Back in the Great White North

Hooray! I finally made it back to Canada!

I must admit I went to the Sydney airport yesterday feeling more than a little nervous/sick to my stomach. I was pretty much convinced that I wasn't going to get on the plane. There were some 30-odd folks on the standby list with me, and pretty much all of them were ahead of me in the seniority rankings. As I watched the crowd of standby hopefuls grow and grow outside the ticketing counter, I was already mentally preparing myself to go and buy tickets through Honolulu with Jet Star and West Jet. Fortunately I never had to!

The plane was scheduled to leave at 10:10am, and they didn't start handing out the standby boarding passes until 9:30. As more and more folks were called to get their passes and head for the plane, I was completely convinced I wasn't getting on. But this time at least my luck was with me. I got the very last boarding pass for the plane! I had stopped looking at my watch by this point because I knew it was so close to the time the plane was taking off. When they called my name for the boarding pass I swear I felt like I won the lottery! I thanked the counter staff profusely, dumped them with my checked bags, and hoofed it to security. Once through the screening I practically ran all the way to the plane, through the maze of construction that is Sydney airport. I was one of the last people to board the plane. PHEW!

The flight certainly had its challenges. There was something wrong with the in-flight entertainment system, so unfortunately my interactive touch screen (and those of about 90% of the other passengers) didn't work. So I spent the 14 hour flight with a blank screen and no music either. When it got dark I discovered that my reading light also didn't work. Gah. Thank goodness I had my flashlight! Also, the guy in the seat in front of me was more than a little rude. I was in the very last row of seats in the plane, and the storage bins over my seat were full of airplane equipment, so I went to put my bags in the bin in front. The guy in that row was downright rude to me, basically telling me to go find somewhere else to put my stuff because he didn't want my bags over his head. BLAH. They'd already made the announcements for everyone to take their seats and fasten their belts at this point. Fortunate one of the flight attendants came to my rescue and took my wheely suitcase to be cabin checked. In the end it wound up in a bin in Business class... so at least my luggage made it back to Canada in style!

When we arrived in Vancouver I had no problems going through customs (and I didn't even have to explain about the funky hat I bought - yay!), and Bill Hawke picked me up to drive me to the ferry. We stopped at (you guessed it!) Tim Hortons for a much needed caffeine break before arriving at the ferry terminal. I did a quick switcheroo with some of my luggage items so I only had to bring my big red pack with me. Bill's gonna store the rest of my luggage this week and I'll get it back just before I fly to Toronto on Saturday.

The ferry ride was actually harder in many ways than the plane ride. By the time I got on the ferry my body felt like it was about 4am, and I got no sleep on the plane. I was more than a little groggy by the time my brother Dave and my niece Aylan picked me up on the Nanaimo side. But after a spot of lunch and a good big mug of tea, all was well.

Aylan has grown so much since I last saw her! She's now almost 3 years old and very independant. She's talking up a storm, although I don't always understand what she's trying to say. Dave is very good at translating "toddler" for me. Aylan loves to have stories read to hear and I swear I read about 30 picture books to her this afternoon, including the four that I bought her as a present. Her younger sister, Rowyn, is a cutie patootie... and not at all fussy about who holds her, unlike how Aylan was at her age (8 months). Dave and I pushed Aylan and Rowyn in the swings in the backyard for over an hour and neither girl tired of the fun. I think I was more worn out than they were!

The girls are in bed now and Carly's had to go off on a short business call, so I've caught a few free minutes to update my blog. All is well here and it feels so good to be back in Canada. Although it'll be interesting to see how my body decides to deal with the jet lag in the next few days...

I'll keep this blog going for the next week, so that my Aussie friends can hear about my adventures with my nieces here in BC, and then I'll likely sign off for good. The thing is, I've gotten rather used to blogging now. Who knows -maybe I'll start another blog once this one is done! But is my so-called normal life really exciting enough to post online for all the world to see?