Our departure day went as follows.

1. Departed from Heathrow Novotel at 10:45.
2. Took 30 minutes unloading car at Terminal 2 as there was no one available at the drop off zone.
3. Checked in at Special assistance desk at 11:15. An completed all paperwork in 20 minutes.
4. Walked the dogs in the pouring rain for 20 mins.
5. Returned the rental car to Europcar. Had to wait 20 mins for bus back to terminal. Arrived back at 13:00
6. Requested to go to the oversized baggage area at 13:30 to check the dogs in.
7. It took 20 mins for the ground staff to swap and check all the crates.
8. Ground crew arrived 13:50 to take the dogs to the aircraft.
9. The ground crew only had a trolley to support 2 crates, so had to wait another 15 mins for them to return to pick up the last crate.
10. Rushed through security and arrived at air side at 14:20 to find Gate was B39 and a 15 minute walk away, no time for duty free.
11. At check desk the ground crew asked if we had 2 dogs on board, which sent us both into panic mode. Told them we had 3 dogs. They had boarded 2 dogs at the front of the plane and one at the rear. Wife by now was in tears.
12. Ground crew finally confirmed all dogs were on board.
13. Arrived on flight to find the isle seats we requested were actually window and middle seat.
14. Went back to check in desk to request 2 isle seats.
15. Air con not working yet on plane and temp above 28c in cabin. Both worried about dogs overheating
16. Flight take off delayed by 40 mins with both of us near nervous breakdown.
17. Captain reported turbulence for first 30 mins of flight which had us both concerned for the dogs.
18. Finally an hour into the flight, the captain came to our seat and told us the dogs were all quiet, the cabin temp was set to 22c and classical music was being played to calm the animals.
19. We both collapsed into our seats and ordered some alcohol to help calm the nerves.
20. Seven hours later we arrived to smiling and happy relatives and our new life.....

Day 1 in Canada.
Priority was to get a Canadian SIM card and get issued a Canadian credit card to build up credit history.
Checked online for the nearest TD branch that had open appointment slots and booked in for 10:30 at Eglington square.
Weather was warm overnight with low of 19c and forecast to be wet and humid all day on Thursday 3 May in Toronto with rain showers according to Canadian government Weather forecast .
Decided to get a Day pass for $12.50 from the local TTC stop on Main st.
Found a Koodo reseller just by the TD branch and purchased a sim only deal fo $55 per month that included unlimited calls, text and 4GB of data as we assumed we be making calls a lot in the first month. Minimum package was $35 a month for 500 minutes with no data. Required to pay a $30 for the sim, but the connection fee was waved. The mobile operators get you either way. If the sim is free, they charge you a connection fee.

Opened a trading account at TD branch as well as requesting a credit card. Limited to $5000 credit initially and told it can take up to 10 business days for the card to be issued. Asked for the card to be delivered to the local TD branch on Danforth Ave in East York.

Next went to Service Ontario to get our Ontario Health Insurance sorted. Thought I had everything covered by bringing my passport, PR card and a bank statement for March 2018 showing our address. Service Ontario said I needed to show a bank statement AFTER we arrived on Wednesday 2 May. Will have to come back in the next 90 days with document so that Public Health insurance starts coverage from beginning of August 2018.

Please note, returning Canadian citizens who have had Ontario health insurance in the past can only renew their coverage at specific Service Ontario branches. I will list those branches later.

it is 04:10 local time, still not managed to adjust to Canadian time......

Day 2 in Toronto, Canada

Still struggling to adjust my body clock. Waking up at 03:15 (08:15 BST)
Spent the morning looking in furniture stores on Victoria Park/Danforth for a bed. Have to adjust to the grid system here, rather than referring to an area/district such as Danforth village. Leon furniture store was OK, but prices were high compared to local independent bed companies. A double bed such as Kingsdown or Beautyrest brands cost $1800 plus 13% GST. Similar bed in Back in Comfort on Danforth ave was $600 plus tax. As we are going to rent for the first year, the rest of the furniture will be bought second hand. There are many companies that promote house garage sales were you can pick up luxury brands at bargain prices.

Spoke to a few people about registering our dogs - pet licence and things to be aware of with the local nature. Advised to wait registering until we have a permanent address. Raccoons are a big problem at the moment. They get everywhere in Toronto. A flight out of Pearson was delayed because a raccoon had got in the hold. Other issue is Tics in the area. Thankfully all of our dogs have protection. Advised to go to Blue cross vets for the annual booster jabs


In the afternoon we looked at an apt on the 23 floor near Victoria Park ttc stop. Cost over $2100 per month to rent and square footage around 990 sqt ft. Not impressed! We are thinking of paying more and getting a house near the Don valley.

The weather in Toronto is crazy. In the morning it was misty and cool around 10c, sweater weather. Mid afternoon the sun was out and we were in shorts and T shirt. Late afternoon, the winds got up and we had 90 mile an hour gusts blowing us all over the place.

More to follow on Day 3 when we go house hunting......

Map location
North/South streets
Yonge
Bayview
Leslie
Don mills
Victoria Park

East/West streets
Eglington
Lawrence
York Mills
Sheppard
Finch

Thought you were going to live in Barrie?

Ah ha. I see. Cheaper to buy in Barrie than northern Toronto... Hamilton is nice at this time of the year I hear.

Day 3 Searching for a rental in North York, Toronto

Our short term plan 1-2 years is to rent in Toronto, get some paid work and build up our credit history in Canada. Long term, we will move out of Toronto and head north to Barrie or somewhere else within 2 hours of Toronto.

We have been using Zolo, viewit.ca, kijiji.ca to find rentals as well as having the support of a realtor agent at LePage. The realtor drove us to 4 properties in the York Mills/Don Mills area. Most of the properties are owned by people offshore (Asia) and they don't seem to care about the upkeep. We were disappointed by the quality of the properties we saw. When you are forking out on average $2800 a month for a 3 bedroom bungalow, we were expecting something a bit better than that.

We are going to widen our search area to include the beaches area as the dogs love running around in the dog park there.

Before viewing property we took the dogs for a long walk on the Don valley trail. The sun was out, the birds were singing and the trees are slowly turning green. This area is a dog walkers paradise. Our 3 girls met so many other dogs on their morning walk. We need to be aware of the raccoons as they roam the back yard like foxes do back in Bournemouth UK.