finally here, though on my own and this is not something i would recommend.

for info, some tales of the trip and shortly afterwards.
booked with canadian affair, thomas cook carrier, very good. worth money to upgrade and needed extra baggage allowance, 10kgs. was 3-4kgs over, but smiled and fawned and the check in assistant didn't charge me.

landed at calary, ushered straight to immigration. glass wall separates you from the baggage carousel so you can see the bags coming off. wasn't even moving so went straight into immigration and just kept an eye out. 10 mins later was out again, sorted no myther. got bags, next desk, goods follow and accompany list, checked stamped and then wished well.
download the forms and type them up, commented this was very easy for the official and well organised-well done mrs rae.
all this from getting off the plane to leaving airport took no more than 30 mins. at manchester i waited 90 mins just to go through passport control. allow plenty of time its very busy at the moment.

hire car, don't use national. no upgrade. huge queue, waited 45 mins and didn't see one customer at thrifty. they were open and priced only slightly more, would have been worth it.

3hr drive to edmonton. not too bad, lovely skies, huge thunderstorm. be aware when it gets bad people stop suddenly and pull over to wait it out on the hard shoulder. i thought pussies and kept on, then realised that it was probably because my windscreen was about to implode. i thought fool and stopped. 5 mins later it had gone.

following days for the usual stuff i found having everything with me very handy. i mean everything, passport, job offers, financial stuff, your whole life. made SIN, health care, driving licence, banking, mobile phone, car insurance, car reg more straightforward.

bought a hyundai santa fe '02 109,000km $13000 drive away. so pretty much uk equivalent price at current rate. at list price of $14000 was trying to add on $1500 in taxes and other charges. don't stand for it.
insurance for this, $1100 with ING. registration $80. cost $80 to change licence over.

and now i am up to looking for houses, realtor george van de wall from remax i would highly recommend in this area, no contract, no fees and thats the way it should be, don't sign or pay for anything. prices are dipping, houses are on market for longer at the moment. one recently saw dropped $20,000 only been on market 2 mths, but then sold quickly at this price. people appear to be becoming more canny.

i have had second thoughts. i have seen dog sh*t, homeless people, dodgy people, dodgy areas, bad drivers, litter and graffiti, but at this moment, though i am missing my wife and daughter and have the stress of a new job and house purchase, would not change a thing. for me this is it, you need to be here and live it. and i haven't been bitten by a mossie once!!!

all the best. rae

I came over on my own too. I wouldn't recommend it either. I landed early to start a new job and they were great but really I didn't get stuck in for a month anyway so was a bit pointless. Anyway, we have PR cards, health insurance, cars, well Bob's got a big truck, a school for Matt and the dog so just waiting for the furniture now.

I lived downtown Calgary for a month and that wasn't much different from any big city anywhere in the world, good bit and bad bits. We live about an hours drive from Calgary now in the mountains and believe me, it's all I wanted it to be and more, including squirrel and deer in the garden. Pity about the mossies though!
C

Well done rae - at last - been a long old time to get this far.

Best wishes to you when you start the job - are you looking forward to all that training again as much as my OH?? (He starts in 3 weeks).

When do mrs rae and your daughter arrive? I hope it not too long a separation.

Good luck


(bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz - wot's that noise?)

Great post, thanks for teh info, and well done on having landed and all you have achieved since.

Good luck for the coming weeks.

thanks, 2 weeks, no i'm not, fitness is a bind and being with a load of bright young 2o yr olds when you are a 37yr old cynic is not going to be easy, head down, mouth shut is the order of the day i think, easier said than done. should be here in about 3 weeks, my realtor can't believe i have, no idea when the house will complete, no contract and no compensation should they pull out, i'm begining to see his point

Hi Rae

Congratulations for getting here.

St Albert is one of the nicer places - we are south west from you in Stony but can get to the back end of St Albert in about 15 mins taking the back roads.

Anything we can do to help you settle in - please just say the word!

thats very nice of you to offer thanks, i need about $200000 for my house. i'll pm you my bank details, next week will be fine, oh and it'll need a clean, you are so nice you canucks

Welcome to Canada Rae.

Sorry to hear your missing your family.

I hope they'll be with you soon. That will reduce the stress somewhat.

I hope the house sale goes through without any complications.

All the best.
Steve

Good to hear you've made it Rae and are settling in.
Have you tried any grocery shopping yet?

What i have noticed in the 3 weeks weve been here is that Tim Hortons (any branch) always has a huge queue (sorry line) And that Wendys employs youngsters that have no idea what to do when you ask for something non standard but they are very nice about it.
Haven't been bothered by mozzies yet and have had the usual third degree by the very nice personal banker because i want a credit card and even though my account is with them and contains zillions of dollars they still need to verify lots of things and may give me a $1000 limit if i'm lucky!!!!!
Actually as i walked into the bank today there was a rather large smelly scruffy woman clutching her card and purse and pushing her worldly goods in a supermarket trolley (cart) as the smiley faced bank employee opened the door for her the woman said "can you keep an eye on my cart i don't want anyone taking it" The girl just smiled and said "sure mam"

yep to all of that, took me 2 days to get a timmies as couldn't be bothered queueing, can see why though, can't really beat $6 for a coffee, sarnie and donut(hmm how do you spell donut, this should get the litracy police on here going).
save on foods seem most straightforward for stuff, though the range at safeways for lunch, sandwhich, soup very good.
do seem to be goung through money though at a huge rate of knots, have to see how i go with that one, doesn't help with all the ale i'm quaffing as staying with friend at the moment i suppose. went to boston pizza last night, landed at 5pm left at 1.30am, the waitress said "i just can't stay any longer for you english guys, you'll be here all night if i let you". obviously has prior experience. doesn't seem to be a closing time though, you just go until they stop you, and with canadian sub zero we took some stopping.

so far not too bad, thanks to all who have wished me well.

Congratulations and welcome to Canada.
Hope your family will join you soon
Yoong

Thanks for sharing your experience...

... i am heading out to Calgary in a month on my own with the family (Nanette, Tis, & Oreo) following a month later. Hopefully that will give me a month to settle and buy a house so we don' spend all our money on hotels. Keep us up to date, its good to now that your not the only one.

Cheers
J