With the move to Canada, I will need to also move my web and mail server. While I will make sure that my email server stays available all the time, I am expecting my web site, including this blog, to disconnect for a few weeks. I’ll make all I can to have it back online as quickly as possible.
If you have a hard time contacting me, try my Yahoo email address: gerard.metrailler[at]yahoo.com
Yes, big changes are in front of me. After almost 4 years in the UK, we will be moving west to live in Canada. And now that we have the visa in my pocket, I can make it public. I have accepted a new position at Corel and will be moving with my better half to Ottawa, ON in Canada early November… just in time for the winter 
As time goes on, I’ll certainly continue the “Living in…” series, but with an Ontario view this time. I can already tell you that opening a bank account is almost as bad as it is in the UK, with the only advantage that you don’t need a utility bill to get started… but you start from scratch with the credit history 
That’s it for now… flying back shortly to the UK to finish organizing the move.
To follow-up on the previously posted Part 1, I’ve got a few extra things to add about living in this great country. In no specific order: the Aga, the movie theaters, the NHS and the weather (yes, I missed that one last time… how could I!). As previously, these are constructive comments or views from a surprised resident.
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2900 miles (about 4700 km) and over 1000 photos later, our two weeks tour of the UK is over! What a beautiful country. And the best part was that most of the places we did go were not packed with tourists. Coming down from Scotland (see my previous blog entry) on the East cost, we stopped many times on the way to visit York, Cambridge or Hastings, just to name a few places.
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We finally arrived in Scotland. First things first, we either got very lucky, or the weather is a lot better than the reputation would make you think it is! Starting with the Lowlands, we found our ways on the West Highlands, then heading east and finally back down to the Borders region. And once again, for those who think about web services, universal Internet access through WiFi is not yet a reality in Scotland (and it’s the same as the rest of the UK we visited)… many regions don’t even have cell phone coverage!
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We’ve travelled almost 1000 miles through the UK since the last posting in my blog… What a beautiful country this is. As we don’t really have a pre-defined travel itinary, I won’t say we got lost many time or took many detours, but we did (this blog entry was written a few days before posting, but finding an Internet connection in the middle of the countryside in the UK while not really actively looking for it is not as easy as in London)
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OK, here we go: Just left Maidenhead, Berkshire to go for a two week holiday tour of the UK (Marielle and I will stay on the same island, e.g. no Ireland this time around). After over three years living in this beautiful country, it is time to go and to see more than London and the Reading area. So far, we’ve headed south and west and are now in Cornwall.
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Well, if it has to happen, it has to happen all at once. I am certain Murphy’s law is very much applicable to my recent travel experience. But on the bright side, my luggage always showed-up.
As the law says: “if it can happen, it will happen”. I must have been pushing my luck for way to long as I rarely have major problems while travelling, except a few luggage delivery delays (never lost), which I avoid by having only carry-on most of the time. But now, travelling seems to catch up with a vengeance. My trip from London (UK) to Boston (USA) via Montreal (Canada) at the end of February 2006 has been an interesting experience that I would rather not repeat in the near future, to say the least.
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I am a frequent business traveller and regularly use the high-speed Internet connection that is available in Hotel, either wired or wireless. The hotel I stays this week made me feel like an ATM… Interesting feeling!
So that’s what Cash Machines must feel, when the same customers goes back to get some money multiple times a day. Staying at a hotel in Holland for two nights last week, I pre-paid a 24 hours Wi-Fi Internet access for 24 hours at €15… or at least that is what I was expecting to pay.
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