19 replies to this topic

[Black.Ghost]

 

I recently moved from Bourbemouth to Sandy. Me and the girlfriend aren't really enjoying it greatly the house is great and having a garage is good. But I'm not enjoying my job and unlike Bourbemouth town centre, there is nothing going on here.

I feel like this is a half way step. Id like either rural or city obviously for different reasons but in the middle is not for me. Stuck in suburbia doing a 9-5 job is going to kill me.

I'm sure Devon will be great. Are you going to be far from the coast? We were a 5 minute walk in Bournemouth and loved it.

Good luck with the move and I hope the mini is spot on for the drive.

I like Sandy. I lived in Langford, near Biggleswade for 7 years.

In fact I'm driving right past Sandy tomorrow on my way to pick up a friend from Heathrow.

There are lots of things to do in and around Sandy. Bedford is near, as are Stevenage & Hitchin. Lots of great restaurants and some super country pubs.

Cambridge is about 20 miles down the A603 with all that has to offer. If you like boats the River Ouse is a couple of miles up the road.

Also it's not far to Mini Spares and Gary, who runs the shop there, also lives in Sandy, so you have Mini-mad neighbours and a free delivery man for urgent parts, if you ask nicely!

 

Yeah the area is nice enough, its just a bit of a come down from Bournemouth! I did my phase 2 training in the Army at Chicksands, in Shefford so know the area a little from that. It does have the advantage that it remains fairly easy to keep in touch with army mates when the pass through the area. 

 

As for MiniSpares, I have already been down there once but I had no idea the guy running it lived in Sandy! Might have to get in touch with him now I know. I passed a guy the other day who was in a Moke and lives just around the corner so he pulled over, I swung around the roundabout and when and had a bit of chat with him. I have his contact details and now with Gary as well, might try and organise a local run or two, sample one or two of those country pubs. The only problem of course, driving does limit what can be sampled at said pubs somewhat. 

[Cooperman]

My good friend Chris Spennewyn, who is a Mini restoration guy, has his business on the A600 between Hitchin & Henlow Camp.

 

If you need a good and reliable garage for work on modern cars, or especially for MoT's on Minis, ASG in Biggleswade are excellent. Stuart, who owns it is a Mini enthusiast and a really nice guy. Very honest and top quality work. I take my BMW's there and he always does the MoT on my Minis. He is a Bosch Service Centre. 

[(philip)]

Well it all went quite smoothly. An issue with my mini yet to be resolved but a friendly chap on a tractor came to the rescue last week!

 

Not missing London yet. Sleeping about 2 hours a night more, it's so dark and quiet. Still working in London for the next 2 weeks anyway.

 

Within about 48hrs the whole village had come and said hello, armed with cake or wine. In almost a decade in London I couldn't tell you the names of my closest neighbours.

 

Looking forward to a quieter life here in Devon.

 

From manic London to this.....

 

Edited by (philip), 07 September 2014 - 08:39 AM.

[jamesmpi]

Excellent. Glad all went well

[Black.Ghost]

Apologies for the thread revival (I was looking for something else), but two years on, how is it going? Still enjoying living there, or have you packed it in and gone back to London?

 

We might well end up in London soon ourselves. We now have a little one and have realised even more that Sandy is quite boring! We (especially the missus) would like a lot more stuff to do within walking distance (or a quick tube journey at least). London seems to fill a lot of the criteria that we want, although Manchester might work as well *I'm a United fan so that would be a bonus).