I don't know who you are, but I figure that as you're looking at this blog, you might want to know a bit more about me before reading further.
I can tell you right away that two of us will be writing this in future - me (Christy) and Rob (my partner).
We've decided to take it in turns writing entries, not just from a sense of shared creativity and division of labour, but also from an even stronger competitive streak that runs through (and sometimes over) our relationship. Rob's already talking of running a popularity poll at some point in the near future to determine who is the more favoured co-writer on this blog!
The inspiration for this blog is our recent uproot from Germany to Canada. We spent two years in Germany teaching English before deciding to toss corporate life in and start up our own English language vacation / consulting company in Nova Scotia.
Bravo, you might say. So did we. But, it seems that we're the first people to actually do this sort of thing out here. We've chosen a lovely 4-bedroom house on the LaHave River, minutes from the Atlantic Ocean. Locations like this would cost well over a million in some parts of Canada, without a doubt. We're a little off the highway here and it's definitely on the quiet side. Sad to admit, we now get really excited when cars drive by ('Hey, was that the garbage truck?', 'I think that was a car going past!' and that sort of thing).
We left Germany 3 weeks and 1 day ago, with four suitcases and our three cats. Relocating two people, four suitcases and three cats is surprisingly easy, except for the fact that we somehow lost our camera on the way, with all its last-minute nights out and memories.
The house is around 216 years old. It was built by a German immigrant family by the name of Hahn, who very soon turned the property's three acres into a farm. Farmer Hahn was also something of a project-enthusiastic, and allegedly spent 34 years (and probably quite a bit of cash) getting a pair of oxen to carve out a brook through the property. God knows what poor Mrs Hahn - not to mention the oxen - thought of all this.
So, back to our hopes for the future. We're busily getting both the vacation and the consulting wings of our business up and running, which means lots of running round meeting key business community players, purchasing hideously expensive office equipment (the fact that Canadians add sales tax onto the price at the till, rather than give you one price tag, will probably have the power to generate mini heart attacks in me for years to come).
Our company is called Story & Birch (www.storyandbirch.com). When the consulting side is set up, we'll use consulting.storyandbirch.com for this arm of the company. As per usual, our competitive streak got the better of us. Yep, Story & Birch is an anagram for Christy and Rob - no arguments can be had by one of claiming that the other's name is more prominent!
Now that we're here, I feel incredibly hopeful for the future. It's a great feeling to be your own boss and to grab a vision by the tail and try to make it work. First things first though. We've a bit of work to do to get the house and gardens ready for vacation guests. Kindling collecting, ordering firewood, looking for furniture, marketing, advertising, business meetings, polishing, driving into town, food shopping, raking leaves and getting to grips with the soapstone wood-burning stove fill our days at the moment. And hey, living right by the river, we even get our own private beach to walk on!
So, that's it from me for the moment. Besides, Rob's doing his best to sneak a peek at what I'm doing ('I'm not looking!').
I've no idea what the future holds - but right now it's pretty damn cool!
Until next time,
Christy
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