Tuesaday 4th. The Phone call.

AM

I awoke to the very distant and unique sound of a Canadian freight trains whistle, something that I have grown very fond of as it not only brings back fabulous memories of our two fantastic RV holidays here, but it is also my first reminder of the day that I'm no longer living in England. But today however is the day that all the children in British Columbia return to school all except two that is. So with that in mind Nix and I had decided that the best strategy would be to take both Mohammed's to the Mountain, rather than wait for the mountain to call us. Working on the theory that if we just turned up with two sad, lost, scared and a long way from home looking little boys that they might take pity on us and just let us in. Well like I said it was only a theory.

So when the phone rang at 8am, half way through my bowl of Canadian museli and peanut M&M's we all looked at one another. "Surely it's not that nice man from Ikea again is it"? this time offering us an all expenses trip to Sweden for being this months biggest spenders? No it was the secretary from Cove Cliff elementary school, saying come on down, we want all your children, I swear for a small moment there that I heard Nicola brake wind through shear relief but it turned out to be Tom, too many peanut M&M's.

So all in all an exciting day lay ahead. We have school registration, we also now have another car to look at, as luck would have it I found a new listing for a Honda Odyssey and had managed to catch the guy at home before he left for work, so with a spring in our step we headed for Cove Cliff Elementary School.

'New students report to the library please' said the nice sign. So all the 'newbies' gathered in the library where we suffered a short induction speech from the librarian, followed by a student made video featuring lots of kids playing outside in the rain, then a quick tour of the school and then the mass gathering of all 350 students in the gym as the school principal delivered his vision for the forth coming year. Well that wasn't too bad, in and out within 90 minuets, it turns out that today was just the head count and the first real day of school is tomorrow, of course we knew that!!! So with the weight of the world now lifted from our shoulders we looked forward to another relaxed day, "have you got the stationary list for the school year" asked the nice lady as we were leaving. Why "no" we exclaimed. "your joking" no child of mine could possibly need this much stationary, "I think you have given me the wrong list" I explained calmly to the nice lady, "I think you have given me the entire schools stationary requirements by mistake", "oh no" said the nice lady "that's just for one student and could you make sure that they bring it all in tomorrow". Ed (copy of list to follow when I get a scanner). So the rest of the day was spent stopping complete strangers in Wall*Mart and asking questions like "excuse me can you tell me what the hell a Commercial Duo Tang Asst is please?" and "where would I find a Sharpie Ultra-Fine Black"?

PM

Armed with a car full of glue, wax crayons and Sharpies we headed off to Port Moody to look at the car I had spotted first thing this morning and something in my waters told me that this was going to be the one. Sure enough, it was just as the ad said. Low mileage Honda Odyssey, one careful owner, good condition, perfect family car. So after a quick test drive in which I managed to get pulled by the fuzz for speeding (you should have seen the look on the owners face), a deal was done, hands were shaken and we left with the promise of a vehicle. All we needed now was insurance and license plates........ and that's when it all went wrong.