jet-blog

we are back from our travels to Europe, and not alone, we brought along some european germs too. needless to say the return flight was not a lot of fun, to put it mildly, threats of "never again, we're staying in canada" rang through the terminal building on our arrival. the good news was that we landed (official speak for becoming permanent residents of canada), the immigration agents were cheerfully surprised, they didn't seem to have a lot of faith in the speediness of canada immigration these days and rightly, it took us 3 years. good to have it from hangin over our heads. our car parking bill was a huge 210 dollars and then we drove into a slight snowstorm. still, good to be home.

my first impression of England, usually Heathrow Airport so not an overwhelmingly good feeling, is of how small England is, the cars are tiny and seem to veer far too close to the other lanes, and there are way too many people for such a small place. but then, once i have been in the car for a while, i start to appreciate its very verdancy, seeing sheep for the first time in about 12 months and the fact that our motorways are so useful, if not again full to capacity. i was grateful too to our folks who picked us up, the queue for flight transfers at heathrow was enormous. overall i enjoyed england but wish we could have stayed longer.

the rest of the trip we spent in Ireland which was also good, always good to see family again, especially for the little ones. we are always surprised by the expense of everything but maybe we no longer question the cost of our own canadian lifestyle.

the only thing that brings me down is not knowing when we will see our families again but we are lucky in that we have friends here, who are keeping us busy with their social invitations. and now, to plan our immigration success, an immigration party. all ideas accepted gratefully and invites to all of course!