Moving out of London

I grew up in Romford and used to hang out with people from Dagenham.

Do not want.

Everyone hates where they grew up, unless it was Bath or Bristol. Trufax.

honestly, how's the weather in Manchester?

a bit shit. i grew up near here so i don't care. it's just water, you won't melt.

The difficulty is that if she does squeeze one out she won't be able to work for a while, and doing something remote or part time will make child care easier too, this means if we get a mortgage at the max we can afford now we may be screwed when the monster appears

Also bear in mind that child care fees are also very hefty so lack of cash can continue after she returns to work.

Unless you still know the area well then it's probably worth renting for a while up there to get the feel of the different areas.

Listen here, bub. I think Havering, Romford, and Dagenham's voting histories will more than speak on my behalf, the % of skinhead and gammon types, volume of racially motivated crimes, and even just a cursory 30 minute walk around some of the "hotspots".

But by all means, feel free to brush aside my comments and move there yourself.

You start like that, but then the constant going into London on the train gets a bit taxing

It's still better than going in by cab, which gets a bit taxiing.

Yeah being somewhere that has its own nice little high street in walking distance would be ideal, the difficulty is my other half works long hours, usually finishing at 7 or 7.30 so if we moved out to somewhere a bit more suburban like Uxbridge or Epsom then the commute would be too long and she'd be getting home real late every day.

Surbiton, nice but a bit* pricey.. should an 18 min** train to Waterloo work for the other half.

*exceedingly
**nearly always a little delayed, apparently

I saw this recently which summed it up nicely.

It's only a bit of rain though, you get used to it.

it's just so mediocre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqoay8JsuGk

this is the kind of red-hot stuff i need to get me over hump day and slide into the weekend feet-first with a smile on my face

Also bear in mind that child care fees are also very hefty so lack of cash can continue after she returns to work.

Yeah, the rough plan is when she goes back to work it's something that can be done around child care to mitigate the cost. She won't be able to go back to her current job and starting a new office based career will only cover the child care costs so not much point to it.

Yeah, it's amazing, most of the rain falls soon after it makes landfall off the Atlantic. Who knew? :)

That's nice but the nearest thing to a 2 bed with a garden in Surbiton I can afford is a house boat near Hampton.

I learnt all about how growing up in York we were in a "rain shadow" so it didn't rain as much as the West coat, but it still seemed to rain 3/5 days.

go and buy a stadium in cas or wakey
go and commandeer a string of disused pottery factories in trentham
go and strong arm your way into halton borough council and sign benji marshall for widnes
go and paint "INVEST IN CUMBRIA" in 20ft high letters along the A595
go and empty a shipping container of fidget spinners into sandbach town centre

Oh man, I'm welling up. Beautiful!

Hah, clearly I hit a raw nerve.

Not true, @6pt loves Sidcup, he is living there right now

The Cummings-Johnson administration is going to level up The North so flat whites and house price inflation will be coming soon to the ex-colliery towns found beyond Watford.

I think I’d rather move to France than many/most places in the UK, but will admit to considering Scotland just in case it’s a route to having an EU passport again.

2nd this - grew up in Romford and absolutely hated it.. there's a harshness that still makes me shudder when I go through there.

Mum moved to Loughton which is pretty quiet but so much nicer and has a nice sense of Essex community

Yes, that's the point. It's easy to be glib when people talk about moving away from their mundane home town where the worst crime is skateboarding, a bit of weed smoking, and people still meet their parents at church on Sunday.

Romford is shit and it's not just "my opinion", any number of freely available metrics will confirm that.

Romford:

A place where they forced takeaways to close before bars closed so that there would be fewer fights.
This had the wonderful effect of the kebab shop getting smashed up.

Surprisingly few people judging by how many are surprised by the rain in the north west (and the number that think it rains a lot in London).

All this Romford talk makes me feel so dirty

Our experience of a place growing up is different to that of how an adult experiences the same place. Time has passed, we change, the place changes. Not always for the better, sure. That was my glib point.

I'm sorry to hear your experience was dreadful and you feel the place is beyond redemption.

i would sell the flat now while the market is at an artificial high (pent up post-lockdown demand and stamp duty cut), then buy somewhere after the deal/no deal (no real differnce at this point) brexit house market crash that will inevitably come next year.