We made the move from London to Wales (and new Spooky)

Country living is good. A righteous excuse to own mountain bikes and Land Rovers.

The Hampstead School Run requires a 4x4, all those potholes! No trip to Hyde Park with all its mountains would be complete without a £3000 Carbon Downhill bike.

I never made the move to the smoke 'full time' as such, always had a toe in the rural, and even when study or work permitted no substantial time away we had a camper and used to sneak out after rush hour into the nearest hills or forests for some country time. Though there were years when the ratio of time spent in each was reversed we are very happy with current 90% rural idyll.

One thing that truly influences your experience of city life is your job situation. I spent years working for agencies which meant I could take time off whenever I liked, so I went and got my snout full of fresh air as often as I felt I needed, and hammered the time sheets intensely to buy that time.

It is also just a thing about getting older.

At 45 I find it hard to get excited about urban cycling, sitting outside cafés in fume choked streets and seeing the crack dealers on the corner and knowing there is not a darn thing I can do about them.

Our time in London is always regimented to avoid the hustle and bustle. We use canals and such to get from A-B where possible and avoid the peak travel and shopping times. Walk up the canal to St. John's Wood for a coffee, and down Edgware Road to Hyde Park via the pub or even a shisha café, (may as well choose something nicer to fill the lungs with than the pollution), a lazy walk around, and if it is late a precarious climb back out by Queensway, in for a snack in one of the nicer restaurants and winding through the streets to Notting Hill for a film at the Coronet, then an amble up Portobello Road to the Star, and if we are feeling frisky on to late night drinks at the brother in laws.

Never done the 9-5 thing in London so I don't relate to the stress of that lifestyle.

I don't think we ever intended to stay in London for very long, but somehow it happened. You get a job, buy a house, make friends, get customers and before you know it you've been there 20 years - and spend your time dreaming of the mountains and making plans for the next trip to the country.

Neither Karen or I ever had particularly high-flying jobs nor were we seduced by 'lifestyle' consumption - overpriced street markets, designer kitchens, swish holidays and the general spending-lots-of-money-on-stuff-because-you're-not-very-happy (-living-in-a-place) compensation type of expenditure that a large number of my friends went in for - so in the end the calculation was a simple one. We cashed in the house in London and bought our time back. The decision and the move has been positive in so many ways - we have lots of time for each other and to do the things we want to do (which mainly involve cycling, cooking, baking, eating, drinking tea and occasionally sipping very nice wine - supplied by Harry Burgundy of RB forum fame).

I recognise that we were in a fortunate financial position that allowed us to make the move and we do not have children so we were able to be totally flexible in choosing where we could go and what we could do, but we might very easily have rumbled on in London for many more years. Thankfully we both had a sort of Damascene moment when driving back from Wales to London a few months ago.

This morning we went out for a skills sessions - the back field contains many rocky outcrops of varying severity - and got chased home by a bull. I'd sooner take my chances with the bull than an angry motorist (and there were a lot of them - and I was one too sometimes) on the South Circular.

I'll heed the warnings of taking in supplies for the winter. We've already started stocking the woodshed and I've learned never to drive past fallen timber that looks like it'll burn nicely. Also, my dad who is a Land Rover restoration enthusiast is asking to store at least one of his vehicles here (I believe it's a series one if that means anything to you). And yes, the RAF do seem keen on doing their low flying over our house, which is fine. Looking out and seeing three Apache helicopters flying pretty much at roof height was very exciting.

Apart from the incredible slowness of the builders we have tasked with putting up a workshop for me I don't think we've really experienced any problems so far. In fact, the great majority of people have been incredibly kind and welcoming.

Maybe in the Spring we won't feel so nauseatingly upbeat...

Na, I reckon it will last a lot longer than spring.

You made the right choice, absolutely.

Wish you well with the furniture business. I wish more people would wake up to the fact life is short and you need to grasp it with both hands. I have friends who seem trapped in the city by their own minds, nothing else. Have tried pointing out to them they could bank the equity they would have after buying a spread up here, and live the life they keep telling us they envy so much.

If nothing else it would mean we get some peace. Hardly a week this summer have we not had visitors.

Should imagine you will 'suffer' the same!

where my mum lives there's a particular mountain pass that the RAF use for low level high speed s-bend banking turns, impressive and there is a local tradition of mooning to them if you happen to be up on the pass, totally pointless but entertaining protest at the ear splitting noise they make.
OOOH series1 landies are the nuts had one meself, bizarrely water is the most overlooked thing to put in storage, incase it freezes properly, I lived off grid in those hills for a few winters.
I was born and raised in the high mountains of Snowdonia you'll love winter nothing like it, sod the rain that everyone moans about, it washes the air beautifully just wait for the snow.