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HELP! People who have moved to the country from London I need your advice (long, sorry)...

432 replies

CountessDracula · 16/03/2005 13:25

Am having a mare

We live in London currently in a lovely house in v nice area (which we are just finishing doing up) with lots of friends, great primary schools, dd just settled in brilliant nursery, easy journey to work etc...

AND NOW....dh has been offered an excellent job in Winchester. I grew up there and am tbh not overly keen on going back, though if I look at it objectively I can see the benefits (near parents, bigger house with garden 10 x size of current one, no planes, traffic etc, dh will have much chiller lifestyle, we will get to do country things (whatever those are, stumbling around in shite IME))

BUT... I love living in London. I have lived here for 20 years, I love it. When I go to the country I go bonkers. Everything is so slow and annoying. The shops are crap. The food is awful and even nice restaurants give you bloody baby corn and mange tout with everything. Culture is non-existant (I love theatre, opera, gigs etc and go a lot). I will miss all my friends. Plus I will have to commute 4 days a week and it would add at least 40 mins each way onto my journey, but not sure I would really mind that as could sleep in the morning and work in the evening (or drink v&t lol!) I would still see dd in the evenings.

My question is, once I am there, would I chill out and stop being such an arsehole about all this or am I doomed to a life of dissatisfaction and woe? I don't want to go if so!

Other downsides - the schools are nowhere near as good, would have to pay for private in all probablility. There is nothing to do as a teenager but get pissed and take drugs. There is NO WAITROSE (ok that is my main problem I admit )

I really really want to do this for dh. He reckons he has no prospects in London. This firm tried to get him twice already and he turned them down (about 3 years ago). They are, for them, offering him the earth. He will take a paycut but will have much better prospects and life. I want to make him happy but I don't want to make myself miserable in the process.

WHAT DO I DO?

OP posts:
alicatsg · 16/03/2005 15:09

I think maybe I was just a little bit dense in those days.

CountessDracula · 16/03/2005 15:09

she grew up in Winchester, like me!

OP posts:
CountessDracula · 16/03/2005 15:10

dense? why?

I can't believe that St Swiths managed to turn out someone dense

OP posts:
alicatsg · 16/03/2005 15:10

Winchester Frieda! So am either a positive or negative case study depending on point of view on sober punks.

(i drank like a fish tho.... not so good)

CountessDracula · 16/03/2005 15:11

Everyone in Winchester drinks like a fish - there is nothing else to do! It is true I promise.

OP posts:
beatie · 16/03/2005 15:11

I was going to say something along those lines. Aren't teenagers always bored wherever they live? Don't they pretty much all do the same kinds of things wherever they are - i.e. hang around parks in the cold with their friends?

alicatsg · 16/03/2005 15:12

there must have been drugs around I just never noticed them or understood. Honestly I went to a party age 21 and walked home shocked because people were smoking dope and told my dad in tones of utter horror.

(what a party animal)

katierocket · 16/03/2005 15:12

that's what I thought beatie.

CountessDracula · 16/03/2005 15:15

Spoke to dh, he got all huffy and said he didn't see the point of doing it unless we did it properly.

He has never lived outside London apart from a brief spell when 7 - 9 so has no idea what it is like. I think he has this idealised lambs-gambolling-in-the-meadows-and-busty-milkmaids-with-their-churns kind of thing.

OP posts:
alicatsg · 16/03/2005 15:18

when would he have to start? cos its gonna take a while to make a move of that size..... and you could take a REALLY long time to find the right house.....

CountessDracula · 16/03/2005 15:19

No we would rent out our house here and then rent there. He has 3 month notice period anyway.

Prob is he has to give an answer by next week

OP posts:
alicatsg · 16/03/2005 15:23

is it just that he hadn't thought of doing it that way mebbe? it might just seem to him like he'd be making all the changes rather than you trying to do whats best for all? (thats DH's view by the way)

CountessDracula · 16/03/2005 15:40

No I think he thinks that if he is taking a paycut we should move to the meadow and milkmaid filled country to take advantage of the cheaper living and fresh air

OP posts:
alicatsg · 16/03/2005 15:40

it ain't that cheap. We've never been so broke!

CountessDracula · 16/03/2005 15:41

I was being sarcastic

It is no cheaper than here!

OP posts:
Lonelymum · 16/03/2005 15:41

Take him down to Winchester this weekend and show him the house prices in the estate agents' windows. That should put paid to his belief that country living is cheaper than London.

alicatsg · 16/03/2005 15:43

show him my bank statement. council tax is huge in the country. I'm funding the entire road network of surrey singlehandly. (and thats on top of the 5 families in tower hamlets that get my taxes)

CountessDracula · 16/03/2005 15:43

I have shown him on the web

Funnily enough found a good looking one with potential today! V cheap and a bit ugly but walking distance to station, 200 ft garden and pp for a big extension....

OP posts:
alicatsg · 16/03/2005 15:44

where are you thinking round station? thats the area I used to live in.

CountessDracula · 16/03/2005 15:44

C. Tax not cheap here either! £2k per annum

OP posts:
Cod · 16/03/2005 15:44

Message withdrawn

Lonelymum · 16/03/2005 15:44

Do a link! let's have a look!

CountessDracula · 16/03/2005 15:45

We nearly bought one of the big houses on Saxon Rd in Hyde 3 years ago but pulled out as market was bonkers and got into silly bidding war

Hyde would be ideal as has rec for dd and pup, have lived there before and like it and is right side of town for my parents.

Fulflood was where I saw one today.

OP posts:
CountessDracula · 16/03/2005 15:46

Cod that's what dh says (followed by a whiff of burning martyr)

OP posts:
Lonelymum · 16/03/2005 15:47

Hyde and Fulflood are both good for the centre and Fulflood would be excellent for the train or would you commute by car?

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