And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun…

Yes, those guys are way overquoted, but I heard that song, Time, when I was a kid and I immediately felt it, and now I'm on the other side of my life and I feel it even more.

In answer to your question, Oh, yes, I have been at that moment in time, and I am here again. As I have mentioned endlessly, we moved to Amsterdam seven years ago: but we are getting evicted in six weeks, and it is simply impossible to find places to live here, there's a housing crisis.

And more, we have basically failed to make a life for ourselves here.

Both of us speak Dutch, my wife's Dutch is better than mine and that's particularly praiseworthy because it's only her second language, but she's timid, my Dutch isn't at the level to relax and chat, and so we couldn't make it in purely Dutch circles, not that we've found any.

We have failed to really make a circle of friends. We made quite a lot of friends who imploded due to mental health issues, independently, and I have a set of much younger friends about half my age, I pass for much younger, but they are fickle.

And I have no job - I'm a computer programmer, impeccable resume, but there are no real jobs for me here, and there are now long gaps between remote jobs.

So it looks like we're leaving. We're fleeing a country with much lower real estate prices, a beautiful country with a beautiful language — Portugal, we're showing up at your door, can you put us up, it's just a few months?

Hahaha, just kidding in that last clause, we're actually going to France. My French is good, I spent years in a French high school, (in Québec, but I learned French-French and apparently I still have a posh accent). My life savings would buy us quite a nice little house if we don't live in Paris or Marseilles, with some left over.

Portugal is lovely but my informant (you) does not paint a flattering picture of the role of expats there. I know an American there, who is the epitome of this crap - she doesn't even speak Portuguese. And also, I have a legitimate connection with the Francosphere.

So you can see we are also at the crossroads.

Well, this was long, the coffee kicked in, and today I am sorting out the boxes of old memories full of pictures of beloved dead people as we plan to put everything in storage, so I'm delaying...

Very best of luck. I had a girlfriend who was determined she would die before 35, planning to kill herself if she didn't, but she's 20 years older than that now and still kicking. I'll send her an email, now I think of it!