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Baby steps

March 21, 2014 in Life in England, Moving to Canada | 2 comments

Baby_feetBob:    I can’t do that. It’s too big!
Dr. Leo:    Baby steps Bob. Baby steps.

From the movie: “What about Bob?”
Written by Tom Shulman
Directed by Frank Oz

The illation of this post from January of this year – wherein I pondered the next steps in our glacially slow progress towards a new life in British Columbia – was that all depended on our being able to sell our property in Buckinghamshire… which objective would – in consequence – be our main focus over the coming months. The first landmark along this route was to be the date in March on which the tenants currently occupying our apartment could be given notice to quit –  after which we could move to bring the property once again to market.

On Wednesday this week such notice was duly served.

We are currently in discussion with several local estate agents with a view to establishing a fair and reasonable price for the property – subsequent to which we will stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, take a deep breath and return to the affray! Fingers – and much else – firmly crossed…

Now – because selling a property in the UK is such a big, grown-up, scary prospect we have decided – instead of taking the risk of biting off more than we can reasonably chew – to sell the apartment bit by bit!

Well – no… of course we haven’t really – though just at the moment that might appear to be the case!

I’m being cryptic! I will stop at once…

We are in the final stages of selling a brick built bin store that is located behind the main house. There are four such stores – assigned to four of the seven apartments into which the original residence was divided – in a row abutting the rear wall of the estate. The roofs of these stores had – of late – fallen into such a state of disrepair that urgent remedial works were required. Naturally the Kickass Canada Girl and I were reluctant to invest further monies into a feature of the property that adds little or no financial value to the apartment as a whole, so a deal was done with one of our neighbours. She will pay the costs of the roof repairs in return for the transfer into her name of the store itself. She can use the space – we can do without the expense!

It would – of course – be really good if the rest of the sale were to proceed as expeditiously and smoothly as this. Let us be optimistic and assume that this will indeed be so.

 

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Credit and character

May 28, 2013 in Life as we know it | Permalink

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidThere is a defined gulf
Between credit and character
If you doubt this, ask any banker;
He will advise that character is nice
But it is not collateral.

Evan Rhys, Poems from the Ledge

I am mindful of the fact that I promised a brief note on the… challenge – shall we say… of recovering monies from Canada to the UK once thence transferred. I am aware that in the normal run of things this would not pose any particular difficulty. Our case – as you might expect – does not entirely fall within that disposition.

Last year – whilst the Kickass Canada Girl was living in Victoria – we evolved a stratagem in service of which we would transfer to Canada such of our savings as could be spared, preparatory to the purchase at the appropriate point of a property there. To this end we opened a joint bank account and transferred funds to it using an online currency exchange – both of which operations were accomplished with encouraging ease.

When the situation deteriorated and the Girl was forced – immediately before Christmas – to return to the UK we agreed that – since our long term plans remained essentially unchanged – we would leave our funds in BC. Shortly thereafter – however – it became apparent that we would need to recover a small percentage of the monies to the UK to cover immediate expenses. At this point things became messy.

A little research indicated that we would need to initiate the funds transfer from our bank in Canada. A call to their telephone banking line was not particularly helpful. I learned that – whereas small transfers could easily be made – anything above a few hundred dollars would rapidly fall foul of the limits imposed on daily, weekly and monthly total transfers. The telephone banking operative suggested that I should speak directly to the branch in Saanichton.

The call to the branch was not much more help. I was told that I could certainly transfer the funds required – by making an ‘arrangement’ so to do. Unfortunately this could only be done by visiting the branch in person. We had not made any such arrangement before leaving – of course – because we didn’t know at the time that we were going to need so to do.

Given that a personal visit was clearly not possible I was advised instead to consult my bank in the UK, the implication being that they might be able to effect something by themselves calling Canada in my presence. I duly paid a visit, queued for an advisor and was told in no uncertain terms that they could do nothing to assist and that the onus was on the Canadian end to instigate the transfer.

I called the branch in Saanichton again – this time speaking to the lady in charge of our account. She was sympathetic – but ultimately unhelpful.

At this point – rapidly losing patience with a system seemingly designed to render impossible that which should have been a relatively simple operation – I called Canada again, this time to the bank’s customer service line. I finally encountered someone helpful – an eager and charming young lady. Why – she said brightly – did I not simply write myself a cheque?!

I pointed out that I didn’t actually have a chequebook for this account.

No problem. I could order one online…

It is – apparently – quite impossible to arrange for funds to be transferred from Canada to the UK – either online or by telephone – unless one is actually in Canada at the time or has had the prescience to make the necessary arrangement. It is – however – a trivial matter to order a chequebook online – have it delivered to a Canadian address (our dear friends in Saanichton, who forwarded it on to the UK) – and then to write myself a cheque for any amount that I please.

My attempt to pay in this cheque-to-myself at my bank in the UK caused only momentary confusion for the front of house assistant, the resolution of which involved my being whisked peremptorily to the front of a long and somewhat irritable queue of other customers to obtain the necessary advice. I beat a hasty retreat before the murmuring behind me turned nasty – content that I had finally been able to get my hands on my own money!

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Recovery position

May 1, 2013 in Kickass Canada Girl | Permalink

Image by Rama on WikimediaIt is half a year now since the Kickass Canada Girl’s (purportedly) splendid job in Victoria went – to appropriate the vernacular – ‘tits-up’. She was – as a result – obliged to leave our dear friends in Saanichton and to return – jobless – to the UK, just in time for Christmas and for us to wave an un-fond farewell to the tenant in our Buckinghamshire apartment (and, of course, to his rent cheque!).

All in all, not the best of times!

In line with the seasons, however, that winter has finally turned to spring and all indicators are that summer will – as it ever does – eventually arrive.

The Girl’s new job in London was always really considered a positioning exercise with a view to a more appropriate opening rapidly becoming available in the organisation’s head office in Reading – a stone’s throw from our Berkshire home. Sure enough, she has duly been awarded a suitably interesting management post which she takes up today. Congratulations KACG! We celebrated appropriately last Sunday with a really rather splendid lunch at a beautiful hostelry in Oxfordshire.

I made reference at the top of the year to the Girl’s quest to source a ‘new’ car, to replace the sexy Civic that she so generously sold to my nephew before leaving for BC last year. This search has taken longer than anticipated for a number of reasons – not least of which are those related to the difficulty that we encountered (and which I will document in a future post) transferring monies back to the UK from Canada. No matter! She finally found what she wanted and parted with her principal.

The Girl’s choice of motor fully meets my approval. She has – on past occasions when in the market for ‘wheels’ – flirted with the idea of acquiring something ‘interesting’ – but has ultimately ignored my blandishments and settled for the ‘sensible’ option instead. This has always struck me as being slightly surprising since – in many ways – she’s not that kind of girl! Not so this time, anyway. She has finally bitten the bullet and invested her hard-earned moolah in… (drum roll!)… a convertible!!! Not – in her case – a Merc (we can barely afford to run one of those!) but instead the best ‘British’ sports car never made – the Mazda MX-5 Roadster.

Hoorah!

What with new tenants in our Bucks apartment and spring finally bursting out all over we are both feeling positively perky…

…and who knows where that might lead!

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Looking up!

February 8, 2013 in Life as we know it | Permalink

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidExperiencing such a major upheaval to the accustomed flow of life has been a salutary and somewhat sobering experience. Having one’s long term plans disrupted is one thing, but undergoing such a dramatic change in circumstances is quite another.

The last three months have provided a tough lesson. From the position of having two salaries and the rental income from our Buckinghamshire apartment coming in to having to live on a single salary has required a considerable adjustment. That Christmas fell in the middle of the period concerned did not help. Fortunately the impact has been ameliorated somewhat by us having had some savings (for our eventual move to Canada) into which we could eat – by the knowledge that the situation would only be temporary – and by the fact that much of the rental income of late had in any case been disappearing into the black hole of repairs and maintenance for the apartment.

In these tough times, however, the experience has emphasized two facts all too clearly. First – we are extremely fortunate and should be very grateful that our situation will almost certainly allow us to ride out the storm without undue discomfort. Second – for all those who are not lucky enough to have the sort of buffer that circumstances have granted us, it is easy to see just how hard things can get – and how quickly they can do so – should the worst happen and a major source of income be taken away. Our heartfelt sympathies to anyone who finds themselves in this position.

The Kickass Canada Girl started her new job this week. Although this post will not really make full use of her experience and abilities it will certainly tide us over and there are signs that it may also lead reasonably quickly to something more suited – not to mention something closer to home! Were it not for the fact that her induction has – as decreed by Murphy’s Law – coincided with her inheritance of my hideous cold (see previous post!) she would doubtless be feeling pretty chipper right now. (Incidentally – I am delighted to discover that there is also an adage called Muphry’s Law – which states that “If you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written”).

After a fair bit of ‘argy-bargy’ it also looks as though we have found a tenant for our apartment (at one point we had two – then none and now one again!). Furthermore he seems willing to pay six months rent up front, which will certainly help to get us back on an even keel financially. As the contracts have yet to been signed and sealed I am still keeping fingers – and much else besides – firmly crossed.

Things do, however, seem at last to be looking up…

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This sucks…

August 30, 2012 in Life as we know it | 2 comments

Given that Kickass Canada Girl and I lead what, in the main, what can only be described as a charmed existance it would seem somewhat churlish – if that is a strong enough term for what I am about to do – for either of us to whinge or otherwise complain about it. Indeed some might find such behaviour reprehensible or even – given the manifold ills of the world as a whole – somewhat offensive. My nature is to be an optimist and to look on the bright side – but there are times when even I feel beaten down by things and am moved by the urge to unburden.

To cut to the chase – what I am saying is that if the very thought of my grumbling on about  our lives turns your stomach – look away now! Click through to another, more upbeat posting maybe.

<Grumble on>

The Girl has gone back to Victoria. Boo!! She and I will not see each other again until early in November – which sorry inevitability really is proving pretty tough to bear. As posited in a previous posting on Long Distance Relationships – and is definitely turning out to be the case for us – these repeated partings are becoming more difficult with repetition rather than easier.

The Girl – having been away from Victoria for some time on a combination of leave and foreign work trips – faces what she knows will be a tough period back in the office. She is well aware that things are difficult all over at the moment, but as she is still relatively new to this particular challenge she is finding it all rather daunting and would much rather that I were there to support her (as would I!) instead of being 5,500 miles away.

I have started my last full academic year at work. This should feel good but it has been a very tough and chaotic summer – not just for those of us in IT but across the School as a whole. There is going to be a mad scramble over the coming months to try to get everything working as it should, with the further threat of an inspection hanging over us throughout. There is clearly more to do than can reasonably be accomplished in the time available, and the very thought of heading into the winter – with my commute and long days of work – makes me feel almost resentful that I have to do this final year.

The housing market is flat. The various statistics available online for our area suggest that the average time on the market is in excess of two thirds of a year and that very little is selling. Our apartment in Buckinghamshire inevitably does not fall into the ‘average’ category – in terms of selling if no other. The longer it remains unsold – and with no indication that the market will pick up anytime soon – the more worried we become that a vital element of our plan will simply fail to materialise. There is also the ongoing expense of being the landlord of a rented property. There seems always to be something needing to be done!

I do not much like the autumn. I never have. Spring is my time of year – when new life is appearing and all is being born afresh. Yes – I know that the cycle of death and rebirth is natural and essential, but that doesn’t always help my mood.

Wonderful as it is for the Girl and I to meet each other whenever we can, the cost of flying around the world like this really is unconscionable – let alone being the slightest bit ‘green’. I can’t wait to be settled in one place and to put what monies we have left to some more fruitful purpose.

 

You know – I think that is quite enough of that. This is making even me a bit queesy – and if you have read thus far I am sure that you are feeling the same.

Deep breath – and…

<Grumble off>

 

Sorry about that. Normal service has been resumed…

 

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Skinny dipping

April 22, 2012 in Moving to Canada | Permalink

“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked” – Warren Buffet

As this post goes to press (ok – just a tiny bit pretentious!) our property in Buckinghamshire goes back on the market (the full background can be found here). Though the UK market is still pretty flat properties are being sold – just as they are in BC – so fingers (…legs, eyes and anything else available) crossed that Mr and/or Mrs Right rapidly puts in an appearance and snaps up this undoubted bargain.

When I spoke to our estate agent (Canadian – realtor) about putting the apartment back on the market I was advised that we would probably first need to give our tenant the agreed two month’s notice, thus risking both losing him and possibly still not finding a buyer. Fortunately our letting agent came up with a better suggestion. He felt that if we offered our tenant a discount on the rent he might agree to the property being marketed for a trial period – say three months – and co-operate with the process. As our tenant seems to be pretty houseproud it was felt this would probably not be a major inconvenience to him. This has indeed turned out to be the case and we currently have the best of all worlds.

Buying and selling property is a very different proposition in the UK to that extant in Canada. For a start, estate agents operate in a very different manner to the Canadian realtor. An estate agent acts solely on behalf of the vendor. This has two effects. First, to explore the market in any location fully the prospective purchaser must visit many estate agents. Though this has been somewhat mitigated by the spread of the InterWebNet – since all agencies now advertise on the main property listing sites (there is no UK equivalent to the MLS) – it is still necessary to visit the agent once a suitable property has been located. This exposes the second effect – namely that the agent’s motivation is founded solely on the interests of – and, of course, the fee from – the vendor. No-one actually acts in the interests of the purchaser at all.

The Canadian realtor both buys and sells properties. A prospective purchaser finds a suitable realtor and the latter henceforth works on their behalf, regardless of who is actually selling the property. As a result, for most sales two realtors are involved, one acting for each party.

The process by which property is sold in BC is also significantly simpler and fairer. Once an offer has been made and accepted – which transaction is accompanied by a significant amount of legal paperwork – the deal is effectively done. Having an offer accepted on a property in England (though not in Scotland, where property law is significantly different) seems merely to be an invitation to haggle, gazump, bully and cheat on either or both sides. The sale is not secure until contracts have been exchanged – which can be weeks later – and those with experience still won’t fully trust the deal until completion and the transfer of funds. We all know someone who has been bullied into selling at a reduced price (or purchasing at a increased price) at the very last minute because the other party knows that the success of another transaction in the chain depends on this sale.

Buying and selling real estate is not for the faint-hearted at the best of times. It is no surprise that moving has long been considered one of the more stressful life events, with much of the pressure concerned arising from the transaction itself. Well – buying and selling internationally – on different continents – adds whole new layers of imponderability. It is hard enough trying to sell a property in a flat market, with little idea as to how long we might have to wait for an interest. Keeping, in addition, a nervous eye on the market in Victoria – hoping that it too will remain friendly until we actually have ‘brass in pocket’, and seeing properties that we like come and go at (notionally) affordable prices – requires strong nerves. As does monitoring the sterling/Canadian dollar exchange rate! It is quite conceivable that we could sell at a reasonable price and find our dream house on the Saanich peninsula only to find that a weakening pound has wiped out a percentage of our capital.

Nerves of steel, baby! Nerves of steel!

 

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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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Money matters

March 20, 2012 in Moving to Canada | Permalink

This is a big day for Kickass Canada Girl – the first day in her new post in Victoria. I feel sure that you will all want to join me in wishing her well. It has been eight years since she last worked in BC and it is probable that much has changed in the meantime.

For the School at which I work here in the UK it is the last week of a tough term. When the boys return in April the clocks will have gone forward, the cricket season will have started and it will be ‘summer’ – though the weather can sometimes take a while to catch up. Regrettably I do not get the same holidays as other teachers (we IT types enjoy what are termed ‘normal business holidays’) but this year I am taking some time off and will be heading to Victoria in the middle of next week to spend Easter with the Girl and our dear friends in Saanichton.

I hope to get some decent pictures whilst I am in BC which will, naturally, appear on this site in due course.

 

One of the many issues that concern those whose lives are separated by an ocean is the question of money… more specifically the transfer thereof from one continent to another. The Girl and I decided to experiment a little to determine what might prove the most efficient – and cost effective – means of moving funds.

The Girl has an account with one of the major international banks here in the UK and, since they are also well represented in Canada, she thought it would be relatively easy to transfer money to her Canadian bank through them. She arranged a transfer immediately before leaving the UK in the expectation that the funds would be available when she reached Canada, and certainly by the time she arrived in Mexico. Unfortunately when I came home from work the day after she had left I found a voicemail from her bank informing us that there was a problem. Apparently the funds had left the Girl’s UK account but had been rejected by the bank in BC. She called her bank – from Mexico – and instructed them to abandon the transfer and to return the monies to the UK. When she next looked at the UK account, however, the funds were still missing. A day later – without any further action on her part – they appeared unexpectedly in her Canadian bank account.

This was not particularly impressive – and was rendered even less so by the exchange rate, which was distinctly on the miserly side.

I fared rather better with an online currency exchange that I found on the InterWebNet, which I used to transfer the funds to pay for the Girl’s new car. The operation seemed well organised, confirmed everything in detail electronically, transferred the money when they said they would and got me a decent rate. They now send me daily email updates on various exchange rates – including Sterling/CAD. They can also offer a potentially useful service for transferring pension payments abroad, which may come in very handy.

There are quite a number of firms operating similar services but this one has had some good write-ups. They are called Smart Currency Exchange, and if you are interested I would suggest you check them out thoroughly yourself before going ahead. Hopefully you will find them as useful as I did.

 

You might wonder why the caption picture is of a pile of Euros! Well – I just happened to find some lying about when I wanted to take a photo, and they seemed more photogenic than the somewhat rumpled and tarnished sterling in my wallet. Given the current state of affairs this side of the pond, however, little should be made of that particular analogue…

 

An addendum to my own post: This is a most useful comparison site if you want to contrast online currency exchanges.

 

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