I moved from Northcote to Woodend. After being an inner-city girl for 15 years and treading all the sticky carpet pubs in town, my friends thought I'd gone completely mental because I was a real city girl.

We had several reasons for moving. I didn't drive in the city and with two kids my unwillingness to drive was going to be a problem. Getting used to driving here was a doddle by comparison and I love it. Secondly, to move to a bigger house in the city would have meant a bigger mortgage (and would have meant me going back to work at least part-time) whereas moving here meant no mortgage and money leftover in the bank. I never have to work again if I don't want to but it will also give me the freedom to try to forge a freelance writing career. Personally, I grew up in a country town and bringing children up here 'feels right'. In the city, I couldn't get my head around taking DD for a walk and being surrounded by traffic and people.

Having said all that, we moved to a part of Victoria that is very popular for treechangers. MOST of the people I meet at the playground here have moved from Melbourne very recently. And the food and coffee is much better than it was in the city. Yes, I know those are superficial things but they've made me extremely smug about my move. Had we moved to an area without decent food and coffee and where we were the only treechangers, I think I may not have been as delighted as I have been.

I said to an old friend the other day, that we'd actually like to be on a bigger block. We moved from a block of 250sqm in Northcote to 3000sqm here and now we'd like a few acres. He almost fell off his chair and said, "who are you?"

Honestly, I'm completely and utterly thrilled that we moved.