dbd33

I disagree. I think removing the relative comforts of home and substituting grrinding poverty is an effective motivation technique.

hockeyhairdo

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.

fledermaus

Maybe British people complain because they can see that things could be better if only someone put some effort in. Maybe its because they dont see why they should put up with things are they are, that higher standards are possible.

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.

dbd33

I came here in 1981 for a salary of $22,000. It was the classic move, $22,000 looked a lot from London so I signed a one year deal before finding that the going rate was $25,000.

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.

We separated in 1989. During the nineties I paid $4,000/month + the use of a house and "a Sport Utility Vehicle having leather seats no older than three years". We finally divorced just over a year ago at the cost of all my personal assets and $3,500/month until she dies (note that the requirement to pay would survive my death if I went first). Again, whether or not it's a fortune depends on who's lawyer is speaking.

Thank you but it's what immigrants do. They come with nothing and, being insulated from the culture and unable to afford to do anything else, work all the time. In the eighties I adopted the "greed is good" philosophy and simply outworked all around me, I was delighted when two colleagues were laid off and I was given their work. It's much harder to succeed that way now, if people get laid off their work goes offshore, not to people physically on site. There are also a lot more immigrants who are starting from a much lower base, rates for bottom feeder computer people now are less than they were when I arrived.

Arguably the work of the ex, I just funded it. Still, both of them being debt free at the end of university is, I think, an achievement these days. The advantage I think they got from our having emigrated wasn't through being in Canada but through not being in the UK; their cousins in the UK didn't finish high school before getting pregnant. Teenage pregnancy limits one's options. This advantage could be negated by some basic instruction at an early enough age.

"Lowest functioning we've seen" according to the assessment panel from the school board.

Heroic is misplaced in the case of parents, their cards are dealt to them and they just have to get on with it. It's more appropriate for a new partner of one of the parents; someone who sees the situation and chooses to stay.


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.

dbd33

But that's what people do here. Typical people that is, not us, we go to bars.

hockeyhairdo

[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...

hockeyhairdo

but that is still sitting indoors and eating and drinking, my ideal after work activity is sports, running, cycling, skiing,...and no, cricket and golf are not sports.

dbd33

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.

hockeyhairdo

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

dbd33

I don't care for exertion myself. Still, I do have a bicycle. Riding on the roads in Toronto is pretty scary; crazed drivers and tram tracks to get stuck in. Fortunately there's an extension network of offroad bike paths running through parks and ravines.

Chi_Nook

He may be Jesus Christ incarnate in your eyes, but in mine he's just a brit whiner and constant complainer about everything Canadian and he hasn't the guts to go back to his beloved UK.

dbd33

Actually, were I free to move anywhere, I'd likely go to the US. It's my partner who would really like to live in the UK.

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.

gotoronto

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.

gotoronto

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...

dbd33

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?