tallperson

We made it! Have been back nearly 3 weeks staying at my Mum's and everyone has stayed remarkably even-tempered and sane

Sadly she was in hospital last week with an internal bleed, looks like a malignant stomach tumour which is just horrible.

We rented a car for 1 week and managed to buy a Ford S-Max in that week after visiting several garages and checking Auto Trader daily. Bought privately in the end.

We still had a UK bank account so no problems on that front and no renting a property so no problems there either. No chance of getting a mortgage though as have been out of UK for 11 years and neither of us have jobs here. Have been out and about looking at property to buy in the Peak District and plan to visit Lincolnshire next week. Would love to get that sorted very soon as have to find schools for 3 kids!

Our container was delivered yesterday to a Storage unit and we watched for 4 hours as it was unloaded. It only took 2 weeks to arrive (Montreal-Liverpool) and then another 4 days to clear customs so much quicker than the 4-6 weeks estimate we were given by the Shippers. We brought various foodstuffs including spices, tea bags etc. The packers just said nothing with oil. Had to pay 63gbp duty on 3 bottles of alcohol (2 of which not even full) though.

All in all it has gone very smoothly. Lovely to see family every single day and for the cousins to play together. Just a real shame about my Mum and her being ill

Good luck to everyone moving soon.

Brigette

Congrats on the move home! Sad to hear about your mom and hope she is feeling better regardless... Had no idea your container would arrive that quickly.. There is hope after all what company did you use if you don't mind me asking?
Kudos for having a bank account already set up. At least you didn't have to deal with the banks. Seems like everything is falling into place except your moms illness. I am sending good thoughts your way and am hopeful that your mum won't be in any pain from her illness

Mummy in the foothills

Welcome back.
Hope your Mum is doing better. Good luck on the house hunt.

NiHao

Tallperson,

Welcome home! Very sorry about your Mum but glad to hear other things are going well.

Are you visiting Lincolnshire with a view to possibly moving there or are you decided on the Peak District? What age are your children? I have been researching Lincolnshire so am starting to get a handle of some of the good schools.

tratcliffe71

Sounds like things went well with the move. Who did you end up using to move your possessions?

We hope to be doing the same soon, although with no furniture and just boxes.

Hope things turn for the better with your mum.

morayeel

so very sorry to hear about your mum..Hopefully there is some treatment to help her out and ease her pain. Glad you are back and sounds like you are settling in.

tallperson

Thank you for all the good wishes. Nihao, we are visiting Lincolnshire with a view to moving there. We hope to start a business based on tourism so Peak District would probably be better but you can get more for your money in Lincolnshire! Yorkshire is also on our list. We're putting a LOT of miles on our new car!

I forgot to mention about car insurance. We could not find anyone who would recognise our no claims so after 24 years driving without any claims we are back to 0 years Just one of the small perils of moving back.
For the move we used Brytor International in Montreal and the UK end was with GB Liners. I cannot fault the service we received and in Montreal our contact was Pascal Hoffman who has been brilliant!

Lorry1

Tallperson, welcome home!

For car insurance, we went with Aviva as we were insured with them in Canada and they recognised our no claims.

Hope your mum gets better!

tallperson

Thank you!
We tried Aviva and they were the only company who wouldn't even give us a quote, just a refusal with no reason for turning us down!

lgabriel73

Wow Im shocked with that, I signed up with them on-line for my policy and juts had to submit copies of my NC letters to them, easy and they were the best price by far.

tallperson

We tried online and it refused us so we called and they refused us again!

Lorry1

Same here! It's weird that they didn't accept you, Tallperson
. Did you have a proof of no claims letter from canada?

lf1

TP. sorry to hear about your mum, I hope things are improving for her. re your car insurance. After over 30 years away, I used NFU and they accepted my Canadian driving record from the Ab Govt and my claims history from my Canadian insurer. This resulted in a much better premium than that quoted by others.

pondhopper2014

Do you have a contact number for Mr. Hoffman? (tratcliffe71 is my Hunny , but it looks like he didn't get back on to ask any more...) We can get stuff into Montreal, but like he said, it'll most likely be a box, not a full container. I'd love to have a contact to see how much that would cost. And pooh on the "no oils" because I wanted to bring my own coconut oil over, as I'm not sure I'll be able to find some... rather, I'd rather not have to start searching as soon as we land! LOL!

3 months and counting!!! (we hope...)

Keeping your mum in our prayers.
Blessings!

Mummy in the foothills

We went into an insurance agent and got Aviva for really cheap. I'd go into Swintons near you and ask them to see what they can do about cheap insurance.