What comes to mind when you think of Birmingham?

Are you settling here for good then? I reckon its actually pretty good in terms of family, schooling and work. If you have your wits about you, you can get a lot out of it. I mean its easy to get out to the countryside either up to peak district or westwards to wales/coast etc.

There is enough middle class leafy surburbs AND cheap & more cultural places to live inner city. We actually have zillions of independent food retailers, which can be cheaper to shop at than supermarkets.

If you live anywhere near, ladypool, stratford or soho road you can do all your food shopping on foot. Our fast food outlets are also much more well kept/nicer than the equivalent stuff in London.

In london, somewhere like Brixton say. All those fried chicken shops are really impersonal and grotty. Whereas fast food and even mini-mart type shops here, are personal indpendent enterprises which people put a lot of care into.

Sorry DFP, I appreciate your point, but I don't know where your fast food references apply to me? I don't want to live near any such establishment, or even care how they source their food.
I guess that living in the city centre has given me a bad representation of the area. It fucking sucks balls.