We're Here!!

LHJ: Well I can't remember what 'D-Day' we're on now - but as you can see - we made it! & we have Internet (high-speed satellite thingy) & my laptop survived the flight (although it did need some tweaking to acclimatize).

So to get you up to speed here are a few newsworthy points from our journal:
8th: The house removers came & spent a day packing all our crap (fortunately it was a dry day) - including my beloved gargoyles - after me picking the pesky lichen off them by hand! But then they didn't fit on the van as the removers had someone elses stuff in there too (which I thought was a cheek!) - they had to come back for them the next day.
Ian called the (stupid) phone company to give notice to close the account on Weds am - but in their wisdom 'Johnny Foreigner' closed the account almost immediately - hence no one could get through to say g'bye on Tuesday! DOH!
10th: Said a tearful farewell to the family Tues/Weds morning - Vic,Teg n Holly were brill - turning up at 5am for the final clean. Ta guys!
We had a good drive down to Heathrow - the boyz were very well behaved & we arrived in time at the kennels, where Donna (BUPA) met us to see Erik - how cool was that! We inspected the boxes the boyz were going to be loaded up in & they seemed fine. Later that evening we met up with Donna &hubby Matt for a final, final, final last supper - we went to a lovely family restaurant in Staines... where we bumped into Paul Bridge (also BUPA - & a big Knob of the North Project Manager for my previous project - small world!!)
11th: The flight was probably the best one we've ever had to Canada: on time. No delays on the runway, very little turbulence & a really smooth landing. The only thing was... we could hear my beloved Bob barking in the hold below us! Arggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggh! Couldn't believe it! You had to concentrate to realise it was a dog bark, but for about 20 mins on take off, a few mins half way through during the tiny turbulence & then on landing we could hear him basically barking he'd had enough & wanted to get out to play. Ian wen to see the flight attendants & they said it was unusual to hear him - but the captain was aware &assured us they'd be fine. At one point they came to tell us one of the 1st class passengers could also hear him (probably put him off his canapes!! - tough shit!)
We sailed through immigration - but then had to get the dogs off the cargo area - that took another 2 hours as it was about half a mile away from the terminal & we were back & to getting documents & waiting for inspections etc - anyway - we got them & they were SOOOOOOOOO happy to see us, bouncing all over the place & remarkably unscathed - JOY!
We (well Ian) drove for 4 hrs & we arrived at the Lodge at about 10.30pm 'Eastern Standard Time' (I just love saying that - sounds so dramatic - y'hear it in all the disaster movies...).
12th: We caught our lovely neighbour - Sharon pinning a 'Home to Stay' poster on our garbage can at 8am the next morning!
We've had welcome cards from the UK, well wishers dropping by & phoning us - we are overwhelmed by everyone's kindness - thank you all.
Needless to say Bob was 'out of sorts' for about 2 weeks - getting his bearings - getting over jet lag etc & he hated the wooden floors here - which I'd anticipated & put down runners in the main hallways - but not the stairs - & he wouldn't touch them - but just sulked in the lounge when we went to bed... so we dashed off to Sydney (an hours drive each way) to get stair runner carpet & now he's fine - running up n down them as if he'd never had a problem!
Erik the Viking was suffering a little from allergic reaction to summat (fleas probably) so we had an interesting (& expensive!!) trip to the Vet Clinic - met a Scottish Vet! We've had pills for scratchings, potions for fleas/ticks/limes disease/heartworms??!! & injections for Rabies - cost $335 - ouch!! Still they're worth it & now they're insured ;~)
We've cut (well trod) some trails on our land for the boyz to have decent walks & can get to the edge of a stream where Bob n Erik (at 4 months old) go swimming & chase hoops (aka fling-a-rings). Its big fun. The coyotes seem to enjoy the tracks too - pooing on them to let us know they are around - you can hear them in the night & they sound like a pack of wolves... me n Erik are a bit scared of them, but Bob ignores their calls & pee's on their pee - that's telling them!

The main prob we have right now is... our sewage was backing up into the (unfinished ie not lived in) basement. Not much but enough to warrant investigation & another trip to Sydney to get a drain snake(!) to try to rod the drains... what a shit job (for Ian!!). & it didn't work - it seemed like there was a 90 degree angle in the pipes that the 'snake' couldn't get past. SO another trip to Sydney to get an industrial 'drain snake'... that too didn't work - neighbours we're calling by all offering sympathy, help & advice (so different to our Welsh neighbours!!!) We could use any neighbours shower/loo whenever we wanted - how kind is that!
We eventually had a nice young man on a JCB digger to try to find the septic tank - maybe this needed vacuuming out... he dug & dug & dug & dug & digged some more... no joy only water in 1 area - lots of it & some broken old clay pipes - he dug all the way to the drainage ditch a few hundred yards form the house - no sign of a tank... so either the old house never had one (which is a possibility as most old houses here just drained into open ditches - yeuk!) or what was there had disintegrated! Either way - we have no septic tank... so one is on order & due in a few days... Ian has ingeniously re-engineered all the sewage pipes to make them plastic, he's dug a straight ditch & amended the 90 degree angle pipe so that we now have straight lines which will lead to a nice new tank - & should the need arise in the future they can be rodded with little hassle! What a great guy...
Well enough of that shit - we made a few other trips looking for a vehicle. We are now the proud owners of a Toyota Matrix 2009 model, all wheel drive - which is great in snow. The only thing is its a charcoal grey colour - but as it was on the forecourt & ready to go - it was a little cheaper than ordering in a special colour - so we went for it. Ian also has a Toyota Tacoma truck on order for helping him do his logging/bushcraft thing later on.
We had a little drama trying to get insurance for us 'Limeys' as we (obviously) have no Canadian driving history... our 1st insurance quote came to $3500 a year - I nearly passed out!
Then the 'sweet talking sewage man' took over (as my stress levels were getting dangerously high!) & he called another firm & got a much more sensible quote $950... problem over.
Then today we both took our theory driving tests... & passed - YAHOO! Next step is a road test in 2 weeks, in Baddeck - which is great as there are only 2 roads here, 1 main cross road & a few side streets! Cool...

One final piece of news for now... my piano turned up! All 1000lbs of it. Late Friday night, 2 massive trucks pulled up with a crew of 4 to offload this beast of an instrument. They had to remove the backdoor to get it in - but it is gorgeous. Made for the 1903 Canadian Exhibition in Toronto - its made from Burr Walnut & is heavily carved, with glass padded feet. On the stool there are ball & claw feet on glass balls. Its magnificent... only thing is - I can't play without sheet music - all of mine is in our container not due here for another month - so I've found some free sheets online & will have to get to a PC with a printer to print them off so I can have a twang on my new toy - excellent - summat I've wanted to do for a longtime - re-learn the piano. Apparently the winters are long - so I should be to concert standard by the Spring!!

Well I'll see if I can get some photos to upload sometime.
Signing off for now... TTFN

D Day - 6, 5 & 4!

LHJ:
yes soooooooo busy that I've not much time to blog...
D Day -6: Had me final hair do in Llangollen - with wet feet all day as Llan is a few inches under water! Then dashed onto do lashes, brow & have a hot stone massage - gorgous! Then trotted off to Liverpool for a final farwell to my Cermaic Restoration Gurus Lynne & Julie - fabulous elegant house Lynne & a superb veggie lunch - only trouble was the journey home in rush hour - DOH!
D Day -5: This was a MAD day - dashed off to Oswestry to collect my necklace that was in for repair, then a picture we had framed, then popped in on a neighbour to take photos of a plate I'd restored, for my website to be... all this whilst Ian was pumping out masses of water that had collected at the back of the house - & when the new house buyers were due any minute! Intro'd them to my nice neighbour - & then my mother - who was having a truly bonkers day and embarassed us completely so we left rather pronto! Then threw more bits of crap in a box, I sprayed all our shoes with the Foot & Mouth disinfectanct that had thankfully materialised & Teg & Ian scrubbed my stone gargoyles to remove any traces of soil, moss & lichen - then scuttled out to The Mill in Llangollen (without wet feet) for a final meal with sis Vic, Phil, Teg & Gazza. Yet another nice meal - but my waistline is now like humpty dumpty's...
D Day - 4: We just haven't stopped today - got our travelling clothes ready - & made another list of them - just for Customs. Ma & Pa dropped by, then Shirley & Ken came to say g'bye. I continued to pick at the lichen on me gargoyles as the boyz couldn't get it all off with the pressure wash & wire brush - anyway am aching all over - the van comes tomoz so hopefully everything will fall into place... now my laptop is blue screening & my antivirus has dropped off...as I will soon!

D Day - 07

Said g'bye to my old BUPA mates today: Pete, Carol, Sue & Suzie... hope to see you all when I come back in Jan...
Dropped off Fanny Freelander to the car cemetery in Manchester -boo hoo...
Collected hire car for the final journey.

Threw a few more bits of crap in a box! Chased the foot & mouth disinfectant that we need to spray all our shoes with - should have been here by now - but remains 'undelivered' by RMail.
My curly wurlys, baked beans etc etc will be collected tomorrow by Parcelforce to be couriered to Tickle Trout Lodge - happy munchings ahead...phew.
No more episodes from little Erik.

D Day - 8 Erik's sock episode!

LHJ:
Yes this blog seems to be turning into 'what Erik did today...'
Well we had more poo this morning! Then (& I hope you've all had your tea) he barffed up an ankle sock....! Exrememly unpleasant. I've been what if-ing all morning:
what if we'd been about to fly...
what if it had got stuck in his tummy... etc, etc Anyway - he seems non the worse - in fact he picked up another sock (probably the other half!) & started to chew on that too this evening.

Had another farewell lunch with a friend of over 33 years (!) the lovely belly dancer Fatima (Den) & her very patient hubby Nick... make that booking for next year - or else!
Have been shifting boxes from one side of the diningroom to the other, labelling them - but seem no better off - in fact have found one box that I have no idea whats in it... so much for being organised.

Knackered & getting stressed - off to bed (after tidying away all spare foundation garments!)

D Day -09

LH-J:
Rayburn serviced.
Amended UK car hire.
Lunch with Nancy - nutty old bird! With a laff to match mine...ace.
Erik poo'd on carpet (don't tell the new owners!!) must have been his medicine, well that's the excuse we're using & we're sticking with it! His scabs look quite angry - hope they're all cleared up before the Gov vet inspects him or they won't let him in... Bob will be waving him g'bye from his first class cargo hold. Tee Hee!!!
Packed more 'crap' - wonder if we've got room for it all at the Lodge!
Shredded loads of old papers - why do we hold onto so much crap paperwork?! It's the just in case mentallity - you know the minute you shred it - you'll need it - but I'm in wind-down mode & don't care.
Chased delivery of the suit of armour I bought off ebay - good job too as he was thinking of mailing(!sorry - bad pun!) it out Monday - which means it won't get onto the van - DOH & my stone plinths haven't turned up yet either...& what am I going to do with my tins of macaroni cheese, Heinz baked beans, Sainsbury's chick pea dhal & oodles of boxes of curly wurlys???? Stuff em in my suitcase without Ian noticing I hope! Or send 'em surface mail - I'll have withdrawal symptoms if I don't have a curly wurly at least once a week (may loose some weight though ;~) ... no I'd rather have my CWs. )
TTFN!

D Day - 10

LH-J:

10 days left to go before we zoom off down the M6 to Heathrow Airport to deposit Bob n 'Erik the Viking' to Airpets - do they know how much these gorgeous pooches mean to us... hope so! Erik had a case of the itches - so we had a not too traumatic trip to the vets for pills n potions to calm his skin down - he's only 13 weeks & soooooooo cute.

Cleaned the wheelie bin to leave it nice n fragrant for the new owners - but yeuk what a horrid job! So take a tip from one who knows - either keep your rubbish (including dog logs!) in bags or get someone else to clean your bin for you!!

Balanced the bank accounts - another yeuk job I hate doing - probably cos I'm crap with figures...

I have a dodgy knee - must be my age...or all that driving I've been doing for the last 10 years I've spent in IT 3-5 HOURS A DAY! ARGHHHHHH & people ask why we are moving to Canada??? To avoid the overcrowded roads & ignorant assholes on the M62/M6.

Lunch with Nancy tomorrow... Den & Nick Weds... My BUPA Boyz Thurs & take Fanny Freelander back to the dealership - I'll miss her - they are the best 4x4xfar for sure...Hope I can find just as good a car in Cape Breton... I'm sure I will. Friday I'm de-stressing with my final UK trip to the hairdressers, a brow & lash & hot stone treatment & Ian's having some reflexology on his dodgy foot. Then Sat - meet the new neighbours, collect picture & jewellery from Oswestry & out for evening meal with Sis Vic, hubby Phil & our old mate Gareth... Sunday lunch with Paul n Sue, Monday the removal van comes - yikes Tues Bro in law Richie n Marian pop up then early to bed ready for the Heathrow run... Weds eve final supper with Donna n Matt Thurs 9th Sept - fly Air Canada to Halifax with the boyz in the cargo hold...

Exhausted thinking about it - but it's gonna be BIG fun & I can't wait!