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Sumo
fizzy.bleach
aggi
moved (post-child) from london to manchester 2 or 3 years ago, and it's been a good move, overall. after we had a kid we stopped going out anyway, so we weren't really making the most of london – although that would have probably got back into it as the kid got older.
there's no way i would consider living in the south east outside of inner london, but my partner and me are both from the north. we moved to within about an hour's drive of our parents, which is just enough. for me, personally, you may as well live in manchester/leeds/liverpool/sheffield/bristol etc. rather than the outskirts of london anyday.
most of my old school mates are in and around manchester, but i don't see them as often as i'd like with work, covid, kids, and the fact we're all kind of scattered. i've joined a cycle club and started doing more racing, and joined my local hackspace, so have a loose network from that but not really good mates. that's partly down to me as well - i could try harder. our closest mates now are other parents i've met locally.
housing wise, we went from a 2-bed flat to a 3-bed house with garden and garage, which costs a fair bit less. our situation was complicated because we rented somewhere in between and overlapped ownership. we also went for more affordable north manchester over the more affluent south. when i was looking for somewhere (thread) i had in my mind somewhere out of town in the peak district or somewhere, but gradually we came to realise we like the ability to cycle around and the relative convenience and diversity of the city as a place to raise a kid. living up here for 18 months in a rented place helped us gain a sense of what we wanted and what we didn't – both in terms of a house as well as working, childcare arrangements, schools, etc.