Steve writes : We’ve now been here for 12 days and we’ve had quite a journey up to now but before we get to that we had a great time staying with both sets of parents and a great Christmas with our families. As the time for our move got closer the edge was taken off our enjoyment as we knew we would soon be leaving all this behind. No matter how committed you are to a move like this it is still a wrench to leave loved ones behind.

We left on Wednesday December 27^th at 06:00 with a total of 17 pieces of luggage including hand-luggage, travel cots, car seats and 6 suitcases. We were flying from Manchester to Frankfurt and then to Calgary. We’d booked 3 seats (instead of two with the boys on our knees) as we felt this would give us more flexibility. The first flight was pretty empty so we were given two rows of seats. All went well on the flight and we had a smooth transfer in Frankfurt. We hoped that we would be given a fourth seat on this flight as well but it was totally full so that was no way this was going to happen.

All went well at first and then Karen started to feel ill. This was difficult for me as I had to look after the boys I was not able to help her. Also she was seating two seats away from me with a car seat in the way. Josh was unsettled and I had to keep walking up and down the isle with him. As the flight went on Karen became more and more ill and the girl sitting next to her helped her out while I concentrated on the boys. When we landed in Calgary we waited until everyone else was off the plane so that we could get organized and for us to request some oxygen for Karen as a nurse sitting near by suggested that this would help her to feel better. Unfortunately this rang alarm bells for the Air Canada staff and before we knew it paramedics and an ambulance were on the way. They checked Karen out and determined that she had a temperature of 40 degrees (104) and took her to the hospital to try to determine what was going on.

The up-side of this was that I had loads of help going through the airport and getting our luggage. Karen and I hadn't previously figured out how we were going to get it all through out to the arrivals hall. As it was I had two people walking me through the airport so while I pushed the boys in the buggy my two helpers pushed trolleys loaded high with our luggage.

I was met in the arrivals hall by Ian & Jayne Wisdom of Canilink who had come in two vans to pick us and all our gear up and take us to my sister’s where we are staying until we get sorted out. As soon as we got there we got the boys sorted and in bed as it was about 7pm by this time and then my sister and her husband headed off to the hospital to be with Karen while I stayed to look after the boys. I had decided that while I wanted to be with Karen it would have been distressing for the boys if they had woken and I had not been there.

Fortunately Karen was discharged pretty quickly and we were reunited. The diagnosis was that the stress of the last couple of weeks coupled with very little sleep and a throat / ear infection passed on by a family member had all got too much. Karen was prescribed tylenol and advil to combat the raised temperature. When she arrived home she was totally different from the person who I had last seen being wheeled away on a stretcher. She was already feeling much better and was much brighter so that was a big relief.

Karen Writes : We had to go and get the hire car by 2:30pm on Thursday 28th so you can imagine lack of energy plus two young children to deal with took it’s toll just going for the car but we got there and all was well we hired a Dodge Caravan as this is the car we wanted to buy so we thought it would be a good idea to hire one until we got ours and also to make sure we liked it and could handle the drive. All was fine and within a week we had our own Dodge Caravan.

Jayne and Ian recommended Tower Chrysler and we could not fault them. We dealt with John Appleby and Neil Fox (Neil is an ex pat by one year) both recommended by the Wisdom’s and they were so helpful with everything. The van is a 2005 model and has the 'stow and go' seat system where they collapse under the floor of the van which is handy if transporting bulky goods or even for the visitors who will come over - for their luggage that is.

Before we picked up the car from the hire car rental we decided to get our Alberta health cards sorted out, so with Jayne’s help off we went down town to the office. We waited about 1 hour 30 as it was hectic - maybe because of the time of year who knows? But we got them, the doctors bill I received from the hospital when I was discharged was $100 so we were told we could claim it back (we have still yet to do this!!) and we are just waiting for the ambulance bill which we won’t be able to claim back unfortunately but heh ho at least I am here to tell the tale. With regard to family doctor apparently it is hard to get one here as they are so full! But luckily Steve’s sister mentioned to her GP that we were coming over and he has granted us a visit with him to assess us so fingers crossed he will take us on.

House hunting: poor Jayne I feel we have run her ragged!! We had a short list of properties when we left the UK so when I was feeling more human on the third day after we arrived we had a scout round at them and got the list down to three – two in Sundance and one in Woodlands. We hooked up with Jayne and went to view them. The one in Woodlands was already conditionally sold so we viewed two in Sundance. One was a no no and the other was OK but after a night’s sleep we decided that it would have been too small once our shipment of furniture had arrived.

So we drove round Sundance the next day and found a few more to look at then we headed off to Mckenzie Lake. Well I loved it. There seemed to be lots of green space etc. Anyway we drove around as usual and headed down to the ridge bit of Mckenzie Lake so that you are overlooking Fish Creek park …yes 'Dream on' I hear you say and rightly so as the ridge houses are mega expensive but a couple of roads back we saw the house we wanted. It was in a cul-de-sac, had a great big garden attached and looked pretty impressive, so we got back to Steve’s sister pretty excited and called Jayne so she could set up the viewings for the houses we had seen that day plus thbe dream home.

A phone call the following morning started well but went down hill. A few of the houses to view had sold and our dream home had been taken off the market!! We were so gutted it was everything we wanted. So anyhow back to the drawing board. We knew that Mckenzie Lake was the area we liked so we concentrated there although we sat with Jayne in her office and went through other properties and looked at a couple in Chaparral just to broaden our horizon a bit.

At the weekend we got in the car and drove round Mckenzie Lake again looking for other houses on the market and there were two in the same close (Mount Cascade) the first was nice and the second was a bit better so we were getting somewhere again. We decided to drive around where our dream home was to see if anything else had come up but nothing had. However, the For Sale sign was still up outside the house so Steve decided to knock and ask what the score was and to my amazement the owner let us look in the garden and said that she would be more than happy for us to view the property yee ha!! Buzzing, so I was hot on the phone to Jayne with so much excitement in me Jayne tried to calm me down and said she’d phone the realtor. We viewed the house the next day and loved it as I knew we would and put an offer in and it was accepted!!

We had the home buyers survey done the following day and all was OK just a couple of minor things to adjust but nothing bad and we are now just waiting for the mortgage to be approved. It should all be OK fingers crossed. The only down side is that we can’t move in until the 17^th Feb but we aren’t put off by that it gives us time to buy stuff for the house.

Front of New House