... and then you will suddenly get hit by a sledgehammer.
If someone had asked me last year about my personal long-term plans I would have answered: I will remain in my flat in West Norwood, rent out my other flat in Forest Hill to get some basic income, drastically reduce working on long projects in 2025 and concentrate on short term assignments only. By then I wanted to become an LLM, which is a Licensed Lay Minister in the Church of England, and focus on that area. And that's it. A straight forward and simple plan. To do so, I wanted to work full-time for as much as possible for the remaining 8 years and continue my theology course which I only started last September and which I enjoy thoroughly; one of my best choices I made in life.
All my friends know how much the Brexit vote last June affected me, especially the ones who are linked with me on Facebook; they had to endure quite a few rants of mine. I have also written a blog entry here about my feelings and got quite a few clicks. The biggest problem for me is, that I don't feel welcome anymore in this country. I take Brexit very personally, even though friends of mine told me to stop doing so. The issue is, I cannot. It reminds me too much of Germany in the 1930ies and I simply cannot accept this. Racism and populism is a total no go for me and my inner value system. But I got on with life and thought that within a certain time, Brexit would hopefully never occur. My sister asked me last year whether I wanted to come back one day and my usual answer was: "No, never!"
And then came Theresa May's speech yesterday.
I am a freelancing management consultant and have lived in London for more than 20 years. I don't usually work in the UK but mainly in the EU. I take advantage of the single market. I work abroad but pay taxes in England. Usually, I fly out every week and am only staying in England at weekends. I have done this like that for the last 20 years. It works for me. With the single market vanishing I cannot do this anymore; my business model turns obsolete.
And then came decision time for me.
So I prepared a matrix where I put down cities where I could imagine to live and ranked them:
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If someone had asked me last year about my personal long-term plans I would have answered: I will remain in my flat in West Norwood, rent out my other flat in Forest Hill to get some basic income, drastically reduce working on long projects in 2025 and concentrate on short term assignments only. By then I wanted to become an LLM, which is a Licensed Lay Minister in the Church of England, and focus on that area. And that's it. A straight forward and simple plan. To do so, I wanted to work full-time for as much as possible for the remaining 8 years and continue my theology course which I only started last September and which I enjoy thoroughly; one of my best choices I made in life.
And then came Brexit.
And then came Theresa May's speech yesterday.
I am a freelancing management consultant and have lived in London for more than 20 years. I don't usually work in the UK but mainly in the EU. I take advantage of the single market. I work abroad but pay taxes in England. Usually, I fly out every week and am only staying in England at weekends. I have done this like that for the last 20 years. It works for me. With the single market vanishing I cannot do this anymore; my business model turns obsolete.
And then came decision time for me.
So I prepared a matrix where I put down cities where I could imagine to live and ranked them:
| Locations | House price | Friends | Airport | Trains | Scene | Culture | SUM |
| Berlin | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 28 |
| München | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 24 |
| Frankfurt | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 24 |
| Köln | 3 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 24 |
| Hamburg | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 22 |
| Wien | 3 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 22 |
| Nürnberg | 5 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 20 |
| Ingolstadt | 1 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 18 |
| 1 - high | 1 - few/no | 1 - far | 1 - bad | 1 - bad | 1 - bad/little | ||
Berlin made the race. My hometown came last, even though I like it there. But in the end, I need a big city. Coming from 20 years in London the Bavarian province is not really an option. It would drive me bonkers after a few weeks.
And then, what's next?
I think I am going to wait for another 6 months to see what's going on politically. Somehow I still think there is hope and a tiny shining light at the end of the tunnel, even though, deep inside I have started with the process of segregation from the UK. It is bizarre how these things work. I already told my family that I might move back this or next year and they are happy. I told my friends in Berlin and they are ecstatic. Somehow I feel ready to go.
Maybe it is time for a fresh start? Maybe it is even fate? Or maybe I just have to practice what I usually preach to my clients, that constant change is inevitable? One never knows these days. Deep inside I still hope that our dumb and fascist government will be overturned and the British people get some sense back into their minds and start doing something.
Only time will tell....!
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