Canadian Observations

Hello from the middle of the countryside in Beautiful British Columbia. where after weeks and weeks I finally found some time to write a few words. The sensible thing for me to do would be to fill you in with all the fun things that I have been up to since I last blogged, such as the walk along the Monsal Trail, Thomas' Baptism, Cropready. I will get round them, in between job hunting and investigating the 40 acres of land our apartment is on.

I thought I would list out all things I have found out so far.

1. Don't try and land (activate your permanent residence visa) in August as all of he foreign Students are arriving and the Immigration officers are stressed

2. Car hire does not come with insurance, insurance is expensive!

3. The apartment is huge (compared to 1bed room apartments in the UK)

4. I have blueberries, blackberries, and apple in my garden and possibly kiwi's and grapes

5. The neighbours are really friendly

6. There is no sign of bears (phew) but there is signs of cougars!

7. Walmart (asda) sells everything but food.

8. Everyone says 'your welcome' a lot.

9. It is cheaper to buy a new printer then it is buy replacement ink

10. Store cards give you approx 15% - 20% off your shopping if look out for the deals

Here is the view from the balcony our pas, I will enter the woods later...

Social life

It has been a week of doing stuff and meeting people, and a very nice week it has been.

On Monday I meet my brother and his family in Birmingham, so watch my nephew sing in the Music for youth festival (http://www.mfy.org.uk/coreseason/national). They where very good and so where all the other contestants.

In the evening we had the 'Monday Group' round for games and wine. They were also very patient and supportive as I sort out my insurance claim

Thursday we went to London to hand in are passports. While waiting to go into the embassy a lady approach Wayne and said that she recognised him from the forum so he felt a bit famous. after we handed are passports in and picked up are raffle ticket (high tech!) we went to Islington and met Kevin and Ollie, who used to play a well known online game. Kevin has just that his own business and Ollie is trying to become a sound engineer. They both had different jobs which they didn't really like. I was very impressed with there courage and wish them both good luck.

We had a little walk round Marble Arch and Oxford street before heading home.

Friday we went to Lucy and Paul's for a bbq and met you with lot of people we haven't seen for a while. We left them drinking marshmallow vodka, which smelt sickly.

Saturday and we were in Birmingham again, meeting with Brandi and Tasha. We chilled by the canal and then went for Japanese food. The food was cooked in front of us which was very impressive and it was very yummy.

Today is lunch with the inlaws, which brings us back to Monday again!

19 Holes

Well...I am always up for trying new things and yesterday I found myself on a golf course swinging some bats (clubs) and trying to play a game I don't/didn't understand.

It is a game all about consistency and accuracy - two things I am not particularly good with sport. I blame weak arms. It was fun and required a lot of concentration. I learnt that I need more power in my drives and less in my putting.

I think I could play again ... but maybe not very often.

We then deiced to visit the 19th hole for a spot of lunch, which ended up with us staying in pub(s) most of the afternoon and at Stu and Helen's. We watched Withnail and I, Wayne fell asleep but did amuse us by talking in his sleep.

An awesome unplanned Saturday.

London Adventure

We have just have two days London, learning about how to find a job in Canada, (if you are interested then you can read about it here http://get2canada.wordpress.com/our-ciip-experience/)

While not having our brains overloaded with very useful information, we found a pub that sold 2 drinks for £10 pounds. We are went to a very nice Thai restaurant and went to see The Women in Black. An awesome and dramatic ghost story with a few dramatic and scary moments which where made worse by a group of 14 year old girls who screamed at every little thing. The story was very good however the ending a little obvious.
The elder actor was Patrick Drury - and I spent a while trying to place where I had seen him before and it turns out he was in Father Ted.

He was the shop keeper John O'Leary, who always argued with his wife, a very different role from this one.

bargain?

We did another carboot sale today and I can now spot a buyer, from a browser, from a bargain hunter from a chancer.

Buyers - attack your car before you unpacked it - looking for anything collectible. Their favourite thing is to ask have you got any instruments, Lego, mobile phones...

Browsers - these are the people that come to see what other are selling, they maybe looking for a specific item but generally just like to have a look a round. Most people fall in to this category.

Bargain hunters - these are regular at car bots an will knock some money usually 50p off whatever you say the price is. this is not to bad cos as a seller you have just added an additional 50p to the price.

Chancers - these people amaze me, the will ask for a ridiculous amount items. A lady next to us was selling a large piece material, which could have made several cushions and she had told us earlier in the day that she wanted to get rid of it so was selling it cheap - 30p. She was asked how much, said 30 p and chancer said that was too expensive!

Another lady was selling cushions at 50 p each (a reasonable price for a cushion), when asked the price she said '50p each' the chancer then said "50p for 5"!

Finally, in a personal case, we had a fan heater that we where selling a 3 pounds, we were asked how much? "£3" we said - 50p said one guy, £1 said another Chancers! "no" we said.

It surprises me every time we sell stuff, that what we think are good/bargain prices then some others think are ridiculous high and will chance their arm with a stupidly low price.

Steve and Lucy's Wedding

On the 21st may My cousin Steve married Lucy at the Esplanade hotel, Newquay with wonderful views of Fistral beach.

Steve was very nervous but is all went wonderfully well and a awesome time was had by all.

I have just been looking through the photographer's photo and have found an awesome one of my mum with Lucy's bouquet (and she didn't even have to catch it) and a very nice family pic.

The photographer, allows free downloads for facebook (and blogs!) which I thought was a great idea.

A great day was had by all and Wayne and I wish they lots of happiness in their married life.

Hello

Yo!

I am back.

It has been a busy year and a bit since I last posted.

The biggest news is that we are imigrating to Canada and have lots of fun sorting out the visas.

Will update you about that later and then keep you all updated as to how it is all going shortly.

speak to you sooner than last time.