The Beginning

An awful lot seems to have happened in the last 36 hours! We left my family in Shenley on Monday lunch time to get to Heathrow for our 5.30pm flight. This whole move had seemed a little dream-like until that point, but saying goodbye to everyone at home was particularly difficult. I could hardly talk when I reluctantly got into the taxi. The driver must have thought me a pretty rude passenger, poor chap. The journey kicked off with Richard and Lizzie having to travel in a separate car to the rest of us because the firm didn’t have a vehicle large enough to take a family of 5 with international luggage. Anyway, the journey round the M25 to Heathrow was a good one. Not a single hitch so we arrived with plenty of time to spare (yes, I know you all can’t really believe that I, Noo, would be early anywhere – not exactly what I am known for. The reason: I wasn’t relying on my supersonic driving to get us there and had therefore planned enough time for a sensible taxi driver and the havoc caused by the dreaded M25 roadworks up in Hertfordshire. In the event, the road was clear. Hurrah).

So, arriving at 1pm,we had a lot of time to spare, and of course, the way I saw fit to best fill that time (and most sensibly, Richard agreed) was to go and find some food. But not just any old airport food. No. In Terminal 5 there is a new Gordon Ramsay restaurant – going in was a no brainer for both of us. No crusty old curled up sarnies, but instead for me, braised duck with red wine and clove jus with mustard mash, for Richard, pork something or other (looked super – see photo!), Lizzie had wild mushroom and rocket risotto, Harry a pasta dish and Lexi did choose a sandwich but one of the nicest I have seen- super ham, Emmentaal and quail’s eggs! Hee hee! Poshest airport lunch ever and, most superbly, courtesy of Her Mag!

The Army also fly us out here Club Class – so we were able to use the super duper lounge. It was great. There was a part of the lounge walled off in glass in which had been placed computers with internet access, some sort of computer console thing (yup, that’s right, can’t tell the difference between any of those boy type computer game playing things), games, TV, the works. So the girls were happy. Harry however, did a complete U turn and behaved in a way I have never known before and ran up and down the huge (hushed, filled with business men) lounge/Champagne bar screaming – for no reason. I hadn’t realised quite how fast the little blighter could run until I was forced into a faintly comedic chase across about 50 yards (Richard wasn’t there but heard it outside!). Deep joy.

I have only travelled Cattle Class on flights before, so when we were led to the front of the ‘plane I was pretty delighted to see how we would be travelling. The super comfy chair/bed things were excellent and nothing was too much trouble for the crew. They kept coming round offering Champagne (it would have been rude to say no), snacks, any drinks, hot towels, games for the children and a pretty good menu (honestly!) from which to chose our supper. I had the pea jelly with parmesan biscuits (Harry and Lexi loved it, Lizzie went for the smoked salmon). I’m going to have a go at making it at some point. It looked pretty good on the plate. The rest of the grub was good too.

The flight to Calgary was nine and a half hours long, so I was dreading the whole Harry aspect of things, but after a few hours and a huge amount of hard work, he went to sleep and slept until we landed. The giries however, stayed awake the entire time – we landed at 3am GMT. Not bad stamina! We weren’t able to leave the airport straight away as we were held back in Customs for an hour, which was a bit of a drag at that time of night, but the whole thing was helped along considerable by an Army chap who met us straight off the ‘plane and walked us through everything including taking us to our room in the airport hotel. When we walked into the reception of the hotel, we were met with the smell of chlorine (which the children clocked straight away!). The hotel reception area had a swimming pool in it! It looked super, but it was an absolute pain in the neck for us because, of course, all three sprogs kept begging to be allowed to go for a swim – despite it being 4am GMT.

After being the most mean parents in the world, making the children go to bed without a swim, we snatched about four hours sleep and were then up and ready for an early morning flight from Calgary to Medicine Hat – our nearest town. The ‘plane was SO titchy. It seated 14 and boy did it shake about. Harry thought it was marvellous – I suppose to a two year old, a ‘plane with two propellers and being able to look down the aisle to see the pilot flying it is far more real than the first huge aeroplane. Before boarding this ‘plane however, we were told at the Gate that one of our bags was 7 lbs and another 4 lbs over the weight limit. All our others were under, but it apparently made no difference. So Richard had to go and buy a small bag whilst I unpacked our bags, weighing piles of the contents in order to redistribute. It was a bit of a pest and a not one of the most calm moments of our journey.

We were collected by a military driver from the airport and brought straight to BATUS (British Army Training Unit Suffield), or I think, more commonly known here as Ralston Village. We have been allocated the Welfare House. It’s a pretty decent sized three bed bungalow and will be absolutely fine for the next couple of weeks. We have been aware for a while that our house is not going to be available until 12th September but on arrival we were informed that the chap moving out has had his leaving date postponed so we are not quite sure when we will now move in. We are hopeful that it will still be during September though.......

Well, we have had a good wander around the Patch, and there seems to be quite a bit for the children to do here, which is fab. There are about ten nice little play parks dotted around, the best being at the school. It’s nice that it is open to be used during the holidays. There’s the library, coffee shop, leisure centre, ice rink and lots more, but I am most delighted with the spaciousness of the place. It’s just so open.

Richard and I have decided that we are going to try and give the children a lot more freedom whilst living here. I, particularly, have always been rather terrible at letting the girls go out by themselves – even on the Middle Wallop base, but we reckon here is so jolly safe and so completely remote, we are going to be able to have a more free way of living. We started today by letting the girls go to the splash park by themselves. They were really chuffed! It’s a play park which has water sprinkling everywhere, rather like the one at LegoLand in Windsor. It has been so warm here today though that they dried off pretty quickly.
Richard starts work tomorrow (a touch too soon I reckon) but we’re off into Medicine Hat before he does to buy car seats, pick up our new car (yey!) and fill the cupboards with food (we had to go to the Canex – the shop on the base – to buy food just for today. Pizzas were about £9! Just bog standard, soggy frozen pizzas!).
So, here we are in Canada. I will try to find an internet cafe tomorrow so I can move this text from Word to my blog. I am not at all web savvy so I don’t know if I can (I hear several of you laughing at my hopelessness now!). I think internet access is going to be a bit hit and miss until we move into own home. We won’t have a ‘phone until then either......
I am aware this first post has been rather a mammoth one (I’ve always been one keen to chat!) but rest assured, I am quite certain as time goes on and everything becomes familiar and normal, there will be less and less to say!
Love Noo xx