Not in Kansas anymore.

In 2004 I moved from Edmonton to Brisbane. If you put your fingers on a globe that's pretty close to the precise opposite ends of the world. Quite a few people asked why I moved to Brisbane. Simply put, "Weather". Edmonton is lovely in the summer. The sun's up nice and early, and it stays light out until quite late in the evening. Where else can you play 18 holes of golf after work? But winter on the other hand is a dreary, depressing affair. You wake up and it's dark & cold, drive to work, sit indoors through the day, and by the time your shift is done, it's a dark & cold drive home, usually with a pause to shovel the fresh snow off the driveway before you can pull into the garage. You must shovel it or those tire ruts it will quickly compress down into caked speedbumps which will make future shovelling attempts an absolute hell.

So their next question is "why Brisbane?" Well, that one is a little more interesting. I'd considered going down to the U.S. I'd spent some time around Seattle and it was pretty much like Edmonton, except not so cold, not quite so dark, but a whole lot more wet. My criteria for a new home was that it had to be warm enough to be able to play Golf year round, and free of serious natural or man-made disasters. South-Central California and the South-East seaboard were out. I didn't feel like experiencing Earthquakes and Huricanes first-hand. Man-made disasters basically boiled down to C.C.W. (Carry Concealed Weapons) This knocked out most States warm enough to play Golf that had a reasonable software development presence. The only other requirement was that it had to be English speaking. I spent a week in Dresden, Germany. absolutely lovely place but it was a good taste of how stressful a place can be when you don't speak the language. I spent a month in Malaysia, and the company I worked with at the time was prepared to offer me a position in their offices down there when I told them I was going to move to Australia. Malaysia is an awesome place, and English is common enough to get by without too much trouble, but it is one heck of a hot and muggy climate you need to deal with there. The most uncomfortable experience is trying to have a shower. You feel exactly the same going in, during, and coming out. You hang your wash out for at least 2 days before it's dry. Australia was about as good as I could think of. Warm, not too wet, tough gun control, and not prone to many natural disasters. (I wasn't going to be living up in the tropics.) But why Brisbane? I come from a small city. I like cities, but not really large cities. They're busy, crowded, expensive, bleah. Sydney and Melbourne were out. Perth was too isolated, Canberra was too central. (I always wanted to live near the ocean) That really left Adelaide and Brisbane. A quick search of the job market showed Brisbane having nearly as many I.T. job vacancies as Melbourne. Brisbane it was, and still is.