Busy weekend to West Edmonton Mall

Well as i may have said before, with Andy, Claire & Eloise over here, we wanted to do everything that we meant to do last time but never got round to it.

So they landed on the Thursday night and at 09:00 the following morning i/we decided that we were going to Edmonton for the weekend, now bear in mind they had just landed and were still jet-lagged.

it seemed like a fantastic idea but we were totally unprepared, i couldnt even put Gizmo in Kennels coz i discovered 2 of his shots had expired a month before, here is a rundown of the days events.

Booked Gizmo in for shots.
Booked Gizmo into kennels.
Booked hotel in Edmonton.
Booked hire car (GMC Yukon)
Took Gizmo for shots.
Took everyone to the annual H&R family BBQ.
Took Gizmo to kennels.
Cut lawns front & back.
Went in hot-tub.
Went to collect rental car.
Spent an hour chatting to neihbours.
Piled everyone into Yukon.
Drove to Edmonton (6 hours)
Stopped off in Vulcan (Star-Trek town) for photographs and beer.
Booked into Radisson Hotel.
Ordered pizza, wings & garlic bread.
Cracked open first beer.
Collapsed on bed.
Drank beer, ate pizza.
Went to bed.

Next morning we jumped in the car and went round the Mall, after going on the rides and going to see the sealion show, we did loads and loads of shopping, ate loads of food, went back into the funfair then shopped a bit more..........

7 hours later we started making our way back to the car and headed back to the hotel for supper and beer.

Next morning we all met up and went down the hotel pool, luckily we had the place to our selves and had a splashing good time till it was time to book out.

It was then a 6 hour drive back to Raymond although the trip was broken up by a quick visit to the Calgary Tower. We dived into Highway 1 West and parked up opposite the VRV office as there is a C-Train station just opposite. We jumped on the train, jumped off at the tower, did the tower visit, jumped back on the train, got back in the car and continued south.

When we got back it was half an hour in the hot-tub and strangely enough everyone was shattered and went to bed........................ no idea why LOL

Claire, Andy & Eloise - Revisiting

If you remember the last time Claire & Andy vivited, we were at the other house (the one we rented) and Claire was pregnant......................

Well this time there was 3 of them, we now have little Eloise.

This was to be another 2 week visit and Jan and i had already decided we were going to do everything we didnt do last time so it was West Edmonton Mall, Waterton, Great Falls, Calgary Tower and lots N lots of BBQ and tubbin'.

For those of you not familiar with the term tubbin', it means Hot Tubbin', just look at the pictures and see for your self.

A few weeks before the weekend we decided to get one as it would be a nice surprise for them, i am so glad we did, its the best thing i have bought over here and we use it just about every night. The power jets are unbelieveable and give a fantastic massage, just the thing after a hard day ay work.

CHAPTER 2 - The Driver Relations Guy

So here starts chapter 2.......................

i now work full time in the office, my duties include Driver Relations, recruiting, training administration, and various other little projects as and when required. No more dashing round North America in a big red shiny truck, just a desk, a computer screen and a phone.

This was the reason for the end of the Blog, i didnt realise there was still a story to be told. i must admit i thought there would be nothing else to write about.

But how wrong i was !!!!!

Its not the end of the story its just the begining, the begining of a new era. This was never meant to be a story of a truck driver going round America, it was meant to be a story of one family and their desire to live on a new Continent.

So read on Dear Reader, read on...................................

The Blogmeister returneth.........................

Greetings everyone.................................

Lyndon is back, not that i ever went anywhere, but im back anyway.

Over the last few months i have looked back at this page and ive been itching to post something, but i have always held back, i said the blog had come to an end and i meant it. The story had run its course, literally, my new life had started and i was moving on.

However...........................................

The driving round North America had come to an end but the story had only finished the first chapter, so i would like to make it official, Chapter 1 left us in the middle of winter in the Great White North, dashing from Winterypeg to Wintery Lethbridge and that is where it ended, finished, kaput, deceased, over and out, snuffed, no more, expired, turned up its toes, blown out the candle, slipped off its mortal coil, popped its clogs................

You get the picture ?????

A big huge thank you

I would like to thank everyone who sent in the comments on the final chapter post, rather than say thank you in the comments i thought i would post it out here where everyone can see it.


THANK YOU !

The Final Chapter & Beyond

Well folks, this is it, every story must come to an end.

This was the story of how a normal working class family from the City of Swindon in Wiltshire, United Kingdom, decided one day to sell everything they owned (almost) and jump on a plane to start a new life on the other side of the world.

Most people never understood the reason for the blog or even its real purpose so i think it may be a good time to explain now before we slip silently into the ethernet and take our place amongst the Great North American Community.

It was never about any company and it was never really about trucking. It waswas purely and simply about " Our Dream". It was about making the life choice and deciding where you wanted to be.

We never came to Canada to join H&R and we never came over so i could go sightseeing all round the US of A in a big red Freightliner. We came to Canada because we wanted to be in Canada.

Luckily i was in a trade that was required by the Canadian Government and luckily i was in the right place (give a county or two) when the Big Red Team were recruiting, luckily we found a buyer for our house in UK and luckily we found a landlord who didnt mind pets (Gizmo) in Canada. Luckily i enjoy my job and luckily my family love it here too.

Over the last 2 years i have been accused of many things and i have been the target of many rumours, stories and theories, a man of much intrigue you may say. Countless people have said ive seen the whole experience through rose coloured specs both behind my back and some actually to my face.

Im not going to admit it and im not going to deny it.................... mainly for one reason, it doesnt really matter, it was my story, my experience, and i told it my way. Practically all that has been written has been spontanious writing, no editting and no spell checking and practically no post edit, editting.

Immigrating to Canada isnt easy and its full of pitfalls and people trying to take money off you, my advice is to take all these blogs and forums for what they really are, communities populated by self proclaimed experts (including this one LOL). Please read them and take note of others who have trodden the path before you but......................................

Do your own research from reputable and official sites, if you want to know about immigration go to a Government Immigration Website, if you want to know about flights then go to the airlines website. You get the picture?

When we were in the planning stages of our move, i spent every night studying the internet, i uncovered every conceiviable angle, i asked every question i could think of to ask. I created an immigration plan and i stuck to it, every thing was thought of and i collected every document that i could possibly need.

Then we moved and i still managed to get caught out occaisionally but generally i was on top of the game.

So why did i write the blog ???

It was an information trail, to give others that follow us a guide, i like to think of it as a compass, to steer you in the general direction but the details ive left for you to sort out.

Well thats my story for what its worth, the end of the ride, and its time to move on, what does the future hold for us, who knows and to be honest who cares, life trucks on.

I would like to thank all the readers who have followed our adventures from Swindon to Raymond, youve seen our dream unfold, we wish you every success in yours in what ever you do and where ever it takes you.

Thank You Everyone.

Lyndon

Livin' The Dream

Hi folks

havent post on here for a little while, life has been a little hectic, ive been helping out and having a look at what goes on in the office. There isnt much to photograph from a desk unless you want to see the back of somebodys head so the old piccaroonies are going to be a bit thin on the ground.

I treated myself to a new car the other week so we are now a two car family again, for the first time since we left the Motherland. Ever since we have been over here i have liked the Chrysler Sebring so i thought "Sod It", and went out and got one.

So now i got a new toy......................

The weather in Lethbridge is starting to warm up now although there is still snow on the ground and some days it peeks up over the freezing point.

The Big Red Blog

Ive been working on this little project now for some time and i think now is a good time to launch it. It is basically another blog but this time its not a story, its facts.

It is an unofficial H&R Transport blogsite and it will be aimed at people coming into the company both from Europe and Canada, and it will be purely for information, im putting together a list of useful links on all manner of subjects from immigration to schools and utilities. If you feel you could contribute or if theres a subject you would like me to cover (or links to be included) then please feel free to leave a comment either on here or over there and i can get to work on it.

I plan to use the questions to form articles on the various subjects (confidentiallity will be observed) so if you dont want your question to be used then thats no problem i can still answer on a 1 to 1 basis, its just a shame others wont benefit.

I am also hoping to include recruiting and any news anouncements from H&R but remember this is no way affiliated with the company, i am an employee of H&R but this is done away from work and in my own time.

Go and have a read, become a follower, leave your comments and let me know what you want to be included.

http://thebigredteam.blogspot.com/

Lyndon

Alberta Bound

This hasnt had an airing for a while..............

Enjoy.

The Lomanovskis Family has Landed

Well thats it the passports are back and that night we drove down to Sweetgrass which is our loacal border crossing. We went into the States, round the flagpole, and then back into Canada to be welcomed as Permenant Residents.

So that my friends is it, we have done it. It has been a 2 year adventure, we had a dream which started back in Feb 2007 when i overheard 2 of my colleagues chatting about Canada, and now 2 years later the dream has been realised.

I really would like to offer a heart felt thank you to all of you out there who has shared this adventure with us, i would like to thank all of you who took the time to send in comments and everyone for the many emails that have been sent in.

So is this the end of the story....................................

Confined to Canada 3 (The Journey Home)

Sorry about the late update folks, its been a bit hectic recently and running Canada meant that i didnt get a wireless connection very often and im too tight to pay for it.

Anyway what can i say positive about the weather......................

Oh yes the roads werent closed 8-)

The weather was horrendous for practically all of the trip but after the first 8000 kms you sort of get used to it. Anyway it wasnt going away so on we went.

At one stage the whole road disapeared under 2 foot of snow so the intrepid Cascadian Explore decided to blaze a trail through the virgin snow. That was interesting, sometimes it was so deep that it hit the bumper and sent a snow storm over the roof of the cab.

Anyway it was hammer down for a slip slidey excursion into Montreal, that turnaround was perfect, i got into the city, fuelled and dropped the trailer, picked up the one next to it and headed back West.

I was literally squeezing every last mile out of every day and before i knew it i was crossing back into Alberta and thinking of hometime. As i got near to Edmonton i got my next dispatch.....

Oh bugger i should have booked some time off, oh well i wont make that mistake again, and this was a load going back to Montreal.

So..............................

Delivered in Edmonton, scuttled down to Calgary, got my ass under another trailer full of cow meat and started dragging it thru the snow back East. I was then told it was a switch in Winnipeg, which was a relief as the old hours were getting a little thin on the ground and i was starting to get a little worried.

As it was i trailer swapped in Winnipeg and got another Edmonton load.......

Now things were getting pretty tight on the hours, i made the delivery and headed south for home.....................

I finally got back after 14 days away on Sunday afternoon just in time for a huge Sunday lunch (roast beef).

And there endeth an epic snow filled adventure around the Great White North.

For your own perusal

Someone kindly left a comment on a previous article and i thought it was interesting enough to pass on. Im not offering any judgement in anyway, it just caught my interest.

Have a read of the story but also have a read of the comments people have left a the bottom.

Comment if you like.........................

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/561188#Comments

Confined to Canada 2 (Dashing thru the snow)

When to push your truck

(see the TomTom readout bottom right)

When not to push your luck

And when to just knock it on the head
(shut down)


The sun can glare off the icey road

2148 is a dirty little minx

Well it happened..............

tomorrow was another day

i got my load and headed on East. The road conditions were pretty horrendous, i took a few photos to emphasise what it takes to drive a "Big Rig"over here, summer driving is a breeze, its when the elements are at work against you that you suddenly realise what makes Highway Drivers so proud of thier skills and experience.

Imagine hurtling thru the mountains at full throttle, fully freighted and driving on ice and compacted snow. Its about knowing when and where to push your truck and when and where not to push your luck.

Driving in these conditions is very tiring, on top of all the usual things you have to think about while driving a truck, you are literally driving by the seat of your pants, feeling for the slightest twitch on any of the axles, monitoring the snow or ice you are driving on, one eye on the external temperature guage, looking into bends for the telltale shaddow that warns of black ice, seeing what trucks and autos are doing around you. Obvious signs like a truck in a ditch cold tell you that maybe you might want to think about feathering those brakes before you hit the curve.

Oh yes i almost forgot, i ve been here 18 months and up until this trip ive never seen a moose. Well on this little jaunt i saw 2 mooses (is that the correct word) one looked a bit weired though as it didnt have a rack, i thought all mooses had those coat hook things on their heads, unless it only wears them for special occaisons and tourists.

Confined to Canada 1 (bad start)

H&R in the snow

One huge snow shifter

Well its my first run after the Christmas break and seeing as our passports have been sent off to the CIC to be stamped and whatever else they do, i am not allowed to leave the "Great White North".

So after Santa has done his "prezzie giving thing" and all the turkey had been polished off, Lyndons thoughts turned back to cruising the highways. I phoned in and was told i was collecting a load from Calgary and taking it to Montreal, 4153 kms 1 way just to get me back into the swing of things.

I checked out the weather forcast and learnt that the weather all the way thru was to be on the whole "cold, white and shitty". indispersed with "cold, white and shitty". and later on going back to "cold, white and shitty". Looking ahead into the long term forcast we could expect it to be (yes you guessed it) "cold, white and shitty".

Okay well that solves one little problem then, no need to pack the Hawaian shirt, flip-flops or the surf board.

Well the day rolls round that must load up and head on out, i had a last minute reprieve when the load wasnt ready so it was an extra day at home, woo hoo !!!

The following morning we threw my gear into the car, took a slip slidey drive up to H&R and Jan dropped me off. I recieved my instructions via the magic talking brick (my veh-icular mounted computing wotsit) and went to look for the empty trailer to take North.

I pulled in front of it and backed up to about 2 foot away so i could check it over.

Aagh !!! bald freaking f*****g, b********g, some-of-a-birching tire, aaargh !!!

(Its good to vent sometimes)

Thankyou thankyou thankyou to the driver(s) who couldnt be bothered to pre-trip their trailer or even post-trip the bloody thing. This tire must have been like that for weeks, how many drivers have been dragging that thing round illegally.

Anyway i reported it and was told to take a different trailer (as i was working against the clock) So i wrote out a defect report for the bald tire (took me less than 2 minutes) and dropped it off in the shop.

I run round to get my new trailer, checked it over, found it to be okay, backed under it and did a check tug to make sure the jaws of my 5th wheel had grabbed it.

As i pulled away (err hang on that shouldnt happen) i realised i wasnt connected. No problem i thought so i went back again, and it still wouldnt connect.

I pulled away and checked the 5th wheel, the pin and the trailer again and i couldnt find anything wrong. I backed onto the trailer next to it and it connected perfectly so there was nothing wrong with my 5th wheel.

I phoned in and explained what had happened and that i couldnt find anything wrong, the shop went thru the checks i should have done (i had already done them)the verdict was "Open", dont know why it doesnt work, it just dont.

So it was back to the origional trailer, bite the bullet (it was half way thru the afternoon by now) take it round and get the tire changed and take that one to Calgary.

Got to Calgary and it was dark, oh yes and the load wasnt ready, i wasnt really bothered now so i pulled the curtains and shut down for the night.

Tomorrows another day !!!

Only another 364 sleeps to go !!!

1st Christmas in our own house

Walking the dog at -20, remember to dress warm

Gizmo with his Christmas bone

No more turkey sandwiches for us, its all gone in the curry

Oh well the big day has come and gone, Boxing Day is here and its time to start eating turkey salads and try to walk off some of that Christmas dinner from yesterday.

Luke has been keeping hisself to himself, testing out all his christmas prezzies, hes now got is own fancy digital phone in his room that he can even send IM and IV across MSN, he's been running round filming everything with his video camera and it took both of us to set up his new telescope with its equatorial mount, barlow filters and other thingamywotsits.

Tonight we are setting it up outside and doing a bit of star-gazing, we got all the star charts ready and using Google Sky so hopefully we should know what we are doing.

I have heard there is a particlarly strong solar wind coming out of Uranus at the moment.........

Must have been too much Christmas pudding Muhahahahahahhah !!!

Anyway its pretty much cloudless at the moment and its just dropping dark, weve just come back from walking Gizmo, there is a fantastic path towards the south end of town and thats the one we normally use. Trouble is though not many people have used it recently so it was a case of trudging thru snow about 2 feet deep, we marched a mile out towards the resevoir but when we got there we were all exhausted, even Gizmo was knackered and covered in snow, in the deep bits he completely disapeared, he absolutely loved it. Anyway we decided to use the roads to come back in and i think even Gizmo was glad.

Gizmo is on the sofa at the moment cuddling his Christmas bone, i dont reckon he will move now for the rest of the night.

Winter freakin' Wonderland

Okay thats it i am officially bored with the snow, can somebody please now take it all away. Its 10:00 in the morning and i have managed to get the car stuck in 3 snow drifts. The first time was when i dropped Jan off at work, i tried to take a short cut round the servicing bay and hit some deep snow, i thought if i hit it at a bit of a run i could just slide thru it. This worked fine for the first 6 feet then i ground to a halt.

Luckily a bit of deft direction changing, waggling the steers and some swearing did the job and about 5 minutes later i got thru it. Trouble was i was now on a good piece of road but with deep snow in fron and behind.

There was only one thing for it, i hit the gas, there was a spinning of wheels, a big cloud of powdered snow and as the cloud cleared i was miraculasly on the other side of the drift.

The second time was back in Raymond, there was a bit of deep snow between me and where i wanted to be so i over confidently hit it fast and again ended up stuck in the middle. This time i knew excactly what to do...............

Rock the gears, waggle the steers and swear really loudly, and yes it worked again.

The third time was on purpose (okay more on purpose) i was helping out a friend by giving them a boost, the cables were only 12 foot so i had to get right up their drive, and there was a snow drift either side. The plan was to stick my car in the snow drift, boost his truck and he pulls me out, excellent plan eh?

Well i must say i did an excellent job of getting the car stuck again, right up to the headlights. This time it took a few swings of a snow shovel and a bit of a shove to get me going again.

Now i am back a home and enjoying a bacon sadwich and a french vanilla coffee.

The Cup 'n Saucer

Met up with Steve W today and went over to the Cup 'n Saucer for a coffee and a bite to eat.

This quaint little coffee shop is owned by Marga, who is Steve's better half. Anyway, in we went and sampled the culinary delights within.

I was amazed with this place, its got a sort of European theme and seems half English and half dutch, which is hardly surprising since Steve is English and Marga is Dutch.

If you go in there try the Italian coffee, it is beautifully presented and tastes great. Marga makes all the food herself, try the garlic dip it is superb.

They do a fantastic English breakfast too so why not get yourselves down there and give it your support.

The Cup' N Saucer
309 - 7 Street South
Lethbridge

AB T1J 0P1

Canada

Snow Banks at Walmart

Got Snow ???

Accepted For Permanent Residency

At last, just got an email thru from CIC, our application for PR has been accepted. This is a huge weight of our shoulders as it means we are good to stay in Canada. Up to now we have been on Temporary Work Permits which means you can only stay for 24 months then you have to leave for 4 months.

There are also other implications if we didnt get accepted, like when our present visas run out, jan would lose the right to work, we would not get permenant SIN numbers which makes obtaining credit difficult.

So thats it the waiting is over, all we got to do now is send our passports off to Seattle and when they come back we have to take a little trip down to the border, go round the flagpole and re-enter Canada to be welcomed back as Permenant Residents.

Gizmo in the snow