[dukeyukey]

Eh, I grew up in one of the most rural parts of the UK. It's overrated. The scenary is nice and it's a safe, quiet place to grow up, but if you had ambitions beyond local teacher it's a maddening place. And it's the filtering effect - the kind of people I get along with don't move to random farming villages in the middle of nowhere, so while I had friends, I never had that uber-close "I get you" thing. Since moving to London, it's happened a lot more.