glendem4

Stress levels rising by the day. We had our house buyers surveyor inspecting the house yesterday. Wouldn't you know it, the conservatory door jammed and we could not unlock. Thankfully we found a locksmith who came around within the hour to fix the broken door.

Today, the handle on the downstairs toilet broke. A mad dash to the local plumbers merchant and some persistence by my other half and we managed to get it fixed.

This is all eating into our time to be ready to leave the house on 1st May.

Thankfully, we have found someone who will clear the house for £200.

Car rental is now booked, so that we can drive to London Heathrow and stay in a hotel overnight. Europcar will deliver a Ford Galaxy 7 seater to our house that will allow us to transport 5 suitcases and 3 dogs in secure crates. A bit expensive at £273 for a one way journey, but the alternative was to take 2 taxis at £145 each on the day we fly out.
We didn't want the dogs to suffer a car journey plus a long haul flight all on the same day.

Going to call Air Canada this weekend to verify all our flight details are in order before we go to the vet on Monday to get the fit to fly certificates for the dogs. Thankfully DEFRA/ANPA have sent all the paperwork to the vet. It took several days chasing as the paperwork arrived later than planned.

5 days to go......

DandNHill

You must be so excited!!!

Enjoy your last few days in England. At least you’re coming to great weather!!

Lichisadave

Great to see things are moving, we have just sent our DEFRA forms back to Carlisle to get checked. Seems we are 6 weeks behind you, we fly out 7/8th June. We have a realtor scouting out houses for us we plan to hopefully have a house ready for when we land. Good luck with everything looking forward to hearing the rest of your journey.

dbd33

-3 with mixed precipitation expected today. If you can describe wet snow as "great weather" you've been on too many estate agent courses.

TheNorms

All our forms to DEFRA were processed really quickly. Our vets called my wife this week to say they had received the paper work from them. But it’s only valid for a number of days... she don’t fly over until 23rd May so he is having to request the forms again closer to her fly date. Fingers crossed they come though just a quick.

DandNHill

Well I have to put a positive spin on everything now.

Currently we are experiencing refreshing spring showers which are turning the grass a beautiful shade of green and leading to the trees blossoming, providing an amazing canopy of shade when the sun comes out!

dbd33

-4. Flakes of snow. No new accumulation but no sign of the old snow melting. Horses in blankets. Chickens drinking from heated water fountain. End of April.

This is a place where people live despite the weather.

DandNHill

That’s just way too much negativity.

Anyway I’ve heard of pigs in blankets but horses in blankets just doesn’t sound right somehow...you’d need too much bacon! 🤣

glendem4

Last day in Bournemouth before we travel to Heathrow and check in our hotel.
Just reviewed Departure To Do List (UK to Canada) : British Expat Wiki list again.

We sold our Ford Fiesta to WBAC yesterday. Original online estimate was £4700. After discounting every minor scratch they offered £3700. Was not happy and they quickly changed the offer to £4090 which we accepted. First rule of negotiations, never accept the first offer and be prepared to walk away. WBAC took 30 minutes in total to process all the paperwork.

Final for sale items left yesterday. We were glad to sell the beds as the Houseclearance company charges £20 extra for each mattress. I think we have made over 20 trips to the recycle centre in the last month.

UK government procedures are really annoying me. Not only do they send a cheque to refund your car tax, they send a cheque for prepaid tv licence and they require evidence you are leaving to get a tv licence refund. You need to send back the tv licence and a letter showing you are moving. We disposed the licence thinking we will never need it. That's a lesson learned!

1 day to go......HELP !!

OtherDave

I you don't have for the next 24 hours, you're missing out

Good luck, hope it all goes smoothly!

TheNorms

Good luck guys, my wife and kids oh and dog leaves the UK in 3 weeks. She has done so well and sold everything apart from our bed. She will advertise it in the next week or so as she doesn’t want to spend cash on buying a blowup bed, luckily family are having the kids beds so they will go on the morning we travel up to the hotel. Thanks for the heads up on WBAC she can go prepared when she sells her mini.

glendem4

Finally, the day has arrived . In under 6 hours we will be flying off to Toronto with Air Canada. Did not sleep much last night, so nipped down to the Air Canada sales desk at London Heathrow Terminal 2 to pay for the dogs flight and get the flight tags that need to be attached to the crates. 44 minutes later, it was all done at the expense of £7.20 hourly parking.

We were advised to check in 3.5 hours before our scheduled departure. Going to need an hour to negotiate returning the rental car to Europcar. For the record, we drove a Volkswagen 7 seater Sharan. We folded all the rear seats down to fit 3 large suitcases and 3 medium sized dog crates. Dogs and Mrs appreciated the smooth ride from Bournemouth.

Next time we post we will have started the Canadain dream. Nice to see Toronto will be 20c and sunny when we arrive.

rawsalad

Excellent. Congrats and safe travels.

rawsalad

We pay monthly so we were just thinking of cancelling the DD, flying off and leaving them to chase us up not knowing where we are. ha ha

Brooks52

Good luck with the move!