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