Hello everyone!!
 

Hello everyone,

I have already posted a handful of posts on existing threads on here, and so far I have found this website extremely helpful.

So I thought it would only be polite and good manners to introduce myself.
As you can see my name is Paul, I am 37 years old, single and applied for emmigration to Canada 3 years ago now, my case is now nearing completion. (AOR Aug 05) - med requests ive been told are on their way to me! After waiting for 3 years - I often wonder if Im doing the right thing at my age now (as Im still hoping meet someone and have a family one day!) but Ive planned it for so long now, I look at it from the point of view that if I dont do it - I know I will certainly regret it the rest of my life - and look at it what could have been. So here I go!!

I am planning to live with my friend when I first move over to Canada, who emigrated from the Uk 3years ago now, he lives in Oakville Ontario, but is due to move to Alliston which is further north. Ive been over to visit him a few times now and hes shown me quite an insight into Candian life, and ive even made a few contacts! Im hoping to validate my PR visa in September on a holiday (if I have it by then) then tie things up here and return early next year to start my new life! Yikes!

So I will no doubt be speaking to one or two of you over the coming months.

Cheers

Paul

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Welcome and good luck

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hello and welcome!

We have a friend who is 44, had never married but wanted to and wanted to have kids as well. He emigrated to France a couple of years ago and is now married to a French girl who is expecting his first child!

So you never know, there may well be the Canadian girl of your dreams waiting for you!

Best of luck with it all, hope the move goes smoothly. :)

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hi and welcome to BE

Hope everything all works out, you've done the hard bit!

Good Luck:thumbsup:

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hi Paul and Welcome to BE...:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Thankyou all for a warm welcome..... its good to talk to like minded people, and hopefully some of you will be able to lend a helping hand in times of not quite knowing what to do! My friends are supportive but obviously dont know what it all entails!

And.... Christmasoompa...what a refreshing thing to hear about your friend that emmigrated to France... that was really nice to read! there is hope for me after all! I think it seems worse when Im heading towards that big 40 and still not settled, and then I decide to up sticks to somewhere totally alien to me, altho from my expereince, I do find Canadians in general very polite friendly and courteous.... funny like most of the people in UK were like 30 -40 years ago!

Again thankyou for your welcome messages of support.

No doubt our threads of info are bound to cross some time in the near future!

Paul

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hello and welcome

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hi Paul welcome to the forum:D

This could be the beginning of the rest of your life!!!! Don't worry about your age they say 40 is the new 30:lol: (i'm 38 in a few weeks so this is my mantra!!!!!!)

Good luck with everything - you never know the girl of your dreams could be just around the corner:thumbsup:

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hello, I'm 38 and know just how you feel about starting over, but you know I do think in the long run Canada will bring a better quality of life.

Good luck with your move, I'm very jealous you are so much ahead of me.

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Me too - im probably going to be about 43 by the time I get there how depressing :(

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Hello Cassie, thankyou for your wishes... I must say I do like your quote at the bottom of your messages.....how true! and I have been there a few times!

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Hello Bilba,

Yes I have heard 40 is the new 30 Im counting on that! :lol:

Thankyou for your good luck wishes and importantly your positive outlook to my move (I know your making the move too of course, so your not going to be negative! - but you wouldnt believe the people that have said to me - are you sure at you age? I thought you wanted to be settled etc... it doesnt help!! especially on occasions I think - what am I doing!? At least I will have a very good friend out there who I know will assist me in anyway he can.
:thumbup:
As you say, this is the beginning of the rest of my life! I dont want to just exist I want to live life!!:D

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hello Heidi...

Well it seems Im not on my own after all...reassuring to know! I seem to be almost getting obessesed with my age recently! - I think its because all my friends are settled and having families - then I decide to start all over again somewhere alien to what ive always known!! apart from a few visits there. As I said to Bilba in a previous post you wouldnt believe some of the negative feed back ive had, and even from people that live there! - (the moving back to the UK part on this site) everyone is different tho and have differnt needs.

I totally agree with what you say...im moving to Canada for the big picture, the long run, quality of life is far better there...and ive said it many times but I will say it again - its possible for an average person to LIVE life not just exist, which is all I feel like im doing in this country...paticualry over the past 6-9months. everything is so expensive.

Anyway ive gone into ramble mode....I wish you good luck....its a bit of a wait you have in front of you, but it will all be worth it, remember 40 is the new 30 and all that....!!:D

Paul

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Thanks Nikki,
yes the hard bit seems to be out of the way....Ive had my med requests, so have just got to book that. Hopefully I will have my PR before the end of summer!

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Its OK, I'm obsessed with my age too. I am in a different position to you because I have three young kids (well my eldest is nearly 11) and the thought of them roaming the streets of Manchester at night in a few years time scares the living daylights out of me, it just isn't safe anymore. Which is why I try not to think about the move in negative terms and think of them, hopefully they will be able to get on the property ladder in time where if we were still here god knows what they would be able to afford at these rates!

Several of our friends and family are being quite negative over the move but I am learning to put their remarks behind me and look to the future. I think their attitude says more about them than us anyway!

Keep looking at the bigger picture!

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hi Paul and Heidi K ;)

It sounds like we're all in the same boat - I know EXACTLY what you mean about other people being negative:frown:

Maybe they are envious that we are willing to take a risk and try to make our lives better:thumbup:

As you both say we want to live - not just exist!!!!

Who cares how old we are - we're just wiser and more experienced:rofl:

I despair of this country sometimes, at least in Canada we can live somewhere nice and safe:thumbsup:

And we'll get there in the end.......

I'm sending you both some good karma!

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hellp again - Heidi K and Biiba....

Im really gald to know Im not on my own - with regards to my two issues - ie age and negativity from friends and family... I think a lot of the time, its is that mentality of "I couldnt do that so I dont want you to" or simply that they dont want you to leave (which is fair enough) but I think most of the times they are kidding themselves that they can carry on living a good life here... I think things are only going to get worse, want a family one day and as you say Heidi, I dont want to bring them up here, I dont live too far away from Birmingham and Wolverhampton and there have been 3 separate shootings and a knife attack in 2 days! And the amount of parents these days that dont know how to bring up children, I have a 15month old nephew and my sister and brother in law are really trying to do a good job of bringing him up...they want him to interact with other kids, but its so difficult when other parents jsut dont know how to control their kids! :frown:Then there is the cost of things here now I cant do anything any more!.... :thumbdown: any way I wont go on you get the point! I think we have the right attitude not everyone else who are kidding themselves......they may just see it one day!

And as for age - ah what the hell! Im 37 not 67!:thumbup:



Paul

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hear Hear!!!!!:thumbsup:

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hello & welcome to BE.

I remember a few members of family asking me the same question everytime we saw them, i wanted to say " why are you asking when you can't be bothered to listen to the answer?" Instead i was polite for quite sometime but then resorted to " can i write it down for you?"

The other thing that shocked me was how many people said they would never immigrate or leave the UK to then find they had looked into leaving but for one reason or another couldn't get into Canada/US/Australia that easily. This only came to light over a period of time.

Its worth the effort & good luck to you all.

Before we purchased our house in Nova Scotia, we phoned the owners to say " can we take another look around?"
They told us, we can't make it but the front door key is hanging up in the
front porch on a nail next to the door so if its locked let yourselves in.
I can remember thinking, what, they have left the house unlocked? I live in a small town & this is pretty normal, no one locks their houses or vehicles. We often see i think 6 possibly 7 year old kids walking to school on their own. I am not ready to let my girls do that yet.

NovaGirl

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hi NovaGirl - what you're saying is so true and your story about thefront door key is so lovely. It's made me realise that that's why I want to go so much!!!!:D

Thanks for your encouragement - I've sent you some good karma.....

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

hello Paul and welcome....what a surprise to read you were going to Alliston, is that the Alliston near Beeton and Tottenham...i lived there and my second child was born there ...(shes 25 now) wish you well...JS

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Hi Paul,

welcome to BE........ nice to know there`s someone else form the West Midlands!!:rofl:

Good luck with everything, Ime sure the girl of your dreams is out there??


Sue :)

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hello JS,

Yes thats the one! what a coincidence! of all the places in such a big country a Canada, my friend has only been there for 3 months, he moved up from Oakville, - he wanted more house for his money and to get a bit further away from the smoke! He speaks highly of it and is settling in nicely, hes just brought an ATV and find it ideally located for trails etc.

Anyway thankyou for your well wishes

Paul

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hello Sue,

Yes ive havent seen that many people from the West Midlands on here... not that it matters, after all... we are all wannabe... or already established CANUKS!

Thanks for the good luck wishes...meeting the girl of my dreams over in Canada sure would be a wonderful bonus and almost "rubber stamp" my decision to up sticks...! I live in hope!

Paul

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

There are a few of us around, we just don't all list our location. I am in Stoke on Trent.

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hi Paul

We are only down the road to you in Kidderminster.
Dont let the doubters dissuade you mate. I belive people like that are only jealous of you or are to scared to do anything out of their own comfort zone, so being negative to your plans and aspirations is essayer than taking a chance with their own lives.
And as for being old I am 48 on Friday and just had our medicals on 1st April so you have nothing to worry about, I wish I had done this 10 years earlier.
I do hope 50 is the new 40:D
Are you going to the Mids meet and greet?

Lee

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Happy Birthday for friday kiddy2ns.

I am in NS & i can tell you IMO the age thing isn't of great importance, maybe if you were at retirement age then things would be different. Its a shame as some people always feel their cup is half empty no matter what happens to them.

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hiya Paul,

maybe you may meet the future Mrs Shepherd on the flight out....:rofl:

Anyway, take no notice of the negative comments - life is what you make it and as someone else posted these other people just would not dare to take the plunge and move!!
One question that amazes us is that people always say "why Canada, its really cold over there, it`s not like England you know" - damn right it`s not like England!!........I`m sure people must think we woke up one day and said oh, lets move to Canada!!!

Sue...:D

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hi Paul,

I hope you realise we've all taken you to heart!!!!

You have no idea how many of us are making it our mission to find 'the one' for you:lol:

By the time you get to Canada there'll be a whole host of eligible ladies on the look out for you:rofl:

Word soon gets round:rofl:

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Well Thankyou for your concern Biiba!!

Good ole Britishexpats.com eh.... I seem to have inadvertantly signed up for match.ca!!

There does seem to be lots of really nice genuine people on here!

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Hello Sue...

Well you never know do you? who knows what fate has got in store for me!:thumbup:

And yes im learning to cope/live with the negative comments people come out with...there are even some on here... ive posted a few replys on the MBTTUK thread (moving back to the UK) I dont think some were impressed with my opinions! Oh well - everyone has there own personal view, I think I will stick with the more like minded part of the forum.:thumbup:

I must say what you said about people saying to you "Why Canada? isnt it cold over there?" made me laugh - some people dont think you have done any research at all - and think you know about as much about the place as they do - ie "Oh yeah Canada - its cold over there..."

Perhaps some of the negative feedback sometimes is actually genuine to the fact that they want to make sure you know what your getting yourself into, but as you say I didnt wake up one morning and think Ah... today I will apply to go and live in Canada. Hmmmm.....

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hi there... did you know that women here just swoon over an uk accent?
The last single guy that we accommodated is now married and living in Yarmouth with his wife who is expecting their first child :thumbsup:
JS

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

:lol: - I found the same thing with the British accent when I went to Toronto! Everywhere me and hubby went people were asking us to say things like 'cup of tea' :o Honestly they were fascinated with our accent :rofl:

The funniest story was when we ended up in a restaurant at Niagra falls seated next to 2 elderly ladies from the Phillipines.....they were chatting to me and completely fascinated by my accent - they kept saying I sounded like someone from a British Movie:blink: Anyway hubby came over and asked me about something and we had a short conversation before he toddled off to take some photographs. They asked me what language we had just been speaking in :eek: Our Yorkshire slang completely threw them - it was really comical:lol:

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

I find it funny when they want to listen to your accent :) (not you biiba.. oh you know what I mean) :lol:

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

So do I !!! you do find that you drop your accent and talk more correctly though ;) I felt a bit embarrassed at first but you soon get used to it and it's a great ice breaker:D

That's it Pau - just walk around talking like James Bond - not Sean Conn:eek:ery though

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hi Paul,

well said !!!!:thumbsup:

Sue :)

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Ha ha yeah! Like Roger Moore did at the end of Spy who loved me.... when asked by M "007 what the devil are you doing?" the reply..... "Just keeping the British end up sir!"

Sorry getting carried away!

Re: Hello everyone!!
 

Hi Sue :D

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Sorry missed your post then Paul!!!

You'll be talking about carry on films next - don't go round talking like Sid James will you :lol::rofl:

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Hmmm..... nor the Sid James laugh! Cant see that doing me any favours!

I do agree tho...it seems north Americans in general are facsinated by any form of British accent... well that may just give me a head start on the competion! :cool::lol:

Mind you before we know where we are we will be saying things like Deepo (depot) and Ba zil (Basil) however I draw the line at Alu-min-num!!! ;)

Paul