OK maybe someone’s trying to tell me something

Remember back in 2005 when I moved to London…Lost my bags that time…Moved to Ireland at the start of this year…Car broke down & stranded me in South Wales for 4 days…Did you think Canada would be any different?

Last week I realised that with flying out of Dublin at 10:30 Friday morning I would need to be checking in at 9ish & being the organisational Mecca that is Ireland the closest I could get would be a 5 hour bus ride leaving Cork at 7pm  Thursday night that would get to Dublin at 12pm (I jest but I doubt you  could get a bus from Taupo to Auckland for 9 in the morning) just in time for 9 hours of attempted sleep/comfort on molded plastic seats…No biggy, I’ll be in Canada within 12 hours. The flight from Dublin to Chicago was great; flying at 3km over crystal clean sky’s looking down at the southern tip of Greenland, what I guess were icebergs & then the northeast of Canada.

On arrival at O’Hare things went pear shaped. For those of you that don’t know, O’Hare is one of the busiest airports in the world (I didn’t before Friday) and therefore quite huge with 5 separate terminals. I had 1 hour to get from term 5 to term 3 (Actually 40 min as we had sat on the tarmac in Dublin for 20min fixing a ‘Hydraulic issue’, sounds easy enough until you realise that unlike the rest of the world where I would disembark, meander through transfers, stroll up to be new plane & fly away, in the great old US of A you need to be processed by customs (No I really am flying straight to Toronto and no I am not going to spend any time in your lovely country) pick up your bags, then be processed by security (you try to explain what apple tobacco for a Turkish Hookah pipe is to a customs guy) re-check your bags in to the transfer desk, catch the train to Terminal 3, pass through security again and finally run about a kilometre to my gate wearing a hoodie, coat & snow jacket, carrying a day pack & laptop bag. I did manage it….just, only to be told to hurry up &  wait. After about 20min I had recovered enough to ask what was happening (I should get to the gym more often, or quit smoking…or maybe both) only to be told we were delayed (as  you can see they were very helpful) another 20min & the check-in tart came over the intercom to inform us that the flight had been cancelled (Snow in Toronto) & that American Airlines were fully booked until Monday morning “Good Luck” (Honestly she actually gave us a sarcastic “Good Luck”) After a bit of a ring around I was able to get myself on an United flight at 6:30am the next day (I also tried for standby for the 3 remaining American Airlines flights but gave up when I realised I was number 36 waiting for possibly 20 seats) So I was in for another comfortable night on form plastic with no washing.

The next day didn’t so much dawn as it did creep but by 9:30am I had popped a few celebratory in-flight Bloody Marys but more importantly was in Canada. Is that where this sad tales finishes?...Oh no dear friends not even close. As we were touching down I realised that I had left my letter of introduction & proof of enough funds back in Ireland…This should be fun, luckily the ref number & a smile was enough.

So off to collect my bags…no make that bag. Only one had made it to Toronto from Chicago, but not to worry as after waiting to talk to the lost baggage guy for an hour he found my bag in 5seconds & told me it would be on the next flight so all I had to do was ring them up when I had a forwarding address & I would have my bag in less than 24 hours. So off to Russ & Jill’s for a shower, shave and Caesar (Is there a better combination than Tomato & Clam juice?) to start to feel human again so I could call United and tell them where to deliver my bags. Firstly it took over an hour & a half to talk to a “human” then the so called “human” could find no record of me, my bag or any type of intelligence, then she found my bag…heading to Miami (I later found she took down both phone numbers and my address incorrectly (And yes I did give the correct info, X & H were listening))

After a quick but thorough tour of downtown Toronto & to help me get over the drama that is me travelling we headed out to Guelph to catch up with Emily and some other of Holly’s old friends. A great night had by all learning to dance the 2 step among other dances surrounded by proper Canadian cowboys & girls all the time being amazed by proper snow fall, not just the light dustings we use to get in London.

The next day the one and a half hour drive to Owen Sound turned into a four hour epic due to the worst snow storm I’ve ever experienced… which isn’t saying much but it’s also the worst storm Holly has ever been in a car for, about 1 metre of snow fell in 10 hours plus snow gusts (Not flurries they’re completely different)  meaning we travelled at 30km at times not even seeing the end of the hood (I’ve been told a hood is completely different to a bonnet).

The next week was taken up with building a snowman, tobogganing, hot tubing, UFC and of course ice skating (within 5 days of turning up in Canada I was the proud  owner of a kick arse pair of ice skates…thanks Santa). The only thing with skating was that since I had never been on the ice everybody spent the 2 days leading up to it informing me how often I would be falling over, so that by the time I actually got on the ice I was wearing multiple layers including snow pants &  knee pads. Actually Ice Skating isn’t that hard (Well standing up is easy not looking like you had an accident while sitting on a wrought iron fence is a lot harder) & I only fell over 1 ½ times so instead just heated up quite a bit. Plus Xmas day was a lot of fun.

Oh & my luggage did turn up, 5 days after I did. It had never been to Miami but had come in on the next flight after me and had been sitting in Toronto waiting  for me as they could not contact me on the numbers *&@#!!  Lady had  taken for me.

I am now back in Toronto staying with Russ & Jill and have just found a flat to move into so just need to start making the Canadian Peseta… I mean dollar.