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Honey, I'm home!

Home, in one piece. After a couple of very long days - the first spent putting all those hours of Tetris to use packing four suitcases to absolute bursting, the second/third in transit.

Transit including a delayed flight from Montreal to Toronto, six mind-numbing hours in Toronto airport (I amused myself by imagining the roster there on the 22nd, when it was snowing and probably crowded as hell ;-) ), a delay to the flight leaving Toronto, an unexpected stopover in Vancouver at around midnight local time (so about 3.00am by my personal clock) and then finally getting underway over an hour later than expected.

Amusing now, but serious WTF moments at the time included some guy who got on the plane in Vancouver, but his wife didn't.  And when asked where she was, he just shrugged and said he hadn't seen her in a few hours.  The guy got on a plane to Australia without his wife.  They took him off the plane, and then were about to open up the cargo hold to get out their bags when the wife showed up. 

He's still grinning like he's a half-wit, she's looking kind of embarrassed - I wondered if it was some kind of domestic dispute that got out of hand.  You know, she storms off cos he's being an ass, he figures fuck her, he's going anyway.  And then the air marshalls get involved.  Fun!  I did wonder just what kind of a flight you have cooped up next to someone for 17 hours after you've been fighting with them!

We missed our connecting flight from Sydney to Brisbane, as we half expected we would, and were bumped to a later flight.  Cue another four hours in transit. By the time we got home, we were kinda destroyed.

Minor boggle in Customs - hubby's parents gave me the cutest little squirrel for Christmas, made of some kind of grasses/plant material.  I declared it, and to my disappointment was told it couldn't be made safe by gamma irradiation and would have to be destroyed.  And the kitty treats I bought for my kitty are likewise verboten.  I was sad.  And I plan to shop online for a stuffed Canadian squirrel!

However, all is now restored to normal . . . ish.  Unpacking is done, kitty cat returned from cattery very happy to see us.

There have been a few flies in the ointment.  I've got new glasses on order, after losing mine on the flight to Canada at the beginning of our vacation.  Two pairs, damn it - the astigmatism is now bad enough that even multifocals won't work to allow me to drive, use a computer and read with just one pair.  That was an expensive exercise, however I shall be gorgeous as hell with the new frames! ;-)

On attempting to pay for these, my credit card was declined.  As was hubby's as he tried to pay for his post-vacation haircut.  Trip to the bank ensues, and we discover we've been the victims of credit card fraud to the tune of a thousand dollars or so.  Fortunately, this is all being reversed, and we won't be charged interest on any of it.  But it was a great way to spend an hour . . . not!

The other tiny hiccup is that while we were away, I somehow hurt my wrist.  It might have been in a fall in the snow, but I honestly can't remember.  I just know it swelled up and started hurting.  I was hoping that it might improve in warmer climes, but no, it's gotten worse.

X-rays today show a bone chip there - not from a new fracture, but how the hell it got there is beyond me!  Anyway, back to the doctor tomorrow to see what to do about it.  And typing one handed when it's too painful - blah.

However, all of this is fixable, and I am both glad to be home and missing Canada all at once. It's gorgeously hot here, and I'm coping so much better with that now I'm losing weight.  I lost over six pounds on the trip, and am very proud of myself! 

I did have some productive writing time on the plane, and will probably have new chapters posted this week.  But I will leave you with a couple of snaps from my last day in the wintery north.

Looking a bit tired in the midst of the packing:

And on the way out to dinner on the last night, wearing my cute borrowed blue boots!



Jan. 7th, 2009 10:02 pm (UTC)
You're so cute! :)

Awww, thankies hon!

It's not fair! I miss being warm! How can people stand this!? Geez!

I know - it's so weird! I was just starting to "get" when people at work were complaining the air con was too cold (after years of thinking it wasn't cold enough!) when it hit me - oh hell, I'm about to go someplace where it's really frickin' cold . . . and now I'll feel it!

Layering is like, the best! I am lucky in that usually I don't have to deal with extreme cold like you guys do, but yeah, I'm totally digging not feeling sick in the heat after coming home to it.

And really - having more energy, buying cute new clothes, loving my exercise - yeah, I'll take those tradeoffs against the whole feeling the cold thing anyday!

Edited at 2009-01-07 10:03 pm (UTC)