8 awesome years!!

Old Jan 10th 2016, 5:09 pm
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Default 8 awesome years!!

I just wrote out a really long post as I have not done a Canniversary post for years, I hit spell check and it disappeared. So lucky for you all I'm not typing that all out again. this one is coming at you with spelling mistakes instead.

Ok, in a nutshell....we immigrated from Northern Ireland to very small town Saskatchewan. We ended up there as we did not like Regina in Summer 2007 when we came over to check it out. We drove around looking at smaller areas and fell in love with the place that would be home for the next five and a bit years. We stuck the horrendous cold for that length of time before we gave up like wusses and buggered off to Kamloops, BC
DH was a Heavy Duty Mechanic who worked outdoors a lot and in -30 and below weather, that is no walk in the park. For a few years we talked about moving somewhere warmer and somewhat "less flat" and ended up choosing Kamloops. The dry hot brown desert is not for everyone but we love it. Ten minutes drive up out of the city in any direction it's green and lush, mountains everywhere and lakes galore (if only I could move the sea over I'd be laughing!)

Sask was a good place to start though, we made many, many friends, people are so helpful and they could not have treated us any better and some days I even feel homesick for my little town there. But it also makes winter here seem like a joke, I have now turned into that annoying Prairie person who's general response to winter is "this isn't cold, it could be much worse". It's a dry cold really is said a lot lol. It's funny now to see people freezing cold at -5!!

BC is for sure a lot more expensive to live in....does the scenery and weather make up for that, some days yes some days no. I can't see us leaving here though unless we are kicked out or can no longer afford it

We have had a great eight years, ups and downs like everyone else, times of missing the family and all the new nieces and nephews but since moving to BC we have had a multitude of visitors and ten of my husband's family are coming for the first time this Summer for a month. Fun fun fun!! Like many other ex-pats we got the dreaded phone call in Feb 2012 "come home at once your Dad s not going to make it" luckily we arrived home three days before my dear Dad passed away. It was a huge shock and very tough coming back again but we just put our heads down and tried to get on with life as best we could.

My advice to newbies reading this......come over, give Canada a fair chance, if you don't like your first choice and it is feasible/possible to move on, try that first and if all else fails you can always move back to Blighty proud of yourselves that you gave it a go.

Eight years later I can eat Canadian Cadburys, the cheese and even like the bacon, have never found a good replacement for Denny's sausages though ha ha! This is our home....I'm very naughty and on occasions where we sing the National Anthem I always sing "Oh Canada my home and chosen land" as its true. Canada has been very good to us, we have worked hard, DH has a really good job that he worked hard for and now he is working hard at adding to his collection of F150's, Wild Cats, guns and copious amounts of fishing and hunting gear!!
We have been lazy about applying for Citizenship, mainly because we move about so much , five homes and two Provinces in eight years, I've always worried CIC would lose our application or lose us lol. Hopefully we are settled now and it's on the agenda for 2016. That will be the final hurdle.

Thanks for reading and if you've any questions ask away and I'll get back to you after we come home from our ice fishing trip!
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Old Jan 12th 2016, 1:09 am
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Default Re: 8 awesome years!!

Congrats! &
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Old Jan 12th 2016, 12:07 pm
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Default Re: 8 awesome years!!

Originally Posted by AlvicBC
I just wrote out a really long post as I have not done a Canniversary post for years, I hit spell check and it disappeared. So lucky for you all I'm not typing that all out again. this one is coming at you with spelling mistakes instead.

Ok, in a nutshell....we immigrated from Northern Ireland to very small town Saskatchewan. We ended up there as we did not like Regina in Summer 2007 when we came over to check it out. We drove around looking at smaller areas and fell in love with the place that would be home for the next five and a bit years. We stuck the horrendous cold for that length of time before we gave up like wusses and buggered off to Kamloops, BC
DH was a Heavy Duty Mechanic who worked outdoors a lot and in -30 and below weather, that is no walk in the park. For a few years we talked about moving somewhere warmer and somewhat "less flat" and ended up choosing Kamloops. The dry hot brown desert is not for everyone but we love it. Ten minutes drive up out of the city in any direction it's green and lush, mountains everywhere and lakes galore (if only I could move the sea over I'd be laughing!)

Sask was a good place to start though, we made many, many friends, people are so helpful and they could not have treated us any better and some days I even feel homesick for my little town there. But it also makes winter here seem like a joke, I have now turned into that annoying Prairie person who's general response to winter is "this isn't cold, it could be much worse". It's a dry cold really is said a lot lol. It's funny now to see people freezing cold at -5!!

BC is for sure a lot more expensive to live in....does the scenery and weather make up for that, some days yes some days no. I can't see us leaving here though unless we are kicked out or can no longer afford it

We have had a great eight years, ups and downs like everyone else, times of missing the family and all the new nieces and nephews but since moving to BC we have had a multitude of visitors and ten of my husband's family are coming for the first time this Summer for a month. Fun fun fun!! Like many other ex-pats we got the dreaded phone call in Feb 2012 "come home at once your Dad s not going to make it" luckily we arrived home three days before my dear Dad passed away. It was a huge shock and very tough coming back again but we just put our heads down and tried to get on with life as best we could.

My advice to newbies reading this......come over, give Canada a fair chance, if you don't like your first choice and it is feasible/possible to move on, try that first and if all else fails you can always move back to Blighty proud of yourselves that you gave it a go.

Eight years later I can eat Canadian Cadburys, the cheese and even like the bacon, have never found a good replacement for Denny's sausages though ha ha! This is our home....I'm very naughty and on occasions where we sing the National Anthem I always sing "Oh Canada my home and chosen land" as its true. Canada has been very good to us, we have worked hard, DH has a really good job that he worked hard for and now he is working hard at adding to his collection of F150's, Wild Cats, guns and copious amounts of fishing and hunting gear!!
We have been lazy about applying for Citizenship, mainly because we move about so much , five homes and two Provinces in eight years, I've always worried CIC would lose our application or lose us lol. Hopefully we are settled now and it's on the agenda for 2016. That will be the final hurdle.

Thanks for reading and if you've any questions ask away and I'll get back to you after we come home from our ice fishing trip!
You forgot to mention the traffic ticket 😀😂😘
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Old Jan 12th 2016, 4:48 pm
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Default Re: 8 awesome years!!

Originally Posted by Lorna_D
You forgot to mention the traffic ticket 😀😂😘
Lol I'm trying to wipe that from memory. I'd also mentioned the awesome BE friends I've made in my original post.....you being the first I met in "real life" lol.
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Old Jan 13th 2016, 5:15 am
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Default Re: 8 awesome years!!

Hello you, lovely to hear your update
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Old Jan 13th 2016, 2:10 pm
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Default Re: 8 awesome years!!

Originally Posted by ann m
Hello you, lovely to hear your update
Hello yourself, how's life with you??
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Old Jan 14th 2016, 7:21 am
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Default Re: 8 awesome years!!

Wonderful update and it's good to hear that things have worked out well for you!

I feel the same way - the UK may be my homeland, but Canada is my home and will remain so.

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Old Jan 14th 2016, 6:43 pm
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Default Re: 8 awesome years!!

Originally Posted by Siouxie
Wonderful update and it's good to hear that things have worked out well for you!

I feel the same way - the UK may be my homeland, but Canada is my home and will remain so.

Yeah I'm one of those ex-pats who no longer feels at home in the UK and can't wait to return to Canada. Considering I've only been twice in eight years, both times in 2012, I guess that's not surprising.
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Old Jan 17th 2016, 12:00 am
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Default Re: 8 awesome years!!

Originally Posted by AlvicBC
Hello yourself, how's life with you??
Muddling along OK, thank you!
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Old Jan 17th 2016, 3:21 am
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Default Re: 8 awesome years!!

Originally Posted by ann m
Muddling along OK, thank you!
Glad to hear it 😄
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