Two weeks have flown

Two weeks ago we left Manchester Airport a little delayed in taking off and charged with emotions difficult to set down in words. Once airborne thoughts turned to our forthcoming adventures. We made up a fair amount of time in the air and landed only fifteen minutes late at 6.45 pm. What followed was unbelievable; we left the aircraft, proceeded through immigration, collected our bags went through customs and were walking out through the doors by 7.30 pm!! The family were not expecting us through so quickly and there were no parking charges to pay at the airport.

We arrived to warmth and sunshine, although the weather this past week has been interesting what with thunderstorms, lightening displays, hail and torrential downpours.

One of the first things we did was visit our Bank and alter a few things with our account and apply for a credit card. We also exchanged our old UK driving licences for Alberta ones; we took the sight test, had our photographs taken and are awaiting our new licences. We also went into the City to obtain our Social Insurance Numbers - the cards have already arrived. We hope that our PR cards will also arrive soon. Once these have all arrived we will be able to register for our medical cards. Cards with your name, photograph and address are invaluable here.

Bill spent a great deal of time researching vehicles: we are fortunate to have our nephew's car for use. Car reports reflect a different set of values to the ones we were used to in the UK: reliability is key here and the Japanese producers top the tables, could be due to the fact that they import their models from Japan and therefore have a better hold on build. The makes we would usually go for do not come out well in reports and also are on the pricier side. We have opted for a Toyota 4Runner which give us the ability to navigate mountain and logging roads to reach trail heads for our hikes. Having credit reports from Experian and Equifax proved useful when looking for a small amount of financing.

We spent time looking at car insurance, wow what a shock we were quoted over 3000C$ for the pair of us! However, we remembered Wiki on the British Expats site and we found a company, Canadian Direct, which took into account our driving records from the UK. Prior to leaving the UK we changed our licences to the new plastic ones and on receipt of them also received paper copies of our driving record.

The exchange rate is not doing what it is supposed to so we are only exchanging enough monies for the car deposit and for living expenses at the moment. We hope it will rise somewhat when we come to buying a house.

We have both applied for jobs in a variety of sectors hoping to utilise our transferable skills acquired through so many years of teaching. Fingers crossed.

Two weeks in and we feel it is time to slow down a little and relax.