Charmaine Van Tine
Best of Both Worlds
W
ell, if living in the city and working in the country is wrong, I don’t want to be right!
Buying vegetables and eggs means stopping at a roadside stand and paying with coins into an honour box and taking your children to school in a 5-minute walk.
My living and working arrangements were not always this way. In 1985 my husband Darryl, our two children, and I moved from Prince George into the Village of Brentwood Bay on the Saanich Peninsula, Vancouver Island.
Business attitudes in the country differ from the city, too, perhaps because overall, it is a less stressful environment.
I was always amazed and delighted—still am—that I could be living in such a beautiful little village, home to the world-renowned Butchart Gardens. Living in the country within a radius of a 25-minute drive north, I could be on the ferry to the Mainland or on a plane leaving from the Victoria airport. Driving south, I could be seated at the Royal Theatre in Victoria watching a world-class performance.
That laidback attitude made it appealing to have my Notary practice in Brentwood Bay as well—and 26 years later, it still appeals. Now my husband works with me in the office, having retired from his management position with the Government of Nunavut. Our daughter’s Yorkshire Terrier Marley is in the office 3 days a week, taking his job as office greeter quietly but seriously. He has a fan
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Society of Notaries Public of British Columbia
club of clients that schedule their appointments to ensure he will also be in the office when they come in.
With Marley, the office greeter Volume 27 Number 3 Fall 2018
