New pad

So this weekend I had the opportunity to take a look around some of my short listed areas for living in. Ruislip and Eastcote both seemed very pleasant. Both fairly quiet middle class suburban places and both eminently commutable to my new place of work. I think I could settle for either without too much upheaval.

Both are pretty much twenty minutes or so drive from where I live at the moment and aside from being a little closer to London proper are pretty much a comparable replication of where I am living at the moment; quiet, white, middle class suburbia. They are also within what I suppose I am going to have to settle for in terms of commuting time and distance. However, neither locations left me feeling particularly excited about the prospect of moving there. It just seems really, well, bland.

South Harrow was also short listed and I visited there too. It is a lot more urban and has much more of a London feel to it. It was also a bit grimy and certainly more than a little worn around the edges. It would certainly be a more interesting place to live I think but also possibly a little too much on the grimy and urban side of things for my general preferences.

I haven’t investigated Maidenhead at the moment but I know the town vaguely and could possibly picture myself living there, more so than anywhere else I have looked at thus far. The commute would be different from here, being a longer train journey but travelling more directly into Ealing Broadway train station. I am going to have a look around Maidenhead estate agents windows this afternoon (I have today off work).

What I would really like is to ‘test drive’ all of these places for a little while to see which one I liked however have neither the time or money so I am going to be committing for at least six months if not a year and want to get it right. However, I think when I start looking properly the situation is going to be forced upon me when I actually start looking around individual flats. Lets face it, what I really want is a flat with a short commute, decent sized living room, space in the kitchen for a washing machine and a dish washer, a power shower and off street parking.