to be freaking out about moving from London to Wales?

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Long story short: lived in London for twenty years, married a Londoner, have Londerner kids, love London, have great London friends. Now DH has been offered a job in Cardiff and its a great job. So we have to move. But Gosh I’m scared.

I know nothing of Wales. I went to Cardiff once with work and I didn’t love it. I’m thinking if we have to move maybe we should go the whole hog and live in the countryside but I can’t even work out what is commutable to Cardiff.

Are we going to hate it? Is it ever right to leave a place you love just for career reasons?

And if you are Welsh where would you live that is commutable to Cardiff and lovely and friendly and beautiful? We will also need good schools, maybe private but I’m open minded to state as well.

Wales is only place I've had a GP run a morning drop in surgery - I don't have to ring beforehand just turn up. It's only recently they can't guarantee you'll see a preferred GP in the morning.

Every other GP had to ring at 8.00 for an appoitment that day.

Noi dea about hospital waiting times though.

PennyArcade same here, plus GPs do same day home visits for elderly and disabled if they can't get to the surgery.

It's very misleading for someone to say you can't get a GP apt for 3 weeks, in Wales. And total rubbish!

It is true at my surgery, I didn't say it was the case in every practice in Wales! This is my personal experience of some of the differences between living in an English city and living in semi-rural Wales.

Unless it's what you could hand on heart class as something that simply can't wait, we wait. When I wanted to see a doctor about a seemingly minor change in a chronic condition I waited three weeks for the next routine appointment, which was with a locum. I actually waited four weeks to get my flu jab from a nurse.

Every Gp practice I have been to in Wales you turn up in the morning and just wait to see a doctor.

It is true at my surgery, I didn't say it was the case in every practice in Wales! This is my personal experience of some of the differences between living in an English city and living in semi-rural Wales.

It's not a difference between Welsh versus English surgeries. My mum has the same problem as you, living in London, and other people throughout England have the same problem too. So, unless OP was planning on moving to exactly the same area as you live in, stating so definitively that people have to wait 3 weeks for a GP appointment, is unhelpful.

And the PP mentioning the homeless, and drug taking, well, that happens in every city in the UK, including London.

And Cardiff is far from being a dump! It's a nice city, and I love going there (it's about half an hour down the M4 from where I live). There's always something going on, exhibitions, gigs, theatre, food festivals etc.

L0kiWh0 Newham East or anywhere S or E London is hardly Covent Garden and Chelsea.

Why is that some people take massive offence when someone describes Cardiff as being undesirable and then immediately snap back that they hate London and London is undesirable?!

It’s like ‘that London’ is the only place you’re allowed the make negative comments about. The person slagging off Cardiff could be from Kent or Leeds and London would still be attacked for the comment. Strange behaviour!

People have expressed that they don't like London. They haven't gone as far as calling it names like "a dump".

It's rather unintelligent to call Cardiff a dump, as its a beautiful city. It would also be unintelligent to call London a dump, as it has some wonderful parts, even though I'd hate to live there myself.

I love staying in London, lots to see lots to do. Haven't said anything negative about it at all. However to simply say Cardiff is a dump is just silly. I don't take offence why should.
As I said in a previous post it's easy to be negative about any City, much better to look for positives in my opinion.

@oliversmumsarmy exactly, which is why your comment about not understanding people not feeing safe walking around the streets of London stood out. I didn’t realise you only meant the ‘naice’ bits

O would be there in a blink. I could happily shake the dust of London from my feet and I am born and bred. The landscape. The access to peaceful spacious area. Personally I found the Welsh friendly and warm.

Quite L0kiWh0.

I grew up near Cardiff and now live in London. I often think of moving back and think it's very possible to love both, though they are very different. Cardiff is a great city to be near as a teenager, lots of nightlife and attracts loads of great bands. Small enough to be reasonably safe and independent but punches above its size in culture. If your kids are musical, in particular, Cardiff and Vale always used to have one of the best youth music services in the country. A really impressive of choirs, orchestras, and ensembles.

I moved from London to Cardiff.
Love it, don't regret and wouldn't move back. Like you, one of the reasons we moved was my health and the need for a lower cost of living.

Sadly bullying and racism are on the increase everywhere but I'm not white and have no issues here. Generally, I've found people friendly and welcoming, although I do miss the friends who e known me 'forever'

Your budget would get you an absolute mansion in Cardiff. Honestly, you could get a lovely 4 bed for half the budget you've given yourself.

If you are likely to want to go back to London a fair amount to visit friends, etc, and want somewhere with a cosmopolitan feel, I wouldn't go to Cowbridge. Lots of north Cardiff is really nice, with good schools and easy access to the M4 or the main train station. Bristol airport is barely any further, in time, than Cardiff airport.

Welsh is compulsory in schools but exemptions can be given for pupils who transfer into the Welsh system after a certain age. And honestly, lots in Cardiff may do Welsh GCSE but they can barely speak a word of it! (Sadly).

Thanks Lizzie, my parents were part of the decision here too..

Op: your DH's job offer has fallen through unfortunately so you're not going anywhere... How do you feel?

How's the thinking going OP? Feeling any better about it?

Agree with PP avoid Newport it's pretty shitty. It's slowly improving in some areas but not in others. I'm not far outside of it, I'm in a nice quiet village, we have good public transport, buses every 10 mins to Newport and Cardiff and train every hour to Cardiff.

DD1 & 2 are in secondary school and yes they have to do Welsh lesson until year 9 but it's 1 hour a week. They also have to do French 2 hours a week and they hate that.

I'm mystified by the GP stuff.
GP targets are for everyone to get a same day appointment. Isn't this a UK-wide thing or is it just Wales?
Non-urgent appointments are hard to get so I gave up on that (they just don't seem to want to give them out) and I just do the same day ones. My practice triarges before giving an appointment - it's brilliant, often the doctor will prescribe over the phone rather than making you go in.

Don't move to Cardiff, there really won't be much here for you.

The weather is terrible, it's very difficult to find a decent house, the schools aren't anywhere near as good, there isn't very much to do here, the shopping is very basic.
I have found it to be parochial and boring. I would love to leave, but circumstances are such that I can't (well, not at the moment anyway).
I have tried so hard to like it here, I just don't. I find that when we visit anywhere else (usually In England) I almost always find something positive and charming.
I expect Cardiff has less crime that London though, is that high on your list?

Have you considered the treatment options for your condition, OP? Every time I've visited London, I've been glad to get back to the clean air, but Cardiff doesn't have the cleanest air either. You'd need to be out of the centre for clean air.

Do you have a good GP? I'd move tomorrow for a good GP service.
University Hospital does have some doctors I'd love to be under for my condition, but I'm way out of the area.

I live west of Cardiff and would love to live in Cardiff Vale - one of the houses PP has posted is in Nicholaston, a place I'd love to live. There are stables nearby if you could use that as a carrot for your DC! Otherwise, not a lot outside of Cardiff for teens.

Now that your DH has had an offer of another job, couldn't he negotiate a pay rise with his current firm? That might make it a little easier for you.

Don't get me wrong, I think Cardiff would be a great place to live IF you didn't love where you live right now.

Oh, and the road signs are in Welsh first - as a non-speaking Welsh person, I find this ridiculous and confusing. I don't think anyone here doesn't speak English so it would be common sense to put the signs (especially the ones painted on the roads). Very confusing!

Oh, and the road signs are in Welsh first - as a non-speaking Welsh person, I find this ridiculous and confusing. I don't think anyone here doesn't speak English so it would be common sense to put the signs (especially the ones painted on the roads). Very confusing

Gobsmacked tbh! What to say? 😱

I wouldn’t
As a born a bred Londoner I wouldn’t change . I would wait for a London role to come up
Sorry but home is where the heart is
Other jobs will come
Sorry 😐 that’s probably not hugely useful

We are off to visit tomorrow, we have both negotiated the day off but will leave the kids here. I’ve booked to see a couple of rentals in Cardiff itself and one in Penarth. I’ve also raised the idea of downsizing within London and we will discuss that on the way down. Thanks again for all your help.

but I have been diagnosed with a condition which means I need to work less and we can’t do that while remaining here

I am Sorry missed that fairly vital issue

Also factor in downsizing which I see you have

A house that gets 4500 can be switched for one that’s smaller

It will necessitate change regardless but the children can be involved and told

Wishing you the best