Unspeakable sadness and heartbreak ...
After long and hard discussions Sarah and I have decided to leave the UK.
When we were young and childless living in London was a dream come true. Even now it is a wonderful place to live. Looking into the long term future, however, we saw reasons why we would like to make a change. Given that Anna and Nathan have yet to really start school proper, and that we have lived in London for over ten years, it seems like we're at the "now or never" point. So we decided "now" instead of "never". It was a very tough decision as there are so many good reasons to stay here and we are leaving behind fantastic friends. It feels like we are ripping out a large part of who we are that must be left behind.
So we're moving to Ottawa, Canada. The capital city of Canada, Ottawa has a population of roughly 1 million. It is surrounded by national parks, has a river, a canal and bicycle paths threading through the city, lots of high tech jobs and a great school system. It is also a two hour drive to Montreal, where my parents and sister live. And yes, it also has extremely cold winters and lots of snow - so we'll be teaching Anna and Nate to ski, skate, toboggan and snowshoe next winter.
I have managed to arrange a job in Ottawa at Diablo Technologies Inc. (www.diablo-technologies.com). I will be their Digital Design Team Lead and I'm looking forward to new opportunities in roughly the same capacity as I'm currently in, using many of the same skills, but in a different market. For the time being Sarah will not be working but will once we've settled in. Anna will start school in Ottawa in September and we'll look for a nursery for Nate. My start date at work is Monday May 28 and we will be flying to Canada on the 26th.
Of course, one of the best things about living in London was that so many people would come through the city and visit us. We hope we'll still have lots of visitors in Ottawa. This time we're going to be able to afford a spare bedroom to accommodate you.
Morrie
Unspeakable sadness and heartbreak ...