We moved to Macclesfield at the begining of September 2004. Beth was offered a job with AstraZeneca that was too good to turn down & I was planning on becoming self employed, so it seemed like a good idea to move.
I must admit that I wasn't keen on the idea. Firstly, I've never lived in the north. And when I say that you must understand that I consider anything beyond the Thames to be north. South of England, South of London, South of Bristol - I've always been south.
Another reason was that Macclesfield sounded like a pretty grotty place. I'd never been there but it sounded bad. After consideration I realised this wasn't fair. Croydon sounds bad and has a bad reputation (which isn't without an element of truth) but I would be upset if people judged it by that. So we took the plunge....
A few things suprised me. No passports are required to move north. You don't get nosebleeds when going that far up the country. And they don't all speak funny.
Macclesfield is a fantastic place. It's 30 minutes from Manchester which is perfect for work, and is very cool for night life. The peak district is less that 3 miles away and the running, walking and cycling I've been doing here is the best that I've experienced. At the moment I don't think it's got many downsides, apart from the lack of decent beer.
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