2008-September-01 Departure Day

2008-September-01

I awoke just before 5:00 a.m. and decided that more sleep was in order – waking again before 8:00 a.m. We’d put in a “wake up call” for 9:00 a.m. as our backup, although I rarely sleep that late. Mom had decided to see herself off to the airport, only minutes away by hotel shuttle, and had requested a wake up for about 6:30 a.m. and porter service. I rang her room in the off chance that she hadn’t received the call and was slumbering in happy oblivion to the time and her scheduled departure for 10:00 a.m. There was no answer, so I felt she must have made it to the airport by now and was probably standing in line as we were to do a few hours later. As it turned out, her flight was delayed by ½ an hour and departed at 10:32 a.m. – we aren’t to be so lucky. Due to “technical difficulties” the incoming Globespan flight didn’t arrive until 11:30, and our flight scheduled to depart at 3:00 p.m. now won’t be leaving until 4:30 p.m. We weren’t aware of this when we came down for early check in, but it wouldn’t have made any difference as check in time remains the same regardless of delays in departure.

We had a Full Irish Breakfast (complete with bacon, sausage, egg, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, white & black pudding-not my thing-, beans, fried chunky potatoes) plus extras (toast, coffee, tea, fruit, danish, etc.) in Potter’s restaurant in the hotel and then packed up, and caught the shuttle over to the airport – an altogether painless experience. We checked in early and after picking up some sustenance (iced tea for George, juice and salt & pepper crisps for me) found a seat in our departure area, bought some time on Eircom and set up the lap top.

Our flight is now scheduled to board at 3:45 p.m., but, so far, no sign of it - it would be hard to tell mind you as, while the day started with blue sky and fluffy clouds, we've been watching a band of bad weather moving in and it has now started to pour with visibility dropping considerably. Just another day in Ireland ............... at least this trip.

Writing now from Vancouver International Airport ......... the 3:45 p.m. became 4:10, which then became 4:20, then, 4:45 .......... once we were actually on board at 5:00 p.m. the Captain explained that due to a myriad of reasons ............ the initial "technical problem" that resulted in the first flight delay, that the plane was having documentation issues, that the fuel truck that we'd seen re-fueling the plane had run out of fuel and had left to get more (resulting in the plane missing its take-off slot), and now the plane waiting for more fuel ....... we were now expected to depart at 5:30 p.m. We saw the Texaco fuel truck return, passengers were requested to shut off their electrical/telecommunication devices while the plane was re-fueling, and then the magic started to happen. At least for me ....... the plane was rolling (George pointed out that although rolling, it was actually rolling backward .....). The official time in the air was 5:45 p.m. - 2.5 hours later than the original, scheduled departure. The flight was just over 9 hours and naturally arrived quite late in Vancouver; however, still early enough to see our connecting flight to Nanaimo taxi down the run way on its departure. We presented ourselves to the Air Canada counter and while we were scolded, they still booked us on the next flight out (at 10:40 p.m.) and took our overweight luggage. They also, unfortunately for George, took his jar of Irish lemon curd that had travelled in our carry on, through security, all the way from Ireland. It's not a liquid and not a gel, but they class it as a "paste" (word to the wise for all of you that plan on travelling with your glue supply). Oh well, they did give us the option of re-packing our two carry on's in order that one of them could be checked and we could then keep the lemon curd and have it checked in. This would also require going back to the check in and checking the bag. After almost 24 hours without sleep, neither option was appealing and we let them throw it out. So, here we sit ...... waiting ........ to go home and go to bed ................