1st Driving Experience in Canada

Today is the 1st time I drove my aunt's car out with her beside me. It was sort of a nervous experience for me, I think it takes sometime getting use to driving on the left side in the car & having to keep right at all times on the road. I even got the signaling wrong for several times. I felt like it was my very 1st time driving although I already have more than 10 years of driving experience. I nearly went to the wrong lane when turning into a smaller road.



We went to the Tommy Hilfiger Outlet in Orchard Park Mall today. My wife & aunt bought some clothings for a very low price yesterday, hence today my aunt brought me back to see if I could find any cheap bargains. We came to knowledge why there are 2 pricing stated on the Labels. The top pricing is the retail pricing for other outlets (i.e. @ The Bays, Sears or Wallmaert) while the bottom pricing is for the Tommy Hilfinger outlet's retail price which is abt 55% less.



Luckily, I was able to pick up several cheap bargains. I bought 2 sweater, 2 long sleeve shirt, 2 long pants & 1 polo shirt. (total pricing came to abt CAD 47 including Tax i.e. average CAD 6.71 per piece). The final mark price has another 40% off on all the Clearance Item. Hence, one of the long sleeve shirt I picked up is abt CAD 110(outlet price CAD 59.99) while today clearance price is CAD 9.99 with additional 40% off excluding tax. Therefor the final price is CAD 5.99 exclude Tax. The best bargain was picked up by my wife yesterday for me, she bought me a winter jacket for only CAD 11.99. (original pricing is CAD 180)

This was the 1st time in my life I have bought such branded clothings. Not ever in my life if I'm still in Malaysia, I will buy any clothing from the outlet as the pricing is too expensive.



ps. CAD 1 = MYR 3.3 (exchange rate).

Career Counselor ..

Today, I met up with a career counselor at one of the Job Agency. There are many Job Agency funded by the Govt here in Canada .... hence all of them are trying to get as much customer as possible to be able to get more fundings for their operation. I went to several Agency last week & finally decided to choose Central Okanagan Immigrant Employment Service to help me.

The Job Counselor's job is actually to give advice & keep a look up on job suitable to my criteria. On today's 1st session, it is more like a introductory session. The Job Counselor, 1stly get to know more about my background & what I look for in the job. Then when I handed her my Resume & Cover Letter, she gave some advise as well on how to better improve my resume & how to sell myself better in the cover letter.

Today's 1st session seems fruitful & hopefully the next few session will be the same. They even have Interview Workshop session next week & Networking Workshop session a week after. Most importantly, they acknowledge that they have fundings for me to apply for my credential as P.Eng (which will cost abt CND 300++).

1st BUS TRIP out ..

Today is the 1st time we went to the BUS STOP to grab a Bus to the Shopping Area called "Ochard Park". We were prepared for the cold weather at first but when we walk abt 10-20 steps out of the house .... we were FREEEEZING Cold. We head back to the house again & have grab some caps & gloves for the kids to keep warm. (Temp - 5 degrees Celsius & they say it is Spring)

Then we have to walk abt 10 minutes in the cold to finally reach the Bus Stop. Luckily the bus stop was sheltered & covered us from the strong winds. The Bus frequency is abt 30 minutes but luckily we didn't wait long. Then we have to pay a flat rate of CND 2 fees for each trip, no matter where you go. (kids ride for free)

Finally, we reach the Orchard Park Shopping Area. The 1st place we went was "Zellers", we have to walk abt 5 mins to the destination & outside the cold weather. Just wondering how are we going to survive without a "CAR" especially during winter here. We were able to find some great bargain on clothing at Zellers. Here we manage to buy a Winter Jacket for my son for only CND 7.50 (Regular pricing CND 35) Moreover, we bought 2 pairs of long pants with woolly inside lining of original pricing for only CND 5.(Regular pricing CND 25) One thing we learn from my aunt is that we have to regularly search for those Clothings / Stuff on Clearance which will normally go for very very low prices as they are trying to clear their remaining stocks.

After visiting the actual Orchard Park Mall, we headed home ..... which ended our COLD COLD Shopping Day Trip on the Bus.

Freezing !!!!!

Being Initiative in Looking for Work.....

Today, my aunt brought me to several place to just drop my Resume & hope for a chance to meet with the HR people. Today's weather was very very cold & I have to dress up in the Monkey Suit which I feel weird on wearing..... this is the one & only suit I have since my University dayz abt 10 yrs ago. (Luckily it still Fits)

We went to 2 places but unfortunately for both places, I didn't get to meet up with the HR personnel & have to just leave my resume with the receptionist. At the 1st place, I have waited for nearly 45 minutes but to avail that the HR Personnel is not available to meet me. Here in Canada there is such things as Hidden Job Market, these jobs are normally not advertise anywhere & are commonly filled by people's recommendation. So what i need to do is be initiative & sell myself to the company I'm interested & hopefully they have a position somewhere for me to fill.

As expected, the engineering jobs here are limited but when I search on the net for Engineering or Manufacturing firms there are quite a few of them. It is either most are inside the hidden job market or they are not hiring anybody at all. Nonetheless, I have look for more companies that I could go to "SELL" myself. Moreover, I will be meeting a Career Counselor whom help new migrant to look for jobs & hopefully they can help me to look for jobs too.....

Registered for School !!

Yesterday we went to the Educational Services Center to get help registering my daughter for school. 1stly we need the Landing Papers & Proof of Residence (a letter from my aunt) to register my daughter for school. Based on where we live the Education Service Dept will assign my daughter to the school within it's en-catchment. Then the person in-charge, noted to us that a service worker will call us & make an appointment to meet up at the school. Later in the afternoon, the service worker call us up to inform that she has our acceptance letter for school & shall meet us on the next day at the school for a registration to the school.

Finally, today we made the trip down to the school to register my daughter to the specific school that they appointed us to. 1st impression of the school is that environment is nice & hopefully my daughter will get the best out of the Education system here.


Hopeful !!!