Josh Macfadyen has written a wonderfully evocative post on his leaving Kitchener. As we find ourselves both moving on I did want to throw a quick post in…perhaps more later. I am still pretty snowed under (snow would be nice right now – we’re in a heat wave +40C)  with stuff to do, people to notify and things to take care of to make this all happen. Haven’t had much of a chance to ponder the things I’ll miss or what the move all means. Best not appreciated too broadly perhaps The little things do come to mind occasionally. The people, the places and the habits. My offices (the coffee shops) where I spend far too much time come to mind. Antonia treated me to a farewell latte the other day and took a few snaps, so I figured I would share them with you – Shawn in his writing element Thanks to Antonia for these and for the latte.

Yay! Anne has just called to say that as of 5pm today the last condition was waived on my house deal and we can post the sold sign! This is a huge anxiety reliever. I must say, other than the week or so of push-push to totally make the place over, the house sold amazingly well. After the first deal fell through was nicely depressed – especially after finding out about the extent of non-residency. Then a series of offers on Sunday and a better one than the original deal. The house looks amazing right now and it’s always that great irony that the house is most impressive when you are finally giving it up. Lesson: put the time in when you move into a new place and make it what you want it to be. Enjoy it while you are there. Creeping dyslexia…why can I not spell house correctly…every time I type house, it comes out hosue. Weird.
Anyway, onward upward and no looking back. Now to worry about landing in ireland…great hope!
BTW, in the ongoing test of Tagaroo…I have been given Ireland and Dyslexia…hence the picture.

A busy, busy Sunday. My agent showed the hosue twice and then held an Open House on Sunday. The end result was a series of great offers on the house. All were presented and we accepted a deal and I met with the buyer. We are into that waiting time now and wait to remove conditions from the house. Fingers crossed by all parties. This deal will make us all very happy.

I have also been watching the travails of the airline on which I am booked to travel to Dublin on the 15th. Their first flight of the charter season was yesterday and they were delayed 10 hours on leaving Hamilton…this does not imbue confidence, but again, am finding appendages to cross.

All continues to progress and I am every day more conscious that my time in Canada runs short.

So…the house deal fell through last Thursday. Her agent left a message wih mine that he couldn’t even get in touch with her to collect the deposit cheque, so deal was null and void. Huge disappointment and the hosue was kept off the market for a week. That left me rather despondent for a few days and this was compounded by the discovery that Canada seems to have a rather draconian tax regime. Apparently if I want to maintan any ties to the country of my birth I have to pay a rather hefty premium for such a priviledge. Unlike most western countries, which tax you only on doemstic earnings and don’t take a cut of earnings which you have already paid tax on, Canada wants it all. So, would end up being taxed twice if I maintain connections. So have had to file a non-residency declaration and cross fingers that they will accept it. Feeling rather low right now.

PS. Am enthused however about the Tagaroo plug-in for wordpress that uses OpenCalais to suggest tags for your posts and also searches Flickr for images that match those tags. Very cool. It suggested the image I attached to this post. Neato!