Thursday 6th. "The Haddock & Bloater"

Today was an automotive day, as we had arranged to pick up the car after school. But first we had to go and get the car insurance and number plates. To date this has been without doubt the most alien process we have come across, almost everything else in Canada has been similar to the UK, however buying a used car privately is a completely different story. To start with there are very few second hand cars to be bought privately, everybody seems to trade them in at a dealership. Then there is the insurance. In B.C. the provincial government insists that everybody has a basic minimum level of cover and therefore you have to get that insurance from them, (ICBC). If you want extra insurance, ie comprehensive, then you have to get that somewhere else. Um OK. But get this, if you are a first time car purchaser you have to buy the bloomin number plates, and if that isn't bad enough you then have to pay 7% tax on a second hand car that has already been taxed once when it was new, how mad are this lot? Now it really started to get interesting when the nice lady at the insurance brokers said that my nice letter from my UK insurers clearly stating my 9 years no claims bonus was not sufficient proof for ICBC and I would therefore not qualify for any discount what so ever. So for a 2003 Honda Odyssey, number plates, PST tax at 7% and no discount, let me see.......... that comes to £3995.00. "Would Sir be interested in the Special Edition 2010 Whistler Olympic number plates, they are only $25 extra?"

I consoled myself with the thought that we wasn't paying any road tax and apparently that a correctly worded letter from every insurer I'd ever used over the last 8 years would in fact get me a 40% rebate, so with that thought we headed off to collect the boys and then drove out to Port Moody to collect our brand new used car.

I dutifully screwed my new Special Edition, Whistler Olympic number plates on our brand new used car, ($4000.00 is a much nicer number) and we headed off to celebrate the purchase of our first Canadian vehicle, by frequenting a small but very pleasant Mexican restaurant owned by a Greek bloke, situated in the Italian part of town and as I sipped a well earned margarita I congratulated myself on ticking off "BUY CAR" from the list.

Wednesday 5th. First day of School

We set the alarm for 6.30am as we knew being the first day of school we needed plenty of time. We were working on 20 mins for breakfast and getting everyone washed and dressed and an hour and forty mins to load all the stationary into the car and 7 mins to drive to school, that should do it.

I will never forget that look I was given as we approached the school gates. Eyes moist with emotion and as large as dinner plates, a cold clammy hand gripped mine as if life itself depended on it, a quiver of a bottom lip and a tremble in the voice, Nix was in a terrible state, the boys on the other hand couldn't wait to get in to school, "By" and they were gone.

"So lets go and get some car insurance", that should be be relatively easy! The nice lady at Van City Savings had pointed us in the direction of their insurance brokers as we would get a discount being members. The very nice lady at the brokers quoted us $1400.00 and said we were lucky we had all that no claims bonus other wise it would be a right shocker of a bill, I thought $1400.00 was a bit steep myself as it was, never mind we will be back tomorrow with our proof of the no claims bonus and the money I said.

"We have just got time to go to Capilano Mall" said Nix's before it's pick up time, where does the day go? (well if you spend 6 hours shopping it goes pretty quick), so a few hundred dollars lighter we are off to collect the boys from school.

Well, well how was it? what did you do? Who did you play with? What is your teacher like? Who did you sit next to? Was it fun? What's your teacher like? Who did you sit next to?......... "Oh it was OK, what's for tea?" I'm guessing that's a right result?

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.

Monday 3rd. Labour Day.

Labour Day is a bank holiday in Canada as it is in the USA. Although there is always something to do here, Labour day doesn't appear to be celebrated in any particular fashion. So today we decided to go to Stanley park, play some golf then go to the beach. However the first part of our plan was foiled by the man who looks after the pitch and putt, as it would appear that he was 'on strike until further notice', at last our first unhappy Canadian. Never mind, so we headed off to the beach instead. Nix and I sat on the beach and reflected upon the week that had passed, something we had not done since we had arrived here and as we recounted all the madness we had been through, the boys grubbed around on the beach as only they can do.

So Labour day turned out to be anything but laborious and we all retired nice and early to our beds hoping that tomorrow would bring us word from School District 44, as tomorrow was the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.......

Sunday 2nd. "Who's got the keys"

Never one for sitting still, we catapult ourselves into week two with a day trip to White Rock, a seaside town on the Canadian, US boarder. It has a feel of Brighton about it, you know, the nice part before you get to Hove (sorry Em), a long promanarde consisting mainly of eateries and bars that look out at the Pacific ocean. Oh yea and it has a big white rock on the beach.

I must confess that I did have an ulterior motive for the trip to White Rock as is just so happens to be the location of what we call in the trade, a nice looking, low mileage little Haddock that I'd spotted in the auto trader. Ed ( Haddock & Bloater = Motor). It had suddenly dawned on me that we had to return the hire car at the end of the week and if I wasn't careful we stood a very good chance that we could end up with the kids not having a school and we would not have a car, a prospect that had me instantly braking out in a cold sweat.

I had decided after days of in depth research and hours of deliberation, weighing up our needs verses the needs of the environment, that a large "people carrier" based vehicle was probably the best way to go. Encouraged by Nicola who said "we are getting a people carrier end of discussion", so I set about narrowing the field down to a few candidates, these turned out to be the Honda or the Toyota. and you can imagine my further disappointment when I found out that neither model was available with a 5.5 litre, gas guzzling, fuel injected V8 motor. However, I digress, the car in White Rock turned out to be a bit of a dog, so we passed on that one and some what disappointed in not finding our dream car first time, we headed for White Rock and comfort food, fish and chips and ice cream.

Now having spent all of last week training (shouting at the boys) to lock their own car doors, as our bottom of the range rent a car came without central locking, was something I was just about going to regret.

Pull up at the sea front and straight into a parking place, Easy Peezy, Lemon Squeezy. Jump out and stroll over to the talking pay and display meter only to find that my now hyper trained troops were out and off, heading for a full on beach assault, but this time, for the first time ever, they had locked all the car doors, including mine, but this time with the keys still in the car.........perfect! Still every cloud has a sliver lining and I manage to find a very nice female Police Officer with an enormous great Colt .44 magnum strapped to the side of her, who very kindly called a man named Earl, who had a "Slim Jim" who dutifully proceeded to break into our car and retrieve the keys, all for the paltry sum of $75.00.........bargain.

All in all a good day, topped off by a trip to the late showing of Shrek 3 with lots of......"man there was some evil gases Eeking out of my butt that day," jokes, a favourite of the Sushams.

Saturday 1st. Bicycle Repair Man.

Well we have been here a week now and you can tell things have started to settle down already, as today was a fairly normal day all things considered. The boys and I walked down to Cove Bikes in the morning where we bought Charlie the Kona Mountain Bike that we had seen in the shop the day before. It had just come in, second hand but in great condition and I’d put my name on it. He was chuffed to bits and spent the rest of the day on it. I then spent the rest of the day rebuilding Tom’s bike and putting Nix and my bike together, so now we are truly a North Shore family of rock hard, narly mountain bikers – well almost if Nix would only take that bloody basket off the front of hers.

Well that’s all for this week but keep an eye out for further Letters from Canada as week 2 finds our heroes going to school and trying to buy a car.

Take care one and all,

John, Nix, Charlie & Tom xxxx

Friday 31st. "A day of Education"

To date the weather has been fab, but today the clouds have come in and we decide it would be good to knock it down a gear and chill out, I think the week is catching up with us, so we decide to head off to the Science Museum. The museum is situated down town and we are soon reminded that Vancouver also has it’s fair share of social problems like any other major city, but we dually find the Museum and in we go – two adults, two children and tickets for the 3pm showing of ‘The Human Body’ at the Imax cinema please - £30, not bad. Inside the Museum, the exhibits are mostly interactive and very well done, lots of things to punch, kick and fiddle with – Nicola had a ball. I myself was looking forward to the Imax show. 2.50pm let’s go to the pictures. I still, to this day, get excited at the thought of a cinematic experience and the anticipation sat in my chair is unbearable, so much so, that I miss half the film through rapid induced coma like sleep – oh well, what I did see was great.

On the way back – a quick trip to the shops for WD40 and bike tools – and then to Deep Cove and the Arms Reach restaurant to enjoy a well earned meal and a bottle of wine and to watch the sun go down on the beautiful cove and reflect on the roller coast ride of a week migrating to Canada has taken us on.



All in bed by 9.30 – night, Johnboy, Ma, Pa etc.