It's at this time of year when people start to reflect on the past and look forward to the future. I was thinking of my past, where I came from and how I got to be where I am now and I would like to share a little of it with you.

Born in Motherwell, Scotland in 1963 in a loving, hard working, christian family to good parents (hi mum & dad) and Grandparents that had to struggle to raise families during the 2nd World War.

I have two younger sisters, Linda and Alison. My childhood was a happy one, although we did fight a lot, with each other and me with other people. We never had much and it was always a struggle for my parents. In the late sixties there were lots of new housing estates getting built, tower blocks and flats, Gowkthrapple, Wishaw was one of these and we moved from our tenement building (not quite like the one below but gives you an idea what I am talking about) with outside toilet to a brand new flat in "Gowkie", luxury.

Got my teenage years out of the way in Gowkie, trying not to get involved too much in the gangs, drugs, and bigotry in a typical housing estate. School was a bit of a blur for me and the time to leave wouldn't come quick enough.

1979 and at the age of 16 I left school and, due to my Dads job, in the August the family made a huge move (well it was to us at the time) to St. Helens, England.

This house seemed like a palace, a 3 bedroom modern semi, even with its own driveway and detached garage.

I went straight to work after a couple of weeks and have only been out of work once since then and that was in the middle of "Maggies Britain" during the Falklands War.

At 23 I was fed up with supervisors and managers looking over my shoulder telling me what to do and when to do it so took my HGV and the day I passed got my first driving job. I drove extensively throughout Europe and Scandinavia for the first few years of my driving career. I soon found myself, thanks to a friend, working for a very large tanker transport company.

I was with that company for a while but times were changing along with managers that were no more than University Graduates that didn't , or have the inclination to, understand the job.

I moved on and drifted from job to job, still mainly on tankers.

Great Britain was becoming a miserable place to live. Overcrowding, racism (the whites being the oppressed most of the time), violence and almost impossible to get around without delays.

We started looking at Emigrating with a number of countries under consideration. When we narrowed it down Canada became our only real option.

Six months after our first visit to Canada I landed here with a work permit and my wife and two sons followed about 7 weeks later after having sold everything. The rest can be read about on here, scroll down.

We are happy here with a life that we never thought we could have. The downside? Leaving the rest of our families behind, it's not easy but no one ever said it would be.