Rabbit Hill

There you are, clearing up your desk and emptying your pencil sharpener before leaving the workplace for Christmas and before you know it the New Year comes knocking on your door. Where does the holiday go to? Here in Canada it seems to pass almost uncelebrated, at least it appears to be if you happen to venture outside for a look around the neighbourhood. There simply is nobody there. Everyone, as mentioned in a previous episode, simply hunkers down with their egg nog (which is quite delicious actually) and rides it out within the confines of their own home. Now don't get me wrong, Canadians, although not appearing to be the most extrovert people on the planet, do enjoy a good shindig. We were invited around to our friend's house for a pre-big day party and as we left at midnight to put the kids to bed, the others were just warming up. It's just that there is no apparent feeling of the Christmas booze-up that is a big part of the British culture. Therein lies the difference. Canadians do not booze. They drink with plenty of joie-de-vivre but are always keeping one eye on their alcohol intake. They like a drink, but it does not form a cornerstone of their society. Consequently, Christmas becomes more a family gathering to exchange gifts, eat good food and celebrate the day as it was originally intended. They don't stuff themselves blind and drink themselves into a stupor before the Queen's speech.

As it happens, Christmas in the Palmer household passed off very agreeably. The usual format, wrapping paper being rendered from presents, a well-cooked lunch, a modicum of wine and an evening in front of the telly. Boxing day was similar, a peaceful time playing 'Operation' and 'Connect 4' with your eldest, chasing your youngest in and out of the new 'Dora the Explorer' play house and generally chilling out. The other, most marvellous invention, is talking and seeing your extended family on Skype. All you need is a broadband connection, a webcam and a magic piece of free software and suddenly the miles across the ocean simple melt away..........The sight of daughters waggling their newly opened presents at overawed grandparents is an image that will never fade. Oh yes, and it snowed. Real white fluffy snow falling in its own random, floating way, up to about a foot thick. On Christmas Day. Eat your heart out London...

However, once the immediate celebrations are over, thoughts turn to one subject - what do we do now until we go back to work/school? Out here, with the snow thick and resplendent, there is really only one answer - skiing. Edmonton, being on that indeterminate stretch of geology between the prairies of Saskatchewan and the mountains of British Colombia is neither flat nor mountainous. It is about three to four hours from the nearest main ski resort of Jasper but we have our own mini resort just 30 mins down the highway and its name is Rabbit Hill. It isn't huge and the ski equipment you hire is not great but hey, who's complaining? Claire booked Charlotte into a three day ski lesson programme and yesterday we headed off with the appropriate clothing for a day on the slopes. What fun! Charlotte seemed to have a good time, we got some skiing in and all for a reasonable cost. Tomorrow is the last of the three days and hopefully it will result in a confidence boost for Charlotte in advance of our trip to BC in April next year. It may be cold, it may be limited but we are skiing in our new hometown. Things don't get much better than that.

...now this was harder that first thought. You have just made, literally, a life changing decision and now you must impart your reasoning for this to your parents and friends. Claire was direct and upfront and explained everything immediately. I just prevaricated and left everything to the last minute. Reactions varied from the 'why are you doing this' to the 'I don't blame you' but ultimately everyone had to accept that our decision was made. Of course, the decision was made for all the reasons previously explained and not as some massive conspiracy. We genuinely wanted to go to Canada for real reasons and now all that was left to do was get the go ahead from the Canadian Immigration Centre and finalise our arrangements. In March 2007 we were told that our immigration application was being processed and in April, the WMO was given the all clear.

Christmas looms (2)

Work winds down for the holidays, trees are decorated, shopping continues. Only 4 days to go and still no sign of any gift ideas for Claire. I might have to undertake desperate measures - actually ask her what she wants...Everybody here is certainly full of the Christmas spirit, cheerfulness abounds. Everytime somebody leaves work they send out a round robin email with a favourite photo, attachment or witty comment and wishes for a great Christmas. Incidentally, the C word is used, I'm pleased to say, much more than the H word which so often spreads like a disease amongst American culture. That's Christmas and Holidays, in case you were wondering.

We also now have a web cam installed so that we can visually communicate with the folks across the pond. Now if we only knew someone in the UK who actually had a web cam too. Actually we do, my mother-in-law for one, although her first attempts at receiving a video call went rather pear shaped as we could see her, but she could not see us. Hopefully, the gremlins will be exorcised before Christmas day.

Charlotte has finished Kindergarden for the term so is now home terrorising Claire full time instead of part time. Eleanor has discovered that if you chase cats around they run away a lot and has received more than one warning paw across the bows. We are also making plans for a skiing holiday in Vancouver in April where we hope to meet up with some friends from the UK for a 10 day slide down the slopes.

Well, back to the gift hunting. In case I don't blog before the big day, I would like to wish everyone a happy and joyful Christmas and to all of you who read this rambling excuse for a blog a big thank you and to all of you who don't, why not?

Christmas looms

With all the moving in, we have rather overlooked the fact that Christmas is fast approaching and we haven't even hung a solitary piece of tinsel yet. Amazingly, I did remember to send off a few cards, not as many as normal but then we did have to have them stamped and posted by the 3rd December. Considering that we don't normally post any cards at all until the week before, this was a minor miracle. Next we have to buy a tree and some new lights as well as the small problem of presents. I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up last minute shopping at the local gas station. As for presents for those back in blighty - they may have to wait until the New Year!

Our neighbours, for the most part, have already engaged their battery of external Christmas lights. Over here, excess is the key word. Why bother to string up a few pathetic looking coloured bulbs around that small fir tree in your front garden when you can floodlight the front of your house with stars, icicles, inflatable santas, blinking reindeer, illuminated steam trains, rows of minature elves, full sized fir trees ablaze with lights and my particular favourite, a full size sleigh and team of reindeer atop the roof. It does create a very pretty neighbourhood, but boy, the Alberta power drain must be pretty severe.

Talking of neighbours, ours seem to be conspicuous by their absence. We have seen them from afar a couple of times, but the weather drives them indoors before we have a chance to say hi. Apparently, this is a bad time to meet people. Everyone drives everywhere and as soon as they approach the house, they punch the control for the automatic door openers, drive inside and then automatically shut the doors as well. We have met one neighbour who very kindly collected our mail for us, but she couldn't stop. On the whole though, the close seems deserted most of the time. Claire says we should send them all a Christmas card introducing ourselves and inviting them round whenever they want to. I think this is a good idea. Of course we may find out that they all prefer not to meet us because we are suspicious looking and have somehow offended them by clearing our driveways the wrong way or something. Maybe protocol demands that we make the first approach or maybe they just want to be left the hell alone. It is a political nightmare. Get it right and we could make friends for life, get it wrong and we could end up as the neighbourhood pariahs. We'll see.

As it happened, three days into my trip to Canada, Stantec duly came up with an offer. It was a good one with plenty of benefits including a substantial re-location allowance. A phone call home to discuss what to do and then the decision was made. Accept and prepare for our new life. So I did. If we got cold feet, we thought, I could always cite some excuse to pull out. Returning home we embarked on more research and a status report on the passage of our immigration application. Stantec needed to apply for my work permit and something called a WMO, a work market opinion. This was a statement to the Canadian Immigration Council explaining the case for offering a post to a non-Canadian citizen and why the position could not be filled by an Albertan. This was expected to take three months. Once that was given the green light, we allowed three more months for house selling, notice at work and all the preparations. So our start date in Canada was early July 2007. The clock was ticking and all we needed to do now was tell our friends and, more importantly, our families....

Oh, the weather outside is frightful....

Forgive me Father, it has been several days since my last blog. I could use the excuse that it is so cold outside that my journeys into work have left me devoid of all feeling in my extremities and my limbs subsequently refuse to work. Needless to say, things aren't that drastic. It is simply that the process of moving in to our new home has left us neck high in boxes both packed and unpacked and in the limited time available to me at the moment, I haven't had time to get any blogging in.

As if anticipating our weekend move, the thermometer decided to head south. The peak daytime temperature manages to stagger to about -18C, whilst at night it drops to about -25C. It also decided to snow. After a few days of fall we now have about 6 inches in average. The real impact of this became only too apparent last week when I indulged in one of the less enjoyable Canadian traditions - the clearing of the driveway of snow. Claire did help, she bought me the snow shovel, but I think it is fair to say that the actual snow moving was carried out by me. Now, when it snows, every householder has a civic duty to clear not only their own paths and driveways, but also the public footpath running alongside their property. So there was I, in sub-zero temperatures, dressed up so that only a pair of eyes was showing, shovelling snow until all was clear. This was fine until a day later, yes, you're way ahead of me here - it snowed again. I have resisted the urge to grab my snow shovel a second time. However, I'm now the only householder who hasn't got a clear driveway in my immediate neighbourhood so guess what I will be doing later....
The Canadians, of course, treat all of this with their usual laissez-faire. Walking to the transit stop at 6.45am, I observed at least half-a-dozen residents busily and seemingly effortlessly, clearing away. More worryingly, there were even more driveways already cleared. God only knows what time in the morning that happened.

Anyway, back to the move. We said our goodbyes to Ken and Doreen, our most wonderful hosts for these last weeks at Ellesmere Drive, promising to stay in touch and drove the short distance to Lauralcrest Drive. Our new home. The best thing though was that Max and Merlin, our two moggies, were sprung from their cattery and ceremoniously carried through the door to be released. They are destined to remain indoors for the duration of the winter but after some initial trepidation, both seemed to have made themselves at home. It is good to have them back. The cable guy turned up and installed tv, phones and internet as promised, furniture has arrived and all that is left for us to do is unpack. I say all, have you seen the number of boxes we brought over with us?

So I travelled up to London for the interviews in October 2006. They went well and I was confident that at least one of them would be interested. I was right. A week later, I received a positive response from Stantec inviting myself and Claire over to Canada for a further interview and a first look at our proposed new home. After some discussion, it was clear that it would be impractical to leave the children with someone for a week, so reluctantly Claire conceded to remain at home whilst I went on the trip. For some reason, we had both considered Calgary as our final destination, so it was slightly off-plan to consider Edmonton as the city of choice. Meanwhile, our application for permanent residency was still in the system with March 2007 as the target date for processing. We still hadn't told anyone of our intentions yet as there was still some indecision despite the time and money already conceded. Now it became apparent that a final decision approached. If Stantec made me an offer - do we go?

Moving in

Yesterday we moved in to our new home. Well, actually I need to clarify that a bit. I was at work, the container with all our wordly goods arrived (I think these were the ones I promised to endow to Claire when we got married) and Claire and the kids started to move in. By the end of the day, the house was full of boxes, re-assembled furniture, toys and general mess. The unpacking crew waved a cheery goodbye, complimented us on our choice of home and then left. The girls then returned to Ellesmere Drive, where we are temporarily billeted. The man from the Cable Company is coming next week to install our tv and cable, telephone and internet, we have a tv, computer and phones to buy, not to mention additional furniture. One disadvantage of being able to afford a larger house is that you don't have enough existing stuff to go round. Anyway, the result of all this is that we are moving in by degrees, culminating in a final pack-up and push next Sunday. Then we truly will be residents of Lacombe Park, St. Albert, Alberta.

A little catch-up. Charlotte, we are pleased and proud to report, has taken to her new school like a duck to water and loves it. She is full of her (half) days activities and has already started making friends. It is only a matter of time before there are mass invasions at our house, sleep-overs and invites to join the school fund-raising committee.

Our new car is performing admirably, we have even discovered some features on it we did not know we had. An automatic tailgate and a rear-parking sensor being the latest. Now all we have to do is pay for it. A delay in the payment of my relocation expenses is the culprit. The Stantec internal system does not allow for instantaneous payment of 30,000 dollars - nor should it really.

Work is good. A trip to Fort McMurray in the north of the province looms. The days are full of coffee, doughnuts, chats by the coffee-maker and occasionally, a little work. Seriously, Stantec, like many Canadian firms I suspect, take work seriously up to the point where it interferes with any excuse for free sandwiches and doughnuts. Take last week. In my email I had an invite to a charity drive with free burgers (Friday), to celebrate the lighting of the Christmas tree (next week), an opportunity to meet the Big Boss - with free breakfast (Tuesday) and so on. Stantec have also arranged a kid's Christmas party at the West Edmonton Mall next month. Work is work, but the guys at Stantec seriously know how to party.

Oh yes, I had a major discovery yesterday. No, not the pot of marmite that I yearn for, but my digital camera! Yes, discovered in a box marked 'photo equipment'. So, no major surprises there then. Now all I have to do is to work out how to upload photos into the blog and I'll be laughing.....

It wasn't long before a response arrived from the CEA. Two companies were interested in bringing me in for an interview. The first was a company called Morrison Hershfield out of Calgary and the second was a consulting engineer based in Edmonton - Stantec.

A day of rest?

Today was our real first day off. After the last weeks of house hunting, car buying and generally running around like chickens with no heads we decided Sunday would be a day of fun. A trip to Edmonton city zoo was in order. Now, weekends in winter are strange days here in Canada. The temperature drops, the populace hunker down in their basements, go to the shopping mall, hit the indoor places generally. What they don't do, apparently, is go out. Or rather, go outside. The roads are empty, the playing fields and parks deserted and the zoo completely underwhelmed. We could count the number of cars in the parking lot on the cold fingers of one gloved hand. Most of the animals had been moved inside, the rides and activities halted but the zoo was still a very pleasant place. We were treated to a one on one with an armadillo, and watched an elephant paint. It was cold, but good fun.

Tomorrow is a big day. Charlotte starts school. Actually, that is a little misleading. She actually goes backwards and re-starts kindergarten - from 9am to 12pm. The worry is, she'll be bored stiff. You see, in Canada, they start school 1 year later than in the UK. Charlotte would need to be 6 to start grade 1, which she had already started back in England, but as she is only 5, she must go into kindergarten until next year when she can start grade 1 - again. Following this? Good, there will be questions later. We went to see the school last week. The Ronald Harvey Elementary School. Everyone was perfectly lovely as expected. Charlotte was reticent. She says she wants to go, she seems keen, but....there is always the difference between expectation and reality. We'll see.

We complete on the house tomorrow. Unfortunately our container with our wordly goods is in Montreal, in pieces, being custom inspected. We need a phone line, internet, tv, computer. Utilities need to be connected. I suppose the first thing would be to find out exactly who the utilities are, let alone arrange to get them connected. I really must get my mobile phone sorted as well. Ah yes, today's day off may be the last for a while..

Movin' and cruisin'

I have to say, as bank balances go, ours is looking a little on the sick side. Not quite intensive care sick, more a little TLC sick. This is not a surprising state of affairs. When you move to a different country to live and you have parted with your house, car and worldly electrical possessions, then what is it you must do when you hit the beaches on the other side? Yep, that's it, buy a house, car and more worldly electrical possessions. Now, as most people know, buying houses and cars can be stressful experiences. When you buy a house and a car in the same week, the stress meter buried deep in your head is turned to overload.

First, the house. We have probably seen over 30 houses in 4 weeks. Most of them were too small, too much in need of renovating and the real big problem - virtually no garden, or 'back yard' as we have come to know it. Now, this is the thing with houses here in Canada. They have well designed, open plan living areas, enormous garages, furnaces that would power the QE2, well appointed bathrooms, bonus rooms that would accommodate a platoon of infantry quite nicely and plenty of storage and.... miniscule gardens. The reason for this, it would seem, is quite simple. Nobody uses them. Oh yes, they have bi-level decks with hot tubs and seating for eight, but no garden. Most of the houses we saw, especially the new developments (of which there are many - St. Albert is a rapidly expanding community) have back gardens so small, that if you stood on the deck and reached over the rail, you could touch the back boundary fence. The exception to this are the acreage properties out of St. Albert, these have large properties on large lots. Therein lies the problem. The lots are often too large, requiring an army of gardeners to keep it straight, exposed in winter and isolated from most of civilization.

So there we were, requiring a 4-bedroom house with a decent sized back yard. We did find one, a property I mentioned earlier, in Grandin Park. We made an offer, we thought about the reworking we would need to do, we got cold feet, we pulled out. Now, at last we have it. A four bedroom property, only 4 years old, in a great cul-de-sac location, fully fitted out, an attached triple garage, a large back yard with lawns, flower beds and a fire pit, a fully fitted basement, a good size deck and a road name to go with it - Laurelcrest Place. We have bought it, got the mortgage, signed the papers and we move in on Saturday week. Yes, they do not mess about in the property business in Canada.

Which is more than you can say for the car business. The world over, car salesmen are a special breed. Full of charm, spiel and that killer sales technique. Canada is no different, except that most of the salesmen we encountered looked like they had either appeared on The Sopranos or had walked straight from the set of The Godfather. Down to the black Crombie coats. We had decided, one car was enough for now, what with me taking the transit, but we needed a specific vehicle. It needed front or 4 wheel drive to deal with the snowy winters. It needed more than 5 seats for the inevitable child hauling, it needed all the usual stuff, cruise control, electric windows (not that you would open them most of the year) , climate control, etc, etc. New cars were an unnecessary expense we thought, so a low mileage, pre-used SUV/wagon was just the job. Several shady dealers later and having seen almost as many cars as houses, we found it. A Chrysler Pacifica Tourer. It looks good, it drives well, it has the required speciifcation and it was the right price. So thank you Michael at City Ford (or Micky, to his 'family'). Let us hope the warranty is as trustworthy as your smile....Watch this space.

The advertisement was from the Consulting Engineers of Alberta. It was almost as if the ad was tailored for a potential emigrant waiting for his application to be processed. The opportunity could not be wasted. It stated that several engineering companies were holding closed interviews throughout October in London. It invited you to submit your c.v electronically for consideration. You would then be informed what companies, if any, wished to interview you. The job range was huge, from structural engineering to petro-chemical. Amongst the names in the list of companies attending were several I recognised from my initial searches. I duly uploaded my now updated c.v., received an acknowledgement and sat back and waited.

First on the ice

We seem to have suddenly got very busy. It's probably noticeable from the lack of meaningful blogging. In the last week Claire and Charleymunchkin have started skating lessons, we've been to the Canada Finals Rodeo, we have bought a house, work continues to intensify, car hunting has now replaced house hunting and well, life here continues to surprise and delight.

Claire decided to learn to skate. I suppose it's something that I should do really, as it would be difficult to call yourself a true Canadian if you couldn't lace on a pair of skates without falling on your backside. Everyone does it in the winter on the frozen lakes and rivers and in the impressive indoor arenas that abound out here. Anyway, Claire's first lesson went swimmingly, well, skatingly and she avoided the ignominy of picking herself up after falling flat on her face. It won't be long before the call of a double Lutz becomes too strong for her to resist I fear... Charlotte followed with her lesson on the Wednesday and after the usual pre-session nerves she was towed onto the ice by the instructor. We did think that one fall and she would collapse in a puddle of tears and want to be carried off - Oh ye of little faith. She loved it. It was only a half-hour lesson, but in that time she learnt to stand up, move forward and fall properly. It bodes well for skiing later anyway. So well done all round.

The highlight of the week for Claire and I undoubtedly though was our evening at the Canadian Finals Rodeo. I had been invited to go on the Thursday night by the Edmonton Economic Development Council. These were the people that arranged for Stantec and a host of other Canadian firms to come over to London last year. They also passed my cv over to the Consulting Engineers of Alberta, which set me on the path to my current job. Every year they arrange a night out for their successful candidates and this year it was to the rodeo. Yeehaaa! It was held at Roxall Place, a vast indoor arena which is normally home to the Edmonton Oilers, the local NHL ice hockey team. This time, they had replaced the ice with a dirt arena and had set up gates and pens at either end. We had a private box, with food, drink, popcorn and the highest seats in the house. It was an awesome night, with bronco riding, steer wrestling, roping and my personal favourite, bull riding. Oh yes.

This was Canada at her most enjoyable, her people at their most relaxed. More cowboy hats than you could shake a stick at. Open hearted warmth abounded. The food and drink franchises selling anything from Alberta sized hot dogs to skips full of popcorn. Beer was bought and drunk without any of the nervous undercurrent you normally associate with organized events and alcohol. Large men with pink cowboy shirts ('You have to be tough to wear pink' was this years' motto - all proceeds to cancer research) rode and fell off bucking horses. Cowgirls raced around the arena, teams of young bucks showed off their roping skills and the biggest bulls you have ever seen charged around and menaced everything in sight. It was tremendous fun and Claire and I agreed that this was just one of many reasons why emigrating out here is turning out to be a good decision.

Oh yes, we bought a house too. More of that later.

So the application sat in the offices of the Canadian High Commission and awaited its turn. Meanwhile, life for the Palmer family continued as normal. I went to work, Charlotte went to school, our lives seemingly in a sort of limbo. It was as if nothing was happening but there was the prospect of leaving the UK for good always hovering in the background. Every time we went onto the internet to research house prices, or look up job prospects we were reminded that our lives were effectively on hold. Waiting for the day that the CHC would get in touch and the countdown would begin. By now it was November 2006 and our application had been in for 20 months. It seemed at times that it just wasn't going to happen and if we were both honest, our nerves were beginning to send messages casting doubts over our decision and we were hesitating. Then I saw the advertisement in my trade magazine - The New Civil Engineer - and this was the point when I saw our Rubicon moment in the distance for the first time.

The first snow

I apologise if I'm a little slow today. Last night I went out for a few beers at a local watering hole called O'Mailles and imbibed in one or two rather nice Irish ales. It was good to get out for an opportunity to mix it with the locals. Needless to say, it wasn't difficult to strike up a conversation with anyone, in fact, if you want to drink on your own - stay at home. I went with Ian, husband of Shirley, the demon realtor and we discussed many things, from hockey to football and house buying to when the snow will come. We met Dave, an expatriate of 25 years and swapped stories. Then it started snowing. 'It probably won't clear until April now' Dave said. Oh goody. Dave left with a cheery goodnight and it was only when we went to settle the tab that the barmaid informed us that he had also paid for that as well. Apparently it happens a lot out here. Welcome to Canada.

Clowns and witches hats

I knew it was going to be an odd day when I saw a clown on the way to work. I don't mean some idiot driving down the wrong side of the road but a real clown. Orange wig, baggy green trousers, full make up and those huge long flat shoes, calmy walking down 107th street clutching his coffee mug. Nobody paid him any attention, except me, amused not just by his nonchalance but by everybody else's indifference, as if clowns are a common sight in downtown Edmonton on an October day. Of course, today is not ordinary in North America dear reader - Oh no. Walking into reception at Stantec, I was cheerily greeted by a group of pink fairies in tutus pretending to be receptionists and the VP's personal assistant was wearing an orange robe and a large pointed orange and black witches hat. Halloween has hit town. As I write, my eldest daughter, Charleymunchkin is knocking on stranger's doors, demanding treats with menaces and dressed as a leopard. No doubt tales will be retold when she and my escorting wife return.

There was also a special 'Halloween Pot Luck' lunch where everyone bought something to eat and people just swapped food, in costume of course. Unfortunately, I couldn't attend as I was participating in a seminar about Alberta mapping although I did hoover up some left overs in the form of pumpkin shaped cookies and spooky looking sandwiches. They even had a special Halloween brew in the coffee franchise in reception. Now that takes me nicely into another great North American tradition - coffee.

You see, coffee in Canada isn't just a drink - it's a religion. From the moment I step out of the door in the morning for my 15 minute walk to the transit station, everyone is getting their first hit of the day. Queues form at every drive through coffee shop, burger joint and restaurant. People walk down the street with the familiar thermal coffee mug that everyone seems to carry and get on the bus with a cup of the steaming liquid already half drunk. The smell of coffee is everywhere, not least at Stantec, where it pervades through the office. There is always a pot brewing in every kitchen on every floor and there is always at least 3 types to choose from. Yes coffee is definitely king. I really must get myself one of those thermal mugs....

Not that skiing was the only reason we decided to emigrate to Canada. The prospect of a new and more stimulating job was also a good one. As was the education system, the lower cost of living, lower taxes, seasons, friendly people, plenty of outdoor pursuits, big houses, etc. That is only half the story however. As well as the reasons for coming here, there are also a number of reasons for we wanted out of the UK. The cost of living was undoubtedly crippling. Yes, we could have moved somewhere cheaper, but that meant finding another job and in the UK, being 50 WAS a big deal. Even then, prices were becoming more homogenous no matter where you moved. Then there was the traffic and the overcrowding, the prospect of even more people pouring onto this small island was not going to improve things. People are coming to Canada too, but the difference is, here there is space aplenty to accommodate them. One of my major concerns, perhaps the main one if I was honest, was the prospects for the children. The education system was struggling and standards falling, the job market was contracting even if you managed to get through university without a life time of debt and everything was just getting, well, harder....

The mist recedes.....

As first weeks at work go, it will not go down in history as the most memorable. Or maybe it will, as it was my first time that illness and uncertainty combined to provide an unusual baptism. Anyway, I'm fine now thanks for asking and back to full strength and fighting fitness. Apart from work, this last week has been fairly uneventful in matters pertaining to our ongoing foray into all things Canadian. I imagine our next real insight will be on Wednesday on Halloween, when things are schedule to go, well quite frankly, beserk. Charlotte, much to her joy, has found someone to go trick-or-treating with (the son of Shirley, our realtor and I'm pleased to say, friend). So now we need to get her costumed up and await the experience.

I thought I would bore you this time with my job. No, honestly, not the nuts and bolts, but the first impressions of employment in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. After all, a new job and all the challenges therein is one of the major reasons for coming here in the first place. But first, an overview. It certainly is different. The last firm I worked for in the UK consisted of about 12 office staff and a dog, and sometimes the dog was absent. The company I have now pledged my allegiance to has about 6500 staff in about 80 offices all over Canada and the US. They are called Stantec Consulting, I am employed as a senior civil engineer in the Power and Resources unit and more specifically, in the Transmission and Distribution department (T&D). You see, that is what I do. I design and build overhead power transmission lines that convey electricity from the generating stations to the end user, that's you, dear reader. It is very interesting work, no honestly, and Canada has a stack of it to do and I mean a stack. Thousands of kilometres of lines that need to be built, refurbished and upgraded and all in North America. With all this work in the future, Stantec have mobilised a vast resource and have set up T&D over the last year. The team so far consists of 10 people. Er, yes that's right - 10.

The team is made up of 3 electrical engineers, 1 project manager and 6 civil/structural engineers and what a United Nations it is. There is only 1 genuine Canadian and that is Stan, the boss. He hails from Vancouver Island and, in my short tenure so far, is a Top Bloke. Then there is Sandy from Sri Lanka, Tam from Korea, Eric from the PRC, Chris from Singapore, Philip from Hong Kong, John from Vietnam, Rolando from Malaysia and Phone-Har from Burma. It is almost as if Stantec have a 'no employing more than one person from the same country' policy. "Can't have that, they might get together and start forming gangs". Naturally, it isn't that at all and nationality just isn't important. Everyone seems to get along and all are very helpful - I think I'm going to like it here.

My first week, excluding the first 3 days when everything just passed me by in a blur of sickness, was pretty much taken up with finding my way around the labrythine office layout, learning how to operate the coffee maker and getting to grips with Stantec's impressive Intranet, policies, procedures and security pass system. Next week, they might even give me some work to do. My first task however, is to get up to speed with all the Canadian codes of practice and standards. I'm pretty useless until I can master those.

Well, more of this later. I'm going house-hunting now, just for a change.....

It was a sort of calm before the storm. The next issue to be addressed would be one of job-hunting for me. We had already decided that Claire would not work and we had been re-assured that me getting employment would be no problem. As it turned out, that was exactly true. We had also been told that ir was pointless looking until about 3 months before our application was due to be processed. That would be around December 2006. But I researched anyway, finding companies around Alberta that worked within in my field of expertise. One of our big reasons to emigrate was to improve our standard or living. That meant Claire not working and me earning enough in a good job to support all of us in a great house with money to spend on the important things in life - like skiing. Another reason why Canada was so attractive to us in the first place.

Poor timing.....

It seems that Murphy's Law is alive and well and also living in Canada. After a week of near faultless preparation for my new job, I go down with some ghastly stomach bug which poleaxes me over the weekend and quite frankly makes me feel like s*** for my first day at my new employer in a new city in a new country. Marvellous. I managed to stagger in on the St Albert transit and fend off waves of nausea and the biggest headache ever until tonight. So I will keep this short if it's all the same to you.

In summary then, new job, felt awful. Decided against the house in Grandin Park as we saw two stonking houses over the weekend. The two cats are OK. Max seems to be enjoying himself whereas Merlin will probably hate us forever. More about all this when I can sit at a desk for longer than 30 seconds...

....and then what happened next was nothing - for about 18 months. Well, actually there were one or two questions to be answered but fundamentally it all went very quiet. We continued to research and fact find but at a reduced level. We knew this was going to happen. Skilled worker applications for permanent residency were taking 2 years to process due to demand.

House Hunting

We had all actually been out to Canada before. Last May, the family, including my father-in-law, came out to Edmonton for a sort of fact finding/holiday/what-the-hell-are-we-doing sort of trip. As well as bit of sightseeing, the first week was planned to be a sortie into the murky depths of the Canadian housing market. Now, apart from Edmonton itself, the two main residential areas of note are Sherwood Park, a large and fundamentally new development to the South and East of the city and St.Albert, a city in itself to the North and West. You couldn't get two more diverse areas. Sherwood Park is a vast commuter new-build, full of white collar families and shopping malls and, as we discovered, very few trees and green areas. Claire hated it, so we turned our radar toward St. Albert. Now this was more like it. St Albert has what you would call, personality. There are huge areas of parkland, interconnecting communities with names like Deer Ridge, Braeside, Grandin and Forest Lawn amongst many. The properties are a mix of new and old, (OK short definition here, in the UK old meant 200 years. In Canada, a house is considered ancient if it was built in 1974) and some of them have quite large gardens (yards). The main problem is that a considerable number of them have yards the size of postage stamps and there is a propensity here to cover as much of what yard there is with decking. This has three benefits to the average Canadian. Firstly, they have somewhere to put the enormous barbeque, secondly somewhere to put the essential hot tub and finally more decking means less of that pesky gardening to do.

Thus we, an expat family, have a conundrum. We want a property with a large garden, but don't necessarily want to move outside St. Albert, we want a house with enough bedrooms but quite often the bedrooms are split between the main levels and the basement. Oh yes, all houses in Canada have a basement, not dank, dark, leaky old cellars, but fully furnished floors with bedrooms, bathrooms, games rooms, gyms, home cinemas (oh yeah baby), you name it. All new houses have basements which are unfinished, so you have the extra cost of developing it. Houses here also have double or triple attached garages, in which you could house a small private plane.

Anyway, back to our search. Yesterday was spent entirely house hunting with our friendly realtor (estate agent) Shirley - who has more than a passing resemblance to Dolly Parton, in all departments, but comes from Blackpool. We met her when we came out in May and kept in touch. All day in and out of houses went down like a lead balloon with Charleymunchkin, but we persevered. We were rewarded when we came across a great house in Grandin Park, with a large garden backing onto a park, in a quiet cul-de-sac and within walking distance of all amenities. We have been in touch with their realtor with a view to firing off an offer across her bows so watch this space.

The next task we must undertake is looking for a car, but that will be a different story.....

It wasn't because we had lost interest or cooled off after our initial excitement, but simply the fact that when faced with a mountain of paperwork and form filling, the human brain has a tendency to file it under pending and then undertake a more interesting task - like watching tv. Finally, we decided that the form filling elves were not coming so we had to start doing it ourselves. I'm not going to bore you with the details, suffice it to say that it took us about 9 months to produce a large wad of documents which we then sent to the immigration consultant for processing and putting together the submission to the Canadian Immigration Authorities. We then sent another slice of the fee and sat back and waited to see what happens next.....

That's another thing about jet lag, just as you think that things are beginning to stabilize, it turns around and slaps you smartly about the face. At 5.00am this morning, daughter no. 2 (Eleanor, aka wibbly pig)) decided enough sleep had been achieved and proceeded to terrorise what remained of the night. So I got up, was then relieved by Claire at 7.00 am and returned to bed until 9.00. Daughter no. 1 (Charlotte, aka charley munchkin) slept through until 7.00am though so maybe victory is in sight.

Meanwhile more stuff is being achieved. We spent two long hours in Service Canada to get our Social Insurance Numbers and another hour today getting a bank account. I contacted my new employer to confirm that a) I had landed and b) I still wanted to work for them. We also saw a house in the Northwest Acreages but more of that later...

The main achievement was finding a store that stocked stilton cheese. All I have to do now is to track down some Marmite and Canada will be mine...

One thing that has struck us at this time of year is the wholehearted embracing of Halloween. Not for Canada, the pathetic British attempt to put on a couple of cheap plastic masks or the sight of two bedraggled children trick or treating. Oh no, Canada does it BIG. You cannot move for pumpkins, large and small, full sized ghosts, ghouls, witches, spiders, you name it. There are severed limbs (artificial) to be purchased at garden centres, tombstones issuing forth green mist for your front yard and my particular favourite - a severed head with embedded meat cleaver which quivers and twitches when you switch it on. Marvellous. We took Charlotte to see a pumpkin display which involved every thing you can do to a pumpkin without being arrested and she loved it. Her favourite bit was the haunted garden shed, when you opened the door there was a splendid display of severed heads and a skull and attached spine dangling from the door. I read an amazing thing at this display. Pumpkins are Canada's fifth most produced vegetable and only 8% is used for food, the rest are used for 'recreation', otherwise known as scaring the s*** out of your neighbours. I'm sure there will be more surprises in store on the run up to Halloween and you will be the first to know.

Ah yes, the house we visited. Before we left the UK, we did a fair bit of property research over the 'net. We found this house a few weeks ago and it looked great. It was an acreage property. Now these are situated out of town, mostly to the North and West of St. Albert and include an acre or two of land. This house was a single level property (oh alright then - a bungalow) with a fully developed basement. It was huge but looked interesting so we arranged a viewing direct with the owners and trundled along to see it. Now I'm not going to go into too much of what you get for your money out here, I'll discuss that later, but this house didn't just need a family to live there, it needed an army of maids, gardeners and maintenance workers as well. It needed a whole lot of modernising, the basement needed completely renovating, I would need to get a second job just to furnish the place but the garden! It was over an acre and a half and came complete with it's own wild deer....We won't be buying it though, it would be too much like hard work just to hoover the place, oh and we can't afford it.

...After the meeting, Claire and I looked at each other and decided to go forward and start the process which would lead us to where we are today. We paid the first instalment of the 6000 quid it would eventually cost us and were given an assurance that the wheels had started turning as indeed they had. After a few days an enormous wad of documents arrived informing us of what we had to do next. It involved two things, filling out a lot of forms and providing a huge amount of information about everything ranging from copies of our 'O' level exam results to proof of our funding and employment. We read through the seemingly endless list of what was required, sat down, rolled up our sleeves and promptly did nothing about it for the next six months......

Jet lag is a weird thing. I hesitate to use the word 'funny' because it just isn't. It was 5am this morning when the brain was telling me that I need more sleep but the body clock was saying "come on, let's go!". The kids were better though, I managed until 6am before the sounds of activity from their room could no longer be ignored.

Yesterday was spent mainly in our basement apartment organising ourselves, making plans, surfing the internet for macho Canadian trucks and 4x4's. We also contacted the UK to let our families and friends know that we had, indeed, landed. Sadly, we do seem to have mislaid our digital camera - it is not in our hand luggage, I can't remember packing it at all and so now I'm going to have to produce this blog without photos at least for the time being. So bear with me, I will try to figure out a solution. (Like buying another one).

We also went to the St Albert branch of Safeways, my we do know how to live. Could not buy Crunchy Nut Cornflakes (minor disaster) and stilton cheese (major disaster). Now we are fully stocked, especially as I finished it off with a pack of Molson Canadian beer - or slightly tasteless water, as I would call it. Interesting side issue this actually. You can only buy alcohol at specific liquor stores, you cannot get it at petrol (gas) stations, supermarkets or Mahatma's local corner shop. However, they do have excellent cold rooms within these liquor stores so you buy your beer already ice cold - excellent.

We also went to see our two cats in absentia, Max and Merlin. They are currently ensconced in a kitty hotel just 10 minutes north of St. Albert, along with 27 other moggies. They are not happy. Merlin has been making it quite clear that he will truck no nonsense with the other inmates, sorry, guests and Max is just sulking. They are both well though and eating and they were pleased to see us. It will be a good few weeks before we can spring them as we will need a place of our own before moving them.

Today is not going to be fun. We have to go downtown to get our Social Insurance Numbers and then pick a bank to open an account. We may also have a cruise around the neighbourhood to check out the local amenities - Oh Joy.

It must have been about about 2003 when Claire and I first thought about going to Canada. We can't even remember what made us think to emigrate. The cost of living in the UK? A better life for our children? Or the ability to go skiing any time we jolly well please? I saw a flyer for an emigration exhibition being held in Sandown Park and went along. There were representatives from several countries present, immigration lawyers, PR people and the like. I got talking to a company called Willis Brazalot, immigration consultants and made an appointment for Claire and I to meet them to talk about this concept of emigrating.....

The Beginning

I'ts difficult to know where to begin.

Not only have we embarked on the most life changing adventure, this is the first ever post on my first ever blog - so everything's new.

I could start over four years ago when Claire and I first decided to emigrate to Canada, or two and a half years ago when we handed in our application for permanent residency. Or I could talk about the intervening period of form filling, information gathering, researching, job hunting, house selling, moving and of course, the emotional roller coaster that goes with telling your friends and your family, especially the families, that you are about to leave England for good, take the kids and start a new life in Alberta, Canada.

I'm not going to start at any of those points. There will be plenty of time to flashback to anything of significance. No, I'm going to start here.

It is 6am in the morning, Charlotte, our eldest, has jet-lag and has woken up Eleanor, our youngest. My wife Claire is asleep in one of the two bedrooms in this cosy basement apartment in St Albert, just north of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and I'm typing my first blog entry. Today is the second day since we arrived as landed immigrants and everything is new. They (or should I say we?) drive on the right, they don't sell Marmite in the supermarket, I couldn't find any channel on the tv that could show England rolling over the French in the rugby world cup, my mobile phone does not work and we have a million and one things to do....