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.