We moved from London to rural Somerset – this is what I wish I’d known

Résumé détaillé

There's less pressure, but life is no cheaper, and we now spend a fortune on fuel ...

At the start of September, my husband and I moved from London to Somerset with our five children. We loved our city life but were lured West by the prospect of a smaller mortgage, cheaper school fees and lower living costs. I had no idea how or if it would work given that our jobs still require us to be in London (and our eldest child is 14 – far too old to leave town) but somehow we’ve made it through the first nine weeks.

When I dared to suggest to a friend and fellow London-leaver that we are getting the hang of it, she assured me we are very much in the honeymoon phase. “Wait until the winter comes,” she warned. “November to March is when it gets truly depressing.”

An unusually sunny autumn certainly made the transition easier. I was expecting mud and sheet rain, not weekend walks in trainers and t-shirts. Few things have turned out as I imagined, though. I was convinced the children would pine for London and their school, but while they miss their friends, they’ve slotted straight into their country schools. I worried that I’d spend all my time in the car, I’d feel lonely and isolated and I’d never drink a decent cup of coffee again, but again, these fears have also been largely unfounded.

There have been low points – an early morning puncture on the way to the school bus, cows blocking the road, cancelled trains, broadband outages – but I don’t feel cut off. Life goes on outside London and there’s a great coffee place by school. You only need one, right?

I was wrong about Halloween, too, which I’d been told doesn’t exist in the countryside. It does. The pub threw a party with apple bobbing, piñatas and a Mariachi band, and afterwards we headed out trick-or-treating – the pitch-black country lanes between each house made it, according to my city children, genuinely terrifying.

Before the school Bonfire Night celebrations last weekend, there were no moans of “it won’t be the same as London” – thankfully, the countryside didn’t let us down.

I assumed my older children…

Début de l'article, extrait de i News. Pour lire la suite, ouvrez l'article chez le média.