Happiest place to live

Part of the research that is quoted in the book about Denmark being the happiest place to live is to do with genes. Apparently there is a happiness gene, and, because the Danes are historically inbred, more Danes have it.

From the descriptions of the Danish winter - 1.5 hours of sunshine a DAY!!! - it is hard to imagine how they can be happy!

Well - not even sunshine - just daylight!

Thanks KatyK - so easy to sneer at Wolverhampton and the Black Country. Especially if you've never been, only passed through or were a teenager longing to leave home.
Apparently Bournville is one of the happiest places to live. It must have been great in the days of George Cadbury. Paternalistic but eager for his workers to be healthy and happy, some of the ethos is still there.

Suffolk seems fairly happy. I write about it a lot on my blog and in our local paper and enjoy interviewing local people about the things they get up to.

It's one of those places that is slightly barking, certainly quirky (even our walls are crinkle crankle!). I wrote this about the county once and I hope some of you might be persuaded to come join us in our watery county with its semi permeable coastal edges which change shape all the time!

Suffolk, the curious county, has its well known tales of saints and martyrs, of a great book that underpins the laws of the land and towering church edifices where queens lie. We have villages under the sea, a ghost writer who once lived in a spectre infested village and roaming black dogs with eyes of carmine fire. There are stories of tamer beasts too: of binary patterned Dalmatians who drank from a church horse trough as they searched for their stolen 101 puppies; the poor entombed mummified cats found walled up in Tudor buildings throughout the county and the gentle giant working horses that ploughed our fields. We have curious place names (Finger Bread Hill, Beggars Bush, Wherstead Ooze, Burnt Dick Hill and Smear Marshes) and architecture that spits in the face of straightness (the crinkle crankle walls of Bramfield and Tudor squew whiffness of Lavenham) but look a little harder and you will find thousands of smaller stories too within this big, bold narrative.

Gosh; so 101 Dalmations was actually based on a legend.

What happened was that in the book, Pongo and Perdita visited Sudbury on their search for their stolen puppies. They drank from a water trough that was apparently based upon the one outside a local church.

So Sudbury has commemorated this 'legend' by creating a Pongo bronze statue as part of its Talbot Trail around the town and there is a brand new recently opened water feature there now too.

I did write about it but don't want to look as though i am spamming or self promoting.

If Suffolk is 'slightly barking' I think I need to visit it #maytbemyspiritualhome

Do! We love barking people here, the more the merrier!

roses sorry about that,I think I am quite defensive of where I live, probably because so many people, when I told them where I was going to live, said we must be mad and would regret it. for you

I grew up in Barking ...does that count...and am now over the border in Norfolk that has its own tales to tell...

Elrel I have lived in Birmingham all my life and am used to people bashing Birmingham and the Black Country, mostly people who have never been or have only passed through. We live very near to the Black Country now and parts of it are lovely

newist,if I could ,I would up sticks tomorrow and live where you do.I would take my DGC with me as I think it is a perfect place for children to grow up. We went to Mull in the summer and DGS desperately wants to go back again .There were all sorts of things for them to do without resorting to expensive theme parks and leisure facilities .They enjoyed wandering around at night along the seashore with their torches and SiL looking for mini-beasts and listening out for animal sounds .They just loved exploring.

Unfortunately I would not be able to take DC with me to live there because of the lack of employment. They need to stay in SE.

Greenfinch one of my big regrets in life is, I wish I could of brought my children up here. The nurseries so I am told speak Gaelic with the little ones so they naturally become bilingual. The education system is excellent with a very high proportion going to university. the down side to that is, many have to leave, to find employment, some are lucky enough to come back home. We have never met a youngster who is not polite.
We have also never experienced any, so called ageism, because apparently many have Grandparents which are still valued as useful members of the community

newist, I echo that about the politeness of the youngsters. We were in Barra one year and travelled round by public transport which also served as the school bus. Each child was dropped at his drive and as it was exam time ,each youngster politely thanked the driver and told him if they were going to school the next day so that he didn't have to make any unnecessary stops.

DownTo

I think you have first dibs on any sort of Barking

Norfolk is a place I am very fond of and visit often, being a mere ten miles away from us....