The main reason we emigrated to Canada was to fulfill a dream of mine to learn to fly. I attended Professional Flight Training Centre in Boundary Bay, which is a small airfield in Delta, south of Vancouver. We enjoyed Vancouver and British Columbia so much that it didn't take us long to decide to do what we could to stay. Sue was quickly offered work as a legal secretary for a law firm in Vancouver but of course couldn't accept it without a work permit. Fortunately for us the immigration lawyer freely offered his advice and following that we rented a Cessna aircraft for the day and flew down to Seattle. In Seattle I applied for and received my student visa, which would then allow Sue to apply for a work permit on the basis of being a dependent of a student.

I met Sue while she was travelling on Canberra as a passenger: we kept in touch following the cruise and got married in Barbados less than a couple of years later. In May of this year we will celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.  At the time we met, Sue was working as a legal secretary in London while I was living in Prestwick, Scotland. It meant a bit of a long distance relationship for a while but this was also at the time of the first Gulf War, which meant fewer people flying and thus reduced ticket prices. I remember being able to fly round trip Glasgow to London for something like 25 UK pounds. (Less than $50 Canadian)

Since this is the first blog on this site, not to mention my first one ever, I thought I should maybe introduce myself a bit. I was born in Scotland way back in 1961 and while we lived just south of Ayr I started primary school in Minishant. As I remember it we had a total of 40 students, in the whole school. Primary 1 had 8 of us, mind you we did have to share a classroom with Primary 2 so that added another 4 or 5 students.

I've never had a blog before... nor have I ever felt the need for one. In fact I've always felt it to be a bit like the talking heads one hears on AM radio chat shows. I would never want to listen to anyone conceited enough to think that they have something that I would want to hear. But anyway here I am and I now have my very own blog. Maybe we can make it a place for discussion and to improve our knowledge of the arts... or at the very least it's somewhere just to have a rant.