The arrival

I knew the airport well now, and as Antonietta had been just a few weeks earlier, so we were at ease. After getting thru the queue (sorry, line), we were dealt with by a helpful young girl who directed us to the immigration section. She asked about study permits and we laboured our arguments that we had had with the embassy. All rather silly, once kids are in Canada (and they are allowed in with us) , then they don’t need one, but if they are coming in, then they do. Get it? We didn’t. Neither did the first girl. We still had not heard the dog bark…..
There was also another helpful girl at immigration, who also asked about study permits for Kes, but we ignored it and she duly completed our work visas and we were officially on the Canadian tax scheme – I don’t know if that was a good idea, but it felt good to leave France.
By this time the luggage was coming out and we commandeered 3 trolleys to move our stuff out – this was to become 4 as we soon located the beasts. Buzz was still calm, Zack the cat totally in shock, but it was an emotional reunion with the animals. However, Buzz liked the idea of getting out of the cage, so I duly obliged, only to be taken to account by a customs officer. Back goes Buzz in the cage, somewhat disappointed, and off to animal immigration.

 

Not so easy now with 4 large trolleys, all overloaded, meaning Kes had to push one, and his steering was not all it could be at 5 years old.
Animal immigration passed off OK, I got to test out my new BMO card and paid them off 37$ for checking the animals. Lots of little bills here and there.

Finally after much pushing and shoving, the 4 chariots ended up outside as we hunted down a taxi big enough to take 8 large bags, 4 hand baggages, 1 large cage, a dog, cat in a box, and a family of 4. We located an Indian/Portuguese who talked incessantly all the way to North Vancouver about how racist Europeans were compared to Canadians, how he had been taken for a gypsy (albeit some 30 years before), but he was quite nice too.
We arrived at the house of Agathe and gratefully settled in – there were beds, but also masses of old furniture, most unclean, that she didn’t have any space for!! However, Agathe is great and her son Sebastian soon took Rudi off to see his Playstation before all collapsed quite early.

The longest day

The longest day – April 25th 06H00 to April 27th 06H00

The tension started to show as time just simply ran out. This was not helped but realising that the carte grise (log book) of our Seat Alhambra car had just gone off in the container. As we were selling it to John, so I had to go off to Toulouse centre to queue up to get a duplicate. Over two hours of valuable packing and cleaning time. Kes also had a party in another area, so despite me aiming to leave by 18H00, I also had to spend almost 1.5 hours taking him to and picking up from a party. All this on a day not even complete, and despite tiredness would allow little or no opportunity for sleep until the early hours of Friday morning (27th) because of the time difference.
The house was still a mess, full of foodstuffs and general rubbish, plus lots of stuff to unload on willing recipients from Senseo coffee machines, to mixers, to bike racks, etc etc.
John, Sam and Odette came round for the car at around 20H00 (still not left), and fortunately brought some food so we had a small picnic before I barrelled off in a hire car with the dog for Lyon. This was a nightmare trip as the previous day’s energy sapping life had drained me and staying awake was very difficult. However, I made it to Lyon to drop the car off, but it was still a long way from the terminal. The shuttle bus didn’t start until 05H15 so I found a trolley and walked with two very large bags, a dog cage (also very large), and the pesky mutt, until I found a staff bus going to the terminal. The driver watched with indredulity as I loaded all on th bus, then off again at the terminal. Then the passengers at the check in where I wasn’t too popular after filling Buzz bowl with water, the check in staff then kicked it all over!
Then began the process of checking in, one overweight bag (no charge), another overweight bike bag (again no charge), plus of course a dog (only 150€ and not 270€ though), and all that after no sleep.
At 05H10 I took Buzz to his cage at the special check in counter, and he was really good, not barking which amazed me. I love my dog!! Very hard to leave him though.
I exchanged a few phone calls with Tonnetje to make sure she was on her way in the taxi, but all I could hear was the cat screaming – at least he hadn’t got away!

I slept all the way on the flight to Frankfurt, not even noticing the take off and being woken up by the landing, and then finding myself next to a cheese roll. I then set about finding out how the Toulouse flight was going, and it was with great relief when I heard “Meerrk!”, my dearly beloved’s voice from within Frankfurt airport, plus of course a bleating cat in a box.
After several tired and weary wanderings around, we managed to find a check in for the cat to go in the hold with Buzz (hopefully, we don’t know yet). Antonietta checked with the staff just before getting on the plane, and it was confirmed that 3 dogs and 1 cat were on board – we had watched frantically trying to see them being loaded on, but I guess they went on early. Hopefully ours are amongst those 3+1!

Tony

Things were not a lot easier for the children and me (Ton). After Tony left I had to finish cleaning the house, throwing away all the last food supplies, toiletries etc. At about 01.30 in the morning, I was so tired, I just could not carry on, I decided to go to sleep for a couple of hours. The house was in a reasonable state, but not that clean and still plenty of things were left behind. I will have to ask John to throw away the bin bags, the last food supplies etc. I did not sleep, as was to afraid not to wake up for the taxi, arriving at 05.30. The cat was very affectionate to me, he had been locked up in a room the whole day, since 07.00 that morning. At 04.30 I got up packed the bedding and the last bits and bops, closed all the shutters, lock the house and was ready at exactly 05.30, when the taxi arrived. We just fitted in with 6 big bags, 3 hand luggage and the cat. I checked in the cat first and paid 50 euros for him, then we checked ourselves in. This took 30 minutes as the girl did not know how to print a boarding card for me from Frankfurt to Vancouver. The problem was that the cat had to be checked in again at Frankfurt to be put in the hold and I was for some reason connected to the cat’s reservation. Anyway all bags went thru, even the ones which were over 25 kg., so I was happy enough. Now we had to find Tony in Frankfurt, which we did! We had to walk out of the transfer area and find somewhere to check the cat in again. After passing the douane, twice, we found a service desk of Lufthansa who could check the cat in. Toulouse only charged the cat for the flight Toulouse-Frankfurt and we had to explain that the 50 euros should be deducted from the 130 (TLS-Vancouver), which they wanted to charge at Frankfurt. Luckily there were a couple of friendly people from the complaint office who sorted out the mistake, which was made in Toulouse. We said goodbye to Zacky and went for a well deserved drink, I was already totally exhausted at this stage.

Ton

The Flight

Having made 4 trips in less than 9 months, I had become used to flying to Vancouver. I had been twice with BA and twice with KLM. BA was Ok, but paled compared to KLM with a smaller, more modern Airbus, more comfortable, quieter, better food, and a superb entertainment system. One up for the Kloggies.
However, this time for logistical reasons we had chosen Lufthansa, who also had a very good reputations for transporting animals. That they might have, but less convincing for transporting human beings. Firstly they lost out reservation that we had called several times to confirm, getting some strange accented non French on the phone, who guaranteed it was Ok, but could not send it in an e-mail, hence no window seats for the kids.
With children, the entertainment system is critical on a long daytime flight, but instead of individual screens, we had to watch the communal larger ones, which were situated so that Kes could not see. In addition, they started with the film “The Holiday” with a dreadful Jude Law, and even more dreadful Kate Winslet, in a totally dreadful film, to be fully appreciated by adolescent females. After some 5 hours of flight, “happy feet” came on, which didn’t really help as auntie Lis had just bought a copy for Kes as a leaving present. Then of course the whole system broke down. German efficiency???
The food was also very limited, way behind the other two carriers, with a first meal of chicken or pasta, and a second meal near the end of the flight of…….. chicken or pasta!
No recommendations for Lufthansa on this route.

Tony

The container

I have never moved house using a container before, always hammering myself and using a cheap truck. But this time was different as it had to go all the way over the other side of the Atlantic and beyond. It also meant some top quality planning of which we fell a little way short.
Firstly, I estimated our belongings and furniture at around 20M3 and it soon became clear it was much more than that, and may even go over the 30M3 maximum size, which would leave us with a real problem as our flight left two days later and therefore there was not time to dispose of any other elements that just didn’t fit.

On Monday 24th the movers came at 8 AM and began the process. Their first impression was that the container was never going to be remotely big enough, and by the end of the day over 145 items had been catalogued, many more needed to be done, and the container was seemingly far too small. I got very nervous and made frantic calls to the removals company for a larger one but to no avail, all was booked, the container, the boat, etc.
The removals men were very efficient, but also packed many useless items that we didn’t want including a kettle and toaster that would not work over the other side, even packing kitchen rolls I had put aside for cleaning up!

Tuesday 25th – the big day, the container arrives and we shall see exactly what has to be left behind. The night before I had made a provisional measuring and concluded that we had a chance. Eric LeGuillou from the removals company came and went thru it all with me as well, and concluded that it was close, but we should get most in.

At 13H00 the container arrived and Antonietta seemed relieved that it was reasonably large. As the boxes went in we discussed how far it had gone, when it was over half way, and all was good until the sofa went in and took up 1/6 of the container along with out favoured decorations of the telephone box and the 6ft wine bottle.

It became clear that not much would be left, and the garden furniture we thought would be left, was largely in the container too. It finally left at 4PM and we breathed a huge sigh of relief – until we saw the mess left behind to clear up…….

Antonietta found Rudi crying in the garage – it was too much for an 11 year old, as this was his first real home and house, and he loved it. We hugged him and explained that we would get a better house in Vancouver, and that he would have as much fun or more there. The kids happiness is very important in Vancouver, so we just hope that it all goes well.

In the evening we went out with John and Odette and a couple of Rudi’s friends to Pizza Hut – fabulous evening, 29¨C at 9PM, and a nice evening was had by all until we again fell victim to fatigue and collapsed into bed. Tomorrow, Wednesday would be the longest day – up at 6AM and maybe only 4 hours sleep until 6AM on Friday (EST-1).

Visit the the vet again!

Both Buzz and Zacky need health certificates, this has to be done within 8 days before departure. Basicly this is a stamp from the vet in their passports. The vet refused to stamp the passports and insisted to see the animals first. Ofcourse you spend 30 minutes waiting and after checking weight, temparature, ears, eyes and paying 30 euros we get the 2 stamps.

The animals are both ready to fly. They have no idea what is coming. I just hope i get the cat into the cabin in a bigger box then allowed. We have to keep him inside from Wednesday morning which will be very difficult.

Hope for the best. 

Got the bugger!!

Checking my phone messages on Tuesday 4 April and voilà, a message from Sophie at the Emabassy to contact her about our visas. Since it is impossible to find anyone there usually, this was a great chance to find out what was going on. In effect, all was under control, no problem on timing, but they were going to screw us for another 80 euros for a study permit for our oldest Rudi. Once in Canada, he doesn’t need a study visa, and since he can come in with us, so the next day in reality he doesn’t need one. The Canadian immigration website says he doesn’t need one, the school district says he doesn’t, but some agent in the embassy obviously needs study permits to go out to keep his job! For 80 euros we didn’t argue, just seethed, and after all, if it meant the visa was in the bag, then we could relax. Another hurdle over. The visas were then sent on 12 April, 2 weeks prior to blast off. Easy this immigration lark.

A few days before take off…..

The kids had Easter holidays 31 March to 16 April, and Rudi took this opportunity to leave school rather than go back for 4-5 days before the big departure on 26 April. Since he probably won’t start school until around 4/5 May, this constitutes a long holiday for him prior to the 10 week Canadian summer vacation. Kes however, has gone back to school where they are organising a surprise party for him, and it also coincides with 2 days pony trekking in the village, so he should have a good send off, especially as his last day he has a birthday party with two of his friends from school.

We have just been to Holland for a long week to say goodbye to all the family there. Unfortunately, most of them are negative about us going, although some see it as a great opportunity for us, and also great for their holidays. Nevertheless, it was a nice week for all, fabulous weather, and a chance to talk, especially for Antonietta, and above all a big dose of ‘Dutchness’ for the kids.
I ‘nipped’ off to Les Gets for a few days in order to close up and make sure various jobs were done before the summer. Very busy, very stressful, but very necessary. I think it will all be Ok there, but it is Antonietta’s fear that I shall suddenly have to go off in mid summer due to a crisis in resort. Let’s hope not. I should be very busy in BC.

Meanwhile, over in BC our partner Gary has been beating his head against a brick wall trying to get all the necessary permits in place for this summer. At this time he has not made it. Since this has been going on since last September, even years before in some cases, I assumed all would be OK. Now the talk is court cases, suing the local authority, building anyway, being closed down, etc. Since I have spent the last 6 years fighting town halls, rogue builders, crooked suppliers, etc, this was not what I had in mind. I thought all Canadians were nice people? Apparently they don’t always like each other!

And of course the packing must go on. Tomorrow the movers are coming and the container arrives the following day, Tuesday 24th of April. The house is still a big mess. Everything has to go into boxes, packed into suitcases, and generally disappear. In addition the grass is growing like mad so I shall have to spend sometime mowing s otherwise the new owners will walk into a forest when they move in.

Another disaster – Rudi’s camera has broken down. Probably as he took it on the beach last week, and now I have to go back to the shop for the guarantee. And Kes has a puncture that needs fixing. The days are too short, and energy levels too low, but somehow, we shall have to get thru this.