Xmas 2008!!!

Well we have now celebrated what will hopefully be our second from last xmas in old blighty! It's been one hell of a memorable one though. This was the first xmas we have ever spent on our own in our own home so I had planned to create a few traditions of our own to take with us to Canada. The plan was for the girls to make mince pies, spiced apple pies and pecan pie on xmas eve; xmas day would see sweet potato and marshmallows, as well as apricot stuffing to go alongside the turkey; breakfast on xmas morning would be french toast....homemade of course...and bacon. Now in order to achieve all this it's imperative that there is a fully functioning fridge or in my case American fridge freezer which has resided in my kitchen these past 7 years. Well on Xmas Eve it only bloody well DIED!!!!!!! The day was spent in panic fleeing to Argos to purchase a very expensive mini fridge and pulling out all the cool bags I possess......and bizarrely I possess 4!!! Said fridge's contents were emptied into all of the aforementioned....thank gawd the freezer part still worked!!!
After ridiculously high stress levels the pies etc were made and tasted fab. The day was spent eating popcorn and choccies whilst watching Mama Mia (twice!!!!) and reading Julie Walters biography (I swear she's writing about my childhood......minus the bed-wetting and wanting to be an actress!).......so I'm now sat amongst the Boxing Day fallout of dead crackers, warm cheesecake and cool bags whilst hubby puts the turkey/ham back in the garage where its way colder!!

On the immigration front there is fantastic news for those who applied post Feb 2008 and are now beginning to receive 90 day letters. However as someone who has sat in a queue for a year and a half and still has another 6-8 month wait for said letter it does rankle a tad.......it has smatterings of queue jumping which is unfair to say the least......not the applicants fault but the Canadian government obviously didn't think this one through very well!!!!! Too late for us to apply using this route even though we are on the list as it will be no quicker....luckily we can't land till 2010 but not so lucky for others who would give anything to but must just wait and watch others jump in front!!

On the Masters front I have now passed yet another course....yeah!!!!! I was convinced I'd fail the research paper but I didn't. I'm now half way through the disability course....got a 6000 word research paper due in at the end of January and then I start the final course in February. I won't complete the Masters till October and the results won't be through till December so I probably won't be able to count it in on my 90 day letter. However after this present course I can claim a post grad certificate or diploma which might be accepted by CHC.

The List!!!

Well the 'list' is finally out! Although our application isn't directly affected by it I was desperate to know if my job was on it as this would mean a better chance of finding work once landed! Well it's on...hurray!!!! In fact I fall into two job categories....College and Vocational Instructor and University Professor......so that's even better. Obviously hubbies job (GP) is on too though that was never even in question!! So I'm a bit more relaxed but of course they could regularly update the list and the jobs may disappear!

Now throwing myself into work in order to have some time off over xmas! The shopping is done, online shop for groceries is booked and the decorations are up!!

Can't believe that once we enter 2009 we'll be telling people that 'we're actually emigrating next year'!!!! Friends are already planning a welcome party for when we land lol!! Once the documents are asked for we'll need to contact a realtor and start checking out Barrie, the housing there and the schools...also need to sort out Toronto University for the eldest daughter to start 2010!

Wow it's all go!!

Collecting the documents!

Well I've now started collecting the documentation even hough we don't expect to hear from CHC until May 2009 at the earliest!
I've downloaded the appropriate forms from the cic website just so I can look through them as they can be filled out online nearer the time.
Someone on the British Expats website every kindly posted the following info:

• Certified copies of birth certificates and marriage certificate.
• Employment references from previous employers that included start and finish dates, job title,duties and responsibilities
• If possible copies of job descriptions, person specifications and contacts of employment.
• P60s and P45s
• Certified copies of qualifications
• Certified copy of the front page of passports

It all seems fairly straight forward. Also need to list everything I've done since 18 years which will include 6 months travelling in 1977 and 5 months travelling in California in 1987. Luckily everything is on my CV so I don't have to try and remember all the dates. Pretty sure I have all the P60's and P45's so can tick them off. Have job descriptions and copies of contrcts fro the past 10 years. Also have copies of all qualifications since age 10 years (speech exam result in year 5!!)....sad I know!!

Hubby's will take a bit longer to track down all his qualifications and jobs but not impossible!

Then just got to get items certified!

Another decision made....well sort of!

Well its all change in the Northernlass1 household. Our eldest is 18 and is doing an Art diploma in UK at the moment......he finishes summer 2009. He had planned to take a gap year before starting OCAD in Toronto in 2010. Well it turns out he has now changed his mind. He's now considering starting Uni in the UK in 2009. He'll either complete the degree there or may transfer to OCAD later. He'll still land with us in 2010 to activate his PR and then he just needs to be in the country for 2/3 years.......that's if he wants to make Canada his home! I think that flying in and out for hols over the next few years will let him see if Canada is actually for him that way he's not being pushed into going just because the rest of us are. Hubby remaining in UK will help too. So as of now it may just be me and the girls moving permanently with the boys flying in and out for a while. It's not ideal but its a compromise that enables us to move and stay financially stable as well as meeting everyone's needs. Thanks to my pal Amanda, as well as hubby having worked in China in the past, I know long distance is feasible!! Mind you as he's 18 he could still change his mind lol!!!

Ticking off the boxes!

Well I've found that the most important part of this damn process is to have plenty of goals so you can tick them off as you go... rather like a countdown! So just ticked off Halloween...it poured with rain but 4 little peeps in fancy dress came knocking and were richly rewarded though we still have enough sweets left to see us through till spring!

Next goal is Guy Fawkes....this actually isn't as fab as it sounds as I'm working till about 8pm doing tutorials in Newcastle.

After that its the run up to Christmas. There is soooo much to do and sooooo little time. I've about 40+ assignments to mark as well as write a 3000 word one for my own degree. Then there's the xmas shopping to be done...thank god for the internet! The kids are doing a million things all at the same time and guess who's chief taxi driver?!! This year we are spending xmas just the 5 of us at our home....we've never done this before but are looking forward to it. In the past we've either been with family (usually about 12 of us in total) or the 5 of us have flown to Florida and spent xmas with Mickey Mouse!! I guess we need to get used to xmas being just the 5 of us as this is how it will be in Canada. I'm going to use this xmas to start some traditions of our own that we can continue once we've landed....just not too sure what they'll actually be!!!

Also now beginning to pull our documents together for the CHC should they ask for them next year (yeah!!).... need all my cerificates of education, payslips for the last 10 years, birth and marriage certificates....sad though it may sound I have actually kept them all!!!!!!!

Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have found out for definite today that the first Simplified Skilled Worker application is being processed!!!! They were also sent a 90 day letter rather than the 3-6 month letters that were expected. If nothing slows these applications down we may well be contacted by CHC next summer (2009)....OMG!! That's a huge reduction on the 42-48 month wait we were originally given.

Canada 2010 here we come!!!!!!!

2 years!!

It's hard to believe that its been 2 years since I took the girls and visited Collingwood for the first time! That was the first time I met my fab pal Sophie (Hi if you're reading this!!). Who'd have thought that one little week's visit could have had such an impact on our lives.

So another Thanksgiving has passed and another Halloween is fast approaching. Before we know it it'll be Xmas! Then hopefully we'll have one more Xmas in the UK more before moving to Ontario! We've decided to try a Xmas Day on our own this year....not something we've done before in the UK but we have to get used to it as we'll be on our own once we've moved. As next year (2009) is our last Xmas here we're having a big family get together at a restaurant......yeah no cooking!

So for now its back to getting sorted for the half term holiday and Halloween!!

Prioritising!!

This week has been hectic to say the least. My workload has doubled and I'm desperately trying to catch up on my Masters as I fell behind a couple of weeks ago. I decided last weekend that I needed to prioritise and reorganise what I do on a daily basis. Both hubby and I are working like crazy to build up funds and extra qualifications to boost this move. But our family life bears the brunt of this. The kids and hubby leave the house before 8am every morning and the first gets back at 5pm and the last is in between 6pm and 7.30pm. Up until recently the older kids also attended school on a Saturday. I'm now getting myself organised so weekends are solely for me, hubby and kids. Obviously extended family are also a part of this. I'm now taking Wednesday mornings off to take the youngest to school and then go to Costa for coffee with friends.....this gives me my 'me' time! I also decided this week not to log onto mymuchmor and was horrified to realise that I had been logging on three to four times a day everyday for the past year!!!!. It had become an addiction. I'm going to allow myself to log in on a Sunday night only!! Following these changes I have completed a load of work in the last 5 days alone! My new students are all prepared and organised, all tutorials are planned, my masters is back on track though the last research paper that I submitted may have fallen victim to me spending too much time on other things! I have even allowed myself a few minutes each week to post in my blog and best of all I am now using the exercise bike each day to prepare for the medicals...yes it will take me 2 years! By reorganising and prioritising I have actually reduce my stress and I'm accomplishing a lot more than I did before.....yeah!!!!

Plans!!!

I know its ridiculous to be thinking of xmas this early but I do have reasons!! If everything with the immigration goes to plan we should now have 2 xmas's left in UK. As xmas 2009 will probably be our last we will spend that with all the family.....there'll be around 13 of us! So we've decided that this xmas (2008) we are going to spend xmas day on our own...just the 5 of us. We' ve never done this before in the UK though we have had the odd xmas in Orlando with just the 5 of us. What we're hoping to do is set up xmas traditions that we can easily carry over into our future xmas's in Ontario.
So the planning has already started........watch this space!

As there is a distinct possibility of CHC contacting us at the end of 2009/beginning of 2010 we've started to collect all our documentation.....no easy feat I can tell you. I'm the principle applicant and have worked for many organisations over the years. I think I'm going to need to track my past jobs through the Tax Office......pretty sure that at least 2 of the organisations have long since ceased trading!

It's been a while!

Well it really has been a while since I was last on here. So what's been happening....
I re did my points score and came up with 80....forgot to add the correct amount of time spent working!!! The person discussed in the last post is still waiting and it now looks like the appeal will go to Federal Court!
The weather here is turning...very autumn feel in the air. This is making me feel really homesick for Canada. My new pal Amanda is now living in Owen Sound and her daily emails are keeping me going.....so if you're reading this Amanda don't stop emailing!
We are hoping that we may hear from CHC at the end of 2009/early 2010 which would be brilliant!! We'll know more when they start to process the first batch of simplified skilled worker applications....lets hope they don't slow down.
Good news re doctors....Ontario is now going to allow doctors from other provinces and the US to work on their existing qualifications and the hope is that this will spread to UK docs too....hurray!! This would enable hubby to work in Ontario and then he can land with us and not have to go back to UK to work!

Oh no!!

I have been a member of mymuchmor social networking site for a year now. It has been an invaluable source of information but more importantly a source of much needed support. Afriend on the site has been awaiting a request to atend medicals before being issued those all important visa's to Canada. They had been waiting over two years, and had recently made a decision on where they would build their dream home. They have just been informed that their application for immigration has been refused on the grounds of insufficient points. I'm speechless!! I cannot imagine how the family are feeling right now and it appears that there is no avenue to turn to in order to appeal the decision. Although I cannot go in to detail there would certainly appear to be definite grounds to appeal.
In panic I then redid the self assessment test on the cic website and could only get 65/67 points myself....OMG! However when I redid it for the 4th time I realised that I hadn't counted my MA that I am currently studying....just hope I complete it before they ask for updates!!! Watch this space!

Back in UK

Well we've returned to the UK after 3 great weeks in Ontario. We left Manchester on a rather small but neat Thomas Cook airline that took way too long to get to Toronto.....8 flipping hours! As they'd changed the flight times this meant driving up Airport Road in the dark.....very disorientating! Still we got a glimpse of live animals eg deer and a skunk.....usually we only encounter roadkill!!
My friend Sophie was renting us her beautiful rental home and she didn't disappoint....tennis court over the road was a huge hit with my kids.
We didn't do too many tourist things this time. Instead we visited towns and show houses to get a feel of the area.We decided that Collingwood is not the town for us even though we love it. It's too far from Toronto and too expensive....council tax is way too high! After also ruling out Orangeville (stared at too much....didn't feel welcome there), Angus (military base), Alliston (big car plant) and Innisfil (what the heck is in Innisfil??!!) we think we've settled on Barrie.

This is Thornbury marina

We visited Toronto twice, visiting Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) which our eldest loved. I managed to find the Pickle Barrel in the Bay Atrium without the aid of a map even though its been 10 years since we last ate there.....food is still great by the way!

We also went to the Worlds Biggest Bookstore. Whilst deciding where to start my 16 yr old daughter headed to the dvd section and saw a man coming towards her. She stopped.... he stopped..... they made eye contact..... unsure what to do or say she wandered off. She turned the corner and there he was again.... same thing happened. She came and stood behind me and nudged me. Meanwhile this man was right behind us. I was so busy trying to get the 8 year old to her book section I completely ignored my 16 year old. I got them all onto the escalator and apparently she looked back and saw the man then leave the store. At the top of the escalator she turned to me and said...'Mum why didn't you turn round, David Beckham was right behind you?'..........No Way!!!!!!!!!!!!






We also experienced the Elvis Festival in Collingwood. I hadn't realised how seriously people take Elvis impersonators....some were very good but one or two should stick to the day job! I couldn't get many photos as it was so busy.

Ontario here we come...well for 3 weeks!

We're off to Ontario for a 3 week holiday next week. Its been over a year since we were last there which feels like forever. In my head I like to think of it more as going home for 3 weeks whilst we're temporarily working in UK (lol!!). Our plan now is to go PNP route which of course requires me to get a job either in a University or College....dead easy yeah? In the meantime I'm trying to complete a Masters degree in Online and Distance Education....trying being the operative word!!
Whilst over on this trip we're meeting up with friends, may view a couple of houses and are looking at Universities for our eldest two with a view to them starting in 2010/11. We're looking at the uni's now as we have no idea when we'll next get out to Ontario and the kids need to make informed decisions! So on with the packing.......

One year into the wait!!

This past year of waiting has been a rollercoaster to say the least. I joined a social networking site....mymuchmor.com.......which has been a godsend! Canadian Immigration is certainly not for the faint hearted and I definately need all the sopport the site offers. Being able to speak to people in the same boat as me makes all the difference. Its mixed emotions when others 'land'. I'm gutted that its not us but excited to move another place up the queue1
It is now looking as though the best way to enter Canada is with a job which is not as easy as it sounds. We are part of the September 2006 to Feb 2008 Simplified Skilled Worker Applications but the immigration procedure is now changing and we could feel the backlash.

The start!!!

Once back in UK Hubby made the suggestion of moving to Canada.... OMG!!! This was probably due to reading the emails that had been flying back and forth between me and 'S' on ways to persuade him to emigrate. So at the end of May 2007 we applied via the simplified skilled worker route with me as the principle applicant! The kids were all for going, even the eldest who I thought may decide against it. The youngest was a bit unsure but that was to be expected. Now all we had to do was wait for our AOR (receipt from the Canadian Embassy) which would tell us when we would next hear from them. We would then have about 6 months to add on to cover the submission of paperwork , medicals and visa's and this would give us an estimated date fro landing!!
On July 16th 2007 the AOR arrived and stated that we would next be contacted in 42-48 months time meaning we wouldn't be likely to land until 2011!!!

Home and back again!

On arriving home us girls realised that Collingwood would be a perfect place to live. However there was the small matter of persuading a husband and a son!! Putting thoughts of moving onto the back burner we got on with day to day things. As it turned out we ended up booking a trip back to Collingwood for the following Easter for all 5 of us and my parents too!

We arrived back into Toronto in March 2007. It was pretty cold but we were prepared for that. Collingwood was as we'd left it....it was a great feeling to be back! We explored everywhere and shopped till we dropped. My mum even went off in the car on her own to Zellars! I'd arranged an art lesson for my eldest daughter with a local artist Keli-Ann Pye Beshara.....and another friendship was made!! The highlight of the trip was hubby and son spending the day skiing together. My parents made a trip to Niagara for a couple of days and returned to Canadian snow flurries or as we Brits call them......snowstorms!!!















And then before we knew it it was back to UK.............

Colingwood cont.

We found the rental house pretty quickly and I became instant pals with the owner Sophie!! The house was fantastic with a view over the bay which was to die for. The weather was pretty cold and rainy but we didn't care. We spent the week shopping, exploring the area, eating out and curled up in front of the fire waching dvd's! Me and the girls greed that Collingwood so felt like home. So much so that we were gutted when the week finally ended and we had to head home.

Collingwood!

I'm extremely impressed with whoever came up with the design of Airport road.......it's the straightest road ever and stretches to the horizon which in Canada is for miles. But it is also a bit like a rollercoaster with sudden drops and turns........brilliant!!
It took us a good hour and a half to reach Stayner, a small town just before Collingwood but which hiad what we were now desperate for...Tim Hortens. By now it was around 5pm but of course our internal clocks were 5 hours ahead on UK time. It had been a long day since setting off in torrential rain to the airport near our home, then the 7 hour flight and the drive so we were hungry. I'd already decided on soup and hot chocolate to take to the house and have there so we were soon back on the road and entering Collingwood.
It is a great little town right on the edge of the Georgian Bay...well actually I think its on the Nottawasaga Bay which I've no doubt spelt wrong!!

Airport road to Collingwood

Once the littlest one was strapped in the back of the car plugged into the dvd player and the eldest one was sat in the passenger seat as navigator complete with GPS we were ready to go! It was pretty easy leaving the airport simply following the signs until the T junction came up: Airport road east or west?! My internal sat nav was looking for airport road north and although I knew east would take me into Toronto, west could me the QEW and that for me was a big no no!! So to be on the safe side I decided to pull into a garage/petrol station and asked the first man I could see. In the past I've found the 'dumb woman' routine often works best. When my car needs a service I always act in awe of the mechanics' skills and tell him how useless I am with engines but then let him know that if he were to suffer a cardiac arrest at this point he'd be grateful I was standing beside him as I could pretty much save his life thanks to my Coronary care experience.....
So off we set again on Airport road west. Traffic was pretty heavy so it was a slow crawl. I actually had no idea if Airport road was a highway, freeway or dirt track so I sat in the middle lane sandwiched between 2 trucks. The GPS system is my hubby's and comes complete with a voice that can melt a mans at twenty paces so I naturally refer to it as 'her' and with much contempt. Being a female GPS she retaliates by sending me off in any direction she likes, even up private driveways. On this particular trip she was in a huff at being separated from my hubby and was refusing to even find the nearest satellite!!! A few miles down the road and almost all the traffic disappeared leaving us on a 2 lane road in the middle of the countryside. You could see for miles and miles and yet there were houses at regular intervals. I had a little wobbly moment when I realised we were in the middle of rural Ontario miles from anywhere but it soon passed. You could see the road stretching ahead for miles and miles.






Airport Road in the Fall!!








As it was October time the colour of the trees were amazing as we drove along and we passed pumpkins on display everywhere....plenty of oohs and aaahs from the girls and me!!!

Airport Road!

After our holiday in the July the October break was looming and on an impulse I decided to take myself and my 2 girls back to Ontario. The girls were at that stage aged 7 and 14. Its not the first time I've taken the kids off without hubby. The last time we hit Spain at Easter and it was pouring with rain as we drove around to the sound of the 'Fun Boy 3' and 'Bananarama'! This time I contacted Great Escapes in Collingwood to see if the house we'd tried to book previously in July was free and it was! So with house booked, tickest booked and hire care booked we were off!
We flew on a practically empty Air transat flight from Newcastle to Toronto. This was because it was the last flight of the season. Coming in to land at Toronto I suddenly panicked......why had I brought the girls over 3,000 miles for a weeks holiday to Canada and in October when I could have popped over to Spain and been on the beach in the sunshine? Not only that but I'd never even been to Collingwood before! However this would be the least of my problems!
Tired after the flight we waited at passport control. I'd chosen the queue with the female officer as she appeared less intimidating......funny how appearances can be so deceptive!
Once we'd been called I gave her the passports and she asked if I had a letter from the children's father giving me permission to take them out of the UK...aargh! When I said I didn't she asked if I could prove they were my children. For a split second I thought of showing her my cesarean scar but found that my mouth had taken over and I was demanding that the girls tell her who I was!! I was so sure she was about to put us on the next flight home that I suggested she ring my husband in the UK. She told me to go through to the area behind the huge glass window (obviously this was so the audience of airline passengers could continue to watch my drama unfold!). The next officer was thankfully very sweet and explained how children disappear all the time. She said she would allow us in but that if we did not catch our return flight an alert would be put out for the children!! I was shaking like a leaf. We grabbed our bags and arrived at the car rental booth where the poor woman behind the counter asked how I was doing so I took that as my cue and poured out my heart to her!!!! She must have taken pity on us because there were squeals from the girls as we collected the car.... a real chick car, the type hubby and son would have hated!




Now all we had to do was find Airport Road..........

Trip 2 continued....

It was the meeting up of family that suddenly opened our eyes up to a way of life that we could only dream about in UK. We were to meet them at a beach on Lake Eerie. It sounded like an impossible feat as we had never been there before and the beach stretched for miles. I have no idea how but we literally arrived on the beach right beside them all!!! It was a Sunday in mid July and the beach was pretty full. My brother in law (BIL) turned up with chairs, sunshades, 2 huge ice boxes and of course a barbeque!! Whilst he cooked chicken legs I ignored the warm tuna sandwiches feebly packed in my bag!! The kids swam, played ball and dug in the sand until the sun started to go down. My BIL told us that when they had lived in Canada before moving over to USA this was a typical Sunday for them before work the next day. As the sun set everyone packed up to head home and not one piece of litter was left on that enormous stretch of beach much to the dismay of a few flocks of hungry seagulls!! Now isn't that the perfect way to start the working week?

We enjoyed the remainder of our holiday and all too soon it was time to return to the UK. I was surprised to find that my eldest daughter was determined to return one day to live in Canada and that she had decided she wanted to attend University in Toronto!! On that flight home I could never have imagined that this was just the start of a permanent move to Canada!

Trip 2

Arriving at Pearson Airport and then driving down the QEW was quite surreal. It was like we had never been away! Our rental house wasn't going to be available for a couple of nights so we were staying in the owners rental apartment in Niagara. I have to say that the area where the apartment was based did border on 'tacky' but we were too tired to really care. Our first task was to try and actually enter the apartment through what was obviously a busted front door....all our bashing of said door eventually brought a resident to our rescue!
The apartment was really nice but the following morning we woke to a real nightmare situation....the bedroom with me, hubby and the then 6 year old was swarming with flying ants!!! They were everywhere; in the beds, the luggage but worst of all my poor kids hair!! Slamming shut the bedroom door we headed to Niagara centre and an available mobile phone network (my mobile only worked in USA so we needed to be near the border!). After a quick call the owner moved us to another apartment and we fell into Perkins for pancakes and coffee!
The kids got to see the Falls, drag me onto the way too high Ferris wheel and managed to cost us a small fortune thanks to Niagara's ridiculous hike up of prices (they must see us tourists coming!!). Eventually we moved into the house and it really was clean and spacious. We spent the rest of the trip exploring the usual tourist traps...Canada Wonderland, Toronto zoo, Kitchener as well as meeting up with family who we hadn't seen for years.........

13 years!

Between 1993 and 2006 we often considered moving to Canada but it was never anything more than a thought. In order to work there we would both need to retake exams which was something neither ofnus felt prepared to do. We did consider other countries; Spain, USA, New Zealand but nothing came of them. New Zealand was simply too far away and the USA would always take second place to Canada.Spain, although a short flight away, had a language barrier and the culture didn't suit us. In fact Canada was the benchmark and no other country ever came close. Had we known that we would eventually be moving there we wouldn't have tortured ourselves so much!

In 2006 we booked a holiday to Ontario, our first since 1993! By now my sister in law had moved to the US so we needed a holiday rental property. I trawled the internet for days and finally found a fab 5 bed roomed house in a place called Collingwood. I emailed the owner and we immediately clicked...like we'd known each other for years. She was English , having emigrated a couple of years earlier. We booked the house and the flights for that July. Unfortunatley a few weeks later we got an email from the owner saying she would have to cancel the booking as the builders of her new home had let her down and they would need the renatl to live in for a few more months. By now we were emailing quite a bit and I completely understood that these things happen. The upshot was that we eventually found another rental near Niagara on the Lake....

Hello Ontario

Our first ever trip trip to Ontario took place in 1993. Me and hubby took a 3 year old and 15 month old to stay with his sister in Brantford....well I think that's the name of the town! As we came into land I remember looking out over this vast country that I knew nothing about and immediately loved it (lol!)....bizzare or what?
Ontario reminded me of the US but whilst it seemed to have the convenience of America it also had the greeness of England and wow was it clean!! We spent 3 weeks doing every tourist trip we could; Niagara, Toronto, Seaworld, London, Kitchener...you name it we did it!! But we also lived the Canadian way of life....barbeque in the garden, supermarket shopping, playing in the park....bliss! It was easy to envy my sister in law and when it was time to head home me and hubby both felt Canada would be a great place to live.
It wasn't meant to be though...we we're just settling in to marriage, kids, jobs, mortgage etc and moving over 3,000 miles away to start over just wasn't feasible. Little did we know then that it would be another 14 years before Canada would become feasible and that we would decide to emigrate!!

The start of the journey

Have decided to start this blog to document my move to Ontario, Canada. I suppose I'm looking ahead to the day when I'm a grey haired old granny and have to explain to my grandkids why me and the family moved from UK. I expect my memory will be shot by then so I'm relying on this blog to explain everything to them!
The 'journey' actually started more than 14 years ago although the immigration process began in May 2007. Over the next few weeks I will have to backtrack to present day otherwise this blog will make little sense......