Hi

You are right about the 2 weeks. I think this is pretty much the same over much of Canada. They are very upfront about the lack of holidays and realise that for us Brits it is a big shock to be reduced to so little time off. However, for us it is not so much of an issue as my husband is a contractor at the moment and he gets no holiday pay so over the year we take long weekends and go skiing etc instead of having a 2 week break twice a year.

I did a lot of research into moving and we are still very up for it as we don't really want to live in the UK again for any length of time. Where we are now is very relaxed and the pace of life is positively horizontal and we have such a great family life that we don't want to go back to the work work work attitude of Britain.

I hope all becomes clear for you. It is always a big step moving with children but over the past 8 months here our boys (11 & 14) have settled in really well and with a foreign language to learn (14 year old fluent 11 year old not too far off) they have done brilliantly. Now we have taken the plunge to live outside the UK they are up for anything and relish any new challenges.

Let me know how you get on.