Inse

And it all started with a t-shirt??. Back in spring 2005 Vera and I were living in S. Ireland (but already getting a little cheesed off) and one Saturday decided to do a bit of shopping in Cork. While there I bought a t- shirt. Got home, tried it on to find it too big. "Never mind" says she, "we will go back to change it next week".
During the week new passports arrived so now we can visit my mum and dad who had just moved over to Spain, good stuff.
Back into Cork, changed the shirt. Looking in travel agents windows, not for anything in particular,(we had passports remember) and noticed '6 nights in Toronto and Niagara', cheap too. Popped into the next agents office as we knew the girl in there to find out more. She had only done the trip the year before and gave us the low down. Buggrit, didn't we only book up on the spot, real spur of the moment stuff <vera feeling faint with shock>
Anyway, 3weeks later,there we were in downtown Toronto still not believing that the likes of us were there! Had a great time, the best holiday ever.
Fast forward to winter and we decided to try Vancouver. Whilst on the internet looking at putting a trip together I somehow got property on the screen <not great at this computer lark>. Being a builder I had to have a gander. And there it was. A bungalow in Creston for 150,000 CAD. Thinks... check the exchange rate, wonder what we'd get for this place, out with the calculator.
Bloody 'ell. Could sell up here, buy that bungalow in BC for 150,000 and could possibly have 150,000 left over <saunters back to living room to Vera>
"Fancy going to Canada babe? er, to live ,permanent like."
After she picks herself up off the floor I show her the computer screen and try to explain the maths. " Could be semi retirement for me" I try to explain. "That's what bothers me" she replies.
Next move was the Emigrate Show in the spring.
Met a few folks, made a few contacts,found out a lot of useful info. What followed was a year of information gathering and deciding on where to head for on a reccie trip.
Decided on the Kootenay region for several reasons. Laid back, ex hippy types (our generation if you like), sensible property prices and enough work for what I needed
May 2006 and we were in BC. Based in Nelson and went for a look around. That reccie trip was the best thing we had ever done. Things were so different from what we imagined from the internet. One week gone and feeling a bit depressed as we hadn't found what we were looking for. Felt a bit hemmed in by the mountains.
Anyway, we drove over the Kootenay Pass and dropped down into the Creston Valley. Wow!! this is better. Plenty of space but close enough to the mountains. Just felt right
Stopped for a coffee in Creston and chatted to several folks. Drove on to Cranbrook and Kimberley then back to Creston that night.
Stayed in Creston for a couple of days and met with a realtor, opened up a bank account and found out as much about the place as we could.
Back to Ireland
While waiting for visas we continued to do the homework. Log onto CBC news, subscribe to the Province newspaper, kept in touch with our contacts in BC, found a really addictive website, British Expats or something
Sept 2007 we landed on PR visas into Vancouver
We've now been in Creston for about 4 months and moved into our own place a week before Xmas. Mortgage free and a bit left over too
100% happy with our choice of town and it is turning out to be all that we'd expected it to be. Little traffic, next to no crime, really friendly and helpful people, lovely scenery etc etc. No surprises at all, we'd done the homework!
So, that's our story then. Who knows what we'd have been doing if that t-shirt had fitted and we hadn't needed to go back to change it?

Rob4BC

Nice post - thanks for sharing.
Isn't life just full of surprises?
Best of luck on Planet Creston.

LHK

Great story, Inse!

Best,
LHK

Biiiiink

Yes, yes, but was the t-shirt too big or too small?




Only kidding What a great story

Rich_007

Awesome story...perhaps this could be the thread of numerous joyous tomes..?

So there was much more that was appealing about Creston, apart from cults and Kokanee ?

R.

startwin

What a great story. Glad it's worked out so well for you. Good luck in your new life.

hot wasabi peas

They gots them some good Sasquatches there.

maddhobs

Congratulations, a great story!

Linda P

Thanks for sharing.......

Linda

deenailz

fab story , thanks for posting it xx

TiggyP

Hurrah for ill-fitting t-shirts!

Rich_007

Sasquaii, surely

R.

ann m

'Tis a joyous tome indeed - thank you

Ours was a similar 'god - great couple of holidays (but then insert ten years at this point) then bloody hell, look at mls - quick calculations, etc' too - no t-shirts involved that I recall, well, not directly related to our 'tome' anyway

Rich_007

More joyousness as it is seemingly the season....

We had travelled much of the US, fancied emigrating ever since mid-90's. Fancied the 'big country', big skies, mountains, seas, life. Around year 2000 onwards we switched off from USA and forgot about moving overseas, then decided in 2002 after a few more moves around UK that we wanted to explore the world. Researched, decided Canada ticked boxes (the mix of British and US cultures/lifestyles with that safeness that Canada offers, lower crime, public health, peace and quiet). Basically we were just bored, fancied testing ourselves on a much bigger scale than before, to see if we could hack the adjustment and make it work. On the other hand, with no kids, good capital, and wide range of professional and personal "real life" experience, and a very strong domestic setting, we did have something of an advantage, in that our decision making process was probably far easier than most folks. Little to uhmm and ahh over for us.

Put our PR papers in Nov 2003, visited 2003, 2004, Okanagan and Vancouver areas, decided Vancouver would 'do' but really wanted slower pace of life in the Okanagan. Set that as our priority. Spent next year or so researching (1000's of hours, internet resources and reading about every aspect of Canadian history and culture). Job offer for HI came through late 2004 and they waited (and waited, and waited) for PR visa and house sale....house sale completed and we landed Sept 2005 (day of my birthday).

First 3-6 months were a little hairy (tip-landing in Sept is not so good as winter comes on strong and fast, it's harder meeting new people in winter) but with hindsight it was just the usual stresses of getting a new life organised. We got very lucky, made some amazing new friends, still making new friends and meeting an interesting range of new people, and have a lifestyle which we could only have dreamed of in 2003. We are sure that this definitely isn't "it' for the rest of our years but while we're active and happy and keeping busy there's no way we could have so much fun anywhere else.

No regrets, lots of fun, came with eyes fully open, thankfully very few surprises, plenty that pisses me off but nothing that ever gets under my skin, as the lifestyle here balances out any negatives that get into one's life. Next timeline is to apply for Citizenship in October, by which time we'll wonder where the last 3 years went.

Rock'n'roll, all you expat and wannabee-expat kids.

It's been a real good interesting, challenging, fun ride so far. (note for dbd33 - much self-actualization involved).

R.

Inse

Another great story, nice one. Like so many of us have said before it pays to do the homework.
You landed on your birthday, strangely enough we arrived in Creston on mine (16th Sept).