Afore Ye Go...

... any further.

I've realised that I haven't been terribly clear about where we're going, if we are going.

At the moment, the intention is to go to the city of Prince George. This is principally because of the friends I mentioned below, and our subsequent research of their lifestyle and city. However, there are certainly other possibilities in BC and even Canada as a whole - but PG (as we no doubt have to learn to call it) is the primary choice. As the weeks and months go by, I'll add more links to the list; for now, the official ones - just to get me started.

A Farewell to Things

No.1 in a continuing series (probably):

If we really are going (and it feels like we are), I need to be keeping an eye on two lists: things I'll miss, and things I'll want to do at least once more before I go. Not that we're moving somewhere completely isolated from the world, but certain things will be more difficult to access. So, a start to these things, then:

I'll miss:
The Proms. No point pretending otherwise; I feel like I've only just started appreciating them, and after next summer, I'll be listening to them during the day over the internet. In a funny kind of way, I'm quite looking forward to that, but still...

Football I'll probably start calling it soccer, and I'll probably be watching the boys playing it for years to come, but it won't be the same. When we do make our trips back to the UK in years to come, I need to make sure that they coincide with at least some small part of the season.

I'd like to do:

Some more travelling in Europe There are places I've never been (although I've just been to Warsaw, and it looks like there might be some more travelling involved in my job this next year). In particular, being back in Italy the other week has rekindled my taste for it, and I'd really like to go and see Mahler's house some day.

A bit of nostalgia. I'll certainly be back in Aberdeen before we go - it's where my family is, after all - but I'd like some time to mosey around some of the other places I've lived and worked, particularly in Scotland. And I really must get to Leakey's bookshop in Inverness.

Oh - Canada?

No, I don't really know why.

We have always wanted to live in Canada. This goes back at least to the early days of our marriage, when Zoë was interviewed - by telephone, I should add - for a job in Nowheresville, BC. It wasn't really right for us then, but I guess it set up a kind of longing which has never really gone away. Back in early 1998, I had the opportunity to spend a few days in Toronto, and I came back raving about it - I'd have moved then and there, given the opportunity, but No.1 son was but a few months old, Zoë was not yet back at work; too many other things were not right, and the moment passed. It never went away, though - that glimpse of a lifestyle is as vivid today as ever, and it informs some of what this is all about.

Since our conversation in the park (or Conversation In The Park, as I like to think of it), Canada has again become our focus. Over the years, there might have been opportunities to move abroad at various times (I guess if I had pushed hard enough at certain times, I could have arranged a move with my current employer, but would we both have been happy in, say, Luxembourg? I doubt it.) I think we'd both have considered Australia or New Zealand, or - well, anywhere, really - but the question always nagged: why, and what would we do?

Now, it seems we may have at least part of an answer to some of this: the sums add up - more or less; the boys are the right age; my work has come to an impasse of sorts; the equity on this house would buy a staggeringly large house in Canada; there are opportunities for Zoë to work, and earn enough to support us; we could be happy - happier than I think we are now.

It's a big dream, and there are enough potential stumbling blocks to make it a daunting prospect, but we think we can do it, and there's really only one way to find out...