2022 Country of Living: England in Nantwich, Cheshire.

A big year for us with our moving out of London to “remote” Cheshire, a small Roman town called “Nantwich” which is just south of Chester and about an hours drive from Manchester or a few minutes longer to Liverpool. It is a 3 1/2 hour drive from London. We moved ourselves, renting the biggest truck I could legally drive and packing/unpacking it on the same, very long, February 1st. A friend helped us, thankfully, with the loading. We did not really know how much stuff we had until we had to move it…We both took a couple of weeks off at this time to take care of it all which was a good call as it was quite a lot of effort.

The new house (it is only five years old) is quite large with three bedrooms and has a garage, a far cry from our small old flat in Chiswick.

Mel has done very well with her dog grooming starting up her own business “Paws a While”. She shares a shop in in a small cobbled yard in Nantwich and really enjoys it.

Amongst all of this I worked on my UK citizenship which I was granted just before Christmas. It took some doing with a lot of paperwork (and money) but I think it will be useful. I will keep my Canadian citizenship so now carry two passports.

Ramping up travel again this year. For half of the year we still had a residential parking permit for London so we took advantage of that, driving into the city and parking the car a few times.

• February - Was in London to visit the “International Stamp Exhibition”
• March - Trip to London for work, then day trip to Manchester for a film.
• April - Another work trip to London and another day trip to Manchester for lunch with a friend.
• May - Spent a week in the lake district staying in a log cabin with mother then a few days in London the following week.

• July - Visited the York, North Yorkshire “Stamp and Coin Fair” and the wonderful (York) Railway Museum.
• August - Returned for a day trip to London to see Sister Act then we had a long weekend in Cricceith, GwyneddNorth Wales.
• September - Returned to London for the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II where we stood near where to used to live in Hammersmith to watch her coffin travel from London to Windsor. Later in the month I returned to London for another work meet-up.

• October - Returned to Canada for a brief visit with friends and family in Ontario and Manitoba (Mel travelled onto Alberta as well).
• November - Visit to Birmingham to see their German Christmas Market.
• December - Early in the month I was in London again for work but between Christmas and New Years Mel and I returned to London to see the lights, visit with friends, see a show, visit the annual “Winter Wonderland” in Hyde Park and have some nice meals.

Mother came to visit in May for a couple of weeks (see above). This was her first time since lock down.

Most events confined to the north but we have still managed a few in London and the south as well.

There is a small Odeon in nearby Crewe so we still manage to see a few films…

Working our way through the dining options here in Nantwich and the area…

We have a trip to Egypt set for March which is basically our first real “holiday” in many years with all of our other travel either being for family or short trips here and there in the UK.

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Visit here for my review of 2021.