And yes, it is so. After a marathon journey coast to coast we find ourselves once again in funky Yale Town, downtown Vancouver. It’s familiar ….. and different all at the same time.
But first the journey back from East coast to West coast via time zones, system crashes and hours and hours lounging in airport lounges. It was a perfect example of “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”.
Got the the Halifax airport in good time, survived security, found the gate, got some snacks all ready to go and….what’s this…all these passengers getting off the plane…the plane that was supposed to have flown away an hour ago? And so we waited and waited and waited until they fixed a system wide IT error that grounded the whole Air Canada fleet. Oh boy…what a shemozzle!!
Mike and Wendy were booked on a cruise ship that was to sail sometime after midday the next day and, the connecting flight looked “iffy” with all the backlog of planes and passengers across Canada filling up the available seats. Ah no!
It affected everyone. The cabin crew sitting on the tarmac waiting, the flight officers worried about their flying time limits (that’s why we so fast out of the gate and up the runway said one cabin crew member with a wry smile) the taxis and Ubers at all airports with no passengers for hours then planes landing all together swamping the terminals and creating traffic jams.
For us it was “one step at a time”. Get to the next point, get on the next available flight and eventually we did fly into Vancouver about 11pm their time….3am Halifax time……where our bodies thought that we should be. But, we got there….absolutely exhausted, completely spent…..and slept the “sleep of the dead” in the lovely Opus, all of us!
But it does demonstrate that we have little tolerance for setbacks or unanticipated changes these days. We all assume it will be as it is planned, because that is what we experience most of the time and yet, in such a complex world, it is quite amazing that these issues are not much more common. And we did get there, on the planned day….just a few hours late….and busted!
And therein lies the “same only different bit”. We are back in familiar surroundings but Mike and Wendy have headed off on their Alaskan cruise and we only have a few days left with Erin before we also head off….back to OZ. Things seem quite different at the “end” of a trip to the “beginning”……the “beginning” which hold so much promise and anticipation …….and the “end” where reality bites and return to normal life beckons……until the next trip!!
🤞no more IT gremlins on Air Canada tomorrow!
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| This picture is a lie! The second after I took it our faces and postures went back to the “hang dog” ….how many more hours in this lousy, Calgary terminal look. Just check out the faces in the background for reference. |
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| Ohhhhh baby……that bed was heavenly!!!! The Opus is renowned for its quirky, funky boutiqueness, but let me tell you, bright, deep orange could never grow on you!! |
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| …….and things always seem better with pizza and beer!! |
