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Just thought I'd bring
myself up to date on my Canadian Journal to Thursday 6th of January.
I had an excellent New Year and seeing as my host Nola Crewe was
officiating at the local Anglican Church here in Toronto I let myself be
persuaded to attend the New Year eve service. I think that is the first
time ever I've been in church to see the New Year in so Nola should get
some brownie points in her Divinity class for persuading me to attend
[grin]
Not that I'm particularly religious but being as I'm really a Church of
Scotland person it was interesting to note the differences between the two
churches. I had commented that our Church of Scotland has a much more
simple service. I found I was juggling between the hymn book, book of
common prayer and the service leaflet... a bit much for a simple chap to
cope with but I did manage despite dropping one or other of the books
twice during the service. As they also had communion I did participate and
found they use the wine cup... or whatever they call it... whereas back in
Scotland we get wee individual glasses. I also noted that Nola had a firm
hand on the goblet as I just managed to wet my lips before it was pulled
back... sheesh! Have to say I also prefer the real bread we get in
Scotland rather than the waifer they supply... first time I've tried one
of those. You also participate a bit more in that you need to read bits of
the prayers during the service. Everyone was very friendly and you were
encouraged to turn around and greet folk. At the end of the service you
were invited to stay back for EggNog, coffee or tea and a bit of Christmas
cake.
Into the New Year it was time to get my name sorted out and I went to the
Immigration dept at 55 St. Clair E and got my new work permit with my
correct name spelling. So after being in a line up for around 40 minutes I
was on my way just down the road to No. 25 where I went into another line
up to get my SIN Card changed. That was around an hour. I then heading
back to the driving licence centre to get my driving licence changed and
that was around 40 minutes. So all in all a lot of Queuing. BTW When I got
back to the house I mention the time I had waited in the queue and was
asked what that was. It appears that in Canada they use "line-up" to
describe waiting in line. I should add that there was no charge in any of
the three places for getting the name corrected.
I noted quite a change between the receptionist at the Immigration
building ground floor and the SIN card place. A real sour puss if ever
there was one at Immigration although the folk were nice and helpful when
you got to the dept. The man at the SIN card place was the complete
opposite and a real pleasure to deal with and very helpful as was the
driving centre. In actual fact considering that was the immigration dept.
I would have thought an unhelpful person at reception was the last person
you'd want there as so many must have questions to ask.
I also noted again the taxi service. It does help if you can give the taxi
driver a better idea of where you are going like the nearest cross section
road names. It's amazing how many of them just don't know the city. You
also have to be careful of your diction as all of the taxi drivers I have
got while being here are not native English speakers and so a regional
accent can confuse things. I took the precaution of writing down the name
of the street I was going to.
We've had a fair bit of snow in the past week but nothing really bad to
keep you indoors. I was told that if you are leaving your home in this
weather for several days that you can purchase an external light tied into
your water heater system. This means you can get a neighbour to just check
for the light and if it is seen they'll know the water temperature has
gone down 5 degrees meaning you could get frozen pipes. So an interesting
idea which I pass on to you :-)
As to house hunting... I am currently looking at Sainte St Marie and if
you've been reading my travel journal over the past year you'll likely
remember I stayed there for a couple of days with Linda Sorensen and John
Muir. Well Linda has kindly agreed to view a few houses that look like
possibilities for me. She has three houses to look at on Friday afternoon
so am looking forward to hearing her report. I might add that while this
is a good 7 hour drive to Toronto there are around 5 return flights from
there to Toronto each day and if you are booking a few weeks in advance
the flight is actually cheaper than the train was from much nearer to
Toronto. The flight time is only around an hour and a half and I think you
can actually fly into the Toronto City Airport instead of Pearson and that
makes it much cheaper to get into Toronto.
I've also been working on my year end accounts and have everything printed
off for the accountants so I just need to find one that can work with
email. They are actually quite hard to find and have already been turned
down by two in the USA as being too busy. The one I was introduced to in
Canada that said he could help doesn't respond to email so that is really
not helpful. I am now considering just waiting until I see if I should
head for the Soo to buy a house and if so get a local accountant there if
I can.
As to the social life... I am being introduced to the membership folk at
the Canadian Military Institute as a prospective "out of town" member.
Apparently it's very cheap and you can then get a room at the club for
only around $50 a night and you also get associated membership with other
clubs including ones in London, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. So all sounds
interesting. I am also being tempted to join the Press Club here in
Toronto and that also gives you access to other facilities around the
world. And so I will be pursuing these over the next few weeks.
I haven't as yet got myself a car as it would only sit here as I don't
need to get around too much and even if I did parking is not easy in
Toronto. I will however be heading out in the next few days to see what is
available so I can figure out the best options. Remember that having no
credit history in Canada means you don't get access to all that low
interest finance. I've already been told that I'm likely going to be
offered rates around 17% which is terrible considering local folk can even
get 0% finance.
The more I consider it the more I think that prospective immigrants should
get some help from Immigration as to being tested for financial resources
so that they could issue some kind of helpful letter that would then allow
you to get credit at reasonable terms.
This week also saw me doing a formal tie in with the Scottish Studies
Foundation in Toronto so that the site content will go to them on my
demise (which I hope won't be for a long time yet). I just felt that all
my hard work in adding all the content to the site should be safeguarded
so that folk in the future will still be able to read it.
So that's about it for now... |
