Originally Posted by steve666

OK Peeps, here it is again with the grammar assaulted to make it a bit more readable for those who are old and have no patience anymore

Still not good but then I'm no expert on this wordery malarky.

Hard to believe the long waiting period for immigration to Canada. I came the first time in 66, just a matter of weeks, Canadian government paid for my trip, had to pay it back though.

Landed at Montreal and then to Vancouver on the train, hotel was pre booked for us, came with a friend who is still here but lost touch. Anyway the hotel was on Seymour street, which is the skid row, east end etc. And yes it was just as bad then, although Robert Pickton wasn’t around.

Went to a couple of bars for a beer and socialize, after being used to British pubs, having a game of darts, a sing song etc. this was like totally alien, two entrances, one was for escorts and ladies, so had to use the other one, singing wasn’t allowed. As was getting your own beer, waiter had to bring it, same if you wanted to move to another table, waiter had to move the drinks and so on it goes on. Just about every one was in different stages of intoxication from frothing at the mouth to falling over; basically all you could do was drink, guess that’s why there were so many drunks.

The area didn’t help either, later on after getting my own place, a room in a big house I met a bunch of other guys and girls from UK, Aussi, Germany etc. always used to meet at the hotel Devonshire on Granville St, few times we were politely thrown out for singing, and a couple when someone smuggled a sax in and started playing and about 30 of us formed a line holding wastes and dancing around the floor, all thrown out again, but was always welcome back.

Manpower got us jobs as tack welders in a giant place building railway carriages, I took one look and thought this isn’t for me; I was used to precision engineering. Anyway a week went by and I was still not working so swallowed my pride and went back, where I was told to piss off, got a job as a machinist, was there 2 or 3 weeks and pay day came and no pay! Seems the boss had absconded to the States with all the money, did get some pay eventually. Next job was as a fitter at a factory building logging machinery, did 2 months on night shift, seems the type of work you got went on seniority, so all I did was grind stainless steel weld with a great big heavy disk grinder, needless to say I fell asleep on the bus going home and sometimes having a long walk as didn’t wake up when I should have. So not being used to shift work I was put on days, couldn’t get used to the change at first day I over slept and again the next few, till an envelope came in the post with my final pay check.

On top of that my fiancé moved to Australia from the UK and wrote saying she met someone else. So here I was out of work, so I went to the Aussi place in Vancouver and was told could just go and work there, no paperwork even, course if I was in the UK it would have cost me 10 pounds, so booked a flight with Quantas. They were on strike so I had to stay in Hawaii for a week and wait for a connection. Eventually landed ay Sydney and got a bus to Melbourne, as I had an address of a family from some one I met in Vancouver. By this time I was flat broke, so they let me stay the night.

Next day I decided to confront my ex fiancé, this is where it gets interesting. Found the street but the numbers didn’t go high enough, so I asked someone and showed them the address, seems I was in the wrong state! Well as I didn’t have any money I got my suitcase, got on the train, paid later when I pick it up and started to hitchhike. Eventually reached Adelaide and got to the right address. The landlord said they had skipped and owed rent blah blah. So I was broke, no job and Aussi were having there equivalent of the August bank holiday so wasn’t a good time for looking.

Went to the employment place, they wouldn’t help me financially as I had paid my own way, but he craftily wrote something, it was the new address of my ex and family, 250 miles away, so more hitchhiking.

By this time my face was bright red from the sun and covered in mosquito bites. Sort of strayed away from the how easy it is to get in Canada, which also applied to Oz, any one enjoying this? If so it gets better, could write a book on all the mistakes and things I did over the years, now I'm old and grey and look back, sometimes I shudder thinking about it. Not really that old though, if any ones interested, there’s the 2 years in Oz back to UK, back to Canada and back once more to UK and now here.

Paul

Originally Posted by swiggy1030

Thanks Steve,after looking at the posts,i realise it would never win a pulitzer award for literature.I was top of the class in English so imagine what the rest were like.

Originally Posted by Rob4BC

Paul, you have a following of some interested people - please share more of your experiences. I am enjoying your story and can't wait for the next instalment.

I managed just fine to understand what you wrote and congratulate you on mastering the computer.

Lets have some more.

Rob.

Originally Posted by steve666

Sorry I had to do that, I thought the text would entertain, and some are having problems reading the original. Hope you don't think I was being uppity

Originally Posted by swiggy1030

Thats ok,i lied about being top of the class by the way,to be honest it was my worst subject,math was my best but not much help here.