<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt">BIG PICTURE. <br>You'll get over your anxiety, the bright lights, hustle and bustle. Give it 6 months. ;-)<br><br>MOVING OUT:<br>Agreed, SSM to Toronto is a huge adjustment, but just think of your adjustment if you had gotten a similar gig in Sudbury or Ottawa ;-) IOW, you would still incur the moving expenses and an elevated cost of living until you find the sweet deals and freebies, and grow your social circles. As a Plus, you are already warmly invited to a gig or two a month at the TPM meetings (last Thursday of the month, except October, on the 24th).<br><br>TORONTO EXPENSES<br>Apartment. The living accomodations will be your biggest expense, so decide if you are going to rent a Nice place to entertain guests, or a modest bachelor ... to eat, cook and sleep in. Your pad should
be safe, warm and comfy, and reasonably priced for your budget, much the same as Ottawa selections ;-) Hunt around, it's not easy but not impossible. Get a place within 30mins walk of your workplace, just in case you need to walk/bicycle/TTC.<br><br>Motor Vehicles. Insurance and operating costs more than "free" in Toronto/Ottawa. Leave all your insurance "registered" at your SSM addresses for the rest of the year, until you are darn sure you are going to stay in Toronto. Bring your car/bike back to Dad twice a year for preventative stuff; and buy a CAA membership that covers motorbike towing.<br>Perhaps just mothball the car and keep the motorbike in Toronto, for the first year. <br>Ask your Dad if you can store the car at his place, and quiesce the insurance on the car down to "Non-driving, Theft and Vandalism only" until you want to drive it again, BUT keep the insurance alive, just don't drive it
without reinstating FULL insurance liability on it. Depending on what motorbike/tires you are running, you could milk the riding season for up to 8 or 9 months of the year since it's a LOT warmer on the roads than up north. Then just bicycle or TTC (Take The Comet) everywhere. Taxis are for people with expense accounts.<br><br>Mechanics. I do my own wrenching, for the easy Car stuff. When I need air tools, I bring it to my mechanic at 111 Strachan Ave, about 25mins South of Wingold. Hit me offlist for prolonged motorbike discussions.<br><br>Food and Drink. Shop and cook once a week and freeze your meals,,, eat healthy for under $10/day. However, It'll cost you about $15-$40/day to eat lunch and dinner OUT at reasonable restaurants (just like SSM), but I'm pretty sure the Wingold area is slim pickings for extreme meal deals... walk/bicycle the neighbourhood to find out.. Booze is the same LCBO price all
over Ontario. For nights out, Toronto's cheapest Pint is priced almost the same as SSM's ... think Casey's<span class="tab"> or Gigi's, so find out the Cheapie Nights or BYOB.</span><br><br>As a young, employed man in Toronto, it should not be too hard to find the fun on a budget AND further your career.<br><div><span><br></span></div><div><br></div> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <hr size="1"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Adam Prime <adam.prime@utoronto.ca><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> toronto-pm@pm.org <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Thursday, October 3, 2013 11:16:08 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [tpm] country hacker, city hacker<br>
</font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container"><br>Welcome,<br clear="none"><br clear="none">(i haven't read any of the other replies, but i'm sending this as is anyway)<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Moving from the Sault to Toronto is going to be a huge adjustment<br clear="none">without a doubt. Rest assured though, that there are lots of people<br clear="none">that came from communities even smaller than where you grew up that have<br clear="none">moved to the city and thrived. Theres a lot in your novel, so i'm just<br clear="none">going to address some highlights, at random<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Getting around:<br clear="none">Transit in the city is safe. The subway is pretty reliable. Surface<br clear="none">routes are generally reasonably reliable as well (meaning buses and<br clear="none">streetcars) It's 3 bucks cash fare to go anywhere you can get to on<br clear="none">transit. You can get a monthly
pass for 125 or so, and there is a<br clear="none">federal tax break associated with those passes so you get some of that<br clear="none">money back. There are *many* people that live in the city without any<br clear="none">vehicle at all, and are reliant on their feet, bicycles, and transit.<br clear="none">You are probably going to walk a lot. Maybe more than you do now.<br clear="none">People in the city tend to do that, especially if they are on a budget.<br clear="none"> I personally *hate* spending money on cabs. Up where the office is<br clear="none">it's all buses, but they are buses that run pretty frequently<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Apartments:<br clear="none">checkout viewit.ca to get an idea of what you're up against. I'm not at<br clear="none">all familiar with what it's like in that part of the city, but i think<br clear="none">you've got a blend of single family homes, possibly split up into<br
clear="none">apartments, and big apartment buildings. I've never lived in the<br clear="none">latter, and don't really ever want to. That far north you're probably<br clear="none">not looking at $2000 a month. You can probably find something nice not<br clear="none">that far from the office for around not too far over 1000/month<br clear="none"><br clear="none">ie: <a shape="rect" href="http://viewit.ca/vwExpandView.aspx?Vit=141773" target="_blank">http://viewit.ca/vwExpandView.aspx?Vit=141773</a><br clear="none"><br clear="none">I wouldn't advise taking an apartment you haven't seen in person, no<br clear="none">matter how nice the pictures look. Also, parking for two vehicles may be<br clear="none">tough, unless your car is small and you can put the bike and the car in<br clear="none">a single spot.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">You're probably going to end up eating a lot of money with the whole<br clear="none">resignation /
moving thing. Moving is expensive and there isn't really<br clear="none">any way to avoid it. When i left my last job i left them with a list of<br clear="none">my contract work rates. I billed them for a couple grand of work over<br clear="none">the next three or four months. You might want to consider offering them<br clear="none">something like that.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">You're exaggerating about the difference in prices of things i think.<br clear="none">The only place where that might be true is on restaurant food. In my<br clear="none">experience small town restaurants charge nothing for massive meals. My<br clear="none">advice would be to cook at home as much as possible ;)<br clear="none"><br clear="none">About bike maintenance, you should start checking out forums about<br clear="none">whatever kind of bike it is you have. It's pretty much guaranteed that<br clear="none">there are a huge
number of bike nerds on the internet that live in<br clear="none">toronto and love nothing more than helping people wrench their bikes<br clear="none">when they need wrenching. If you drove a rally car instead of a bike i<br clear="none">could introduce you to a bunch of exactly those kinds of people.<br clear="none"><br clear="none"><br clear="none">Hope that helps,<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Adam<div class="yqt1715043982" id="yqtfd63600"><br clear="none">_______________________________________________<br clear="none">toronto-pm mailing list<br clear="none"><a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:toronto-pm@pm.org" href="mailto:toronto-pm@pm.org">toronto-pm@pm.org</a><br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/toronto-pm" target="_blank">http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/toronto-pm</a><br clear="none"></div><br><br></div> </div> </div> </div></body></html>