Arris

"Why?" - you ask. I'll give you our reasons.

Our main reason is we will be mortgage free.

We will have the house of our dreams with views across to the rockies. We have a 4 acre lot waiting for us & we are designing our house which hubby will play a large part in building - this has been his dream for along time, to build our home.

We love animals & have pets (no children) & it has been a dream of mine to have a small holding with some chickens, goats, maybe a donkey & some alpacas.

These things we could never do while living in the UK, but in Canada we can. We also have family & friends in the part of Canada we are moving to, so we are also very fortunate there.

The lower crime rate & no gangs of teenagers that hang around in an intimidating way.

We also want to live a quieter life away from a busy town - we love the space that Canada provides.

Outdoor pursuits - we are looking forward to trying new hobbies & sports, & my husband can continue to go off roading on his dirt bike - which is very restricted now in the UK.

We know that Canada is no Utopia & that the grass is not necessarily greener, but we feel that Canada can give us a better way of life.

kasieczko

I am not really surprised to hear that the British are not happy with the wave of Polish immigrants as I am well aware of what sort of people go there. But we are not all that bad

BTW, the housing prices in Poland are also becoming ridiculous... I have not made any research yet as to what to expect in Toronto but I am not easily surprised in this matter any longer...
I am lodging our papers tomorrow, it takes about 2 years to process it here.

Novocastrian

mls.ca will give you a good idea of Toronto house prices. If you're the sort who would like to find a community with a significant Polish presence in the city, look at the area around Roncesvalles Avenue just east of High Park. You can get the best kielbasa (spelling?) I've had in North America at the butcher near Wright and Roncey.

See you in 2 years mate.

Souvenir

Exotic?

I spent a week in Bielsko Biala once. It was a loooooong week.

Deer Hunter

I chose your post because you mention not wanting your child to become anorexic as a reason for moving to Canada. I haven't come across this reason before, hence my quoting you.

I have no interest in the merits of either childhood, I was simply telling you MY experience of growing up in Canada. Anyway there is nothing stopping you from putting me on ignore.

iaink

I really hope you know a lot about the appropriate building codes There are a lot of potential pitafalls I can see with trying to do it all yourself, so hopefully you have hired the appropriate canadian experts too.

dbd33

I thought the post about childhood pressures to be an odd one. What I liked about the school system here was the pressure it placed on the kids. Each year there was a high school graduation ceremony in which the graduates were anounced in order of scholarship money received. Their SAT and bac results are announced and the school provides tutors specifically for the SAT. I hear kids on the streetcar who are attending the same school now and they babble relentlessly about the need for results in these two tests and their individual rankings within the school and across the city. School here reminded me of a software company I worked for which published employee earnings each month with a view to driving the laggards to sell more. I don't think you can get the same academic pressure in the UK unless you pay for the school.

Arris

Thanks for the advice. Hubby is in construction & our friend in Canada is also - he built his own house - so we should be alright.

We are over in the summer & hubby already has a list of things to find out, people to see etc.

Cheers Arris

sinope

Whatever.

sinope

As a matter of fact it isn't necessarily academic pressure that I am talking about. There is a lot of bullying and huge media pressure to conform to a certain ideal of beauty for example.

printer

Mistresses, wives, girlfriends, they're all an expensive past time.
Should have stayed single and saved for that Ferrari instead me thinks.

Looks over shoulder to check OH is not around

dbd33

Oh, no question, if I had no penis I could have had a fleet of Ferraris.

dbd33

You don't think it's hell to have to try to look like Celine Dion?

sinope

Good point but we have Jordan's proportions to aspire to...

An extra 'o' on the end of to at the end of this sentence?

Novocastrian

I nominate this as Freudian typo-slip of the year.