A little bit of background information for those who are not up to date with our situation:

In May of this year Nige found out he is being made redundant in early 2009, as the factory in which he works is closing down. This news had been expected for sometime so he took it as an opportunity for change rather than the loss of his job. We have discussed for many years working abroad but we had never really agreed on where we could go. With Niges' brother and family in Australia it had appealed to him, but the distance for me had been too far. I on the other hand had always loved America but Nige, although he had enjoyed holidays, had never really wanted to live there. Canada had never really been somewhere I had considered but Nige had spoken to many people that had holidayed' there, all of whom only had positive things to say.

Nigel looked into the possibility of us going out there to work and did some research on the opportunities for us, both work wise and with the lifestyle. The positive response from this prompted us to pursue the idea more closely. I still had reservations myself however, having just settled into a new job as a community nurse in Ellesmere as well as just getting the house re-decorated how I'd always wanted.

After joining the expats site http://www.britishexpats.com/ we found out that our quickest option would be to get a secure job offer then apply for temporary work permits. We got info about the Canadian Expo in Leeds in June, so we booked our tickets. The expo was informative but not really as much as either of us had hoped. It was smaller than we had imagined with no real representatives for the type of industry Nige wanted. I however, went to have a quick chat with someone from the Alberta Health region, and after a quick interview was told that as soon as I was registered with CARNA (the College and Association of Registered Nurses in Alberta) they would be able to offer me a job and would help with my work permit application and would also be able to offer Nige a permit in order to get a job. I'm sure Nige felt a bit down hearted although he wouldn't have admitted it, as both of us had only really gone looking for a job for him.

Due to my apprehension, I decided to book a hotel for the night for just the two of us so we could discuss the situation, with no distractions.

The break away in the Cotswolds provided us with the time needed to come to the decision to give Canada a chance, as if we didn't, we would probably regret it. We also decided that we'd rent our house out instead of selling up, just in case things didn't work out.

I discussed the situation with my work who were really supportive, and my manager who had worked in Canada for 6 months, even gave me advise with various aspects of the application for registration, which was sent off in September.

We were also very lucky that someone who Nige used to work with Haydn, had been living in Calgary for about 6 years with his wife Deedee and two daughters and we got in touch with them to gain more information about living and working in Canada. We both decided that in order to think seriously about moving to another country, we needed to have been there (which we hadn't) so we booked to go on a weeks recce trip.

We left on the 28th September and arrived home yesterday. The trip consisted of a day being tourists then 6 days doing research, Nige visiting potential employers (which led to a job offer), looking round houses, opening a bank account and endless question answering for Haydn and Deedee (for which we are very grateful!) I will post more details and photos from the trip later, but suffice to say it's cemented our decision and we just want to get out there as soon as possible. Estate agent is booked for tomorrow morning and today I have been chasing up documentation requests for my CARNA registration. Watch this space!