It is a very bid decision, and not at all one that we have taken lightly - even, perhaps, willingly! - but we have decided to move to the Isle of Man. Since it is going to define the rest of Finn & Orry's lives, it is probably worthwhile going into the detail of the decision and why we've taken it...
Firstly, it is important that we are not done with London.
A staple reaction of those, both within and without London, to the news of getting out of the City is that "it will be great for the boys" or that we've "done our time" in the City and are therefore ripe to "get out." All of this is, to me, nonsense.
"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life" Samuel Johnson said (Google informs me), but I would rather it was: "When a person is tired of London, they're an idiot."
London is, we adults of this household agree, one of the best possible places to bring up children. It is an exciting multicultural environment full of opportunities, both to grow as a person and to make the most of in a way impossible anywhere else in the UK. We are within 30 minutes of everything in central London, by bike or bus: some of the world's best parks, theatres, cinemas, and galleries; the central places of politics, protest, history, art and literature within the UK. It is full of the most vivid and thriving mix of people possible, with the most open-minded and (to us) "progressive" mindset in the UK. To be able to bring up children within this environment and to make the most of it would be to give them the best possible setting in which to become open-minded, liberal, fully-rounded individuals and good people. We could wish for nothing better for our children.
We are not "done" with London, and nor do we think that it is in some way a poor place to bring up children in - that would be mad.
In addition to this, Cori has The Perfect Job; having free reign of the archaeological archive of London to take out and engage children and families with. Roman brooches, Viking poos, Medieval pornography, Shakespearean boots etc. And with people who she gets on with, and under management who trust her, see what she has to offer and encourage her to make the most of it. It is the only job of its type in London, and it is a job that she is perfectly suited for, and which is perfectly suited for her.
There are plenty of other reasons to stay in London: closeness to Europe/travel, friend networks, good school lined up for Finn, good nursery for Orry, easy and stress-free commutes, etc. And we were well aware of all of them.
But we've decided to move.
The main factor, of course, is my new job.
It is a job, in the literature and culture of the Isle of Man, which I had been effectively working towards for years. It is a perfect job for me, and one which I had long seen was the only job that I could imagine caring about or not feeling decrepit in.
I had almost given up hope of the one job becoming available in the one organisation that might offer it, and then it came up, and of course I applied, interview, and got offered the job... Which rather left us with a Big Discussion to be had!
Things had been horribly rushed before the interview - not least because all of my time was used up preparing for a job interview! We found time to pre-discuss the decision before I left, doing the hard economics of the thing and working out what could and what could not work for us. We decided the conditions on which I would say "yes", and those under which I would say "no" to the job. Thus armed I was able to be utterly floundered when the job offer came, in the bracket that the pre-interview-agreements meant should have been turned down. But I didn't want to turn it down.
I was, very reasonably and generously, given a few days to think it over and get back to them. This meant that, with the flight back to London, Cori and I had one hour only in which to discuss it, between dropping off the children at nursery and the 9am deadline.
I have never dropped them off so promptly at 8am!
We talked about it, weighing up the pros and cons, all of which stood just as they had done before the offer of the job, but faced with the question of what I wanted to do, I could only say that I wanted to move to the Isle of Man, for all of the lists of reasons weighing for the alternative decision.
It was undoubtedly an overtly selfish decision, as it was only my case that pushed for the Isle of Man, not Finn's, Orry's or Cori's. But there has not been another job for me in London over the past 9 years, and I can not imagine there ever being one about which I cared. Spending your life doing something you don't care about, or doing something about which you care a great deal, was the decision.
And this was the decision that we took, at around 8.55am, with not a little crying over the things which we were all giving up for the decision.
There is, it should be said, not nothing on offer on the Isle of Man - not by a long way. Family and friends, of course, a wider family to bring up the children in, the promise of greater freedom and a community-led childhood as I experienced, involvement in the life of a place and putting down true roots into a place, the possibility of making a difference to a place etc. There is a lot to be excited about with the move. And, of course, the countryside, the (Manx) culture, the sea, the hills etc.
There is a lot that we don't know about things at the moment, but, now that the decision is made, they are fast moving from problems into being challenges: Cori's job, how are we going to rent the flat out, where are we to live in the Isle of Man, how do we move, what school is Finn to go to, etc. Challenges can be difficult, but often exciting and rewarding (we tell ourselves).
We have a lot ahead of us, but we hope that, together, we can do it, and make the most of it. Make it into something good, just as we did in making our London into something good too.
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