The adventure starts here!

After almost three years we finally have our permanent residency visa for Canada!  Here's where the adventure (and the stress) starts!  We have just purchased lovely 'little' house.  It's actually bigger than our current abode which is a two bedroom railway carriage!  We found it on the Realtor site on the web, researched the Township and figured it looked pretty much what we wanted!  Now some people have said we're brave, others are of the opinion we're insane, and some think we're just plain stupid!  As one friend said "So.  You've bought a house you've never seen, in a place you've never been to and it's a fourteen hour drive from any decent shops!"  She then swiftly sent a referral off for a base line assessment!

The last month has been like an emotional roller coaster.  I have lurched from almost uncontainable excitement to sobbing fat wet tears at the very thought of saying goodbye to the kids, my family and the cats, and of course my friends.  I've woken in a panic in the middle of the night at the thought of arriving there and hating it.  Or worse, arriving at the passport control only to be told that for some reason we can't enter the country!

Lovely man, on the other hand, varies between getting excited about great big cars and fretting about whether or not you can get suet to make dumplings and steak and kidney pudding!

Fortunately we don't seem to go into worry mode at the same moment in time and therefore faith and emotions are soon restored.

Add to the mixture the vagaries of the Canadian Realty business and legal system, the ups & downs of the dollar to the pound, and trying to sell a house quickly in the UK, with quickly being the operative word, then it's almost guaranteed to be an interesting ride.