My dream trip

Well on october 3, 2008 i will be leaving on a jet plane, to a place i have not been in 22 years. This is all thanks to my very very good friend and war partner in a previous life - Suzy Q!

I came to Canada in 1980 and left behind my family and my friends. It was a quick move, my mom met my stepdad in July 1980, went to Canada for a holiday in September and we moved here on November 30 1980.

I was 15.25 years old, the boy of my dreams (yea right! at that age like i knew) had just asked me out the week before, Stephen Ford, and I didnt want to leave England,cos I 'was in love mummy'.

The hardest couple of things i had to face by leaving was leaving the special people in my life: our close knit family, all my cousins, aunts, uncles, my friends at the Church Girls Brigade, my friends at school, but most of all my older sister Debs and my godfather Albie. My heart was breaking at the thought of leaving them behind.

My mum was so much in love with Geoff and Linzi and I were too young to leave in England so off we went on a Wardair Plane to Toronto. I will always remember Albies face at the airport - he loved us all so much, we were his family, he was our dad when our dad left, he was the man that raised us, he created such a wonderful childhood for us and was such a wonderful man to my mum.

So we get on the plane and Linzi had just had a skinhead haircut and was wearing drainpipe jeans - quite the sight - the air hostesses were quite intrigued by her hair cut. And then when my mom told the story about how she had met Geoff and moved her whole life in 3 months of meeting him, they treated us like royalty -even invited us to the cockpit - certainly couldnt do that nowadays.

My mum dressed us all the same, blue jeans and white sweatshirts! how corny was that - i must find out all the old pics and post them here.

We knew nothing on Canada - thought it was full of snow and ice and eskimos - and we arrived to snow on teh ground and parts of my body that i did not know could freeze.

WE were here without the proper paperwork for a while, so we spent our first 6 months cooped up in an apt building at Victoria Park and Finch - talk about Culture Shock! but the apts. had an indoor pool so we were somewhat excited. But if i see one more episode of theLove Boat I will scream, I knew more TV shows in those 6months than I had ever seen in my life. In UK we had 3 channels, we arrived to 60!!!!!

My dad didnt put up a fight when we left, mind you, he never put up a fight for anything. His attitude was 'go ahead, take them, i cant stop you'but not once did he try to stop my mum from taking us away. But no loss, we really had not been important to him for the past 8 years.

So many thanks to my wonderful hubby Deano who has sacrificed so that we can afford for me to go to England. He ismy best friend and my soulmate and is the most unselfish man I have ever met - I love you Deano with all my heart.

so this blog is going to be about my trip, my experiences, my thoughts, who knows i may even carry this on after i come back.