Day 47–Scotland

I do not wish to be on the computer all that much on vacation, so stay tuned for our updates when we return

- Michelle

Day 46–Zero Days!! Naught! Nothing!! 0! Bubka!

Now we are counting down the hours, not days. So excited! Canada must know we are leaving for a cooler country today because we woke up to a frigid 7 degrees! That is so much cooler than the normal 20+ temps we have been experiencing for the past few weeks, and sometimes even much, much warmer. We are all packed and thanks to both of our forward thinking and applying all the lessons we learned from last year, we are enjoying a very relaxing few hours before the trip. Last year at this time we were racing around getting a million last minute things which is really a ridiculous way to start a vacation. It almost makes me think that I have forgotten something but I am pretty sure that I got everything covered.

One of the cool things about this trip is that we are leaving on the exact same day at the exact same time as we did last year! We left for Scotland on the 15th of September at 7:30 PM. I am even wearing the same “Grumpy” shirt as I did last year! (For those who read my previous post, yes I decided to go with the Grumpy shirt) Today, the 15th of September, we are leaving at 7:30 tonight.

To our new Friends Kevin and Brenda Thank you!! Thank you for putting up with our little zoo at home while we are gone. We must repay you my letting you have a couple of cats when we get home. Honestly, it would be our pleasure!

So, our next post we will be in…..

- Will

Day 45–One day until takeoff

• Bags packed – check!
• Apartment cleaned – check!
• Pets looked after – check!
• Airport limo booked – check!
• Boarding passes printed – check!

Next time you hear from me I will be in Biggleswade, England!

- Michelle

Day 44–two days until we fly!

There are really so many fantastic things to do, see, and experience in Toronto and all of Canada for that matter and so many of these things are lost on the very people who live in them! I am no exception to this I’m afraid. It is sad really. I’m not sure what the reason for this is but perhaps its that, for example, the CN Tower is right beside us (we can see it outside our window), the Skydome (sorry, ROGERS centre) is just beside the CN Tower, Centre Island is just a short ferry ride across the lake, and countless more events and other attractions that draw people from all over the world; Toronto is a world class leader in tourist attractions and it is well deserved. And Canada? My God what a country! We are home to some of the greatest mountains, lakes, parks, and farmland. My inability to name hardly any of Toronto’s and Canada’s awesomeness makes me a little ashamed to be a Torontonian and only aids my point. Yet I find a little consolation in the fact that I know I am not alone in this. This city is filled with people who don’t even appreciate the place they live in. I also think Toronto is not alone in this; my guess is the world is filled with cities, towns, and places in general that are not fully appreciated by their own people. Who knows why? Perhaps its local marketing targeting only those who don’t live in a particular area or perhaps its the attitudes of the locals who assume they will visit any time they like as they do live so close and then, as a result, never ever do visit. Or perhaps its because it cost over $100 to go up the bloody CN Tower!!

One of my own personal piss-offs of a massive city like Toronto is how impersonal names that are given places and streets can be. Many streets are named as numbers!! More so in the States than here but are you kidding?!?! Has someone become so complacent in their job that they have deferred to a calculator rather than a dictionary when naming streets? Corporations have now gotten involved too. The once aptly-named Skydome is now blandly called the The Rogers Centre! This stuff drives me nuts. There was a proposition a few years ago to help our money strapped subway system by renaming the stations after fortune 500 corporations. I just can’t get on board (pun INtended) with a station called Coke!

So what brought this little rant about? What on earth does this have to do with moving to Shetland??

Well, for one, I’ll will put money down that after we move I will be itching to go up the CN Tower!

One of our first stops is to my Uncle’s. I am really excited because I don’t get to see him much and I have only met his wife and two kids once and very briefly. Michelle and I get to finally see where they live. And where do they live I hear you asking? Biggleswade. BIGGLESWADE!! It sounds like a place in which a Hobbit would live. If there were a town called Biggleswade here, it would be converted to Rogersville in a heartbeat! Ok, perhaps I exaggerate just a little and if anyone thinks even a little that this actually plays into any part of any one of my hundreds of reasons why I want to move to Scotland, I will call you Rogers. And believe me that is as bad a swear word where I come from (my apologies to anyone out there named Roger). To be clear, Biggleswade is in England not Scotland, but the entire UK is filled with cute little places with similarly cute names.

This blog was brought to you by Rogers; sucking the originality out of the world one name at a time.

- Will

Day 43–London

I am sure London is a place that we will visit a couple times when living in Scotland but for right now it is so exciting to me knowing I get to go there for a day next week!! We will actually be staying with family outside of London for a couple days but we will spend one day in the heart of the city doing the touristy kind of things. Cameras and a map in hand we would really like to see these places..

Buckingham Palace (yes, I even hope to see the furry hat men! I was so disappointed to not see them last year at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh)

Westminster Abbey

London Bridge

Trafalgar Square

Big Ben

The London Eye

And finally, I would LOVE to find Abbey Road…

Stay tuned until next week to see how many of these we get to see and our first hand pictures!

- Michelle

Day 42–four Days until we fly!!

And there is a small part of me that is a tad nervous. Today marks the tenth year anniversary of the twin towers attack in New York and we fly in four days! The actual event ten years ago has been permanently turned into one of those “Where were you when…” stories and I have heard some interesting ones. Although the story of where I was when it all went down (poor choice of words I suppose) isn’t all that interesting (waking up and making coffee in my apartment), where I was six hours before I think was; I was on a plane coming back from Cuba. I could still smell the recirculated air and I still had the taste of cheap airline food in my mouth when I turned on the TV to those horrific images. Very surreal.

Security is probably going to be the most fun at the airport. I am sure its going to be a little tighter than it was even last year. I was stunned when Michelle and I went through security and the man in front of us was allowed to go through with climbing equipment in his carry-on which included spikes and a pick-axe! And here I was worried about my good pen thinking that they might construe it as a weapon! We plan on being at the airport 3 1/2 to 4 hours early just to be sure. I am going to assume that security will be slow.

That will be us in a couple of days, off to see our new future home. I think I may wear my grumpy shirt again. Or maybe not. Oh, I don’t know. You will just have to wait and see. The excitement of it all.

- Will

Day 41–It’s my birthday!

Just wanted to start by saying that I am excited it is my birthday! The big 2-4! We are just having a relaxing day at home after going for a delicious breakfast. We are going to save the celebrations and fun for my birthday until we get to Scotland.

We I am sure will have a couple nights out at the pub, The Lounge, in Lerwick but my favourite nights for sure are the nights drinking and having a great time on Rona. The taxi drivers that would be lined up on the Victoria Pier every morning would get a good chuckle at our expense every single morning. As Will would carry the empty bottles of wine and scotch up to the skips to recycle, he would be greeted with smiles, probably wondering how so much alcohol was consumed each night for about a week and a half straight. What no one knows it the amazing memories that those nights created.

From the reminiscing between Will and his father about Will’s childhood, to the funny times that they again two nights later reminisced about the exact same things. Even just the good laughs we had and the talks of getting to know each other that we found out just how much Becky and I have in common! Each night was crazy and different and usually involved a lot of eating also.

At the end of our time on Rona, Jim and Becky happily let us know that we were the longest staying guests on Rona. Let’s hope this year is just as much and more fun and that we make a lot more memories.

- Michelle

Day 40–Six Days!!!

Ya, I am really surprised that Michelle did not get sea sick on the ferry ride up to Lerwick. Apparently on the calmest of days it can still be a little rocky and to make things even funner (real word – look it up) we were stationed at the bow (front for those land lubbers out there and that pretty much exhausts my nautical vocabulary) where the bobbing of the ship is felt the most by those she carries. And that was where Michelle was sleeping when the Hrossey (the name of the ferry) hit a particularly forceful wave that rocked the ship so much, it quite literally fell so fast that Michelle was left up above the floor for a moment or two before gravity took over and shocked her awake when she rudely reconnected with the thinly carpeted floor. I know Michelle already talked about this in the last post, but I thought that it was worth another mention.

In this video, you might be able to hear a few rumbles. Well, in reality, they were waves crashing against the ship so hard that the entire structure shook and vibrated. It was like a crazy-ass roller coaster ride at Canada’s Wonderland that just wouldn’t stop!

In just over a week, we will be on it again. Cross your fingers that another storm comes our way!!

 

This was a SMALL taste of what what the waves were like going from Aberdeen to Lerwick

- Will

Day 39–SEVEN DAYS!!!

ONE WEEK LEFT!!!

I am sure this has come up already from one of us but last year was a big test as to how I could handle boats and if I got seasickness. I had only ever been on boats at the cottage, in small contained waters.  Not at all something to write home about. So last year was the true test for me and of course in true Will and Michelle style it was anything but ordinary!

The day we landed in Glasgow we took a train to Aberdeen and from the train station made our way to the Northlink Ferry terminal in town to check-in. Upon arrival the terminal was very empty and we were informed at the front desk that there was a gale force storm out in the ocean and if either of us were not comfortable going out in this or had seasickness we could rebook another day for no fee. Well being the very broke and curious (maybe a little stupid mixed in there too) we checked into the ferry and considered it an adventure! (As a side note we are glad we didn’t postpone until the next day because that sailing was cancelled due to the condition of the seas!!) I have attached the picture of the cleaning log for the ship that Will took when we sailed back to Aberdeen a couple weeks later. Note that on the 16th it says "No sailing", real proof that it didn't sail the day after us!

So we got onboard, explored the amazing ship and had some dinner. Considering the excitement and amount of travel in the last day or so I curled up on the floor of the foot passenger room in my sleeping bag and fell into a deep sleep while Will enjoyed a couple pints in the lounge. I had no idea what this storm would entail when we were out at sea but a rude awakening showed me VERY quickly! I was woken up when I literally (and I mean, literally) was lifted off the ground and slammed back down. No Will was not drunk and trying to be funny! It was a wave! A little scared I went to find Will and it took holding onto walls and railings to not fall over as I walked. After talking for a couple minutes Will had a eureka moment, he exclaimed pretty loudly out of nowhere “WAIT! You don’t feel sick at all do you?!?!” From that point on, as the ship was crashing through 10 to 15 meter waves and no reaction from me other than excitement, we knew I could handle being on a boat!
It was one of the most amazing, alive feelings to be in a storm like this and walk around the boat having to hold onto railings to keep upright!

Once we arrived in Lerwick I was so excited to get on Rona and go out for a sail now that I knew I could handle it. So here is my happy self doing what I am pretty sure was one of the most fun and amazing experiences I have ever had.

So as much as I am obviously looking forward to going to England for a couple days when we land, I can’t wait to get back onto Rona and the Northlink Ferry one more time.
- Michelle

Day 38–Eight Days!!

To follow suit with Michelle’s previous post, EIGHT DAYS until we take off. I have people telling me to “take off” all the time (or variations of that such as f*** off, that sort of thing), but this time its all for real. To say we are 'excited' is an unfair understatement and am running the huge risk of using the, in this case, massively euphemistic said word. Not only are we going back to see my father and his wife, we are going to check out new future home! THAT is exciting!!
I’m sure Michelle and I will highlight some of the things we did last year while we were there and while we are there we will talk about all the new adventures we will embark upon. Even though we are going to the same place at the same time of year and staying on the same yacht with the same people, we are probably going to have a completely different experience. To say the wedding wasn’t the highlight of our last trip would not only be a lie but would probably eject me from my marriage prematurely; and no one likes anything ejecting prematurely! But there were so many other amazing things that we did and that happened, the wedding was on the top of our ‘amazing’ list but not by much!
I think that two of the funniest things for me were completely unrelated incidences that I soon tried to connect in an attempt to deflect blame, but that ultimately failed miserably; apparently these family members of mine are just not a gullible as I had hoped.
Incident the first (Packing):
At the time of preparing for this trip nearly a year ago, I had overlook, misread, or simply scoffed at and disregarded a rather vital part of my father’s email to us. In this email he described the inside of the boat as big enough to support four people comfortably but as space is an important and valuable thing, he warned both Michelle and I that we should pack appropriately; pack only what we need keeping in mind the physical limitations of the boat. He assumed, and rightly so, that as I had been on his yacht a number of times in the past that this warning was not a necessary thing to issue to me but he thought that he should err on the side of caution and issue the warning anyway. I will use the excuse that we did have a wedding to pack for which does take up a fair amount of luggage space, but that really held no water whatsoever. As the saying goes, A picture says a thousand words, I will let the following explain my father’s reaction to our packing prowess:





And I’m sorry to say that what you see above was not all our bags. Moving on…
And then of course I responded in a mature fashion:


Incident the second (Bob):
Michelle and I thought that we had travelled to Scotland alone. We took great pains to ensure that we had not feline stowaways in our bags. Our efforts inevitably failed us miserably but to my great delight I now had someone to, ahem, ‘pin’ (you should get the pun soon) the whole packing fiasco on. I went onto great lengths explaining how our packing a tad heavy was all Bob’s fault. I really didn’t think he would go for it but then! The unthinkable happened! One day, Michelle and I went our for one of our little strolls through Lerwick and we returned to a gory scene inside the boat. I don’t know how the pier wasn’t teeming with Bobbies (Bahahahah – no pun intended actually! Bobbies is the British slang word for police officer. Hee Hee, Bobbies investigating the death of….). Bob was brutally and horrifically murdered!! I am not sure what took his life, the hanging of the knife in the chest, but either way, Bob is no longer with us! *sigh*

Ok, well Bob is really in fact fine, despite the obvious identity issues: Is he a bunny or a bear? My father still blames me for the horrendous packing but this time I shall show him that is young man is still able to learn!
This time we are armed with knapsacks!
Shall Bob return to the horrific crime scene?
Stay tuned!
Dun, dun, dun!
- Will

Day 37–Nine days!!

Nine days from RIGHT NOW (7:30pm) we will be walking on a plane at Pearson International Airport. Nine days from now I will be probably crying out of excitement, while my Grandma warns me on the phone that red eyes look really bad going through security and that I need to breathe. Nine days from now I will be jumping up and down in excitement when I see our plane waiting at the gate. Nine days from now we will be going down the runway and take off into the gorgeous nighttime sky!

Ten days from now we will be in Scotland!

So many little odds and ends to patch up before we go away but the most important things are already taken care of. Just a couple things to pick up from the store in the next week. I remember back to when our countdown started at 186 days and can’t believe that we are now getting so close! I have a couple fears and many many exciting things to look forward to on this trip! We will spend a day in Cambridge, England, a day in London, England and then head back up to Shetland for two weeks. Many day trips will be had with Will’s dad and step mom, Becky. Hopefully we will get out for a sail or two on Rona! Maybe a nighttime anchor out somewhere gorgeous! (We were going to do this last year but the weather wasn’t right for it) We will also celebrate our one year wedding anniversary while up in Shetland! I can’t wait to revisit the cave that we got married in, may I add too that we are the only people ever to get married in that cave!

My one big nervous fear though is that we will be telling Will’s dad and Becky about moving. Neither of us have any clue how they will respond. We hope that Becky will be excited for us as she had an inkling last year that we were considering a move. Will is convinced his dad will be happy deep down and might at first show the strong, questioning, concerned dad side and make sure we are not making a rash decision. Either way I think I might feel really nauseous when this topic of conversation comes up!!

It all starts in NINE DAYS….

- Michelle

Day 36–A forum for… um… me?

Ok, I have breached the wall of blogs and run at top speed into the wall of forums. I have no bloody clue what I am doing on the web (until this newly discovered world, I was convinced porn was the only thing of any real value!) and thought I would even better attempt to express my great and far-reaching ignorance by starting a forum, which I have now done. And amazingly I already have one member!! Yay! Granted its my wife, but still! YAY for me!!

I have a feeling I am Yaying alone here. 

Its a forum for those who are thinking about moving, who have moved, or are moved by movers to talk about their experiences. I think it’s a great idea but here’s my problem: no one in my life knows about this move my wife and I are going to do! The best starting place to get sign up for your forum are with your friends and family or through social outlets such as facebook. Well, how the hell am I supposed to do that when I don’t yet want my friends or family to know about it?!?! I am NOT going to waste my time as I have read so many other have done, by creating a whole bunch of fake usernames and start having fake conversations with themselves just to make it look like there is some exciting action on my forum! I look stupid enough when I argue with myself out loud, I might run the risk of looking even goofier doing it on a forum.

This in itself is an interesting topic I think as I’m sure there is a stage in everyone’s lives who make a decision to move abroad where no one in their lives really knows of their intended move. But I again ask, how does one get people to their forum when one cannot advertise to one’s friends or family? The answer might be very, very simple and that is I’m screwed. If so, so be it. Well, here’s one way, join my forum please! If there’s no one else there, talk to me! Or my wife. Or yourself like I sometimes do. 

- Will

Day 35–“isms”

With our upcoming trip back to Scotland in just over a week I thought I could use a refresher on “Brit-isms” so as not to embarass myself with any words that have different meaning over there.

Some of these I got a good laugh out of last year as I would use the “Canadian” word I am used to and it would result in a very confused look on the face of the Scottish person I was speaking to.

Let me see what I can remember…

1. “Pants” – contrary to what Canadians deem pants, if you travel to Scotland without learning their meaning to this word you WILL end up in a very embarassing conversation. Pants in Scotland means underwear.

2. “Trousers” – what Canadians call pants.

3. “Chips” – these are french fries in Scotland. Hence fish and chips!

4. “Crisps” – as a follow-up to chips, crisps are what Canadians know as potato chips. (Side story: We saw some Americans make total asses out of themselves by asking for chips at a little shop. What they really wanted was crisps and the one tourist made a comment “THEY call them crisps here not chips” in such a cold and bizarre tone that you would have thought the locals were test subjects in an experiment being discussed)

5. “Sweets” – this is candy. I went into the corner store and asked for candy and the shopkeeper had no clue what I was asking for.

6. “Toilet” – this is the word used for what we Canadians call the washroom. (Side story: I learned quickly on our trip last year to ask where the toilet was instead of asking for the washroom. Once on the ferry to Shetland I asked where the toilet was and the bartender looked at me a little funny and said “Oh, you mean the washroom?”. All I could do was say yes, shake my head and follow his directions to the toilet”)

I am sure I will face some more embarassing situations this coming year as I probably have forgotten some words. As long as I remember the difference between pants and trousers I should be just fine though!

- Michelle

Day 34–Holidays??

Please forgive me for a little rant….
I don’t mean vacation holidays, I mean holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years, etc. Even before our lovely government deemed it necessary to force businesses to open on Sundays back in the early 90s, all us Canadians could always look forward to such inevitable and much anticipated days off such as those mentioned above. Even other holidays that are much more specific to Canada such as Labour Day (which is in two days), or even specific to Ontario such as Family Day are so very special to everyone here. I think holidays such as these are vital to a country that houses people who carry two, even three jobs to make their ends meet. Its sad that we are in a world where we live to work. Ass-backwards if you ask me and I am just as guilty of it as so many others are.
Well to make things even worse, Toronto has allocated certain areas of the city as “Tourist Areas”. These designated areas have to stay open on all holidays, no matter which one. Yup, that means Christmas, New Years and even the newly created Family Day in February! What is the logic in creating a day off called “Family Day”, intended for all of us to, you guessed it, spend with our family, and then make it mandatory to work it in certain areas of the city? I personally am not affected yet, but in my opinion it is only a matter of time before these “Tourist areas” spread and as the population becomes numb to the concept of working on holidays, everyone will have to do it. It may take five years, it may take fifty. I can see where this is going and I simply don’t want to  be there when it gets there.
And then there is Lerwick which pretty much rolls up the sidewalk at 5:00 or 6:00 PM each evening and is a quite little community of people enjoying each other and the day each and every Sunday. Its not to say people don’t work on Sunday, but the attitude about it seems so much more relaxed.
If you are interested, here is a list of Canadian Holidays:


Here is a list of holidays in Britain:


- Ready to enjoy my Labour Day off…..for now, Will

Day 33 - Averages

So today is September 2nd and in Mississauga, Ontario it was 32 degrees Celsius, with humidity it felt like 40!! To say that is way too hot for this time of year (or any time of year) would be an understatement. We are beyond tired of it and so in a moment of curiosity I decided to look up the average temperature in Lerwick compared to Toronto.

This is what I found for Lerwick:
- Jan: 3.3 C
- Feb: 3.2 C
- Mar: 4.0 C
- Apr: 5.3 C
- May: 7.6 C
- Jun: 10.0 C
- Jul: 11.7 C
- Aug: 11.9 C
- Sept: 10.4 C
- Oct: 8.3 C
- Nov: 5.7 C
- Dec: 4.3 C

Toronto:
- Jan: -6.4 C
- Feb: -5.6 C
- Mar: -0.8 C
- Apr: 6.3 C
- May: 12.3 C
- Jun: 17.6 C
- Jul: 20.7 C
- Aug: 19.7 C
- Sept: 15.4 C
- Oct: 9.1 C
- Nov: 3.2 C
- Dec: -3.3 C

So with all these averages I can tell that obviously I won't get the hot hot days that sometimes in Toronto we crave when having a deeply cold winter, however in Lerwick we won't get those icy cold winters that will have us craving the heat so much. Lerwick never seems to dip below the freezing mark as they are located on the ocean. Toronto on the other hand goes from very low temperatures under freezing to extreme highs in which heat alerts have to be issued.

Now my question. I know which of the two I prefer, which place would you like better based on temperature??

- Michelle

Day 32–Two can play this game…

For those of you who know me, I may surprise you by trying my fingers at a rather silly post; much to the objection of my own personal character traits.

Ok, so Michelle wants to lay claim to my yacht?! HA! As the title of this blog not only expects but DEMANDS, two can play this game!

If I might be allowed for a moment to refer to one of her posts dating back to the 27th of September we will be reminded of her claim to the achoos! Yes, as her title suggests, she was achooing (and still is for that matter) incessantly and her claim to the ragweed allergy is but unfair and untrue. Who is she to stake command of such an ailment when there are others just as deserving? 

And who might else might be deserving of this, you ask? Why, me of course! ME! There are others in this world who might want what you hold so close especially the other who is supposed to be significant. But NO, hold onto that precious achoo and let no one who might wish to try get any closer than the postings of these blogs!

And what do they say (whoever they might be)? Be careful what you wish for? Well perhaps my beloved heard my silent objections to her post (as most men’s wives tend to have the ability to do). I awoke one morning to an odd sensation ticking the innards of my nasal passages. A tightening effect within the same area made breathing a little more difficult. I rose from my bed and before I could lay feet to the floor, I let out a violent achoo of my very own. For the briefest of moments, I was elated as I had stolen the very element of that which my wife had bragged about not long ago.

And then my heart sank as I realized what had descended upon me. I was infected with the very same achoos!

I might also add my objection to her infecting me with the allergy condition as up until last year, I was immune and no other reasonable conclusion can be drawn! Perhaps kissing on the cheek in the future will have to suffice as I fear for what other conditions might be passed my way. The incessant-babbling, shoe-and-purse-talk, furry-leg-obsession, and so may others that I cannot even begin to dream of and yet I fear them all! I fear for my future, people.

If my achoos take me because of the infection that my wife has passed onto me, I hope these last words allow warning to those other men out there who have wives who try to STEAL THEIR BLOODY YACHT!

Ha, I’m sure I put my wife in her place. Let no repercussions come from this post!

- A dead man typing, Will

Day 31–*OUR* future sailing boat…

So I have noticed that my husband so gracefully referred to the boat we will get in the future as *his*. I would like to make a clarification of this. It will be *ours*.  

On that note, I am just as excited as he is for the boat! We will take sailing lessons as soon as we move to Shetland and build up our skills as much as possible. I would LOVE one day to sail to the Azores or any crazy far away destinations just like Will’s dad, Jim, and Becky do. Even just to go on trips around the Scottish islands would be amazing!

A huge fear Will had last year on my first trip to Scotland was if I would have seasickness. Well luckily, I don’t! We learned this while on a 30 hour ferry ride in the North Sea during a galeforce storm in 10 metre waves! Ya I think me surviving that means I can handle being on a boat!! Not only did I not get sick on the ferry I was also having fun walking back and forth and jumping in the boat as it crashed into the waves.

So yes this is my simple post for today….just a little clarification. One day we hope to write our blog from OUR very own sailboat docked in some crazy harbour in a remote part on a tiny island!

- Michelle

Day 30–My future sailing boat?

One of my greatest personal dreams when I move over to Scotland is to own a sailboat. Ya, every guy’s dream, right? Doesn’t have to be big, it just has to be mine. My father owns one called Rona and he treats it like it is his castle, well because it kinda is. He lives in it with his wife Becky. They both own houses outside of Edinburgh but they are having a fantastic time living on their yacht. And their adventures are simply  spectacular, the latest of which was to the Azores and back from Shetland (look it up!). I simply cannot believe that they went for so long, sailing in the Ocean on four hour shifts for literally weeks down. The physical and emotional strain must have been tremendous. My boat (possibly named GingyBoat, a joke with my newer friends) will not do such trips for many, many years, if at all. Sailing can be a lot of fun but it is not without its need for focus, attention to safety and vast knowledge of sailing. This neither comes lightly or quickly and will require years of sailing experience for me to be able to even think of doing a trip like the one my father and Becky did. And lets not forget the money I will need to not only buy the boat, I need to be able to maintain and pay for docking her. This certainly is not a cheep dream by any means!

*Sign*

- Will

Day 29–Toes in the sand

If you know me this topic is so obvious and natural to my personality. I have a real love for beaches, sand, oceans and swimming. So it is only natural for me to look up resorts and beaches that we would be able to vacation at when living in Shetland without paying an arm and a leg.

Living in Canada there are only a select few countries that offer the all-inclusive option at resorts and they are so overpriced, crowded and cookie-cutter. To name a few there is Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Jamaica. Then there are the higher-end resorts on islands like Aruba, St. Lucia and Turks and Caicos. These resorts definitely are a dream to visit but cost more for a two weeks stay for two people than we make in a month. To travel outside the resorts in these countries tourists are heavily warned of the conditions of poverty and it is recommended to never leave the resort grounds during your stay.

So I began my search on Expedia.co.uk for resorts in Europe to visit. I was astounded at what my search turned up. First though is to mention that I looked up vacation packages from Glasgow International Airport. Shetland to Glasgow flights would cost us on the high end about £150 for the two of us round trip.

Now to my results I found for resorts. Again I started by picking locales that I figured would cost about the same as Aruba or St. Lucia (read: outside our budget). Greece for example. Well my simple search for a vacation in May to Greece turned up these results: One week all-inclusive at a resort in Crete, Greece would cost all of £440 per person including flights!!! (to give a bit of comparison to “cheap” resorts in Cuba or Jamaica, they would cost around £1050 per person)

So to push my luck I searched more on these criteria: one week all-inclusive, four-star resort, flights included. This is the result of several destinations…

- Algarve, Portugal: £420 per person

- Bodrum, Turkey: £398 per person

- Costa Del Sol, Spain: £432 per person

- Malta: £492 per person

Doing my research and looking into different places to go I think this will add to our experience of living in Shetland immensely. Besides the amazing prices it is also the experience in these countries, I can only imagine the great day trips we can take in places like Greece and Turkey! There is so much history and the countries are tourist destinations in and of themselves even without the resorts.

After all the summer daytime highs in Lerwick average about 13-14 degrees everyday. Who wouldn’t want to jet away to Portugal or Greece to soak up some vitamin D?? Especially at these prices I better start stocking up on bikinis and sunblock!

- Michelle

Day 28–Audience

This is cool. Really cool. Extremely cool. Well at least a novice blogger like me thinks so. I know so little about the blogging world and I basically just jumped face first into it, typing away about whatever crap fills my little head so long as it was along the path of getting to Shetland. And I do know that some of it is crap, boring crap, smelly even and to those who agree with me, I do apologize. A millions question started to emerge when I started this such as Would I really be able to keep this up day after day after day? or Who the hell would really read this other than my wife and I many, many years from now with glasses of scotch in our hands both laughing and being red from embarrassment at what we wrote. Ok, I said a million, but those two are the only ones I can think of right now. But you get the idea. Our main purpose was to simply create a sort of chronological history of our thoughts as we entertained such a ridiculous idea as uprooting and moving to a place we had both only ever been to once. One day I think it would be a really great idea to print this and make a book and I’m sure it would make a really BIG book when its all said and done.

So today I was screwing around on the blogger site I am on and stumbled across something called “stats”. Hmmmm, I thought to myself. Perhaps this is if I want to get somewhere quicker….you know….”go to this page, click me stat!”. But no! I was mislead! It brought me to a magical place of viewer information, where not only could I see how many people had visited our blog but from where. That in itself was pretty cool but when I started looking closer I realized something a little cool and scary at the same time. Firstly, 369 people have viewed our little blog. And that’s just in Canada! 9 people in the USA, 3 in Germany, and 1 in the Netherlands!!!! Like I said, for a novice blogger like me, I think that’s pretty cool. This is especially exciting because we have really told no one about even our intent to move to Scotland let alone tell them about our blog.

So I will end today’s note by saying one thing and that is “Thank You!” Thank you for putting up with my silly humour and silly rants. Thank you even more for putting up with my wife’s! HA! Join us if you like. Comments would be fantastic and very welcome (just remember that this is a family blog!). I would love to hear about others out there who are contemplating something as crazy as what we are contemplating. It is said that misery loves company, well so does crazy! Either let us know we are not crazy or join us in our craziness!!

And for those of you don’t like our blog, I say, with respect, the following:

- Will

Day 27–AAAAACHOO!!

So as I sit here on our balcony congested, sneezing and with itchy, sore eyes I smile knowing that my allergy will not be an issue in Shetland!

I have the very common seasonal allergy to ragweed. It flares up usually in beginning to mid-August and stays active until the middle of October. Usually once the first couple nights of deep frost hit the allergy subsides for another year. Those two months however are filled with days of painfully sore eyes and sinuses that could explode. Last year when travelling for the first time to Scotland in prime allergy season here in Toronto, I realised that my allergy literally does not exist in Shetland! No one knew what I was talking about if I brought up ragweed! BLISS!!! I can not wait for the days of never dealing with this again!

- Michelle

Day 26–Is your heart in it?

Its funny how every single decision I seem to make always brings to the surface our move to Scotland. Assuming we move in two years, every time I want to buy something, I ask myself if I really need it. I ask myself if I can get by in the next few years without it. Invariably my answer is always NO to the first, and YES to the second. I kinda wish that I had this mentality before. I would have saved so much money not buying useless garbage. I can’t remember who I was talking to when we went to visit Scotland last year but she told us that North Americans have a very unhealthy need to spend money on so many things they don’t really need. She said that when payday hits, they have to go out and buy stuff, any stuff. The response in my head was ya, ya, ya. Whatever lady. (I hope it wasn’t my wife who said that!) But wouldn’t you know it, she was right! Here Michelle and I are scrounging every day to save enough money to have a very relaxed trip in September. and the second I get paid I think to myself Sweet! What can I spend this on?! And it shocked me! Its sick! Gross! But the worst thing about it is that it is so easily fixable. We can live off so much less than what we were and save so much more. I would hate to think what we could have saved. Oh well, better late than never, as they say.

So, I suppose the underlining lesson here is that if you are passionate about something, if your hear is really in it, it may be very surprising what you are able to give up to make that passion become reality.

- Will

Day 25–Pet passports

I mentioned in an earlier post about bringing our cats with us when we move. Many people are used to the idea of pets being quarantined for six months when moving to a new country. The UK has done away with this practice and has now put the responsibility of this on the pet owner. There is a strict process which we will have to follow to get what the UK calls “pet passports” for our cute furry family members.

It is a fairly simple process, it just needs to be done in an exact way to be accepted. Six months before we intend to leave we have to take the three of them to the vet to get micro chipped. Apparently this is very simple and only requires a tiny incision in the nape of their neck that needs just a little amount of freezing to do. That say day we have to get them their rabies shots (although they have had these shots before they have to get them after having a micro chip ID). The entire reason for this is because rabies apparently takes six months to surface if it is present.

Then a couple weeks after the rabies vaccine is administered the cats all need blood tests. These are to determine if they have a satisfactory amount of rabies vaccine in their system.

After all this is done and the blood test comes back with clear results (should happen in one shot) a Pet passport is issued. The vet needs to sign off on different aspects of the pets health on the passport. Then the last step is to vaccinate all the cats against ticks and tapeworms no more than 48 hours and no less than 24 hours before we leave for Scotland.

Although this will be a stringent and somewhat picky process to go through I am relieved to not have to be separated from them for six months while they are in quarantine. In the grand scheme of things of moving too this is one of the easiest things we will have to do while moving.

Let’s just hope they still love us after a long plane ride….

 

- Michelle

Day 24–PhotoBook gift

I am so excited because in less that three weeks, we are leaving for Scotland for our vacation! YAY!  We are going to London first for a few days to see my uncle and his family and then up to Shetland. I think this I said in an earlier post but I love to say it again. 
When we went last year, my father and his wife, Becky, did so much for Michelle and I. They did way more that I expected or could have imagined. Words cannot explain how grateful we are for all they did. How on earth do you say thank you? Its not as though they did what they did for some reciprocated action. Which is great because they are already married! Ha! They don't expect anything in return except for us to be happy. My father, in part of his speech at our wedding, asked Michelle and I to do something as special for someone we don't know one day as so many "strangers" to us a year ago in Shetland. They treated us like family and all did so much when none of them had even ever met us! You just don't get that here in Toronto. Just such a different lifestyle, different types of people. 
Well, one cool thing we did do what make a book of selected photos from our trip called PhotoBook. We downloaded a program into our computer that allows us to add and manipulate pictures into a virtual book. We can add effects, text, ect and then send it to a company that professionally prints and binds our collection. Its pretty cool and we have made one for my father and Becky. I just hope its ready in time! Fingers crossed. 
Here are a few pages from the book....

Ya, that is Michael Palin. Pretty cool trip!


- Will

Day 23–Aberdeen

So living in a small community will of course cause some challenges when it comes to certain things that I take for granted in a city. Things like watching movies in a theatre, going to a mall to clothes shop and other urban type things that I honestly can’t think of right now as they are normal to me.

We have had a tiny stopover in Aberdeen last year after taking a train from Glasgow and before getting on the Northlink ferry but it wasn’t enough time to really explore. So this year after spending some time in Biggleswade (London area) with Will’s aunt and uncle, we are going to spend a day and night in Aberdeen. We are looking into bed and breakfasts in the area. After spending a night in a hotel this past weekend for the family wedding we have realised how much we are in love with B&Bs now. The closeness of knowing the owners and having them be your contacts, hot delicious breakfasts, and home type atmospheres are much more my style of relaxation while away on vacation.

So in our day and night in Aberdeen this trip we hope to explore a bit. Check out things that the city offers, malls, theatres, even to look at maps where the hospitals are. When we live in Shetland this will be our urban go-to area when we are in need of anything. One thing we are already aware of is how very costly Aberdeen is compared to any other city in Scotland. Due to the oil industry having a lot of its base in Aberdeen the city brings in a lot of revenue and can get away with higher costs of living. Even just looking into hotels, they are more expensive Monday-Thursday nights and cheap as dirt on Friday-Sunday nights. This is purely due to the fact that commuters can’t afford the cost of living in Aberdeen and have to stay in hotels during the week. Some very interesting things like this are what we hope to learn while scouting out the city in a couple weeks.

We will report back after exploring the city in a couple weeks of anything cool or crazy that we learn!

- Michelle

Day 22 - Weather

I am really quite sick of Toronto weather. I am a hot guy. In what sense, you ask? Well, in both senses. But in this case I mean I hate the heat. I love cool and love the rain. I am sitting in ridiculous heat and we are near the end of August for cryin' out loud! What the hell??
Here is the difference in weather:

Here is a rough idea of how cold the water is there... (please forgive the swearing!)

....'nough said

- Will

Day 21 - Two people down...

...many more to go.

So over this past weekend we spent a lot of time with Will's cousin, Katie, and her boyfriend, Kevin. There was a family wedding out of town and so I also met the rest of Will's family who are all so sweet and lots of fun!

Anyways, it was a little liquid courage that made me do it but I let Katie and Kevin in on the secret that we are moving! I think it was a bit of me testing the waters too to see how others will react to our news. They have obviously been sworn to absolute secrecy until parents and grandparents are told about our plans. I am glad to report though that I think we have our first guests all cued up for our new house! They were so excited for us and supportive!

Let's just hope that telling everyone else can go this smoothly!

- Michelle

Day 20 - The REAL reason I want to move to Scotland

You know, I can babble on and on about all the cool reasons why I want to move. I can create list after list of reasons I want to leave Canada and why I want to relocate to Shetland. I can talk about weather, attitudes of people, cultural differences, and so, so much more. But the real reason; the ONLY reason can be summed up in one picture:

Ok, perhaps I am kidding only a little.....

- Will

Day 19 - AHHHHHHHH

So today is going to be a little off topic but I have some excitement and nerves that I need to express...

Today and tomorrow are fairly big days for me. One of Will's cousins is getting married tomorrow so we are going out of town tonight to Hamilton to stay at his other cousin's (Katie) house for the weekend. I have met Katie before so I am really happy to get to see her again and catch up!

What I am nervous for though is meeting Will's extended family. We have been together for just over four years but I have yet to really meet any of his family and now I will be meeting them all within a 24-hour time span. Nervous....just a little!

I should go now we have to catch the train but I will be back to report how things went in a couple days. Wish me luck! :)

- Michelle

Day 18–Cultural differences

You know, when people talk about cultural differences, I think reflexively people think of very different places to the one in which they currently live in like Cambodia, India, China, Germany, and, well, my geography sucks so that’s all I can think of right now. Toronto is one of the most multicultural centres on this planet, if not the most. Some say it is one of Toronto’s strengths, others its weekness. I live in a city where if you smile a nod to someone as they pass you in the street, they give you a odd look that says what do you want? That if you hold a door for someone, they get offended because they assume you mean that they can’t do it for themselves. That if someone sees you walking toward an elevator as they get in, they just push the button (usual to a floor near the top of course)  and leave you cursing them under your breath as you wait for the damn thing to come all the way back down. That if you cross the street with your right of way, cars will edge toward you as they are making their turn as if you are not walking fast enough (and for those who know me, I walk bloody fast enough!). That if its too hot, they complain, That if its too cold, they complain. That if its raining, they complain. Its become so rampant, that television commercials have actually used this annoying need for us to all complain that they have worked it into their advertisements. (I am actually being serious!) And what do I do? I complain about it in a blog!

That is the bad part.

The worse part is that I, for a while, was becoming numb to it all and was accepting because this was not the way it always was here. This change did not happen over night, or in the course of a month or year. This took several years to evolve into what I have very loosely described above. It happened so slowly that I didn’t even notice and every so often found myself on the other side of the equation; frantically pushing the elevator button, willing the door to close faster so that I didn’t have to ride up with some annoying Torontonian! Pretty bad, huh?

Well it took a trip to Scotland to smack me upside the head and ask me what the hell was I doing? Everyone has bad days. No matter where you go, there is going to be Mr. Elevator man jacking you the middle finger as the doors close moments before you arrive, even in Scotland. In fact, I think it would be a boring place that wasn’t peppered with those people. But I want it to be the EXCEPTION, not the norm. Michelle and I had so many conversations about how generally nice people are in Scotland especially compared to Torontonians, something that was lost on me when I lived there many, many years ago.

Then we got home. And I know what you are thinking. You fell right back into the Torontonian way. Well, we did but not before our friends got a hold of us first. Michelle and I came home to them doing something very sweet. They made swans with towels at the end of the bed, covered out bed with rose petals, a “congratulations” card, and left a bottle of champagne in the fridge for us. Nice huh? Well in the true Torontonian way where no good deed can ever really be taken at face value, not only were we asked when they could pick up their towels, not only did they come over the next day and drink the very same bottle of champagne they left us, they left our house a dump! They left pizza boxes with dried out pizza still in them, dirty plates with pizza crusts, and pop bottles lying around. When your friends are like this, its no wonder people you don’t know are they way they are.

Most don’t see Scotland or England as all that culturally different from Canada. I can tell you from my experience that it is as different as night and day. And I am sick of the night.

- Will

Day 17–Small things in life..

So anyone that has taken the time to get to know me in life knows I am amused by the little things. Will says I am like a goldfish in terms of how long my attention span is. “OOO shinny object” is his favourite thing to say to me when I can’t concentrate.
So naturally there are A LOT of little things about Shetland that make me so happy…

• I suffer from excema almost all year on my face but in the two weeks we spent in Lerwick the sea air seemed to fix it for me
• I have crazy and thick curly hair that no product on a drug store shelf will tame. Surprise, surprise…the sea air lets it dry so gorgeous and curly!
• Shops seem to all close around dinner time (6pm) and don’t open at all on Sundays. People don’t work around the clock at four jobs to keep up with the rat race like in Toronto.
• Dolphins are sometimes spotted from the shore!
• The Northern Lights can be seen on nights of perfect weather conditions
• I am a friendly person and I love that people are so easy to talk to and seem to be so open and easy to get along with. Case in point, our wedding. Our wedding day guests were mostly people we had met that day! About an hour into our wedding reception we were all talking and having fun as if we were lifelong friends!

I am sure there are more that I can’t…*OOOOO SHINY OBJECT*


- Michelle

Day 16–Breaking the news… Part me

That last post of Michelle’s is a great post because the topic sucks the big fat juicy one! Even if we know and completely understand the reasons behind why we are making such a seemingly drastic, fairy tale-ish, unrealistic, stupid, emotional, selfish, unpractical and foolhardy decision, you know that many friends and relatives are not going to understand no matter how well thought out you tell them your decision was. Even if they really do understand, they will make it seem like they they don’t just to try to knock some sense into us so we don’t actually leave. Of course, at the moment I am speaking from the relatively safe distance of still having a few months before I need to say anything to my friends and relatives and even then I don’t know what they will say. Part of me wants them to put up a fuss. If they are all smiles and are immediately happy, I think that is a much bigger problem then them turning into blubbering idiots begging me not to leave. I guess what I’m saying is that they had better not make me feel guilty for making this already very difficult decision, but for Christ’s sake they had better make it clear how less filled in their lives are going to be for my absence! I want middle ground, damn it!
*Sigh* This will not go the way my over imaginative minds wants it to go is it? I feel like I am going to break up with Canada.
I am not going to get into details in this blog about all the hurdles I will have to face by telling my friends and relatives. As Michelle said, I will tell them and I will tell them soon. They will need time to digest my decision and no matter what they show on the outside, I know they may feel different on the inside and that always comes out at some point. If I tell them like a grenade, pull the pin, throw it at them and then run away, trust me, they will start throwing their own grenades at me. In case you didn’t know, grenades hurt! Don’t worry, I’m not going to go into a sidebar about the scars that will be left behind by the emotional shrapnel with their grenades of love and hurt! I think you get the picture.
There is one bonus to us moving to Scotland. My Dad and his wife. I do need to make something clear that may at first seem kinda rude. They are in no way ANY factor in us moving. Whether they are there or not, we are moving. If my father lived here in Canada, we would be moving to Scotland (although, if he did live here, I wouldn’t know Scotland at all). Having said that, it is a fantastic bonus that they do live there. They are great people (says the son) and to see more of them is a great thing! And I think, or would like to think, that the feeling is mutual.
Here’s the kicker. I have absolutely NO idea what his response is going to be! I don’t know him nearly as well as a son should (of my doing, not his) and as such have a very difficult time gauging his response to anything. Part of me wants to say that the very practical side of him will ask me a cazillion questions to make sure that I have thought this all out or to make sure that this isn’t an emotional decision. We have really only been to Shetland once for a short holiday that was somewhat fogged by the whole getting married thing, and that is a VERY poor way to make such a decision. I’m sure being in the dark, fiery chasm of Hell seems neat and interesting enough to pull out the camera to bring home some sweet memories, but I don’t think there are too many of us out there who would want to live there. The reality is that we have been mulling this over for a year, we are going back in a month without to oogly-googly glasses of the first-time-visitor. We have thought about residence, an income, savings plan, and so much more. These things and more we will tell him when we go over to see him. His wife, Becky, on the other hand, as much as she is just as practical and would probably ask all the same questions, I do think that she would just say that if that’s what we want, we will figure it out. Canada will always be here if things really don’t work out the way we thought.
I’m still thinking about the best way to tell my father, but I am thinking that there may be a bottle of scotch in the equation somewhere.
No matter what, I hope is as happy as he looks here:

- Will