The House

Today I woke up to the wife calling at about 8:30am. Could have done with more kip as I'd had such a rough night, but getting up was good. Anyway I think I have sort of sorted the heating. I think I just had the temperature too low, about 14C. I stuck it up to 30C, need some work on this, it's now BOILING in here, and I'm sure is costing a lot to keep it this hot – too hot – all day. The fan keeps coming on and is very noisy, so there must be more to it, however at least I'll be warm tonight.

Here's some pictures of the house I took this morning. I went to the basement and found an old chair which I cleaned up and using the shoe rack as a table.

There's a nice big hallway.

Very good size fridge and freezer. The kitchen unit are a bit cack, they are hand built and need a good scrub :)

The cooker is gas - woot!, it's got a Nice bi oven, but sadly no grill... will have to invest in a George Foreman and a toaster.... and a rotisserie...

As you can see I'm living with my mess tins for camping at the moment, don't want to buy lots of pans etc. as it's all on it's way over.

This is taken from the main living room, nice open plan into the hallway and stairs. The only bad thing about this room is the lack of decoration, it's like they were starting to strip the paint to restore it to natural wood - the stairs look like they've been done, they're very nice, but this room still has bare stripped wood with flecks of paint giving an unfinished feel to it. I'm not bothered by this anymore though. One window is slightly open - bad times as it's -5C out, I have packed it with plastic bags and some foam I found in the cellar, no draft now - I think it's frozen shut at the moment, will probably have to wait for the thaw before it will close proper :)

The 'master' bedroom. Not quite as big as the other bedroom, but has en suite to the bathroom

The bathroom has been done up recently, nice tiles and new, clean sink, toilet and bath. Though that towel rail is pantz! The walls are all plasterboard or dry wall. As such nearly every fitting is loose and falling off the wall :) That's the last time I'll hang 2 towels on it, that's for sure!

There's a nice utility room next to the bathroom with washer and dryer. I have bought some Tide,ready for when Kath gets here to do my washing :)

This is the other bedroom, Hayden's room. Though we may have to take this instead as for some reason there is NO HEATING at all pumped into here! \0/
The fact that I had it on 30C and the doors open, means it's now warm enough in there, but if the door is closed over, then it'll get very cold. Will speak to Glen about this, but doubt he'll install heating to it if he hasn't already.
However we don't pay for electric, it's included in the rent, so I'll probably get an electric radiator or something and rack up the electricity bill - not having Hayden freeze in here.

Lastly, the porch. This is very large, large enough in fact to store our bikes which is very pleasing.

Charlottetown

Charlottetown has no customs whatsoever. I can honestly say it's the fastest air port I've ever gotten out of. I made it slower by taking pictures of the plane I flew from Halifax in…

… and the air port exit – the only one.

Glen, from Charlottetown was there with his fiancé Roselyn to meet me – yay he exists after all, and not only that, but a bloody nice chap coming to pick me up.

My luggage was already out on the belt and all I'd done is literally walked from the plane you see above and through the walkway.

I was so surprised by this I forgot to take a picture of the huge cow that greets you... no really there's a huge cow as you walk in!!!
It took just less than ½ an hour to drive to the house and they were very keen to point out EVERYTHING on the way and explain stuff. This was great at putting me at ease and preparing me for tomorrow.
Snow everywhere, but is wasn't 'too' cold, about -3C.

And here's my new home...

I was very tired by this point, I'd been awake and travelling about 17 hours and the house worried me. It's very rough around the edges, paint peeling, unfinished decoration. It was pretty bleak to enter, thoughts like 'oh crap, we've gotta get out of here by the next 12 months!'.

Luckily, after Glen had left I didn't have much time at all to dwell on this or start panicking.

Gordon, a guy from Other Ocean, one who interviewed me, had also offered to pick me up from the air port, but as I needed the get from Glen that seemed more prudent. Anyway, he'd arranged with some other staff from Other Ocean to go out for a meal, which I didn't want to cancel as I felt an 'informal' introduction would be better than the nerve wracking entrance on Monday morning to complete strangers.

They turned up just 15 minutes later at 8:30pm and took me to a supermarket where I was able to buy a duvet set, cleaning stuff and some essential foods, like breakfast etc. to tide me over until tomorrow. Then we went to a Pasta and Pizza bar for grub and beer.

Amazingly they serve Stella, so I ordered a pint. It did NOT taste like Stella, I commented on this, the lad went away, and then said he also felt it had a weird after taste and he'd sort it out for me. I thought that this meant he'd change the barrel, but Tara said that means I'll get it free. Which I did! I didn't even complain, just commented on it. Apparently bars, restaurants and so forth do that here, if you don't feel completely satisfied - calling the manager and making a fuss, just simply sorted. Was the food great... nothing special, would I go back, hell yeah! Not for free stuff, in fact I tipped the guy $5 anyway - which is what the beer cost :)

Anyway the Other Ocean staff turned out to be a fairly young bunch, Matthew is a lad from India and just swears at the top of his voice all the time - it was very funny. They seemed to use hi as a punch bag, but he was more than happy to accept. It took my mind off the enormity of the situation and the move and I had a good time.

By the time I got home I was so tired I didn't care about the house and just went to sleep.

However I did not know how the heating worked, by 4am I was awake and freezing cold. I managed to get it turned on, but it seemed to be dumping out cold air on me.

Not a good nights sleep - and the cheap duvet I bought was well thin!

I’m Flying Man

Left at 6:30am this morning to fly out to Halifax. Got to Heathrow in plenty of time and checked in, then had breakfast with the family.
Hayden got some little bugs to play with, toys from a magazine, which he was walking up the arm of the chair.


I took this whilst flying over Nova Scotia


I had to wait 4 hours in Halifax, which was a good job as it took me 1 ½ hours to clear customs. These Canadians have no problem chatting, and I finally got my proper work permit, something that looks like a certificate of importance.
The welcome and customs area of Halifax airport is nice and has a Wright brothers plane hanging from the ceiling…

…and a waterfall!

Halifax airport has an observation deck so you can look out onto the airfield.

PERMITS!!!!

I got TICKETS... Ain't I?!!!

Finally! My Work Permit has arrived!!

La la la la laa la, la la la la laa la!!!! Going to Can-a-da, la la la la laa la!

I have re-booked my flights for tomorrow morning, flying out at 11:00 from Heathrow. Left a text message with Glen so that hopefully I can get the keys for the house.

I will arrive at around 19:30 (Halifax time), which is 4 hours behind us in the UK, so will around midnight here when I'm getting into Charlottetown proper.

Can't wait, will have to say goodbye to the boy and spend today with him... but, at last!!!

So, February's blog will be much more full of fun and adventure. I will find a coffee shop and update the blog as often as I can - stay tuned!

As JR would say... "So long everybody!"

Homeless...

White And Co came yesterday, wrapped up our life and shipped it to Canada.

They did a very quick job, below is our front room full of boxes. They came at 7:30am and by 2:00pm had all the major stuff packed.

They came back today to finish the big things, like the table and sofa and...

Bikes!! What awesome wrapping!

It has been a very stressful period, with many heavy nights....

Tonight we cleaned the house up ready for our new tenant and moved in with dad.

What have we done!!?

I have sent another £900 to Glen in Charlottetown for January and February's rent. A house I've not even seen yet, and I've paid 3 months rent for!!!

On Monday White & Co. removal company come to take the entire contents of our house and ship it to Canada.

On 1st February a tenant moves into our house, leaving us in a really shite situation.

Here we are, successful teachers earning over £60K between us, and because of this whole venture, we now find ourselves - without a home, unemployed and Kath soon to be unemployed come Easter. We've sold/given away tons of our decent stuff which we cannot take with us and now... I sit here with nothing.

Of course, optimism still creeps in occasionally saying 'it'll all be great'... but in reality, if this all goes pear shaped, like my Permit is denied or some crap... what have we done!!?

Frustrated

Really frustrating now, decisions that were made when this all began start to feel rushed, changing things now seems to feel a mistake.

It's all got to second guessing it all. Renting, Purchases, Flights, Timing, Maintenance - you name it, everything seems on edge right now.

It's Friday in a minute, which means unless I get my Permit tomorrow morning in the post, another weekend creeps by and I don't get to go to Canada or start programming.

Recieved absolutely NO e-mails today, and ... well, it's worrying, when you're on edge lik this, more second guessing and stress - 'Am I missing important information?', 'What if I need to send a document?', 'Why?'

It's ALL pantz!!!!!!

ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

Stressed!!

Still no Work Permit, it's now been 2 weeks since I should have flown to Canada.
I've been unemployed now for 2 weeks and lost that amount of pay, all because the Canadian High Commission are taking far longer than they said, with no explanation.

I sent them a begging e-mail on Monday, but yesterday I got a non-committal response, saying it's 'awaiting' review by a visa officer. God knows how long it'll be!

On the 'plus' side, I managed to invite Dave and Big Si down, and Nutter came round for an epic Talisman game all day long, with plenty of coffee, beer and rotisserie chickens.



Big Si actually seemed to enjoy being a Minster!


Just like an unemployed bum who might soon end up on Jeremy Kyle, I ignored the boy and the wife all day and stayed up drinking until 6am...

This coming Monday the removal people are coming to the house to take our entire contents to Canada... and I'm not even there yet!!

Very stressed indeed now.... :(

Blog Hijacked!!

Pah!
The Wife hijacked my Blog from my laptop - it won't happen again!

Yes a bit of a nightmare with these Work Permits, hopefully it's now approved and should be here next week.
I'm getting very anxious now to get to Prince Edward Island and start programming, getting more nervous also as it feels a bit anti-climactic.

Like I have more to live up to now with all this delay, I'd better be worth it, to the company!
They're good about it, but of course won't start paying me until I'm there, which means the more time that passes the more screwed we get financially.

Perhaps the February blog will actually be about Canada!

This is the wifes first and last blog entry, at least until April! What a couple of days its been, finally got someone hopefully to rent our home from the 2nd February and finally able to contact visa office via email...they are responding!
I now have a bog standard visa application, fine with me no plans to work too soon when arriving in PEI. Hopefully this means that Raj will have his visa in time to fly in the next 2 weeks! He is however planning to make full use of his BUM time...already invited freinds to a Talisman session!

Status Update

And we are STILL.... Waiting!!!
As Mr Pointer would say.

No change, no photos, no news about Canada or Charlottetown...
If it comes late this week or by Monday I will try to fly next Tuesday 20th.

Tune in next week!!!

(Sorry, this has turned out to be a bit of an anti -climactic start to my otherwise hilarious and informative blog)

No change...

Work Permit still not here :(

Will probably not be able to fly now until after the weekend at least. The good thing is that I can still help sort out affairs, there was much to be done, that hopefully I can sort over these coming days.... but after tomorrow, I'll be officially - unemployed!
Hopefully it'll arrive early next week and I can get out mid week, perhaps starting at Other Ocean late next week - but I get the feeling it'll be at least until Monday 19th before I can start.... a week as a bum!!

Hmmm.....

...No....

No, on second thoughts I shall not go to Canada tomorrow.... it is a silly idea!

Steady....

VERY STEADY!
Some BITCH on the Canadian High Commission phone has told me now that I will 'probably' not be able to apply for my work permit as I enter Canada, as I will be flagged as 'under process' in London. This could result in me being turned away, having to fly back to London and wait and book another flight out once the Work Permit arrives.

It's supposed to take 6 weeks, and this is week 6. No doubt Xmas and New Year has delayed it all. They are extremely unhelpful and the bitch hung up on me... how rude and unproffessional can you get!

The safest course of action right now is to delay my flight (at a cost of course), and wait maybe 1 or 2 weeks until they send the Work Permit back.

SODS LAW states: if you delay your flight today, your work permit will arrive tomorrow.

So... very steady, and unlikely that the next post title will be what was intended... :(

Ready...

Xmas come and gone.

Spent New Year in Plymouth and said goodbye to all of Kath's side of the family. Started to hit home finally saying real goodbyes to people.

Saw my closest friends on Friday, to say goodbye, that got a bit emotional. I am honoured by these reactions, but strangely I'm not yet feeling any sense of loss or worry. I know that my friends and family will be here if it all goes pear shaped, next week or in 20 years. That's a great comfort.

The last of the family and friends came round for a final game of poker (which I lost), and now I look forward to spending tomorrow and Wednesday with the boy and Kath only before I leave them for 3 months :(

It's very stressful trying to sort things out last minute. Selling the Skyline has become a nightmare, much in the house to still be done, but worse than anything - my Work Permit is still not here!!!

I fly in 3 days time, I need it within the next 2!!.
Not looking good.