Day Nine

Five to Go

Chilled Jack

Life in quarantine seems to have settled in to a bit of a routine.  Jack regards the place as home and let us sleep until just before six.  He's getting in to the zone!

The local store delivers as does the wine merchant (liquor store), Amazon has found us and our hosts who own the main house have been welcoming and helpful.

We are starting to think about longer term arrangements.  We remain in touch with the realtor who is sending properties through but will wait until we are freed from quarantine before getting too excited.  We're also starting to look for rentals for July onwards in case we haven't found a property to purchase.

The more immediate requirements are for local phone Sims, harder to acquire than the UK even for pre-paid where proof of Canadian status is required.  More important is to get UK driving licences converted to BC ones so we can buy and insure a car at a sensible price.  Insurance with a UK driving licence is in excess of $5,000 per annum, just under £3,000.  With a local licence its less than half of that.  Vehicle insurance is provided by the BC Federal insurance organization. There is no competition and no incentive to be competitive on prices.    Vehicle research is underway and this might be the first time in 20+ years when I'm not going to be driving a Land Rover. It will be a large SUV as we have a lot of luggage, Jack and his crate.  Having 4WD will also be an advantage when it snows!  At the moment a Toyota 4Runner, Ford Explorer and Jeep Grand Cherokee are in the shortlist of brands being researched.

Blueridge, see map, is a lovely quiet residential neighbourhood.  Very close to a number of local parks which out here means large forests with trails!  We're itching to start exploring with Jack.  Note to self, must get some bear spray. Top of the list is the Baden Powell Trail followed by the Lower Lynn. https://www.alltrails.com/canada/british-columbia/north-vancouver



At the end of our stay in Blueridge on May 2nd, we head up to the Sunshine Coast.  Initially staying at a beachside property near Gibsons, then at the far end of the coast up in the Garden Bay/Pender Harbour area.

This map shows Sechelt, in the middle of the Sunshine Coast. Gibsons is in the SE corner and Garden Bay the NW.


Comments

  1. Rosemary CookApril 12, 2021 at 2:10 PM

    So good to see Jack’s arrived safely & settled in. Rosemary x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MikeT67MApril 12, 2021 at 5:05 PM

      Hard to believe that minutes out of his crate, he was back to his normal self. That said opening a news item on BBC News on my Macbook, the audio sounded like a jet aircraft. He was on my lap in seconds!

      Delete

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