Actually Darren, the article linked to in the post says that house prices and the cost of living here are much lower than the national average. Unfortunately so are salaries and mine is even lower than that! I think it’s worth the sacrifice though.

Al.

I guess it’s a bit like marmite here… you’ll either love it or hate it. We clearly love it and hopefully you will too.

What will your husband be doing at the uni? Anna and I both came here to do a degree, couldn’t bear to leave so stayed on to do PhD’s and then still wanted to stay so ended up working at the uni. Anna still works there.

It’s a lovely place to live, great scenery, a nice friendly atmosphere and a fairly close knit community that is large enough to not feel claustrophobic. Because of the university it is fairly cosmopolitan for somewhere so far from anywhere else as well.

To answer some of your specific questions though…

1. The weather is very welsh, although it is drier and sunnier here on the coast than it is inland, and warmer in the winter too.

2. People typically do whatever they want. It’s beg enough that there will be others interested in whatever it is you want to do as well.

3. Meeting and making friends probably depends on you really, but having connections at the university which is the biggest employer here will help.

4. The rental market is pretty good both in town and in the surrounding areas, so you shouldn’t have too many issues there.

5. All the schools are good, we’re lucky in that respect. There isn’t much choice when it comes to secondary schools other than between first language Welsh or English, but both are good.

Al.