Honest Advice from those returning from Canada
#31
Re: Honest Advice from those returning from Canada
I disagree. I think removing the relative comforts of home and substituting grrinding poverty is an effective motivation technique.
#32
Banned
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 38
Re: Honest Advice from those returning from Canada
The always want more money, bigger house, better weather and this and that.
Perhaps life is so easy in the UK that we get bored here and want to try a struggle somewhere else. I certainly fell as if nothing happens in the UK, most people hit the TV and the take away after sitting all day in an office and then sitting all the way home in a car or on a commuter train.
oh no, look I have turned all British...
One thing though, it doesnt matter where a person live, it is about how they feel about themselves.
#33
Account Closed
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 7,284
Re: Honest Advice from those returning from Canada
My British collegues told me that it is quite British to always finds something to complain about, no matter if I work with British collegues in London, Vienna or Paris.
The always want more money, bigger house, better weather and this and that.
Perhaps life is so easy in the UK that we get bored here and want to try a struggle somewhere else. I certainly fell as if nothing happens in the UK, most people hit the TV and the take away after sitting all day in an office and then sitting all the way home in a car or on a commuter train.
oh no, look I have turned all British...
One thing though, it doesnt matter where a person live, it is about how they feel about themselves.
The always want more money, bigger house, better weather and this and that.
Perhaps life is so easy in the UK that we get bored here and want to try a struggle somewhere else. I certainly fell as if nothing happens in the UK, most people hit the TV and the take away after sitting all day in an office and then sitting all the way home in a car or on a commuter train.
oh no, look I have turned all British...
One thing though, it doesnt matter where a person live, it is about how they feel about themselves.
One of the most infuriating things I find in Canada is this belief that if its Canadian its automatically good, and no effort is made to improve. The laid back attitude is great when you are on holiday but makes you want to scream when you have to live with it.
#34
Re: Honest Advice from those returning from Canada
I first made more than $100,000 in 1986. Since then it's been $10,000/month + an annual bonus which has varied from zero to $150,000. Whether or not this is a lots of money is debateable. I don't have any money but then I have always strived to live like Charlie in Two and A Half Men.
So, what general lessons are there from all this?
- It is not a good idea for a man to divorce in Ontario. If you are a man and have the slighest doubt about the ability of your relationship to survive the stress of emigration go somewhere else.
- Socially North America is a place in which people are receptive to the disabled in a way in which they are not in the UK. Over twenty odd years I have taken an obviously deranged child, now physically adult, into thousands of restaurants all over Eastern Canada and the US and into very many hotels. We have experienced one incident of deliberate unpleasantness. We have been approached by countless strangers, "is that autism? My niece has ...".
- otoh government funded assistance to the disabled is limited in the extreme. If you have a child who has a long term condition such as autism, MS or cerebral palsy and don't have a lot of money to spend on it you're likely better off in the UK.
- Education costs a bundle here. I know there are now university fees in the UK but I suggest that they're a lot less than here. Unless you're willing to commit a lot of money to it or to see your child mired in debt you need them to be good at a sport; US schools offer scholarships for all sorts of sports; tennis, girls ice hockey, sailing. A good piece of advice we got when buying the first house was "aim to pay off the mortgage by the time the eldest child is 18 so you can mortgage the house for college".
- Ontario is a good base for selling into and/or working in the US. About 60% of my income comes from there (vs. 8% from Canada). The US market for everything is huge, the Canadian one not so much. The snag with this being that to make inroads into the US market you have to spend a lot of time in the US. Not everyone who moves to Canada wants to spend up to 260 nights a year in US hotel rooms.
#35
Re: Honest Advice from those returning from Canada
But that's what people do here. Typical people that is, not us, we go to bars.
#36
Banned
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 38
Re: Honest Advice from those returning from Canada
[QUOTE=fledermaus;6723708]Maybe British people complain because they can see that things could be better if only someone put some effort in. QUOTE]
Yeah maybe, I often find it comic how British people think they always knows best and how they can do things better, I have come across so many David Brent managers in the UK that I have lost count.
Still nothing works, train service, property market, educational system, immigration policy...but a bit of chaos always add some extra spice to life
...but only in Britain can you find the best humor and comedians on the planet...and as we all know...a good laugh...
Yeah maybe, I often find it comic how British people think they always knows best and how they can do things better, I have come across so many David Brent managers in the UK that I have lost count.
Still nothing works, train service, property market, educational system, immigration policy...but a bit of chaos always add some extra spice to life
...but only in Britain can you find the best humor and comedians on the planet...and as we all know...a good laugh...
#38
Re: Honest Advice from those returning from Canada
I would have thought cricket counted as a sport. Playing golf is, of course, an immoral act; a crime against the planet.
Unless you can move right to a ski resort in Canada, aren't you better placed to run, cycle and ski in the UK? There are some keen runners in this office but for four months of the year they have no place to do it.
#39
Banned
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 38
Re: Honest Advice from those returning from Canada
I would have thought cricket counted as a sport. Playing golf is, of course, an immoral act; a crime against the planet.
Unless you can move right to a ski resort in Canada, aren't you better placed to run, cycle and ski in the UK? There are some keen runners in this office but for four months of the year they have no place to do it.
Unless you can move right to a ski resort in Canada, aren't you better placed to run, cycle and ski in the UK? There are some keen runners in this office but for four months of the year they have no place to do it.
#40
Re: Honest Advice from those returning from Canada
running is brilliant, I normally run on golfcourses, they dont like it much especially when I go across the green (you would have thought that 9 stone lean runner would make less damage than an overwight golfer with spiked gold shoes) , but I wouldnt bike on the road rage roads of South East
#41
Forum Regular
Joined: Aug 2008
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 120
Re: Honest Advice from those returning from Canada
You may not have intended to come across that way, but your remark strikes me as patronizing.
I consider dbd33 to be successful, although I've never met him in "real life." It sounds as if he's made lots of money in Canada. Certainly, by the sounds of it, he's shelled out a fortune to his ex wife in the form of alimony, support payments, and what not. To have earned the sums he allegedly has paid her, on its own, makes him successful on the financial front, in my opinion.
He also has raised two daughters who are fluently bilingual, educated, well travelled, confident -- young adults who regard the world as their oyster.
Then there is his third daughter who is pretty severely autistic by the sounds of it. Sharing in the support and care of her is another heroic achievement (and an ongoing, never-ending one at that), I would say.
Dbd33 came to Canada when he was young. We don't know what degree of success he might have enjoyed if he'd stayed in the UK.
But then I may have misunderstood what you intended to say.
x
I consider dbd33 to be successful, although I've never met him in "real life." It sounds as if he's made lots of money in Canada. Certainly, by the sounds of it, he's shelled out a fortune to his ex wife in the form of alimony, support payments, and what not. To have earned the sums he allegedly has paid her, on its own, makes him successful on the financial front, in my opinion.
He also has raised two daughters who are fluently bilingual, educated, well travelled, confident -- young adults who regard the world as their oyster.
Then there is his third daughter who is pretty severely autistic by the sounds of it. Sharing in the support and care of her is another heroic achievement (and an ongoing, never-ending one at that), I would say.
Dbd33 came to Canada when he was young. We don't know what degree of success he might have enjoyed if he'd stayed in the UK.
But then I may have misunderstood what you intended to say.
x
#42
Re: Honest Advice from those returning from Canada
It's wrong to say that I complain about everything Canadian, I like peameal bacon, Newfie music, OHIP and the way that so few people in Toronto come from Canada.
#43
Elusive dreamer
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 425
Re: Honest Advice from those returning from Canada
LOL - sounds like our Canadian house mates, though. They get home from work, get horrible takeaway or make Kraft dinner and then watch the same sad TV shows until they go to bed. Next day, same story. Weekends, get drunk. No different, really, from life in the UK.
#44
Elusive dreamer
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 425
Re: Honest Advice from those returning from Canada
Agreed. I have managed to line up a job for 12 months from now - and when I say I am struggling to find work but mention this position, Canadians look at me and say, "But you HAVE a job then. Take the time off until then." A little too laid back for me. Maybe it's time to write that novel I always wanted to write...
#45
Re: Honest Advice from those returning from Canada
Chi_Nook, I don't think you present a very balanced view of life in Canada. What half a dozen things do you least like about it?