My little girl was the first to get a skating lesson. We arrived late as I managed to get lost in the Stonebridge estate. I did not realise how easy it was to get lost on a grid design road system. I got caught out that there is break in Preston Road, it is where the Stonebridge estate is not finished being built. But I also get lost leaving mid-town plaza and getting onto Circle drive. As we don't have a credit card, while she was on ice, I went and paid by debit card. Canadians are very chatty and while the computer had other ideas on working I discovered two from the office will be on the ice learning with Chris on Saturday and they do not like Heathrow's terminal 5. By the time I was back I got the report that she took off on the ice. While taking off her skates I got the report off her that she could not wait for her next chance to skate and teach me.

We are still trying to work out what we miss from England and what we/friends can bring across. I miss pork and lamb stock cubes and especially Bisto gravy, which I discovered today - I can get Bisto in Saskatoon. In England it is 2 for £2 in Saskatoon's English shop it costs $7 (only three and a half times the price!)

When it comes to food the canadian borders have a policy. "Declaring is the Law - Be sure . . . declare everything."
"Canada has complex requirements, restrictions and limits for the importation of meat, eggs, dairy products, honey, fresh fruits and vegetables and other food from around the world. You can avoid problems by not bringing these kinds of goods into Canada."

Canadian law requires that you declare all food, plants and animals and related products that you bring into Canada. Many travellers fail to declare things like meat, animal hides, live birds, plants and fruit.
See http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/impe.shtml

So as far as I can work out No meat, dairy, honey or fruit, so how about meat gravy? I am hoping I understand the website correctly and as it is processed it is fine. Therefore normal priced gravy.

Our container was released by customs on Tuesday and arrived at the storage locker today. As they filled the locker we nabbed three boxes, before it all got packed in the lock up. (We are staying at one of my hubbie's workmates until 1st Jan when we rent out own place, I cannot wait, but it does mean all our stuff has to be stored until then). My daughter opened the first box (marked books) when we got home to the yell of HARRY, as she pulled out a Harry and his bucket full of dinosaurs book. The other one of books was not so good, but my son and I are really getting into the first Perry Jackson book that was in there. The third is christmas decorations but we will open them when we get a tree.

I sent Chris off after work to the edge of Saskatoon to sort out a storage place for our stuff that goes through customs tomorrow. It has to be him as he is the only one with Saskatoon identification (ie one driving licence). He also had to take a lock so we could lock up the unit.

Our container apparently will be arriving soon and the shippers emailed and then called us today to let us know what would happen next. So I spent a while with the Saskatoon version of the yellow pages looking for a lock-up/storage place for when it arrives.

I am surprised how many large supermarkets there are here and every mall I have found has a Safeway. Almost everything has English and French on it so it feels that you are learning to read French by osmosis. Most basic things I have looked for, to eat, can be found. Still looking for the lemon juice, but I guess they put it in a different place than I am looking. Pate has now been found but Chris suggested it needed pepper and the kids will have to put up with chedder rather than Red Leicester cheese.

I am used to going to the market for my fruit and vegetables and so think they are expensive and it is not always clear which are in season. The seafood in the stores have been much better although their smoked salmon is different from the English version. As this is cattle country, beef is much cheaper than I was expecting with whole chickens and lamb being harder to find.

As expected I am finding I have to read the backs of packets, to check what I think I am getting, is what I am getting. Although I am surprised how many products have peanuts or hydrogenated fats in, the UK must be more label conscious or we just need to send Jamie Oliver over here.

We visited two places to rent today. Both were the main floor, the first on main and the second on Argyle. Both would mean we would not be able to walk to the kids present school but Chris would be able to walk to work if necessary. The first house the kids (and I) instantly felt at home being greeted by a well fed cat the second was trying to sleep in the kitchen. It also has wooden floors, skirting board height heating rather than floor heating and a Ceramic or Induction hob rather than a Radiant coil which I am trying to use at the moment. The second had thick carpet and a patio back garden so no where for the climbing frame.

Tomorrow we have two more to look at both on Eastview. One is another main floor and the other we think is the whole semi-detached. Both would be close enough for the kids to get to school but Chris would have to drive to work (or catch a bus!!)

Chris went shopping with Aidan to buy a car. In he end, Aidan bought a car, and Chris ended up borrowing his original car Mavis, as her part exchange value was likely to be negligable. Mavis is a 1994 Dodge Caravan, and she has a definite personality. Now that Chris has insured her, we have learnt a few things about car ownership in Saskatchewan.

The number plate on a car is registered to a person. Chris went in to insure Mavis. Insurance is state regulated, and the basic insurance is a standard, state regulated price. When you get a car, you have to register it in your name. This includes fully comprehensive insurance, with a $700 excess. Having registered the car, Chris was given a new number plate which has stickers on it showing when it (and the insurance) expires. So yesterday afternoon, Chris was outside unscrewing the existing number plate from Mavis, and putting on the new one.

You can't register a car in Saskatchewan unless you have a Saskatchewan issued drivers license. The person who bought Mavis didn't have a local license, so having bought Mavis, sold her to a friend for a dollar so he could get her insured. Another interesting fact is that it is only the first time that a car is registered in Saskatchewan that it gets inspected (MOT style). You can drive round in a rusty bucket of bolts with no brakes for years, just so long as it was originally inspected the very first time it was registered in the province. That could explain why there are so many cars going around that are falling apart here!

Now we just have to get used to driving an automatic, on the wrong side of the road, turning right on red lights in a city that only has one roundabout. Other than that, we are all set!

Today was the first day at school for both kids. The older one went into grade 3/4 first and looked so nervous after not sleeping properly the night before. The two bags of stationary (required list) and his packed lunch did not help. (If you think I am joking see http://www.spsd.sk.ca/files/schools/PPS/Supplylist/Supply%20List%202008-2009.pdf). Most canadian schools seem to send the children home for lunch but Prince Philip School seem to be happy to have them stay for packed lunch until grade 6.

The younger one joined the pre-school across the corridor. Where she just joined straight in and then after completing a backyardigans jigsaw said good bye. I returned an hour and a half later to find her coming out to greet me with a big smile on her face having really enjoyed herself. It had started snowing and she was loving it.

We walked back for three-thirty and discovered I was one of the few parents that seemed to appear to collect my eight-year-old. Children far smaller were walking past me to go home. My older one had, had a hard day, throwing snowballs are not allowed here and without a proper nights sleep he did not look as it he had enjoyed himself. Although he did say he had chatted to a couple of friends.

The one question that everyone seems to ask is about snow. Well yesterday we had more than a small flurry, we had the first snow of the winter season. We are about to go out and take photos. It coincided with our first trip downtown in Mavis (our friends car). On the way home it was clear that the first snow takes everyone by surprise as a car a couple in front spun and the next two collided and the car after us went into the barrier. Luckily Mavis was not in any accident but Chris looks frazzled by the time we got home.

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.

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.

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.

We visited a house today in Saskatoon, it was a new build and the people renting it out were worried the occupants would leave marks - well not for us then, keeping kids from being kids is not my forte.

We are staying with one of Chris's work colleagues at the moment and he is happy for us to stay until the end of December. So we are now looking at enrolling Callum at the local school to here.

Today's challenge was to find out how to get stamps and bus tickets. Thanks to Iain's comment, we tried the local drug mart and found the local post office hidden in the back. The lady at the front directed us and then suggested we tried across the mall's corridor at Safeways the local supermarket. We caught the bus from Market Mall to Centre Mall to meet up with Chris. After lunch and a walk round we caught the bus 1 to Market mall. We also discovered about transfer tickets, which have to be requested for as you get on the bus, which means the next busses for up to an hour are free. As this is the case we caught the bus 6 home.

Our boy was bouncing after one of his friends chatted to him on Skype this morning.

Its lovely warm and sunny, with not a cloud in the sky at a barmy 25°F. Pity about the wind. Apparently it was the feartist wind for quite a while. We started by walking up Cumberland till we reached a Tim Hortons (the Canadian version of a coffee shop), where we stopped for one coffee and three hot chocolates. Then went on towards centre mall which is the closest Mall to Chris's work.

After walking home we were collected by Aidan for a Halloween party at his place. There we met Zach and Colin from Point 2 with their families. The kids loved it and started making friends. After they we exhausted, our girl just walked in and collapsed on her bed. See http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=38621&l=f73b3&id=573408733

"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.