A big sigh of relief now that the medicals have been done. Over the weekend the boys had come down with cold and high temps, so i panicked a little over if they would be well enough for the medicals. i kept them off school on Monday as a precaution and kept them topped up with cough and cold medicine , medinol and a daily multi vit. It seems to have paid off, despite the kids still having sniffles and a bit of a cough the panel Dr saif they seemed fit and healthy. My BMI was within acceptable levels.

Just waiting on the police checks coming back and a few documents need certifying then the visa application is good to go.

We have been told to expect to get the visa between 6 weeks to 4 months. Cant wait.

Its been a long day, getting up early for the drive to Hull and waiting at the hospital for what seemed like hours ( well it was hours) but since we had the xrays and medicals all done in one day it was well worth it.

WEll the kids are wanting tea now so best get in kitchen 

I had a full weekend off and as a rule if that happens we go away somewhere.

I decided that we hadn't been to Maligne Lake yet and would love to go and look at it.  It is just before you get to Jasper and has it's own road leading to the Lake that is 44km's long.

We got up or should I say I got up at 4:30am with a husband that wasn't best pleased about being dragged out of bed at this time of the morning.  We set off at about 6am, I think after grabbing a McDonalds and taking the Yellowhead straight to Jasper.

When we got to the turning point and headed down the road to the Lake I must say it has to be on of the prettiest drives I have ever been on!!

As you can see it snowed!

Before you get to the Lake there is a parking area to go and see the Canyon, that was quite impressive.

The Canyon is Limestone

Below you can just about make out the bridge that crosses the Canyon

It was so very pretty

A mini waterfall

This picture make me smile, we were so happy to see the snow covered mountains again.

This is Maligne Lake, it is approximatley 22.5 km long and 97 metres at its deepest point.

It was a very worth while trip and I would highly reccomend it.

We had dinner and I decided that it was going to cost too much to stop over night and I suggested we should drive back.

It was 10:10pm when we finally got throught the door and into our Condo, we were both very tired. and went straight to bed.

Its been over a week since i sent off my final work for my course. Its up to the markers now, i will find out in December if i have gained a degree or not.

Since ive no more study to do ive thrown my self in to the visa paperwork, the police checks have been sent, the medicals are next week and the visa application paperwork should be finished before we go for the medicals.

Our tennets have moved out and despite not having permission they have decorated the house top to bottom very badly in colours that are simply disgusting, they must have been colour blind. On top of that they have stolen curtains, blinds, nets and even shelving that was fixed to the wall. the list goes on. We have told the agency who were managing our house to sort it out. In the meantime we have instucted a different agency to sell the house for us( once it is decorated of course).

The kids are happy to be back at school although they cant wait for us to be finally living in Australia.

My operation that i had in August is starting to show results, ive lost 2 stones so far and my BMI is now below the threashold for concern for the immigration medicals. I feel great ,have more energy and no pain when walking the kids to school. Ive even started going to Aqua fit on a Friday morning.

Once all the visa paperwork has been taken care off, i shall be starting to clear the garage and thin out all our wardrobes. I suppose you could say we are going to have a good clear out ready for oz.

Autumn is certainly here, already the dark nights and damp cold days are in abundance, will be so glad to no longer have to deal with the cold weather.

My god.............blink and you would miss me, for sure.

I'm sat at my computer eatting chocolate mint ice-cream and giving you guys the respect you deserve and filling you in on whats been going on in the land of Cassie.

The PR people got back in touch with us on 17th September saying what we had sent was not acceptable and they are saying we can't apply the way we did.  One of the reasons being is that daft cow Cassie forgot to send them the LMO to back up the company letter and the work permit!  What an idiot, and also the letter may not have been worded how they would have liked it.

So I sent them a begging e-mail asking them to please not send the application back!  Not sure if my begging has worked though!  probally not, hey.

Anyway, I'm not totally worried about that I just think when I send the right stuff it will be fine, the whole situation makes me nervous.  When I got the e-mail I was so up set.  I phoned Neil up in a right old state to which he replied "For gods sake, get a god damn grip of yourself woman!"  .  O.K. that may have been slightly censored.  I can laugh now but at the time it made me worse.  So I phoned my friend up and even she told me to take a "chill pill", LOL.  Work wasn't helping at the time because "that" guy I was having trouble with, had started up again.

Before I had got that e-mail I was having a bit of a rough time, thinking I wanted to go back to Blighty but once that e-mail came I was like, NO! .............I don't want to go back.  Change my mind like my knickers, god knows how my husband has put up with me through out all those years, bless him.

Life is just great at the moment, I go to work, then on my days off I meet with my friends I very rarely have time to do things, we use the dishwasher so much nowadays.  Big up, to the person who invented them.  Yes it was a man I just googled.

Neil's gone off to some talk, the other week he went paintballing, we seem to be establishing a life here in Canada, just like starting a fresh.  It's great when you feel like your really getting somewhere with it.

I do have some bigger news for you guys, I soooooooo can't wait to tell you all but I am keeping this one under wraps untill I know the final details.  No I'm not pregnant, that will be quite some time, in the future.

There are some very exciting changes for me coming very soon, I'll be back here reporting it don't you worry.  It's quite an entertaining story, nothing in my life seems to be boring and everything seems to be such a strange tale of events that unfold, and really, you couldn't even make it up.

In the meantime, take care.

Cassie

x x

I'm plugging it but I don't care, it took me ages to type.  Enjoy

An interview with ... Cassie

Im almost at the end of my OU course , im busy finishing my end of course assessment. ive got 4 more parts to do, should have it done by the end of next week.

Ive got all the visa paperwork printed and V will start filling them over the weekend. WE have managed to getthe medicals booked in Hull at a hospital where they organise both the medicals and the xrays.

Got some sad news today, V's aunty whom we visited in Rutherglen died yesterday. She had been poorly for a few weeks but suddenly went down hill this week. She was a fiesty old bird, i thought she was great,  getting the email letting us know this morning shook us up a bit, as we had hoped that we could have taken the boys to visit her when we arrived in oz. As i think D was a baby the last time she was in the UK. Instead when we visit Albury to see his uncle and aunt we shall put some flowers on the grave.

Ive been doing the research on Darwin and despite the fact they only have dry and wet seasons im sure we will cope. Saying that i will look forward to when we can get a posting to either NSW or Vic.

Well id best get on with some more of my assessment

I wasn't sure what to do today, I knew there were still a few things that we haven't done yet around Edmonton.  After a bit of looking around through books we decided to go to Rutherford House.  Its just outside Old Strathcona.

What's the significance of the house you may be wondering.  It was the home of the first Premier of Alberta, Alexander Cameron, from 1911 to 1941.

Some pretty flowers in the garden

Unfortunatley we got there at 11:30am and the museum opens at 12 noon.  I am so impatient (as you may know) and there really isn't much to do near there so we left, leaving this for another day.  The admission charge isn't too bad at $4 each and there is also a nice resturant there that opens at 11am, and not too badly priced.

Moving onto Plan B we decided to go to the Alberta Legistature Building.

The building made out of Lego bricks

We have been outside the place and taken pictures but have never gone in.  When we got there we managed (only just)  to tag onto a tour that was leaving.  We didn't have to pay a dollar, it was free!  Wow.

The central part of the building was amazing, full of marble and columns.

The building was built between 1907 and 1913 in the Beaux arts style.

According to the Wiki the building is 180 feet and the projected cost was $4 million dollars.

The main debating area was a bit of a let down compared to the central bit, perhaps they had run out of money by the time they got to here.

There are over 500 lightbulbs in the ceiling.  Electricity had only just become available and the young Architect that designed the building went a bit silly when he designed it.  The problem is from the floor to the ceiling its about 300 feet so ladders are not long enough to change the bulbs.  In order for them to change the bulbs they have to hire some scaffolding and in total it can take three weeks to change them all.

The fountain you see was built for Queen Elizabeths visit to the buiding.

Brass elevator doors.

The day turned out be be great and cheap as well which is always an added benefit.  After our little tour we stuck around the city and had a look around the Mall.  We had parked to car at the cheap $3 car park by The Delta Edmonton Hotel (I think it's called that)  Happy dayz all around

Strange fruit

We went to the supermarket on our way back home.  When we were looking at the fruit section we saw these strange looking things.  They kind of look like small potatoes.

I kept looking and touching them, wondering what they were.  Making a little fuss wanting to know what they were then a  man opposite me started to tell me that they are really good.  He said "if you like sugar, you will like them"

He explained that you peal them just like an orange.  This then turned into a little chat in the Supermarket, were we Australian? etc etc.  We thanked him and off we went.

When we got home I tried one and they are very much like lychees, the small fruit you see in Chinese places but these are called Longans, they are quite nice.