# Working in Surrey



## peacefuljourney (May 16, 2008)

Greetings. I will be relocating to the UK to teach in Surrey. I have a 12-year-old son. I'm looking for housing to resnt for the first year or so. Does anyone have any thoughts on possible areas that are not overwhelmingly expensive, but pleasant enough for a 12 year old to feel comfortable but not bored? That's a conundrum! Thanks for the advice.


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## MichelleAlison (Aug 25, 2007)

Have a lookat this link for housing Properties for sale, homes to rent, overseas property, retirement properties and new homes on rightmove.co.uk. The website covers the whole of the UK.

Regards

Michelle


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## Elphaba (Jan 24, 2008)

Whereabouts in Surrey? It is a fairly large county and you don't want to be spending too much time travelling to & from work.

From an ex-Surrey resident 

-


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## peacefuljourney (May 16, 2008)

I'll be teaching in the Cobham area. My biggest concerns are cost of housing and proximity to the metro. Thanks


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## jlms (May 15, 2008)

*Surrey's public transport is not that good.*



peacefuljourney said:


> I'll be teaching in the Cobham area. My biggest concerns are cost of housing and proximity to the metro. Thanks


IMHO you could not do any better than to try to live in the town where you are going to work, unfortunately I don't know Cobham, having said that Surrey is a well off area and in general is good to raise children. You may be bored to death, your town or village may not have a cinema and if it does you will have only commercial movies, in general there is no real cultural life to speak off, but if that is not a worry you should be fine, in any case London is half an hour away  but for children is not too bad since there are plenty of leisure centres and green areas .

Second best is to live in another town that is in the same train line as the one where you work. Check the train company's timetables (South West Trains) to see trains that would pass through Cobham for alternative places where to house hunt.

In Surrey there is no metro, there are trains with stops normally quite far from each other and buses, with a varying degree of reliability, most people rely on a car, specially if they live in a small village, although nowadays you can order your shopping delivered to your door from all major supermarkets and if you are disciplined you can get some use from the buses, but the fact that they are used mostly by pensioners, children and people in low incomes should tell you that a bus, regrettably, is not the best means of transport for busy people living in Surrey.

Hope this helps.


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## peacefuljourney (May 16, 2008)

*Thanks for the help*

Thanks for the responses. I appreciate the assistance. PJ


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## Elphaba (Jan 24, 2008)

peacefuljourney said:


> I'll be teaching in the Cobham area. My biggest concerns are cost of housing and proximity to the metro. Thanks



Cobham is nice. The nearest big town is Woking, which has cheaper housing and a fairly fast train service to Central London. Woking has a decent enough range of shops, a cinema and a theatre.

Traffic in the area can be fairly heavy, so I would recommend living as close to work as possible. By metro do you mean underground? It is way too far out for that, but there are many train stations in the area.

Overall it is a good area, although fairly expensive. Not a bad place to live or bring up children.  

Good luck with your move. Let me know if you'd like some info on places to see and visit in the area. 

-


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## peacefuljourney (May 16, 2008)

Elphaba - I noticed you're @ Dubai? I'm @ Abu Dhabi. Small world. "Metro" I mean train, rail, anything other than the bus! Elphaba, from "Wicked"? Thanks - PJ


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## Elphaba (Jan 24, 2008)

Indeed Elphaba from Wicked. One of my all time favourite books.


If you are in Abu Dhabi, I am sure you could help us out on the Dubai & UAE forum. There are often people wanting to know abut AD. Please pop in sometime.


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## peacefuljourney (May 16, 2008)

*Lovely London?*



Elphaba said:


> Indeed Elphaba from Wicked. One of my all time favourite books.
> 
> 
> If you are in Abu Dhabi, I am sure you could help us out on the Dubai & UAE forum. There are often people wanting to know abut AD. Please pop in sometime.


Hey - I don't think that you want me to give my "honest opinion" on Dubai or Abu Dhabi! For real for real. I have had an experience and I dont want to be negative on such a public forum.But I will, if it will be helpful. I want to be positive. Which brings me to my next point. I'm more than concerned about moving to Greater London now, after reading the posts and reading other sites. It seems to me that there are not many people who actually like, really like, living there. I read more negative posts about the UK than positive ones. Between reading about the crime and the weather and the high prices, I get the impression that I don't want to move there, especially with my pre-teen as a single parent. What are some positive, uplifting things about Greater London that I can look forward to? I understand that I will be paying 1/3 or more of my salary in taxes; that I will be paying an exorbitant amount for utilities and all that. I pay nothing here in Abu Dhabi - but I'm leaving regardless. That means something. I certainly am not naive, being originally from the 5th largest city in the US, but certainly someone can offer some encouragement? Personally, every time I've visited London, including the time when I lived in Paris, I had nothing but a postive experience. Even when British Airways lost our luggage, when I went to London for my interviews and attended all of the interviews in a hoodie, sweats and Adidas. Even then, I had a good experience. Who can give me encouragement from the land of 1,000 rains? Best, PJ


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## MichelleAlison (Aug 25, 2007)

peacefuljourney said:


> Hey - I don't think that you want me to give my "honest opinion" on Dubai or Abu Dhabi! For real for real. I have had an experience and I dont want to be negative on such a public forum.But I will, if it will be helpful. I want to be positive. Which brings me to my next point. I'm more than concerned about moving to Greater London now, after reading the posts and reading other sites. It seems to me that there are not many people who actually like, really like, living there. I read more negative posts about the UK than positive ones. Between reading about the crime and the weather and the high prices, I get the impression that I don't want to move there, especially with my pre-teen as a single parent. What are some positive, uplifting things about Greater London that I can look forward to? I understand that I will be paying 1/3 or more of my salary in taxes; that I will be paying an exorbitant amount for utilities and all that. I pay nothing here in Abu Dhabi - but I'm leaving regardless. That means something. I certainly am not naive, being originally from the 5th largest city in the US, but certainly someone can offer some encouragement? Personally, every time I've visited London, including the time when I lived in Paris, I had nothing but a postive experience. Even when British Airways lost our luggage, when I went to London for my interviews and attended all of the interviews in a hoodie, sweats and Adidas. Even then, I had a good experience. Who can give me encouragement from the land of 1,000 rains? Best, PJ


Sorry, but I even read recently that the immigrants are now leaving as they have also had enough. It doesn't say a lot for a country when the immigrants are prepared to go back to Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Obviously, we shouldn't believe verything we read in the paper, but sometimes it does brighten up your day. 

Michelle


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## Ogri750 (Feb 14, 2008)

You'll find plenty to do and see, have no fear.

If you will be living in Surrey, you'll be able to catch a train with your son (cheaper at weekends), go to central London, and just for one idea, head over towards Kensington.

Natural History Museum
Science Museum
V&A Museum (Victoria & Albert)
British Museum

You could spend hours in each one of those, and they are all free.

Numerous parks, changing the guard, do a visit around the houses of parliament, big ben

Believe me, plenty to do, that doesn't cost the earth


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## jlms (May 15, 2008)

*People are unjustifiably too negative about London*



peacefuljourney said:


> Hey - I don't think that you want me to give my "honest opinion" on Dubai or Abu Dhabi! For real for real. I have had an experience and I dont want to be negative on such a public forum.But I will, if it will be helpful. I want to be positive. Which brings me to my next point. I'm more than concerned about moving to Greater London now, after reading the posts and reading other sites. It seems to me that there are not many people who actually like, really like, living there. I read more negative posts about the UK than positive ones. Between reading about the crime and the weather and the high prices, I get the impression that I don't want to move there, especially with my pre-teen as a single parent. What are some positive, uplifting things about Greater London that I can look forward to? I understand that I will be paying 1/3 or more of my salary in taxes; that I will be paying an exorbitant amount for utilities and all that. I pay nothing here in Abu Dhabi - but I'm leaving regardless. That means something. I certainly am not naive, being originally from the 5th largest city in the US, but certainly someone can offer some encouragement? Personally, every time I've visited London, including the time when I lived in Paris, I had nothing but a postive experience. Even when British Airways lost our luggage, when I went to London for my interviews and attended all of the interviews in a hoodie, sweats and Adidas. Even then, I had a good experience. Who can give me encouragement from the land of 1,000 rains? Best, PJ


First you have the media. They feed from bad news and the people fall for it. I have lived in places where crime is a real issue (back home my mum was kidnapped in one occasion, my brother was robbed at gun point by a gang, I myself was robbed a couple of times) and I can tell you that London's crime problems are nothing as serious. Londoners in particular, and Brits in general just don't understand how good they have it and have a stupid tendency to concentrate too much in the negatives.

Crime by all credible statistics is falling, but you can show this to most people and they will still insist that crime is an issue. You can do precious little against baseless stubbornness! As in any big town, if you are sensible you will be OK. 

If London was such a bad place you would not have people setting home here from all around the world. Maybe native English people resent a bit that the capital city is so different from the rest of the country (drive out of London and then you understand what to be a foreigner is, specially if you are not of North European descent), but if you are open minded, I can't think of few more exciting places than London to be.

It is certainly expensive, no question about it, but still you have 8 million people here, not all of whom are mega rich Russian oligarchs. To be fair people like teachers and nurses are finding difficult to find affordable housing in London, at the end you have to make your sums and see if things add up.

As for the weather, what is the problem? It is mild compared to the rest of the country, you have 4 proper seasons, the summer is not unbearably hot (unlike parts of Spain or Italy), the winter is not cold (you rarely go below 0 degrees C, unlike Germany, France or Scotland!), it may be cloudy often, and during the winter it gets dark early, but I prefer that compared to the tropical humid hot water in places like Malaysia or Singapore. Horses for courses, but it is not as bad as some people would make you believe.

Certainly raising a child on your own is a challenge, and maybe inner London may present special problems, but it must not be as bad as the getthoized culture in some US cities, although problematic hot spots for young people do exist and you should make your homework before settling for a given place.

London is awash with culture and entertainment, peaceful countryside retreats are always a short train ride away, you can see movies from all around the world, the best theatre in the English speaking world, food from everywhere (that you can prepare yourself by going to the myriad of speciality supermarkets and buying the ingredients, if dinning out for a fiver a head proves too expensive).

Argh! I really don't understand what is the bad vibe about London, if people don't like it they must leave and leave it for us, most appreciative people....


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## Elphaba (Jan 24, 2008)

I still love London. Before moving to the UAE, I worked in Central London for 11 years and lived in Surrey (Surbiton/Wimbledon way). It is still a nice part of the UK and London is an amazing city.

London has incredible architecture and fantastic history. A plethora of art galleries and museums, most of which are free to visit. On a nice day, you can walk miles across London and see so much of interest. Yes, it is expensive, yes it's a bit dirty, but there are far worse places to love. If you like theatre, opera, live music and dance - you are spoiled for choice.

Whilst parts of Surrey are pure suburbia, much of it is still very open and green. Probably at its best this time of year too. If you like walking, get some maps and you can walk through beautiful countryside for miles on public footpaths. 

There is crime in London & Surrey, but again it varies depending on the areas. You just have to be rather more street-savvy than you have been in Abu Dhabi. 

I think there is a lot of negativity on this forum about the UK, but those from there left for there wn reasons and those that want to leave are working up the nerve to do so. Please don't take much notice of the Daily Mail as it is a negative papers with a very anti-immigrant slant. No town/city.county is perfect, the UK certainly isn't, but it isn't all bad either. You will like the lovely pleasant summer days, pretty villages, beautiful buildings and humour in adversity. Generally non-aggressive driving will be a pleasure too!

Before anyone asks me why I left, it is because it was time to do something else with my life. I moved around a lot as a child, including overseas, so I wanted a different lifestyle. I didn't leave because I hated the UK.


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## Big Pete (Aug 7, 2007)

jlms said:


> First you have the media. They feed from bad news and the people fall for it. I have lived in places where crime is a real issue *(back home my mum was kidnapped in one occasion, my brother was robbed at gun point by a gang, I myself was robbed a couple of times) *and I can tell you that London's crime problems are nothing as serious. Londoners in particular, and Brits in general just don't understand how good they have it and have a stupid tendency to concentrate too much in the negatives.
> 
> Crime by all credible statistics is falling, but you can show this to most people and they will still insist that crime is an issue. You can do precious little against baseless stubbornness! As in any big town, if you are sensible you will be OK.
> 
> ...


 

 a Fiver ....

no wonder he loves London


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## jlms (May 15, 2008)

*Takeaways.*



Big Pete said:


> a Fiver ....
> 
> no wonder he loves London


Try them. They are good for you.


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## Big Pete (Aug 7, 2007)

jlms said:


> Try them. They are good for you.


I know i use them all the time , we have 2 McDonalds near me


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## jlms (May 15, 2008)

*Oh, go on!*



Big Pete said:


> I know i use them all the time , we have 2 McDonalds near me


You can get a nice Chinese, Indian, Caribbean or many other types of food for relatively little (OK, you can't beat a cheap burger, but it is not what I had in mind!).


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