now become "Hot tubbing" after dinner and before bed. If you get cold at all on the way home you know that sitting in the hot tub will fix anything (it's set at 40 degrees) and you really sleep well.
A bit of both really!
Over the past few weeks a few things have changed. The weather for one! We’ve had several days of snow recently and the temperatures now tend to stay below zero both day and night. We’ve had our first minus 12 night and minus 8 walking to work. Even though it is cold, I have to say…
The last few weeks have really been spent setting up a routine. Will has started indoor tennis twice a week and is in a good squad. Sam goes to Gymfest twice a week and “Cheer” once a week. Anita and
With the development of routine comes a certain comfort plus a measure of inevitability for us all… ie: this is a big move and a long time away from the known and the familiar. Yes, a fair degree of homesickness kicked in over the past three weeks as well.
The known, the loved and the familiar are what keep people where they are, and that is a good thing really. We are seeking this in our new lives I suppose, while trying to keep a balance of keeping ourselves exposed to the new, the exciting and the different!
snowboarding boots and we’re looking for a “cool” snowboard for her to ride… Will has new ski boots and will use last year’s ski’s (Anita has inherited last year’s boots from him) and
So, some fun stuff has happened (alongside the routine).
Last weekend we met up with some friends from Vancouver (the McCutcheons) and helped out with Jo and Alex’s Groove Street dance workshop. We had dinner with Sue on Saturday night and then on Sunday Sam and Anita helped sell merchandise to some of the 475 participants in the weekend dance workshop!!! Who are the McCutcheons??? They are a lovely Canadian family who lived in Mulgrave when Anita was growing up there in the late 70’s early 80’s. They moved back to
We have a new addition to the family… Our Chevrolet Tahoe. It has leather seats that has heated seats added by the previous owner… day three of ownership… we left the heated seats on and
drained the battery! A quick call to the AMA (yep the RACV) meant that we could join and get help in 45 minutes. We were lucky that it had stopped snowing at that stage of the day. Hmmmm! Needless to say, we now have a loud checklist upon exiting the car… CAR SEATS TURNED OFF!
The kids have made a couple of nice friends. Sam moreso than Will at this stage. Photo attached of Sam on a ride with her new friend Nicki. They are at Galaxyland at the West Edmonton Mall.
Hi again and welcome to the second edition of the Alberta Newsletter. The past two weeks have just flown by and it has been really tiring, so we haven’t had a chance to write a newsy update. So much happens when you’re getting lost in a 
Kids start school Will and Sam started school on Monday 15th October, so that’s two weeks ago now. Sam is in Grade 6 and Will is in Grade 8. They have found they are of average age and the work is well within their capabilities, so that’s a relief as we were worried about the jump!
Sam’s teacher is Ms Antoniuk and she is very good. Sam has a lot of project work to complete at night and she also has to complete regular book reports in a creative manner (such as make a commercial, create an ad, write a song or just deliver a thorough report). At the moment the theme in grade 6 is the environment and Sam has been able to apply a lot of her year 4 enviro knowledge from
Will is in grade 8, he does Maths, Language Arts (English), Drama, PE, Science, Social Studies, TV Production and Writing, French, Health. He has had a lot of homework too but is managing with some “gentle” guidance from his parents. Will is missing footy and tennis and is looking for somewhere to channel his energy. Waterpolo seemed like a good idea until we heard that it was training 5 mornings a week! Come on… as if we’re doing that! Icehockey has very similar requirements… plus you need to be able to skate. Other options include volleyball and
Kids being invited out. The kids at the Vic have warmly welcomed Will and Sam to the school and the friendship groups. Will has also been receiving mysterious phone calls from girls! Will was invited to Galaxyland at the West Edmonton Mall with a group of kids from his school. Every month there is the equivalent to a “Bluelight Disco” at Galaxyland, run by the police and for kids aged 12-17 (or Grade 7-11). There are metal detectors etc at the door as there were 1200 kids at this event. There is a dance floor so they can dance, go on any of the rides or just “hang out”. Will was so rapt to be there and wants to go every month! We couldn’t wipe the smile from his face for a few days (daze).
We had our first family event this week… Sammy’s birthday! Sam happened to be out on a sleep-over on the night before her own birthday, then she had another birthday party to attend at Build a Bear at the West Edmonton Mall. So we picked her up, said happy birthday to her and then delivered her to another party before finally celebrating Sam’s birthday as a family over dinner 
The big event for Sam’s birthday was her HUGE present. We finally allowed her to get her ears pierced. As we live in the equivalent to Brunswick the choices for where to get her ears done was one of three body piercing and tattooing shops (now there’s an experience for an entire newsletter!!!!!!) Will and 
also happened to get lots of presents for her birthday. Converse runners (x2), a ROXY watch and a T-shirt, a winter hat and gloves, and a gift voucher. Sam also received presents from
Costco: The phenomenon! Something we were not quite prepared for was the phenomenon of Costco… the right to buy IN BULK! Can you imagine buying catering packs of everything? Well everyone can (and does…by the size of the shoppers we saw!) and this store does not just have food, it sells computers, fridges, clothes, pharmacy products and even Portmeirion china (
Halloween preparation 
We’ve stocked up on wrapped candy and chocolates for the expected rush at our door! We’re not quite sure how many bits of chocolate or candy to give to each person.
The “Pep Rally” Another North American phenomenon! This week we went to the kids school to see the Pep rally. “What’s that” I hear you ask! Well, this is a school event to rally school pride. All the kids from kinder (prep) to grade 8 came to the school gymnasium and every team, club and group did a short performance. The whole event was loud and exciting, the gym lights were down, the stage lights were up and flashing, the music up-beat and the pace FAST! The senior cheer leaders are the current world champions, so they were amazing!!!!! I thought one girl was going to hit the roof she flew so high! We were impressed to see the range of clubs and activities showcased, plus the fact they also talked about their fantastic Grades in last year’s Grade 12 results. It seems to be a pretty amazing place. Only draw back for Will is lack of SPORT!
Choosing a new routine one of the nicest thing about leaving your old life is deciding what you want to do with your new one. We’re taking it as slowly as we can and just enjoying NOT having a
routine, expectations and demands… they’ll come soon enough. You can spent time doing things like… raking leaves!
House hunting ultimately we would like a house of our own, somewhere where we have our things and feel like we belong, so we are house hunting online and in real life in the spare time around work and getting life in order. We have not decided on a neighbourhood yet but have narrowed it down to where we are renting, nearer the kids’ school and somewhere in between.
Banks! Don’t start me! This has been the worst thing about getting settled… it’s so hard to get a bank account opened up, there are just so many hurdles placed in our way. You can’t present at a bank with a passport and your newly issued Social Insurance Number to open an account, they also want a utility bill in your name to prove where you live, well we are renting someone else’s house and the utility bills are in their names! So how do you get around that? A mobile phone is not sufficient, the landlord won’t change the names on the bills, the option has come down to... open an account with a newer style bank who have lower levels of expectation about ID… so we’ve done that and found that one of their policies is that when they open an account for people “like us” they hold your money for 7 days. That means when we get money sent from our ANZ via the currency company it is not available for 7 working days! It is ridiculous. Not only that but we can only take out $200 cash each per day and $200 EFT a day each, so what if you want to buy something big? You need a cheque book, ordered 12 days ago and it hasn’t arrived AGHH! So, we’re changing banks and they are waiting on a cheque from the cheque book from the first bank, a letter from my previous employer, a letter from the ANZ and a copy of my work contract… That’s all!!! It is so important to have a bank account because it means you can get your pay from work, get your license, get a car, get insured, you name it… it all hinges on getting a bank account with a cheque book
What’s coming up?
Skiing: We’ve booked a holiday in Jasper for Christmas and
Work:
Hi all, I suppose you think it’s been quiet now that we are out of the country… well that won’t last! Here comes the first of many instalments about the life and times of the Hammos in This week has flown, we have achieved a huge amount and are gradually overcoming the jet lag and finding our energy returning. One might argue that we have contributed to our own fatigue with all the running around this week, but to be honest, it helps us sleep at night J
Our initial impressions were of a fairly flat and dull city, the road from the airport to
We live opposite a pretty little park, so our outlook is great. The autumn trees are just lovely. Lots of yellows right now and other trees with reds and red berries. With the wind the other day we lost quite a lot of leaves and the kids found it really fun to play in the leaves. Even putting them into the big bags to be carted away was fun, perhaps because it was novel
So far we have ventured around the city, visited several malls and spent a whole day at the West Edmonton Mall in the World Waterpark. It was lovely to be in water and the waves made us almost homesick… the chlorine was a dead give away though and a constant reminder that this was a pool. There were so many large slides it was phenomenal. The kids made us go down some… Alec more than Anita. Alec even “got air” on one of the slides… everyone was impressed. It was funny being in this massive pool complex with viewing windows from the large Mall. You realise what it would be like to be a penguin trapped in a zoo in a simulated arctic environment.
It has been a juggling act keeping the kids entertained to a satisfactory level while getting the administrative requirements completed. Things like getting a Social Insurance Number (yes, it’s a SIN) and a hire car, arranging a bank account, getting a cell phone and so on is all quite time consuming. We try to do something fun mixed with the boring stuff to keep the kids on side.
A really big highlight was visiting the kids’ school. We decided not to send them to school until next week as they really have not got through jet lag easily. They are still sleeping to 10am and still needing every minute. They will have to get up one hour earlier each day on Saturday then Sunday to be ready for Monday. Our first impressions of the school were “It’s huge” and “it’s not that attractive” but once inside and meeting the teachers and seeing the students in the hallways and interacting with each other it was easy to see that it is a really happy place. When we got to Sam’s class we met her lovely teacher and the kids were all working in small groups on the floor out in the hallway etc… a couple came into the classroom and said “is this Samantha?... we’ve been waiting for you!” What a relief for us all to know they were waiting and wanted her to arrive! They had a desk sitting waiting and a locker with her name on it. They are SO keen to meet her, hear her talk and ask all about
Will enjoyed what he saw too and is quite calm about the whole thing. Grade 8 kids don’t have a home room. You arrive, put your bag and books in your locker and then go to your first class. The timetable is 5x 1hour classes per day with 7 minutes between classes to change books at your locker. You should have seen some the girls checking him out in the hallways, Alec and I just had to chuckle! There are 6 girls to every 4 boys in his year level.
Oh yes. The school fees are to die for! $500 for the two of them for the year, books are returned at the end of the year, oh and it includes lunch for Samantha in the canteen, so we said “yes” to every option available… the fees actually could have been less!
So, of course, you’re wondering how the driving is going! Well, Alec has done most of the driving as he will go and get his
We’re looking at buying a Chevy Tahoe (in Navy Blue colour) second hand through a friend at work whose neighbour wants to sell one of his many vehicles! He’s only asking around $6000 and it is the top of the range with leather seats with seat warmers and CD player and all sorts of mod cons we didn’t know about 11 years ago! It will get us through the
So that’s been our week. Tomorrow we are going to the football at Commonwealth Stadium and on Sunday we are going to visit Will Johnson and family. For those of you who don’t know, Will is a teacher from Geelong College who is on exchange this year here in Canada and is about 1 ½ hours North of Edmonton in Barrhead. They are here until December, so we thought we’d better visit them quickly in case we missed out seeing them. It will be great to take a long drive and out of the city. The kids will enjoy listening to Aussie accents after this week.
Well, that’s it for the first instalment. Feel free to reply or just hit the delete button… J Also, feel free to pass this message along to others who may not have received it (thanks).
Take care and enjoy the warm weather. It’s already zero at night here and a warm 12 during the day.
Hi one and all this is my first attempt at a blog. Anita no doubt has dabbled a little and I'm not certain about the kids! Well the house is now packed and on the truck...photos now attached. Life is somewhat more simple but with the grand final looming upon the Hamilton family, life is never simple!
