Shropshire Star reporter Rebecca Lawrence gives us the latest update in her preparations to move to Canada.

A good luck message for our soon-to-be ex-pat

My bags are packed and all there is left to do is get on the plane (and also hope for an upgrade – we shall see).

My parents, with whom I have been staying in Surrey since mid-June, will be dropping me off at Heathrow at 10am for my 1pm flight.

My fiancé Simon flew out to Ottawa and then on to Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan on June 16. From the frequent phone calls he seems to be settling in.

He has bought a Ford Escape automatic and will be picking me up from Calgary in it tomorrow, Saturday.

Then I will have to learn how to drive an automatic and remember to stay on the right hand side of the road.

He has also seen our house, which we move into on July 4 when our stuff arrives from England.

It has heated floors and a large open fire place – I’m guessing this is for the harsh winters I have been warned about.

It was quite strange seeing our stuff go off in the removal van and thinking the next time I see it will be in Canada.

The removal men packed everything up for us so it would say ‘courier checked’ on the boxes. I made sure I included several boxes of PG Tips, Golden Syrup (I’m not sure I like maple syrup as much but we’ll see) and Marmite – this is for Simon, who is worried how he will cope without it.

The rest of our furniture then went into storage and we spent our last few days in Shropshire cleaning the house ready for our new tenants. I hope they have now settled in.

They have very kindly been forwarding us our post – due to the fact most organisations seem incapable of changing your address the first, second or even third time you ask.

We said goodbye to all our friends and family in Shropshire (with several tears shed) and I have been saying goodbye to friends in Surrey for the past two weeks.

I even had a special good luck cake made by my friend Georgie. We actually went on holiday together to Canada when we were at university so it almost seems like fate that I’m now going to live there.

I’ve also been trying to sort out everything. It seems there are endless little tasks to do. I’ve just sold my Polo for scrap (the poor thing was slowly dying) and I’ve spent the morning making order of services for the wedding in September. At least moving to Canada means I’ve been super-organised about sorting everything in advance for the big day.

I would also like to thank everyone who read the first instalment of this blog for the lovely good luck messages- I am certainly very excited to start exploring Canada.

We’re spending the weekend in Calgary before driving to Moose Jaw on Monday, and there’s already a party lined up for Canada Day on Wednesday – better find a flag from somewhere, I guess, and get the barbeque started!