Spring has sprung!

I woke up today (incidentally my day off too!) to find that the first day of Spring had quietly sprung up on us, and today it certainly lived up to its expectations.

Vancouver in the spring is... well, just stunning!

So out I dashed to grab some coffee and few snaps before a Skype session with mi madre, and got a few beauts like these...

By lunch time I was itching to get outside again, so off I trotted, camera in hand, and wandered down Granville Street towards the Waterfront and Canada Place, where they are currently holding the TED conference. I've been wanting to get a look at the hanging sculpture thingy outside the conference, and now I definitely need to go back and see it all lit up at night!

Anyway, here follows the pictures I took, which really don't quite convey how lovely the city looked today.

Granville and Pender

Granville and Hastings (I think?)

Canada Place, North Vancouver and a container ship!

The TED art at Canada Place

Mountains Gandalf!

Burrard and Hastings

Burrard and Hastings

Burrard and Hastings

Burrard and Hastings

Robson Square/Vancouver Art Gallery

Vancouver... in picture form.

So far during this blog I have included the odd picture, but they have been sparing, so here's a collection of favorites so far, enjoy!

Gastown

The Olympic Cauldron at Coal Harbour

Ian on the Digital Orca Statue

Stanley Park and the mountains.

Pender Street

False creek

Dr Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Classical Garden

Us!

Stanley Park Totem Poles

Goslings!

Beaver Lake - me

Beaver Lake - Ian

Tra la! Plenty more to come in future posts I'm sure!

Moving to Downtown Vancouver.

The last few days have again been hectic, but everything is progressing perfectly!

Thursday was a day of job hunting for me, and a day of dragging poor Ian around all day and boring him senseless. But I got my Resume out there, and it's all a good step in the right direction. At the end of the day we were both too tired to go back and cook, so we indulged in what is quickly becoming our favorite haunt, The Templeton on Granville Street - the chicken burgers there are A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Yesterday we had the most incredible day. We hotfooted it to Oakridge and bought naughty snacks, then got a Jugo Juice drink each for breakfast. The most delicious and filling protein shake I and I think Ian might agree, we, have ever had. This was all planned to give us energy for our long awaited trip to the beautiful Stanley Park. The weather was scheduled to be great that day, so we'd waited to go and see it in all its glory and we really weren't disappointed. We walked half way around the sea wall, taking millions of photos as we went. Ian gallantly climbed down onto a section of the beach to get me shells (which I kept, I think I have a slight hoarding tendency.) We got half way round and started to tire (its a long old walk!) and I also wanted to get into the middle to experience the full effect of the trees. So we went down one of the trails, past the stunningly photogenic Beaver Lake, then across to the other side. We we're walking for a good 6 hours minimum, and with not great shoes either, so by the end we were absolutely exhausted. As this is our last weekend of non working and being together we went out for a meal at the Flying Pig restaurant in Gastown. I highly recommend!

Then we crashed in anticipation of an early morning today...

It's surprising...the amount of 'stuff' you can accumulate over a short period of time is really quite something. Today we moved into our new place in Downtown Vancouver, on Howe/Davie Street. We checked it out a few weeks ago after we found it on Craigslist, but now we've got a real feel for the place, and love it.

And now we're here, tucked up in bed with the blinds wide open and I can't stop looking outside!

Can you blame me, with views like this... (and to be quite honest this doesn't do it justice)

Anyway. We're settling in. We share an apartment with a Japanese couple who seem friendly and a Canadian guy who seems to keep to himself. We're in a great location, rent is comparably cheap for the area and I'm just really chuffed at the moment. The agenda tomorrow is to relax and take it easy I think, then Ian starts work on Monday, and I'll plow on with the job hunt!

10 Days in Vancouver!

So we've been here a grand total of 10 days, and I already feel like this city is kinda home. So much has happened, we've been darting around the city in all directions, and everything is just so easy!

Here's the highlights of our last week or so in Vancouver! Early last week we took a chilled few days to relax a bit after our hectic first few days and weekend, we did barely anything, transferring our UK money over to our new Canadian accounts was about the most energetic thing we did. Tuesday was spent at the cinema to see the new Star Trek film (great film by the way) and then we spent an evening in the Lamplighter pub in Gastown. We were invited by the lovely Natalie and Nick of ourcanadianadventure to join them and a whole bunch of fellow Brits and IECers for a quiz night. We also came 2nd in the quiz, which apparently is the teams best score to date.

Around Wednesday we decided to crack on with the job hunting, so we tracked down one of the many branches of Vancouver Public Library, our first stop was the Oakridge branch, but later we also discovered the Downtown one, and it's immensely HUGE! I was in heaven :D So we spent a few days wandering the city and handing out our resumes. In Coal Harbour I found some luck, I enquired into a chocolate shop, and they asked me to pop back in on Monday for a chat with the manager... more on that later!

Friday we took a tourist day, and revisited Coal Harbour, and made our first foray onto Granville Island. We loved this area, and will definitely be going back. Tonnes of little goslings running around the area, and very protective parents.

Rather cute goslings running around.

Granvile Island with Downtown in the background.

Saturday we needed to do a food shop...a job I loathe to hell and back, so Ian and I have struck up a deal. He does the weekly food shop thing, I do the laundry, which he hates! It's a fair swap, one I'm ridiculously chuffed about, no more trudging round supermarkets! Woohoo! So while Ian happily went round Safeway, I spent the time wandering the mall, and splashed out on myself. It also means I eat really well, Ian has us on a $5 a day each budget so I'm eating so low cal, I'm losing weight like a mad woman, and loving how lean I feel. That night we'd been invited out to Chinatown with some of the people we met earlier in the week, and discovered Chinatown is actually really cool. In our first few days in Vancouver we made the mistake of going done East Hastings and on finding it to be rough as hell had avoided that whole area like the plague. But Chinatown is actually pretty awesome looking, and I'm keen to go back and visit the night market which runs till September, and the Jimi Hendrix shrine, which was developed at his grandmother's house where he stayed during the summer and apparently learnt to play the guitar!

Today I had my meeting with the chocolate shop, and Ian had an interview with the coffee company Blenz. I didn't have much luck, the guy wanted me to do a load of research and come up with recipe ideas for a high tea concept he wanted me to bring into the shop, which really isn't my forte to start with, and then asked me to do a whole load of research then come back to meet with someone else to discuss my ideas. I just want a job dude. Ian had more luck! We met up a few hours later and he has a full-time job at Blenz, starting Sunday/Monday!

Exciting stuff! Lots of things to be doing, I have another interview tomorrow, and we're hitting up a gallery, which I'm excited for! Still loving Vancouver, even today's constant downpour hasn't dampened my spirits. Oh yes, despite the photos, we have discovered the rain here too. We definitely need to buy an umbrella...

Getting Settled - Our First Few Days in Vancouver!

The last few days have been so crazily busy, it's been pretty non stop! But things are beginning to fall into place, and I'm still really excited about living here.

Granville Street, Shaughnessy - where we're staying till June!

We're getting used to the transport systems, the buses here run like clockwork, and the Skytrain is pretty cool, and it all connects up, is really convenient and runs from early in the morning till late at night. Perfect!

Our first day in the city was spent, as I mentioned in Arrival In Vancouver, sleeping away the jet lag and then finding our AirBnB accommodation on Granville Street, in the Shaughnessy district, where we're staying in a shared apartment with 2 other couples, and 2 single guys. It's weirdly quiet, in that we rarely see much of the others, it almost feels like we have the place to ourselves.

Friday was Day 2, and we made it a mission to get some of the important bits sorted out as soon as possible. So we headed out early to our nearest Service Canada and got our SIN's (Social Insurance Numbers) which are required for us to work. Then we wandered to Scotiabank and opened our bank accounts. We inquired about the StartRight program which is specifically for newcomers to the country, and is free for the first year! (You have to pay for banking out here!) Then we headed back to Oakridge, the mall close to where we're staying and we did our food shop for the week, which was interesting!

Our apartment!

We've been looking at places to rent from June 1st, as most places rental start from the beginning of the month, so we booked up 16 nights with AirBnB and have till then to find somewhere. So Day 3 began with a trip to Nanaimo, to view a room in another big shared house. It was a bit of a trek from where we are and took the best part of an hour, and we got there to knock at the door and no-one answered, though neither of us were too bothered as we weren't keen on that area. It was nice, but very suburban and quiet, not quite what we'd really been looking for. After that we decided to go and get our phones sorted. We chose Fido as our provider as we'd heard pretty good things about them, We wanted cheap and cheerful, and think we got a pretty good deal. For $25 a month we get 200 mins and unlimited text, and in a few months we can merge our accounts and be able to call each other for free. We spent that evening perusing the internet again for accommodation and found one we love! Despite the fact the next day was my birthday, we set up a viewing as we were so keen!

Yesterday was my 24th Birthday! We spent the morning chilling out a little, I opened my presents and cards and then we got up and wandered over to Downtown to check out a room. We had a look, then went for a coffee to think and discuss, and I had a birthday Peanut Butter Protein shake for breakie. Delicious! We chatted about the room and both came to the conclusion that we loved it, and went back and paid our deposit! We move in June 1st! The room is a little on the small side, but the location is amazing, it's on the 15th floor and our night time views are going to be stunning, and it seems to tick every requirement we set for ourselves . The building also has a pool, and a small gym, so I'll make full use of those :D

Gastown's Steamclock!

Then we were finally in tourist mode! We took the Skytrain down to the Waterfront, and did our first proper sightseeing! We walked down to Gastown and had a walk round, and then went north, taking in the Olympic Cauldron and Digital Orca sculpture, then further north to Harbour Green Park.
We discovered a really good nutritional shop with protein powders on Robson Street, once we have jobs we're definitely going to look into getting some! From there we went to Zefferreli's Spaghetti Joint, where we had a table booked, and had an amazing Italian meal together, our first meal out in Vancouver! IT was delicious and not as pricey as we'd anticipated!

Overall it's been a hectic few days, but the most rewarding and fulfilling week I have had for a long time. It feels so good to be doing something different and exciting!

Anyway, below are a few pictures we took during our sightseeing wander!

Credit to my boyfriend Ian for the photography!

Arrival in Vancouver!

Eeeeek, we finally made it here!

After a hectically long journey (and not forgetting the months of waiting around for visas and planning) we have touched down in Vancouver!

It began yesterday at London Heathrow, I got up at 5am and bundled my Dad and 2 brothers into the car and set off! We decided to leave early, my older brother stayed with us the night before so that we could leave in the early hours and avoid the rush hour traffic then have breakfast together at the airport, we made good time and had a great last meal together!

Our 12 hour flight to LAX went without a hitch, although, I did have a small wobbly when I suddenly realised that we landed at Terminal 2 and our connection went from Terminal 6, and had no idea how long it would take to get between the two. But our first flight was right on time (hats off to Virgin Atlantic, your a pretty awesome airline actually, so much free food it's ridiculous!) and we dashed through US Customs, grabbed our bags then re-dropped them off and found that the Terminal is actually only a small bus ride away. Instant relaxation! We checked in easily and had a wait on our hands, steadily getting more and more tired as time passed.

Eventually we hopped on our LA - Vancouver flight, sat down and I fell asleep before we'd moved anywhere. Take off woke me up briefly, but I basically don't remember much about that one! We landed at 11:30pm so the airport was quiet, customs was easy, though it took us a little while to find the right place to go, but immigration was easy and quick, the guy disappeared with our passports and LOI's and came back a few minutes later with our freshly printed visas!

Day 1!

A quick taxi ride to Travelodge and we crashed, 28 hours on the go really takes it out of you! This morning, after the most amazing night's sleep, we woke up to our first real sighting of Vancouver. (Last night was pretty but honestly I was too tired to notice anything.

So this morning we took a shuttle back to the airport, then got on the Skytrain to Oakridge Station, the closest one to our accommodation. With time to kill we wandered a little, grabbed something to munch on, then headed to Granville Street, and our first attempt at their bus system! We eventually made it, albeit with a slight mishap in that we didn't get off soon enough, and had to walk back a few blocks. But here we are! We met our AirBnB host for the next few weeks, chilled out a little, researched where we need to go tomorrow, and met a lovely couple from the Philippines who we are sharing an apartment with. And everyone here is so darn friendly, it's actually incredible!

Vancouver, I love you already! 

The Final Countdown!

So.

Hows it all going you ask?

Busy. So very, very busy!

I'm not going to lie, attempting to leave the country with 3 weeks notice is pretty damn fun, but my God there's so much to do. It's a good thing I'm a list person because quite frankly without my lists scattered everywhere I would lose my head.

Since last we met, we've booked accommodation for the first couple of weeks, we picked a place in the  Shaughnessy neighbourhood, about a 15-20 minute bus ride from downtown, as the host sounded very helpful, and she let us use her address to set ourselves up, so day one will probably be lots of form filling, for banks, SIN's, phones and ID cards!

Our AirBnB accommodation takes us up till June 1st, so we now have to find somewhere to properly live from then onwards. I'm currently checking various sites on a daily basis and beginning to make enquiries into places we like the look of, now we have a general idea of where we'd like to go. We're hoping to set up viewings between now and when we leave so we can find somewhere quite quickly, and then can relax the second week, so fingers crossed for that!

My beautiful family :D

The last week or so has been more about goodbyes than anything, we spent a few evenings in the pub with friends last week, then I had a family day over the weekend and popped down to see the
boyfriends family where we made the most of the beautiful weather which has erupted recently. Then I've got work this week (3 days left, hurrah!) I'm currently organising a night out for this weekend, which should be a good'un, another family day, a trip to see an old friend and her newborn and then I have left myself just one day to do my packing!

I'm also starting to think about jobs and getting my resume sorted and Canada ready, got to get my Canadian Dollars, print all my documents, sort out my proof of funds statement to show at immigration, sort out my phone contract and a few other bits and pieces!

So it's busy little bee mode at the moment, but I am loving it.

Canadian Preperations!

So, it's been nearly a week since everything has kicked off and I must say I'm getting really excited already.
It's now less than three weeks before we go away!

Visas are all done, we now just need to sort out our ESTA thingies to enter the US, but that shouldn't be too hard. (Our flights are not direct to Canada, we fly from Heathrow to LAX, with a 6 hour layover and then LAX to Vancouver.) Our return flights are booked for next February, as apparently most airlines can only be booked 10-11 months ahead, so in a few months we will use our flexi ticket option, and push our flights back to May 2014 so we get the full year. I'm wondering if when we return we can split the flights to have a few days layover in LA rather than a few hours just for the hell of it! It would be rather cool to have a few days somewhere new at potentially no extra cost.

We land in Vancouver in the middle of the night, so we're going to book a cheap and cheerful hotel close to the airport, so we'll just crash and try and get some rest. (I'm not good at sleeping while traveling, I have never been able to, cars, trains, buses, boats, planes, you name it I can't sleep on it, so I should imagine I'm going to be awake for a good 30 hours.) So yeah, land, immigration, crash, will probably be our first day in Vancouver.

Next day we'll move to our proper accommodation. We're planning to use AirBnB, a company which describes it self as 'a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world.' At the moment, we haven't booked anything through them yet, they have so many listings for Vancouver it's mad, so I've set a general budget and sifted through the options, picked out a handful of places I liked and messaged them with our requirements. One big thing is that we would like to open our bank accounts and get our SIN's (sort of like our national insurance numbers) as soon as we arrive, but we would require addresses to do so. So far, quite a few of the property owners have said that yes we can use their address, so now Ian and I just need to go through them and pick one!

During those two weeks it's then on with the house hunt. We're booking out AirBnB accommodation up till the end of May, as most places begin leases at the beginning of the month, so hopefully by then we'll have found somewhere and can hop straight from one to the other. We're going to try and arrange viewings for our first week, it would be lovely to find somewhere quickly so we can relax a bit more during the second week and step up the job stuff.

After that, all I think is left to do is the little things... send a P85 form to HMRC to let them know we're leaving the country, send a form to Student Loans, get my family set up on Skype, rewrite my CV in a Canadian resume style and that's it I guess. I suppose I better start thinking about packing... I'll have to start a new list :D (I like lists, I'm a crazy list person!)

Then finally - the leaving do's! I've set up one for family and one for friends, and I'm really excited for them, I never plan events! Also, it's my birthday a few days after we arrive, so I've got two reasons to party on down!

Oh hai there visa!

So I may have just experienced the most life changing weekend of my life so far.
I'm moving to Canada in just over 3 weeks!

Here's how the last week panned out:

Recently people who had already booked flights had started to fly to Canada without their visas, intending to enter as visitors and then return to the border to activate the work permit once it was issued. However many were being told on arrival to immigration that their visa was on the system, and it was issued to them on the spot and off they went into Canada with a shiny new work permit. So it transpires peoples visas have been issued and just not sent to them!

Last Sunday (April 14th) we hit the CIC's self imposed 6 week deadline, at which point we said we'd go nuts in trying to contact them and find out just what the hell was going on. Luckily we had some time off work (for our 3 year anniversary!) so we spent a day doing research. A young woman mentioned on an online group that we're part of that they were beginning to respond to emails, so you can request information on your visa and they do get back to you. So we sent emails out to both the Canadian and London offices, and spent a few hours trying to call the CIC in Canada (lord knows how much that cost :S) but we made little progress.

So we sat back and waited. I enjoyed a few days to myself. I got my first tattoo (I'm so far loving it, and considering getting a small one for each country we visit, maybe this time next year I'll get a maple leaf!)

Then Friday morning I woke up and checked our emails:

Your application has been approved. Due to technical issues, your original letter of introduction was not sent out.

A new LOI was sent out today and should be available in your MyCIC account.

And there they were! It turns out we were both issued our LOI's (above listed as POE Introduction Letter) on 17th March. So the last month it's been approved, but they just hadn't informed us.

So Friday was spent dancing round the house in excitement (on my part anyway!) we contacted STA travel and booked an appointment with them, and spent the evening checking out flight prices. The following day we went to the STA office in Cambridge, and within an hour booked our flights for the 15th May. (Return flights with flexi tickets, which means we can change the return dates 3 times if we so wish!) Which gives us a little over 3 weeks before we go! I can't believe its happening so quickly.

Yesterday we booked up our insurance for the year. Today I handed in my resignation, and am sorting out my bank accounts. Things to do this week includes booking up accommodation for the first few weeks, writing a Canadian resume and planning leaving do's (one for family and one for friends.) After that it's researching areas we want to live in, jobs and notifying Student Loans and HMRC we're leaving the country. Then we should be good to go! Pretty simple really!

The Canada 'Bucket List'

So I haven't posted anything Canada related in awhile. Mostly because all this waiting around for the damn CIC to sort out themselves out (where's my visa?) means that not much has changed.

Therefore, instead of worrying about visas, money, insurance, flight prices going up and quitting work and finding a new job and a place to live, today I'm going to focus on the fun bits.

So I give you, in no particular order, the stuff I want to do while I'm away! (No doubt this list will grow and change considerably as time goes by!)

• Make a gazillion new friends and acquaintances.
• See some ice hockey.
• See something at/take part in an event at Vancouver's Film Festival.
• Go to the beach!! I can't remember the last time I went to a beach, and I will quite frankly behave like a 5 year old.
• Join a Canadian gym - at home I've been weight training with Kettlebells for a few years now. Obviously I'm not going to take my bells over with me (it would take up my entire weight allocation for a start) so a gym is a must. I've never set foot in any gym ever, so this in itself will be an experience. My new goal - pullups!
• Go mountain biking, cycle in Stanley Park and on the sea wall.
• Go hiking.
• Visit Capilan Suspension Bridge Park.
• Grouse Mountain - I'm considering paragliding!
• Visit Victoria/Vancouver Island
• Bard on the Beach - Yes you read it correctly, Vancouver has its own Shakespeare festival *squeee* I simply must attend, hurry up visa, I want to book early bird tickets!
• Toronto - I have family on the East Coast USA, so hopefully will be able to head to the east side and see them again and show Ian Niagara Falls (I went back in 2004 with my family.)

  

  Niagra Falls - Boxing Day 2004

• Seattle - I've watched way too much Grey's Anatomy to not make a trip here at least once. (Could also be combined with the next point)
• Visit Pacific Raceway - Kent, WA. As a massive drag racing fan, (and seeing as I'm missing the European Main Event and Finals AND our families 10 year drag racing anniversary :( *epic sad face*) it would be an amazing experience to see some NHRA racing, if I can afford it and figure out how to get to the track!
• Snowboarding. I've got to try my hand at winter sports, its in the mountains for crying out loud, I can't not! I'm pretty sure I'll end up looking like Bambi, but it's something I've got to attempt.
• Banff - just look at it!
•  Visit Harrison Hot Springs! Potentially try my hand at kayaking, canoeing, parasailing or windsurfing!

As you can tell I've got the adventure bug! No doubt this list will get huge as Canada gets closer. The more research I do, the more I find! I'll try and keep on top of the list and keep you up to date with additions. Also, if anyone has any recommendations of other things to include, get in touch!

The Canadian Visa, the story so far!

I've heard a lot about getting into Canada, I spent a good portion of Autumn 2012 reading and researching the hell out of everything IEC related so that when the time came and this years quota opened I'd have an easy, no stress process, I was going to sit back, relax and wait for a visa to drop into my inbox. No such luck!

This year they decided to shake up the system, and long story short, it's been a stressful and confusing time
all round, and for many has placed them in an uncertain position. For the first time, the IEC have decided to do away with paper based applications and do everything online. So far, so simple. I spent the whole of  December checking the website daily...and then well into January. Then joy of joys, on the 17th they announced that the applications would most definitely, absolutely 100% open before February. Great!

January 29th rolls around and the Irish applications opened. I think the IEC seriously underestimated how many people would be waiting to apply (considering they were already a month late opening you'd think they'd realise people would be clamoring to get them!) All 6000+ visas went in an unprecedented 3 days. The February deadline came and went for the UK visas with no information, other than the fact that our visas would now be released in 3 batches to spread the work, and then for a frustrating 2 weeks we had nothing..

14th February - Valentines Day (thanks for that one IEC) the first 1000 visas are released at 5pm. I quite literally ran home. Created our accounts, uploaded everything they needed and dashed through the questions, then pressed send. Then I did my boyfriend Ian's. They were both completed and sent by 6:30, (which was good timing, as all of them had gone by 8) sat back and waited for the confirmation emails. Mine came through 10 minutes later, and it was perfect, happy days! An hour and a half later Ian's came through. I checked the message.

Afghanistan.
I mistakenly listed my boyfriends country of residence as Afghanistan.
Oh hell.

I cried, then calmed down and messaged the IEC, then cried again. Then I had to tell Ian I'd stuffed up his application (lots more tears on my part, not the best valentine's night I must say) but he was very gallant about it. We decided to continue with our applications as normal, and to keep messaging the IEC to rectify it. So we paid the high commission (they made that rather complicated as well!) had our payment verified, and then got our conditional letters of acceptance. Ian's still had Afghanistan on it. *sigh*  We had no idea if we should continue with Stage 2, or if the CIC would not accept the letter with an incorrect address, or if we should start again in the next round...so we messaged the IEC again, and again we waited. After 2 weeks of impatience, worrying and continuous checking of his Kompass account, he got a replacement conditional letter, with the United Kingdom as his country. Happy tears!

From then on it's been smoother. We completed Stage 2 and sent that off at the beginning of March. (We sat and did that together, and double checked everything!) And now, we wait... we're on day 12. Fingers crossed for everyone that they start trickling through.

I must say, despite the stress of rushing and making such an stupid mistake, I'm very glad we got in on Round 1. The dates for Rounds 2 + 3 were announced ahead of them opening, which meant everyone knew when to be online, the system crashed a heck of a lot as people tried to get on, making it difficult to know what was happening. Round 3's quota (with +2000 places) was filled in 20 minutes, and a lot of people from Round 3 are still unsure as to whether they have got onto the program, or even the waiting list. I really do feel for them, those few uncertain weeks where I was unsure if I'd ruined all our plans was hell. Good luck to everyone still waiting.

2013, the year of making stuff happen.

 The boyfriend and I have always agreed that we'd go traveling, but following uni we were pretty broke and had minimal work experience, so it was into the 9-5 grind for us. I graduated from uni nearly three years ago, and have spent the last 2 and a half years working in a quiet office in a quiet town, and doing not much else.

So now we have some experience and funds, it's definitely time for our travel plans to start coming together! We both have the travel bug, and with international Work Holiday programs only lasting till your 30-35 years old (depending on the country) the time to go is definitely now. There are so many areas of the world I'd love to see, I need to get out there and start enjoying it all!

So, the plan...
Our first stop is going to be Canada. We're aiming for Vancouver at the beginning of May (visa dependent, more on that beauty later!) which sounds oddly not far away. After all the talking, reading and researching, the sudden realisation that in 8-9 weeks you hope to actually be there is quite intimidating! The visa will be valid for a year from the day we enter the country, but we have no idea if we'll end up staying the full term. I'm hoping if we stay till at least December we'll have enough money to make a visit home for Christmas! We're not going to plan too much ahead, we're going to fly out there with a few weeks accommodation booked up, then look for somewhere more permanent to rent and start the job hunt, so it's pretty uncertain where we will end up. Though I'm sure I'll look into areas before we go, to check out which districts might appeal to us the most. When it comes to traveling, I'm notorious for planning.

I'd love to experience as much as possible out there, I made a news years resolution of sorts to make 2013 an exciting year. I want to look back and see all the things that excited, challenged and taught me something new. So far, I've abseiled down the side of Battersea Power Station (which produced the blog name, and yes it's also got a World of Warcraft reference.) I'm getting a tattoo soon, and then its the Canada adventure! Things I'd like to do once we're out there includes trying my hand at snowboarding, joining a gym, seeing the Rocky Mountains, visiting Seattle (there's some potential to see some NHRA drag racing there in August!) and taking in as much of Canadian life as possible. I should probably warn you I might end up talking about food a lot!

Long term plans...you can get 2 IEC (International Experience Canada) visas, perhaps if we love it we'll attempt to get a second next year. Right now the plans are loose. After Canada, I'd love to see New Zealand, and then perhaps Australia. I'd love to see parts of Asia as well, but as they don't have work programs, that might have to be more short term. We've also talked about countries in Europe, on a holiday to Stockholm last year we fell in love with Sweden, so who knows where this first step will lead!