dlake02

Am I married to you ? :-) You've just described my day to a "T"

Bloo*y H*ll - we must be married ! What's for dinner ?

Pombat

Just proves my point that it's not unusual!!

dlake02

At Cubs the other evening, we were sat next to one of our two good friends mums (I HATE "mom"). She got a phone call from her husband during the opening flag ceremony (that's about 7pm) who was supposed to have been there, but was still in the office.

Could she drive him up to SFO tomorrow as he had to fly out to Singapore for a few days. Apparently, that is pretty typical. I'm not that bad; yet.

It's not unusual. Forward-planning is not a strong point here - meetings/travel/conference calls arranged very much at the last minute.

md95065

Sure there are tremors all the time, as you can see on this USGS map but ones that you can actually feel are pretty infrequent in the Bay Area - perhaps none, one or two in any given year.

(by the way I was here for the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake so I don't pay much attention to anything that is less than 5 on the Richter scale)

Vicky88

50 hours a week would be a light week. Even if you do 50 hours a week bum on seat at the office you can guarantee that when at home you will spend hours answering emails and text messages late into the night and all weekend. One of DH's colleagues clocked 92 hours last week and that would not be considered an exception. People are so eager to get ahead they will do whatever they think they need to do to get that step up.

Socially it has been a disaster here. We have been here 3 years, thinking of leaving next month. Many of DHs colleagues are way younger (we are 40s) they are in their 20s/30s. Of the people we have met and become friends with they all bemoan the fact of what a social wasteland it is here. Lack of decent restaurants/bars and those that are half alright cost an arm and a leg. Add in the cost of living, high taxes, long work hours, it's not really conducive to a well balanced life.

Sally Redux

We stayed up all night last weekend as daughter was unwell, I was amazed my husband's blackberry still kept buzzing every so often right through the night. He never really gets free time in that sense.

Vicky88

It's amazing, many of DHs colleagues are sending emails at 3 a.m. as they are still in the office. It almost seems as if there is some honour in being the last out the door and lets face it, if you are prepared to give willingly these companies are going to take your time.

Kats.

My husband works in the tech industry and works about 9 hour days (and he works longer hours than most in his team). He does check email etc outside of work but it's not expected that he be on call to answer them. We've met lots of great people through his work - there's people who have also moved from the U.K, Italy, other parts of the U.S so it's good to have people in a similar situation also looking to make friends, plus regular people he works with. I've found people to be very welcoming and friendly - I've already made more friends here in less than a year than I made in 6 years in London.

Jscl

It's different for everyone. Hours can be long at times but also reasonable for a lot of the time. Also (if it suits you) you'll probably be able to come in a bit later (e.g. 10am) and leave later (6.30pm), or shift the other way if it's better. Depending on your position of course.

We had no trouble making friends here when we were younger, but it's more difficult now, but I think that's not much different from how it would be in England. There's always the culture gap, but I think more than anywhere in the US you're going to meet a very diverse crowd here, and there's likely to be some people you click well with.

I feel maybe three or four quakes a year, and by "feel" I mean the "was that an earthquake?" and you usually have to look it up to be sure it wasn't just a noisy truck or something! We've had about four obvious (and mildly exciting) ones in the last 12 years.

jackattack

Well, we must be in a California style relationship because I think I'm married to both of you too. Describes our daily life perfectly.

I called husband on Tuesday from Labour and Delivery since I went into early labour with our twins. He said "can it wait, I'm in a meeting and have an office full of people?" WTF???

Work expects a lot from him but also gives much leeway since he's pretty much working 24 hours a day every week.

Pombat

I hope your husband managed to tear himself away from the meeting to get to the hospital!

jackattack

Thanks for the thoughts. And I realize that my above post did make my DH sound a bit like a DuH, but actually he's pretty cool. I'm a very low maintenance mummy, so when he asked "do you need me to come to you?" and I responded "yes!", he knew something important was up.

Twins arrived safely, and hubbie was in fact present by that time (even after spending 30 minutes in the prep room on the phone with China). we're now at home trying to discover who has a twin manual.

N1cky

Congrats on the twins

Pombat

Congratulations on your new arrivals!

Nimco

Thanks for all that input you all, and congrats jackattack - I'm just impressed you have time to post with new twins!

Sounds like earthquakes aren't as bad as they're 'cracked up' to be, you just 'roll with it', excuse the puns! Socially, maybe it depends on your company, but there is some interesting comments there thanks, and work hours you can always find jobs that will require longer hours - you just don't know till you get there to a degree, but that one does worry me as a house husband.

Can I ask some technical questions that I may have to take elsewhere....

1. Anyone know if you can maintain/manage UK based investments in the US without becoming liable for US tax on the capital growth / income. e.g I run a shares based ISA as my main investment/retirement pot.

2. If you do not have a US work permit, does that prohibit you from all revenue generating activities? e.g. Could you set up a website that earns money? Could you open an account and trade US stock markets?

Thanks