The countdown begins............

My flat will go onto the market this week - finally. After days of reshaping, scrubbing and hiding the worst bits, it is now ready. Estate agent chosen, market price agreed on, fairly satisfactory one considering the state of the sellers market it is good to go.

And I am more than ready too.

I can't look back with any regrets, it has been a good flat and a happy one. I have changed enormously within these walls but as all good things must come to an end, so must this chapter of my life.

I have hankered after a more sustainable, country, green, make-do-and-mend life for years now and I am proud of myself for having the guts to finally leave the city in which I have lived for the last 19 years, move 200 miles North to the wonderful countryside North of Manchester, and begin to slowly put my dream future into practice. Finally we are here.

Of course, that is assuming that my flat doesn't sit on a dead market for the next 15 months.....

Now that I am at this point, I have allowed myself to look at the possibly properties I can afford with a very very small mortgage in East Lancashire. It is a thrilling amount after the shoebox you get in London for twice the price. It is weird though, in a way I look at the house as secondary, my gaze instantly falls on the photos of the garden - how much garden can I get? I feel like I am buying a garden with a small house attached. OK, sure, I have a limited budget, who doesn't. Part of the dream of self-sufficiency comes with not tying myself into huge debts with a huge mortgage (being self-employed, this would be impossible anyway as mortgage lenders tend to laugh when I approach - which is annoying, as I have never had an unpaid debt in my life or missed a mortgage payment - anyway that particular gripe is a huge subject for another post one day, damn you, bankers). I am hoping to be mortgage free within the next 8 years, maybe less if I can seriously live on less and less. Not bad going for someone who has never earned more than £18000 before tax in a year.

So, do I have the cajones for the move? Will I make new friends? Will it all work? Well, unless I grab the chance now, I will never know the answer to these questions. Will I miss things here in London? Doubt it. Yes, of course I will miss some friends that I see on a very regular basis, but as we all approach 40, our lives are all changing, people are moving away, people are fed up with this aggressive, overpriced, overpopulated city. So, yes, my cajones are melons.

And so there ends the post........for now.