silver birch

Hi everyone, I have missed this place!! I don't have regular internet access at the moment so can't visit very often. We are now just over 2 weeks away from moving to NS and the last few weeks have passed in a blur! We exchanged on our UK house on Friday 13th Oct (I hope that isn't a bad omen :scared: ), then went to Canada in the week between exchange and completion, found a house (actually the only house available in the catchment for the school we wanted the kids to go to, some things never change!), put down a deposit and had the survey done on the same day that we flew back - far less stressful than the UK system, so far at least. Then we flew back to the UK, packed up the house, had a nightmare with the shippers who failed to turn up on the first day they were supposed to, then didn't arrive until 10.30am on the day we had to move out, despite assuring us the crew would be there at 9am as we had to be out by 1pm. We have made a complaint and are waiting to hear about the outcome of that, but that's another story...

So, we are now renting a small flat (holiday rental place) and I am missing my broadband connection, as I only have access at work and that has been mad busy as I tie up various loose ends. Wth hindsight I would have rented a cardboad box if it had broadband .

We are frantically making all the preparations for our new life and I have a few queries that I hope some of you could answer, particularly those in NS:

First and non-NS related, can you buy Dr Who toys in Canada? The kids have their birthday the week before we leave and so we are going to buy toys for thm when we arrive, but they are really into Dr Who (and Star Wars which I know will be stocked).

Second, we appear to have a choice between Eastlink and Aliant for TV, internet etc, but there doesn't seem to be much between them. I hate making decisions so does anyone have a strong argument in support of one or other of them??

Third, both of the above offer hi speed internet - how does this differ from broadband??

Finally, how do we go about arranging for these to be installed before we get over, as we won't close on the house until the 6th December but I can't bear to be without internet any longer than necessary!!

Many many thanks in advance!

Edited to add: one more question: I have the letter from CHC that says I am eligible for a WP, a letter for my OH that he is eligible for an open WP, and letters re the kids study permits - I need to hand these to Immigration when we land. BUT, in the stress of the move, one of the files that had the paperwork that relates to my job offer has ended up on the container which hopefully is now in Halifax docks, not that that is much use! I did send copies of all these to CHC with my WP application, but will Immigration want to see them too or is the letter suffficient???

Actually another question too, the shippers made a list of all that was shipped, do I still need to do the dreaded B4E form or whatever it is?? Sorry if this has been answered before - I haven't time to search!

Alberta_Rose

Hi, and congrats on everything so far!

The only question I can address is the last one. You do need a "goods to follow" list to pass through customs an landing. It doesn't have to be on the Bwhatever form, but it should list everything you are bringing in reasonable detail, with the values in Canadian dollars.

Do you have a copy of the shippers list? (you should have) It's is helpful, but probably nor obligatory, if the lists are the same, but add the CA$ value on the one you give to customs.

Happy landings.

calgary2006

Hi there,

Congrats on your move - how lovely to get there for Christmas. I can help on the Doctor Who question as my 9 yr old was mad for it in the UK. Although they are showing the new series on the TV, I haven't yet seen any merchandising for it here in Calgary. I am sure this could change though if the TV series becomes a big hit! It may be best to buy them in the UK if your baggage allowance allows it.

Good luck with the move

AnyaT

I would recommend Eastlink for internet (when I last lived in NS they were the only choice for cable so that was an easy decision). We found Eastlink internet very fast (I think they are one of the fastest in Canada) and always provided good service. You can get bundles whereby they supply internet, phone and cable for a rate reduced a bit from the individual rates for each. To get hooked up, I think you can just call them and let them know your moving-in date, and arrange for a technician to come and hook you up as soon after as they are available. I found them quite speedy to come around, usually within a couple days.

Daedra

Can't help with most of your questions but a search on the Toys R Us Canadian site (Yes there are a few stores Canada has in common with the UK thank god!) http://www.toysrus.ca/gateway/gatewayindex.html doesn't bring back any results. I think you'll be hard pressed to find Dr Who toys in Canada so as previous poster suggested, maybe buy them prior to leaving the UK. Star wars toys will never be a prob to find, even has its own menu on the start page of Toys R Us

EDIT: As for one of your other questions, there are different types of broadband/high speed internet access in Canada... one works through phone ables (ADSL) and the other works through cable tv wires (dont know the abreviation, always just called it Cable internet). The main difference I found out when I was living in Montreal & looking for high speed internet, ADSL tends to have about equal upload/download speeds, cable allowed faster downloads but slower uploads. But dont know if its different in the Maritimes/NS

scrubbedexpat074

Doctor Who: I was in the UK in October and saw the huge range of stuff in ToysRUs, I haven't seen anything like it over here. The most recent series is showing now, but it's not a big show here.

We have Eastlink, 10Mb service, it's very fast and it has never broken since we got it. In our first house it was installed the day after I called to make an appointment, in our second house it was about a week before anyone could get to us. Both installations saw the original engineer make mistakes but there support engineers were pretty good (and very quick). "Hi-Speed Broadband" means anything like Cable or ADSL, same sort of service as in the UK. Eastlink are at www.eastlink.ca, you could book an appointment for the 6th or 7th before you move in (there is a different number for each area depending where you are moving).

You definitely need your B4 forms, when we landed customs were more than happy with line items like "10 boxes of books - $value" along with a spreadsheet with more detailed info on it.

Where are you going in NS? Feel free to PM me.

Canada2006

Hi,

I worked in telecoms for a long time. ADSL is faster on the download (much, much faster) than on the upload. The trick with adsl is that few people do much uploading but a lot of downloading, so bandwidth is reserved for downloading.

Think of it this way, you have a tunnel with cars going through it. If there is one lane in each direction, not a lot of cars can make it through. This is like dial-up internet. You get traffic jams!

If you put five lanes in one direction (download) and two in another (upload), loads of cars can go in one direction (downloading) and a relatively good number in the other (upload).

So the total bandwidth, is the number of lanes in both directions. The download bandwidth is the number of lanes in the "download direction".

So when looking for adsl, make sure you have at least:
-1mbps download for looking at standard webpages
-3mbps for video & music
-4 or 5mbps for TV over adsl (if you take TV over adsl then you won't really see this)

I hope that this makes sense and helps!

For Cable Internet, I don't really know technically how this works, but the bandwidth principal must apply.

Daedra

Wow I had a vague idea about this stuff ^ but you far outdo me in technical geekiness *lol* Cheers for the explanation!

Canada2006

Ouch. I tried to stay away from the techy people when I worked over there. Maybe some rubbed off.

Telecoms is really techy and horrendously complex. I'm always surprised it works as well as it does!

printer

Good info here, thanks for the details.

silver birch

Thank you so much for the responses! I think we are going to have to get Doctor Who stuff here - we will have to post a box of stuff over that we held back from shipping but won't be able to carry on the plane (paperwork etc) so I'll stick a dalek or 2 in that before sending it! We'll also try and get cable installed as soon as pos after moving in - I am lost without t'internet. I thought we might have to do the goods to follow thingy, another job to add to my list. At least our stuff has arrived in Halifax now!

Canada2006 - an excellent description of ASDL!

Ziggy - we are heading to Cole Harbour - I will pm you when I get a minute!

Thanks again

wensamjam

Hi Sarah,

good luck with your move, have pmd you, talk soon.

poll72000

Good luck to you all !!

If you have your Visas's i wouldn't think not having the "job offer file" would be a problem. All your relevant paperwork will be on file at immigration.