Officially Unemployed!

I went to work today just to hand in my security pass, and that took 2 and a half hours. Then went to lunch with a friend from work, and her friend.. a lunchtime special, and very good it was too. Then after coming home here, went to the employment office, with regards to registering as unemployed. I wanted to know if I was entitled to claim, before going ahead with it.

On the way home I got diverted via the realtors office, and got copies of all the land plans for the lot, as we had given them all in to the planning office, and ended up with no copied of our own. The good news is that the telephone is connected there, and this I had been unsure of.

When I got home there was a message from Service Canada the employment office, asking me to call them back, which I did, and I am entitled to claim. So I have an appointment for Thursday to file my claim, so a little weight has been taken off my shoulders for now, with not knowing if I got that job yet.

It is looking like Jerry will not be being paid for these first five weeks, for the placement, no mention has been made of it, so we assume not, and they have no obligation to either. So the fact I am entitled to claim will be a relief all round.

Interesting and Varied news!

Yesterday was the last day working for EDS, that have closed the call center and is now located offshore in India. However, rumor has it that already a costly mistake was made, which has wiped out any savings the Bank of America thought it would make by moving the call center off shore. It is a case of when they will move it back on shore not if. The last days were mostly people taking photos, as some have worked together for 4 years or more, unlike myself who only joined last August when we moved here. Have made friends though, who already have plans on what to do during the coming summer. It is a little different for me, in the fact that I am unlikely to be able to claim for unemployment, since I am not a citizen, whereas most people will be claiming and having the summer off anyway, and do not have to worry financially.

Suffice to say, that no update since last week was due to the fact that I have not heard from the company about the job that I was interviewed for. The girl I used to work with that was interviewed just before me, actually emailed them at the beginning of the week to ask for an update, but until yesterday had not received a response. I have gone over in my mind what was said about the timing of their decision, and it seems that the week before last was going to be meetings at the school in Florida to get the funding for one maybe two positions, and that we would here from them around the 23rd or just after. One can only assume that either they did not get the funding, and are still working on it, as an explanation for the delay. However, I do remember it being said that if there was a delay, they would let me know. For this job you do need to have the form from the Police to show your record is clean, and I am still waiting to hear form them, as they also said they would call this week to let me know that it was there for collecting. So a visit to the RCMP is in order today I think, to check whether they simply forgot to call me.

Today is our 12th Wedding Anniversary, and we have come such a long way from our very humble beginnings together. Jerry surprised me with a wonderful celtic necklace from a wonderful store in St Peters. Jerry has the unfair advantage, of the fact that he meets up with the team in St Peters, and then leaves the truck there while they all go in one vehicle to the various houses they are working on. My excuse for almost not remembering the anniversary, is that this was our legal anniversary, and a month later we had the wedding that we normally celebrate, for which we wrote our own vows, and was not legal in any way, hence this wedding happened a month before the planned wedding. And I arrive home from Toronto after the visit to Wales for Mum's 83rd birthday, on the day of our 12th wedding anniversary, which is a Sunday, so at least Jerry will not be working and we will have some time together.

The other news is that we are looking at a different style of home for the lot!!! Yes we realise that the sheer size of the foundation we had planned may be too costly, and the fact that the house itself is built out of blocks, would mean paying someone to do that for us. The design we are now looking at has a smaller footprint, and is two floors, and we may even go with a full basement, as Jerry's colleagues are saying a full basement does not cost much more. We had originally gone with the idea that two floors would inhibit the heating to the upstairs, but it appears that this is not the case. It is all to do with correct glazing for both areas. Also the design is of wood construction, and there are quite a few class mates who have already volunteered to help with the construction, and the fact that this will be of wooden construction, will be ideal for the help that is available. Having done more research we realise that the original design was not the only way of achieving what we desire. Also with having a basement, it would make it easier to have the composting toilet we are hoping to install, which does require that the composting part of it is underneath the toilet itself, so this would be a benefit.

Jerry has already asked his new boss if he will give us a quote for the foundation, so the plan is to now go with the new design footprint, and see how that pans out. The quote will include taking the cost of Jerry's labour off the quote, which is perfect as we are very keen to be involved in the house build from the outset.

Work Term update

Hi, the elusive Jerry here. Had my first two days of my work term, and they've been interesting.

I include photo's of what I've been up to. One shows a wall in a holiday home the company has been building. Started off this morning as a blank wall, and finished of as a mock log wall. Nice enough, but I don't think it's something I want in our home, but good experience anyway. The other photo shows what was accomplished Monday. It's the porch for the front (or back, depending on the view) of the house we're working on currently. Monday morning there was no porch. My first task on my first day, was to build the floor frame, the beam, and nail on the deck planks. Thankfully it was all stuff I had some knowledge of, so not too difficult.

Mind you, I shouldn't have left my rubber mallet on my tool belt, as that got a lot of ridicule, as did my 'cats claw' which is considerably larger than anyone else's, but doesn't lend itself to staying in my tool belt.

All in all a good couple of days, I've learnt things and seem to be getting on ok with the guys on the team. Bit annoying that today was cut short due to lack of materials, but then you have to live with that. Hopefully they'll be there tomorrow. Won't know what the plan is until I get there.

On a secondary note, I've just added to the useful in a worst case scenario items. Just ordered a "Berkey" water filter and a couple of kerosene lanterns. Once the filter arrives, we shouldn't need to worry about drinking water again. We have a stream at the bottom of the plot, which should give us plenty of water if necessary.

That's it for now, more as I proceed through the 5 weeks.

New Website Soon!

Just to let you know that we have purchased a new domain name - www.passivesolarliving.com. We will get it set up and then incorporate this blog into it. It will be some time before it is active, but at least have now bitten the bullet and got passed stage one. We did want to have it has '.ca', but you need to be a Canadian Citizen to be allowed to have a '.ca' so we searched again. We had purchased a domain name while in France, in readiness for our business, but did not renew it as we felt that it was no longer relevant, and that our lives had moved on from that.

I (Gemma) have been very busy again at work, we are back up to taking 30% of the incoming calls, as the offshore team in India are not coping, and have lost 10 staff recently, both voluntary and involuntary. They have the task of learning English and all aspects of support at the same time, and I imagine Bank of America associates are not going to tolerate the continuance of these changes. Having lived and worked in London, I find it difficult to understand them, and they find it difficult to understand us, and bank associates do not want to call in, and end up having to use instant messaging to be understood.

The outcome of this change is that we are coming to the end of our time in this job, and we have seen the company letting people go up to a week early (on full pay), and we are now taking more calls will far less staff, and everyone is less than happy. We have gone from a happy lot, having a jolly time, making use of time between calls, as in up to an hour, to now when we have no time between calls at all, and no sign of us being let go early, in fact more likely to be on calls up to the last minute next Friday.

I am however hoping to hear the result of my interview next week with a company in town, and hope I can start there soon, or at least when I get back from the Wales trip.

Today is sunny but quite windy, so our planned picnic at the lot is canceled, we shall be going there to do some more planning.

Jerry has been calling and leaving messages for two contractors we had names and numbers for, in regard to a quote for the foundations, but with no response at all. He does start his 5-week placement with a company next week, and he plans to ask the boss if he will give him a quote, and if we go with it, if he could work on it too. We both feel that we want to be in on the action from the bottom up, so we can feel a part of this house.

Something I had missed off my last post was the fact that our purchase of cast iron cookware from Canadian Tire included 3 skillets in the box. What has subsequently arrived in the post are some additional pieces that Jerry had ordered through Ebay, were two smaller Dutch Ovens, and a cast iron kettle, all in preparation for cooking outside on our fire pit, or on the woodstove in the new house.

Jumping to Conclusions!

It turns out that the person I thought was a Supervisor, is not even a Team Lead, the only advantage over me is the time she has worked with the company, no seniority at all. Shows how you can jump to conclusions about someone. Just have to wait to 1) if I got the job and 2) if they got the funding for the position. Although money was not discussed, I realise the fact that they are very keen that you can work from home for most of the shifts, and in case of bad weather, that seemed more important than anything. For me this has now made the job even more suitable. Their last question was the fact we are going to move out of town, whether I would have broadband, and I had in fact called the company that afternoon and found that it might never happen, so I explained that we had friends that have installed Satellite, and that it has proven to work very well. The response to this was that one of the interviewers and another member of staff also work at home over satellite, so it proves to be good enough to do the job, which is great.

Today we have been up the Lot again, and given Oliver a good run up there. Oliver found a red squirrel to play with, but the squirrel got the better of him, was really telling him what for. Although there is no snow on the ground in town, there is quite a bit of snow on the lot from the last few days, even the remnants of freezing rain on the trees.. and guess what didn't take the camera. Isn't that always the way. It is lovely and sunny though today, and it was nice walking around on our land.

Jerry showed me the BBQ pit he dug a few weeks back. It is in the perfect spot, and will be ideal for all our bbq's this year. Jerry also showed me the marshy area he had found the other day, which has dried bull rushes there. Did I forget to say that my sister in Toronto loves Bull rushes, so no doubt she will find a way to take some back with her after her next visit.

My job is ending on the April 30th, but it had originally been the 17th, but last week they asked the employees that had said the 17th if they wanted to leave early on full pay until the 17th, and of course they said yes. Then there was an issue with the phones, and we were up to our necks in calls, in queue like a Monday when servers tend to be down. My question is, will they now offer the employees who said the 30th, if they want to leave early on full pay rather than sit there doing nothing.

And finally, some months ago, I had a little whinge to my boss, like THE BOSS, that I disapproved of their Quality system, where they drew names out of a hat for prizes, and then gave honorable mentions to other people. The honorable mention seemed to depend on your social life, and how friendly you were with the right people.. but I didn't say that of course. Well next think my Supervisor and a team lead called me in the office, and I expected a slap on the wrist for being outspoken like that in front of other staff directly to the boss... whereas what did happen was that he said I should have a $50 gift certificate, so they handed me a Canadian Tire gift card for the use of. And I did my best to look all guilty about being outspoken, but they made a point of saying that this was in recognition of my continued efforts etc. This was between us, and there was no email with my name on it saying I had received a gift certificate, but chose not to tell anyone. The people who asked why I was called in, were told by me that I had a rap on the wrists for what I had done, which everyone easily believed.
Where this is all leading is that finally at Canadian Tire I found something we needed rather than wanted.. A cast iron Dutch Oven, and Grill and a coffee percolator for using on a wood stove or open fire, and also a solid stand to put over an open fire, that will hold the weight of a Dutch Oven. So this came to more than $50 of course, I think the wooden box with rope handles the oven and grill came in was worth a lot in itself, the rest went on my new credit card. I finally had a company say yes to me, when they called I made a point of saying I didn't want to go through all their questions, having been turned down so far. After a few checks they said that there would be no problem, so it was 'Pray Continue!'. One has to build up credit afresh here in Canada, as we cannot carry over the uk credit rating. Until now, even though I have been the one working, I have been turned down, whereas Jerry as a student, with a wife working did get one. We already had credit cards with the bank, which we had to put the money for up front, and after a year you get that money back, but it is a way of building up credit during that time. My uk credit card went from 8000 sterling to 300 sterling due to lack of use, so I don't think I will be keeping that much longer.

Interview update!

This is to update all you interested fans, that I got through my first interview on the phone. I had a call to ask me to come in for the second interview this afternoon. The position is support for an online school in Florida. So students that either cannot go to a normal school, or did not get through at a normal school and choose to resit this way. This is tech support for any issues they have viewing any of the course material.

I came home to change into a neat little grey boucle suit, that now fits me perfectly. When Jerry dropped me off, I said I was going to check if it was the right building, and Jerry told me that I had said it was that building. This is when he tells me that he assumed it was in the professional center because I had said so.. well I guessed it was there, so Jerry assumed that was gospel. Well thankfully it was there, so I went to find their office.

When I arrived, a supervisor from my current job was finishing up, also applying for the job. So you can imagine, my hands were shaking, and I thought I can say goodbye to this job now. The interview atmosphere was lovely, but I am not convinced I did that well. I got on real well with them, and I hope it was enough. They did say that when the contract for the support is renewed in July, they hope to add yet another person, and they do keep the resume's on file - so there is hope for me yet.

I am trying and failing not to go over the questions in my head, and realising how much better I could have answered in places. So now I am having a beer to calm my nerves.

Oh and by the way it was sunny when I came out, and I walked aways while waiting for Jerry to come pick me up. Having said another snow storm coming tomorrow and Saturday. I also realised that this place is really only a ten minute walk from our house, and will be walkable in the winter. The wonderful thing is that apart from the main day shift, they want people to work from home on the other shifts, so that is great, and ideal, couldn't wish for better.

Oh and finally a wonderful link if you love Chickens - It is a HEN CAM - so if you miss the calmness and company of chickens this is the place, you can see them both inside and outside the hen house and in the nest, a sight you don' t often have the chance to see. Enjoy!

Just catching up

Jerry Here,

Not sure if I've mentioned this, but I've been slowly buying up useful things from ebay and Lehmans So far have bought a couple of Dutch Ovens and a cast iron kettle from ebay, plus several books on dutch oven cooking and cooking on a woodburning stove. Also ordered a cast iron door for a bread oven plus a book on how to build the oven.

I want to be able to cook without needing to import energy as much as possible, although the current plan is to have a propane stove as backup. Just need to fit everything in the kitchen!

Have already dug a fire pit, and have marked out an area for a shelter/ sitting area. I'm hoping to use wood from the lot to build the shelter, which will be interesting.

Contemplating buying a chainsaw as well, as there's a lot of fallen trees that need processing and seasoning before they rot completely. Also thinking semi-seriously of getting some sort of portable saw-mill, but we'll see.

Really need to get something sorted out about the foundations. Need to get another quote or two and then decide. I'm sure we can get the price down to something more reasonable.

Interview coming up!

I got an email last night for a Telephone Interview next week for a Technical Support Representative position based here in town. The company supports an on line school in Florida. They are interviewing 30 by telephone to narrow it down and then a board interview at the end of the week. I will say I am nervous, as it all depends on your voice alone, and no allowance for being nervous, and possible garbage coming out of your mouth. They will give a possible scenario and decide based on how you respond and how you would deal with the issue. Let's hope that my nice English diction will sway them above all else.

We got yet another weekend with weather that scuppered our plans: we planned to go to Antigonish last weekend, and so yesterday was take 2, and we had a storm warning - we stayed at home, and just as well. We had lots more snow.. well 5cms overnight, and the wind has really picked up again. The problem is that to get to Antigonish you have to cross the Causeway to the mainland, and there have been a lot of accidents there these past weeks, due to no visibility and high winds, so we may have got there, but might have failed to get back across, which would have been a problem with all our babies being at home. We did go to the Mall up the road yesterday, and the car park had seagulls flying and swooping around, and although we are on the water, this was inland for them, which is a sure sign of a storm coming.

So with the wind today, I think a day in doors deciding if I am prepared for tomorrow's interview. Of course I could just forget about it, and just pick up the phone like I do at work, and hope that I can solve whatever issue they try me with. I think the crux will be - if you don't know the answer to the problem technically, how you would handle that situation, in that you find the answer then get it resolved. In my current job, you do not have all the answers, but there is a knowledge base and also if it is not there a team of second level agents and supervisors.

If you are wondering why I am looking for another job, the place I am working at is closing down, they are taking the business off shore to India, and currently we are just taking a small percentage of the calls. Most people find it very difficult when they get through to India, as they tend not to understand each other. It seems most of the new agents, are learning English along with learning the job. So my last day is the 30th April, and ideally I would like to start the next job in June, so that I begin after coming back from the trip to Wales. Jerry is starting his work placement on 23rd of April, so we will both be earning for about a week, so the following week when we both get paid, we will no doubt feel quite rich.

For me this job is not ideal, I don't think I am really cut out for support work, but this is a small town of 3,500 people, and there are not many choices. The issue of course is that probably a great many people at my current job are going to be going for this one job next week. For me I am new in town, and don't fancy my chances truly against people who have been working there at least 4 years in some cases. We have found in Canada that it is very much a who you know when it comes to getting a job, and I don't know anyone, so it may prove harder finding another job than I would like.

Quotes - what a joke!

Talk about a reality hit, we have had some initial quotes for the foundations. One company only do the slab, and don't dig the foundation, do the footings and frost wall - so for just the slab it was $6000. They gave us the name of someone who could do the rest, and that quote came back as $26,000 almost as much as the land. So it felt like back to the drawing board for us, as to what is our next move.

I had spoken to a colleague at work, and her partner works for a company that supplies to electrical contractors, and he gave us an initial quote of $1500 for everything we will need for the house, but excludes any cabling for the inverter for the solar and wind power - so for us this was a good quote. They also suggested someone else to try for a quote for the foundations.

In the meantime Jerry has spoken to a fellow student, who has been in the building trade for 10 years, and is in school to get a qualification. He has said he would be happy to help get the foundations dug, having used a mini excavator before, and will help with getting the foundations done, and some other students have volunteered as well. It is good experience for them, and good for us. If we can save money on a bit of the house that will not even be seen, we will have more to spend elsewhere.

On a tangent, Jerry bought Series II of Stargate Atlantis yesterday, so we watched quite a few episodes last night, and are looking forward to some more tonight. We are waiting impatiently for Series 10 of the original Stargate, which is being aired on TV, but we tend to miss it - I think we have a while to wait for this, but it is the finale, the final series, it will not continue after this.

I remember Jerry and I going to the Empire Leicester Square in London, to see the original Stargate, with my first husband and his partner and a buddy, and we were all totally awed by it. And then went down a small street to a little restaurant that just did good wholesome meals that were so very cheap. Memory Lane!

Oh and finally - it's SNOWING again!! and I am not joyous about it anymore, I am bored with it, and I want it to stop, I want it to be Spring, just like it is down in the Annapolis valley. In the scheme of things, I think there was a lot more snow over the winter on the mainland, we have never not been able to go out here on Cape Breton, but the winter is dragging on for sure.

Some Photos of my Boys! - and more.

This is becoming a photo day, so here is a picture of my boys ensconced on the Day Bed. Then one of 'The Sister' from Toronto, and it is Brenda and I that will be going back to Wales at the end of May for our mother's 83rd birthday. This photo was taken up at the lot over New Year's when we took Brenda up to see what we were thinking of buying. Brenda is the one that will have a cabin or a 5th wheel trailer or maybe she will become 'trailer trash' or some such like called 'Green Acres'.

The Tax Man - Mainly!

On a tangent, photos of the rest of our family, which we have not included to date.

The first one of Frodo at the top, who used to come for walks with Oliver in France, a real 'Mr Adventure' so half cat half dog, and he is 2 in July. Below him is Loki who is our 'lioness', and
the main reason for including the photos, managed to catch Freyja having her own adventure this morning... She is truly our 'Bunny Rabbit' she has white socks, and is so very pretty. The girls are sisters and will be 9 in July.

Thought we should share our good news about the tax man, or at least a representative of the tax authority. We were running out of time for me to get my tax return submitted, and this being our first year submitting in Canada, we thought we would make use of a chap and his wife who work out of their house just up the road from us. So we went along with our paperwork on Thursday evening, and it turns out that even though Jerry hasn't work he does have a SIN (Social Insurance Number) which means he had to submit as well.

The great news is that I will get all my tax back, and more, I was able to take Jerry as a dependent, and his allowance and school fees and books could be put across to mine. Also due to being on low income we will get an allowance towards purchase tax which they will give us every quarter. Since we this was the first time we have submitted and we are immigrants, we could not submit over the internet, they like to see all the paperwork. So it should take between 4 and 8 weeks for them to clear it and send us a nice cheque of slightly over $2500.00, which will go towards paying for the lot. This included holding some of Jerry's allowance back for next year.

So we can say that this was this week's good news.