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Reflections on my life in Vancouver after a trip back to UK

Reflections on my life in Vancouver after a trip back to UK

Old Aug 25th 2018, 5:32 am
  #91  
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Default Re: Reflections on my life in Vancouver after a trip back to UK

This afternoon I saw four seagulls trying to gang rape a cormorant.
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Old Aug 25th 2018, 6:30 am
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Default Re: Reflections on my life in Vancouver after a trip back to UK

Originally Posted by Oink
This afternoon I saw four seagulls trying to gang rape a cormorant.
As Wayne said on Letterkenny, "What's the science of that, David Suzuki?" That's a feature of Vancouver we don t get on the prairies; you have gulls 2' tall (easily twice the size of ours) surveying the grocery store parking lots for garbage in the morning. They're magnificent, masters of their domain. If our seagulls went to Vancouver they'd be your seagulls' bitches.
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Old Aug 25th 2018, 1:29 pm
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Default Re: Reflections on my life in Vancouver after a trip back to UK

Originally Posted by Oink
This afternoon I saw four seagulls trying to gang rape a cormorant.

Perhaps they had heard the song and got confused..


"The common cormorant, or shag..."


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Old Aug 25th 2018, 10:46 pm
  #94  
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Default Re: Reflections on my life in Vancouver after a trip back to UK

How does it work in Canada for when you're old and need long term care? Do they do the same as in the uk and make you sell your home to pay for it whereas in rental accomodation it's paid for.
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Old Aug 25th 2018, 10:53 pm
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Default Re: Reflections on my life in Vancouver after a trip back to UK

Originally Posted by bats
How does it work in Canada for when you're old and need long term care? Do they do the same as in the uk and make you sell your home to pay for it whereas in rental accomodation it's paid for.
Yes, yes and yes! Being thrifty does not pay when it comes to such as you alude to....such is the Socialist Republic of Canada.....
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Old Aug 25th 2018, 11:32 pm
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Default Re: Reflections on my life in Vancouver after a trip back to UK

Originally Posted by bats
How does it work in Canada for when you're old and need long term care? Do they do the same as in the uk and make you sell your home to pay for it whereas in rental accomodation it's paid for.
I don't know if BC makes you sell your house, but here is the info on long term care.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/h...esidential-car

"If you receive publicly subsidized long-term residential care services, you will pay a monthly rate of up to 80 per cent of your after tax income towards the cost of housing and hospitality services, subject to a minimum and maximum monthly rate. Your monthly rate is calculated based on your “after tax income” (as defined in the Continuing Care Fees Regulation) in one of two ways:

If your after tax income is less than $19,500 per year, your monthly rate is calculated as your after tax income less $3,900 and divided by 12 (Formula A).

Note: The $3,900 deduction ($325 per month X 12 months) is set to ensure that most clients have at least $325 of income remaining per month after paying their monthly rate.

If your after tax income is equal to or greater than $19,500 per year, your monthly rate is calculated as your after tax income multiplied by 80 per cent and divided by 12
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Old Aug 26th 2018, 1:43 am
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Default Re: Reflections on my life in Vancouver after a trip back to UK

Originally Posted by Shard
What would be the difference in the way your one local friend treats you and the many others that treat you as from away? Curious?
He can be bothered to make arrangements, return messages or phone calls etc. I have found that a lot of people here are just not receptive to making new friends. A few times people have said oh we should do this or that and it never materialises. Its just BS because they seem to feel the need to act that way. Even when I have tried to follow up and tried to make arrangements you just get excuses. I cant stand the fake friendliness. If you dont want to or dont like me thats fine but have the spine to say so.
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Old Aug 26th 2018, 1:55 am
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Default Re: Reflections on my life in Vancouver after a trip back to UK

Originally Posted by BristolUK

Loads of BE people say this about everywhere in Canada.
It's not something I experience either way as I'm not naturally a mixer anyway.
Yes they do and for lots of different reasons. I think that it is worth finding out by trying a different part of the country before deciding that its Canada as a whole that is not for you. Whilst the people here are an issue for me there are other factors. I think that I am mainly just bored here and there is a lack of things that I want to do. As a result of this its harder to meet and become friends with people through common interests etc.
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Old Aug 26th 2018, 2:03 am
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Default Re: Reflections on my life in Vancouver after a trip back to UK

Originally Posted by Jsmth321
. Owning a house just brings freedom and more stability,
.
I take your point but it can also become a prison when you live in a house that wont sell. It took us 14 months to sell and caused us an immense amount of stress.
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Old Aug 26th 2018, 2:31 am
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Default Re: Reflections on my life in Vancouver after a trip back to UK

Originally Posted by Alex2201
I take your point but it can also become a prison when you live in a house that wont sell. It took us 14 months to sell and caused us an immense amount of stress.
True. However for us moving would not be in the plans, I hate moving, and not being a professional type who moves for a career it would be unlikely we would need to sell on a specific time frame, so it would bring long term stability for us. These days renting, if you can manage to stay 2-3 years in the same place, your doing good.

If one likes to move often or has the kind of job that requires them to move every few years., suppose renting has more benefits.......

Last edited by scrubbedexpat091; Aug 26th 2018 at 2:34 am.
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Old Aug 26th 2018, 3:34 am
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Default Re: Reflections on my life in Vancouver after a trip back to UK

Originally Posted by Alex2201
He can be bothered to make arrangements, return messages or phone calls etc. I have found that a lot of people here are just not receptive to making new friends. A few times people have said oh we should do this or that and it never materialises. Its just BS because they seem to feel the need to act that way. Even when I have tried to follow up and tried to make arrangements you just get excuses. I cant stand the fake friendliness. If you dont want to or dont like me thats fine but have the spine to say so.

Vancouver was heaven after spending time down in Texas ......... where they really were not truly friendly, it was just show.

As an example ......... OH had a Home Family that he got because he arrived before me. They invited him and then us to lots of parties, dinners etc. Many of the people we met at those events were full of "oh we must meet again", but no follow up. But one particular couple seemed to be really friendly, and added "do stop by if you're ever in our neighbourhood. Here's the address."

A couple of weeks later, we did find ourselves in that neighbourhood, so we stopped at the house, knocked on the door ........... and were greeted with the coldest reception you have ever seen with the feeling that he had absolutely no idea who we were.

We decided that was said at a party stayed at the party!

We get to Vancouver. First off, everyone member of the Department took turns to have us for dinner or a "happy hour". In most cases, that only happened once, but several became good friends, and still are.

Second, OH made contact with the Rugby Referees here, we went to an event around November time, chatted to many people, and one couple said "We have Open House on Boxing Day. We live in Surrey, here's the address. If you are in the neighbourhood that day, do drop in."

Sooooooooooooo ........... we think it is the same as in Texas, don't drop in, and we are not allowed to forget it for the next 10 years. Literally every time we saw that couple one or the other would say "You didn't come to our Boxing Day Party'!!!!

We've since discovered that the same thing that we found in Vancouver applies across Canada ........... some of it might be due to the fact that we both belong to the same small-ish professional organisation that used to have 400+ members but has been down around 200 for the last 15 or so years, and we used to go to every Annual Meeting, usually adding 1 or 2 weeks as our holiday to explore a new area. As a result of that, we know at least one person in every large city across the country. But we have also found it easy to make friends outside that circle when we have gone to other places.

There is almost always someone we can phone to go out for a drink or meet us for dinner wherever we are, if we want to.


Different experiences

Last edited by scilly; Aug 26th 2018 at 3:39 am.
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Old Aug 26th 2018, 12:09 pm
  #102  
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Default Re: Reflections on my life in Vancouver after a trip back to UK

Originally Posted by scilly
Vancouver was heaven after spending time down in Texas ......... where they really were not truly friendly, it was just show.
By way of contrast, I had neighbours who were from NS. Friendly people with whom I'm in touch 10 years later. They didn't like Ontario finding the people generally antisocial. They now live outside of Austin on a few acres with a couple of horses, in the same manner as they did here. They have the same interests as ever; quilting, church, gardening. They love Texas and say they have many friends there. That may just be because they're conservative people in an area of oldsters but I think that isolationism is a feature here, I think they are the last Canadians with whom I sat down to dinner and they were from-aways.
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Old Aug 26th 2018, 3:49 pm
  #103  
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Default Re: Reflections on my life in Vancouver after a trip back to UK

Originally Posted by Alex2201
He can be bothered to make arrangements, return messages or phone calls etc. I have found that a lot of people here are just not receptive to making new friends. A few times people have said oh we should do this or that and it never materialises. Its just BS because they seem to feel the need to act that way. Even when I have tried to follow up and tried to make arrangements you just get excuses. I cant stand the fake friendliness. If you dont want to or dont like me thats fine but have the spine to say so.
Yeah that must be annoying. Good idea to try another part of Canada before making any decisions.
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Old Aug 26th 2018, 3:56 pm
  #104  
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Default Re: Reflections on my life in Vancouver after a trip back to UK

Originally Posted by scilly
Vancouver was heaven after spending time down in Texas ......... where they really were not truly friendly, it was just show.

As an example ......... OH had a Home Family that he got because he arrived before me. They invited him and then us to lots of parties, dinners etc. Many of the people we met at those events were full of "oh we must meet again", but no follow up. But one particular couple seemed to be really friendly, and added "do stop by if you're ever in our neighbourhood. Here's the address."

A couple of weeks later, we did find ourselves in that neighbourhood, so we stopped at the house, knocked on the door ........... and were greeted with the coldest reception you have ever seen with the feeling that he had absolutely no idea who we were.

We decided that was said at a party stayed at the party!

We get to Vancouver. First off, everyone member of the Department took turns to have us for dinner or a "happy hour". In most cases, that only happened once, but several became good friends, and still are.

Second, OH made contact with the Rugby Referees here, we went to an event around November time, chatted to many people, and one couple said "We have Open House on Boxing Day. We live in Surrey, here's the address. If you are in the neighbourhood that day, do drop in."

Sooooooooooooo ........... we think it is the same as in Texas, don't drop in, and we are not allowed to forget it for the next 10 years. Literally every time we saw that couple one or the other would say "You didn't come to our Boxing Day Party'!!!!

We've since discovered that the same thing that we found in Vancouver applies across Canada ........... some of it might be due to the fact that we both belong to the same small-ish professional organisation that used to have 400+ members but has been down around 200 for the last 15 or so years, and we used to go to every Annual Meeting, usually adding 1 or 2 weeks as our holiday to explore a new area. As a result of that, we know at least one person in every large city across the country. But we have also found it easy to make friends outside that circle when we have gone to other places.

There is almost always someone we can phone to go out for a drink or meet us for dinner wherever we are, if we want to.


Different experiences
Well that's hardly a fair comparison, dropping in unannounced to the Texan family, and attending a scheduled Boxing Day open house !
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Old Aug 26th 2018, 5:50 pm
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Default Re: Reflections on my life in Vancouver after a trip back to UK

I don't find Canadian's all that friendly really, or open to meeting new people, they seem to prefer their little groups and are fine with it. I tried over the years to make friends and meet people here but to no success, I am not super social by any means, but I was always able to make a few friends in the US, where it's never been possible in Canada for the most part.

Co-workers for example in the US where I worked often would do things together after work or such, I have yet to encounter that in Canada anywhere I have worked, once work is over everyone scatters home.

Like I have said before, Canadians tend to be polite, but not friendly, Americans tend to be friendlier, but less polite.
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