The Bland Christmas House, Lethbridge.

Hubby was training today until lunchtime so I just chilled out making a few phone calls back to the uk using Skypeout whilst we have internet access in the Hotel, as it will be a little harder when we get moving in the truck.



This evening we decided to call on Inga and take a walk to the Christmas house in Lethbridge, which is on 4th Av S and 13th street S, home of the Bland family.



The camera does not do the scene justice, as it's really very pretty with the snow and the thousands of lights, and the family allow you to walk around their garden, as long as you close all the gates to stop the dogs escaping.


Even though it was minus 7 there was no wind chill and we had a very pleasant walk and now Mick is going to bed early to try and study for his written test.

-43

The temperature outside the Hotel this morning was between -20 and -23 with a promised wind chill this evening of -43...argh!

We took a stroll to the shopping mall today with Wolf, who is leaving first thing Monday morning for Mexico, and it's probably just about time for him after having to hang around with the old farts (Mick) for a week lol.
Good luck with the mentor trip Wolf.

This was taken in downtown Lethbridge whilst we were out shopping.
Mick is smiling here but he was in tears later when he found an audio cable for $4.99 and he had already bought one for $16 ha ha.

Still Driver Training At S And K In Lethbridge

On Thursday we had a visit from Kerry of 'professional tourists', she was kind enough to come to the hotel and meet me and Inga whilst Mick was out driving.
She gave us a lot of useful information and advice whilst we were drinking lots of coffee.
Mick snapped this little picture of us when he met us at Timmies, it's not a very good one I'm afraid.
Thanks again Kerry it was a pleasure to meet you, hope we meet up again soon. Enjoy your visit back to UK at Christmas.

Congratulations to Wolf who passed his test yesterday, he has been training in the Volvo below. Mick has been training in a Freightliner and hopefully he will be doing his test next week.


The weekend arrived early yesterday as Mick finished his training around lunchtime so we had a walk to the Mall and had a chill out in our room.

We met up with Wolf in the early evening and then I went to Ingas room to see if she wanted to join us for some food in the bar area which she did, and one of the boys behind the bar was kind enough to take a photograph of us and even Jay and Nathan (nice lads) from the hotel managed to get in on the act.

Jan and Lyndon

Mick has been out on the truck training, it was his first day on Monday and he was worried that he would not pick the gearbox up too quickly, but when he came back he was really pleased with himself as he thought it had gone very well.

Mick is training in the truck which is arrowed here...



He did his training in the morning, and Wolf's was in the afternoon, and when he came back we went to the shopping mall for a walk and had something to eat.
The only problem with the shopping malls is that you have to dress up for the low temperatures outside, but when you walk into the mall you immediately break out into a sweat and have to start pulling layers off.

Its the same everywhere you go indoors, but one thing I have noticed, is that even though it's cold it has been bright and sunny.


In the evening we met up with Javi, Inga and Wolf.
Javi has now gone on his mentor trip with Jim, one of the professional tourists.
He and Inga were in the Sandman Hotel but moved into The Lethbridge Lodge where we are based, Inga will be better off here whilst she is on her own because it is nearer all the amenities.
Hopefully Inga will keep me company and we will get a bit of exercise in the hotel pool.



Mick decided to give Lyndon a ring and say hello yesterday, as he has given a lot of info on his blog about coming out here to work. He got in touch with Lyndon using Skypeout and when he came online he sounded a bit groggy, but it was because he had just woken up, but after a short chat he said he would ring us back.


About an hour later Lyndon rang us back with a plan!
Another couple from Ripon were in the Sandman Hotel on a recce trip, and they were kind enough to pick us up in their hire car so we could all go down to visit Lyndon and family.

Jan and Lyndon had gone to a lot of trouble to put a spread on for us all, and they had insisted we stay the night, so we had a very good feed and drink and a good chin wag before turning in.
The other couple, Mick and Barbara, are hoping to travel together in the truck next year across Canada and the lower 48, the same as us, so we wish them all the very best.

We also got to see their (Lyndon's pride and joy) wood burning furnace in the basement, which keeps the den at a constant 400 degrees!
There was also a nice young Canadian sounding lad in the house, who we think was a Brit at one time, many moons ago (Hi Luke!).
Thanks again to Lyndon and Jan for the hospitality.

In the morning, Mick and Barbara brought us back up to their hotel and we had a walk back to ours, collecting our laundry at 'King Koin' on the way back, then after some breakfast and a bit of a chill out, Mick went off to driver training again, and I am slobbing about in the suite.

Meeting Nice People.

Mick had a day off from School today, so we went to stretch our legs, around Lethbridge.
He starts driving lessons tomorrow (monday), so, depending on the weather I may try to get out and about to take some pictures around town, but at the moment it is snowing so who knows how far I will get.

We took the picture above, on our little walk, and the same picture is also on Javi's blog here.

The picture below is The Sandman Hotel where most of the other drivers from the company stay when they are reseting their hours or having their trucks serviced etc, and it is also where Javi and his lovely wife Inga are staying.


For people who read Javi's blog, they will already know he was trucking in Canada earlier this year so there is no need for him to retake his Canadian class 1 test, hence they will soon be away down the road, and we may not meet up with them again for many months, so good luck guys, it has been an absolute pleasure to meet you both.
Myself and Mick feel that the future holds great things in store for two such talented and beautiful people.


This picture is of me and the old man.


My best friend Paula will be going off tomorrow to take part in a very well known British game show (Deal or no Deal) so...

GOOD LUCK PAULA

We hope you win a fortune for you and your family, you deserve it love.

Finally Here.

My emotions have been all over the place in the last few days. We have not sold our house so we have not burned our bridges but I take my hat off to all of you who have.
Seeing my son and his beautiful wife Joanne, to say goodbye was awful, I was sick inside just waiting to hug them and say goodbye but..... only for six months as we are going home in May to see what decision to make on whether we want to be in Canada permanently or to just work until the work permit expires.
It takes a lot of guts and courage to give everything up and start a new life and to those of you who have done it, I wish every single one off you the best of luck, because you deserve it.

Our journey begins, our lovely daughter in law Joanne took us to Manchester Airport for our flight to Gatwick, the plane was half empty and it was a nice flight, clear skies so good views all the way down. When we arrived we stopped into one of the bars to meet Wolf form Bonnie Scotland. I left Mick chatting to him while I went to do a bit of shopping,when I came back Javi was there as well.
We had a four hour wait for the flight to Calgary, but because we were all chatting the time passed very quickly.
After our long flight we had to queue to go through immigration, where there were only 2 officers on duty, we only had to wait about half hour before we got to see one, but poor old Wolf and Javi had to wait about an hour and half to get through, and Javis wife Inga had been waiting for him for a long time as she had got a different flight to him so got into Calgary early (9 hours).
After the two and half hour drive to Lethbridge we finally got to the hotel (Lethbridge Lodge) at about one in the morning, and boy were we tired.


The next day the boys were being picked up at quarter to nine by Hans from VRV Global, to go for medicals and switch their driving licenses, and get social security numbers.
Hans, what a funny guy, he is great, very down to earth, we had a good laugh with him.
In the afternoon they picked me and Inga up and we all went to open bank accounts, and stop off for the drug tests, after which Hans gave us a short tour around Lethbridge, and after a quick stop off at Tim Hortons for doughnuts, myself Mick and Wolf were dropped off at the shopping mall while Javi and Inga went back to the hotel.
Wolf got himself a phone, we had something to eat and then we headed back to the hotel in the very cold Chinook wind chill, with our eyes and noses streaming.

Javi has posted some nice pics around his hotel, and also of Hans and Wolf, here ...click

I'm posting this late on, as we have just been down to our hotel reception area to meet Mike Nash, from Mikes Jolly In Canada who had just rolled into town with George Anderson of 'The Big Trip' fame, who were both really nice friendly guys.



Mick and Wolf are in class tomorrow, and on Monday, the road work begins.

Woot, Eh!, finally got here.

Post by Mick
Time to change the picture up top, of Bradford, and Listers Mill.
Cath will be posting later today.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow.

Just a quick post in between rushing about trying to say goodbye to everybody.
Opened the curtains this morning and could not believe what I saw, Snow!
It's the most snow I have seen in years up here.



Here is a picture of Mick saying goodbye to his mate Mr Whippy, the famous DJ, radio broadcaster and Ice Cream Man.


I'll also say, that apart from friends and family, the other thing we will miss is Chris Wainwrights beautiful Fish and Chips, served by a great bunch of girls at Beacon Road Traditional Fisheries.
We took a picture to remind us of fish chips and a scallop, but please note, they are not full portions of chips on show here.

We found out that the other driver who is on our flight is meeting us in Gatwick along with Wolf, and it's Javi, who has a blog ...click here.
Javi and Wolf have both been trucking in Canada before, so Mick will be asking a few questions when we all meet up.
So, it's finally arrived, time to go, and it only seems like a week or two since we decided to go in April.