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Our History
This page gives details of where we have each come from as individuals and then more lately as a couple and what has kindled our desire to make a home in Canada.
I was born in Oxford England on September 26th 1964, the youngest of five and the only boy (and no I wasn’t spoilt but my sisters wouldn’t agree with me).
When I was four years old my father changed jobs and we moved to Wirral Merseyside where I’ve been based ever since.
I was educated in a private school run by the Christian Brothers (please see my resume for further details of this and my further education).
In 1990 I married an un-married mother of twin boys (then aged 2), one year later my daughter was born and shortly after that I adopted the boys. After seven years we split up.
My first interest in Canada was in 1998 shortly after my divorce. Needing some ‘time out’ I arranged a visit to my sister and her family who had emigrated to Calgary the year before. I remember sitting on the deck sipping at a beer and reading a book one evening and it struck me then just how lucky my sister was, I told her that people pay thousands of pounds to live like this for two weeks a year on their annual holiday and that she was enjoying this life-style on a permanent basis. Of course the reality of it was much more down-to-earth than this but the seed had been sown. It was then that I knew where my heart and my future lay. The only reason I didn’t apply to emigrate to Canada at that time was because of the ages of the children (then 10,10 and 6). I didn’t want them to feel that I was abandoning them.
My next time in Canada was in January of 2000 and this was mainly for skiing. Again I based myself at my sister’s home in Calgary but hired a car so I could travel daily to the ski resorts of Wintergreen (now closed for winter sports) and Nakiska (Kananaskis) where the 1986 Winter Olympics down-hill was held. Again I felt so at home and at ease during my visit. Like my first time there this visit did not give me the true feeling of living and working in Canada as I was simply being a tourist there but again I was able to get an impression of the standard of living and the way of life that my sister and her family was experiencing. One example that has always struck me was sitting in a large leather armchair in front of a fire while inside a book store in a shopping mall reading some pages of the latest Harry Potter book and drinking a large cup of coffee – something that I have never seen possible in the UK.
I was born
in 1973 at
Grange Mount hospital in Birkenhead on the Wirral, England.
I have one sister who is two years younger than me and her name is Angela.
I lived in Oxton until I was six months
old then we moved to where my parents still live today, which is in Upton,
Wirral.
My school from the age of five to eleven was Woodchurch C of E primary school
that was attached to the local church.
From the primary school I then attended Woodchurch high school, I left there at
the age of sixteen with nine GCSE’s six at grade C, two at grade D and one at
grade E.
My obsession with Canada started when I was a child. My Grand parents emigrated to Ontario when I was only 10 months old. Since then we had spent many a school vacation in the summer months (6 weeks) at my Grand parents house in Kincardine, Ontario.
We would travel as a family and cover the sites for example: Niagara Falls, Toronto, CN Tower, Skydome (home of the Toronto Blue Jays and Maple Leafs), plus all of the small towns around where my Grand Parents live and still reside today. Canada for me was "chill time" I was always in awe of the vastness of the country and the people within the country it self. It was and still is one of those places where once you have visited you just want to keep going back.
I decided that I wanted to become a chef at an early age. After school I didn't
want to go to college full-time for two years though. I wanted to combine the
study with working experience. So I joined the Hotel and Catering training
company based in Water Street, Liverpool. I studied once a week for two years
for my City and Guilds 706/1 in food preparation and the rest of the working week was spent on
placement at the canteen / restaurant within Champion Spark Plugs manufacturing
site on the Wirral. I was based there for two years and gained a lot of catering
knowledge and experience.
I left the college at the age of 18 and went to work in a Public house as the
chef and also as a bar person, this did wonders for my skills in dealing with
the general public. I stayed there for four years then applied for a position
within a boarding school, I was the head cook there responsible for catering for
400 pupils every day of the week, I also helped with the evening catering for
the actual "boarding pupils", I stayed in that role for six years then moved to
a four star hotel in Cheshire, my job title there was Chef de Partie the role
was challenging and brought a different out look to catering as I had previously
come from the Industrial background of Catering. I stayed at the hotel for one
year and then moved to the company that I am employed with currently Eurest
(Part of Compass Group). I joined as an assistant manager and progressed to the
chef manager of my own restaurant within six months of joining. I am currently
the manager at Kodak Chemicals manufacturing Ltd in Liverpool and have been for
the last two years.
At this present moment in time I am at college again part-time studying for a HNC in Hospitality management and am due to complete this course in July 2005.
Early in 2002 we started dating. It was only after we were together that we realised that individually we both had a passion for Canada and a desire to make a permanent home there.
Our first joint visit to Canada was to Calgary over Christmas and New Year (2002 / 2003) staying with Steve's sister and family. We did a little sightseeing and stayed in Kananaskis the weekend after Christmas. It was from here that we visited Banff, Canmore and Lake Louise as well as getting some skiing in at Sunshine village. It was during this visit that we first starting talking to others about our dreams. We met several other couples / families who had already emigrated to Canada and asked them many questions about their experiences trying to gain some insight in to what lay ahead for us. We also looked at some new houses and on our last day we opened a bank account with the last of our Canadian Travellers cheques.
When we came back we started a subscription to Canada News as we had been told this was an invaluable source of information and contacts. This gave us information about an emigration fair at Sandown Racecourse. We went to the Sandown exhibition in 2003 and are going again in March 2004, we have found the emigration show valuable and a very good source of advice and an insight into what is involved with the whole migration process. The reason for the delay in applying to emigrate is that we want to accumulate a lot of information and facts before applying. To emigrate is not a decision to be taken lightly and we want to be sure that we have everything that we need to apply and be successful. Karen is also gaining more qualifications to help us with our application and hopefully with her career in Canada and Steve is gaining qualifications in French to help with the language section on the application but this may also help him within the working environment in Canada with being able to communicate in two languages.