Escape to the Country

I haven't quite got my head around it yet and it feels quite odd seeing it actually written down.

We are moving to the country.

Leaving London and moving to the country. We've even exchanged on our new house. It's really happening. I truly do believe in fate and think that this move is all down to it. Some people would think we are barking mad. It was the first and only house that we have looked at. But we knew from the second we saw a photo of it that it was meant to be. It turns out the owners are old family friends. We used to hang out on the beach in Wales with them when we were tiny. One of their daughters is our next door neighbour in London. I could go on.

The move is both scary and exciting at the same time. Once again we are upping sticks. Leaving all our friends and family and moving somewhere that we don't really know anything about. Apart from this time we wont have to grapple with the joys of Ryanair every time we want to come back. The language wont be changing. And we will still be able to get sliced white bread and English sausages. We are only moving one-hour-and-four minutes away, (by train) to Oxfordshire. You're probably wondering what all the fuss is about.

When we were trying to make our decision I think we probably made about seven hundred lists. The pros and cons of moving.

They went like this;

Cons

Leaving our friends and family

Not being able to walk to the shops

Having to sell our gorgeous home

No Starbucks on the doorstep

Not being able to go out for dinner on the spur of the moment

No more 'Naked Nosh' (best take out in the World)

No people dropping in for cosy time

Having to plan everything

Pros

s p a c e

Just thinking about it makes me feel I can breathe more easily

A walled garden. We can just open the doors and the Cub will be free

Doing up a new house. Think of the wallpaper potential

I would have my own office

Not having to have our daily walk in a cemetery

Planting our own kitchen garden

Oxford on our doorstep

Weekend house parties

Making new friends

Bicester Village is 20 minutes away

The village school for the Cub is a two minute walk

Cosy time in the garden

Long summer lunches in the garden

Kitchen garden

Oxford

Space for the Cub

Growing our own asperges

Starry walls by Barneby Gates

The pros well out weighed the cons in the end. But we tried to be sensible and rationalise that as it was the first house we saw, there would of course be many more out there with our names on. Maybe even better ones. And that we should stay put.

We both woke up the next morning heartbroken. It was all we needed to realise that leaving was the right decision.

And now, this time in two and a half months, we will be well on our way to escaping to the country. I literally cannot wait.