Can it really be a year?

Wow. A year?  One whole year? No way - not possible, let me just check...

Wowser. (and yes, I used this expression before I left the UK ;) It really is.

A whole year since we loaded up those ten - sorry, eleven, suitcases, packed up our home into boxes and piles and orderly lines and shut the door on the empty box that we called home for eleven years.   As we drove down the gravel lane our dear neighbours and friends waved with all their might, tears a-plenty (inside & outside the taxi) not quite believing what we were doing...

It's been an amazing year - all in all - but not without it's challenges.  I'm laughing inside as I write this, like a flat tyre might be a challenge, or a missing button... Challenges so life changing, so identity forming, so deep & so ongoing, challenges that make me want to turn off the lights & make it all go away.  If I could turn back the clock... a long way... (that's one of Andy's favourites....)

It's not just a move, it was like throwing away everything you'd ever learned, all those subliminal things that you didn't even know you knew, the colour of sugar packaging, how to fill your petrol can, how to get car insurance... you throw it all away (or pack it up in boxes in your loft at Woolmer Terrace) and come with clean, clear heads.  Leave the country?  leave everything & everything you know on your way out, before you turn the lights off... it'll be of no use here.

So. So... we did it, we broke through the first days of excitement, weeks of organisation, months of embedding ourselves into a new culture, and trust me, it's a new and very different culture, we broke through all that, sometimes we even came up for air. Only on occasion though, no time to breathe... get on with your life, or rather get on with making your life or you lose momentum. 

The children started in their amazing school, all big and brave - bigger & braver than I was, leaving the country?  Leaving everything you ever know? Tie up the business? Move to the unknown? Pah - peanuts in comparison to walking away from the kids as they eneterd that enormous 'Elementary' school that day... Oh how I counted down the hours...  I guess you have all that from the blogs at the time.

Apart from the tough, chewy bits, the highlights have been a-plenty.  We've had amazing welcomes, almost daily 'Welcome to Canada's for the first few months, endless invitation to dinner, parties, trips and more, everyone was so unbelievably... Canadian, friendly, helpful, generous, everyone (without exception) wanted to make us feel at home, which helped.  Invites for Christmas, to our dear friend's the Loyd's and then for amazing summer breaks & Thanksgiving too - we do give thanks for such an amazing family in our world.  We had the snow, the skiing, the snow-shoeing & the botched attempt (mine) of snowboarding, we enjoyed that Winter - one we got to grips with the fact the kids were out in the playground at minus 19 - yes it happened - and planned accordingly... we started to enjoy that white stuff BIG time! Oh the fun we had on that mountain, hey babe ;)

When the white stuff disappeared we look forward to summer, I threw myself into organising the school Spring Disco with a couple of friends, it rocked - we rocked - and I got to meet a ton more people & everyone knew who I was - yep, still the exhibitionist, why ever not? Even Tom said he was proud of me :) Andy took up coaching of the soccer (I have to call it that, OK? Football is something entirely different over here...) absolutely loved it, spent the summer with loads of kids hero-worshipping him and got to look like he knew what he was doing, he loved it & it added a new layer of 'life' to our lives... respect to him for that.

So, the kids & Andy learned to ski, I fumbled my way through that... we made tons of friends, I did the disco & Andy did (and still does) the soccer, and we're only at Spring... what else happened?

Well, there were the visitors... and there have been many!  How cool is that?  We leave, lock stock & two smokin' barrels and our friends & relatives save their hard-earned wonga to come & see us & where we live?  Well, I for one am gobsmacked.  How amazing to be able to link your old with your new, to weave a thread between two continents, to have English feet pad around on Canadian soil - because of us... that's cool, I'm proud of that... We had the party in June - 7 months here & 70 people, 70 friends crossed our threshold, we all had a ball, pool party, cocktails and a wonderful cake 'Canada loves the Galloways'... you know who you are :) x

Andy once said that amidst the anxiety of the whole mood he was excited at the possibility that he - he - may have been the one that when, in 50 or a 100 years time, his ancestors would look back and see our names on the family tree, and those of our children, as the ones that made the move from one continent to another... in 2009 the Galloways family moved from England to Canada and the rest is history.... Yes.  I get that, I really do.

So, that we have had visitors has meant the world to us.  First it was Sheila, Andy's wonderful mum, in May, followed by the beautiful, welcome & so needed Sarah & Colin in June, Oh how we laughed, Oh how we partied....

Then the delightful Sheila returned in September, followed swiftly by my mother, Anne, & my dwarlink baby brother Ceej in October.  How lovely to be able to show your family & friends how much of a life you've built up in a short time, remember, e.l.e.v.e.n.... suitcases.  Nothing else.  We had to buy everything from garlic presses to trucks - and everything in between.  Our wealth still sits in England, we started again like newlyweds and it was humbling & fun...

During that time we looked after a friends beautiful, stunning, Bed & Breakfast in Revelstoke - the place that was the catalyst for all things Canada - two and a half weeks of goat herding, chicken rearing, turkey wrestling... dogs, cats, bears, coyotes.  OK I lied about the bears. That was amazing, if we could make our business work there we'd be outta here... we love Revelstoke - and now it has Sarah & Colin's and Mum & Ceej's fingerprints all over it it's even more special, we're saving that for our retirement....

So, I guess being the 'anniversary edition' this was likely to be the longest blog post yet but it continues....

The business has picked up, knocked sideways by the UK Clients continuing to use GallowayCAD like we were still in Greatham, how amazing is that? Still, one year on they are sending work through as before, we count our lucky stars every day.  I connected with a wonderful company in town back in May and they have invested in my experience for a good time now, I'm meeting tons of great people through Total Office and loving every minute, knowing we need to lay the foundations here Andy has - ironically - started working with a new Client in town on the day of our first Canadian anniversary, who'd have thought it, and we have irons in the fire with some big names in town as well as the BC government and beyond.  Things take a while to pick up in this place and we've been at the helm, pushing our way through the ice, relentlessly - they're all probably fed up with the sight of us, but it looks like GallowayCAD - and it's evolution - will be even bigger & stronger than it was in the UK, given enough time... and that is one area we KNOW we deserve a break, damn we work hard!

And so, we did the year, we shed the tears, more tears than we ever have, we left the friends and gained some more, we saw our kids (and ourselves) develop into different  people, stronger somehow, and we're still standing.  Amelie has the accent - odd & cute all at the same time, Tom had the words.. ARSEOME.. at every turn... and us, well yes, we have thicker skin & stronger backbones but we're still us & we love you all...

Thank you for all your support his year, we really couldn't have done it without you xxx

How much fun in a week?

Soooooo much fun was had in a week at our beautiful friends' beautiful 'cabin' and yes, I do use that word very lightly... not the rickety old wooden shack on the shores of the lake the one might conjure up, nope.  Not that all.. take the opposite and double it. It was heavenly...

So, away from the usual format of this blog, the format which gives you more of an 'essence' of the experiences we are having and change it up a bit for this one post to spell out what our very lucky bods have been up to during the period of radio silence that was our 'vacation'.

Christina Lake. Just near the US/Canada border and about 3 hours away from sunny Kelowna and all the Okanagan traffic that has swelled to bursting, didn't think we'd be trying to 'get away from it all' so soon, considering as recently as last year we were part of that tourist influx...

Our week began with a G&T...OK, my week began with a G&T on the rocks with extra lemon, looking out over the most beautiful lake sunset surrounded by a million kerzillion (I am graciously informed by Amelie, who counted them, so there) trees.

Let the excitement begin.

The wind was too strong to put the boat in on Tuesday so we went to play golf.  Obviously. Never played before and let me tell you, that man back in Cowdray Park Corporate day in 2006 (who had his grip on my waist rather too intently), the one who told me I had a great swing and I should take up golf because I was a natural... well, he was lying. Let's leave it there... I said leave it.  We had a blast, the kids were a ton of fun and we managed to get around 9 holes without upsetting the golfing fraternity and their etiquette I think, they even said we should come again... I don't trust the likes of those golfers any more... talent. pah.

So with a run under my belt on Wednesday, at last I pounded those new forest floors and it was great to be back, the boat was successfully launched into clear unsuspecting warm waters... on top of, under the surface of and slicing through those waters became the order of the week, thanks to our gracious and generous hosts. 

First there was the tubing. Being dragged at the speed of light behind the boat on a cord that looked like it could snap at any moment is not really my thing... I had my hair coiffed and my nails done for this vacation for goodness' sakes, and wait, you want me to lie face down on an inflated doughnut, hang on to some polyurethane handles and try to remember the [hand] signal for 'slow the feck down' whilst travelling at break neck (no really, break your neck) speeds whilst everyone 50 metres away on that vessel beamed with amusement, belly laughing at how funny those poor passengers looked.  Calling things out like "Oooh you caught some air then" and "Hold on tight, what's that faster?" OF COURSE I'M HOLDING ON TIGHT, I have Jock's words in my ear "Just don't let go & you'll be fine"... well, that's reassuring...I'll be holding on then...

Actually, although all of the above is true, even the edited highlights of those hours of fun on the back of that contraption, the act of being brave enough to lie next to your ten year old son who wants your reassurance and at the same time wants to show off his new found bravado, was the most fun I've had in a long time.  Well, probably second to watching Andy and Amelie from the comfort of the boat when it was their turn... but the best antidote to that was still to come for me... and hats off to the amazing Rona who jumped in where mummy failed and allowed her body to be thrown around at the mercy of the wind & waves looking after my babies when their parent's arms hurt too much.  My hero...

After lots of swimming in, it was sailing through the water in a rather more sedentary manner that became my newest obsession, under my own steamy steam in a Kayak.

I'm not going to mention that I took to this rather more quickly and capably (for once) than my husband who is good at everything.  I won't mention that he was petrified of this little craft that was determined to pick him up and cast him into the deep waters all by itself.  I won't also mention that he found it so unnerving that he couldn't turn or look around and really wanted to make it go away as soon as he humanly could.  It would also be a bit cruel to tell you that when I lost my way a little and ended up wedged under someone's boat launch at the mercy of an oncoming speedboat's wake, that he didn't stop or attempt to help, he was on a mission to get his clenched butt back to dry land and sod the wife, he could send out a search party if needs be.  If I mentioned all of those things then it would put an ugly taint on the whole experience so I'm going to leave that bit out... if it's all the same to you...

What I will say is that when I graciously gave up my comfortable GIRL's kayak to Andy in place of the somewhat less stable albeit more streamlined (=faster) vessel all was well in Andy's world.  We had lots of fun, sauntering through the waves, exploring the shores for hours on end, we even lost track of time and made it back to an almost empty house, kids away for ice cream with Uncle Dave and our lovely hosts already left for their next adventure... but next time this mad English chick will give that wilderness land a bit more respect and take food.  And a hat, and sunscreen.  My arms hurt so badly that I couldn't even lift them to pour water on my dehydrated highlighted hair... Oh but we had such an amazing time...

What a wicked vacation that was. Never before have I returned so refreshed, so relaxed and so armed with another sackful of memories under our slightly tighter belts and a new warmth to an old friendship... Thanks R&J x

Diamonds on the water...

It's hard not to absorb into your surroundings, to become part of the landscape, to get used to the vistas and the sounds, the air and the accents, to move on from that first eagle sighting... the first snow-capped mountain, the first time someone says ".. well, welcome to Canada" after hearing your abbreviated tale... It has to wear off with time, right? It has to dilute, you have to stop seeing, stop feeling, stop hearing, you can't keep the magic alive, the awe so heightened forever, can you? Otherwise how would you ever get anything done? Those days I went outside to hang out the laundry and was transfixed for what seemed like hours by the mountain view... or as I turned my car into our local streets and actually drew breath at the beauty of the lake vista... how would you function if this feeling remained with you? Whatever it is that floats your proverbial boat; the hum and the lights of the city, the sedentary silence of the mountain retreat or a hundred places in between, wherever the vista makes you go ooooh would have to morph into habitude before too long, surely?  Tell me I'm right?

Well, maybe so, but I'm not there yet, and can honestly say that in a place as big as BC (never mind the delights that await in Canada further afield) that I will never, ever tire of this beauty, this space these powerful vistas.

Take this moment, for example, this very moment as I write, sitting on a floating dock on BC's warmest tree-lined lake watching a speedboat looming large out of the water, growling it's way towards me, cutting a foamy line in the otherwise calm lake, my man and my 'baby' girl clinging onto the inflatable tube which attaches itself to the back of the boat by fifty foot of rope... The sun, melting into my back, the faint smell of that sun oil that i should be ashamed of using, the dogs are launching themselves into water so clear and so deep that I can make out the outline of fish swimming maybe twenty feet below...

So. I really think I'm going to get bored of this?  Tire of these trees, of these endless places to explore? New running routes every day if I'm so inclined, alongside new rocky creeks to quench my thirst (hoping nothing died up-stream) and through new forests, on new trails with new bear thoughts... uh-uh, I don't think so...

I know it's not everyone's thing, and I know that my blogs err on the side of utopia, lots of clean and shiny, lots of wow's and ooh's, believe me, it alone has delayed my blog writing for weeks and sometimes months on occasion while I search for things I don't like (all in the interest of balance, you understand...) but I conclude that this blog, this web log, is my diary and must reflect what I see and feel, it reports my world as I'm experiencing it in the here and now.  Right now my feelings are of an overwhelming fortune that we found this life whilst we were still young enough to enjoy it.

So, I'll leave you, once again, to enjoy watching those diamonds dancing on the water.  At this moment in time I feel like the luckiest girl on this planet.

TTFN :)

Friends & High Places....

I was absent-mindedly writing a list of all the people we'd invite to our upcoming 'we've been here X months' gathering and caught a glimpse of it in all it's listed glory.  Now, those of you who know me will know I'm a lister... a list writer extraordinaire.  I even write lists of lists I have to write.  I write lists of things I've done just so I can tick the boxes.  I am a box ticker list writer and owe all my successes in life to this one, small yet significant characteristic... no really, I do.

Anyway, there it lay, gazing up at me, the sheet of paper covered with spider scrawl mind-mapping, who would we invite - did we have enough friends in our friendship arsenal to make it a worthwhile party-time.  Hell yeah [twangggg] did we?  It got me thinking how I woke up one morning and found myself happy in my skin. Happier than I've been for such a long time.  The stresses and strains of our existence over the past year or two have taken their toll on various corners and crevices of my world but suddenly I find myself at peace.  If only until my next stark-raving lunatic idea organically breaks through the surface and starts feeding off me... for now I'm aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh. 

This is due in no small part to the web of beautiful friends and acquaintances we have conned into being part of our world in these six short months, some of whom have become deep, intense friendships already, hardly seems possible.  You see we really struggled to leave all that behind.  We could leave bricks & mortar, sell off the cars, pack our past into boxes and our future into suitcases, but the emotional underground-cables of friendship bonds were painful, physically so at times, and with all the practicalities to busy our pretty-little heads with we avoided thinking about the inevitable loss that was staring us in the face.  Necessary of course, or we would never have left such an amazing life full of amazing people.

I tell myself I'm a 'wherever I lay my hat' kinda girl.  Tom & I are cut from the same cloth. We look forward and cry in private. Andy & Amelie on the other hand look back - nothing wrong with that, nothing at all, we just see things differently sometimes.  Andy had to come to terms with his 'loss' and it really was like some sort of grieving process.  My way of getting through was to envisage that at some point in the future I would build the friendships I so relied upon in England, that it was inevitable that, in time, this would happen here. 

In my wildest dreams I couldn't have imagined that we'd have found the friends that we have already - or that they would have found us, because, for the most part, people have gone out of their way to get to know us.

Teasing out the list there's the neighbours, the wonderful neighbours who we didn't really see through the dullness of Winter, except for a family with whom we quickly connected and have spent some great evenings already.  Then there's the 'waving friends' who we chat to, pass the time of day on our many walks, I count the school bus-stop friends in this list, always a smile, always an interested ear and always a lot of laughs, these are the people we see every day and they all add a little polish to your hour...

Moving further afield we have individually moulded our social scenes, Andy's embedded in his prolific badminton excursions, four, five, six times a week - those connections have led to some really enjoyable evenings out, and mine in the school environment, throwing myself into the PAC (PTA) and getting involved in some really great events. Through this the friendships just evolved, and here's where some of my greatest times have been so far, fabulous people, huge laughs and like-minded peeps. 

Then there's the exercising lot...! I have little pockets of friends with whom I Yoga, bootcamp & hike up mountains, all with one thing in common (aside from the sweaty me...) - the giggles & hooting belly laughing that goes on, the light-hearted light-spirited breaths of fresh air that we forgot to breathe for a while when we first arrived... give me that sweet air any day. It's been a long time since I laughed so much...

So, along with the array of wonderful people who we knew & loved before we arrived here in November we have gained a wealth of friendship since, from people who have made us feel so welcome, to add to our much loved and more missed posse back in England (and beyond...) most of whom who have gone out of their way to stay in touch, to give us the love and support that we fed off for a while and who never cease to amaze me that they still think of us as much as we do them.

Aren't we the lucky ones? Share the love... go on, feel it, feel it....

So - a soppy account maybe, but there's room for the odd emotional outpour on my blog, just keep me away from the brandy at our party, it makes me all gushy and loved up ;)

See you again soon.... x

The White Stuff...

Yes, all that white stuff.  There was lots of it by our standards but a very - very - mild year by everyone else's.  Not sure if we prefer that, we enjoyed watching the extreme cold kick in on the webcams last year, but I guess that's the key to it, we watched, from a dank & drizzly England - let's be fair, it was a dank & drizzly season in our neck of the woods last year... a winter that was pretty non-descript and dragged on for what seemed like an age...

So we only had a few days of lots of snow on the ground down here in the 'valley', ultimately I was thankful for that for practical reasons like I can't bloody drive in the snow, on the wrong side (and yes, it is still the wrong side to me...) never mind that we had to re-sit our driving tests again, the pressure on clear roads never mind if we had ice & snow to contend with, they may as well have torn up my paperwork there & then... yes, mild Kelowna winter worked for us this year, thank you very much.

Up on the mountain it was a different kettle of ballgames altogether.  Lots of the white stuff, plenty of good skiing at such a fab resort, and only an hour away on a slow day... needless to say my ideas of becoming pro-skier this season were rapidly quashed with a couple of very silly incidents that made me lose all confidence on those two planks strapped to my feet.  What is that all about anyway, I ask you...

I did migrate to one board - for about 15 minutes - until I took the instructor's advice in part and disregarded the rest, in hindsight I recall him saying when you want to stop "...point yourself up the mountain and then use your free foot (you learn with one foot out of the bindings) to stabilise yourself".  I got mentally stuck on the last bit & tried to 'stabilise' myself whilst hurtling downhill at speeds of up to, well, it had to be approaching 0.003mph, and my left leg (the loose one) rather attractively splayed up the hill whilst my right one continued going where gravity (and a large snow-board shaped bit of wood) took it. Down. I swear I heard the tear in my groin, I certainly won't forget that rush of hot pain in a hurry.  Mamma-Mia... Still, my teacher was very sympathetic... he laughed.  A lot. In fact I'm not sure he'd laughed quite that much since he landed in sunny snowy Kelowna from Cambridge UK a few months back.  He gave me the accolade of 'position of the season' and my money back... he was very sweet but I think there was a sinister edge to him, probably the comment "I killed one" that he bellowed for all to hear to a fellow instructor as I hobbled around the nursery slopes looking for sympathy...

So, whilst we took every opportuntity to play in the snow, tobogganing, sledding... with Andy & Tom making slow & steady - in fact quite exceptional - progress on their chosen white stuff mode of transport, I chose to find other ways of entertaining myself, snow angels, snow men...mulled wine.

Amelie & Tom, with a day of private lessons with the "Ninja" were rockin' on the snowboards... I must spend all my time & energy blubbing into my balaclava, so proud, so, so proud of my babies.... Tom, well, Tom, what a superstar. He'd already mastered the skis after just a few hours a couple months back & now decided that he'd like to try the board, how fab did he look?  I think I'd probably kill for those stomach muscles and that core stability, and I mean really kill somebody... he may as well have been held up on all four corners and escorted down the mountain with the grace & decorum he demonstrated, skimming the snow (technical term, sounds good eh?)...this boy did good, as ever.

Not to take away from his sister for one moment, the seven year old mini me, except she was a hot shot, all her worries and anxieties funnelled into impressing her teacher & her brother, by the time I caught up with her (tactical absence) she was hurtling down anything that resembled a slope, with a "yeah, whatever Mum..." snow-dude face on. Pass me those tissues, please...

So, the man of the moment, Big A, ground away at his technique, he was labelled quite innocently by a seasoned skier as a "Two Plank W*nk" (I kid you not) to the absolute innocent bemusement of the kids who just know that in England that word is something they'd be locked in a cage for saying... apparently this is not a word in the Canadian vocabulary.... So, he steadily improved, looked hot in his pants and achieved more than I could have dreamt of in the season whose finale is this weekend coming.  He'll make it up the mountain once more, this time alone, to wade through the record 47cm in 7 days and, I'm told, another 15cm overnight last night, before the mountain closes to ski tourism, the lifts get packed away and the shutters go down until next season, although someone did tell me about some funky li'l fish-scales that you can fix to your skis and carry on skiing up the mountain until the green stuff pokes through... I'll pass.

So, we did the white stuff, conquered it all in our own way, Andy & I diversified and went cross country skiing (huge fun and great exercise) as well as spending our 17th anniversary snow-shoeing, we looked very silly and clearly went very late in the season, more like mud-shoeing... but a great, fun & happy time was had by all in this strange wintry land.  It's good to be alone on the top of a mountain, with nothing but a few munching chipmunks, cougars... awakening bears....

Now we have opened the pool, bought our seeds for planting exotic vegetables and are dusting off the suntan lotion in preparation for the next big phase...

That was the white stuff story... next stop, friends & high places :)

As ever, keep commenting, love to hear it....x

Friends & High Places...

I can't believe it's been so long, did I really only write back in February? Sorry chapettes, that really isn't good enough, is it?

I'll bombard you now, just wait & see...

To be honest, I've been at a loss as to what to say for a wee while.  The whole 'new Canadian' thing must get a tad boring, compare this & that, "Oh how wonderful it all is... blah blah blah", and how we miss you so... but it's kind of what it's all about really, isn't it?  Without that what to blog on our 'Big Canadian Adventure' blog? So there we have it... I'll tell some more stories, draw a few more comparisons and place you in our world for a few gentle minutes so you can get a feel for where we're at. All of which should be bed-down on a foundation of "we miss you terribly" and, at any given moment one, or all of us, are struggling with the move in some guise or another... I won't harp on about all that, but just know it's there. Clearly I'm working on the assumption that you're here because you're remotely interested....

So to cast my mind back there seems an age, and yet our day to day has appeared so... so... routine.

What have we done, I scale the diary for retrospective reminders.  Oh yes, there was the Olympics, that was cool - very cool (although, apparently not cool enough on Cypress Hill in the midst of a seasonally uncharacteristic warm spell... can you believe they had to bring snow in?)  Should've held it at Big White... apart from that & birthdays there were a few themes; snow, friends, and high places... let's start with the snow...

Canada, according to the new Canadian…

A few observations of late...


The first & most pressing question for me is:

• ...Why have some of the Canadians still got their Christmas lights up? Is it not enough that they came out at the beginning of November but to still be up in the middle of February… ho hum.
• Teenagers here are very cool. They are articulate, respectful (and respected, probably a hand-in-hand thing) intelligent and have sacks-full of common sense.
• Education is amazing. Never mind dropping our standards, we’ve had our eyes opened to how amazing it can be. The schools are quiet, calm places. Students respect teachers and rules. Teachers respect Students, it’s a very inclusive environment and I, for one, love it.
• Kids have a plan. They subscribe to a cause, off their own backs, they see the power of ‘we’ not ‘me’ and they take in the bigger picture. I have been overwhelmed with admiration of how these kids, and they are as young as eight or nine and up to fifteen or sixteen, who are raising money for Haiti, organising enormous events, and hosting them without adult input, they could teach me a thing or two.
• And it’s not just the kids. At Christmas there were more volunteer opportunities than I have ever seen. More charitable events raising more money for local and national causes than you can imagine. Everyone was doing something. Each school does a ‘hamper drive’ whereby each child brings in something from a pre-issued list, from a small toy to food for a Christmas meal, and all the donations are collected up and delivered to the less-than-fortunate families in the school or, in our case, the nearby areas. There is some poverty here but it is not frowned upon (or milked by an over-dependence on a faulty state-system) and those in need don’t mind saying so. Everything is done very respectfully but the end result is that those families who couldn’t have put together a special meal or give their kids much for Christmas have a turkey, and fresh vegetables. And their kids have presents to open. It doesn’t take much to make a difference.
• The lake is quite the most beautiful thing I see every day.
• The unity of this place, which is probably incapsulated in all the above comments, is mind-blowing. I get tingles just thinking about it. The 2010 Vancouver Olympics are almost underway and everywhere you go there are messages of support for the teams, flags flying, Go Canada signs everywhere. The Olympic torch came across Canada and we were lucky enough to see it here in Kelowna, in fact we ran behind the torch bearer for a while, with ‘O Canada’ booming out over the PA and the Canadian flag wherever you looked, the 20,000 strong crowd all whoop-whooping, cheering and generally building that esteem that carries this country forth. I felt honoured to be part of it.
• There are too many bill-boards obscuring your vision of the stunning scenery.
• My prediction for Kelowna in 20 years is a sad one, it’s turning into a mini-LA with lots of boob-jobs and enormous unnecessary chromed vehicles… the decadent homes are fighting for remaining land resulting in smaller plots and larger homes wedged in. It’s up & coming, sure. When it arrives we may just move on to quieter pastures…
• When the devastating fires took hold here in 2003 everyone came together to offer shelter, not just for people but for their animals, horses, vehicles. The same was true of last years' fires and wherever you looked there were billboards offering help, adverts placed in the local papers, notices up on walls and street corners. I love how this community comes together. The fires this time were contained with little structural damage, although so much forest was devastated, and with it the habitats and lives of so much wildlife. The stories of burning animals are horrific. The fires of 2003 instigated an action plan for future fires, which was put into action last summer - most of the firefighters were volunteers. When I watch this on youtube it makes me cry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVp80WCU-mY (turn up your volume) The fire line was extinguished just a couple of hundred feet behind where we live now, so many homes were burnt to the ground. This is so Kelowna, so Canada for me. I forgot this for a while.
• Some things remain constant despite the change in continent. Politics generally, for one. However good it is – and it’s damn good on the whole – the people will campaign for more. More rights, more funding, more voices. I say look at what you have. But then I would, life’s pretty easy here (in my humble opinion) compared to the two continents I have lived in before North America…
• Oh, and Doctor’s receptionists. We still owe them a living, and don’t forget to apologise for bothering them if they happen to answer your call….
• Canadians trust the English accent. Apparently we’re well educated. Cool.
• Travel broadens the mind. Emigration strips you of your identity and you have to fight to get it back. It’s tougher than anything I’ve ever done before. And I’ve done stuff.
• In Canada the customer is always right. Companies and government bodies do the ‘right’ thing.
• This country amazes me everywhere I look. The future is so bright it’s gleaming. I’m so humbled to be a part of that future, I hope with all my heart that our kids grow up here; that they take the space, the scenery, the politeness, the mutual respect for granted. I hope they never have to encounter a ‘computer says no’ shop assistant or government official, have to be sworn at because they forgot to change lane in time, or worry for their safety on a dark night. Utopia, perhaps not, but we may just have turned back the clock for our kids, its life as we knew it 30 years ago.

It was worth it. Remind me I said that. That's your lot for tonight :)

Those mountains aren’t clouds pretending to be something they’re not…

What a tumultuous few weeks that was… but I’m back! Full flow. I see the wood despite the trees everywhere, in fact even that forest is beginning to thin out a bit… hurrah. Really thought it wasn’t going to happen for a moment back there...

Stuck in a bubble, looking out at the world, rolling along, not feeling, experiencing, touching, just watching. Hearing the world through muffled ears, putting one foot in front of the other, existing, not sad, not happy, just existing. That was life in my head for the last few weeks, existence.

I had actually come to expect it, it was on the cards, I felt it brewing, mounting, and then just rode the storm. A couple of times Andy asked me what he could do to help & I honestly didn’t know, didn’t even really need any help, I knew I just needed to get past this phase with as little ricochet onto our lives as possible. And I did, I’m out of that ‘phase’ of culture shock and it was pretty shocking, I should coco.

So, how did I get here… well, I guess it started with a trip to some lovely friends’ beautiful B&B and home in Revelstoke last weekend. Out into the fresh air. Beyond the oppressive claustrophobia that is Kelowna in the depth of Winter when the sun doesn’t rise high enough to burn off the cloud in the entire Okanagan valley, all ninety miles of it. I knew I was getting desperate when I migrated towards a newspaper in a favourite lunch venue of Andy & mine, it was calling me with the headline “Gloominess nearly over” and continued to explain that give or take a day or two 22nd February was the day that the meteorological centre of Kelowna expects the sun to reach a height sufficient enough to poke through and burn off the moody stuff until Spring arrives. Phew. I have a date. Structure. I’m counting down, no really, I am.

Revelstoke, good friends; English friends, and fun in the snow helped my head, that and the jaw-dropping scenery up there, scale our mountains up by ten and you might come close. As I’m often heard saying; those mountains, that scenery make me feel insignificant in this world, I like that feeling, it makes me understand that there is one life to live, get living… those mountains will see a million more lives after mine and will stand tall over every one of them, time is limited for us…

And then it all fell into place. Great school reports for our little heroes, two months in for them and they are already thriving, popular, competent kids in a brand new and, in my opinion, rather intimidating place for a village child. If they can do it so can I.

The school has also been a ‘way in’ to the community that I had orchestrated for my own involvement too, I find myself heading up the school Spring-Dance for the PTA equivalent, nothing like jumping in the deep end without my arm-bands, yes I can do it. I can do it.
It’s not without humour, I hasten to add, after several ‘footballers wives’ incidents (we hadn’t seen this side of Kelowna, it can be like LA, poodles & all…) I decided stuff it, no more Mrs Ditsy, stand up & be counted, so I became the arsey Englishwoman for a week or two after my birthday, much to the horror and amusement (in varying degrees) of the ladies who lunch. The horrified ones moved quietly away and the amused ones welcomed me with arms-full of invitations; evenings out, coffee and movie offers… I finally made some proper friends and they are a giggle, and they know the Jules that I am, not the one who had the sickly sweet aura of naïve new girl…

So pounding the streets, drumming up business – successfully (killer heels work worldwide) is beginning to pay off, social events on the calendar for the next six weeks, employed the services of a great babysitter so new life, real life begins here…

When we lived in Greatham I used to travel down the A3 on a cloudy day and imagine that the clouds were really mountains.. if you squint it works. I’d daydream I was here and that was my vista. I’m here & those clouds are really mountains now, they’re not pretending. Time to start enjoying them and everything else this beautiful country has to offer.

The only way is up…

Actually, I hadn’t meant that last post to appear so down in the dumps. That’s not to say we weren’t feeling it but I had waited for a while before I wrote it in an attempt to tone-down the morose nature of our feelings… there you go, from the emails I have received and the lovely, lovely messages, I guess the sadness seeped through a bit. Thanks y’all, you’ve made a big difference to our lives, we know we’re loved, wherever we lay our woolly, fur-lined, tog rated hats.

So, not to be kicking around in that smelly old gutter for long, you know me, hate dirt, [shudder] what did we do to pull ourselves up… well, I guess it started in an unexpected way with a couple of really positive ‘girly moments’ with two completely unrelated, unsuspecting (and to this day oblivious to their input) female interactions which made me understand that there are lots of people out there with which I can be friends and have a giggle… said two were part of the school contingent, which is fine & dandy as a lot of my best UK friends were found in this way, there’s hope for me yet I thought.

Teasing apart the sadness and overwhelming sense of loss is the catalyst for forward motion for me, it’s the way I operate, so, my sifting through the furball unearthed a few unsuspecting needs and desires like friendships, interests, more reliable and frequent contact with home, and work, work, work – I need something to spark this brain matter, the same mushy stuff that has been overloaded in the last few years with psychology degrees and ‘new life’ preparation.. this baby needs some mental stimulation.

Funny how it happens with me, usually it involves a lack of proper clothing – explain later – and a ‘light-bulb moment’ in the shower. No disappointments this time then. My whirling dervish starts with a solitary thought upon waking and there’s no stopping me, it must be amusing to watch… I get out of bed with a head brimming with ideas, business ideas, marketing ideas.. the world is my oyster kind of ideas, there isn’t anything I can’t do when I’m in this frame of mind, I guess it’s what gets me signing up for mad half-marathons and stomping into big corporate entities in my killer heels… if only they knew those ‘introduction’ calls were generally made in my half undress, yesterday’s mascara under my eyes, tangled hair… when you have to seize the moment there’s nothing else to it.

So, from stagnant pool we moved to Andy passing his BC driving test (don’t get me started), my girly encounters, breathing life into my old mobile phone (I wrote cellphone then deleted it…) so I can better communicate in the way that I used to, ensuring the laptop was on at all times to receive those skype calls and be able to share a moment – at a moments’ notice. Proper, focussed visits to the grocery store and meal planning for a whole month – don’t laugh it removes the chaos from this situation, everything is chaotic, from answering a phone-call to visiting the grocery store, this week was about calming that chaos and we won.

Yesterday, in my previously mentioned state of undress I began the task – the long awaited and previously worried about task of setting up the business so we can ‘trade’. What an enormous can of worms that was. Please imagine it, no really, imagine opening a can and inside it were worms, all intermingling, when you move one out of the way there’s another to take its place and – once you’ve emptied half the can on the floor and boxed them up again you look back in the can and there’s still so much to do. The task in hand was to pin these suckers down and that’s what I did.

[How do you know which end of a worm is its head? Lick it & see which end smiles…. Amélie, Jan 2010]

So, no more boring you with the detail, the end result once those worms had been tamed was that GallowayCAD Partnership is pretty much up & running now, all legitimately & above board. We have registered & had approved our business name, acquired GST numbers, business licences, we have spoken with tax consultants, municipal, provincial and federal government departments all of whom, wait for it, grab the table, all of whom seem to know exactly what they are doing and, oddly, appear to be singing from the same hymn sheet, shock horror. From knowing nothing I now know everything – yep, everything there is to know about the hoops that we have to jump through to start up our business here.

Business cards are being printed as we speak, by a nice man from Lancashire, and my first potential Client has said I sound ‘perfect’ for his organisation. How about that. I’m perfect don’t you know. Let’s hope he calls me back, it’s been 24 hours now, panic is rising… or I could just call one of the other twenty companies that fit the bill tomorrow, before I get dressed of course....

We went to the library again today, which is in the same building as the ice rinks, and indoor soccer pitches, and indoor running circuit.. to check out the action. Came away with a new membership to the soccer for Amélie, a few library books and a desire to learn basketball from Tom, two company names as potential clients from my perusing the sponsors and Andy wants to learn to ice-skate and to help out with the coaching of Amélie’s team…

I got a book from the library entitled ‘British Columbia from the Air’. I think it just sunk in where we live, this place is amazing. We need to get away into the wilderness for a bit… going out for a while, we may be some time…

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