ohai london.pm. Long time, no see. On 13 December 2011 13:01, Simon Wistow <si...@thegestalt.org> wrote: > So, I'll bite. This is based on my last 4 years working in SF. YMMV, > IANAL etc etc. > > For what it's worth. I still live out here, don't have any plans to come > back to London any time soon, if ever. Make of that what you will.
Mostly I have no quibbles with Simon's post, even though I've only been here a little over a year and can't imagine living here for more than the six years two H-1B visas give me (if that). So, some little additions. > The Location > > SF seems more like a big city stuffed into a small city's footprint. > It's much easier to get around (terrible public transport not > withstanding). It's much easier to move between parts of the city and to > randomly bump into people. Nearby we have world class mountain sports, > wine country, surfing, diving, hiking, mountain biking, the desert. For me, as a culture vulture, SF doesn't cut it. SFMOMA is the size of, what, the Wallace Collection? As for a really world class museum, there isn't one, whereas London has the two Tates, the two National Galleries, the British Museum, the Exhibition Road cluster, the NMM/RGO, and that's just the big free ones that I can remember. As for the wilderness part, that's great if you have a car and can drive. I have not and cannot, and so I'm reliant on the kindness of strangers, which I don't like. Even the Golden Gate Bridge, part of the city, takes about an hour by bus from where I live. (There is a lovely urban forest about twenty minutes from my house, though.) On the other hand, if I'd managed to get to a different part of the US (NYC springs to mind) I'd have a much more London-like experience, grind and culture and all. Both have a reasonably good selection of job opportunities, too. > Jobs > > Salaries seem higher too. Even with various different things taken into > account I'd say I'm about 20-30% better off out here. Shame about the holiday (sorry, vacation) time. 15 days is just becoming common as a starting offer, although you could probably be unlucky and get just ten. When five or six of those days are eaten up every time you visit family and friends back home, that's kind of sucky, and more so when you're used to 25. You get roughly the same number of public holidays as the UK, but they're weirdly distributed (no Easter, but Thanksgiving; a holiday in February but nothing for May Day) which takes some getting used to. There are fewer than most EU countries, though, and some companies pick and choose. The UK's habit of Christmas shutdowns is less common here as well. (This reply was partly inspired by seeing the Economist's holiday time chart - http://theeconomist.tumblr.com/post/14173435104/ - which inexplicably lists the US legal minimum as 15 days then notes with the dagger that it's merely common practice. Note that's after ten years, too.) > Visas > The Politics These both suck. I can imagine bugging out of the country within months if Gingrich gets the White House, UK recession or not. > Uncanny Valley > > To be honest - I miss the British personality as well. That's a longer > story though. Also, pubs. Bars just aren't the same. Love your local pub, Londoners. Be cosy in it. Enjoy meat pies and warm beer. -- Paul Mison http://husk.org/