T'was the night before Canada and all through the house...

...people are running around like maniacs!

Have you ever tried to condense your life into two 23 kilo bags? Well that's how I am spending my last evening in the UK - looking despairingly at my wardrobe and hoping it will all jump into the bags by itself.

It's not all bad, I spent all day today at a spa with my mom, nan and aunt (que a lot of laughing!) and I'm currently sat eating my "last meal" of Shepherds Pie a lá mom - complete with broccoli in the shepherds pie and Yorkshire puds, because that's how we roll!

I've had a FAB last weekend, and have been thoroughly spoilt with love, attention and kind words from so many people. On Friday we (Mr L'amour and I) accompanied my family and close family friends to the Chateau Impney for a lovely meal, followed by father - daughter bonding on Saturday and a surprise 1940's tea party for my Nans 70th birthday on Sunday (which meant everyone dressed according to the period - right up my street of course! I bloomin loved doing everyone's hair and make up and spent most of the afternoon day-dreaming that I was a Forces sweetheart....) It also doubled as a great way to see all of my family before we left, which in turn led to many emotional goodbyes. I was an emotional wreck by the time everyone had gone home!

Luckily Mr L'amours family had booked us into the posh hotel for the evening so I had a quick dip in the pool and swiftly "went up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire." I was fast asleep before my head touched the pillow.

Well, my clock display now reads 00:25, which means that it's officially Tuesday 6th September and we leave today! I better get some rest, I've got to be up again in 5 hours and the nerves are catching up with me.

With fingers crossed,

Aimée L’amour x

www.twitter.com/aimeelamour

I ain't no Mary Poppins...

My! How things have moved on! Since my last post, life has included a lot of these... 

 and these can be found everywhere...

because we have a date!

and even more excitingly,

we've booked a flight!!!

Although life has thrown us some of it's curve balls of late, we have finally made some progress and committed to leaving the UK on Tuesday 6th September for a short holiday with friends in California, before boarding a Greyhound bus to take us over the border and up to Vancouver a few weeks later.

You may remember me mentioning on a previous post how happy I was to find Icelandair - and how useful ( and realistic!) I thought their baggage allowance was. This was a major factor for us as we will need to take summer/winter/ski and work wear with us in addition to our snowboards, for a reasonable price and as we wanted to fly to the US first, it really was hard to find an airline that would encompass all of this without breaking the bank. So after much debate, we decided a 2 hour layover in Reykjavik more than made up for all the money we would save trying to ship our stuff over or paying the extortionate excess baggage fees. On top of this everyone I have spoken to from the company in various departments have been so helpful and friendly - I would definitely recommend them to my friends!

So what's next? Well as you can see from our list -  a lot!

The pink lines are things that are done, and that's not many. Especially when extra items are getting added on a daily basis.

Most tasks are quite simple and wont take very long: ie: 'phone bank to tell them I will be overseas', however, these are followed on the irritate-o-meter by the median jobs such as 'fill out tax forms' , which are followed in turn by the jobs we really really don't want to do, like 'empty the garage' or the dreaded 'sort through the tupperware'

Unfortunately, it all has to be completed in some sort of order - with a lot being left until the last minute as we gradually palm things off to unsuspecting family members (my nan received 2 lovely Gothic black candelabras when she last visited, accompanied by the ever present warning of"careful - I might want that back in 12 months!") or as we sell what we can on eBay.

So, 9 weeks to go. Where are we at? Well, we have...

• informed the landlady of our intention to leave
• sold most of our furniture to the new tenant
• booked our flight and started looking at things we want to do in California
• sold ~ £300 worth of clothes and DVD's on eBay on our first attempt
• started moving non everyday items to the other half's mother's loft
• errrrrr....read books on Canada?!

So were not that organised, but we are getting there. Over the next 9 weeks I'll try and keep you all updated on how its going until....my first Canadian blog!

I cant tell if I'm excited or terrified!

Aimée L’amour x

www.twitter.com/aimeelamour

Excess Baggage...

IT'S HERE! IT'S FINALLY HERE! My Canadian work permit is in hand! (Well I say that, I receive the real thing at immigration once I get there but I have my confirmation letter of introduction, its close enough!)

After only 10 days at the Immigration Office in London, my application was approved and emailed to me. Even though my other half had already received his, I was still a little shocked as to how fast the process was. I have frequently been on the Work Canada facebook group  which is a great forum for those moving abroad - full of like minded people who are either worried about the same issues as you (where will I live? How do I open a bank account? Where do I find the cheapest beer? How will I survive without Primark?) or answering them for you (It will be fine!), and was expecting a wait as some of the poor mites have for 14 weeks! I felt a bit guilty typing in my comment that my LOI arrived in 10 days flat.

So work permits are done. We can now work legally in Canada as soon as we like, we've just got to book our flights, get our medical insurance, sell our belongings, empty our flat, find somewhere to live in Vancouver, find a job, open a bank account, get a cell phone, get a SIN number (like NI number) and then REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELAX!

On the subject on flights - these airlines are driving me CRAZY! Please can someone explain to me how you are supposed to enjoy a 2 week holiday, let alone a complete move with a baggage allowance of 20 kilos?!

I'M LOOKING AT YOU CANADIAN AFFAIR

AND YOU AIR TRANSAT

AND DON'T THINK YOU'VE GOTTEN AWAY WITH IT THOMAS COOK!

It's all well and good advertising cheap prices, but if I cant actually take my belongings with me, its not much use really. British Airways were fantastic when we travelled to Vancouver with them in March. Their 30 kilo weight limit  with a £30 charge for an extra bag of the same weight was a god send for us to be able to transport our ski/snowboard equipment. However I just cant stretch to their £900 price range.

Thank God then for the little known Icelandair. They're "keeping it real" with their baggage allowance of two, yes TWO 23 kilo bags for international flights as standard plus a generous carry on allowance. Plus their fares are reasonable. They fly direct to Toronto and Seattle, with Connections in California and Vancouver - perfect!

So today I have pinged off an email to them, to the effect of "are my eyes deceiving me?!" and I hope they can help. It beats paying £250 to have our stuff shipped out any day!

Aimée L’amour x

www.twitter.com/aimeelamour