Totally agree!! when I first moved to Peterborough ONT alone, I made a bee line for all the pubs and bars, (im not a alcoholic honest!) but I seemed to have made quite a few friends that way. Infact I can walk into my local now and get the same reaction from the regulars as when I used to walk into my local inthe UK! I didnt think the pub / bar was as an important meeting place that what it was in the UK, some arnt, but they are out there! and i certainly have found one or two! and Id imagine NS has quite a few really freindly pubs and bars!

Might not be quite so easy when at home with young kids? Subsiding under the kitchen table with something alcoholic seems a possibility in Europe perhaps, but maybe not such a financial or social possibility in Canada with expensive alcohol and, one hopes, a more active social system?

use your kids to meet people.

single dads do it all the time....(my brother borrows my kids all the time to meet women)

take your kids to the local playground, meet other parents.
join the local community art fair - or what have you.

basically, what I'm saying is: i know moving to a new place can be very hard.
my wife was jobless for 6 months (lowest point in her life) she cried on a regular basis.

Canada is not that bad, once you've set down roots it offers so much more possibility than the UK.
chin up, - keep calm and carry on

Seriously thats advice only a 20 something would give, it's literally the worst advice ever. #1. Alcohol is a depressant, and #2. Spending your life standing around getting drunk and engaging in beyond stupid conversations with other alcoholics everyday almost always ends badly at around the age of 45. Very badly. I've known many people who lived that lifestyle and I think everyone of them experienced at least seven out of nine of these:

1) Cirrhosis of the liver
2) Divorce
3) Jail
4) Death
5) Killed someone while driving drunk
6) Having sex with people they wouldn't normally have sex with
7) Their kids hate them
8) Getting Fired from their jobs
9) Becoming a very dull person

And none of these

1) Happy Wife
2) Happy family
3) Happy worklife
4) Happy social life
5) Happy sex life

I imagine 90% of the population fits list one and less than 1% fits list two. Going to the pub is tenuously related at best.

I got four out of five on the second list.

I bet you are the centre of attention at parties.

Since when did going to the pub for a few pints equate to being an alcoholic? I'd say your post comes across as mildly unhinged.

Phew. I've got a year to go then. Back to the vodka!

Here's some advice from a 60 year old. You are quite wrong and should bang your head repeatedly until you realize it.

Oh and that means I have another 5years!! yippee!!!!!

Mind you I have numerous friends in there 60s - that still enjoy the frequent pub scene and lifestyle....with their wives......who they have great relationships with.. and also whats wrong with standing around in a pub engaging in "bo!!ock talk" its a great British passtime....and Ive found many Canadians are catching on too! Its a real feel good activity, almost like a sport, it has much comedy value!! LOL sorry im enthusing...... Perhaps Im mixing with the wrong crowd.....hmmmmmm...

Oh and No No6 on the list is the only one I can mildly relate to, and that was pretty good!! LOL although I wouldnt make a habit of it!

Never mind, sex isn't everything...

..And it's I have got or even I've got but never I got (No need to thank me)..

Which one's missing