Canada 2012

[westcoastnortherner]

So I noticed that there is a thread for America 2012, and I thought it would be nice to have a Canadian one too. So we can chat or if anyone has any questions I'm sure someone will be able to help...

I moved to Victoria, BC three years ago I have two DC'S and I am a SAHM.

Great idea westcoastnortherner! We've been in interior BC for just over three years now. Very much enjoying the different lifestyle here (we lived in London and then New York before we moved here). Our winter has also been quite mild, apart from a couple of days of deep freeze and we're getting signs of Spring (which I don't entirely trust, as most years there has still been snow on my birthday in March). Still it's nice to be starting to plan my vegetable patch and think about pruning my fruit trees :)

I used to miss the tea until I found dilmah fair trade which is a pretty good tea - but I could just be used to it now.

What I miss is marmalade. I get my dad to bring Wilkins tawny over - the marmalade here just tastes like orange jam - bleugh!

I miss sausages too. And agreed on bisto and birds custard.

I found a Scottish butcher in Victoria, he makes proper sausages and mini chipolatas at Christmas :)

We have Tetley Orange Pekoe. Tastes all right I think (although we did bring a big box of Yorkshire back from the UK when we visited in the summer). My work has Red Rose and it does seem very tasteless, so I moved to Biglow English Breakfast which I like (too expensive to drink at home though).

I do miss Cumberland sausage! For bangers and mash we have beer bratwursts which I like too. This summer we're going halves on a half of Bison so we'll be making out own sausages with a neighbour. Should be fun!

I have lots of fruit trees in my garden (or should I say yard) so I've been making my own jams and marmalades. My mum used to make marmalade every January with proper Seville oranges (very bitter). I'm not sure if they come over to Canada at all - not to my town in the middle of nowhere anyway! Still I've been quite pleased with my efforts (especially the apple and ginger marmalade which was yummy).

Hmm, maybe a trip to Victoria is in order to pick up slime sausages

Yum to Seville marmalade, needs to be bitter alright.
I find taxi awake tea acceptable which means I can tolerate starbucks for a cuppa.

Mmmmmmmmmmm sausages! We are heading back to Dublin for a trip in May and I am going to get some sausages then...however my DH doesn't eat pork so I think it'll be best done with friends when he's off somewhere else so I don't have to endure funny looks and gross noises!!

I was worried about my chocolate fixes when I came over but I find the Cadburys here pretty much adequate so that's fine!

How do you find the Canadian sense of humour - like if there's a stand-up comedian on the telly?

Oops, just read my post! Slime sausages and taxi tea. I love my iPhone.

Some sausages
Tazo tea

We drink tetley too.

(itty bitty titter about a load of ex-pats sitting around chatting about tea)

dh thinks his company are trying to get rid of him. He had a huge fall-out with his line manager yesterday. he's looking for other jobs anyway, but would like to be the one that makes the choice iykwim... And we're a bit skint, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed it all works out. Anyone know how EI works?

Mooncup, I turn over the channel if a'comedian'comes on the TV.
Oh Outofbody, hope it works outfit your EI. Only experience I hv is when I applied for Maternity Leave...mucho form filling and no-one at work to helpe fill it in...

Lol, I had to go to appeal to get my mat pay with ds (he's 10 now, so it was a while ago). It turned out that there had been some sort of error processing my spousal work permit, and so when my mat pay claim went in it came up that i didn't have a valid wp..... I appealed and got all the money in the end when he was about six months old. We went to Jamaica . In the end I left work anyway as the child care arrangements were too crazy, but it was a bit nerve wracking. I'm fretting about the mortgage, but as he hasn't actually been sacked yet I may be premature...

Maybe try and get some legal advice - re possible constructive dismissal?

Also ask for a payment holiday on your mortgage?

Hope everything turns out ok

Mooncup - Walmart sold tins of proper British Cadbury chocolate biscuits at Christmas.... All gone now though :(

I'm on EI for mat leave, it pays me around $900 every fortnight (there's a word that gets raised eyebrows here!). I'm not sure how it works for layoffs except to say last time is was on mat leave I was laid off 2 weeks after returning to work and couldn't get it. That sucked.

Outofbody - stick a EI post on the British Expats website...someone there may have gone through the same thing.
Did you see the box of 'British chocolate biscuits' on sale at Superstore over Christmas? They had Quality St too. I bought LOADS of em ... and scoffed the lot!!! Must go and plunder the kids' Valentine goody bags that they hv just brought home from school.

I will if it becomes a reality. (am reasonably recognizable due to circs on there, so might not want to advertise that dh is about to lose his job lol) I'll search the site anyway, I'm sure there arena gazillion similar posts to wade through! Good idea.

We have a British store about 30mins away, but pricey. There is also a random hardware store around the corner called Hoggs that stocks a few things, tea, irn bru, haggis in a can and the duchy range. We find bits and pieces at supermarkets occasionally too. DH goes home 2 x per year to see his Dd or she comes over so he comes back with loaded suitcases. I always get loads of clothes for the boys then too. I should start foraging in the states really, we're very close to the border. We can't get PIMMs in quebec but pick it up in Ontario when we or friends are over that way.

outofbodyexperience - are you a name change? Even if you're not who I think you are, I've got my fingers crossed that your DH's job situation turns out ok.

Well, I'm another one in the Rockies, but we're on the BC side; about 10 minutes from Mount Robson. We've been here for just over 6 years in a teeeeeeeeny little village, miles from anywhere, and we're loving it!

Has anyone tried the new Tetley "Bold" tea yet? What's the verdict?

Hi all, I'm in Vancouver with one DD and expecting twin boys. We moved to Van last year and are enjoying it.

I think the choice of tea is pretty good here....

I saw that at Coopers, but didn't get it because they had bigger boxes of the ordinary one on sale (well probably $1 off, but there you go). The only other food I miss is good muesli, as I've only found ultrasweet granola. I loved Dorset cereals, which amazingly we found in New York. I guess I shoudl learn to make that too

outofbodyexperience I hope things work out OK for you. These things seem much more cavalier here, but then I used to work for the NHS, so my expectations are perhaps a bit wonky.

Lazy, yy, tis madwomanintheattic, I got locked out in a trial name change before Christmas (was a lame Christmas one I didn't ever use) and tech hasn't fixed me yet (mainly because I keep forgetting to remind mnhq and they were all tied up with the fb squall) so I thought this namechange was apt in the interim! will get them to sort it sooner or later. I just keep getting a 'this username is already in use' message when I try to change back. so not really incognito.

Dh has got a second interview next week, but in Edmonton... for a v good job though, so might make a weekly commute worth considering for a year or so. Not really what we anticipated, but... Still a few irons in the fire. I'm trying to convince him we should all go for a road trip and the kids and I will spend the day at the west Edmonton mall whilst he butters them up. the only snag being I can't spend any money if he's teetering on the edge of unemployment...

That said, Tetley bold? Ooh. Might have to come off autopilot in Sobey's and have a look! Most things look better after a decent cup of tea...

Hi Out, get yourself along to Edmonton Mall with a pack-up and a flask to make it a NSD! Then you can tell us all about it...is that the mall with the rollercoaster and it offers weddings too? I've always wanted to go there - have a good day M'Dear and wish your DH luck too !

Roller coaster, swimming pool, ice rink, you name it, it's there. We went once before about ten years ago... we stayed in the fantasyland hotel in a really bizarre room with a hot tub and an eight foot tall fiberglass policeman hovering over it, and traffic lights which flashed on and off all night until we worked out how to turn them off... The bed was a pick up truck with a mattress in the back. The kids loved it but it was bloody awful if I'm honest. I suspect it will be holiday inn this time!

Good luck with your husband's job Out :)

just a quick question for you all, have any of you ordered from the next website while you've been here? I'm tempted to.

Next

The only online ordering we've done is from Amazon, although dh gets lots of old computer games from eBay. Where we live does not have a fantastic range of clothes shops, but then where I work people mostly wear jeans, so it's not really a big deal. I don't like buying clothes online because I'm quite picky about how they fit/feel and sending them back is such a hassle. I did ask my mum and dad for M&S socks for Christmas though!