Southampton and the Isle of Wight -- tell me about it

[joy of essex]

Ocean Village is exactly where I might be headed for .  You have described it perfectly, but  missed out the nearby  Spoons .

I must confess that Southampton and its docks rather reminded me of Liverpool. They have a similar history.

The long term plan  is that  we (the GLW & I )  mostly  live  & work in Ventnor   whilst recognising  that we , probably me, will also  need to working in London   for some of the time. Though I am  trying to see if I can get  work in the NHS bureaucracy on the Island.

[Wombat]

Ah, well I would miss out the Spoons, 'cos I'm not a fan of them.  Cosy country pubs are more my sort of thing, I'm not keen on cities at all.

You do realise that if you go to live in IOW, then you'll have to marry your sister?  That's the usual sort of "jokey" comment made about IOW folk.  Make sure you really have checked out the costs of living in IOW (getting stuff delivered has extra costs, for example) and of the necessary travelling to "civilisation".  We get a bit of that in rural Powys, as any shopping involves a fair bit of travel.  We got given some M&S vouchers for Christmas, now where the hell is the nearest M&S?  Probably not in Wales, and not within 50 miles.  I also got sent a cheque by a company which does have my bank details.  Yeah, thanks for that, now I have to travel to Shrewsbury to bank it...

I don't have a huge experience of IOW, other than many years ago, regularly travelling there for work, usually by hoovercraft.  Of course, Southampton is pretty well the birthplace of such technology and where they are still built (Griffin Hoverwork), and I'm old enough to remember SRN1 being tested, off Netley beach.

[Jaded]

You can post cheques to your bank - I've been doing that for many years.

[Jaded]

The NHS on the IoW is interesting - having to provide District General services* for a population that would be considered too small on the mainland.

* Because of the isolation by road

[joy of essex]

Re Marriage - I  come from Norfolk. I know  what is normal

Yes, speaking to a colleague about the Island and didn't realise the population was that small.

 If that was  a DGH in London then there would be "Plans"  for it.