Choices

Today's major choice was whether to get into work on time thoroughly drenched with no hope of drying off for an hour and a half because no one else was going to come to work until 10, or to wait for the bus and risk being late but turn up fairly dry. I chose the second but I'm still not sure whether that was right. The bus driver apparently failed to realise that in order to get to our destination he would have to put his foot on the accelerator for more than one second at a time and not follow it straight away with a foot on the brake. To be fair to him there was a lot of traffic in his way. I ended up being quarter of an hour late, still fairly wet with a line of students outside the door waiting for me to open up. Still, if I'd have chosen the walking/getting drenched option I probably would have had to take 2 days off next week getting over a nasty cold.

I can now talk about the thing that I previously couldn't talk about!

We are buying a property in Vancouver!!

House prices have gone up so much in the 18 months since we were last there that we decided we had to do something sooner rather than later. If we'd have left it until we get our visas in 2-3 years time then we would be priced out of the areas that we want to live in, and that would have drastically effected the decision on whether to risk going over to live. We decided to invest in a new build so that we would only have to pay the deposit and then nothing until completion. We researched the areas all around with some relocation people and real estate agents (who were all fabulous and so friendly and helpful) and eventually settled for a Concord Pacific development (great track record in Vancouver and beyond) called Spectrum, due for completion in summer of 2007 (by which time, all being well we should have our visas and be living in the city).

Check it out - http://www.myspectrum.ca

It is in a fantastic convenient location right downtown next to the hockey stadium - everything we could ever want is on our doorstep. It also has the added advantage of 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, which means that it will be easy for visitors to come and stay with us. It also means that should the unbearable happen and we don't get granted visas, or we have to start off living in another part of Canada because of work, it should be easy to rent out for more money than we will be paying for the mortgage.

We know it is a bit of a risk, but overall we can't see it being more than a wise investment. With property prices going silly over there, but stabilising and possibly crashing over here, our money is safer invested in Canada. If it all goes wrong and we can't live there and we can't find anyone to rent it out to then we should be able to sell it fairly easily.

We have to sell our place in Bristol in order to get most of the deposit so we have had estate agents around this week to value it, and we will decide on one tonight and get the flat on the market by this weekend. It's a bit gutting to be selling after just one year as we love it where we are but we have no choice. Hopefully we will be able to rent in the same area. The two valuations we have had could not be more different - one suggested we sell it for a price that is £10000 less than what we bought it for if we want a quick sale, £5000 less if we want to sell it in average time. The other reckons we should easily sell it before Christmas for £5000 more than we bought it for. It's very confusing, but we do know that a similar property in our building was sold recently for £7500 less than we bought ours for, but we think it was in need of modernisation.

Holy moly.

I am rather peed off today as I have been told that because I have been contributing to my pension for more than 2 years I cannot cash it in to start up a savings account for Canada. That's 3000 smackeroonies down the drain. I may be able to transfer it when I start working in Canada, otherwise they will keep it frozen until my retirement in - my god - 40 years time!!!

Bstards. If I'd have known that I would never have started paying into the damn thing. I've told them I want to stop my payments as from NOW but they haven't answered me yet...