Well, tomorrow we are off! Life is spiralling out of control now! We have had a busy week, of course. On Tuesday we packed up our UHaul and left Ottawa, arriving in Gananoque about midnight. We did our best to leave the house spic and span for the new owners, so they will be able to move right in. Today is closing day, although we did our part on Tuesday by signing the papers and leaving a key with the lawyer. I can imagine how excited the new owners are today, we remember when we got the keys the first day! It made for a long day on Tuesday, with all the carting of furniture and boxes, plus the final cleaning. When I went to bed that night I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow and don't believe I moved until the alarm went off the next morning!
On Wednesday we, along with our Dads, took the truck to Kingston and moved everything into our storage unit. It was tense for a few moments but everything is in! Creative packing... The unit is very tall so in order to maximize use of the space it meant piling things right up to the ceiling. In fact, unloading the truck into the storage unit was much less work than moving out of the house, less heavy lifting. So now the only belongings we have with us are in our luggage!
Today we took Buggy in for his final preparations - he needed his tick and tapeworm treatments done 24-48 hours prior to checking in for the flight. Unfortunately I can't do any of his preparations as it is deemed a conflict of interest. Anyway, it all went smoothly and Dad and I faxed the paperwork through to our pet travel agent, who then reported by phone that everything is in order! She tells me I can sleep tonight, although I wouldn't hold your breath on that one...
Tomorrow we will be heading to Toronto in the afternoon for our flight, as Buggy needs to be checked in at 6:25pm. Then I think we will have some dinner with our parents before we check in for the flight as well. Even typing that makes the butterflies residing in my stomach sit up and do a dance.
I probably won't have a chance to post tomorrow so the next time I post will likely be from England! I will try to post as soon as possible to let everyone know how the travels went. Until then! Wish us luck!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
A week of lasts
Noise has been saying that this is a "week of lasts" and next week will be a "week of firsts"! How true. Last night we had our last Lonestar fajita dinner, and on Friday we had our last Mongolian Grill dinner (my fave restaurant, only in southwestern Ontario...) We had our last couple of days in downtown Toronto when we stayed there for my friend D's wedding this weekend. We had a fabulous time - the wedding was amazing, so posh! About a million course dinner, and very yummy apple martinis. D looked gorgeous! It was fantastic to see all my OVC friends, unfortunately we don't get to see each other as often as we would like, so this was a great reunion. Best wishes to D and V!
We now have pretty much everything in our house packed up, which makes living here pretty difficult. Fortunately we are going to the Singer and Serdic's for dinner tonight, which promises to be a better dinner than we would have had here even if we didn't have all our pots and pans, dishes, utensils, and food packed away! Most of what we have left here to do is cleaning.
The shippers were here this morning and packed up our belongings to be sent off to England. They also kindly wrapped up our couch, chair, piano, big mirror and coffee table to make storage a bit easier on them.
Tomorrow morning we have an appointment with our lawyer to do the house closing thang. We won't be in town on the actual day of closing, so we're getting everything organized then. Then we have plans for lunch downtown with some friends. Tomorrow night we pick up our UHaul and will be pretty busy loading it up in the evening. Hopefully we will get most of it done so there will be less to do on Wednesday. On Wednesday we are loading it all into the storage unit and there is a time deadline there, so the sooner we are packed up here the better!
Anyway, I'd better get back to it! Check back!
We now have pretty much everything in our house packed up, which makes living here pretty difficult. Fortunately we are going to the Singer and Serdic's for dinner tonight, which promises to be a better dinner than we would have had here even if we didn't have all our pots and pans, dishes, utensils, and food packed away! Most of what we have left here to do is cleaning.
The shippers were here this morning and packed up our belongings to be sent off to England. They also kindly wrapped up our couch, chair, piano, big mirror and coffee table to make storage a bit easier on them.
Tomorrow morning we have an appointment with our lawyer to do the house closing thang. We won't be in town on the actual day of closing, so we're getting everything organized then. Then we have plans for lunch downtown with some friends. Tomorrow night we pick up our UHaul and will be pretty busy loading it up in the evening. Hopefully we will get most of it done so there will be less to do on Wednesday. On Wednesday we are loading it all into the storage unit and there is a time deadline there, so the sooner we are packed up here the better!
Anyway, I'd better get back to it! Check back!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Cleared for landing
Yesterday our visas arrived in the mail, so one more obstacle cleared! They are very official looking! I've never had a visa in my passport before but somehow I was expecting some sheet stapled into my passport, not a permanent-looking thing. I guess that comes from my days working at the boat line when I would see people with visa waivers in their passports. Anyhow, we are cleared for entry into the UK effective June 1st.
We also have our temporary accommodations arranged now, so it looks like for the first little while we will be living in Chelsea! I don't think we'll end up permanently in Chelsea (can't afford it) but it will be fun to stay there for the short term. It's a one-bedroom flat in a block of purpose-built short-term lets. Full kitchen, washer/dryer, etc. We'll be a 4-minute walk to the South Kensington tube station, and look to be situated about halfway between Hyde Park to the north and the Thames to the south (probably 5-10 minute walk to either). And two days after we arrive we have an appointment to go flat-hunting!
Things are definitely coming together, although I lie awake at night wondering what major detail we have forgotten. The house is pretty much all packed up, we are in great shape there. Noise is dropping off his car today for the lease take-over, and mine is going in to the dealership tomorrow to be returned as well. So I'm off now to remove all my personal belongings from it. We're getting a rental car for the next few days as we're off to Toronto for my good friend D's wedding.
Check back! Lots going on!
We also have our temporary accommodations arranged now, so it looks like for the first little while we will be living in Chelsea! I don't think we'll end up permanently in Chelsea (can't afford it) but it will be fun to stay there for the short term. It's a one-bedroom flat in a block of purpose-built short-term lets. Full kitchen, washer/dryer, etc. We'll be a 4-minute walk to the South Kensington tube station, and look to be situated about halfway between Hyde Park to the north and the Thames to the south (probably 5-10 minute walk to either). And two days after we arrive we have an appointment to go flat-hunting!
Things are definitely coming together, although I lie awake at night wondering what major detail we have forgotten. The house is pretty much all packed up, we are in great shape there. Noise is dropping off his car today for the lease take-over, and mine is going in to the dealership tomorrow to be returned as well. So I'm off now to remove all my personal belongings from it. We're getting a rental car for the next few days as we're off to Toronto for my good friend D's wedding.
Check back! Lots going on!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Fly fly away
Well big news for the blog tonight - our visas have been approved! So they have decided we are welcome in the UK. Phew! We don't actually have them in our hot little hands yet, but they should be on their way as we speak! (And they only have to travel across Ottawa so they shouldn't take too long...)
So that started a whole flock of balls rolling today. To start with, now we all have a flight booked! Noise, Buggy and I are all booked on Zoom's May 31 flight from Toronto to Gatwick. T-minus 11 days and counting! It's definitely strange to book one-way tickets! We have booked premium seating and will be paying the difference ourselves. This way we get extra baggage allowance, more leg room, and free alcohol. All of which will likely come in handy. ;)
So now when people ask when we're going I can actually tell them, instead of having to say I still don't know. Noise contacted the temporary accommodation people and the permanent accommodation people to get that started, so within a day or so hopefully we will know where we're going to be staying once we arrive. I expect that I will have quite a bit of news now so check back often for updates!
Today was my last day at one of my clinics, and a few tears were shed at the end of the day. Lots of hugs as well. I have been blessed to work in such a wonderful place with such fantastic people and I will miss everyone there. But I left my email address and my blogspot address so we can all keep in touch! Thanks everyone!
So that started a whole flock of balls rolling today. To start with, now we all have a flight booked! Noise, Buggy and I are all booked on Zoom's May 31 flight from Toronto to Gatwick. T-minus 11 days and counting! It's definitely strange to book one-way tickets! We have booked premium seating and will be paying the difference ourselves. This way we get extra baggage allowance, more leg room, and free alcohol. All of which will likely come in handy. ;)
So now when people ask when we're going I can actually tell them, instead of having to say I still don't know. Noise contacted the temporary accommodation people and the permanent accommodation people to get that started, so within a day or so hopefully we will know where we're going to be staying once we arrive. I expect that I will have quite a bit of news now so check back often for updates!
Today was my last day at one of my clinics, and a few tears were shed at the end of the day. Lots of hugs as well. I have been blessed to work in such a wonderful place with such fantastic people and I will miss everyone there. But I left my email address and my blogspot address so we can all keep in touch! Thanks everyone!
Friday, May 16, 2008
Little updates to keep my readers interested
I have a few little tidbits to share today, nothing extremely exciting but the point was the great AND the small, right?
To start, it looks like Noise has found someone to take over the lease on his car. We're not celebrating until it's actually done, but this was one of our biggest remaining stresses and was coming down to the wire. In order to unload the car otherwise was going to cost big bucks, so we're very pleased with this development. It's not free, of course, he did offer a cash incentive to make his car more appealing than others like it, but it's still less than the alternatives. We plan on simply returning my car which only has a few months left on the lease in any case, so we will just pay out the last payments but have it off our hands. So good news! But we'll keep it cool until all is signed and done.
Secondly, our UK bank cards and credit cards arrived this week! So fun! It looks like we'll need to go into the branch to activate them once we arrive, which is too bad as I had visions of arriving in London with working bank cards, but at least we have them in our possession. Besides, there's no money in that account yet anyway. ;) And I think we can activate the credit cards by phone, so it would be especially helpful to have them working when we arrive, in order to avoid the big exchange fee if we have to use our Canadian card there.
We're definitely into the final preparations now! And the goodbyes are starting as well. Tonight I have plans with some good friends from work to go out for drinks, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few tears are shed (on my end, that is). I will miss these girls so much! And next weekend we're attending a friend's wedding in Toronto which will be a mini reunion of my vet school friends, and a chance to see them before we go. And I don't want to talk about how much time I have left to spend with my family.
On a brighter note - Noise asked me last night where in England I wanted to visit first as a mini-trip out of London. Any suggestions?
To start, it looks like Noise has found someone to take over the lease on his car. We're not celebrating until it's actually done, but this was one of our biggest remaining stresses and was coming down to the wire. In order to unload the car otherwise was going to cost big bucks, so we're very pleased with this development. It's not free, of course, he did offer a cash incentive to make his car more appealing than others like it, but it's still less than the alternatives. We plan on simply returning my car which only has a few months left on the lease in any case, so we will just pay out the last payments but have it off our hands. So good news! But we'll keep it cool until all is signed and done.
Secondly, our UK bank cards and credit cards arrived this week! So fun! It looks like we'll need to go into the branch to activate them once we arrive, which is too bad as I had visions of arriving in London with working bank cards, but at least we have them in our possession. Besides, there's no money in that account yet anyway. ;) And I think we can activate the credit cards by phone, so it would be especially helpful to have them working when we arrive, in order to avoid the big exchange fee if we have to use our Canadian card there.
We're definitely into the final preparations now! And the goodbyes are starting as well. Tonight I have plans with some good friends from work to go out for drinks, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few tears are shed (on my end, that is). I will miss these girls so much! And next weekend we're attending a friend's wedding in Toronto which will be a mini reunion of my vet school friends, and a chance to see them before we go. And I don't want to talk about how much time I have left to spend with my family.
On a brighter note - Noise asked me last night where in England I wanted to visit first as a mini-trip out of London. Any suggestions?
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Life of crime
Well my hopes are dashed now. I can no longer take up a life of crime. My prints are on record. We went yesterday to the "limited service visa application centre" to have our fingerprints recorded and a digital photo taken. This is the new biometric scanning process for all visa applicants. The whole arrangement was a bit odd. To start with, it was apparent that there were two people booked in every time slot - two 10:30s, two 11:00s, etc. Secondly, we were told to bring all our supporting documents to this appointment, but all she did was seal them in an envelope and give them back to us to mail to the High Commission. And then said if there was anything else we wanted to include we could put it all into a bigger envelope and send that. Explain the point of this to me? Why couldn't we just send it all ourselves in the first place? It's not like she checked anything and confirmed it was all ok and then sealed it so we couldn't tamper with it. Except our passports, I guess.
Anyway, I feel naked because I have been separated from all my important documents! My passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate, and so on are all in the possession of the British High Commission. We couriered them over yesterday and received an email saying that they had been received. And now we wait... To be honest we don't anticipate much of a problem (knock on wood), although if there are any other supporting documents that they need that would cause a delay. But really, all they need to know is that Noise has a work permit, both of us have professions that should mean we can support ourselves and have savings in the bank (and we sent copies of degrees, bank statements, and T4s to prove it) and that I am the legal spouse of Noise thereby giving me the right to come with him. To me the rest is superfluous, but we'll see what they say. We sent them every supporting document we could think of. Fingers crossed!
We've started the next round of selling off our furniture. The second desk chair went last night which means that I'm currently sitting on a little stool to type this. And we have someone interested in the entertainment unit who just needs to borrow a truck to come and get it. The couch may go tonight, which will definitely make watching tv awkward. I have someone coming this morning to look at a stand we have, and someone coming tomorrow evening to look at our end tables. This process is made much more difficult because it appears that my employers are trying to get their money's worth out of me at the last minute and I've only had 1 day off out of 11 straight. So I'm trying to work in appointments to come buy furniture around my hectic work schedule.
I feel like I am living with a permanent flock of butterflies in my belly, so much is going on and the Big Move is getting so close! Still no exact date as we can't book flights until we know for sure we'll have our visas in time, but we're still aiming for June 1st which is very soon!
On a side note, Happy Anniversary (yesterday) to the PetParents. 36 years! And what a great way for them to celebrate their special day - the new boat is in the water and ready to go!! I can't wait to get out for a cruise this weekend.
I think that's all the updates for today. Once the visas arrive that will start a whole other group of balls rolling but for now we are in "wait mode" once again. Check back!
Anyway, I feel naked because I have been separated from all my important documents! My passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate, and so on are all in the possession of the British High Commission. We couriered them over yesterday and received an email saying that they had been received. And now we wait... To be honest we don't anticipate much of a problem (knock on wood), although if there are any other supporting documents that they need that would cause a delay. But really, all they need to know is that Noise has a work permit, both of us have professions that should mean we can support ourselves and have savings in the bank (and we sent copies of degrees, bank statements, and T4s to prove it) and that I am the legal spouse of Noise thereby giving me the right to come with him. To me the rest is superfluous, but we'll see what they say. We sent them every supporting document we could think of. Fingers crossed!
We've started the next round of selling off our furniture. The second desk chair went last night which means that I'm currently sitting on a little stool to type this. And we have someone interested in the entertainment unit who just needs to borrow a truck to come and get it. The couch may go tonight, which will definitely make watching tv awkward. I have someone coming this morning to look at a stand we have, and someone coming tomorrow evening to look at our end tables. This process is made much more difficult because it appears that my employers are trying to get their money's worth out of me at the last minute and I've only had 1 day off out of 11 straight. So I'm trying to work in appointments to come buy furniture around my hectic work schedule.
I feel like I am living with a permanent flock of butterflies in my belly, so much is going on and the Big Move is getting so close! Still no exact date as we can't book flights until we know for sure we'll have our visas in time, but we're still aiming for June 1st which is very soon!
On a side note, Happy Anniversary (yesterday) to the PetParents. 36 years! And what a great way for them to celebrate their special day - the new boat is in the water and ready to go!! I can't wait to get out for a cruise this weekend.
I think that's all the updates for today. Once the visas arrive that will start a whole other group of balls rolling but for now we are in "wait mode" once again. Check back!
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Random tidbits
In the interest of keeping everyone informed on the goings-on around here I thought I'd jot down a few tidbits.
To start, we have submitted our visa applications and have an appointment next week to be fingerprinted. Part of the visa application now for all applicants is biometric data, which includes digital scans of 10 fingers. Also at this appointment we will submit all our supporting documentation, ie birth certificates, marriage certificate, bank statements, and the list goes on and on. We are definitely getting down to the wire to have our visas in enough time to fly over at the first of the month as we had hoped, but it is still possible! If the work permit hadn't taken twice as long as expected we would have had a bit more breathing room.
Buggy's paperwork has all been submitted to his pet travel agent and everything seems to have passed her inspection! This is a nice feature of booking through a pet travel agency - another person to check everything ahead of time (and someone who does this for a living!) to hopefully mean the actual travel goes smoothly. Now she is awaiting a date! At some point as well, we have to fill out a customs declaration for him, which is a bit odd because we have to assign him a monetary value. Um, hello? Priceless! But if we get into the details of it, he was in fact free and we didn't pay to have him neutered as he was a teaching dog, and he's always gotten discounted vaccines, food, and other expenses. So really he's not worth a whole lot. But how can I tell him that?
I had a lovely evening of eating, shopping and playing Nintendo with my friend J the other night. J is one of my oldest friends, since kindergarten, and I thought I was ok until I tried to leave... then we both shed a few tears. The bright side is that she is hoping to come and visit so I should see her soon! But partly it was hard for me because this is the start of it - now I am finding myself having to start saying those goodbyes, knowing that we're leaving soon and I won't get to see this person again before that. I sometimes try to pass it off with a casual "I'll stop in and I'm sure I'll see you before I go" but I knew with J that the chances of that were limited so I had to actually say goodbye. Hard.
Soon I will have to leave work behind and that will be hard, leaving the friends I have made there. I have been very happy there and will miss the family I have there. And speaking of family, I am blocking from my mind the fact that soon I will have to say goodbye to my family members. I am very close with all my family and leaving will be so hard. Fortunately most of them are already planning visits, but when I have to hug my parents goodbye I'm afraid the airport security will arrest Noise for kidnapping me or something. It will not be a good scene, let's leave it at that.
But on the brighter side of things a new exciting time awaits us! We're getting really close now and I expect this blog will get far more interesting in a few weeks! Stay tuned!
To start, we have submitted our visa applications and have an appointment next week to be fingerprinted. Part of the visa application now for all applicants is biometric data, which includes digital scans of 10 fingers. Also at this appointment we will submit all our supporting documentation, ie birth certificates, marriage certificate, bank statements, and the list goes on and on. We are definitely getting down to the wire to have our visas in enough time to fly over at the first of the month as we had hoped, but it is still possible! If the work permit hadn't taken twice as long as expected we would have had a bit more breathing room.
Buggy's paperwork has all been submitted to his pet travel agent and everything seems to have passed her inspection! This is a nice feature of booking through a pet travel agency - another person to check everything ahead of time (and someone who does this for a living!) to hopefully mean the actual travel goes smoothly. Now she is awaiting a date! At some point as well, we have to fill out a customs declaration for him, which is a bit odd because we have to assign him a monetary value. Um, hello? Priceless! But if we get into the details of it, he was in fact free and we didn't pay to have him neutered as he was a teaching dog, and he's always gotten discounted vaccines, food, and other expenses. So really he's not worth a whole lot. But how can I tell him that?
I had a lovely evening of eating, shopping and playing Nintendo with my friend J the other night. J is one of my oldest friends, since kindergarten, and I thought I was ok until I tried to leave... then we both shed a few tears. The bright side is that she is hoping to come and visit so I should see her soon! But partly it was hard for me because this is the start of it - now I am finding myself having to start saying those goodbyes, knowing that we're leaving soon and I won't get to see this person again before that. I sometimes try to pass it off with a casual "I'll stop in and I'm sure I'll see you before I go" but I knew with J that the chances of that were limited so I had to actually say goodbye. Hard.
Soon I will have to leave work behind and that will be hard, leaving the friends I have made there. I have been very happy there and will miss the family I have there. And speaking of family, I am blocking from my mind the fact that soon I will have to say goodbye to my family members. I am very close with all my family and leaving will be so hard. Fortunately most of them are already planning visits, but when I have to hug my parents goodbye I'm afraid the airport security will arrest Noise for kidnapping me or something. It will not be a good scene, let's leave it at that.
But on the brighter side of things a new exciting time awaits us! We're getting really close now and I expect this blog will get far more interesting in a few weeks! Stay tuned!
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Actual news!
For once I am making a blog entry with some actual news. Noise received his work permit today so now we can apply for our visas. Which is good news because it hopefully means the scheduling is still on track for us to fly over around June 1. I'm not going to go crazy and book flights or anything, but it's a step in the right direction.
That's all my news for today!
That's all my news for today!
Day 3 of 6
This week is a tiring one. I'm working 6 days straight, for a total of 52 hours. Which may not seem so bad, but when your job is as demanding as mine and you tend to run around all day it definitely burns you out. Anyway, I finished day 3 of 6 so I'm halfway there.
Not a lot new on the London front. Noise has not received his work permit yet, and apparently there have been delays on all work permits. So we still can't apply for our visas yet, so we still can't book flights.
But talk about productive! Mom was up last weekend and we packed pretty much everything that's not nailed down. Last night Noise and I packed some more boxes of office items. We are starting to separate out our belongings into piles of "to be shipped", "to be packed" and "to be stored". I may tackle the closet this weekend. We also hosted a yard sale on Saturday, and made a little extra cash. What didn't sell went home with Mom to be donated to our church's annual yard sale. Many thanks to Mom for her tireless help on the weekend, and for taking away all the leftovers!
Hoping to start the ball rolling on arranging Buggy's bookings this week. He will be booked with a pet travel agency and one of the first steps is to have them check all his paperwork to ensure that everything is in order. I'm going to do that soon so that if there are any problems I will hopefully have time to rectify them. This whole process is very stressful; even though I feel that I have a handle on it I still am waiting for the other shoe to drop. Nothing ever seems to go smoothly for me, there's always some stupid administrative mistake that creates a major problem. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.
I'll keep you posted for any new developments! Until then!
Not a lot new on the London front. Noise has not received his work permit yet, and apparently there have been delays on all work permits. So we still can't apply for our visas yet, so we still can't book flights.
But talk about productive! Mom was up last weekend and we packed pretty much everything that's not nailed down. Last night Noise and I packed some more boxes of office items. We are starting to separate out our belongings into piles of "to be shipped", "to be packed" and "to be stored". I may tackle the closet this weekend. We also hosted a yard sale on Saturday, and made a little extra cash. What didn't sell went home with Mom to be donated to our church's annual yard sale. Many thanks to Mom for her tireless help on the weekend, and for taking away all the leftovers!
Hoping to start the ball rolling on arranging Buggy's bookings this week. He will be booked with a pet travel agency and one of the first steps is to have them check all his paperwork to ensure that everything is in order. I'm going to do that soon so that if there are any problems I will hopefully have time to rectify them. This whole process is very stressful; even though I feel that I have a handle on it I still am waiting for the other shoe to drop. Nothing ever seems to go smoothly for me, there's always some stupid administrative mistake that creates a major problem. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.
I'll keep you posted for any new developments! Until then!
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