I think I am going colour blind! Green, that is.

We all know these urban people, having lived in their city homes all their lives, nature only gets as close as a safari trip to the latest 'in resort' watching the odd giraffe while sitting on their lodge deck sipping wine, and local wildlife for them are the sad flies which manage to hitch a ride into the aircon maintained apartments by clinging to the Prada coat.

They are said to feel the urge to move to the countryside when they reach a certain age. Apparently they are starting to long for some fresh air and some greeneries and the posh country estate, of course.

See I am on the trip the other way round!

Not that I am after Prada coats now, especially not the ones which invite flies to hitch a ride on. No, it’s my escape route that goes the other way round. I might even see a few moving in while I move out.

I was a country girl all my life. I grew up in the middle of the German nowhere, and I loved it. Then I moved to a city apartment – small, and city; and I hated it. I moved into another city apartment – bigger, but still city; and I still hated it.

I moved to England to live in suburbia. Oh, I loved that! Eventually close enough to the countryside and sort of tiptoeing back into it.

And now today my eye-opener which left me green blinded. I was out and about to scout for locations. The photo shoot which is supposed to catapult me to the top of the ‘old, but still looking good’ pedestal is upon me next week and locations were still to be determined.

To my delight the photographer had suggested some rural beachy areas not far from my home, so off I went, armed with my printed Google map research to check things out.

Oh my goodness… Hardly ever have I seen so much green countryside in one place! I now know why we are the laughing stock of the country. In spring it might be still alright with flowers brightening up the space, but in July all one can do it to dive from one green into the next. My last nights dream was haunted by ‘Public Footpath’ and ‘Bridleway’ signs fighting over their rights to stay put.

I saw a lady wearing wellies and a funny hat clamping an empty compost bag to scavenge the freshly cut hedges for ‘material’. Must be some crafts project. THAT would have been me a couple of years ago. Now the site of it made me cringe a bit.

One thing is for sure, I might never be an inner city girl, but the countryside witch is gone as well. Living in the countryside – or in the city for that matter - is so restricted. Country life gives no reason to dress up for miles on end, so the wardrobe wouldn’t even yield a garment to do so, while city appartments are too expensive to waste space for storing wellies and Drover coat, so if the urge for some fresh air would occur one instantly would be stuck in dirt with the heels.

Turns out: My perfect location is suburbia. I need a bit of fresh air but with city proximity. And I always thought that one can take a girl out of the countryside, but not the countryside out of the girl.

Where did I hear that one before?

Oh, I remember now, I heard the ‘other way round’ version: You can take a girl out of the city but not the city out of a girl!

Maybe I’m just watching too much Sex and the City…