I probably know too much about aircraft. Then again, I know how to try and get the most out them. Or possibly know enough to get into trouble. Or maybe minimize the trouble.
Given my leg, I had made a point of booking a flight on a wide-bodied airliner from Montreal to Vancouver. I also made a point of choosing my seat for extra legroom. To avoid the issue of having to step over and being stepped over, I chose a bulkhead row seat in the center block of seats. Finally, the flight I selected left at a very reasonable hour.
In the period leading up to my vacation, I began to suffer from lower back pain to the point that I contemplated delaying my trip by a few days. Nothing came of this which was just as well as the two days following my flight saw freezing rain in Montreal along with the attendant flight disruptions! This may contributed to my flight being solidly booked as some people may have moved up their flights. Among other passengers, there was the Université de Montréal Women’s Volleyball team as a fair number of Sikhs, including three generations of a single family.
I was escorted through security by an airport employee. At first, I didn’t understand when she told not to extract my iPad from my backpack. It turned out that the airport now has a special fancy scanner meaning that it is no longer necessary to take electronics out of your carry on luggage. As with my last flight to Vancouver, there was no point in getting a lift in cart as the gate was extremely close to security.
I put my handicap to good use and boarded early, taking pains to pack my cane and backpack away as tidily as I could. I encountered a weakness in my plan early on as the bulkhead row seat was slightly narrower than the regular seats on account of wider, immobile armrests housing tables and TV screens. Also, I am unfortunately wider than I used to be.
I must be getting old as I found the noise of flying much louder than I remembered. Then again, I was sitting over the wings and therefore nearer to the engines as well various pumps moving air and fuel around the plane. I wasn’t able to relax during the flight.
I made a point of standing by the implied deal of pre-boarding for the handicapped by waiting for the able bodied passengers to leave before leaving myself. I found I was being bumped by the disembarking passengers so I used a lull to move into a middle seat which was also more comfortable as it didn’t have an armrest on one side.
My original plan had been for Chris to meet me at the airport. However, it emerged that he had only flown back from Norway the day before. I could not in good conscience ask him to do so as my flight arrived about 8:30 PM Vancouver time. As it was, he sent me an email saying that he would leave the front door unlocked in case anything happened. I replied with: “i.e. you fall asleep.”
The weather here has been what I expected for Vancouver in March, generally cloudy and wet. Consequently, I have not been disappointed. Furthermore, this vacation was intended to be a very relaxed one. I will grumble that when Chris and I took the ferry over to Victoria on Saturday, it was very nice and sunny day. Unfortunately, it was also a very windy day, so the open decks of the ferry were closed which meant I could only take pictures through the salt-stained windows which was a pity as the snow capped mountains were quite spectacular in the sunlight.
I made the obligatory visit to the Vancouver Aquarium and soon wished I had bought a season ticket as it less expensive than two tickets. Also, my back was giving me trouble so I didn’t have the patience and energy to force myself to look at everything with attention it deserved. I was happy to see a Pacific octopus actively moving around as opposed to just lurking in a corner as is the wont of the species. However, it was the marine mammals who were the stars of the show. The rescued seals, sea lions and sea otters were easily the most interesting things to watch. The Aquarium puts a goodly emphasis on “rescued” as because of somewhat misguided priorities of animal rights activists, that is the only way they are allowed to keep marine mammals in captivity. I was most enthused by the talk about the Steller sea lions as the guide was openly and honestly passionate about them.
During my visit, I overheard a couple of references to a change of status of the Aquarium that I didn’t think too much about. It was only when I got home that Chris informed me that the Aquarium was no longer the Vancouver Public Aquarium, but simply the Vancouver Aquarium as it had been bought by the company behind Sea World. Apparently, the Aquarium had failed to weather the financial disruption brought about by the Pandemic as a public entity, and had been sold. There is an irony about this from my family’s perspective as back in the mists of time, namely December 1984, we flew to Vancouver for Christmas. We took in the Vancouver Public Aquarium which housed orcas and belugas in those days. We then drove down the coast to California where we stayed for six months. During the Easter break, we went to Sea World in San Diego where we were repulsed by the schmaltzy sentimentality of the various whale displays. Even Alice (aged nine) was of the opinion that she much preferred the presentations at Vancouver than in San Diego.
The excursion to Victoria was planned for the weekend in order to see my cousin John, his wife Caitlin and their kids Arthur and Ruby as well as my brother Stephen, his wife Margaret and their offspring Avery. For reasons that I must not go into, I stayed with John and company rather than my brother. I was their first guest since a major renovation. As such, I was more or less invited to provide feedback about the guest room. I hope my contributions were viewed as positive and/or constructive. There was a slight issue that my electronic devices were Apple products and therefore I could not use the charging cables provided. (Caitlin’s father used to work for Microsoft and therefore there is a familial bias. This was not a real problem as I had brought my own charging cables.)
John had told me before hand that Saturday’s supper would be make your own pizzas. Various posts on Facebook informed me that Saturday, March 14 was Pi day, so I assumed John was being his (very) geeky self and hence, therefore or otherwise, the menu was chosen in light of the date. As it turned out, I was mistaken as John hadn’t realized the coincidence. My faith in John’s geekiness was misplaced.
At breakfast time on Sunday, John started to talk about his espresso machine and how he had modified it and wired it into the internet at some length. At some point, I said with a smile: “So, short version, I should let you make my coffee for me.” John agreed with this. I then commented that my practical knowledge about how to make espresso started and ended with stovetop Bialettis.
Sunday was spent on low key activities including a play date at a nearby park and a visit to a used bookstore. Interestingly enough, John and Caitlin had to explain the concept of a used bookstore to Arthur.
I had supper with Stephen and company. Stephen was slightly disappointed that I wasn’t drinking as I was taking a muscle relaxant so he couldn’t show off some of his more exotic spirits. To be honest, so was I. However, my back pain is real and wasn’t made any better by the low chairs and sofas in his living room.
On Monday, while waiting for Chris at John and Caitlin’s, John sort of apologized for how boring my stay with him had been. I scoffed at that and said I much preferred the term “relaxing”.
On Tuesday, I drove to Mission in order to see Steve. He was my first roommate at the Lindsay, and through his example, I began to exercise much greater agency in my recovery. Previous to that, I had acted a lump in a bed. It was very good to see him. We chatted for a while in his basement cum guitar repair business in the company of William the movie star corgi. His daughter works for an animal trainer and coordinator for various film and TV shows produced in the area. The nine-month old corgi had been in a movie with Randy Quaid as well as one or two commercials. He was being fostered by Steve and his daughter on condition that they lend him back if needed.
Steve seems to be regularly involved with minor aspects of film production in the area. We went to lunch at Rocio’s Family Diner, the exterior of which was used for the filming location of Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe in the Riverdale TV series, a dark and gritty live-action take on the Archie comics. As we got out of the car, Steve was greeted a friend who also worked on various film and TV productions in the area. Steve joked about how the vast majority of shoots in the area were set elsewhere, usually in the United States. He then asked me if I knew the name of just about the only film actually set in Vancouver. I didn’t hesitate to name Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, which was the very film he had in mind. I should have mentioned that a friend I saw it with commented that Antonio Banderas had a hard time trying smoulder in that movie on account of being too wet!
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