Happy Birthday Woolly Blue

[anjelikaferrett]

Happy Birthday. I hope you are having the best day x

 

[Leylo]

Happy birthday

 

[blulouie]

HB WB

 

[Goat]

Happy Birthday.

 

[COYBL25]

They'd be fine, but I want to be within walking distance of civilisation and, ideally, somewhere close to a reasonably decent theatre for gigs.

Those places are in a lovely bit of countryside, but the likes of Barrow and, to a lesser extent Ulverston are, even to me, a cultural wasteland.

Around Kendal ticks lots of boxes ( Brewery Arts etc ) , and is close to fast trains to that London place, but has the downside of being close to the South Lakes which is overrun by tourists in season.

Cockermouth's a better bet for the Lakes and isn't a honey pot, but isn't as good for other stuff.

First World problems and all that.

Penrith ?

 

[peteblue]

All the very best Woolly, hope you’ve had a great day…….

 

[Woolly Blue]

Penrith ?

That's a good shout mate

Geographically, you're about half an hours drive to Keswick or Patterdale, a simple walk to a West Coast station for London and a 1.5 hour drive to Goodison and Lancs ( for family ) so, in that respect, it's spot on, and you get a lot for your money.

But, at the risk of sounding like a snob, have you ever stayed there for any length of time ? It's all right for a few days, but I wouldn't want to live there. We've purposefully stayed in loads of places, out of season, post-COVID, to get ideas and Penrith just didn't feel right.

We've got various criteria :

• Cost : Ideally < 250k, 280k at a stretch
• Location : Near a reasonable size town with, for a long standing wool at least, somewhere decent to eat and generally go out to, ideally in walking distance.
• Min 2 bedrooms, ideally 3
• Lowish maintenance ( working extra hours to pay to fix stuff isn't an option. I mean we could easily do that, but life's too short )
• Not at risk of flooding
• Good public transport. Ideally fast trains, but good bus service is essential for my eco-warrior faux pretensions
• Close distance to decent fell walking in the Lakes, which also ties in with public transport requirement
• More than one decent pub within staggering distance.
• <= 2 hours drive to her folks in Lancs who are getting on a bit.

Hence the focus on the Kendal and Cockermouth areas.

We could just buy a caravan or a lodge, but by the time you've added service fees, depreciation and loss of interest in, you could, literally, depending on how high-end you went, do holiday cottage breaks for 10 to 20 weeks a year instead ( which isn't far off what we've been doing the last couple of years, which works fine, but it's feels like the right time to up sticks and re-root ).

 

[RAFUH]

Happy birthday, darling!

 

[Gwladys St. Glory]

Have a good one, so do you get to double-dip on the gifts or has it always been held against you?