A new beginning

It's been a little over fifteen months, and more forms than you can shake a very large stick at, but my visa for Canada arrived this morning.

And the first thing I did? Start a new blog. I'm not entirely sure what that says about me.

The postman actually tried to deliver it yesterday, but I was out, so I had to pick it up from the sorting office this morning. Quite a shame really - not only was yesterday fifteen months to the day since I first sent my application off, but it was also Canada day. Shucks.

I've got until April 2012 to move, and I've set an admittedly arbitrary deadline of the end of August to actually make the move. I figure that that should give me a little motivation to actually get things moving.

I'm currently a gentleman of leisure; I was made redundant from my last job towards the end of 2010. I'd applied for voluntary redundancy in the expectation that I'd get my visa quite a lot sooner than I actually did, so I've been cooling my heels for the last few months. On the other hand, the redundancy money will come in quite useful in helping me settle in. I've not got a job to go to, and have yet to organise anything quite so necessary as accommodation, but these don't seem too important just yet.

The plan.... Well, I (practically) own a house here; and I've got a fair amount of savings. I intend to let the house out in this country, and in the short term, rent in Canada - find an apartment with a six or twelve month lease, and use that time to find somewhere to buy. Then sell the house here and use it as a deposit.

I'm intending taking a bare minimum of stuff with me; true, the house is fully furnished, but I have no great attachment to any of it (my main criteria for shopping for furniture was "cheap"), so I shall be leaving as much as I can. This does mean I'll need a furnished apartment in Canada, but it also means the house here can be let as furnished.

(Things to do: get landlord insurance; find a letting company; prepare the house for letting - I think I need to get the electricals checked, at a minimum; organise removal of the belongings I'm taking with me)

I also need to get a bank account sorted (I can do this from the UK), and transfer a little money over so it's waiting for me. I just this morning got a pre-paid currency card in $CND, which I can add cash too here and use as a cashcard in Canada; I think adding a couple of hundred pounds to that will help a little.

(Things to do: get bank account opened, and start transfering money to it)

And then I need to figure out how to dispose of the rest of my stuff. I've got quite a lot of it - you know how stuff accumulates - and I'll be disposing of as much as I can. I think it'll be a combination of eBay, Freecycles, and charity shops. I do have a few bits that I'd like to find proper homes for - I suspect that I'll be leaving quite a lot of books behind, for example, and I hope to find a good home for some of them. Especially the good 'uns.

(Things to do: figure out what books I can bear to part with; eBay the ones that are likely to be worth something)

Other than that - it's a case of find accommodation (I'm paying an immigration consultancy, so they should be able to help with that), and book a flight. And the arrange a bit of a do to say goodbye to everyone (Would it be wrong to call it an "... and don't come back!" party?)

That's all I can think of at the moment, actually. I'm sure there's plenty more stuff I'll need to do, but right now I'm a little too distracted to actually think straight. I'll add more here as and when they occur to me.