Vive La Canadia

Ok, so

As below, we are moving to London, UK on Monday the 23rd....

Unfortunately our attempts to stay in Canada were unsuccessful, despite the incredible support we got form both workplaces .... it's just the nature of the system.

We could have applied for Residency and we would have easily gotten it, however there is a 12 month turnaround on a residency application, and we simply cannot know where we will be or what we will want in 12 months time...so...Leaving it is!

Very sad time for both of us, as even though we have only been here in Toronto for 9 months, we have met and made some incredible friends.

Now that I no longer work at ScotiaBank, I can post what I want without worrying it may be taken the wrong way (my ex-Boss has a thing about Blog entries discussing work)....so I can finally say how AMAZING and supportive and friendly and great everyone I worked with at scotiabank is.

(A picture of everyone I worked with on my floor over the last few months)

For me personally, it's been a great time...I didn't think it was possible for me to enjoy an IT job, especially not on a helpdesk/desktop support role, and yet this has turned out to be the most fun job I have ever had.

The guys I worked with just made life so easy, were so proffesional, and yet so fun it made it less of a "job" and more like a fun passtime.

We all took our jobs seriously, don’t get me wrong, but bad attitudes and up-tight behavior is checked at the door...

As soon as you walk through the door it's all on...Nerf ball, Finger rocket fights, practical jokes to name a few...we had a remote control blimp we could manouver around the office if we felt like (the HMS Applix "slow as hell") ... but what was more amazing than just having fun while working with my teammates, was my two bosses, Chuck and Kevin.

Both are prime examples of how a Team Leader and Manager should be...both technically competent (yes even you Kevin!), willing to lead from the front, but both also willing to get their hands dirty...first week I was there, Kevin (senior manager) was even taking tech support phonecalls to help ease the pressure on us during a busy spell! ... not that he knows which end of a PC is which, but he can bluff with the best of em!

Chuck especially though helped out far above and beyond...taking Caren and I under his wing for most things outside of work as well as in....I gotta tell you guys, we wouldn't have had anywhere near as succesfull a year if it weren't for you all!

(some of the Team I worked with:Shannon, Jody, me at back, Paul and Chuck)

(Some more of the folk I worked with: Ho Yu"Jacky" Huang, me front, Jason and Todd)

(More folk!..this time form another department in same area: Jude, Beth, Dave at back, Robin, Keenan and me)

Anyway, sorry for the photo dump, I know most of you dont care what my work was like!...but it was an important enough thing in my life to feel really strongly about leaving behind ... to put in pespective, it has been harder (emotionally anyway) to leave Canada after a year, than it was to leave NZ...allthough I guess it helps to know I'll be going back to NZ one day...

(Paul using the Force to "fix" someone’s problem...probably patching a server he shouldn't, or configuring Outlook express as a mail client ;), and Chuck wondering if he left the iron on this morning)

Anyway, what have we been up to in the last few weeks?

Well, since we finally decided to leave and go to UK, it's been organise mode.

Caren has, as usual, been shouldering the vast majority of the organisational burdon...though now that we've both stopped work, I hope to pick up some of the slack!

We both finished work on Friday the 13th (ohhhh...scary), and my Team took us out for an awesome seafood dinner, and gave us some cool going away pressies!

(Us at dinner...me looking away at the wrong time even though it was my picture, doh!)

(Paul trying to eat mine and Caren's seafood platter!)

Next morning, Regan, an old workmate of Caren's from NZ was due to arrive from NZ on his way to the UK.

We had rented a car, so went out at 6am to pick him up.

It was to be a very busy weekend, as we only have 8 days before we leave, and we needed to get a Canadian Visitors visa from the Buffalo/Niagara border, so that same day we drove down to Niagara (about 3 hours?), crossed the border to the US, turned around straight away and crossed back into Canada...this is how you get a new Visa the easiest way (without having to post your Passport away for 12 days). This was necessary, as our Working holiday Visa expired that same day, and without a visators Visa we would have to leave the country immediatley instead of in a week.

With that mission accomplished, we went to have a quick look at the Falls (since it wan't snowing this time, and Regan was with us)

(Regan, Caren and I have a drink at starbucks (shudder) in Niagara)

(The main falls, this time with less snow!)

We were all pretty tired as it'd been a busy week for all (Us leaving work, and Regan leaving home and flying for 18 hours!) , so we made our way back up to Toronto and crashed out.

The Next morning, we had to drive up to Ottawa, the Canadian capital so that Caren and I could get our UK working hoiday Visa's.

It's about a 4 - 5 hour drive, so we all packed the car up, and after about 2 hours of false startes (lol) got on the road.

Regan was still jetlagged (poor guy) so he slept part of the way, but we stopped on the way up at the "thousand Islands" .. a region on the US/Canada border spanning the St Lawrence river (yes the same river that runs through quebec city..it's a VERY big river).

We went on an hour long Boat ride around the islands for a laugh...

Pretty interesting place, with people building houses, mansions and shed's on every available piece of rock.

(Loading the Boat at Ivy Lea)

(one of the 1800 Islands in this stretch of river..random picture of a house (several dozen more on computer, lol)

Anyway, after that we made our way up to Ottawa, checked in to our Motel, found a spot to eat, then crashed out again (Regan’s second straight 12+ hour travel day!).

Next morning, Caren and I had to go to the British consulate to get our UK visa's, so Regan set off to do some sight seeing.

Although Ottawa has a rep for being a "very un-interesting city", there's is still quite a few very nice historical buildings and things too see.

Unfortunately I forgot to take my Camera...doh.

The consulate took a few hours to do, and it was 12:30 by the time we got out...we were due to check out of Motel at 1PM, so we went back and checked out, loaded the car and drove back!

Regan was due at the Airport for a 10PM flight, so we figured we had a fair bit of time up our sleeves...

Of course the way these things always work out, we took a few imaginative detours, and were soon pressed for time!

8 hours on the road later, we got to the airport, and said good-bye to Regan (of to board a 7.5 hour flight...yeouch!)

The way I figure it, out of the last 48 hours, poor Regan has been in transit 36 of them!!

Still, it's good to know he'll be in the UK when we get there, as he has his head screwed on pretty tight, and will probably have picked up a few tip's by next week.

We've got quite a few other friends in London, so it should make for a smoother landing I think.

Caren has already had one phone call about a job in London, so that bodes well, and along with help from our friend Jen and our other friend Yvonne (who both have contacts within the employment industry in London), I'm hopeful we should find work and a place to live fairly quickly.

Judging from what we've seen so far, London looks infinitely more set-up for mid/long term travelers than is Canada, with short term lease fully furnished apartments etc..

toughest thing will be finding work, and opening a bank account! ..but I'm confident we'll be fine.

My friend Justin has offered to let us crash at his apartment for a few days until we sort something our, which is really great, and relieves some of the stresses.

Anyway, I'll leave it at that, and probably the next entry will be once we are set up in London.