Calgary at last

Well it's taken a while to get even remotely sorted - hence the long gap since writing - but we have made it to Calgary & it's great so far. We have purchased furniture, cars, TV's, ordered internet, cable & phone services but we still have plenty left to do. However, we're moving into our house on Saturday - we have somewhere to sleep, somewhere to sit & TV to watch - SORTED!

I also now know where I'm working - an oncology surgical ward where they do cutting edge surgery. It has a great nurse:patient ratio & a really fun ward manager. No night shifts either. There are aready 4 UK nurses on the floor, so I should fit right in!!

Of course,being us, we have had occasion to see the healthcare system from the other side already as our dear, accident prone Sophie has managed to crack a bone in her foot while playing on the trampoline in our friends garden!! She's now sporting a beautiful bright red cast on her foot -photo to follow!!

There's a great, newly built, designated children's hospital not 10 mins from us - so we took her there. Of course, our health cards are not done yet so we had to pay $515 up front & will be able to calim it back once our cards are through.

It's not stopped her though - she's been walking to the park & back with the rest of the gang & wathcing her run across the fields cast & all was just hysterical!! Luckily she has a weight bearing cast with a walking shoe.

Tropical Storm Fay

For those of you who may be worried about the impact of the tropical storm hitting Florida - don't be. In our area it's turning out to be a damp squib. We may get the odd gust of 30mph winds later & we'll certainly have a damp end to our holiday but having cleared our pool area of furniture & making sure we had enough food & water to last us, just in case, it's turned out to be nothing. Still for once I actually know what we're having for dinner tonight!! Not usual when I'm on holiday!

Of course Miami was hit fairly hard & so will Polk & Manatee Counties near Tampa but for Citrus (where we are) they haven't even bothered to close the schools.

Sea World

Shamu.

Well we had to go do at least ONE park!! Seaworld is pretty neat & all the kids enjoyed it! We went with Rusty & his girls, whose pics I'm sure will appear at some stage! Sophie sat down in the splash zone with him & his younger daughter, Robin - they got soaked!! We stayed up for this one but did go down for the dolphins later (their water is warmer!)

Mount Dora

Sipping lemonades on the rocking chairs on the main hotel's (which was built in 1883) veranda. plus the view we got from that veranda over lake Dora.

Mount Dora is a very quaint old (by US standards) town with lots of lovely shops to browse. it's about 1.5 hours drive from our house in Florida & well worth the trip! We went with Allen & his partner, Lisa (the harley guys!)

I want one too!

Alex had to try it for size as well, of course.

In fact we have all been out on the back - except Steve!!

Harley Chick!

Here's Sophie on the back of a friend's Harley, about to go out on US19!!

she's hooked & wants one when she's older!!

UK house completion

We are taking a quick break from chilling to say we have now competed on our UK house! YEAH!! We're watching the money markets avidly for when the money comes into the account. Right now would be good but it's not there yet!!!

Chilling

Here's a pic of us all by the pool as we start to unwind!! It's sunny & warm & the water is beautiful......... just what we need!!

Anyone jealous yet?? Don't worry when we're in -24 in Calgary this winter you'll be the ones laughing!!!

Now, excuse me I just need to go for a swim! :-)

The Mad Getaway

Well we made it by the skin of our teeth! Our day for leaving the house was Wednesday 30th as we had booked a hotel by Gatwick using up some airmiles in the process (well we couldn't sleep in an empty house could we!) Come the morning the post still hadn't brought our work Permits &, despite emailing the Embassy every day since Monday (as they had suggested) neither had any fax!! Jean at CSUK found us a telephone number for the HIgh Commission so I called & the operator agreed it was an emergency & put us through to the emergency line. We left a message & waitied for that fax. 3.15 pm still nothing!! I called again & the operator took pity on my plight, told me to hold the line then came back to me saying they would be faxed to us within the hour, which they were..PHEW!!!

That was not the end of the stress though because by the time we finished packing up the house we totalled about 65 boxes for the shippers to collect. They eventually arrived (took another phone call & a realisation that they had had some mis-communication issues) with their high top Transit, which was half full, so it was very quickly apparent that they had seriously underestimated the number of boxes we had and we started to panic (even more than we were already). It was decided that they would come back the next morning and load the boxes we had to give them the garage remote & alarm code & keep our fingers crossed they would come because, as I said before, we were staying at a hotel by the airport that night and flying to our holiday in Florida the next day! We finally finished clearing the house at about 10:30pm and jumped into the taxi for the hotel. Our wonderful neighbour took our keys & was poised to keep a check.