One Year On....

Well the 28th April has come and gone and we have now been here a year.  Time has gone quick with plenty in between the months that has made it a memorable year.

Chris continues to work for H&R Transport with no mentionable problems, which I knew he would.  He has got on with what he is being paid to do and that is drive a truck.  There have been times when he has missed home so much that he has questioned why on earth are we here... there have been times when he has been held up on a job & has found things frustrating... however he has overcome the hurdles at that point of time and continued to support Kane and I and has kept a roof over our heads.... and for that we are so so proud of him.

In a year Kane has completely settled into the Canadian way and even though still speaks with a southern accent he speaks all the Canadian words and everyday tells me I am not speaking properly! He attends the lunch time Blast program and stays at school all day and has become an active member of groups like running club, choir and ice skating.  He celebrated his 8 birthday in April and was happy to say he loves Canada.. he misses his family back in the UK but does not want to live there but just visit.

I however have taken longer to settle in, and have found it hard to find other friends other then English H&R wives.  However they have become good friends and this has not deterred my feelings about staying and feel that Canada is the best possible place for us.  I am now working for the Hudson Bay Company and absolutely love what I am doing and who I work with.   I hope I can meet more new people and start to widen by friends list!  I would just to thank my best bud Jojo.... in a year she has been my rock. Listen to me moan and groan, let me cry on her shoulder & has been a great support for Kane too.  Jo now continues to support us in having Kane when I need to if I am working.  We met Jo on our flight out to Canada and cant imagine my life would be as fun without her.  Thank you.

Back in Feb we had to send off our visa renewals.. anyone who has had to do this will know about the waiting times!  Which now are even longer then ever before.  Our visa's expired on the 27th April so at present we are on applied status which means Chris will be Canada bound until the new one comes through.  At present CIC are working on visa's under the same employer from Dec 10th 2010!! The waiting time for us at present is approx 129 days.. lucky for us Chris likes driving in Canada!

We did however manage to have a trip into the USA just before the visa's expired.  The Easter weekend was spent in Hayden Idaho with our great friends Faron, Jojo Oliver, Freya & Chloe.  We stayed at the Holiday Inn next to a place called 3 Play.  They have indoor swimming slides, karting, mini golf, lazer tag and 10 pin bowling.  It was so great to get away for a few days and see the kids have fun.   We plan to return that way in the summer to a place just before Hayden called Saindpoint & Silverwood.

We plan to use our travel trailer that we brought second hand.  Its a 1973 Scamper trailer.  There was a small existing water leak but we managed to locate and fix the roof.  Chris has had to replace the walls & ceiling due to the water damage but has done a fantastic job as you can see with the before & after pictures.

 before after

where the water leak was coming in and now Chris has replaced the ceiling & walls 

before after

Chris had to remove the cupboard over the seating area and replace ceiling & walls at this end due to the water leak.  A fab job done too. 

Chris has also managed to get himself a 'fixer upper' Ford truck which he has already started to 'fix'.  This has made life so so much easier when he is home for his days off.  I no longer have to go pick him up and drop him off or arrange lifts down to the yard.  Also now when  I am working Chris has plenty to do with rebuilding the beast!

Life here now seems very normal and in a way not a lot different from the UK life we had.  There are differences however that have made it so so worth while so far.  Even with the hard winter we had.  The way of life here is more laid back and easy going... people are a lot friendly and welcoming, and to be honest this took me back some what when I first came... it showed me how unfortunately the British people are not as welcoming as we would all like to think we are.  The open space & sense of freedom is a very appealing thing. I now make the effort to go walking & riding just so i can see the scenery, which is just breath taking.

I do miss certain aspects of the UK... and without question all the people we had to leave behind but I am glad now we took the risk.  I have no crystal ball which can tell me if I will feel the same in another 12 months time but we will continue to take day by day, week by week and before we know it the the next Canniversary I write about will be 10 years!

Warning on potential problems for Nomination........

This blog entry is for all drivers who are thinking about coming to Alberta through the semi-skilled, employer driven AINP scheme.

There has been a recent change on the educational requirements which some may not be aware of.

It has come to light to me today unfortunately through the sad news that someone has been rejected on the first stage at Nomination Certificate due to lack of high school education.

It is required that you have a certificate of proof of all examinations taken when leaving high school. It needs to show you have grades in 5/6 subjects with grades 1,2,3 or 4 under the old C.S.E level, or if under the GCSE, a, b, c, d.

If you are unable to produce evidence that you have completed school with these grades then you can get rejected.  If you are rejected your file will be closed .  You are however able to sit an exam here in Canada which will supercede any exams you have taken previously and not passed or not even taken.  Link below for more information.

“Alberta High School Equivalency Diploma” by completing and passing five General Educational

Development (GED)    http://education.alberta.ca/students/hsed/alternative2.aspx. 

The advice would be to ensure you have all documents for high school in advance and if you do not then you are able to request these from the educational department in the UK who can send you copies of certificates.  There are different departments for past results depending on what area in the UK your school was.  

http://web.aqa.org.uk/admin/p_records.php

http://store.aqa.org.uk/admin/library/CSE-EXAMRECORDS.PDF

http://store.aqa.org.uk/admin/library/AQA-EXAMRECORDS.PDF

If it then shows you do not have enough passes then you will need to arrange to sit the Canadian Exam which is advised to do on arrival to Alberta. .  

Hope this helps. 

File Number

We received a surprise, but pleasant email from VRV this week informing us we had already been allocated a file number for our application for the AINP paperwork we submitted only less then 3 weeks ago.

Somehow they have their finger on the pulse as this can take up to 3 months so we are very pleased to have some acknowledgment from them.

Onwards and upwards as they say......

Part Two

The second part of my trip started after my reset. I had a trip planned for me to go down to Vernon CA which was a nice easy trip straight down the I 15 through Las Vegas NV into California.  I hadn't been that way for a while so it would be a nice change . The trip started off in the snow

but the snow disappeared as I came into Arizona and the temp rose the further south i went. I got into Vernon CA and had to put the AC on for the first time this year while i waited to unload. Once i'd been unloaded i sent the normal messages on the satellite and waited for my reload details . Ten minute later it came through ,i was going an hour and a bit up the road to Ventura CA so i got to my reload site and went to bed.  The next morning i reloaded back for Lethbridge AB . I had a nice easy run back the same way as i had come.

Going back through Vegas was a bit of a pain because of all the traffic heading towards the race track where the NASCAR circus was setting up for weekends racing but after that it was plain sailing home which is where i am now starting my days off.

sounds like my kinda place. its greasy!

I think they ran out of road names.

Snow again

I am at home at the moment to have my reset so i thought i would write the blog so i don't get to behind again. The first part of the trip took me from Brooks AB down to Columbus NE.  The first part was pretty uneventful until i stopped at Rapid City SD for the night, they had said we were going to have a big snow storm hit that night so i figured the best place to be was in a truck stop.

This is what i woke up to, so i walked into the truck stop to see if the roads where open and yes they were was the reply but take care so i cleared the snow of the hood and truck the best i could and away i went . 

As you can see it was not to bad but the wind brought visibility down to zero at times. It was going great until i had  to turn of the interstate along a 25 mile stretch of road to join the hwy i needed to  take me to Columbus NE

It took me a little while to navigate but we got there in the end. I traveled about 90 miles south and the snow went and was replaced with ice. Deliver done it was off to Darien WI for my reload.  When i was loaded i took this back up into the snow to Calgary AB as i was early for the delivery,  i dropped it in our yard and picked up another trailer to deliver in Lethbridge AB and home for my reset happy days.

,

Catch-up

It has been a while since our last post.  Since Christmas there has been plenty of work to keep me busy.  The New Year has so far started off well.  I have mainly been running across the top 4 states of America which i have found to be a nice area to stay within and it has given me more time at home.

I have also been doing some more mentoring and have just come back from a 11 day trip with a new guy.  The weather caused some problems but it was very good leaning for him to experience some of the bad weather and now he has his own truck and i wish him well

Have been suffering a few teething problems with the new truck and tri-pac but think this is an issue with all the newer trucks it seems.  The problems are being fixed but a shame the problems are there to begin with.

Tina & I have got a new vehicle which is helping with the weather we are experiencing.  Tina is managing well with the snow.  We have had to insure the car this time round ourselves.  Our last insurance was covered with the lease.  We have been very fortunate to find a insurance broker who was able to use our no claim discounts from the UK, even though we have been here a year nearly already.  This reduced the premium by a considerable amount.  We have also taken advantage of the cheap price for personalized number plates here in Alberta.  Tina got the plate she always wanted 'Loony'.


We have now seen VRV Global who we are hiring on our behalf to represent us for our PR application.  Unfortunately the length of time for just the first stage of the application has now increased to 11 months and approx. 12 months for the second stage, however with the way things change so quickly this may even increase.  However in the grand scheme of things the wait for the end result will be worth while.   I have also sent in the application for my visa renewal and at this present time renewals are taking 107 or more if you are using a representative, however for a renewal application by yourself this can now be done online and reduces the waiting time by over 60 days.  However you will need to pay the visa cost yourself and then claim any monies back from your employer.  Unfortunately we only discovered this after ours had been sent off.

Kane continues to thieve at school and is now ready to start staying for lunch and will be from March 1st join the Blast program.  This now enables Tina to start working and will start her part-time job working at the Animal Shelter next week.

We have now completed the tax forms and await my rebate which will make all the nights away from home a little more worth while.

Sponsorship

Just a short blog to say we have received our sponsorship from H&R to support our application for PR... which we are delighted about.

Contact has been made with the immigration company we have chosen to assist us and now it is a case of completing all the forms with all t's crossed and i's dotted! The application will now be sent off in January as nothing really will be done with it before Christmas.

At present we have been told that the 1st stage will take approx 11 months or more, and not to expect the whole process to take less then 20 months.  With what we gain at the end, 20 months is worth the wait.

Now all we wish for is no major hiccups and the application is as smooth as we hope for.

We wish tho thank everyone who have given us some excellent advice on the process and who are still continuing to support us on our journey of PR.

Chris and Tina.

Christmas Lights...

Well it's that time of year (apparently!) to get the Christmas Lights up ready before the snow comes along.

For some reason I seemed to have alot of 'cooks' come round to 'assist'. Faron to help spot the ladder, Andy (Jag) to eat tea cakes & drink coffee and not forgetting the terrible twins Tina & Jojo to bark orders at us all and supervise that we were doing a good job...

Ladder hired and picked up thanks to Andy.. Sunday morning it started...

Seems i was the only one going up the ladder!

 Andy enjoying the view while eating Tina's tea cakes.

Andy & Jojo making sure i did the job right

Faron looking confused!

mmm.. if i move it a little to the???

And of-course our good friend Jojo always wiling to help.....

Jojo supervising and assisting...

mmm maybe left a little, and don't leave any slack in the wire, no no untwist that light.. hang them from the bottom.. that's not straight numbnuts!! 

Great advice Jojo!  

But i do wish to thank everyone for your help and Faron for a smashing Sunday roast afterwards.. just what we all needed after being out in the cold.

Out with the old in with the new

At the at off my last trip, I was half way through my days off when i got a phone call from my boss saying could i come down and clear my gear out of my truck as it was going back. OK i said ,then i thought what truck will i get now??

Then he said unfortunately i am going to have to give you a new truck. WOOHOO i thought.

Here she is (Emily) my new mobile home all shiny and red.

Halloween Pumpkins

 While I have been at home this week, Kane and I decided to do some pumpkin cravings for the first time.

Unfortunately i will not be here to go trick or treating but this made up for it a little.

 

This was our first Pumpkin... oh by the way bottom right corner is my shinny head, not another pumpkin! lol

Finished Pumpkin #1

 Pumpkin #2 which was Kane's choice... his favourite character, Scooby-doo.

Pumpkin #3 is of a Cat on the Moon made for Faron, Jojo, Ollie & Freya. 

I added some bats to the back of their pumpkin seeing as Jojo is as batty as a fruit bat!

The inside of the Cat on the Moon stayed in one piece so Tina decided to keep as she thought it looked good.  

Tina and Kane have also decorated the outside of the house with some spooky bits... we have a small graveyard now under the tree!

 

Kane dressed up today for his class Halloween Party... Spiderman is here!