In Calgary on reccie.... so far
Oct 2nd 2008, 11:57 pm
#16
Forum Regular
Joined: Jun 2008
Location: SW Calgary, AB
Posts: 66
Re: In Calgary on reccie.... so far
Hi there,
We too are currently in Calgary on a recce staying Downtown. This trip has been really useful to us as far as confirming that we are making the right decision to move from the UK.
We have tried to fit as much in as we could to this week, we arrived on sunday and have managed to open a bank account, my partner has met up with a potential employer and has been offered a job (I had already had a job offer but we didn't want to come out til we both had one) and we have also managed to visit Banff and Lake Louise.
We have spent a lot of time doing research and driving round to find what sort of areas we would like to live in, also the price we could expect to pay and are going to look at some show homes tomorrow in these areas to get more of an idea of houses available.
Enjoy the rest of your trip,
Nige and Soph
We too are currently in Calgary on a recce staying Downtown. This trip has been really useful to us as far as confirming that we are making the right decision to move from the UK.
We have tried to fit as much in as we could to this week, we arrived on sunday and have managed to open a bank account, my partner has met up with a potential employer and has been offered a job (I had already had a job offer but we didn't want to come out til we both had one) and we have also managed to visit Banff and Lake Louise.
We have spent a lot of time doing research and driving round to find what sort of areas we would like to live in, also the price we could expect to pay and are going to look at some show homes tomorrow in these areas to get more of an idea of houses available.
Enjoy the rest of your trip,
Nige and Soph
Oct 3rd 2008, 12:10 am
#17
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Feb 2007
Location: Okotoks, Alberta
Posts: 1,639
Re: In Calgary on reccie.... so far
Hi there,
We too are currently in Calgary on a recce staying Downtown. This trip has been really useful to us as far as confirming that we are making the right decision to move from the UK.
We have tried to fit as much in as we could to this week, we arrived on sunday and have managed to open a bank account, my partner has met up with a potential employer and has been offered a job (I had already had a job offer but we didn't want to come out til we both had one) and we have also managed to visit Banff and Lake Louise.
We have spent a lot of time doing research and driving round to find what sort of areas we would like to live in, also the price we could expect to pay and are going to look at some show homes tomorrow in these areas to get more of an idea of houses available.
Enjoy the rest of your trip,
Nige and Soph
We too are currently in Calgary on a recce staying Downtown. This trip has been really useful to us as far as confirming that we are making the right decision to move from the UK.
We have tried to fit as much in as we could to this week, we arrived on sunday and have managed to open a bank account, my partner has met up with a potential employer and has been offered a job (I had already had a job offer but we didn't want to come out til we both had one) and we have also managed to visit Banff and Lake Louise.
We have spent a lot of time doing research and driving round to find what sort of areas we would like to live in, also the price we could expect to pay and are going to look at some show homes tomorrow in these areas to get more of an idea of houses available.
Enjoy the rest of your trip,
Nige and Soph
Glad to hear the reccie is going well and congratulations on you both now being on your way to being sorted for employment. We're off to Lake Louise again ourselves shortly - lovely having it all so nearby.
From your research to date, what sort of areas are beginning to feel like they could be "home"? Good luck in the show-homes and if any of them are NuVista, watch out for that Butch Cassidy chappie that frequents these boards - you may not get out again without having signed up for a new home!
Best wishes for the rest of your trip.
Kind regards,
Eamonn & Janet.
Oct 3rd 2008, 12:12 am
#18
Banned
Joined: Dec 2005
Location: In Limbo
Posts: 15,706
Re: In Calgary on reccie.... so far
Hi Nigel and Soph,
Glad to hear the reccie is going well and congratulations on you both now being on your way to being sorted for employment. We're off to Lake Louise again ourselves shortly - lovely having it all so nearby.
From your research to date, what sort of areas are beginning to feel like they could be "home"? Good luck in the show-homes and if any of them are NuVista, watch out for that Butch Cassidy chappie that frequents these boards - you may not get out again without having signed up for a new home!
Best wishes for the rest of your trip.
Kind regards,
Eamonn & Janet.
Glad to hear the reccie is going well and congratulations on you both now being on your way to being sorted for employment. We're off to Lake Louise again ourselves shortly - lovely having it all so nearby.
From your research to date, what sort of areas are beginning to feel like they could be "home"? Good luck in the show-homes and if any of them are NuVista, watch out for that Butch Cassidy chappie that frequents these boards - you may not get out again without having signed up for a new home!
Best wishes for the rest of your trip.
Kind regards,
Eamonn & Janet.
You forgot to mention our JD Power award there Eamonn
Oct 4th 2008, 7:26 am
#20
Forum Regular
Joined: Apr 2007
Location: coquitlam B.C.
Posts: 146
Re: In Calgary on reccie.... so far
Its like summer - really clear and warm, really would have prefered to see some less perfect weather but never mind. Very impressive looking however.
Drove about 300klms yesterday, thanks to a very helpful axe murderer, erm
I mean BE member thanks again, more helpful than you can imagine.
Staying at Days inn Calgary south, dont do this unless you are a well seasoned traveller with a broad mind and are open to part of the hotel being fairly horrific, and a nightclub downstars so the odd discarded stetson hat and party remnans or patrons wont worry you. Cheap and incredibly handy for transport and downtown though.
Housing, yikes, expensive for some very small lots, and definate conslusion if you have teenagers the city limits are going to be pretty much your limits unless you want them to go mad with boredom. Rentals, seen 3 all very grim, need a much higher budget I think, we allowed 1500 a month, not enough from todays findings
This is bad enough but add dog, and the fact we wanted to buy but wont be on current exchange rates and all a bit scary to be honest.
City, pretty clean, less homeless than vancouver, but still plenty around.
Teenagers, been a bit shocked, most seem to smoke and love to sit on calgary transport mouthing off very loud about drinking/driving/ clubbing, and for some odd reason they use the F word like its supposed to impress
not sure what thats all about. Younger kids seem far quiter, nice generally.
Jobs, every business/shop/bus etc etc needs staff, I guess at $9 an hour
for shops to $20 for bus drivers you can see why. Wages V cost of living seem quite out of whack.
City seems quite safe, and thats from woman on own using lots of public transport/walking.
Hire car tomorrow to see more housing, schools.
All just my first impressions 2 and a half days, still totally confused TBH, think we could have a decent life here but it would be need to be subsidesed by heavy dose of savings I think, it aint cheap.
Right dont shoot me, and typing is really bad, library kindly gave me 2 hours but keyboard is stuck together with crack or cheese or something
Drove about 300klms yesterday, thanks to a very helpful axe murderer, erm
I mean BE member thanks again, more helpful than you can imagine.Staying at Days inn Calgary south, dont
do this unless you are a well seasoned traveller with a broad mind and are open to part of the hotel being fairly horrific, and a nightclub downstars so the odd discarded stetson hat and party remnans or patrons wont worry you. Cheap and incredibly handy for transport and downtown though.Housing, yikes, expensive for some very small lots, and definate conslusion if you have teenagers the city limits are going to be pretty much your limits unless you want them to go mad with boredom. Rentals, seen 3 all very grim, need a much higher budget I think, we allowed 1500 a month, not enough from todays findings
This is bad enough but add dog, and the fact we wanted to buy but wont be on current exchange rates and all a bit scary to be honest.City, pretty clean, less homeless than vancouver, but still plenty around.
Teenagers, been a bit shocked, most seem to smoke and love to sit on calgary transport mouthing off very loud about drinking/driving/ clubbing, and for some odd reason they use the F word like its supposed to impress
not sure what thats all about. Younger kids seem far quiter, nice generally.Jobs, every business/shop/bus etc etc needs staff, I guess at $9 an hour
for shops to $20 for bus drivers you can see why. Wages V cost of living seem quite out of whack.City seems quite safe, and thats from woman on own using lots of public transport/walking.
Hire car tomorrow to see more housing, schools.
All just my first impressions 2 and a half days, still totally confused TBH, think we could have a decent life here but it would be need to be subsidesed by heavy dose of savings I think, it aint cheap.
Right dont shoot me, and typing is really bad, library kindly gave me 2 hours but keyboard is stuck together with crack or cheese or something
good luck mate
Oct 4th 2008, 9:12 pm
#23
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Thread Starter
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 10,375
Re: In Calgary on reccie.... so far
Update 3.
One minute walking down beauful tree lined streets, ankle deep in crispy fall leaves, cute squirrels running about, beautiful...
Next minute at train station, filthy hobo on bench seat amid a pile of discarded junk food wrappers...
Think that sums it up at the moment, more confused than ever So much so nice, some things so worrying.
2 days to go, weather has changed nice and grey and gloomy now, thats good, I wanted to see that side, no good getting swayed by postcard weather.
Some things are really disturbing, i mentioned the wages, saw a sign saying we pay a $1.50 hour bonus for working peak days, turns out that means Christmas day etc, just one example of how you get the impression the canadian employment thing might not be all that great, maybe I am wrong, am sure someone will tell me if I am
How are the other people out here on the reccie trail going? or those who arrived in last few weeks?
One minute walking down beauful tree lined streets, ankle deep in crispy fall leaves, cute squirrels running about, beautiful...
Next minute at train station, filthy hobo on bench seat amid a pile of discarded junk food wrappers...
Think that sums it up at the moment, more confused than ever
So much so nice, some things so worrying.2 days to go, weather has changed nice and grey and gloomy now, thats good, I wanted to see that side, no good getting swayed by postcard weather.
Some things are really disturbing, i mentioned the wages, saw a sign saying we pay a $1.50 hour bonus for working peak days, turns out that means Christmas day etc
, just one example of how you get the impression the canadian employment thing might not be all that great, maybe I am wrong, am sure someone will tell me if I am How are the other people out here on the reccie trail going? or those who arrived in last few weeks?
Oct 4th 2008, 9:59 pm
#24
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Oct 2007
Location: British Columbia
Posts: 1,371
Re: In Calgary on reccie.... so far
Some things are really disturbing, i mentioned the wages, saw a sign saying we pay a $1.50 hour bonus for working peak days, turns out that means Christmas day etc
, just one example of how you get the impression the canadian employment thing might not be all that great, maybe I am wrong, am sure someone will tell me if I am About the sign you saw, are you sure that's not "time and a half"? Compaies are supposed to pay their full hourly wage + half of that wage for stat holidays such as Christmas. From my understanding, that is the law, not optional.
Also, most companies that adverise in windows tend to be adveritizing minimum wage positions, generally in retail or customer service. Calgary is in serious need of such workers.
Oct 5th 2008, 3:26 pm
#25
Forum Regular
Joined: Jun 2008
Location: SW Calgary, AB
Posts: 66
Re: In Calgary on reccie.... so far
Hi there Jad n Rich,
We are just about packing up ready to start the journey home and our experience this week has made us want to get out here as soon as possible. We've stayed in Downtown and found the city very pleasant and clean and walking round on a friday night was comfortable and surprisingly quiet for a big city. Yes, we saw 1 prostitute and a few homeless people around the streets, but that is to be expected in any city with a million plus people living in it. We're not city people back home, but we have found that the residential areas and greenland (Fish Creek Park/Glenmore Reservoir) in the SW of the city (we plan on living in Evergreen) give you the feel of rural living! 
Mcleod Trail isn't very nice, I must admit.
The overtime rate as far as we have seen is 1.5 times (over 40 hours/week), and even double at peak times with the company I've been to which is Friday after 6pm, all weekend and Statutory holidays. Salarys are also higher than back home and living costs appear to be slightly cheaper. The property (and we've seen a few) is expensive for Canada, but when you consider an 1800sq.ft home can be bought in the city limits for a little more than our (approx') 1100sq.ft home in a small town in North Wales, then I'd say it's pretty good! Plus, you'll also get an 800sq.ft basement to play with!
The Rockies are on the doorstep and we've found the locals to be very friendly, however we have been helped by some friends already living here, which has helped a lot. As said before though, it's not utopia, but then again, where is? We certainly feel there's a lot more positives here than back home!
I hope your last couple of days go well, but I guess at the end of the day, if it's not for you, then that's only a decision you can make. Best of luck and have a good journey home.
Nige and Soph.
We are just about packing up ready to start the journey home and our experience this week has made us want to get out here as soon as possible.
We've stayed in Downtown and found the city very pleasant and clean and walking round on a friday night was comfortable and surprisingly quiet for a big city. Yes, we saw 1 prostitute and a few homeless people around the streets, but that is to be expected in any city with a million plus people living in it. We're not city people back home, but we have found that the residential areas and greenland (Fish Creek Park/Glenmore Reservoir) in the SW of the city (we plan on living in Evergreen) give you the feel of rural living! Mcleod Trail isn't very nice, I must admit.The overtime rate as far as we have seen is 1.5 times (over 40 hours/week), and even double at peak times with the company I've been to which is Friday after 6pm, all weekend and Statutory holidays. Salarys are also higher than back home and living costs appear to be slightly cheaper. The property (and we've seen a few) is expensive for Canada, but when you consider an 1800sq.ft home can be bought in the city limits for a little more than our (approx') 1100sq.ft home in a small town in North Wales, then I'd say it's pretty good! Plus, you'll also get an 800sq.ft basement to play with!
The Rockies are on the doorstep and we've found the locals to be very friendly, however we have been helped by some friends already living here, which has helped a lot. As said before though, it's not utopia, but then again, where is? We certainly feel there's a lot more positives here than back home!
I hope your last couple of days go well, but I guess at the end of the day, if it's not for you, then that's only a decision you can make. Best of luck and have a good journey home.
Nige and Soph.
Last edited by Bainesy36; Oct 5th 2008 at 3:30 pm.
