I like rooms with interesting shapes, so I like living in rooms which have maybe one wall which is a little bit rounded or has the corners smoothed off. The nicest room I ever stayed in was in a farmhouse near Glastonbury, in the south-west of England, in Somerset, where I lived for quite a while. This room was the attic of the house, so it was at the very top of the house, and there was no ceiling but two sloping, triangular-shaped walls instead, which joined at the top, and a little place by the window where I could sit and play my guitar, and look out at the people working in the garden and the children playing, and watch the farmer in the field next to us. I loved this room very much. Every night I spent there was so peaceful, and I always had good dreams. It was very atmospheric. When I lit it with candles in the corners, it was the cosiest little home that anyone could ever imagine. I used to love inviting friends up and we would sit around and talk very intimately in these nice surroundings, listen to music together or play some music, or simply sit and enjoy the silence. This was a very happy time of my life. Because it was at the top of the house there was no door, so it joined the rest of the house by a flight of stairs which led down through a hole in the floor. There were wooden beams running along the roof, which were black, and the floor was wooden as well, with a few big, old Turkish carpets. I didn’t really have a raised bed there but slept on a mattress on the floor with a few sheets and my sleeping-bag. I liked it so much that if I ever get my little dream house in the country, I will put the bedroom at the very top of the house.
I like living high up, because a lot of light comes in. Once I stayed in a flat, at the base of a very big block of flats, surrounded by many more blocks of flats, and no light from the sun could reach us. Even in the middle of the day in the summer, all of the rooms were dark. I like to have some sunlight. I think it’s healthy for the spirit.
AREA WHERE YOU LIVE
Thomas
The area where I live now is Kôbánya. It has a fairly friendly atmosphere. Most of the streets are quite noisy and smelly, with lots of cars and pollution, but we are lucky because our street is a little bit away from the big roads. As I said before, it’s quite pleasantly peaceful in our flat.
There are a couple of little drinking places near us, small bars, so there are often quite drunk people on the streets. However, most of the people that we see are elderly people, who are not so well-off, but still able to survive, living in little flats often on their own, or with a spouse. There don’t seem to be many people of our age living close by. A few families live in our building as well.
Five-minute walk away from the flat, is a very small park, which has three statues, or monuments, in it, and a pathway going all the way round. So, if I’m working or practising inside for a long time, I go and sit and watch the birds drinking, or walk around the park in circles until I want to go home again. There is a very beautiful big church close by called Saint Lászlo’s, which has a beautiful Gothic architecture, and many figures set into the facade of the building. I would like it if there were more parks and trees nearby, really, but we can’t have everything. When it snows, it’s very nice because we can look down on the tops of the houses covered in pure, untouched snow, which is quite a beautiful sight.
There’s a small shop very close to us. Five-minute walk away is a shopping centre, which contains many types of shops. There is a shop for stationery goods, a couple of big supermarkets, a pharmacy, there are people selling fruit and vegetables outside on open stalls, and there are little shops selling novelties for children, and small gift-shops. So, there is no shortage of places nearby to find food or things that we need for the flat. There’s not a lot of entertainment close by. There is a cinema, and I have heard that maybe there is a sports centre, but, anyway, we spend most of our time, when at home, inside and playing music or reading together, so these things aren’t too important for us. If we want to go to the cinema or to a concert, we generally take the tram into the city.
I think the air is not so clean. It’s quite polluted, and I really do miss the fresh country air, or a good sea breeze, but there are some advantages of living in the city as well. Budapest is a big city and has lots of cultural influences. For me, it’s quite good in that there are many musicians here. The standard of musicianship is very high generally. There are lots of people playing different types of folk music from all over the world. I play Irish music, and so it’s quite convenient for me that there is a quite an active Irish music scene in Budapest. There are lots of places to play, and also lots of places to go and see other musicians playing. There are lots of musicians to play with.
It seems to be one advantage of the city that there are many people there, but I also see it as a disadvantage. In some ways, everything just seems too crowded, every street so full of things. The earth that was created with the trees, the plants and the flowers seem to have been completely stamped over, with concrete laid everywhere. Car noise is everywhere, and there are so many people, and yet so little communication. The water in our area seems quite good, but somehow, I’m not convinced that the city water is all that healthy. Certainly, it’s not as revitalizing as drinking from a fresh water stream every day.
In the past, I’ve lived in many different areas, especially over the last few years. As I said, when I was a child and living at home with my parents, I lived in a village which was on the edge of the suburbs of the city, and on other side bordered onto the countryside. There were many shops and facilities nearby, but we could also take nice walks in the countryside less than 10 minutes away from our house.
When I left home for the first time, I lived in a very big city called Sheffield, which was really too hectic for my liking. So, I left, and moved to a small town of around 8 or 9 thousand inhabitants, called Glastonbury, in the south-west of England. This was really a very balanced environment for me. It was surrounded by fields, very, very flat fields, and orchards.
Glastonbury is a very creative, artistic town. There are many musicians and artists there, and many small theatre performances take place. Most of the events which are organized in Glastonbury are mainly for the people of the town. Everybody seems to know each other there. It’s like a large community, with a very friendly atmosphere and a very good social life. There are a few pubs in the town, and my favourite is called The Rifleman’s Arms, where I used to go sometimes to meet friends and to drink the local cider, called Scrumpy, which is made from all of the apples you can’t eat. Also, something that I love about that town is that in the centre there is a very large green area with an ancient ruined abbey inside it, which is now a tourist attraction, but which in its time was one of the biggest abbeys in England.
One disadvantage of Glastonbury, though, is that because of all of these features, it has in recent times become quite touristy, and a lot of shops and businesses are now aimed at people who just come to visit the town and don’t really to take part in what’s happening there.
DAILY ROUTINE
Thomas
My daily routine has never really fitted into a regular pattern. I’ve never been the sort of person who has a job which starts at 9 o’clock every morning and finishes at 5 o’clock every evening, come home, watch television, eat and then fall asleep, like my father and other members of my family. I like to find time in the day for things which are really important to me. The first of these is playing music, practising my violin or my flute or playing together with my girlfriend, learning new tunes to play in concerts or for a new group, or just playing for its sake. I like to spend at least an hour every day with my violin. Learning a new instrument from the beginning, especially one so different to those that I’m used to, is very demanding. I try to find work which I can do when I want to, but some things have to be done at a certain time and so I always give these priority in my timetable.
I love going to the cinema, to concerts and also to the swimming pool and thermal baths, but I don’t have special times for doing these things,