The start of something special...
Vermont is beautiful... really beautiful. Very quiet, mountainous, real picture postcard stuff. Fresh air, empty roads ahead. Yeah this really is the start of something good. Wait up... whats the noise in the back? Oh no - please no! Yup... thats what I thought was a long time in coming... my wife is being travel sick. Please no! Now I feel ill too... please make it go away!!!! OK - sensible thoughts... pull over, its a quiet road, we're (just) out of sight of border patrol. OK thats it. Good. All set. Wait for her to settle, get some fresh air. Hum? She's calling me... whats up honey. OH NOOOOO!!! The baby has spewed too! Its a domino effect! Its all over the damn car!!!!! This cant be happeining - welcome to America guys!!! And its a hot day too :( So... what now? Its impossible to strategically clean this mess... only one thing for it - remove the baby and the car seat as one item... and don't breath in till you're out of the blast radius! OK. Good. We're out and Natalie is cleaning. Oh my, the baby really is a mess. No other solution - strip her off at the side of the road. Shes got nothing to wear now (of course - everything is packed in the depths of the boot). Then I make a stupid suggestion: Hey honey, should I clean this stuff in the river there? Too chivalrous for my own good... ok - off I go.. hadnt realised how steep this incline is, or how soggy the grass is at the bottom after all the recent floods. Squelcy squelch. At least its quiet down here, and the water is crystal clear... aside from the organic fish food I just added of course. back up Mount Everest... everyones wet, baby is crying.. back in the car to continue the adventure...
I added a snap that I took of the scene of the crime... pretty isnt it? This scene will always hold a special place in my heart - welcome to America :) *LOL!*
Welcome to the USA
OK so lets talk a little about our plans for the trip. I decided to take a week in between jobs to take a leisurly drive down the country to Boston. Hopefully take a few days overit, stop along the way, see the scenery, after all - its a beautiful part of the US. Then a few days at the other end to tie up everything, move our stuff in (Natalie is pregnant so of course I want to help her as much as possible). We hope to make our way through Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, then down along the coast to Boston. First things first: get into the country, then we can relax! So we head towards the border in mid Vermont - seems like a good straight route south from there to our first planned stopping point. The border approaches. Its kinda busy... this could take a while. OK so we're called forward... show the passports... "whats the purpose of your visit?", "who are you working for" etc etc (kinda hard to answer that with a Russian in the car! :) ). Anyway - thats it - "have a great trip guys" and we're away! Nothing - no paperwork, no search, not a sausage. I even get the customary compliment for someone with an O1 visa, alomng the lines of "Wow - you must be a real genius!". Water off a ducks back ;) But, we coulda taken anything into the country! We didnt even need to deal with those silly "are you a terrorist" questions you get when you take a plane trip. Oh well - we'll take it - we're into the States!!!!!!!!!
The adventure begins...
So we leave our place on St-Urbain. We've relocated our mail (we already know where we will be living - we took a trip to Boston a couple of weeks ago and found a nice single family, 3 floor house within walking distance of my new job), signed off the electricity, informed the bank of our move. We're set. Quickly fill up with petrol and one more trip along highway 40 and down the 15/10 and we're soon seeing the city vanish into the rear view mirror. A weird feeling - but, you know, I think I'll be back, even if its just for a fleeting visit to the games summit. I've got a love hate relationship with that city. So off we go - woohoo! First obstacle is getting over the border. Last time we did it we were in customs for an hour filling out paperwork (though it was very relaxed and friendly, just formalities). But this time we are taking a car full of stuff to last us until our stuff arrives (Allied Van Lines tell us 2-10 days, hopefully closer to 2 we're told... just remember this for later in the story!). So who knows... I expect we'll have to declare everything. Thats kinda scary as I need to take a couple hard disks of "data" with me (work related - you know) as well as a pile of CDs and DVDs which are pretty much of the 'backup' variety. Oh well - here goes...
Leaving Las-Quebec...
May 19th 2006. A red letter day for us. Yesterday the entire contents of our lives was placed in the caring hands of Allied Van Lines... they have an office in Montreal near the airport... follow the blog for further details on these nice folks. So - we're outta here. The bills are paid, the TV/internet/phone is settled up... bye bye Montreal. Natalie has been waiting for this moment for so long now, and strangely enough as we pull away from the drive, she starts to feel sad. Funny how even when you put up with wall to wall crap for almost 2 years you still miss a place. I guess it was a missed opportunity for us - Ubisoft could have been great, but it was ruined by mis-management and favouritism-politics. Montreal could have been great but it was a constant battle with the system (or lack there-of) and the language barrier. Its hard to break down that sort of problem and ultimately this feels like the right move. But we'll miss our friends very much. Best of luck you guys - and thanks for the great times.
Service has been resumed / Comcast suck!
What a relocation! I'm just over the joys of the Heats victory and starting to get into the swing of work but... man - that was one hell of a bad relocation. Relocating internationally without a dedicated relo company - a real challenge. After 6 weeks I now have a social security number and a driving licence (I now have one in 3 countries - hmm... James "Geordie" Bond :) ). But - car is still uninsured, registered in Quebec (how I hate those plates!!!), and I STILL HAVE NO DAMNED INTERNET!!!!!!! So - quick anti-advertrisement - stay the hell away from Comcast! After 3 weeks of promises, failed connections, missed appointments and countless other mess ups, I finally told them to stick their service. One day later I had telephone through Verizon and the promise of internet a week later. Until then - well lets say its amazing what you find on the airwaves in the States, equipped with a PC and a 20 buck wi-fi dongle :)
I'll now attempt a quick recap of the last 6 weeks for everyone... paraprased, of course...
The Miami Heat are Champs!
What a great night! Seeing the Heat beat Dallas in 4 games straight to take the NBA Championship... incredible series, incredible sights and an unbelievable game. Now its time to get onto the serious business of the World Cup :) Way to go Miami!!!
Could this be the night?
A quick excited post: the Heat play Game 6 tonight in Dallas and could easily become NBA Champs! Lets Go Heat!!! And England play Sweden too... even though we dont need to win - Come On England!
A new start...
Well, it finally happened - we moved into our new place! Its a really nice, quiet, family area not too far from the centre of Boston, but far enough away to avoid city prices :) The place was filthy when we moved in (didnt seem that way when we viewed!) so we had a weekend of intense cleaning and box unpacking. As the weather hovered around 90 degrees all weekend, it was quite a task with no air-con! Still - we're in. I'd love to be able to publish some photos and update everyone on our entire moving process to date, but without internet access at home (see below) I can't easily get the pics from my home machine right now. So - heres an image of a nice park area thats close by to our new place.
Life without technology
I didnt think it was possible but I now survived over a month with no internet access at home. And it sucks! We had Comcast out twice this weekend to hook us up and each time - failiure. Now we are told the cabling is all screwy and we need everythign replaced. So - another 2 weeks sans-technology :( Still - the Heat won AGAIN last night as we're now 3-2 up in the best of seven series ;)
Life is good!
4 very important things to report that have made my life immeasurably more enjoyable today/yesterday, in order of importance:
1) The Heat won games 3 and 4 (total Dallas destruction!) Series is level!
2) England won 2-0 over Trinidad (I was, of course, the sole - and definately the loudest - England supporter in the bar)
3) We move into new house #2 tonight
4) I got my social security card!
So - now I'm an officially legal worker in the good old US of A. As a colleague here pointed out: now I am officially being watched! Well - some things never change huh?
Have a great weekend everyone...
The last weekend!
Well, the Heat managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory last night - fortunately I was the proud owner of a 12 pack to ease the pain. What a shoddy outfit! But better news on the family front is that this will be the last weekend we spend in our "new home" (you know - the one with the neighbours who hate each other and don't mind who knows about it) as we will be moving into "new home mark 2" a week from today. WOOHOO! At last - TV, video games, sofas, a bed, clothes! Our stuff was in storage since leaving Montreal - my socks can now walk themselves to the laundry! Haha!
Heat and Rain!
So - the Heat play tonight in game one of the NBA finals! I'm not gonna tempt fate by getting too excited but I'll be stopping at the liquor store on the way home tonight :)
And as way of contrast to the recent heat-wave we now have a rain-wave! Its been raining solid this week and lots of parts of New England are heavily flooded. Isn't it June? Are we in England?
The new job is going pretty good though I'd forgotten how hard it is to get your head around a new project and team when development is so far advanced. Still - New England rocks! Its kinda like England but... newer :) Did you know you can buy KP crisps, Lion bars, Heinz baked beans and decent cheese here? Its a genuine miracle I tell you!
Heat and more Heat!
Damn its hot here... I thought I'd escapted the June humidity once I left Montreal and moved towards the coast but, No Sir! Also - my beloved Miami Heat had a bit of an ass whipping last night at the hands of Detroit (thats basketball, if you were wondering). Bad enough that it could turn into a replay of last seasons conference finals but also that I was in a New England sports bar, resplendant with Heat shirt and other such memorabilia. I'm sure I heard some sniggering behind me!
We arrived!
Finally, we arrived in Boston. It was a long trip and is proving a little difficult at the moment. We decided not to stay in our first accommodation (after less than a week!) due to neighbour problems. Long story. Anyway we have found a lovely home close to Boston centre but far enough to be extremely quiet and residential; the best of both worlds. We should move in there in a little under 2 weeks but as our stuff is now in storage (no point in moving it in for 10 days then moving it out again), we're still sitting on the floor, living from a suitcase, and sleeping on an air bed! I had more stuff when I was a student :-) Other than that - Boston looks like a beautiful, extremely friendly city. I'll post a more detailed description of our trip here once I get my PC installed at home and can pull the images off of my camera.
