home again, home again

Well. I got home just in time apparently, Lufthansa pilots just went on strike today and they have cancelled most of their international flights.

It is 4am on Monday morning, I woke up at 1am and looked at my pictures. They pretty much suck but I will post them soon. I will try to steal some of Judy's excellent pictures so that there will be at least one or two nice ones in there.

OK, my trip home. Suresh arrived at the hotel as planned. He brought the extra suitcase with Judy's stuff. We didn't deal with the packing right away though because the restaurant was about to close so we went for dinner first. My last Indian meal and we got some sort of Manchurian mushrooms. Not exactly what I was hoping for but it was good. Then we went back up to the room to pack the last of my stuff into Judy's bag. Now remember, I had already packed my big backpack, I had bought a small carry on on the car trip where I had stowed some souvenirs and western clothes that I wasn't using. Plus I had bought a bunch of stuff from FabIndia that day which needed to go into the Judy bag. Judy had called while she was packing to leave 10 days before and asked if I could bring some of her stuff home because she was over limit on the allowable bag weight. She would send a half filled bag and I could use the rest of the space for my stuff. No problem.

We open Judy's bag. It was full! FULL! There is no way I was going to be able to fit my new purchases into MY existing bags. I had hoped to put in my new purchases and maybe even empty the small carry on bag I had already filled. Um, no. So Suresh, always awesome, says we can do this. We take a few things out of the Judy bag, which was tightly packed, and moved them to my carry on, which I would have said had no more room but apparently it did. Then we attempt to cram my FabIndia purchases, mostly fabric based, so fortunately flexible into the Judy bag. Suresh just kept piling it onto the already stuffed bag. Then he tries to do up the zipper. He had to actually (or actuala as Suresh would pronounce it) sit on the bag to make it close. It was like a bad sitcom. We were laughing pretty hard by this point. But there was still more stuff left to pack. So we opened my full backpack and crammed that to over capacity too. There was so much stuff.

Closing the very overloaded bag.

I don't think this is going to work.

Suresh to the rescue, sitting on the bag to get it to close. I can't believe it didn't explode mid-flight.


** post script. I spoke to Judy today (it is now 2:30 on Monday) and she told Suresh to buy a new bigger bag but alas he did not. So let's blame Suresh for the bag issue. this is especially good since he isn't here to defend himself!! haha.

When I went to check in, I put the two checked bags on the scale. Then the woman asked me to add the carry on bag. I put it on. She looked at me. I knew I was over. I looked at her. She knew I knew I was over. I smiled guiltily and handed her the Lufthansa form for air miles that I had filled out. She let me go through without penalty. I don't even want to think about what each extra Kilo might have cost, especially since I had to check those bags in Bangalore, Toronto and Vancouver. The only airport where I didn't have to deal with all of my bags was Frankfurt.

Me and all my bags at Coffee day at the airport.

But once I was through the check in, the first flight was fine. I mostly slept. Then in Frankfurt, my layover was so short, I literally got off my plane, crossed the airport and walked right up to the end of the line boarding the next plane. That flight was also good. As much as I dislike Air Canada, they do treat their international passengers decently. I had movies in the back of the seat, and since it was a day flight, I tried to stay awake so I watched four movies. A Serious Man, All about Steve, and two others that I may remember eventually. They fed us and gave us blankets and pillows. Even free booze.

But that couldn't last forever, I guess. When we landed in Toronto, I hadn't realized that A. I would to deal with Customs there and not in Vancouver, and B. that I had a five hour lay over. If I had known these two things I might have tried to convince Brian and Jennifer to come and meet me for lunch. But alas, there I sat. I couldn't walk around because that stupid carry on bag was by now 800 pounds. How I came to loathe that carry on bag. At one point I just abandoned it to go to the bathroom but unfortunately, nobody stole it so I had to continue carrying it.

While I was rechecking my bags, one of the security people overheard me telling someone that i was heading to Victoria. She suggested that since I was flying Air Canada to Vancouver and Air Canada to Victoria, I should speak to a ticket agent about seeing if I could get a direct flight. Sounded brilliant. So I found a ticket agent who found a ticket that actually left Toronto a little later but flew directly to Victoria and would get me in two hours earlier. Do it, I said. So he fiddles around for a while but it wouldn't work. It seems that even through I was on Air Canada, I was actually booked as Lufthansa so no changes allowed. No problem. I was still fresh at this point (pre-five hour layover).

But then I got onto the Toronto-Vancouver flight. Now I am domestic. Dreaded domestic Air Canada! I hadn't eaten anything but half a pack of 25cent cookies that I had bought at the train station so many decades ago. I couldn't face carrying the bag to find food, plus I figured that I would be ok because they would feed me on the plane. Not so. They don't feed domestic cattle. I would have had to pay for snacks. By that time, I was so tired I didn't bother to get any food on the plane. But I wanted to sleep and they hadn't put blankets and pillows on each seat. So I asked the stewardess for one. She said that I would have to pay for them. I may have sworn here, I will leave the actual words to your imagination. I said that I had been on Air Canada International for something like 36 hours at that point and they were going to make me pay for a freakin' blanket and pillow!! So she scurried away and found me a blanket in First Class that wasn't being used. But no pillow. I wish I had just bought the blanket/pillow pack since I now felt too guilty to try to get a pillow.

So no pillow, an inadequate blanket and a bulkhead seat under the coldest air vent ever. I wondered if they were actually blowing air from the -50 degree outside air but then I realized that that would mean that it was fresh air and Air Canada would never allow that. Just to continue whining. A bulkhead seat has lots of leg room so it is a coveted spot. However, leg room is not a problem for me. In fact, I like the seat in front as it gives me somewhere to put my feet so that the blood from my lower legs isn't completely cut off by the ill formed seats since my feet don't sit firmly planted on the floor. But no seat in front here. I had to curl myself into a pretzel to get my feet up onto the seat. At one point, one of my feet was actually through to the seat behind me. I'm sure that thrilled that passenger. AND, the video screen on the wall in front was too high so all of the images were sort of black on brown outlines. Not that I had it in me to watch a video but I tried when I realized I wouldn't be sleeping. Anyway, it was an excruciating 5 hours.

We landed in Vancouver. the airport was abuzz with Olympics. There were video scenes everywhere showing various events. I watched speed track skating while waiting for my bags. Canada lost. But there were people from every country all over the place. Groups wearing matching hats and generally exuberant. But alas, by this time, I wasn't able to properly appreciate that atmosphere. In fact, I was a mess.

I found the Air Canada check in and went to ask if there might be an earlier flight. When I booked my Vancouver to Victoria flight, I had two choices, one that left within an hour of my arriving in Van or one that had a four hour layover. At the time, I thought that I would be dealing with Customs in Vancouver, so I felt it was better to leave some time. But I had already cleared Customs in Toronto and my flight had actually arrive 20 minutes early. So I hoped now, I could get onto that earlier flight as opposed to my 11:45 flight. I walked up to the ticket guy and burst into tears. Nice. He probably had to bump someone to do it but he got me a seat on the 10 pm flight. I was so grateful that I think I may have cried again. Poor guy.

I called Paul for an earlier pickup and finally was on my last leg home. The plane loaded late because there was a Canada/Germany curling match on and it didn't end until 9:50 so we all waited for that, since the crew was watching I don't think we were going anywhere too soon anyway. Canada won by the way.

Paul and Chris met me at the airport, took me home, fed me fresh Cinnamon buns (made by Chris so the best ever) and tea. I was in bed by 12:30 and slept like a rock until 9:30 am on Sunday. I hoped that the extreme exhaustion had kicked me into the correct time zone but by 7pm I was already asleep on the couch. I hadn't even unpacked. I spent the day catching up on Lost. Now it is almost 5 am and I have to go to work today. That should be fun.

I was going to finish this up with some last thoughts on India but at the moment, I don't have any thoughts. so maybe later, when I post the pictures.

Some pictures of my purchases from that last day of shopping in Bangalore (and other days too). I took these once I was home (that explains the cat on the rug.)

The paper mache duck I bought because I couldn't find any real ones.

He looks kind of scared to have to represent all Indian ducks. I think he is doing a fine job.

My gorgeous semi-precious stone pendant. I LOVE it.

I bought this from a table at Hampi. It isn't real garnet, I just liked it.

My FabIndia silver necklace.

The singing Om bowl.

The Om bowl. You can see the handiwork.

My new table cloth.

The rug. Nice huh?

Detail of the rug.

Scarves.

Silk scarves.

My favourite India painting. It reminds of these beautiful trees with red orange flowers that grew in the jungle. Our Nagarhole guide called them Flame Trees. No picture of an actual Flame Tree.

The cow drawing that Suresh thought was too expensive at 50 cents Canadian.