Five Years
Sep 12th 2012 | 4:42 am
#1
Thread Starter
Happy Bunnies
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 1,371
From: NW Calgary
Five Years
It's another "I made it to five years in Canada" Canniversary thread!!!
It took us just over three years to get PR visas back then. The Plan was for me to just carry on being a Town Planner and for my other half to probably go back to school and re-train as what he did was in a bit of a niche area. We both secured jobs before we arrived once we had our PRs in place. Me with rural municipal government and other half on the back of just a phone interview with the provincial government. We decided we would at least try to stay until we got our Citizenship....and that was pretty much the game plan!
Fast forward to five years, and I quit planning after nine months and decided I would never work in that field while in Canada, got into temping for a bit and quite enjoyed being detached from office politics, now working in admin in municipal government (oo the stories I could tell about spending of taxpayers money and ethics
). Other half is still with the province and loves his job (but not so much some of his dodgy colleagues
. Had two lovely girls in between, now three years and four months and priorities soon changed from "live to work" to "work to live"! Ideally it would be great to be able to work part time but not very easy to find a decent paying part time job where I am right now.
We were lucky in that we settled in straight away, there have been no homesickness periods or questions around have we done the right thing. For us it wasn't so much about "doing it for the kids" or "having a better life" - we were due for a change at work and decided to have a bit of a change/adventure and see if we liked it. After all, we could always go back and put it down to experience. Currently no plans to return to the UK but as I always say "never say never".
Skype has made it easy to keep in contact with family regularly. One half of the family have visited frequently and the other half hasn't, and with timings of babies and lack of vacation allowance for me at work we haven't made it back to the UK for a visit since Christmas 2009 and probably won't be going now until a family wedding the year after next. That means my folks won't be seeing their grandkids as babies in the flesh which is a little sad but that's the way it is. On the plus side, my brother has come over on an IEC visa for a year and has stayed with us so its been nice to have some family close for a while.
In summary, we are pretty happy with our lot. I don't think Canada has given us anything wildly different that the UK couldn't - its just a bit different in some ways and if you live here you need to just accept it and get on with it! Since we have been here, I haven't even managed to go skiing yet but have promised myself I will do before my knees crumble into oblivion.
As I've said all along, it's the same sh!t, different bucket
Flossie
It took us just over three years to get PR visas back then. The Plan was for me to just carry on being a Town Planner and for my other half to probably go back to school and re-train as what he did was in a bit of a niche area. We both secured jobs before we arrived once we had our PRs in place. Me with rural municipal government and other half on the back of just a phone interview with the provincial government. We decided we would at least try to stay until we got our Citizenship....and that was pretty much the game plan!
Fast forward to five years, and I quit planning after nine months and decided I would never work in that field while in Canada, got into temping for a bit and quite enjoyed being detached from office politics, now working in admin in municipal government (oo the stories I could tell about spending of taxpayers money and ethics
). Other half is still with the province and loves his job (but not so much some of his dodgy colleagues. Had two lovely girls in between, now three years and four months and priorities soon changed from "live to work" to "work to live"! Ideally it would be great to be able to work part time but not very easy to find a decent paying part time job where I am right now.We were lucky in that we settled in straight away, there have been no homesickness periods or questions around have we done the right thing. For us it wasn't so much about "doing it for the kids" or "having a better life" - we were due for a change at work and decided to have a bit of a change/adventure and see if we liked it. After all, we could always go back and put it down to experience. Currently no plans to return to the UK but as I always say "never say never".
Skype has made it easy to keep in contact with family regularly. One half of the family have visited frequently and the other half hasn't, and with timings of babies and lack of vacation allowance for me at work we haven't made it back to the UK for a visit since Christmas 2009 and probably won't be going now until a family wedding the year after next. That means my folks won't be seeing their grandkids as babies in the flesh which is a little sad but that's the way it is. On the plus side, my brother has come over on an IEC visa for a year and has stayed with us so its been nice to have some family close for a while.
In summary, we are pretty happy with our lot. I don't think Canada has given us anything wildly different that the UK couldn't - its just a bit different in some ways and if you live here you need to just accept it and get on with it! Since we have been here, I haven't even managed to go skiing yet but have promised myself I will do before my knees crumble into oblivion.
As I've said all along, it's the same sh!t, different bucket
Flossie
Sep 12th 2012 | 6:28 am
#2
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 7,866
From: Cochrane, Alberta
Re: Five Years
Ah, congrats too - the Class of 2007 has been busy with updates - and lots of us are still here and mostly happy too - yay!
You strike me as fairly relaxed couple - you'd have got on great wherever you went.
And when you do eventually find that well-paid, part-time job, give me a shout will ya?
You strike me as fairly relaxed couple - you'd have got on great wherever you went.
And when you do eventually find that well-paid, part-time job, give me a shout will ya?
Oct 1st 2012 | 7:57 am
#5
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 13,402
From: South of Calgary
Re: Five Years
Great post
Oct 1st 2012 | 8:58 am
#6
Collector of Junk!
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 300
From: Kindersley Saskatchewan
Re: Five Years
Fantastic to see this... gives us all hope
Oct 1st 2012 | 1:09 pm
#7
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 783
From: Winterpeg
Re: Five Years
Great post, great attitude. Congrats 
Oct 3rd 2012 | 2:12 am
#8
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 10,630
From: Red Deer, Alberta
Re: Five Years
SO lovely to hear happy stories! Congratulations.
Oct 3rd 2012 | 4:50 am
#9
Sawdust making harpy
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 11,291
From: Alberta
Re: Five Years
Congrats Flossie xxx 2007 was a busy year eh 
2007 was a busy year eh
Oct 4th 2012 | 6:22 am
#10
Banned
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 143
From: GTA
Re: Five Years
It's another "I made it to five years in Canada" Canniversary thread!!!
It took us just over three years to get PR visas back then. The Plan was for me to just carry on being a Town Planner and for my other half to probably go back to school and re-train as what he did was in a bit of a niche area. We both secured jobs before we arrived once we had our PRs in place. Me with rural municipal government and other half on the back of just a phone interview with the provincial government. We decided we would at least try to stay until we got our Citizenship....and that was pretty much the game plan!
Fast forward to five years, and I quit planning after nine months and decided I would never work in that field while in Canada, got into temping for a bit and quite enjoyed being detached from office politics, now working in admin in municipal government (oo the stories I could tell about spending of taxpayers money and ethics). Other half is still with the province and loves his job (but not so much some of his dodgy colleagues. Had two lovely girls in between, now three years and four months and priorities soon changed from "live to work" to "work to live"! Ideally it would be great to be able to work part time but not very easy to find a decent paying part time job where I am right now.
We were lucky in that we settled in straight away, there have been no homesickness periods or questions around have we done the right thing. For us it wasn't so much about "doing it for the kids" or "having a better life" - we were due for a change at work and decided to have a bit of a change/adventure and see if we liked it. After all, we could always go back and put it down to experience. Currently no plans to return to the UK but as I always say "never say never".
Skype has made it easy to keep in contact with family regularly. One half of the family have visited frequently and the other half hasn't, and with timings of babies and lack of vacation allowance for me at work we haven't made it back to the UK for a visit since Christmas 2009 and probably won't be going now until a family wedding the year after next. That means my folks won't be seeing their grandkids as babies in the flesh which is a little sad but that's the way it is. On the plus side, my brother has come over on an IEC visa for a year and has stayed with us so its been nice to have some family close for a while.
In summary, we are pretty happy with our lot. I don't think Canada has given us anything wildly different that the UK couldn't - its just a bit different in some ways and if you live here you need to just accept it and get on with it! Since we have been here, I haven't even managed to go skiing yet but have promised myself I will do before my knees crumble into oblivion.
As I've said all along, it's the same sh!t, different bucket
Flossie
It took us just over three years to get PR visas back then. The Plan was for me to just carry on being a Town Planner and for my other half to probably go back to school and re-train as what he did was in a bit of a niche area. We both secured jobs before we arrived once we had our PRs in place. Me with rural municipal government and other half on the back of just a phone interview with the provincial government. We decided we would at least try to stay until we got our Citizenship....and that was pretty much the game plan!
Fast forward to five years, and I quit planning after nine months and decided I would never work in that field while in Canada, got into temping for a bit and quite enjoyed being detached from office politics, now working in admin in municipal government (oo the stories I could tell about spending of taxpayers money and ethics
). Other half is still with the province and loves his job (but not so much some of his dodgy colleagues. Had two lovely girls in between, now three years and four months and priorities soon changed from "live to work" to "work to live"! Ideally it would be great to be able to work part time but not very easy to find a decent paying part time job where I am right now.We were lucky in that we settled in straight away, there have been no homesickness periods or questions around have we done the right thing. For us it wasn't so much about "doing it for the kids" or "having a better life" - we were due for a change at work and decided to have a bit of a change/adventure and see if we liked it. After all, we could always go back and put it down to experience. Currently no plans to return to the UK but as I always say "never say never".
Skype has made it easy to keep in contact with family regularly. One half of the family have visited frequently and the other half hasn't, and with timings of babies and lack of vacation allowance for me at work we haven't made it back to the UK for a visit since Christmas 2009 and probably won't be going now until a family wedding the year after next. That means my folks won't be seeing their grandkids as babies in the flesh which is a little sad but that's the way it is. On the plus side, my brother has come over on an IEC visa for a year and has stayed with us so its been nice to have some family close for a while.
In summary, we are pretty happy with our lot. I don't think Canada has given us anything wildly different that the UK couldn't - its just a bit different in some ways and if you live here you need to just accept it and get on with it! Since we have been here, I haven't even managed to go skiing yet but have promised myself I will do before my knees crumble into oblivion.
As I've said all along, it's the same sh!t, different bucket
Flossie
Congratulations, and I can relate to the dodgy colleagues part too, in my first job over here at least back in March 2007.
Thankfully due to me being in the nursing field I can find part time work, healthier and easier with a little one isn't it? I find Ontario a lot easier for work compared to BC hence why I ended up here, and it's grown on me more and more so I am quite happy here now too. BC was great for skiing mind and I was doing it as soon as I landed there.
At least you have job security for working for the government, there are always pros and cons, good luck with it all, and congratulations, it's 5 years for me too.
