 |
| Good day?! |
So today we went climbing again in Birmingham.
I like the drive to a climb, it's an interesting head space. We're often fairly quiet in the car...sometimes in anticipation of efforts not yet exerted, sometimes in ponderance of how not-up-for-this-at-all we are, often not-even-one-teeny-little-bit.
So for whatever reasons, I often find myself lost in thought, one way or another, on the drive into Moseley. We nearly always climb at Creation in the evenings, so it's not often we see Birmingham in all its sunlit...erm...glory? Ahem...
Whenever I drive through a city like this, I find myself taken aback by the traffic, the noise, the sensory overload of the whole thing. I find myself wondering why anyone chooses to live there.
Of course, I'm aware that many people feel trapped within cities. But the vast majority don't seem to. To many people, cities seem great, because they're, you know, close to work, and erm, shops and restaurants and...well...oh, convenience! I frequently feel as though people are trying to convince themselves that they enjoy living in a city, to justify the decisions they have made.
The only thing that being in a city does for me is to remind me to get out of it as soon as possible...
It occurred to me that I was born near the centre of a city (Coventry), and each time I've moved (and had a choice in where I move to), I've chosen somewhere more rural, more remote than the last place.
Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy for all those people that love living in a city (genuinely or not)...the countryside would be ruined if they all moved here!
In summary, I suffered being in a city for a short while, in exchange for a good climbing workout at Creation, and made it out alive and intact.
On balance, I think it was worth it. I have all those good aches and pains that come from strenuous physical exercise. And whilst I wasn't that strong and ran out of steam quickly, we still managed to climb for 4 hours or so, and it's a good solid step on the road back to some sort of fitness.
So yep, in spite of going to Birmingham, I still managed to have a good day!
Yay! :-D
PS Sorry Birmingham, no offence...it's not so much you in particular, as cities in general, m-kay?
I have been to your home and I agree with you... if I had a choice in where I lived... I'd live in a little village or more remote... actually... my dream destination for my final resting place is a rural area of Japan with a Cherry Blossom garden, Koi pond that has that little bridge over the middle...(cont.)
ReplyDeleteI live in the city purely for convenience and because jobs further a field are rarely "permanent" especially in this insane world... over the past 11 years, I've learned to make my home a fortress of solitude and whenever I'm out and about (before I became housebound) I always had my music on to block out the world.
Living in a city is a stressful, un-healthy, dangerous and odd experience... people change when they are in cities... if you have an mp3 of Resident Evil music and you listen to it whilst walking through a city... it might provide you with a quite odd experience.
I usually treat going into the City Centre as a mission with clearly outlined objectives and aim to spend as little time as possible there...
At one point in my life I used to walk through the city at night and casually observe the goings on... at around 02:00 the city centre is practically deserted and you can then begin to appreciate the artistry behind some of the buildings and the mysterious peacefulness of it all... I did not have music on during these nightly excursions as, with much of the city centre deserted, there was no point.
The contrast between the city, or indeed anywhere, at night and during the day is... in a word... awing.
I think there are those that enjoy living in or around cities but, I fear, that most, like myself, build fortresses either in their homes or their heads through whatever means they have available.