Reply #51: kostya [View All]

[nine23]

Can't help you much with those SS particulars, but I can say this: you're a software engineer? Check out Victoria, BC.

A smallish (pop. 318.000) city, BC's provincial capital on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, a gorgeous little historical town with a burgeoning software/tech industry. Microsoft employees from Seattle (yep, those of the stock option variety) have been quietly moving there for years.

Why give up a career at Microsoft? Because for some people, bringing up kids in such a beautiful, crime-free, West Coast lefty environment is more important than bucks. The software/tech branch offices opening up have NO problems with recruitment whatsoever, one of the reasons they're settling there. Folks have been known to get on the high-speed cat/ferry outa' Seattle (one hour trip) in the morning, nail the job interview in the afternoon, then phone the spouse by 4pm to say "get packing".

And none of this has anything to do with the current "troubles" in the US, just a wish for a better life.

Your wife's an artist? It's where artists go to retire! A friend of mine, a commercial artist from NYC now in his early 60's (went to art school with Warhol, worked the Madison Avenue rat race), escaped back in the mid-80's, and never looked back. Hasn't been back to the states in a decade.

During my big career change in the late 90's, I went to school there for two years, but had to move back here to Vancouver. Simply loved it. I'd move back/retire there in an instant, but my partner and I already have an agenda (she's French; we have a little flat in the Pyrenees).

Check it out. If you're serious, and I read your "needs" correctly, this is the place.

By the way, if you jones for home, you can SEE the Olympic Peninsula across Juan De Fuca straight from your doorstep if you're on the water.

Cheers.