"It was then I discovered about the tax system in Canada (I will explain in another blog entry)."
The price shown is without tax. For most items a 5% tax seems to be added. The man exception seems to be basic food. So milk is tax free but a coffee (from Tim Hortons - Canada's favourite coffee shop) is 5% tax. Some mass produced plastic items seem to get charged this 5% tax twice. Restaurants expect a 15% tip on top of the basic bill, this is not just the tip for the waitress but also the kitchen crew. So we are all learning our five times table inside out and upside down.

We flew out on friday 24th at 8.30, after arriving at Heathrow just after 6. Callum was finding the waiting in line very emotional as I think it hit him how much he was leaving behind. We kept promising him that I was on Skype, facebook, yahoo messenger, msn as well as email so it should not be too hard for his computer literate friends to find him. We had five cases, three hand luggage and Callum's booster seat, and luckally Chris had been right about the size of hand luggage.

Our flight out was from gate 31 and we arrived as they said we are now boarding groups with young children, which was brilliant timing. We boarded the 777 and took our places in the middle of the aircraft. Sadly we could not see our of the windows without looking at the wing. When we took off the captain announced we would be flying out over Manchester and Glasgow and then straight over to Toronto in Canada. It took about seven and a half hours and both kids really got to grips with the touch screen televisions on the backs of the seats in-front. Although our little one could have done with the journey being an hour and a half shorter as she started to get really board.

Upon arrival to Canada we were given visa cards to fill in. After leaving the aircraft we queued up at passport control where we handed in our forms. They sent us to Immigration over to the right were we handed all the passports, work visa and study permit papers in. They asked us to take a seat and then an hour later we were called back to desk number 12. The lady handed back our passports and they all have our papers stapled in saying I must leave Canada by 23 Oct 2009. The line "This does not authorize re-entry." is a bit worrying but I assume you leave Canada at your own risk. Then we went down to conver-belt 5 for our bags to find the belt had stopped and our bags were not the only ones left, but luckily all five were there.

We then followed the arrows to customs were we handed in our filled in visa card and followed the arrows for internal canadian flights. Where we met a lady who checked the second part of our tickets and asked us to but our five bags on another conver and then leave though the other door into the departures area. After looking at the list of gates we made our way towards gate no 135. As we had a couple of hours before our flight we stopped for a meal (their lunch time our supper time) and Chris a coffee. It was then I discovered about the tax system in Canada (I will explain in another blog entry).

The flight to Saskatoon took about three hours and our second just went to sleep straight away, which was probably a good thing as we had turbulence almost all the way. Callum discovered that Alvin and the Chipmunks have an album or sound track (something I later wish was not there as he started sining as Alvin). Upon arrival it was very quiet and while waiting for our bags Aidan appeared and kindly helped us with our bags to his car.

Everyone has been so kind to us, helping us get the last parts packed, bits binned, etc. Pity the morning after the shippers came we spotted the little bed room's window has a crack in it. Luckily our neighbour Martin is a glazer and kindly said don't worry about it. Jane and her mother just kept us sane and did not seem to mind anything we asked them. I felt guilty after we left to stay over-night at Kerrie's that we had not got time to say good-bye properly to everyone else. Kerrie very kindly had food ready for us and the kids asleep in bed when we arrived. (Well pretending in the case of our older one). It meant we could finally relax a bit. But it was a bit like the disney land adverts - 'we too excited'.

Yesterday we had almost the whole house sorted into areas of : what was to be shipped; what was going to fly with us; what was going to the Scouts or St Richard's with St Andrew's for the car boot; and what was needed for the last week and then junked. When the packers arrived it was more organised than I am usually. Everything to be shipped was packed in boxes by the packers and mostly placed in the living room or our girls bed room. Even the two single beds were wrapped leaving the mattresses out overnight. After they left we played guess what is in this white package. Today the packers arrived early and packed the rest of the beds and the bikes. All 132 items got stickers on them and then everyone waited for the container to arrive. At about 11.30 it almost arrived, they discovered they could not drive, two 2ft containers and the lorry cab, down from the Duke's Avenue end. Only one container was ours. Then they drove via Broughton into Lock and so after about five or ten minutes it somehow (past all the parked cars) managed to park outside our house (the ally-way, the neighbours and their neighbours houses). It was all packed and had left by the time we got back from tumble tots just after 2pm.

See Moving to Canada and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37957&l=359eb&id=573408733 for photos.