So we landed on Friday and the dog was delivered later in the day. Everything went very smoothly thank goodness!! Family met us at the airport and it was a wonderful feeling! We are staying at my sisters house (in Hampshire) until we work out where we are going to live (still unknown). I left my bank accounts open but my husband is finding it difficult to re-open his due to a long ago returned bank statement in 2007 making the fraud department freeze his account!!! We have purchased a car and will collect it today (worth knowing that dealerships don't let you just drive a car away on the day). Insurance is sorted and phones have been ordered (again an issue getting one for hubby even though we have proof of address he doesn't have a bank account yet). Once we get the car we can take a road trip to check out some areas we think we would like to live. I have to admit although i don't want to just drop back into our old life here, being closer to family does seem very nice and the kids are having a lovely time with their grand parents. Living closer to them seems very unaffordable though compared with some other areas we have been thinking about. The biggest thing ive noticed is that where we lived in BC everyone was out and about all the time, walking biking, gardening or playing, here there's just no one around! Its like everyone comes home and just sits indoors!! no kids playing out at all so far! Very strange!!! Hopefully its just here and we can find a place where people are more active! We shipped some cases ahead using Send my bag and they arrived the same day we did (brilliant service if a bit expensive) and we used Armstrong movers for our house move (still on a boat somewhere so I cant tell you if they are good or not although they have been so far). The dog came via Worldwide Animal Travel(YVR) and James cargo(Heathrow) and was in delivered to us at extra cost so we didn't have to go back to the airport to collect him. He was very happy to see us and in perfect condition!
I can't quite believe what we have achieved in the last few months and the goodbyes where very hard on my heart and I did resort to some Atavan which was very helpful and I can highly recommend! The kids have had some tears but seem to be very happy now they have met some of my old friends and their children. And the grandparents are jubilant!!!!

Thanks for the write-up. Hope hubby has straightened out the bank account snafu and you are enjoying looking at future areas to reside in.