Anything I should know about scotland before I take a leap of faith 😂

[Helliephant]

I met this Scottish man and he is simply amazing and wonderful, so interesting and kind with the sexiest accent ever, es the best. I went to scotland for the first time with him and fell in love with it. Would i be crazy to move there???!

Agree

The weather is going to be significantly different. If you look at all the projected daily temperatures for the next 10 days, it’s significantly colder in Aberdeen than it is in Norwich.

Norwich is a beautiful city. And it has a really lively and alternative art scene. If that somehow relates to your working life, or indeed passions in life, I would make sure that Aberdeen has something similar.

I’m literally sitting in my garden in Dundee (which is a grim dump according to this thread) with a coffee surrounded by buzzing bees.

This thread is really sad. It’s like everyone is clamouring to hate Scotland the most. Self evidently it is not colder than fucking Moscow. The average winter temp there is -10, in Aberdeen it’s 1.

I live in Aberdeen, moved here from London over a decade ago and am raising my kids here.

I think you need to spend a bit of time in a place (any place!) before moving there regardless of what people tell you about it, but IME...

Never experienced anti English sentiment in Aberdeen. Have loads of friends, probably 50% Scots, 25% English, 25% elsewhere in the world. For such a small city it's relatively global due to oil.
True that the city is in decline and it is sad, again see oil.
It is cold and dark in winter but every year I think what we lack in quantity is made up for in quality. We get the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets, the most gorgeous frosty days.
I get red squirrels and deer in my back garden. (Actually the deer are a bit annoying as they eat my flowers 😂)
Our family hasn't had many medical issues but we've never had problems seeing a GP or nurse when needed.
As others have said there are a lot of things going on if you take the time to look for them. Spectra and the Mela are brilliant every year. Have a look at the Aberdeen Performing Arts website which gives you listings across the various venues. Also NEOS, the Art Gallery, Gray's School of Art, NuArt. There's also The Barn in Banchory which has various artistic things going on.
Scenery as has been mentioned is incredible. Skiing, mountain biking, paddleboarding, hiking - it's all on your doorstep.

I'm with you on Dundee, the waterfront around the Tate is beautiful but it's the only place I've ever seen an assault during broad daylight on a main road and (different occasion) police called to a soft play. Aberdeen has troubled areas, of course it does, but there isn't a single neighbourhood I'd be scared to walk through.

@SlayTheJAwayI don’t think anyone is hating Scotland. I’m Scottish and am passionately love my home country. I’m even flying to the USA to see them win the World Cup ;)

Most posts are agreeing about the amazing beaches, countryside and people, but there’s no getting away from the fact it’s fucking cold!

I lived in Dundee too until I was in my 30’s, and didn’t realise how bloody cold it was compared to South of England until I went back.

I’m guessing you’re not sitting in your garden listening to the buzzy bees in a T-shirt and shorts are you?

I hate the cold that’s why I could never go back permanently to live but I do come back at least 6-7 times a year to see family and friends, and every single time no matter what time of year, I can’t believe how cold it is!

However someone like my son would move to Scotland in a heartbeat. He doesn’t “feel” the cold and is always too hot, he’d love to live in Scotland. Unfortunately for him his wife doesn’t agree!!

@Universe25actually I was, I still had my jammies on! And now have all the doors and window open, it’s a lovely day.

I was in Edinburgh for two days this week where it constantly drizzled, and came back to beautiful blue skies.

I just don’t know how many more things wrong with Scotland we need on this thread.

Its cold (x500 posts)
There are midgies
There are seagulls
Its further north than Moscow
There’s nothing to do
Its quite far from Edinburgh or Glasgow
It gets dark in winter
There are racists
Its less friendly than Norwich 🤷‍♀️ 🤣

Well Slay I gotta admit I’m impressed with your resilience wearing jammies outside in Dundee in May!!

But perhaps you Dundonians have a stronger constitution than us from the Ferry!!

It's okay, they have heated houses in Aberdeen! Definitely colder than down south but we just get on with it and don't get all dramatic when it snows. In the height of the summer it doesn't get properly dark until 11pm and it's light again from 3am.

Aberdeen is a good choice, train links etc but they do speak funny up there 😆. I'm Scottish and struggle to understand their local lingo.

As long as you have no medical conditions as the NHS isn’t just struggling it’s on its knees, aren’t planning to have children because the education system
is shit and if Scotland becomes independent you’re homeschooling! and earn so much money you don’t notice that the extra ££ in tax - once you start earning £37,500
you are paying 41% tax! council tax, food and everything else even takeaway coffees - more expensive than London! It’s way more expensive than anywhere else🤷‍♀️ and the main decent shops have closed down and the supermarkets are still like they were during Covid times with bare shelves and entire bare aisles in a lot of places.
Aberdeen isn’t known as the windy city for nothing and is the most miserable place in Scotland! I was born there and can be honest 😂

All true

No, you pay 42% on earnings over £43,663, as opposed to 40% in rUK.

Just use it as an excuse to slag off the SNP.

What a load of nonsense. The hatred of Scotland on mumsnet is truly bizarre.

I have family in Scotland
I’m a soft southerner
the weather, omg the weather. I am always feeezing. And I visit in summer.

it is a blessed relief to get back to the south and not feel permanently cold

It’s a very right wing section of society on Scottish MN I tend to think. These threads always go the same way. Don’t come here it’s a bastion of misery and we’ve no food but billions of midgies. Most odd.

I live in Scotland and absolutely love it here. The quality of life is fantastic - honestly so much better than my DB's experience down in the southeast. It’s quieter, the scenery is stunningly beautiful and varied, we have easy access to gorgeous historical cities and the food scene is brilliant.
But in recent years, I feel like the cracks are starting to show and it goes way beyond just dealing with the colder weather. I have this lingering worry that things are starting to slide downhill.
The way we are being governed at the moment is deeply frustrating and the whiff of corruption in politics is hard to ignore. Behaviour and violence in schools is becoming a massive issue (see recent thread) and it's completely swept under the carpet rather than being addressed (I'm a teacher so have direct experienceof this). On top of that, the unresolved independence debate just breeds this constant, underlying feeling of uncertainty about the future.
Don't get me wrong, I still love living here despite all of this, but it’s definitely not the perfect utopia some people make it out to be.