Things are still going slowly on renting out our house. Pity the first person who saw it failed the credit check, so everyone else has seen it empty after we moved out. But if you want to see our house tidy for once / without boxes see the links below. Yes it is a new kitchen. Callum was upset that they did not take a photo of his room. Jessica is sad as she left her winnie wallpaper behind, I hope no-one paints over it.
http://www.webpropertylist.co.uk/cgi-bin/clients/mervynsmith/details.pl?propertyID=40250#
http://classic.findaproperty.com/agent.aspx?agentid=0094&opt=prop&pid=2700329

It is lovely to get links to stuff every one is up to at home. Here are a couple of links for you tube for my brother and sister in law
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tuVEJsHEZiM and http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YzJgeAyLgRI

I got caught out by the busses today. I thought I understood them coming at the same times during the day, half an hour between each. Only to discover that it all changes at six in the evening. Everything started going wrong at the bank at noon, when I realised I forgot my passport and driving licence. So the kids and I ended up going home to collect them, and return by first number six bus and then number one to Wildwood. They match up beautifully that way and getting the transfer ticket as you get on the first means the second is free. (on the way home the number six bus leaves just before the number one gets in, so we end up walking).

We arrived back at the bank and I am finally in possession of a bank card. So time to drop in on point2 before going to the Canadian supermarket. By the time we had queued and paid it was now getting close to six. Thinking I did not think rushing to catch the bus was in order we wandered across to Safeway to collect more bus tickets before wandering down to the bus stop. I thought we timed it about right just before ten past six did not leave too much time to get cold. After about ten minutes the timetable was checked. At six the timings change, we must have just missed the bus and they only arrive once an hour. Lets just say I was very later getting home and I now travel with my diary and phone numbers.

We have a London Skype number, but at the moment, we do not have a canadian one, as Skype only do USA ones. So Callum enjoyed himself today planning what he would say to Chris, Sadly it did not come out as well as he planed.
- Mummy has bought herself a mobile so she now knows what the time is
- Wait for Daddy to complain that round here you pay for the call and pay to receive one, which he did not do
- It hangs from her keys but only has one application
For anyone worried at this point, for $14 I bought myself a clock in the shape of a mobile that hangs from your key-ring. One of the many things produced to raise awareness about breast cancer.

I found my new school on you tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qtX2qy4wug

Callum starts school next week. Monday and Tuesday are days off owing to remembrance day. He has this long list of stationary he has to take. Including wax crayons and felt tips, which I think forgot to get shipped, so I will be buying the complete set on the list. Also there is no way I can get to the shipped stuff before Wednesday.

Jessica - There is a space in the pre-school (it runs like acorns). It is only run on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, we have opted for the morning two hours. I have just received the to paperwork to fill in. Canada works on the idea of post dated cheques, so the application form has to go with a years worth of cheques. The cost is about the same as Acorns at $60 (£30) a month.

Canadians national bird is the loon. On the dollar is the loon, so the coin is called the looney. So the $2 coin is a tooney.

We visited two schools today. The kids took it in their stride, I was a bundle of nerves. I kept finding excuses not to call and arrange viewings today. In the morning we visited Hugh Cairns V.C. School and in the afternoon we visited Prince Philip School. The first did not have any spaces for our little one. The principle seemed to have problems understanding me, also Callum and Jessica's names and seemed a bit put under pressure about the fact we were visiting both.

Apparently most schools have nicknames, and the second schools is the Prince Philip's Pirates. It has two children originally from Leicester, England. Also as well as having space in the pre-school the teacher said "did you hear their accent, if you have problems understanding them, just remember they will have problem of understanding us" They also have an autistic child in most classes and two Autism Support Class.

It surprised my that they do not have the same issue with security as in England. For example the playgound is also the park in both cases.

Today we helped Cameron collect up the leaves from the front lawn. He had cleared the lawn only two weeks before but the leaves all drop at once. My little one started helping clear with the rake but decided when Daddy appeared that taking photos was better. My older one decided rescuing ladybirds was a more immediate job. But between the five of us all the leaves were raked up and put in eight bags.

We discovered loads of ladybirds hibernating while raking up the leaves. Very few were willing to move. The leaves were raked up into piles, and then as they were so dry they made a wonderful noise when jumped in. We filled eight bags with the dried leaves.