Category Archives: arrival

Our Canadian milestones (1)

October 28, 2009arrivalimmigration, milestonesGina

Until the last couple of days, I have not managed to keep our blog updated quite as well as I hoped. There’s a good reason for this; our feet haven’t touched the ground and my poor brain has been struggling to catch up with input overload, not to mention the change in time-zone and existing layer of fatigue!

Milestones to date include:

Arriving in Canada as landed immigrants (June 2009)
Setting up Bank Accounts
Getting a Rogers SIM for our mobile
Finding a Realtor (more than an Estate Agent – as buyers, we need a Realtor working for us and helping us negotiate a house purchase)
Meeting with a mortgage advisor
Getting our SINs (Social Insurance Numbers) – also in June (we are still waiting for our cards to arrive, forwarded by relatives to whom we had them sent)
Organizing a UPS mailbox as our initial address will be temporary (backed up by six months re-direction from the UK)
Arriving finally to begin life in Toronto (October 2009)
Meeting our Bank Account Manager and Branch Manager and sorting out the services we need (Canadian Banks still charge clients for various services, so it is important to set up the right kind of account and charging agreement)
Getting a safety deposit box at the Bank
Getting Library cards for our local library in the Beach
Paul’s first day at Tyco’s Markham (North Toronto) office – mostly he will work from home, but he has a hot-desk here. Markham is not realistically possible by public transport from here, so this first trip involved a hire car. The journey is similar to Paul’s commute from Wootton Bassett to Dorcan when he was in the UK.
Visiting Service Ontario to swap over out UK driving licenses for Ontario ones
Still at Service Ontario, using our new driving licences to provide the evidence of where we are living so as to register for OHIP (Ontario Health) coverage, which, for immigrants, comes in force three months (not 90 days) after landing.
Getting a new mobile phone because it was cheaper than buying a second SIM!
Looking for and buying a car (we pick this up tonight!)
Arranging auto insurance (horrendously expensive and without the benefit our UK insurance record, which we knew), with tenant insurance thrown in
Paul’s first Canadian conference a Stack Overflow Dev Day, for which he volunteered as a helper
Getting our first credit card (from the Bank) – this has surprised us as we had been given to understand that it is initially very difficult. We should have a further card shortly once American Express have checked out our UK history – they are the only credit card provider who will transfer such history from one country to another. Building a credit history as an incomer is important, so this is very helpful.

Hopefully life will now slow down a little and we can begin to explore what Toronto has to offer alongside moving our lives forward!

The Beach – our neighbourhood

October 28, 2009arrival, Torontoarrival, Beach, neighbourhoods, TorontoGina

We had already established before we arrived that we want to live in or close to the Beach, a popular area in East Toronto.

There’s just something about the neighbourhood; the constant glimpses of the lake as you walk down Queen Street; the shore itself, wide sands curled by rocky breakwaters into a chain of lagoons – a vast expanse of water merges with the horizon to the south, whilst to the west the CN Tower gives graceful focus to the downtown skyline; the beautiful leafy streets lined mostly with heritage homes, from the relatively humble to huge mansions; the lazy bustle of Queen Street, with its streetcars to Downtown, its eclectic selection of shops and eateries; the strong sense of community and identity.

They say that people who come to the Beach to live rarely want to leave.

14 Balsam Avenue

October 26, 2009arrival, Torontoarrival, TorontoGina

The house is around 100 years old, a classic old-style Beech home about 100 meters from Lake Ontario in a tree lined street, currently aglow with every shade of fall.

We have a good-sized living room with an open fireplace, an area we are using as our office with ample room for both of us to work (there’s even a piano!) and a large and well equipped kitchen with breakfast bar.

Our bedroom has a window onto the porch, giving views down the street to the water – the morning sun shatters on lake-ripples and glints through the trees; on a windy evening like tonight waves pound the rocky breakwaters (strange how I know that the Great Lakes experience great storms yet somehow do not associate these kind of waves with a lake!). We also have second, smaller library/bedroom that serves us well as a dressing room and, of course, a bathroom, with a claw-foot tub and shower.

Despite limited clothing and possessions, this is, for now, very much home!

(The movie slide show below gives you a guided tour – our first effort with new software)
[flv]http://canada.bearne.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Balsam.flv[/flv]

Our first Toronto home. . .

October 18, 2009arrival, TorontoBalsam Avenue, Beech, our homeGina

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We have the ground floor of this hundred year old cottage that sits just 50 yards or so from the Beach (Lake Ontario’s shore). (It’s 14 Balsam Avenue, not 12!)

Toronto dawn – our first morning

October 18, 2009arrival, Torontoarrival, Beach, dawn, TorontoGina

Needless to say, our bodies are still on UK time, so 5am (10am) was about the latest we could manage to sleep, though we did ‘laze’ till 6! A quick shower, coffee, croissants and fresh raspberries zinging with flavour, then off down the road to the beach to catch the dawn at 7.34 am – magic!