I was in bed with the flu when my brother in law and his wife were over from Calgary for their first visit since moving there a couple of years ago. The extended family went out for lunch while I lay in bed moaning to myself. When my wife got back she said her brother had suggested we move to Canada.

“I’m Sure you would be all in favour I that (not)!" To my complete amazement she said it might be a good idea! Was this flu more serious than I thought? Was I imagining things? "What about your Mum?" She had been at the lunch as was all in favour as she wanted to move there as well. That's it I was having hallucinations.

Well it did make some sense in some ways. I had been informed my company would no longer require my services come December, and were offering me a small pile of money to piss off. Our children are 11 and 5 so it's a good time to move them. While certainly not hating England, we both hoped for a better environment for our children while they grew up. We live in leafy Hertfordshire and certainly not in the teenage hunting zone of London, but we close enough to worry.

So pretty much over night we start to look at the possibility of moving to Calgary. It was just a few weeks after that we headed down to Gatwick for our flight to Calgary. A nine hour delay didn't help, but we landed on 1st June 2008 ready for anything, well ready for bed actually. Our Sister in Law took the day off and showed us around. we had lunch we another Brit' ex pat who loved Calgary. Over the course of  a week I met up with a couple of job agents who were hopeful my qualifications and experience would be in demand, but didn't know much about the immigration procedure. We also looked at a couple of schools and generally got a feel for the place. What really impressed us was the housing. Compared to our three bedroom semi detached these places were palaces.

My wife had concerns about living in what she considered a big city. We looked at Cochrane and Okotoks but found them a bit too small and distant. But after a week we thought Calgary city would suit us fine and certainly save on my commute. We had lived in Auckland NZ for three years in the mid nineties and expected Calgary to be similar. They are both cities of about 1M people, fairly new, rapid recent growth. But they feel very different. Calgary has a real city centre where as Auckland’s city has little to offer but has several mini centres (Newmarket, Ponsonby and Parnell for example).  

We came home with no show stoppers. We could see ourselves living in Calgary and our children growing there, now to make it happen! First get a job offer, get a visa, and get over there.  Easy really.

We even went to the Canada Expo’ and weren’t put off!  That would make a good T-shirt!

We had a family holiday planned for end of July/start of August. My Mother in Law has taken my place while I plan a job hunting trip to Calgary in September or thereabouts. I don't have enough holiday for both.

There’s a long way to go yet and we may never make it. But eleven weeks after the shock announcement we are still on course.

SM