Brandon, Manitoba

Did I get the right Brandon bmf? Out under the big sky of the plains? Those lakes to the northwest look enormous! Over here anything larger than a swimming pool is a lake!

Wow, what a suprised to have this thread. Yes, it is right, this is where you can find me, just phone first, . Everything is big and flat here, so your right the sky is huge. We actually have quite a few UK farmers here, actually I think I already told you that...

I don't think I'd be any good at farming, although I'm sure you could give me a few pointers! Any callfor Railway Signalmen (is it Towermen in Canada like in US?) over there? Got a new baby due in June and will have four kids to support then, am going for a promotion to a bigger, busier box at the minute but even if I get it not sure if can afford a bigger house.

I hear land and property are relatively cheap over there. What's your average 5 bedroom house cost in Brandon for instance?

I just think everything is more expensive here, including houses

To be honest I have no idea - I would guess signalperson. There are not many five bedroom houses that is getting pretty big really, I would be guessing. I know for a fact that a nice average family four bedroom would go for 250 000, the range would be 200 000 to 300 000+ CDN. Property tax is ~2500/year. The average new car is 20 000 - 25 000, but I drive a good used car (I was lucky) for 2000. The average salary is ~45 000/year, most families are dual income, so there are child care expenses of ~20 day per child.

We are one of the cheapest provinces to live in all of Canada. The same house in Vancover would be at least double or more.

I would be interested in comparing these numbers to yours.

http://www.breb.mb.ca/

If you really are getting serious...

I want to move to canada now
fancy a swap James?

YOu would have to talk my wife into it - good luck! I would like to visit England again but if i was to move anywhere I would be talking to micky about a swap - oz is the stuff.

oz looks nice but too bad for games
Where abouts in the UK did you visit?

I did a Europe in three weeks - one of the best times of my life. I only had time to spend in London - quite a city I would love to have more time to visit it and the rest of England. I would also like to go to wales apparently I have some heritage there so I would like to see what all the jokes are about.

London, Nice, and Austria were probably my favorites, I thought I would like Rome the best and it turned out I like Italy the least. Amsterdam also wasnt as good as the hype IMO, dirty and seedy in the tourist areas.

yeh, it's dirty for a reason. Or so I've heard. wink wink
Dominators been the amsterdamn too.
I've only ever been to france and germany
My parents have been away as in flying but I just really don't like flying at all. My first time was at germany and I honesty was quite scared. I know its stupid but I think 9/11 had an effect on me?

yeah, that is stupid.

Went to a funeral in manchester yesterday, and met LOADS of family that ive never met in my life, it was a really weird experiance meeting people you are related to but have never met before. Anyway I met one of my mams cousins, and they live in canada, not sure which part though. and next christmas i might be going to canada. one week in a skiing resort called holiday valley, then another week in one of the big cities, cant remeber which one. So that should be fun.

Karb - I always just tell myself more people die in vehicles than airplanes, I also liked germany - lots of beer.

Dom - that would be cool if you can go, try to remember what part, it is like me saying I am going to europe but I dont know what country. Canada is so big that each part is really different. Most Canadians never see all of Canada.

about the planes, yeh I guess there is but there is just some uncertaintity about it in my opinion. I just think thety feel unsturdy and anything could go wrong

Kev - if you have a second i am still curious how brandon mb compares to yorkshire in terms of costs...have you packed your bags, are you going to be my gameshare neighbour?

haha

I'll rustle up some stats for later. I found a rail company based in Brandon with some vacancies but they are only a short line railway with no real traffic control jobs. I should be moving up to a bigger box in the next year so once I've got a couple years experience on a big panel I'm going to have a look at joining CR as I fancy moving to a better country to bring the kids up in but all I know is how to signal trains!

kev, bit of a sadistic question but have you ever seen anything bad on the railway? eg, car being hit or people? Just wondered ever since you said you worked in one of those traffic boxes

karbine123 wrote:kev, bit of a sadistic question but have you ever seen anything bad on the railway? eg, car being hit or people? Just wondered ever since you said you worked in one of those traffic boxes

I've never worked a box with a level crossing and never seen a death directly. I've had a couple of suicides on my patch while i've been on. The Hope Valley seems to get quite a lot of jumpers.

bmfinc wrote:I know for a fact that a nice average family four bedroom would go for 250 000, the range would be 200 000 to 300 000+ CDN. Property tax is ~2500/year. The average new car is 20 000 - 25 000, but I drive a good used car (I was lucky) for 2000. The average salary is ~45 000/year, most families are dual income, so there are child care expenses of ~20 day per child.

I would be interested in comparing these numbers to yours.

I'm not sure on averages but I live in the North where things are generally cheaper and my house is a three bedroom terrace with a small garden front and back worth about £100k and the council tax (property tax) is about £1200 per year My car is 5 year old Skoda SUperb that cost me £5k a year ago and is about £20k new. Last year I was paid £32k before tax.

I am suprised we dont seem to be as radically different as I thought, in fact we are pretty bang on. It is interesting to see what is going on in different parts of the world. I am always thinking about retirement and where I would like to go, many people here get sick of the cold winters and move to the states for a bit.

were in a recession atm so it would be dead cheap for you to live here lol. were equal to the euro or summot now arnt we used to be cheaper to import games from eu, but not anymore.

And I thought we had cold winters ha.
It is just pretty dull here. It seems that every house seems the same colour with the weather being really dull.
Bring on the summer!! well if we can call it that. What peak temp do you get in the summer in canada James?

we are suppose to be in a recession too but I really have not noticed, it is worse in the US. The short dark winter days are dull too, people get the winter blues and take a vacation to Mexico. The peak summer temp would be 35C, this is an area of extremes -35C winters to 35C summers, these are the maxs, more of the mid teens and 20s are normal on both seasons. What are your highs and lows.

I wish I could ship in more US cheap games but with shipping and border problems it is not worth it.