Moving out of London

I know, i know! There does seem to be a real exodus at the moment. Still want to come visit your place and have a nose at what you've done with the land.

Sheffield is a great city.

Bit late but FWIW I'd take somewhere miles away, more compact and better value, then make it your own, than somewhere entirely undistinguished in the gravitational pull of London in a second

In fact that's exactly what I did!

I wanted somewhere close to life for the kids and within a relatively close drive to relatives in Norfolk and Herts but if it wasn't for those things I'd be happy in a cottage in the middle of nowhere in Warwickshire, as long as I could get to a decent boozer and Caffeine & Machine I'm happy

This is what I like to hear. It’s going to be a tough few months - winter / covid / upheaval for the kids / not knowing anyone and without much opportunity to get to know anyone, but at least we’ll have a new place to explore. And I am looking forward to getting out into the peaks and bombing around for a few hours on the bike, weather permitting.

middle of nowhere in Warwickshire

oxymoron?

Shit dude, hope that’s healing up okay and not causing too much discomfort.

Wish I’d know last year, I’d have headed down for support.

Definitely up for burning some excess off in the NY, so meet up in the middle and ride Wye Valley/FoD

Also if you ever need a dog sitter for a weekend/short while the gf and I would happily be hosts.

Ok middle of nowhere for the Midlands, maybe not for Cumbria or Mordor

I lived in Cardiff for 6 years. It’s a brilliant city and I really missed living there for a long time after I left. It’s a capital city stuff happens. It has its own vibe. Good outdoors stuff (I was hiking a lot rather than cycling at the time)
When I moved my options were London or Cardiff...for me Cardiff was the right move.

It's healing really well. It was a repercussion of the transplant, but I knew it was coming so I got my body as prepped as possible. Back on the turbo twice a day and into week 8 of my physio plan, so pretty ahead of schedule... just don't tell work!

Come NY i'll be back on the road no problem and it'd be great to get a ride in.

If only we'd known. Annoyingly the race was midday on a Thursday so not exactly the best time to get people out to support. It was good racing though. I came second in the TT by less than a second (gutted!) although I beat the same guy at the worlds by 16secs so meh. And I got out sprinted by someone else in the road race for second again... 2021 will be my year when I have two working legs.

You should def come over for a visit to meet Jasp, he is the best work dog ever!

Thanks! All of the positive responses here have definitely made a difference.

Just waiting to hear back from work to confirm they don't have an issue with it and then I'm dangerously close to actually making a decision.

Also Cardiff here, grew up and came back. Would agree with a lot that's been said so far, I've mostly lived Roath/Cathays/penylan side of the city which is pretty good too, if less trendy than Canton/Pontcanna etc. City is small enough that it sort of doesn't matter where you are, you still get access to the good stuff.

Have looked at moving away for jobs a few times but can't ever make it stack up cost of living wise.

Thank you!

It's still definitely front of mind for me. I've got this Friday off work so am weighing up visiting to try and get a feel for the place. I know it's technically against the guidelines, but I live alone, have no real social contact and would just spend the time walking around the city before crashing at a Premier Inn.

Would you/anyone else familiar with the area be able to list a few different areas that I should explore over the course of a day on foot?

This might be a bit of an odd one as I'm not currently in London but I didn't want to start a thread for it.

Currently live in Toronto with wife and 3 month old child. We've been here 7 years and both my wife and I are dual-citizens so aren't on any kind of clock. We've had a good time but I've been homesick for some time and Covid and having a baby has only made me long to live back in the UK more, specifically Northumberland where I grew up. Positives would be: Being close to my parents, them having an active relationship with their first grandchild and by default able to help us with child care (Childcare in Toronto is currently around $2500 p/month if you can get a place), being able to afford a house (this is pretty unattainable in Toronto. To be the kind of house we'd like is over $1mill - nothing fancy I hasten to add). Another thing would be the feeling that we wouldn't be staring again from scratch - we still have a good group of friends there that we've stayed in touch with. There are other things too - close to nature and open spaces, affordable,

However, when mentioning it to some people their first response has been "Why would you move back, England is fucked!?"

Without waffling on any more, what are peoples thoughts? Am I looking too much through rose tinted specs?

I have a mate who is in similar position - moved to Toronto about 7-8 years ago and now has a 3month old. Only difference is his wife is from Toronto so they have a big support network. He does get homesick - occasional zoom calls/whatsapp etc - not quite the same, but he hasn't really got the desire to move back due to Brexit/austerity/covid mishandling etc.

I guess you need to figure what you'd miss from Toronto if you moved back to Blighty (Tim Hortons/quick flights to New York/trips to Montreal/the lake etc?)

Weird that he is in such a similar position. It would be easier if we had some support here but my wife's parents and sister (+brother in law and neice & nephew) all moved from England are now live in Nova Scotia. Flying from here to visit them isn't much different to flying from the UK.

Things like the fallout of Brexit/Covid/Conservative government are all things that worry me but We're probably going to have a conservative government here by the next election so thats one thing that strikes the other out.

There are definitely things I'll miss about living here. Mainly friends that we've made. Greggs > Tim Hortons so thats easily settled. The other things we really love about living in the city (gigs, great restaurants etc are all good if you can access them but over the last 8 months, they've pretty much been off the table due to restrictions. Same with flying to the States/Montreal.

@ricky2slicky Ive just moved back to uk. If i had a choice i would have waited a year or so for covid hopefully to die down and to see what Brexit fall out there is going to be after Jan. I dont have kids so a bit easier for me. just my 2ps worth.

Thanks for the insight. Those things aside, are you happy to be back? And can I ask what the moving process was like? We moved over here with two suitcases and shipped 4 boxes but after 7 years we've got a bit more stuff (and 6 bikes)...

Shipping was OK. Just make sure you keep a list of what you have keep a running total/ list of what it's value is, and be organised!! we had roughly a third of a shipping container so not a massive move. We sold off a shit load and were quite harsh on what we brought back. Aside from the covid and brexit I'm happy to be back. (I left HK were life was pretty normal) but it's kind of strange atm beacuse of lockdown. It's definatly nice to be back though.

Edit. It's defiantly worth doing some research on moving companies. The one we used from HK was great.

Awesome thanks. I might message you to pick your brains on the shipping thing if that's ok?

However, when mentioning it to some people their first response has been "Why would you move back, England is fucked!?"

I think this is somewhat exaggerated. For the majority of people it is likely to be business as usual. Some things will probably fuck up but I suspect it won't be the collapse of the country that some have predicted.

yeah of course no problem :)

Haven’t lived there in a while but I lived in Canton (before it was cool ;) ) that’s along the cowbridge rd also Pontcanna (when it was cool) that’s on the west of the city. About a mile from the centre.
Chapter Arts centre used to be the hub of activity for me. Cinema, art,bar,evening classes, gigs

I lived in Grangetown too which was ok but not sure you just wanna wander aimlessly around bits of that.

@ricky2slicky ask why they say it’s fucked. I suspect Aggi is correct, tough times ahead for some, good for others. It’s all about outlook innit? One could be living a content life in an environment considered wholly deranged by another, but if they’re cool, they’re cool. It’s too easy to prophesise about the end of the world.