. They are both kind and talented kids, and there is a big world out there... they have so much to offer it. The idea of them hitching up with a cattle farmer and spending the rest of their lives discussing lamington recipes in this place just plain terrifies me.

I have no idea where we are headed... time will tell. I will definately stay in touch. Hugs to you both.

[Cornelian]

The idea of them hitching up with a cattle farmer and spending the rest of their lives discussing lamington recipes in this place just plain terrifies me

I can understand - being a girl and being born and bred on an isolated farm in the Australian bush. The lamington nightmare terrified me as well and I've been running hard from it for about 35 years now. One of my sisters stayed, and her husband died young from the rigors of the farm, and her health is broken.

For me, the good that came out of it was a continued connection with the land, and even now, in the heart of surburbia, what I learned as a girl on the land comes in useful every single day.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.