August 2008

Hello…. Pearson International Airport! By the time this gets posted, I should be back in Vancouver. Finally!

I think I am sort of a worrisome person. Although airports recommend passengers check in two hours in advance (90 minutes if domestic), I was in the airport 4 hours in advance of my boarding time! OK, let me do that again, the boarding time is 1:15 EDT, the departure time is 1:45 EDT; but I was at the airport around 9:15 a.m. Yup, I am THAT worried I might mess up… OK, I am exaggerating. The reason I am this early in the airport is rather the fear of the unknown. Don’t get me wrong, from a scientific perspective, I am really curious of a lot of things; in this case, my fear was rather related to what is around Pearson International Airport… The traffic.

Sure, today is Saturday but you must keep it mind it is also Labour Day long weekend. The previous night, we were driving between Burlington and Hamilton and the traffic was heavy. Originally, my colleague and I were planning to drive from Hamilton to Barrie around noon yesterday. However, when we told our colleagues in Hamilton, they looked at us odd and asked for itinerary. We told them, if everything goes right, we should be there in 90 minutes, add or take 10 or so minutes. They told us, if we were lucky, the traffic would be bumper-to-bumper and we should arrive at Barrie in 4 hours. Who are we to argue with the locals? In the end, we just went to Burlington (and, yes, on some spots, the traffic was heavy, though not necessarily bumper-to-bumper) and drove back to Hamilton.

With the caveat some people would re-schedule their road-trip to the following day, we opted to leave Hamilton early. This is the reason I am here this early. However, it was not that bad, actually. It gave me time to check in my baggage and help my colleague, as well. OK, it happens my collague is travelling to a different place and we were travelling on different airlines (more about this in a different post!).

Having said all that, there will be a post or two on Hamilton including some food related post. However, you will have to look for these in a different blog… *wink*Jessica*wink*…

Hello again, this time from Hamilton, Ontario!

Murphy Law says if some can go wrong, will go wrong. In my case, entry, I mentioned my reasons I don’t like to fly. And one of the things I am afraid of happened… OK, I will make it simple: I had to use the barf bag… TWICE! This time, Gravol did NOT help, although I must mention it was not the “normal” Gravol I usually buy. Instead it was a so called Natural, ginger extract Gravol version. I will be blunt here: I know a lot of people think that natural works best; for some things, like drugs, well, not necessarily so. I am a believer of “other” type of medication but, when push comes to shove, man-made drugs is the alternative.

Anyway, I am alive and kicking. I will try to enjoy this trip and some pictures will follow once I am back to Vancouver!

Blogging from…. YVR, aka, Vancouver International Airport! Actually, by the time this entry gets posted, I will be actually in Hamilton, Ontario for work reasons; right now, I am staring at the screen and there is still half an hour before boarding time.

I must admit I don’t like to fly. There are a lot of reasons I can think of: motion sickness (I have to take Gravol/Dramamine), I get really impatient inside (I know the flight would be X hours, yet there is absolutely nothing you can do), no looking around (well, you could open the window but what can you see? Clouds?), being cramped in a noisy place (I am regular size but there are no guarantees about your neighbor), lost bags (within Canada has been good so far; but I have 100% lost bag percentage for international), jet lag (I usually travel across 3 time zones, sometimes 4), etc. etc. I could keep going and going but I am sure anybody who has travel will have his/her own story.

So, why take a job that requires travelling? I wish I could avoid it but, alas, the nature of my job requires travelling, as it requires me to be physically there. Fortunately, I only have to fly at most twice a year (this might soon change, though).

What about for pleasure? Well, if I could, I would plan holidays within driving distance but, unfortunately, that’s not workable all the time. For example, I travelled to Kelowna (which, by the way, I still have one post pending) and that was a 5+ hours drive. It was fun but, as expected, next time you would like to go a different place. When I travelled to Panama last year to visit my parents, it was a hell of a flight: two connecting flights, overall 13 hours (10 hours in the air + a couple of hours overlay), problems with customs (in Panama, I was the only person checked and double-checked – I have the odd feeling that was because I am Chinese) and, as expected, lost luggage (fortunately, this was in the return flight, I arrived to YVR in time but my luggage was in San Francisco).

Regardless of all my complains, I have to face this reality: despite the soaring cost, flying will be more and more common. We are no longer satisfied with short travels and look for more distant and (not necessarily) exotic places. And, those of us who travel for work, as part of the job requirements. In other words, just deal with it…