I'm in
Victoria! Only until Wednesday morning, but it's very exciting to be back where I lived from age 3-10. I recognized a few things on the drive in from the airport, but really only the downtown core is familiar. I spent most of my youth in
my old neighbourhood, which I may not get a chance to visit, but we'll see.
Today started at 0730 as I got ready to leave. I was already packed for the most part, but I wanted to ensure I wasn't late for my flight. In Toronto, I find it easier to take the
TTC to the airport. It takes the same amount of time, but is carbon-guilt-free and free-free too with my
Metropass. Normally the TTC runs from before 5:30am to after 1:00am, but Sunday mornings the subways don't start until 9am. I figured that was fine for my 11am flight -- it's only 45 mins by TTC to the airport, especially when there's no traffic. But when I arrived at the bus stop at 9am, the next bus wasn't for 20 minutes, and I needed to travel 7 minutes by bus, 5 minutes by subway, visit my office for a minute, then 25 more minutes on the subway, and 20 minutes by bus to finally reach the airport.
(It sounds like a crazy process, but
it's actually not. And remember: free, plus the same amount of time. Woo!)
So I started walking, and realized I didn't want to walk with my luggage, plus it would take too long and I'd be late getting to the airport. Ideally, I wanted to be there at 10am for my standard one hour check-in. I was already checked-in over the web, but still. I ended up catching a cab to the office, getting my paperwork, and then entering the TTC at that point. I was quite worried about timing, since it was 9:30 when I entered the TTC, and the damn subway didn't show up for another six minutes. But I knew that I wasn't checking any bags and I could run, it would just be frustrating. When I reached the last subway stop, where the bus leaves for the airport, there was one right there, and in the Sunday morning non-traffic, it lived up to its name ("192 Airport Rocket") and got there in like 7 minutes. It took another 5-6 to get to my terminal, but still.
I made my flight with plenty of time to spare. When I got on the plane (aisle seat, so as always I tried to board dead last to avoid the standing in line garbage) my seat was occupied. I pointed it out, and the guy realized he'd chosen 20D instead of 20C. I didn't care, so I offered to take his seat. It helped that he was freakin' hot. I would have taken any seat he offered me, you might say. Something about his face was very familiar too, like he looks like a hockey player or someone I went to university with. Not sure. I spent an unhealthy amount of the fight staring at him, which I hope didn't make him uncomfortable. Well, maybe in the pants.
The plane had an overflowing sink before takeoff, so we didn't actually push back from the gate for about 25 minutes so they could clean that up. I was worried, since I only had about 45 minutes in Vancouver to catch my connecting flight to Victoria. As it turned out they made up all the lost time in flight, so I had lots of time in Vancouver to wander around. When I boarded my little tiny
Dash-8 to get from Vancouver to Victoria, there wasn't anybody in my seat. (back of hand to forehead)
Désolé! However, a few minutes later who should board but my four-point-five-hours-of-low-grade-lust secret boyfriend,
20C. He sat way back in the plane with his friends though, darn it.
A flight from Vancouver to Victoria, for those who haven't had the joy, is a thing to behold.
Twelve minutes, at an altitude of 4000 feet. Basically, enough altitude to get over the coastal mountains and dodge the float planes. The flight is so quick that the flight attendant doesn't even walk around -- he just sat and read the paper. He probably got three pages read before the double-ding of descent began.
(That sounds like a title for a horrible pulp novel.
The Double Ding of Descent. Or maybe
The Hardy Boys and the Doubly-Dinged Descent.)
The cab from the airport was freakin' $50! But my cab driver's name was Kam, which amused me. I arrived around supper time eastern, or mid-afternoon local. I went for a walk to confirm the location of the class tomorrow, and then went to find some dinner. I found some, but it proved disappointing: mediocre fish&chips (with the chips replaced with awful AWFUL caesar salad). And now here I am in the hotel, trying to choose the correct time to go to sleep to not get jetlagged too much. I fly home in sixty hours, so I don't want to be dead to the world.
There's some sort of
bizarre fashion show about to happen on top of the parking garage right outside my window. This may inhibit my sleeping plans. (
Update: Added link I just found. I say bizarre because it's on a parking garage, not in any form of judgement on the event itself of course.)
---
I just thought up an awesome LJ-browser plugin idea. If someone wants to create this, please credit me for inventing it but you can have the money. No wait, I want the money too. Anyway, the idea is this: click a toolbar button, and your browser offers to create links to Wikipedia for all the significant nouns in your post. I'm not sure how it could figure out which ones to choose, and offering a list of 417 would be way too many. Hmmm.
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