The Big Change

Before we came to Canada. Canada was not a dream of ours like most others that move there, we had never even set foot in the country before. From the first time I went to Florida, I always wanted to live in America, but was told it was difficult, so never really looked into it. In the early days of Emma and I, we did look into moving to Australia. Like a lot of people do. I’m a qualified electrician, on paper, even though I never practiced it outside the Navy, which is what we was going to use, but because I had never worked on domestic electrics, I didn’t want to risk it so we shelved it. Then in November 2008, I’m driving my Woolworth’s truck to my next delivery, when a Canadian Expo was advertised on the radio. So I thought we would go and check it out. I left my CV with a couple of people, then in January. I got a call from Ayr Motor, to ask if I wanted to meet up with a English driver that worked for them, that was on vacation in the UK. We jumped at the chance, met with him, and from that we wanted to make the move. Had I been fast to get my paperwork over, I could have been in Canada in the February, the month after, but I owned a company, so needed to sell that off first. By the June I had moved, seeing how different life was in Canada. I adapt to anything, so the transition for me was easy. Emma and the kids joined me in the September. Now for Emma, I knew it was going to be a lot harder. She had never lived anywhere else, other than her home town. She was someone that was always on the go, visiting friends or family. So before any of us got to Canada, I knew it was going to be hard for her. When Emma and the kids arrived, I only got to spend four days with her, then I had to go back on the road. That really hit her hard, been in a strange country, not knowing anyone, and me at the other end of the country. After the first day on her own, she just wanted to pack her bags and go straight back to the UK. The culture shock and loneliness really hit her. It was hard on me too, not been able to be there for her, except on the other end of a phone, and I would be gone for two weeks before I could see her and the kids again. After a few days, she realised that we had spent way to much money on getting us over, and that it was silly to give up at the first hurdle. So she said she would stick it out till after Christmas and see how she felt then, but then a spanner was thrown into the works. Two weeks later from her landing. The house we was renting, sold. There is not really a rental market in Canadian towns for houses, only cities, so finding a place to rent suitable for us in Woodstock was hard, so we ended up renting an empty house that was up for sale. With it coming to the winter. The owners had moved back to British Columbia, and with heating cost been so high in the winter, they just wanted someone in there to look after the place till it sold. No sooner was our furniture in, it was sold. So we had two months to find a new place that Emma would like, which proved even more difficult. I call Emma a snob, because average is not good enough. No rentals where suitable, so we looked to buy. Now buying a house in Canada, is very quick, but we had to guarantee, we could be moved in in time. So we only looked at empty houses. This gave Emma something to do. Finding our beautiful home, kind of settled Emma down a bit.

The first winter was not bad at all. In Woodstock we only had snow from the end of November till the end of march, and in that time, I think it only snowed about ten times. So most of the time, the roads where clear and dry. Emma is not an out door person. So she would stay in most of the time. Her friends would come round and have play dates with her some days, and that was about it. Woodstock is a beautiful town with most things that you need. Not as much as we are used to though. The one thing they don’t really cater for is toddlers. There is a couple of parks, a mum and toddler group once a week and a leisure centre with a swimming pool in it, but one adult taking three kids, two been toddlers swimming, is not really practical, and parks in winter, fat chance. You would have to dig the swings out of the snow first. So winter was really boring for Emma. The kids where happy enough though. Having a massive long open space house, to play in, riding up and down the house in there cars etc. There would be about ten kids at times, when Emma had play dates round. Kids at one end of the house, and mums at the other, but that didn’t fill seven days a week with me been away for twelve days at a time. So winters where really hard on Emma. Summers where better for them. They would be out and about most days. Either round at friends, or at the parks, or even drive sixty miles to the nearest Town/city where there where more things to do with the kids. But a hundred and twenty mile round trip, just to take the kids to a indoor play structure, was a pain, but its what we had to do. Then this last winter started about mid November with the snow. Which stuck around till the end of May. Six months of snowing most days. Most of the snow storm days, Emma would wait for her friends husband to come round in his Pickup, with a snow plow fastened to the front, just to clear our drive, so she could get out of the garage. So this last winter hit Emma really hard. She got really depressed. Because I was never there, and I could not see this at first, as she wouldn’t tell me. It wasn’t till one time I was at home, we got a baby sitter so me and Emma could go out on our own for a change. We was going to go to the cinema which only had three screens, but when we got there, all three films where for kids. So we decided to go for something to eat. Normally we would go to the truck stop, like most people did, as it was the best food around. But we thought we would try somewhere new. When we got to one place, it was closing early, as there was no-one in. The place we ended up at, had the worst menu ever, everything fried as usual. We just had a snack and called it a night. It was at that point, I realised that Woodstock was not for us as a family. For me, I had never really seen Woodstock. On my two full days off, after working twelve days flat out, my first full day off I would not even get dressed. I would just relax and stay home, then the next day, it was cut the grass in the summer and clear the snow in the winter. Then the next day, I would be back on the road. Emma would just put up with it and not say anything. Once I had realised this and we sat down and had a real good think about our situation. We decided to put our lovely house on the market and move to a city where there was a lot more to do for Emma and the kids while I was away. The cities we looked at where between one and five hours away, from work. Which is nothing as a lot of our drivers live away from Woodstock. When it came to going home and going back to work. That was easy, as we had twenty, thirty trucks a day go past those cities, so you would just get a lift with one of those. We originally settled in Woodstock, because it was close to work. Sometimes I would come back to Woodstock to switch trailers and while I was there, the truck would need to be checked over and serviced etc too. So even though it would only be a couple of hours. It was a couple of hours I could spend with the family. Had we lived in the city. The nearest one is sixty miles away. Emma would have still come up to see me each time I popped back to Woodstock, but it would have been more of a pain driving all that way just to spend an hour or two together.

Anyway the house sold more or less straight away, which I was surprised and not surprised. Not surprised because it was a beautiful house in a well sort after location, priced for a quick sale. I was surprised though because most houses that come up for sale in my part of town, are normally on the market for months and years, because it’s only the well to do people that can afford to live there. There where houses still for sale today, that was on the market when we first moved to Canada, so im glad ours sold straight away. Now you are wondering where we have moved to. Well, after thinking more about our situation, after putting the house on the market. We thought that moving to the city for Emma and the kids to have more to do was still not enough. I would still be away all the time and my visa only allowed me to be a long haul trucker. I began to realise that I felt like a single dad, where I only got to see my family every other weekend, and that Emma was bringing up our kids as a single mum. It was no life for a young family. Had we got our permanent residency, I could do any job I wanted then, but we never got round to applying for it. Our paperwork was ready to go but it takes about nine months to come through and a lot of money for a family of five. So instead of moving to a city and waiting months so I can finally get a job to be home everyday. We decided we could not wait any longer and to do the only other option available to us. Move back to the UK. Back to dinky houses, crap pay, and everyone in a rush all the time. That is something that I never thought I would say again, but these last couple of years has made me realise that family comes before anything else. So if it meant moving back to what we left behind, regardless to what was in store, then that’s what we had to do.

We arrived back at the end of July. that’s why you have not heard from me in a while. We have been busy trying to get settled. I didn’t think the UK could get any worse, but it has. We arrived having no house, no jobs and no cars. Well we do have two houses, but one has tenants, and the other is in the middle of renovation. So they where out of the question. So five of us stayed in a two birth Caravan on my mothers drive for a couple of weeks. What fun Things started to fall into place. We found a house. We went back to needing and having two cars again. Then it was find a job. What a nightmare. This country is really going down the pan. I cant believe what crap pay companies our offering now days. Before we moved over to Canada, I was on reasonable money, but companies now are only willing to offer two and three pound an hour less. Its ridicules, but it’s the way things our now, so I have had to put up with it, to allow me to see the family a lot more. I joined an agency that I once worked for, just so I had got money coming in while I could find a permanent position. They did keep me flat out every week, but on crap pay, and it was one day I was starting at 1am then the next it was 3pm. So it was all over the place. Im more of a routine person, so I only put up with it for as long as I needed to. It took two months of sending my CV out to any company name I seen driving down the road. All the companies close to me either had no positions, not willing to pay me enough, or a hundred drivers would apply for one position. I only picked on the larger companies that I seen their trucks everyday. The company that I work for now, was the first one I had a driver assessment with. After the drive, they offered me the job on the spot. The pay is still not great but average. I also got my own truck after only a few days, but the down side is a one hundred mile round trip to work and back. Luckily when I bought my car, I anticipated having to travel, as I have always had to in the past. So instead of getting my usual big 4x4’s, I got a little eco car. My family did think it was funny me driving a little roller skate, but with the fuel cost and car tax prices here in the UK. It was the best thing to do. I do have two or three nights out a week also, which does help cut down my travel costs. That does mean I don’t get to see my family every day still, but loads more than I ever did in Canada. Had there been no nights out, it would have been another job offer I would have turned down, as the wage alone, was not worth the travel. The advantage of working for the agency when I first got back, was I could see the variety of work out there, and even though I came home every day, I still didn’t always see my family, because of the length of time I would have to work, or the times I would get in etc. so having some nights out is only like the times I would roll in at 10pm only to set off back out at 6am or something. So there isn’t that much difference really, except the UK could not care a monkeys about truck drivers. The facilities are absolute pants. That’s when you find some. There are no toilets in lay-bys. Truck stops, in less you know where they are, you would not find them. Showers are disgusting and you have to pay for them in places. You have to pay to park more than two hours, which is a fortune, and that’s only if your hours allows you to get to a truck stop/services in the first place, instead of some lay-by at the side of the road where everyone passes you at 80mph rocking the truck from side to side. Other truckers pinch your light lenses. Others will steel your fuel and what ever you have in the trailer. What joys of a UK trucker. I do so miss trucking in America, but its worth putting up with the crap of the UK, to be with my family again. Its just a pity I could not find a job same as my old one I had before we moved to Canada. I only worked about nine hours a day, home early afternoon four out of five days. One night out a week, and went to the same set places for good money. But those jobs are one in a million, so a fat chance of finding that again. A little part of me wished I never gave that up, but then we would have never moved to Canada.

So the North American adventure is over, and we are back to reality. Looking back, it feels like it was just a working holiday. A great time we got to experience. I got to see most of North America. The shaded part of the map, shows where I have been.

A lot of people don’t last two seconds over there as it is way different than what you are used to. We can say we made it and we gave it a real good go, but the job and family life just don’t go together. I was on an excellent wage. More than I have ever earned before in my working life, but what’s the point if I could not spend it with my family. Had the kids been teenagers, Woodstock would have been a much more suitable place to live. Had I had a job that allowed me to be home every night, again, things would have been a lot more suitable. Ayr Motor asked me when I will be coming back. I just said ‘Never’ trucking in North America is a single persons life, or where your partner rides round with you all the time. Its no life for a family, but everyone is different. Some might want to get away from the wife. So my advice to anyone thinking about making the move. Think hard and long. Do you want to be on the road seven days a week, working flat out every day. Do you want to provide well for your family, but not have time to enjoy it for yourself. If you are single, or all your kids have grown up and you and your partner want to go round with you, or even drive team. Then I would go for it, as it’s a great job. But if you are married with kids, its no life been apart all the time, but that’s up to you.

So there it is in a nut shell. We are back for good. No more plans to move anywhere in the world. There is so much to do and see on our doorstep. People take it all for granted, till its not there anymore. The UK certainly has its bad points and some good points, but so does Canada, they are just different good and bad. For instants entertainment, the UK wins hands down. For a quiet laid back life style, Canada wins all the way. Its just what you want out of life determines where its best for you. Kids in Canada cant start school till they are a year older than in the UK. So mine would have had to wait another year if we had stayed over there, but here they started in September. Which meant Emma could go back to work again, so it not all bad moving back here

Ayr Motor have asked me if I don’t mind still finding recruits for them. I have said yes, so the advert will stay on the blog, and I will help and advise anyone that still have questions. So you will still be able to get hold of me.

So this is it. Probably my last post. Thank you so much for all my loyal followers. It has been a pleasure, and I hope this blog from start to finish helps many others decided whether to make the leap or not. So from me, Emma and the kids, take care, and good luck in what ever you do. I leave you with a four part video of driving round Woodstock, and the interior of my truck, which reminds me of the space I no longer have. Have a nice Dayyyyy

Driving round Woodstock from Home to Ayr Motor and back

in 4 parts

What my truck looks like inside