Featured What Are Your Goals For 2021?

Sorry to hear about that. Take things one day at a time and try to make the most of the good moments in even the toughest times. If you want to talk I am sure there are lots of folks here including myself who would be happy to commiserate, help you work through this.

 

Well said, 2manybooks.

 

I think many Britons would like to escape to Europe in general, myself included, and (judging by Wikipedia) Dutch Brabant is especially lovely. Definitely on my list of ambitions! Annoyingly, Forbes cites London as winner for smartest city in the world through 2019-2020... if only it was as affordable!

 

By whom? Mensa or the National Inquirer?

Anyway, smart regions, wine bar and designer dogs aside, I try to avoid the intelligensia if I can -- I much prefer the company of salt-of-the-earth types that have actually lived a life other than from the big comfy chair in their local Starbucks.

 

That's cool...but Starbucks Christmas blend is to die for !!!!!

 

The 'smartest region of the world' is never voted by Mensa. Mensa is a niche club of people who generally have only one little thing in common. That is not enough for most people who would be eligible for membership, and a good reason why they don't apply for it anyway.
The only member of my family who was a member of Mensa decided after one year that it was totally useless and warned the rest of us against applying for membership. I was asked decades ago, when I still had a functioning brain, but decided even then that it wasn't for me. I'd rather be here.

It was of course the international 'Intelligent Community Forum' who voted the smartest region, as it always is.

I don't think they even know where we are.

Having been a member of Mensa, or been asked to be, can go together with being the salt-of-the-earth types who have lived a life.
My niece who was a member of Mensa (by mistake ), worked hard in a regular bar until covid put an end to the hospitality industry, and she has a lot of creative sidelines which keep her afloat during the crisis.
I have certainly led a life, as have most intelligent people I know.
I have also been accused by 'salt-of-the-earth' people of having no feelings because I have a high IQ and 'talk posh' (in Dutch). They also assumed my life is a bed of roses, which it isn't.
Just because I am different, those same 'salt-of-the-earth' people thought I could be their punching bag. I have feelings, and I have had a difficult life, but have always made the best of it. If I smile, it is not because I have no idea what life is like.

Btw, members of 'the intelligentsia' have never told me I have no feelings or objected to the way I speak, or assumed stupid things like that I 'hadn't lived a life'.

Apologies for the rant, but I have heard that 'salt-of-the-earth people' who 'have lived a life', as opposed to underlings like myself cliché all my life, and I am sick and tired of that kind of snobbery.
As I said before, being intelligent and 'having lived a life' etc can go together and often do.

 

Intelligence is not always synonymous with higher education, or with wealthy tastes. There are plenty of smart, knowledgeable people, some of whom are highly educated. But one of the reasons the U.S. is in the state it is in is the populist anti-intellectualism that is encapsulated in that term "intelligentsia" - which has become a pejorative dismissal of people with hard-won knowledge and expertise. Too much salt can, indeed, ruin the soup.

 

It’s so cool you were invited to join Mensa! I also sympathise re. not wanting to join, I’m not a “clubbable” person either (much too shy!) But the invite alone is ace!

 

A nice recognition at the time, but not for me.
Here it isn't considered prestigious like it is in the UK and North America. Most people here are a bit embarassed about joining Mensa, and when they do, they often have the same experience as my niece.
My niece lives in the UK btw, most of my relatives do.

 

Indeed, I agree with the idea that it’s more a cultural distinction than a reflection of “intellect”. I just want to hang out with people who like coffee shops, libraries and red wine as much as me! Got to have hope for a nation with a night dedicated to celebrating a poet!

 

Makes me feel a little better about my chances of joining, which are none!

 

You'd like Barcelona.

I do love my city, but we bought our house over forty years ago. There's a huge issue with affordability and lack of proper social housing.

I admire countries who respect and value science as much as they do arts. At the moment, I'm unconvinced the UK respects either at a government level. Posh old white boy syndrome is far too common.

 

You did see the haggis thread, didn't you?
But I agree, Scotland is great.

 

I love Barcelona! But I was there last in the 80s, I believe it was getting too crowded in pre-covid years. Remember those?

 

Not to mention Beltane.......

 

Oh the places I’d go, Barcelona among them, with a little more money! I might just freewheel around the globe

 

Am considering “Haggis catcher” for my new career

 

Another goal for 2021.

 

I go to Barcelona a fair bit. Yes, the centre can be a bit of a zoo at times, but it's astonishing how you can find quietness mere steps away.