Been back a week today and loving it. All the family is happy and well.

Still pc hopping so will catch up later.

Simon.

Happy to hear you made it back safe and the family is happy. When you get time please post and let us know your thoughts on being home.

Welcome home......Wishing you a life time of happiness

keep us posted

Nice to hear you back safe and sound, keep the Forum posted.

M

That is fantastic news Simon. I'm so pleased you are back and happy after all the ups and downs of the past couple of years.

Chris

I am happy you have settled back in. Hope all goes really well for you.

hey, good to hear you're back at last! well, good luck to you and the family, mate. you probably know you will have a lot of settling in to do after your spell in canada, so dont be disheartened if you feel out of place for awhile. as long as you and the family are happy, thats all that counts!

At last! Someone who is happy to be back!
Glad it's going ok Simon

Glad to see that you are happy to be back. We have been back a month now and it still feels good.

Don't forget to keep in touch and let us know how things go.

Mandy

Simon, congrats on the big move and glad your settling in well. You've got great weather to enjoy now! Well done and hope everything turns up roses for you! N

Thanks for all the comments.

Didn't get chance to post much before I left as it all turned a little sour at work and I wouldn't agree to pay the 17,000. I simply said that I would seek legal advice and respond accordingly in print and at that point I was asked to leave. That was Thursday morning, worked out pretty well as if it hadn't worked out like that I would never have gotten everything done before I left.

Well, phone switched on yesterday, computer up and running today and I can finally catch up.

It's been a really busy couple of weeks, accommodation found, cheap car found to run around, furniture returned last week (after added compliction of customs clearance, it tooks us exactly 60 minutes to turf out the contents of a 40' container, six of us on the job, but i think it will take about sixty weeks to sort through it all) and I haven't even managed to get out for a beer yet. Though I have managed to demolish a few trays of beers in the house, one in hand as I type .

Nothing's really changed in 18 months, but that's what you get when you live in the middle of nowhere, although the first thing I did notice on the train home was how green and clean (once out of the centre of Manchester) the UK was. I suppose canada has shaken off the dirty look and is turning green itself.

Everything is working out to plan and it's nice to see the wife and kids happy, especially the youngest when we found his PS2. He's back into his 'football' and is struggling with the transition from 7 a side no offside to 11 a side and offside. The salt, pepper and tomato sauce are dizzy from trying to explain it, but I think the wife finally understands.

The only thing I need to do now is find a job, been doing a few little things around and about which is covering expenses but I need something full time. Might even go it alone and go back into the world of plumbing.

One word of caution for those planning a move from Canada and have a house to sell, don't move back to the UK until after it's sold. It was a bit of a surprise when I logged onto e-mail and found one from my lawyer. With not being in Canada at the closing (this friday) I am classed as a non resident and have to pay a 'leaving' tax on the 'profit' of the house. Can't even claim the expenses against it, have to file a tax return to get it back. A call this afternoon to the international tax office confirmed it. They where going to hold 25% of the sale price as I had not completed a T2062 form. The form shows the difference between the original purchase price when you bought and the price you are selling. They produce a certificate that means the lawyer holds 25% of the profit until everything is sorted. So much for asking my real estate people about the impact of being out of the country at the time of closing!

Job centre friday so I'll keep you posted.

JS don't do it.........only joking mate, if that's what you want to do go for it. I've only been back just over two weeks and I was concerned that I would get that itchy feet feeling (still early days but no sign yet), so I can understand what you are going through.

Simon.

Simon, aahhh, it lovely to hear things are going well. So nice to hear you dont see alot of change and you DO see green and clean. Makes all the difference what area you are in I guess. Uh, what area are you in?

Good luck with the job searching. It may be a good thing to work for yourself in plumbing. My cuz told me she had quite a wait having her house redone waiting for the plumber and plasterer to come around.
Let us know how it goes.
thanks, calle

Hi Calle,

I'm in Southern County Durham, just north of the North Yorkshire border.

On the plumbing front I'm back at a job tomorrow. The lad wanted an old bathroom stripping out and a load of radiators moving. He said he would get the parts and I would just install. I did the rip out and have been back twice, just hope he has the right parts this time. Once I get established I'll go supply and fit. It's just a bit tight on the money front at the moment to be able to do that. Then I have to go to the same lads mother's to fit a new wash basin, the bloke doing the plastering wants me to fit his combi boiler and then two doors down wants a new bathroom suite fitting.

Happy days, whatever it takes to keep the wolves from the door.

Simon.

Simon: are you going to the Jobcentre to sign on and claim Income Support (bearing in mind they take into account any savings you may have) or are you signing on primarily for National Insurance credits?

I'm not sure if you will have enough Class 1 NI stamps in the three tax years before your claim to entitle you to Unemployment Benefit (Jobseeker's Allowance).

Please, please go to the Advanced Search section at the top of this page and type in 'Swaddling". Print off the pertinent information and ensure that a copy of it accompanies your claim....there was a High Court case where the judge allowed returning British Citizens to make benefit claims from the date you made your claim as you are intending to resettle in the UK....many claims are disallowed and you don't want to be categorised as a non-UK resident!!! Unfortunately not all the benefit staff and appeals adjudicators are aware of the outcome of the Swaddling case - but it's important if you're going to make a claim.

Thanks for this. I already have done a lot of reading on the swaddling case, thanks to one of your earlier posts on the subject.

The main thing I want form the jobcentre is for them to cover the cost of any training courses I need for the gas certification part of the plumbing work.

It's amazing, I was back today doing some more plumbing and have probably enough work to keep me busy for the next couple of months. There might be a lot of plumbers about but there's definitely a shortage up where we live. Or maybe just a shortage of good reasonably priced plumbers.

I'm hoping to get to the jobcentre tomorrow, I'll post how I got on.

Simon.