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Until the UK house sale completed we were forced to conserve our funds so chose to live under a tarpaulin and trap local squirrels to eat. Okay, that’s not strictly true, but we certainly had to live petty light.

That’s now of course the dim and distant past, but having a reasonable sum of money in one country and living in another presents another challenge to the intrepid relocator, namely, how does one move funds from one place to another without giving the banking system vast sums of money.

The answer of course is to become a Foreign Exchange Dealer, which, using the power of the ‘net’ is perfectly feasible. My first stop was to moneysavingexpert.com a UK site that’s a real useful resource for anyone trying to get the most from their hard earned cash. Anyway, hunting around and also having spoken with some folks that moved over here around the same time as us I checked out a number of foreign exchange specialists. I visited MoneyCorp, HiFX, Currency UK and Foreign Exchange UK, there are plenty more to be found, but I ended up selecting one of the above.

I set up an account and carried out my first purchase of Canadian Dollars (CAD). The whole process was painless and having made a spot purchase, I transferred my Sterling in to the dealers account and they transferred the CAD to my local account. End to end the transaction took around 4 working days.

I then started to seriously watch the £ – CAD exchange rate. The CAD is a strong currency at the moment, not good for someone wanting to exchange sterling. So, when I noticed that the rate had managed to climb above 2 CAD I leapt into secure more funds.

Once again, the process went smoothly and a few days later I received notification of the transfer completing. However, no funds were showing in my bank. I left things overnight – still no funds appearing. I checked the transfer documents and horror – the dealer had left off my account details and transferred the CAD to a financial black hole. Over the next couple of days I made several calls and the dealer was very helpful. But, in the grand banking scheme of things, my amount was pretty much like losing small change down the back of a sofa. It was big bucks to me, but peanuts to the system.

I’m happy to report that my money was found in the equivalent of an electronic bucket somewhere between Ontario and BC and is now safely in my account.

So, not the best of experiences on my second run and it shows what a small human error can achieve. I’m not sure if there’s a moral to the story, just make sure that one checks all documents received very thoroughly.

Have I become an avid currency watcher? Yes, I’m afraid so. I’m watching [xe] the Pound yo-yo between 1.98 and as I write, just over 2 CAD. Now if it’ll only rise another couple of Cents.

Despite International Driving Licenses being available, you can pretty much forget about buying one before coming out to BC. Why? Well, your UK license is only valid for 90 days, and as the International License is tied to your national document – you get the picture. So, towards the end of last November I as unable to drive in BC without passing both a knowledge and practical test. Having said that, it wasn’t too much of an issue as until the UK house sold there were no funds available to buy a car. But, with a visitor arriving before Christmas, Lesley accepted the challenge of passing her test and being the nominated rental car driver, and responded with a resounding first time pass on the road test. The pressure was on!

When the house sale completed I suddenly had good reason to pass my tests, so, I dived in to the ‘orange’ book, passed my theory and arranged for some tune-up lessons with the same school that Lesley had used. Have a go at a practice knowledge test. The pass mark is 80%

After a couple of one and a half hour lessons and a pre-test run I’m pleased to report that I passed my test on 25th Jan. Boy, was I nervous. Many years have passed since my first driving test and suddenly having to drive to speed limits rather than driving to prevailing conditions was a real challenge, a much harder feat than driving on the right in a left hand drive vehicle. There are other subtle differences in driving techniques here as well, all designed to un-nerve the Brit newcomer. Here are a few examples.

• Pretty much any steering other than palming is okay. No ‘push-me, pull-you’ required here. It’s amazing that after years of not using the push/pull method, how quickly one returns to it when in a lesson. Point to Canada.

• Leaving BIG space margins in front of you at junctions. If I left more than a foot spare when behind a car in the UK another car would try and nip in! Point to Canada.

• Turning right on red lights (unless there’s a no right turn sign). Makes perfect sense. Point to Canada. Or is it, as it’s not consistent across the Provinces. Hmmm, note to self. If I make it out of BC I may just get in to trouble at a set of lights. so, neutral.

• Shoulder checks. If one’s changing direction, shoulder check, Mirrors are not enough. I ended up thinking my head was going to unscrew. Neutral.

• Cheap signing. There are plenty of 30kph signs around built up areas for schools and playgrounds and this is good. However, the signs are not placed in a consistent manner, they may be on a corner, 10 yards in or whatever takes the sign planters fancy. What really takes the biscuit is not having an ‘end of zone’ sign. It’s a matter of looking for the back of the start of zone sign on the opposite side of the road. Point to UK.

I’m sure other gems would pop up if I thought about it for longer and I’m sure Lesley will have something to say on the subject at some point.

So, the wheels. Was it to be a Chevy, Pontiac, Buick, Dodge? Was it to be a vast SUV, gigantic truck (just stand next to a Dodge RAM and wonder to yourself, why? Seriously, the top of the bonnet must be 5 feet from the ground – it’s immense), the ubiquitous mini van or just a darned large sedan?

Nope, a Ford Focus, and it’s a beaut. Black, with leather trim, alloys and low mileage, it’s a perfect first car, even more so when considering there’s a wannbe teen driver in the household and insurance is sky high. The ICBC appear to be pretty much a monopoly, making money for the Provincial Government.

So, that’s it, wheels at last. Will I miss the Sky Train and buses? Yes, I will and I’m sure I’ll still be using transit a lot as it’s cheap and reliable.

Now, where did I leave that Hummer brochure?

What else is there to do on a freezing cold New years Eve? Staying indoors would be boring so we decided to head off to North Van and Grouse Mountain. The plan was to go to the top of the mountain and just take in the views. What we didn’t bargain on was the lengthy queues of skiers and boarders clogging up the gondola. So, rather than stand in line for an hour we decided to try our luck at Capilano Suspension Bridge. The bridge is one of Vancouver’s most popular tourist attractions, and the great thing about being newcomers is that if we want to be tourists, we can be. Even better, we discovered that BC residents have free entry to the attraction for a year after paying for the first entry. So, visitors be warned, you are highly likely to end up being taken to Capilano, and I hope you have a head for heights.

Built in 1889, the bridge stretches for some 450 feet at a height of 230ft above the Capilano river. The whole park covers around 7 acres and it’s only when you start walking the tree tops adventure that you really take in the scale. When one’s downtown, it’s easy to forget that the area is a temperate rainforest, however Capilano park really brings home the natural habitat of BC.

The views, even in winter are spectacular and the sight of eagles gliding low in the valley, hunting for fish was truly awesome (my first use of a truly over used word around here).

Back to the crossing, and yes, Lesley was that worried.

The bridge itself certainly swayed with the amount of people crossing in both directions. I hope the short video captures a little of the experience, there are more photo’s on my Picasa page, click here to view them. I do intend to pick up a compact digital camera soon as I’d like to have taken some better shots than were possible with the trusty Nokia.

Even though we walked the tree top adventure, I’m sure we could have spent more time in the par, but with hypothermia setting in we erred on warmth. We’ll certainly go back to the park when the salmon are returning to spawn, now that should be a pretty special experience as well.