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Moments of change

November 30, 2012 in Life as we know it | Permalink

Those who expect moments of change to be comfortable and free of conflict have not learned their history.

Joan Wallach Scott

“The time has come” – as the Walrus said – ” to talk of many things…”

More specifically the time has finally come to talk about how our lives have – once again – been dramatically altered over the last month, to the extent that all of our previous plans have had to be thrown out of the window and we must now start over again.

Put simply – Kickass Canada Girl no longer has a job in BC. In fact – for a over a month the Girl has had no job at all!

The facts are these:

The position in Victoria did not work out. These things happen and we need not go into the whys and wherefores here. Needless to say this eventuality was not anticipated and has required urgent re-adjustment of our plans and priorities.

As it turns out there are – quite simply – no other equivalent jobs going in Victoria at the moment. Indeed there are none in BC – in part as a result of the current provincial government hiring freeze there. The Girl had little choice but to return to the UK to seek employment here. She came back directly from Hong Kong after our visit there at the start of the month and has since then been attending interviews here.

And the good news? This very day the Girl has landed a plum new post in the UK which she will take up early in the new year. This will come as absolutely no surprise to all those of us who know her and recognise her totally kick-ass qualities. Well done Kickass Canada Girl!!

I will – naturally – write much more over the coming weeks on the subject of how our lives will change and what this will mean for our longer term plans. For the moment we are just happy to have been re-united, and to be able to move forward again.

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Long Beach Wild

August 20, 2012 in Life in BC | 2 comments

The eagle-eyed amongst you – and probably in this case even the short-sighted – will spot at once that the image above is the original from which the masthead to this blog was derived. It was taken in August 2010 on a really rather inexpensive digital compact shortly before said camera ceased working entirely a few days into our honeymoon – forcing me to seek another such in the (relative) wilds of southern Alaska. One of the things that I like about the photo is that I did nothing at all to pre or post-process it – this is exactly as the camera saw it.

One of the great joys of our recent break in Provence was that – for the first time in ages and notwithstanding the demands for attention of our dear Saanichton friends’ (our travelling companions) two young sons – I was able to catch up on some reading. I finished David Ross’s excellent and comprehensive biography of Richard Hillary – of whom I will write more later – as well as hugely enjoying Stanley Booth’s kaleidoscopic description of the Rolling Stones fated 1969 tour of America – ‘The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones’. You are probably familiar with how that particular tale ended, but needless to say this classic narrative – sufficiently difficult to write that it was not published until 15 years after the events concerned – is the definitive guide to the essence of the times. For those of us who grew up in the late 60s – and for those who wish that they had – it is required reading.

Neither of these weighty tomes, however, moved me as much as did a slender volume that I picked up (in Costco of all places!) whilst in Victoria at the beginning of July – ‘Long Beach Wild’ by Adrienne Mason. Subtitled ‘A Celebration of People and Place on Canada’s Rugged Western Shore’ this is a heartfelt evocation of Long Beach – that spectacular sweep of sand on the west coast of Vancouver Island between Tofino and Ucluelet – written by someone who has lived in the region for 20 years and is clearly in thrall to the place.

The connection between these two apparently unrelated items – as you might already have guessed – is that my photograph was itself taken on Long Beach, with which I have also fallen in love though, of course, much more recently than did Mrs Mason. The image is of what is now the Wickaninnish Interpretive Centre but which was – as I learned from Mrs Mason’s excellent history – the original Wickaninnish Inn that was closed and taken over on the foundation of the Pacific Rim National Park and the incorporation of Long Beach thereinto. A new – and somewhat up-market – Wickaninnish Inn was created rather more recently a short distance to the north on Chesterman Beach, which destination will – I firmly intend – be the location of my sixtieth birthday celebration in January 2014.

Those of you who are inhabitants of Vancouver Island will probably already be familiar with this part of the Pacific Coast. Some may not find themselves moved by its austere attractions, particularly during ‘Fogust’, though I myself find even those mysteriously murky mornings strangely enticing. In any case, whether an old Long Beach hand or a complete ingenue I recommend regardless investigation of Mrs Mason’s book and of her excellent blog on the subject – The Long Beach Blog – one that will certainly be added to my blogroll.

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A salmagundi of simulacra

July 14, 2012 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

An assortment of images from Victoria and its environs…

Late afternoon on Island View beach:

An evening with a Glaswegian friend in Cadboro Bay. He rents a suite in a very fancy waterfront property. The owners – for reasons best known to themselves – spend half the year elsewhere:

On Clover Point after the storm:

Nighty night!

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Oak Bay

July 13, 2012 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

Staying – as we have been – in Oak Bay this week (for reasons outlined in this previous post) is a most interesting and illuminating experience. When Kickass Canada Girl described Victoria to me – shortly after her first visit home subsequent to our having met – it was one of the places in which she informed me she felt she could happily live. Now that I know it a little I can see why.

As the Brits amongst you will immediately recognise from the accompanying photographs, Oak Bay is a pleasant ‘village like’ community that has – visually at least – a great deal in common with the English Home Counties. For one thing, the ubiquitous evergreens give way to the deciduous, and in particular – as the name suggests – to the stout English oak… well, to the Garry oak, anyway! It speaks volumes that any damage caused to one of these splendid trees – in Oak Bay itself – results in a $10,000 fine.

In the light of all this it comes as no surprise to find that a certain breed of English ex-pat has made this enclave their home.

There is certainly money in Oak Bay – and it smells like old money. This villa is – by all accounts – merely a summer residence!

The village itself is well equipped with coffee houses, bistros, beauty salons, a plethora (for some bizarre reason) of dental hygienists and – as you can see – a pretty decent salumeria and butcher.

There is – in Windsor Park – a rather lovely cricket and rugby ground – but cricket in Victoria will feature in a future post, so I will say no more at present.

There is also one of the nicest marinas in Victoria which, I am told, boasts a pretty decent restaurant. The yacht basin itself is home to some of the tamest ‘wild’ harbour seals I have ever seen. A local lady told me that they are the former inhabitants of a marine park released into the wild when the park closed. They certainly know how to put on a show for visitors and – of course – to earn their supper in the process.

Could we live in Oak Bay now?

Cute – and faux-British – as it undoubtedly is the answer has to be ‘no’. However serene and well kept the neighbourhood is, it still feels busy – rather too full of (very proper) people and (admittedly slowly driven) cars. These days we yearn for the more open spaces of the peninsular – with little passing trade, a decent deck and views of the ocean and mountains…

…and, of course, closer to our dear and lovely friends!

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A week and a half!

July 9, 2012 in Life in BC | Permalink

Safe to say when I arrived in BC just over a week ago, looking forward to a good rest, I did not expect a week such as the one we have just experienced.

I have already made reference to the redecoration of Kickass Canada Girl’s son’s apartment. Naturally the actual painting and associated works were only a part of the endeavor. There was also much running around picking up shower curtains, light fittings and other electrical bits and bobs – not to mention waiting for plumbers and electricians and so forth.

The fact that the Girl’s son was staying with her at our dear friends’ farm in Saanichton also added a certain frisson. Quite apart from needing to move him and his belongings back into his apartment once all was ready, there was also the heightened tension resulting from the difficulty of finding space and time to oneself. Of course, those with children will shrug their shoulders and say – ‘So what? That’s how it is…’ Not having had children myself I am perhaps simply not familiar with the rigours thereof.

And speaking of which – the week was further complicated by the not unwelcome demands for attention of our dear friends’ young sons. These entailed trips to the iMax and to the cinema to see the latest Pixar – ‘Brave’ – and much playing of trains and so forth. All a total joy in any other week of course…

Finally – but by no means least – all of this coincided with a crisis at the Girl’s charity, as a result of which she endured a highly stressful week of long hours, culminating in a very long day in Vancouver on the Saturday. She was in need of a very large Martini when she finally returned from that particular jaunt.

There were points at which I really did begin to wonder just how much of a holiday this trip was going to turn out to be, but when I finally got some time to myself on the Saturday afternoon I did find the opportunity for some useful reflection. I have visited Victoria quite a number of times now, but thus far all bar one of the visits have been holidays for us both, and have been marked by the relaxed and carefree nature of our time here.

This has – therefore – been a most valuable experience, giving me as it does a glimpse of the life that I will lead here once I am no longer just a casual visitor but a permanent resident. Naturally though, I hope that – in future – any further such crises do not all occur simultaneously!

This week we are house-sitting for one of the Girl’s colleagues in Oak Bay, which will provide another new experience. The Girl also has Thursday and Friday off…

‘For this relief, much thanks!’.

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Brentwood Bay

July 8, 2012 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

One of my favourite places on the planet!

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SitRep

April 15, 2012 in Moving to Canada | Permalink

Returning to the UK from Victoria has not been easy. Some of the reasons for this need little elucidation – I do not like having to leave Kickass Canada Girl again, particularly as my next trip to BC will not be until the very end of June (the day after summer term ends). Being together again – particularly in BC – was such a sweet experience that we are now both finding ourselves – to put it mildly – rather glum and listless.

I also find the jetlag particularly difficult to deal with when travelling east. On this occasion the first few days seemed relatively straightforward, though a closer examination would have revealed that my sleep patterns were far from normal. Just at the point at which I was congratulating myself on having escaped the worst effects the lack of sleep caught up with me and I crashed. I am now fighting to get things back into a regular pattern. I have been going to bed late to try to ensure that I sleep though the night, but then – finding myself awake at 4:00 or 5:00am and unable to get back to sleep – have been suffering through the days.

Jetlag makes no sense to me in any case. Why should I wake in the middle of the night on return to the UK? Exactly the same happens when I travel to BC and neither time corresponds to my normal waking hour at the other location. Methinks the body simply doth protest too much at being made to alter its habitual routine… Methinks I am getting old!

On this occasion the fact that I tweaked my back moving furniture in the Girl’s suite the day before I left – and that I then had to sit for 10 comfortless hours on the flights back – only made things worse. My back is slowly recovering, but the discomfort has not improved my mood.

Still – enough complaints. I should take the opportunity afforded by writing this post to reflect on the progress that the Girl and I made during my visit to BC. Read on…

 

In an admittedly small – though significant – step towards becoming a resident, I now have a Canadian bank account. The Girl and I opened joint chequing and savings accounts with CIBC, who were – it must be said – incredibly helpful. Since returning to the UK I have transferred to the new account – through the same currency exchange that I used previously – a fair sized chunk of our savings, so that we have monies ready in BC should we need to put down a deposit on a property or to set in motion any other course of action that would lead to us becoming properly resident. At this point each small step forward seems significant.

Over the last few years the Girl and I have looked at a fair number of properties on the peninsular, and we viewed several more on this occasion. The main difference this time was that we saw two properties that we would happily have purchased immediately. One – in Brentwood Bay – would have been a most practical proposition, with good potential for rental income. The other – north of Saanichton – was set in particularly beautiful gardens and had a breath-taking view over the Haro Straight. We both fell in love with the latter and would have made considerable sacrifices to acquire it, but someone else clearly had the same idea as another offer had been made even before I left Victoria.

We had hoped that the Girl’s new position – with its commensurately higher salary – coupled with her renewed status as a Canadian resident, would have facilitated the acquisition of a mortgage – which we would currently need to cover any purchase until such time as we can sell our  property in the UK. It seems, however, that mortgages in BC are now harder to come by – a position that mirrors that extant in the UK. We were forced – reluctantly – to accept that we could not make an offer on either of the properties that we had viewed. It seems that we must again first concentrate on the sale of the apartment in South Buckinghamshire.

Each time I visit BC we initiate further advances and, of course, with the Girl being there full time things are that much easier. Still much to do, though, including applying for permanent residency – of which more later.

 

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A pictorial potpourri

April 9, 2012 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

Today I have to return to the UK after what seems an all too short stay in Victoria. I have been snapping away with the Fuji x10 throughout my visit, and this post consequently comprises a miscellanea of images.

These were taken around our dear friends’ farm:

Food shopping around Saanichton is very different to the UK. The local supermarket is called Thifty’s – and looks completely unlike any Waitrose or Sainsbury’s I have ever seen:

…and this is the very wonderful Orr’s in Brentwood Bay – fabulous meat and delicacies such as black pudding, and a cornucopia of delights from home for the British expat. The model of the paddle steamer Waverley in the window betrays its origins north of the border (the Scottish border, that is!)

I really liked the way the waitress in the Prairie Inn in Saanichton carried her change:

I love Sidney by the Sea. I think you can see why:

…and finally, something of a surprise:

Kickass Canada Girl discovered that the Maple Leafs (Rugby Canada’s development squad) were playing the Ontario Blues (national champions) in an exhibition match at the new Bear Mountain Stadium. Being big rugby fans we thought we would go along. We went early in case it was sold out (it wasn’t… come on, Victoria rugby fans!) and found ourselves the first ones there. We got into conversation with what appeared to be the head honcho, and found – to our surprise – that he had been to school in England, and had subsequently taught – and coached rugby – at the school that I worked at prior to my current school. We had overlapped briefly but not met. We also found that he has a residence in London a stone’s throw from where I work now. Small world!

As the conversation wound up I asked his name. How embarrassed was I to find I had been talking to Canadian Rugby legend, Garreth Rees?! Doh! He is now in charge of Rugby Canada and their splendid new Centre of Excellence at Langford.  Great things are anticipated for what is clearly a growing sport in Canada.

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Five wheels on my wagon…

April 7, 2012 in Life in BC | Permalink

It is the Easter weekend and our good friends and their two young boys – for such there be – have loaded up everything including the kitchen sink and headed up island to Nanaimo for a few days camping.

Now – at the risk of sounding like a broken record – ‘when I were a nipper, camping weren’t like this!’ Camping for us meant hefting a heavy rucksack loaded with everything one could possibly need, including the tent (invariably a tiny two ‘man’ job) and all the accoutrements. It meant rain that seeped into your clothing through every conceivable opening (not to mention into the tent at night) – sleeping (if that were possible) on the hard stony ground with only a groundsheet for protection – and heavy, cold, soggy hiking boots that one had to squeeze one’s swollen feet into in the morning.

I do recall one experimental ‘lightweight’ camping trip that I rashly undertook with an overly enthusiastic friend of mine one summer – for which we decided to forgo the tent. We were interested in the then recently available polythene survival bags. We figured that all we needed was one such to keep us warm, and a shared sheet sleeping bag to keep the polythene from our skin. We slept – if that is the word – under another sheet of polythene stretched between two bikes (decorated as I recall by the luminous – and probably toxic – contents of a festival ‘glo-stick’. Well – it was the early 70s!). You can probably guess how the adventure turned out. We both perspired like crazy for the first hour and then – when the temperature dropped – we froze! We were up and about in the middle of the night – teeth chattering castanet-style – trying to cook a ourselves hot breakfast. So much for that experiment!

Canadians do things differently. Camping this side of the ocean invariably involves the Recreational Vehicle – the RV! For the Brits the closest equivalent would be the almost universally loathed caravan, but it really isn’t the same thing at all. For a start some RVs – once fully expanded – are the size of a small apartment. For another, whether the Canadian roads are just bigger (which they are) or the RVs are more suitably powered (which they also are), one just doesn’t see the sort of traffic queues behind crawling vacation homes-from-home that so blight the English A roads in the summer months.

Another alien concept to the average Englishman (if there be such a beast) is the Fifth Wheel. As we don’t really do pickups at all the notion of a large camping trailer hooked onto the back of a truck seems a strange idea. In fact it makes a huge amount of sense both in terms of utilising the existing powerplant – which can also still be used as a separate vehicle – and making the best use of the extra space over the bed of the truck.

Either way, camping – as practiced by the Canadian – is something totally outside the experience of most of us in the UK. Having watched our dear friends packing to go to Nanaimo, however, (and with two small boys that is a non-trivial operation!) I am still not persuaded that I should be joining in the fun, though Kickass Canada Girl naturally considers me something of a wuss for taking that view.

I think boating is more my line!

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Loving the alien!

April 5, 2012 in Life as we know it | Permalink

Any fears that I might have entertained concerning seeing Kickass Canada Girl again after a month apart disappeared in about 10 seconds flat last Thursday evening, at the culmination of my lengthy trek from London. It was as though we had just come home from a day’s work rather than having been an ocean apart for an extended period. I can’t help feeling that this bodes well, though of course longer periods of separation lie ahead.

These things are difficult to judge. My readings on long distance relationships (LDRs) suggest a plethora of potential pitfalls (not to mention an abundance of alliteration!) and offer much in the way of advice – of some of which I will certainly not be availing myself. I intend to write something more detailed on the subject in the near future, but for now the sights, sounds and sensations (there I go again!) of British Columbia are filling my senses and leaving little room for extended contemplation.

This next stretch – through the School’s summer term – will pose a more severe challenge, until the end of June when I can again return to the province. That visit will, fortunately, be a little longer than this one. This 10 day trip has – largely on account of the excursion to Kamloops – been not nearly long enough for all that we need to accomplish.

For now, though, I am content to be here, to help the Girl settle in to our dear friends’ suite and to do whatever I can to assist her with her new job. That – for the present – means casting an eye over the charity’s IT setup, to see if things can be sharpened up a little. This is what we Brits would call a ‘busman’s holiday’!

As I may have mentioned before, the Girl really is quite remarkable. When she and I met I was filled with admiration at the courage and sheer pluck she had displayed in uprooting her life and decamping to a strange city – where she knew no-one – to take on a new job for a concern with which she was unfamiliar. Now she has shown similar chutzpah in returning to Canada to take up a high powered position – on which a considerable amount rides, both for her and for the charity – and to live apart from her most ardent supporter – ie, me! Yes, she is blessed with wonderful friends who seem to exhibit similar traits of fearlessness, but this is still a big ask and I am once again awestruck.

So – things still to be done before my return:

  • Open a joint savings account
  • Look at some more properties on the peninsular
  • Talk to telecom providers about iThing contracts
  • Book flights for summer visits in both directions
  • Visit more friends and relations
  • Assorted domestic chores
  • Cook ‘thank you’ dinner for our good friends in Saanichton
  • Find time for further blog entries!

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