Anyone leave London for better and if so where?

moneyistooshorttomention

This is the thing - age probably comes into it to some extent to some people.

Re "pace of life" - and I have rather drawn the conclusion that "slower pace of life" translates into = 1 specific "event" planned for the day, instead of 3. That's been my experience personally - and there are pros and cons to that. The plus side being not rushing from event 1 to event 2 to event 3. The down side being what to do about a mind that is still expecting to focus on one thing for a few hours, then another thing for a few hours, etc, etc.

Plus side of that - most people will spend some time chatting (ie because of not having a couple more things to rush off to for that day). A couple of days spent "going out and about" here and I could give you a pretty good run-down of everything that's going on in the area - courtesy of a variety of conversations held in passing with assorted people. The downside is its much harder to "vote with your feet" and just throw a firm/etc straight out the window instantly the second you spot they are inefficient and/or overpriced (as there aren't nearly so many to choose from). That results in having to choose between saying "THIS is how things are normally done" on the one hand or hunt/hunt/hunt the decent firm on the other hand. I tend to "vote with feet" still and hunt and hunt again personally for a firm I like (eg two opticians down and a third one lined up to try and hope they will be okay).

Its swings and roundabouts basically - and one does need to develop more "inner resources" pretty fast in a slower area and learn to go more "in depth" into things to get as much from them as "faster and more" will give elsewhere iyswim.

brodawel

North Wales, you get lots for your money. Stunning views, lots of space and fresh air, no traffic lights, queues or speed cameras for miles and miles. I have friends that moved from London who bought a small farm for less than the price of their London flat, they've been here four years with no regrets.

marksoton

Gigervamp wrote: »

London is no longer the city I loved, so I say go for it.

This ^^

I lived and/or worked in London from 2007-2016, in various locations from SW1 to TW9.

The changes i've seen in that time are not positive ones. It would take a hell of a pay uplift to tempt me back.

How those people daily commute on the tube i don't know.

eilidhcatriona

My partner and I lived in London for the better part of 8 years. We moved home to Aberdeen in 2014 for a variety of personal reasons. He had started to fall out of love with London but I wasn't quite there - but it wasn't that I didn't want to leave London, it was that I wanted to be in Aberdeen more than in London.


I absolutely loved living and working in London, and I still consider myself a Londoner - many of my friends and colleagues in Aberdeen have only ever lived here, and I can't imagine that. It also helped my career immensely.


I wasn't sure what it would be like to be back in Aberdeen. I actually "commuted" for 2 months before properly moving - I transferred within the same company, but the job in Aberdeen wasn't available straight away, so I was flying up and down every week. I think that helped the transition, although it was quite tiring.


The first day that I took the bus to my new office in Aberdeen, I realised just how tired London had made me. I didn't have a crazy busy life there, but I still tended to rush about without thinking - things like walking up and down the escalators on the tube instead of just standing. Sitting on that bus in early July 2014, I knew I had made the right decision. It was the 27 out to Dyce for anyone who knows Aberdeen...it was sunny and warm but not meltingly hot like London, there was a slight breeze, I could see so much sky without all the building everywhere, and I saw fields of cows. I felt so relaxed.


I still miss London in some ways, but I don't regret leaving in the slightest.

always_sunny

for those of you who moved out of London, what sort of jobs do you do to keep entertained? The moving part seems easy... but once there?

clint_S

brodawel wrote: »

North Wales, you get lots for your money. Stunning views, lots of space and fresh air, no traffic lights, queues or speed cameras for miles and miles. I have friends that moved from London who bought a small farm for less than the price of their London flat, they've been here four years with no regrets.

No traffic lights, no queue or speed cameras! Have you ever been on the A55, or even in North Wales during Spring\Summer?

agrinnall

Lolly88 wrote: »

I think the monthly farmers market, parks, hipsters and bohemians make people feel it's 'country' like.

It seems to me that you must never have lived in the country if you thing that's what it's like, although it is a reasonable description of Moseley.

[Deleted User]

always_sunny wrote: »

for those of you who moved out of London, what sort of jobs do you do to keep entertained? The moving part seems easy... but once there?

ok, I still live within the M25, but I did move out of zone 6... I work in IT, in a home-based job. The salary stays whereever I want to live. We just like it here...

I have colleagues in Newcastle, the south of France, Leeds, Manchester. We're all on pretty much the same salary. We can live where we choose (although, ironically, not within 20 miles of our office in the North)
=
Still, I like having London nearby. I just wouldn't want to live inside it.

clint_S

always_sunny wrote: »

for those of you who moved out of London, what sort of jobs do you do to keep entertained? The moving part seems easy... but once there?

What sort of Job isn't available in any other part of the country? What do you do in London that can't be done anywhere else? Apart from an MP, I really can't think of any occupation or hobby that can be done in London and not in Manchester or Birmingham.

wymondham

I thought if you lived in London and sold up and moved elsewhere you could by a good pad and have enough left over to retire and have three foreign holidays a year? was I wrong?