Agreed. People seem to talk about more "friendly" cultures as being objectively better than less friendly ones. And by friendly they usually mean random strangers starting small talk with you more frequently. Personally, I normally find small talk tiresome and a waste of time with strangers, particularly if I get interrupted when I am daydreaming about something important to me.

Like parents then.Upsides and downsides. And similarly you might not realise what you've lost till it's gone. Liverpool is a warm friendly city.

Yeah - but in my experience the 'warm friendliness' includes old women feeling entitled to touch my baby in her pram because in their mind we're all one big family.

Horses for courses then.

I always liked old ladies fussing over my kids when they were small. The kids liked it too.