Souvenir Photo Studio, by Al Bourassa: Wednesday March 2 , 2022 Oh Canada

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Wednesday March 2 , 2022

Happy 83rd Birthday yesterday to brother Fern...

Yesterday, I was awake at 3am and walked the dogs in the sprinkling rain for the last time at 4pm. I was all packed and ready to go for 8am and Cristina decided to come along for the ride. Our vet, John Faber Rojas, was at our door shortly after 8am in the pouring rain with a flat tire. So I am holding the umbrella as he changed tires and we are still both soaked.

The drive to the airport in Cali was quick and I was 3 hours early as recommended, said my goodbyes outside, and was amazed to see a huge line already for the Copa flight. So I stood in line for over an hour before showing all my documents in order and getting passed to go to Migracion (Immigration) and that is where the fun began.... The documents that I was given by the Migracion office in Pereira with the assurance that they would allow me to travel were unacceptable!! I had visons of having to call John and Cristina to make another trip to get me. I hurriedly called Luz Dary, our facilitator in Pereira to explain what was going on. I had a sympathetic Immigration officer, Thank God, and he looked at all my documentation and went out of his way to track down his Jefe (Boss) and I made it to get the flight on time.

So we had rain, cloud and mist everywhere, Andalucia, Cali, Panama, and Toronto so photosfrom the plane are poor. I had paid online, direct with Copa, to have the 17A window Exit seat with the extra legroom for all 4 flights with them. The flight to Panama was quick, and I enjoyed a bratwurst before doing some idle shopping to kill a 4-hour layover. There is a DutyFree Electronics shop that had amazing prices so I just may buy a cel phone on my way back through... I went to sit down at the gate for my next flight and was shooed to a security check again for the flight to Toronto. It was certainly a lot quicker and more cursory than 2 years ago.

Then the fun really began as we went to board.... The purser scanned my ticket but I had barely taken 4 steps when he chased me, and brought me back and handed me a new boarding pass!! I looked and saw that he had changed my seat to 7B, which I knew was a middle seat, which I never accept but he said to talk to the people on the plane. I refused to take the seat as all the overhead bins were filled and I sought someone to fix this error. Then a man occupied my 17A window seat. I asked him how he got that seat and he said that he had paid for it online, just as I did, so obvious double-booking. After everyone but me was seated, I refused to take that middle seat, but by then the staff was getting exasperated with me. I told them that I would rather get off the plane than sit in a middle seat when I had paid for the upgraded seat. They had locked the doors and told me I had no option and that I would have to complain to the Copa desk upon arrival for a refund! One of the pursers took my backpack to the front out-of-sight and left my with my bag holding my jacket, pillow and camera. I had lost that battle and had a most uncomfortable 6 hours in that awful seat, getting angrier with every second. The flight was almost an hour late leaving... When it did arrive in Toronto 45 minutes late, they taxied for another 20 minutes to the silly gate at terminal 1. As I disembarked I was expecting to find my backpack

at the door so we had another kerfuffle there. By now, I am livid when they tell me that my backpack will go with the luggage to carousel 12, which is ALWAYS the furthest distance from the gate possible. I head to Customs for entry, of course, panicking because all my documentation, except my Passport, is in the backpack which was untagged and will have all that jostling. I was again surprised at how cursory that process was with only my passport. What a relief! Then I headed to Carousel 12. Panic swells as the luggage comes in dribs and drabs but finally it is one of the last items that comes off the chute and I breathe another huge sigh of relief!

Then the announcement came about random Covid testing for which I had pre-registered in the hope of speeding any process if I was chosen... So naturally I was chosen.... By now it is 2am and more long walks to a place with about 50 gowned operatives and luckily no line-up so I got swabbed quickly and was out.

Then my Mississauga friend, Frank, who was waiting patiently outside for my purported midnight arrival, could not find me. I finally tagged a worker who spoke to Frank and determined that Frank was actually just above me, on the next level! Dear Frank is such a good friend and infinitely patient. Im so blessed with good friends and family. It was a long drive to his place and we got there around 3am, had a delicious salmon and rice snack that he had prepared and we actually got to bed around 4am after a harrowing 25-hour day.

Today, Frank and I met Yvette and Lou in Burlington Swiss Chalet where I treated everyone to lunch and I satisfied my craving for a fish'n'chip meal... It turns out that Frank's daughter and Yvette's daughter work at the same place but don't know each other.

Then we went to Costco where Lou needed to get a hearing aid repaired and somehow lost the other while trying to adjust his mask. I retraced our steps 3 times and checked at customer service and with the doorman. No luck. When Lou went to the Hearing Aid counter they were actually phoning him that someone had turned in the lost hearing aid! WIt was impressive that they could track him so easily.

The next on the agenda was to get me a simple Canadian cel phone plan and the decision was to go with Bell/Lucky for $25 a month which gives me 1GB of data which is oodles for me. So my new Canadian phone number is 289-547-9225 for the next 2 months.

So it has been ultra-stressful, but I am so happy to be in Canada and am loving the cool weather, although it wouldn't hurt for the sun to want to make an appearance!

I hope you enjoy the pictures. That was the day’s excitement.

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