Greater London Schools

My husband is a fantastic baker and cook.  Homemade bread and barbecued meats of various kinds are his specialties, although he has made a mean donut!

Just a heads up, flour is different here.  Yes, you read that right.  Flour is different.

And he *may* want to bring along some of his favourite spices for BBQ.

My husband is a fantastic baker and cook.  Homemade bread and barbecued meats of various kinds are his specialties, although he has made a mean donut!

In that case, forget Surrey, you can move right over to Berkshire

My husband is a fantastic baker and cook.  Homemade bread and barbecued meats of various kinds are his specialties, although he has made a mean donut!

Oooh... barbecued meats... definitely speaking our language, now!  We're about to build our outdoor kitchen (our pizza oven is getting its forever home, to be joined by our gas grill, a future smoker, and hopefully a charcoal yakitori grill).

I had limited cooking/baking experience before I moved to the UK, having grown up with an American surburban housewife mother.  When I landed, I didn't know how to make much that didn't involve opening at least one tin, box, or seasoning packet (even most of my baking back home involved opening a boxed mix!). But now I'm making very nearly everything from scratch.  I don't have an oven at the moment* (it's a saga), so I've not baked much bread, yet, but that's the first thing I want to address when we've finally built if we ever build our real kitchen.

* On the other hand, we do have a clothes dryer, and you likely will, too!

In that case, forget Surrey, you can move right over to Berkshire

Right?  Wokingham is lovely.  Excellent schools and good links into London. 

Right?  Wokingham is lovely.  Excellent schools and good links into London. 

Crowthorne is equally lovely and right next door to Wokingham! Preferably if you could move right by the high street, that'd be greeeeeaaaattt

FormanFive, don't be discouraged!!

Yes, it is a lot to take in, and yes, there will definitely be hiccups and roadblocks.  BUT - you have some great things going for you!  You've done your research (of course, as a scientist!  ).  You have the resources of this forum (e.g. hms_seahorse, NW London Evangelist).  It sounds like both of you are in the same mindset about this move which means you'll be able to support each other if things get tough (it's a tricky situation when one person wants to move and the other person doesn't).  And you have a very healthy housing budget.  The main obstacle for many getting the ideal mix of neighbourhood/property/commute is affordability, and with your budget, you'll probably have a lot more options available to you than most.

(I still will advise to choose places with as little changeovers as possible though... on a good day when everything has aligned, I can make my journey in ~45 minutes door-to-door.  The extra 30-40 minutes of my typical 1.5 hour commute is largely due to waiting for the next bus or train when I change from one to another.)

I won't lie - there are some things in London that drive me off the wall.  But at the end of the day, I love London.

And now I'll return you to your regularly scheduled cat and food thread.

Yup, the budget for housing helps massively.  The average salary in the UK is £29k.  So with £48k a year for housing alone, you are WELL above the game.  Meaning things a lot of people complain about won't affect you (living on top of each other for the most part). 

You'll probably be able to have a laundry ROOM!  A ROOM!

We are bringing a cat also - and just trying not to think about limited availability of rentals with a pet.  Is it tough to find those that are willing to accept cats in general?    And do all your cats go outdoors there?  Assuming it's impossible to keep them in with no window screens...Our kitty has always been indoors, but we live with lots of wildlife out there (bobcats, foxes, etc). 

The flour is different??  I didn't bake much when I lived there before but love to now.  Any tips on the difference? 

 I'm already trying to figure out how to get ingredients for Mexican food into my shipment - and/or use as an admission charge to stay in our guest room   

We are bringing a cat also - and just trying not to think about limited availability of rentals with a pet.  Is it tough to find those that are willing to accept cats in general?    And do all your cats go outdoors there?  Assuming it's impossible to keep them in with no window screens...Our kitty has always been indoors, but we live with lots of wildlife out there (bobcats, foxes, etc). 

The flour is different??  I didn't bake much when I lived there before but love to now.  Any tips on the difference? 

 I'm already trying to figure out how to get ingredients for Mexican food into my shipment - and/or use as an admission charge to stay in our guest room   

My kitty, George, never goes outside. No screens but the windows lock slightly open so no escaping. Too much traffic and loose dogs for me to just let him roam. Statistics say that 25% of cats let out here die from being hit by cars. Sooooo, he is an indoor putty tat.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

My kitty, George, never goes outside. No screens but the windows lock slightly open so no escaping. Too much traffic and loose dogs for me to just let him roam. Statistics say that 25% of cats let out here die from being hit by cars. Sooooo, he is an indoor putty tat.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yeah, no way I would let Pedro Felix out either. Too many cars and we live in the city centre.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

We are bringing a cat also - and just trying not to think about limited availability of rentals with a pet.  Is it tough to find those that are willing to accept cats in general?    And do all your cats go outdoors there?  Assuming it's impossible to keep them in with no window screens...Our kitty has always been indoors, but we live with lots of wildlife out there (bobcats, foxes, etc). 

The flour is different??  I didn't bake much when I lived there before but love to now.  Any tips on the difference? 

My cat(s) have always been 100% indoors and nit gone out a window.  My boy cat did sneak out about 4 months after moving here but was found MANY hours later after he ran inside my neighbors kitchen.  My garden is secure and on the rare sunny day, the kitties will appear outside for a pet if we are outside.  Happiest inside though.

 I'm already trying to figure out how to get ingredients for Mexican food into my shipment - and/or use as an admission charge to stay in our guest room   

I will pay to stay in the guest room if it includes Mexican food.

Yeah, the market is more limited with pets but you *will* find places that allow pets. 

No tips on flour.
1.  I don’t bake because
2.  My husband is Coeliac so we use alternative flours for thickening stews etc

We are bringing a cat also - and just trying not to think about limited availability of rentals with a pet.  Is it tough to find those that are willing to accept cats in general?    And do all your cats go outdoors there?  Assuming it's impossible to keep them in with no window screens...Our kitty has always been indoors, but we live with lots of wildlife out there (bobcats, foxes, etc). 

Even if a listing specifies no pets, it's always worth while asking, they may be willing to be flexible.

The indoor/outdoor thing can be quite a divisive issue here. I'm firmly in the indoor only camp. There is not a day goes by that I don't see a missing/dead cat post from my local shelters on Facebook.

There are just too many risks, and terrifyingly you can add poisonings and mutilations to all the usual ones.

Glad to know some of you manage to keep the kitty indoors - that would be our hope as he's never ever been out!  Now to figure out the process of moving him over...

We are bringing a cat also - and just trying not to think about limited availability of rentals with a pet.  Is it tough to find those that are willing to accept cats in general?    And do all your cats go outdoors there?  Assuming it's impossible to keep them in with no window screens...Our kitty has always been indoors, but we live with lots of wildlife out there (bobcats, foxes, etc). 

The flour is different??  I didn't bake much when I lived there before but love to now.  Any tips on the difference? 

 I'm already trying to figure out how to get ingredients for Mexican food into my shipment - and/or use as an admission charge to stay in our guest room   

It can be harder but it's definitely not impossible by any means (just remember that less options doesn't mean no options). Even if a property is listed as no pets on Rightmove, you're best served asking the question anyways and if you were in rented accommodation before, maybe getting a "letter of recommendation" from your past landlord to say that you've left the place as you moved in (if you owned your previous home, obviously that won't apply). Previously, landlords would have likely asked for additional deposit for a pet but I'm not sure if new changes to laws will put new rules and regs around this (and could make it more or less difficult). Many of the times, the properties will automatically be listed as "no pets" even if the landlord would be open to the idea so it's always worth asking.

Don't have a cat but there are a lot of outdoor cats around me (there are foxes, deer, and other wildlife but it actually seems the most damage done to cats nearby to me seems to be by sick individuals with bb guns unfortunately ). Personally, if I had a cat, I would probably just make it an indoor cat as it's the only way to ensure your cat will definitely be safe but you have to do what works best for you (definitely get your cat microchipped if you haven't already and intend for it to be an outdoor cat).

I don't notice difference with flour (there are different types of flour, but the plain flour I've never noticed a difference with)...but then there are other items (like vanilla extract) that everybody else says is quite different but I've not noticed so take that with a pinch of salt LOL