May 23

Up at 5:00 am and out the door by 6:00. We got to the airport in an hour! Maf deposited me in the appropriate line and after a couple hugs he was gone! :o( And I was alone again! Moments later I found out my flight was going to be delayed by 5 hours!! That would mean I'd miss my sea plane flight to Salt Spring! I didn't panic, I checked in, I headed to the departure area. I figured I'd talk to someone there, someone would be able to help me! After waiting for a rep from the airline to show up I found out there was NOTHING they could/would do for me.... On my own I figured out how to call James collect (2am BC time) to tell him the news of my delay. I gave him the phone number for the sea plane and he called in the morning when he got up. Meanwhile.... Airports are not designed for when things go wrong, they are designed for people in - people out. Not poor people who have to wait 8 friggon hours for their plane to take off. The Manchester airport is dirty, people do not use the garbage cans, they leave their rubbish all around. The people working there have a huge job of cleaning up after disgusting patrons! AND every 10 Min's there is one of two announcements. One warning not to smoke and one warning not to leave bags unattended. In the eight hours of my wait I must have heard them more than 50 times! Oh and get this! The flight is delayed because of FOOTBALL! Stoopid sports! :o( We finally were able to board but we didn't take off till 6:30. I did my best to keep upbeat about it all, no point freaking out. I did ask a steward on the plane if there was anything that could be done for me because I was going to be stranded at the airport. He said someone would be there to meet several of us who needed help. I could talk to the person then... I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask if they could put me in a hotel...







We landed after 10pm BC time, no one was there to meet us, the woman at the information desk tried to get someone to come meet with us but no one showed up. I watched our flight crew leave...no one was accountable to the several of us who were stranded! Most of the people were able to make other arrangements but the few of us who couldn't were left to figure it out for ourselves. When I got my suitcase I went to the vending machines. I only had Canadian $20's. There was a chip machine that took $20's so I was going to buy a bag of chips I didn't want in order to get change to get a drink...the *%&!#% machine ate my $20!!! The seaplane office opened at 7am so I had from 10pm to 7am to wander the Vancouver airport. It is much nicer than the Manchester airport BUT the seats were just as uncomfortable. There were no loud announcements so the times I was able to doze I wasn't shocked out of it by a booming voice! I called James, IM'd James and Beth from the airport computer. (25 Min's of Internet time for $2.00, pretty good!) I ate crappy airport food, read, watched a movie...... time eventually passed and at 6:30 I took a taxi to the sea plane office. Salt Spring Air is a great company, they didn't make me pay for the ticket I missed, they were friendly and kind and they got me home. The pilot is pretty new to Salt Spring and he mentioned he has 2 daughters around Willow's age. They haven't moved here yet (in a couple of months they will be here) so we exchanged contact info and when they get here we are going to get the girls together. Maybe they will become friends!


After a 20 min flight we land in Ganges, and I saw Willow and James on the dock waiting for me. By the time I got home and gave presents and had a bite to eat I had been up for 48 hours!

My trip had come to its end! My two weeks away seemed longer in a way. I got to meet people who I had only known online, and whom I now know are friends for life! (you guys aren't getting rid of me LOL) Thank you again to Maf for bringing me over, Beth for sharing your love of glass art and for your friendship, to Lee for my new hair, to Maf and Lee for the Snug and all that comes from being Snugly, thanks to Barry for the gift of falling out of a plane and the DVD proof that I did it, to Kelly for allowing me to share in your birthday celebration. I had a great time! And boy it's good to be home!

T