shanejackson

Hi there

I have sent everything, every certificate, right up to GCSE. I have requested all the docs to be sent back by courier to be on the safe side and I paid the payment via VISA, did not want to send a cheque, thought it would be easier that way.

Hope that helps

Shane

shanejackson

Gives a lot to think about and a lot of what you have stated has gone through our minds in the early hours of the morning . All we do is talk about it! We do keep trying to look at all the bad aspects of this crazy idea but something inside us is telling us that if we don't give it a shot we will regret it later on in life.

We was planning on a trip maybe after xmas to get a feel of things.

What is it about the lifestyle what is keeping you going? Do your kids have a far better quality of life and cope with the cold weather? Are they more active? Do you find they have better prospects?

shanejackson

Hi there, thanks for your very honest info its much appreciated

Gives a lot to think about and a lot of what you have stated has gone through our minds in the early hours of the morning . All we do is talk about it! We do keep trying to look at all the bad aspects of this crazy idea but something inside us is telling us that if we don't give it a shot we will regret it later on in life.

We was planning on a trip maybe after xmas to get a feel of things.

What is it about the lifestyle what is keeping you going? Do your kids have a far better quality of life and cope with the cold weather? Are they more active? Do you find they have better prospects?

lufc71

thank you for the information shane. I shall be locating all my certificates and will send them away in due course.

did you request a basic assessment?

regards
imran

rae

i have one daughter who was pretty active back, but restricted in her activities due to costs. this is not a factor here, partly because of the better wages, but also because things cost less, and some things are actually free. for instance my daughter has a large outdoor (unvandalised) play area at her school which is open to all whenever and is like something out of centreparks. this by the way is next to the outdoor ice rink also open to whomever and floodlit in season. skates are dirt cheap and most folk do it. she plays football and softball, ice skates and now ski's. shes 8yrs old, i'd just about managed a bike and trip to blackpool at that age.

we all cope with the cold because you have to. the kit here is excellent and reasonably priced. i picked up a north face climb a mountain jacket which i wore most of the time with just a t-shirt underneath its that warm, for 175 pounds. went on web site in uk, same jacket 425 pounds.

prospects i don't know, i think that is dependant on the person as much as it is on the school and environment. however, she is much safer in my opinion, so the negative prospects for her i feel are less, regarding drug and alcohol use, teen pregnancy, bullying etc. i certainly would not have let her far out of my sight back home, here she walks to and from and catches a school bus, walks the dog around one of three parks within spitting distance of my house, without me worrying one bit. thats not to say its perfect, there is a gang and gun problem, but its very restricted to a small area of edmonton. i live in st albert though to the north, which is a small copland with a small town feel which i like.

i would recommend you give it ago, you can always go back, and i was also of the opinion that if i did not try it, for better or worse, i would regret it.

shanejackson

Hi Rae,
Many thanks for the reply.

i would like to ask if the basic training is a pass or fail course. My concerns are that i get offered a job, start the training and fail it half way through without a job to fall back into in the UK.

Also it must be a great feeling to allow your young girl to play within the local area and not worry about it.

rae

well, they say it is. in my opinion you have to be a complete waste of space to get binned. realistically they only bin people if they are injured, or do womething criminally as you would expect. having said that when somebody does get injured they are very good. they provide a lot of support and will only back class really with no alternative, and i would say only in the first 12 weeks. if you make it past then, with something relatively minor, you should be ok.
they do put a lot of pressure on you to perform. which is fine, i do not expect a free pass to anything in life, but i found it annoying that after trying so hard, others did not without the sanctions they ran through at the start. like i say, as long as you are not a total muppet, which i'm sure you are not, you will be fine.

and yes it is nice to kick the child out of the house so she can wander the streets, just like the olden days. chimneys are next.

shanejackson

sorry. One last question honest (for tonight that is) lol
i read with great interest the pay,$74k per year. how much would the basic take home pay be "roughly"
I'm trying to look at the mortages for affordability.

Pompeyboy

I concur with much of what Rae says, except the -48 with windchill..he is a lily-livered Manc..its lovely here, never snows or rains and I have my shorts on all year round..

shanejackson

Hi there again,

Just looked on another forum and a police officer on there has stated his take home after all deductions on his payslip is $1168 bi-weekly, that seems a lot lower than what I thought, is this correct/

Pompeyboy

If you have 5 or more years UK Police service you start on five year rate and will take home about $1700 every two weeks..

rae

and i have found this can easily top $2k with the odd public holiday, which is treble, yes treble time. an hour here or there at shift end usually makes it about 1850 for me roughly. most of the lads i work with do around 10hrs o/t per mth which puts another $500 in their hands per mth.

its not as much as i thought in some respects, but look at it this way. you will be earning in 2 weeks what in the uk you would be paid per mth. if you have a similar mortgage, and all other costs over here are similar, apart from fuel, then you must be better off. for example, we struggled on 2 wages in the uk, my wife was on around 24k and i was a 2nd yr sgt on 33k, thats to say i did not live in a mansion or drive a range rover. we had a normal house, ran normal saloon car and a small hatchback, holidays in europe, standard stuff.

over here i am seriously looking at a range rover next year, 2yrs old, 30k miles, 23k sterling, bargin and you can run the 4.4 v8 over here, my house now has 3 floors, 5 bedroom and 4 bathrooms, we have 2,500 sq ft of living space and 3 3 piece couches!! we run 2 brand new suv's and can still save money each mth. now i know its not all about material things, but on the subject of cash hopefully this should provide an example of how we are the same here work wise as back home, but much better off financially.

sym13

Rae,

You comments are really helpful to all of us who are considering the big move across the Pond seriously.

What's Edmonton like as a place to live though?

Is it in the middle of nowhere and what facilities are there to relax?

Sy

Pompeyboy

You can feel isolated in Edmonton but thats probably because its inland..dont forget that in the UK you are only ever 70 miles or less from the coast.. Edmonton has good and bad areas much like anywhere else on earth..but it has a population of nearly 1,000,000 and you still feel like there is space here.. Some choose to live outside Edmonton in St Albert (very nice) small town with all the amenities and super for families with younger kids.
I live in North East Edmonton in a very nice house in a nice neighborhood, the neighbors are great, there is tons of green space here and the parks are generally safe places for the kids to be.
The mountains are 3 hours drive from here, one thing Calgary does have over Edmonton.
Edmonton will provide you with evrything you want from a city and its still growing, dont forget they dont have the history of the UK and you do have to remember that its NOT the UK..
And last, dont forget you can always return if you dont like it...or try somewhere else in Canada..

shanejackson

Thanks for all your useful advice it really is helping so keep it coming. Me and the wife have not stopped talking about this now and are deeply researching everything we possibly can and hope that the application goes through ok and I get a date for all the testings. Does anyone know how long it takes for the EPS to contact you with dates for the testings if everything is ok with the application?