Oh my god!!

[Dave]

Just got an offer on our house.... and it loos like we'll be Canada (B.C) bound at the end of september:worried2:

We'll be living in Abbotsford (the city in the country) for at least the 1st 6 months and hopefully be buying a place soon after that.... quickly followed by a GT40 kit.... well fairly quickly...lol

Obviously there's the battle with import laws... and bank accounts.

 

[Dutton]

Obviously there's the battle with import laws... and bank accounts.

Don't forget the border crossing - going south. Sheesh, what a hassle.

Chris Kouba and I drove through Abbotsford last week, on the way to visit Derek Smith and have a look at the Porsche 962 replica he's building. Very nice fellow - and what a car.

The wife and I are about an hour south of the border. Get in touch after you've settled in.

T.

 

[Mark Charlton]

Dave,

Did you see the KVA for sale on eBay UK that is located in Toronto?

Also, The GTD that is for sale may be admissible if it was built and registered before 1993.

Another thought is that you might be able to bring a "kit" with you as "personal property" when you move here. Might be easier than importing later, depending on your situation.

Welcome to Canada! At least you're going to the area with good weather!

Mark

 

[Malcolm]

Good decision to get to Canada. Just spent the last three weeks in Calgary and the Rockies (Sicamous). Within 5 minutes of landing back at Gatwick we were depressed! We worked out the whole of the UK fits into half of Alberta but with twice the population of the whole of Canada! And the Canadians made us laugh when they moaned about Highway 1 being overcrowded! Apart from booze, everything seems to be half UK prices too although property was considerably higher than I expected.

 

[Paolo-LoveGT40 Modelworks]

lol...seems not me the only one suffering soo much for shitty weather...usually in November I start to call Australia

 

[David Sturch]

Dave,
It's good thing's are working out for you. BC is a nice Province with lot's to do. You can always go Washington State for a weekend and hit the Duty Free for a nice bottle of Scotch. Malcom the foods better and cheaper here.
Dave

 

[Malcolm]

The other stat I liked on Canada that I read whilst out there was that about 3 million ie 10% of population own a boat and that 6 million go boating regularly! That is a good attitude in my view! Only sensible reason for owning a boat in the UK is for when the floods come! Although I am now taking steps to offload Lotus and Prosport to acquire a non sensible boat. Damn it I should be moving to Canada as the boats are half our prices too! Don't seem to have such a big circuit racing scene as in US or UK but I guess that is down to being further north with more snow to trash the circuit surfaces.

 

[Dave]

Cheers guys, i can't wait.... already got the resignation letter all ready

Mark... cheers for the advise, but i think i'm going to have to wait... got less for the house than we initailly expected so we're a little tight on funds.... plus i really like what i've seen of the RCR's so i might have to have a long chat to Fran and see what can be sorted out.

Dutton... thank you i'll definitely be in touch, be nice to know someone local(ish).

Malcolm... i know the feeling, when we came back from Vancouver, i just wanted to get back on the plane.... so much nicer there, totally different atmosphere to the UK.

 

[Dave]

6 and a half weeks.... and we're off.

Just handed my notice in to work on tuesday, that gave me a nice warm fuzzy feeling (should be useful in Canada...lol) and have booked the last of my holiday, which means i get to leave work even sooner

Just trying to sell loads of stuff off now.

Oh and off to Thruxton on Friday to hare around in a Lotus Exige, those tescos vouchers are great.

 

[Dutton]

... and the Winter Olympics are in Vancouver in 2010. :thumbsup:

 

[Martin]

Good luck mate.
I finally got my engine mounts !! They're in and I'm setting the gearbox up now. I'll post some pics soon but just wanted to say good luck and I hope you have a great life over there. I'm quite envious really..
Hope you find the right 40 too.
Cheers
Martin

 

[Dave]

Good luck mate.
I finally got my engine mounts !! They're in and I'm setting the gearbox up now. I'll post some pics soon but just wanted to say good luck and I hope you have a great life over there. I'm quite envious really..
Hope you find the right 40 too.
Cheers
Martin

Glad you've got the right mounts.... and thanks alot, i'm sure it'll be great.

Not looking forward to the fight i'm going to have getting a GT40 kit in to Canada though... it's going to be a mission i know it, then i've got the joy of sourcing all the parts they don't allow in with the kit form different suppliers o:

 

[Mark Charlton]

Dave, fear-not. Fran Hall can help you out and all will be fine.

You will find British Columbia to be a great place to live. Positively free compared to the UK. I left there when I was 3 (and things were still fine) so my memories are weak, but friends tell me things are getting beyond silly regulations-wise. We're still learning how to mess things up here, so you should have a few good years before things go all to hell!

Cheers!

Mark

 

[Dave]

Dave, fear-not. Fran Hall can help you out and all will be fine.

You will find British Columbia to be a great place to live. Positively free compared to the UK. I left there when I was 3 (and things were still fine) so my memories are weak, but friends tell me things are getting beyond silly regulations-wise. We're still learning how to mess things up here, so you should have a few good years before things go all to hell!

Cheers!

Mark

Lol....

Well i must admit i loved Vancouver (other than the house prices....ouch) and we're already feeling welcome in Abbotsford.... and we're not there yet.

I'm not lookig forward to the job hunt / apartment hunt / car hunt / furniture hunt.... i could cope quite well if that all wasn't going to be in the 1st week... :stunned:

Miond you i've got a little bit of grace on the Job front... October is covered by my final pay cheque and we'll the other half has got a rather good job (that's going to pay... well lets just say a hell of a wodge). So that's not so bad, but god knows what i'll end up doing.

I've heard tell thet Canada is big on the whole social networking.... is this true, is it best to make friends and influence people???

 

[Den]

You will love BC. I've lived in Victoria on Vancouver Island my whole life and the whole lifestyle around here is pretty casual compared to most. You will find it rains a bit here but you've already lived through that. Don't worry about snow in the area you're living as it's quite minimal. You do have a roadrace track (although somewhat small) only 10 minutes away in Mission The Internet home of Mission Raceway Park , The Sports Car Club of British Columbia Official Website (SCCBC) and I'll be there this weekend for VRCBC's Historic races (we run a 65 Cooper S).

Welcome to Canada

Cheers
Dennis

 

[David Sturch]

Dave,
Don't worry about the car right now. You already have a contact with Den in Victoria. Get yourself established and who knows I may be able to help you out with what I'm building to get around the kit car laws if you don't mind doing a scratch built. Good luck.
Dave

 

[Dave]

I'm not really worrying about the car right now as we have top get there and get ourselves a nice place to live (with a big garage and maybe a workshop)

So i'm a good year away from building really.... cheers for the offer David, i'd definitely like any advise you guys can give, however i'm not as skilled as a lot of guys on here..... frankly i think scratch builds might be me biting off a hell of a lot more than i can chew....lol

On a slightly different note..... went to Thruxton today and did my Exige drive... that was lots of fun.... i could've kept going all day, very tempted to have a go in the Viper too, but had to go to miss the traffic

 

[Dave]

:uhoh2: Just when you thought it was all in hand.... we've just found out there's a ton more stuff to do.... more forms:furious:

Apperently the standard CRB check isn't good enough so we have to get another one, we also have to get medicals (we knew this but thought we could do it in B.C. for the perminent resident visa) we need to get work permits..... now we thought we could get a temporary one with the PNP letter on entry.... but no!!
What's more we need the PNP letter to apply for a work permit, then we need a file number from that to be able to get a medical.

What's more the person that is employing my other half has booked work in for her starting at the begining of October and is getting a bit stressed as it doesn't look like we'll be there.... mind you that's her own fault for not researching the process, we did say we we're sure how long it was going to take for us to get over there.

 

[Dave]

At last..... we now have our Provincial Nominee letter through, so we can now send off for the work visas.

We also have the ACPO checks done (all clear...phew!!) now all we need is a letter from the solicitors to confirm our status.... oh and the medicals......eek!!

 

[David Sturch]

Dave,
You better wax up your skis.
Dave