Sunday, February 15, 2004
Yay! Done it! I'm in Canada, I wasn't stopped at the border, and though there were plenty of small hiccups along the way, I'm finally here.
Left blighty under patchy clouds, with a possibility of drizzle and a temp of around 8 or 9 degrees. Fairly warm, especially when the sun came out. Here, it's really sunny this morning with nary a cloud and a bracing -18 degrees out, with -24 factoring wind-chill. Yup, definitely in Canada :-)
Leaving the hotel was a blog chapter in itself, but I now have a page full of complaint items about the hotel. Getting to the airport was made difficult by the hotel ordering the wrong sized taxi, to the wrong terminal, but finally we got there. If India ever produces a Formula One driver, he'll be related to the guy who drove us yesterday morning. He must live for high G-forces, and I'd wager he took not the shortest route, but the one with the most interesting chicanes.
So we get to the airport, and half of South East England has decided to see us off! We were touched until we saw that they were all queueing up to get into the terminal building - it's the start of half term. D'oh! We were in line outside for 2 hours, and a further 60 minutes inside before checking in. Luckily we got bored at the hotel and rather than arrive at noon for the 3pm flight, we arrived at Heathrow for 11am. I took a couple of photos of the crowds - it really was a sight to behold. "Thronging Masses" indeed.
The check-in guy bumped us to Business Class - result! But getting through to airside only left us with about 20 minutes before the flight was due to close. This put a crimp in my plan to buy Deb an "emigration" ring, to mark the day we arrived in Canada forever. As luck would have it, we found a jewellers, picked out a ring that Deb liked and paid for it (the credit card authorisation took ages. Hmm) and we got to the gate just in time to be told that the flight will be delayed by a while. Not that long really, as we got our breath back and then got on the plane ... during which we were told that our boarding passes had the wrong seat numbers on. D'oh! "Back to cattle-class" I thought, but no, we were bumped again to First Class!! Double result. Ah, sipping champagne, being able to lay flat while watching the movies, three course meal ... Not bad, if it wasn't for the grumpy stewardesses with no capacity for remembering orders.
Landed about 10 minutes late, got through immigration pretty well, but one of my bags wasn't on the plane and had been left in London with about a dozen other bags of other passengers. Normally this would be an annoyance, but I had to fill in a lot of forms for the customs officers, to declare what I was bringing into Canada that was not accompanying me. Grrr. Eventually I got the paperwork done, and the whole process was complete in under an hour. Less if I'd have had my missing case (containing most of my day clothes). At least I have my suits and work shirts ...
I have plenty of other forms to keep me busy today - National Insurance application, Ontario Health card application and the like. Tomorrow will likely be queueing-up-at-government-offices day.
Lots more to say, but this is a dial-up connection, and I'm hogging the phone line. I think I'll try to write tomorrow's entry off-line, and use the old Cut'n'Paste routine.
Left blighty under patchy clouds, with a possibility of drizzle and a temp of around 8 or 9 degrees. Fairly warm, especially when the sun came out. Here, it's really sunny this morning with nary a cloud and a bracing -18 degrees out, with -24 factoring wind-chill. Yup, definitely in Canada :-)
Leaving the hotel was a blog chapter in itself, but I now have a page full of complaint items about the hotel. Getting to the airport was made difficult by the hotel ordering the wrong sized taxi, to the wrong terminal, but finally we got there. If India ever produces a Formula One driver, he'll be related to the guy who drove us yesterday morning. He must live for high G-forces, and I'd wager he took not the shortest route, but the one with the most interesting chicanes.
So we get to the airport, and half of South East England has decided to see us off! We were touched until we saw that they were all queueing up to get into the terminal building - it's the start of half term. D'oh! We were in line outside for 2 hours, and a further 60 minutes inside before checking in. Luckily we got bored at the hotel and rather than arrive at noon for the 3pm flight, we arrived at Heathrow for 11am. I took a couple of photos of the crowds - it really was a sight to behold. "Thronging Masses" indeed.
The check-in guy bumped us to Business Class - result! But getting through to airside only left us with about 20 minutes before the flight was due to close. This put a crimp in my plan to buy Deb an "emigration" ring, to mark the day we arrived in Canada forever. As luck would have it, we found a jewellers, picked out a ring that Deb liked and paid for it (the credit card authorisation took ages. Hmm) and we got to the gate just in time to be told that the flight will be delayed by a while. Not that long really, as we got our breath back and then got on the plane ... during which we were told that our boarding passes had the wrong seat numbers on. D'oh! "Back to cattle-class" I thought, but no, we were bumped again to First Class!! Double result. Ah, sipping champagne, being able to lay flat while watching the movies, three course meal ... Not bad, if it wasn't for the grumpy stewardesses with no capacity for remembering orders.
Landed about 10 minutes late, got through immigration pretty well, but one of my bags wasn't on the plane and had been left in London with about a dozen other bags of other passengers. Normally this would be an annoyance, but I had to fill in a lot of forms for the customs officers, to declare what I was bringing into Canada that was not accompanying me. Grrr. Eventually I got the paperwork done, and the whole process was complete in under an hour. Less if I'd have had my missing case (containing most of my day clothes). At least I have my suits and work shirts ...
I have plenty of other forms to keep me busy today - National Insurance application, Ontario Health card application and the like. Tomorrow will likely be queueing-up-at-government-offices day.
Lots more to say, but this is a dial-up connection, and I'm hogging the phone line. I think I'll try to write tomorrow's entry off-line, and use the old Cut'n'Paste routine.
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