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Was born into a services family (father was an RAF Squadron Leader) so we were nomads. Until his night fighter aircraft suffered a catastrophic structural failure and fell out of the sky. Then settled in north Berkshire (now part of Oxfordshire). Few years later my mother was killed in a car crash, really bad luck. So was adopted by an uncle (father's oldest brother) and aunt just up the road.

Now live in West Sussex near the South Downs.

Regarding "maybes", UK organization I was working for got taken over by a US outfit (this was a bit before the globalisation of WFH) and we all got offered nice relocation packages to San Diego. Seemed like a great opportunity but I just didn't feel SandyEggo at all, then 9-11 happened and wild horses wouldn't have dragged the missus and two little kids out to the US.

irie wrote: Mon Feb 09, 2026 9:10 am Was born into a services family (father was an RAF Squadron Leader) so we were nomads. Until his night fighter aircraft suffered a catastrophic structural failure and fell out of the sky. Then settled in north Berkshire (now part of Oxfordshire). Few years later my mother was killed in a car crash, really bad luck. So was adopted by an uncle (father's oldest brother) and aunt just up the road.

Now live in West Sussex near the South Downs.

Jeepers.

Nearly places?

Australia.

1986 and backpacking around the world. We loved Oz so much we wanted to live there.
So went to immigration. They needed 4 professions.
Teachers. Doctors. Nurses. Programmers.

So when we got back to UK I enrolled on programming course. Did well but my partner's dad was unwell so we never went.

We split up a few years later but I'd lost the urge to go.
But was glad I did the training and graft as now had a good career.
I'd always been clever, just lazy.

I was born in Neasden North London, but moved to Wembley 3 miles away when I was 3. Lived in Wembley about 5 odd mins walk from the Stadium until I was 26, when I moved briefly to St Albans as I wanted out from Wembley. Moved back to Wembley following a break up for a couple of years before meeting my now wife who lived in a village just outside the town of Hertford. Moved in with her and been here ever since and love it. As per the other thread, we've been here 20 years and it's hard to imagine us finding anywhere as good as this for our current life circumstances. So, I'm just under 30 miles from where I grew up and I still work in Harrow (1 day in the office a week) which is only 4-5 miles from Wembley. My folks still live there, but pretty much everyone else has moved out.

Longer term, I think we'd like to move to North Essex, or Suffolk once the kids move out or should I say 'IF' given how house prices are going! The South West appeals but it's far wetter and it's a pig to get to/out of family wise.

I grew up in Norfolk and then went to uni at Nottingham. Stayed there for 5 years and then moved to Manchester and the surrounding area for 5 years. Spent a year down the road from Winchester and then lived near Newbury for the next 25 years. Moved back to Norfolk about a year ago.

Toyed semi-seriously about living in France and very seriously considered the Peak District before deciding to move back to Norfolk.

Nearly?

Nearly went to Szechuan province in China for two years when I split from my ex wife, had a slot booked to stay in a shaolin monastery and study Kung Fu when my house was sold.
Then I fell for the love of my life and cancelled it.
Proper sliding doors moment, who knows where I would be now!

The Martian wrote: Mon Feb 09, 2026 12:54 pm who knows where I would be now!

Playing Chuck Norris' replacement in Action Ninja 15 probably.

Supermofo wrote: Mon Feb 09, 2026 1:04 pm

The Martian wrote: Mon Feb 09, 2026 12:54 pm who knows where I would be now!

Playing Chuck Norris' replacement in Action Ninja 15 probably.

Action Ninja vs Volkswagen

Or you could have hotdog sausages for fingers.

In the early days Mrs.Skub fancied a move to Australia,me not so much. Kids came along and the notion passed.

Probably just as well,because she's been out there to visit middle son and didn't like the place at all.

I live 10 miles away from where I grew up - a village in the Black Country (West Midlands).
Moved over the border to a proper village in South Staffordshire. Despite only moving 10 miles, it's very different - proper countryside, surrounded by woods and farmland.

I'm not wedded to this part of the country, but our location here will be hard to beat. Neighbours who let us ride the quad around their land, etc, etc.

I travel a fair bit (UK and elsewhere) for work, which I enjoy a lot. So I vicariously get to try out a lot of places.
Meanwhile we're 10 miles from Wolverhampton, so commuting is easy - main line trains to London Euston, Birmingham airport an hour away, etc.

I'd originally planned to move to Newcastle with t'other half, but I had a job here that I really liked, and he had one up there that he hated, so he moved down instead.

I almost got a job in France six years ago, and was fully prepared to move there. It fell through though, so here I still am.

Supermofo wrote: Mon Feb 09, 2026 1:04 pm

The Martian wrote: Mon Feb 09, 2026 12:54 pm who knows where I would be now!

Playing Chuck Norris' replacement in Action Ninja 15 probably.

I haven't got the chest hair for it, I never ate my crusts as a child

i live a fair way from where I was brought up!

Born in Oxford, then we moved to Somerset before I was 2 !! Lived near Frome, then on a hill near Cranmore (between Frome and Shepton Mallet).

Moved to Wells after school and then West Sussex then three years in Guernsey.

Back to Somerset for a bit longer (ran a pub in Shepton Mallet for a bit!)

Then Bristol then the Alps !!!


Can't see me ever moving back to the uk now. Did think I'd end up in Spain at some point but that's unlikely now.

Not sure I'll stay in this area but I do like France and I love that I'm so close to Italy (in the summer!). So if I moved I'd like to be fairly near a the border with either Spain or Italy I guess.

But in all honesty, who knows !!!

I think the closest I've had to a nearly living somewhere would be Beachley near Chepstow when I was 16, I was offered a place at the Royal Engineers college there but decided I wasn't ready to join the Army at 16

Nearly could have been Leicester or Loughborough instead of Sunderland but the coin toss saw me accept the uni place up here instead.

Who knows what might have been had I headed to the Midlands instead

ZRX61 wrote: Sun Feb 08, 2026 12:41 am er no...

Lived in Cornwall, Devon, Hampshire, Kent, London, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Northants & Nott's

Lived in some of them more than once: Cornwall x3, Cambs 3x, Suffolk 2x, Hampshire 3x.

I'm a bit further away now.

Dartmoor, Winchester, Sheppey, Brixton, Chelmsford, Stradishall, Coltishall, Peterborough, Wellingborough?

Mussels wrote: Mon Feb 09, 2026 11:06 pm
Dartmoor, Winchester, Sheppey, Brixton, Chelmsford, Stradishall, Coltishall, Peterborough, Wellingborough?

Plymouth/Exeter, Portsmouth/Gosport/Southsea, Lower Upnor, Brixton: Canterbury Cres, opposite the pub (preceeded by a few months in N1), Walton On Naze/Kirby, Ipswich/Rougham/Fressingfield, Harleston, Cambridge/Caldecote, Northampton

ZRX61 wrote: Tue Feb 10, 2026 12:59 am
Plymouth/Exeter, Portsmouth/Gosport/Southsea, Lower Upnor, Brixton: Canterbury Cres, opposite the pub (preceeded by a few months in N1), Walton On Naze/Kirby, Ipswich/Rougham/Fressingfield, Harleston, Cambridge/Caldecote, Northampton

The things we did to dodge the pole tax

Felix wrote: Tue Feb 10, 2026 1:06 am

ZRX61 wrote: Tue Feb 10, 2026 12:59 am
Plymouth/Exeter, Portsmouth/Gosport/Southsea, Lower Upnor, Brixton: Canterbury Cres, opposite the pub (preceeded by a few months in N1), Walton On Naze/Kirby, Ipswich/Rougham/Fressingfield, Harleston, Cambridge/Caldecote, Northampton

The things we did to dodge the pole tax

Did the UK have that when I left in '91?