Travelling hopefully

Well, they do say it's better to travel hopefully than to arrive, but for once I was much more interested in arriving. After the weather related travel problems the UK has been having for the past few weeks, I wasn't at all sure I would get away for my Christmas break in Canada. But I did - and in a relatively hassle free style too! Apart from the slight (?!) tension of a 90 minute delay leaving Edinburgh, resulting in a very finely cut connection at Heathrow, my journey to Vancouver went without a hitch. Even arriving at Vancouver airport 3 minutes early, sailing through Immigration with no queue and being reunited with my bags at the luggage carousel. Truly amazing.

A short stroll brought me to arrivals, to be reunited with my sister and her family. The sheer joy of being greeted by a half pint sized hug was only slightly diminshed when my sister informed me that my nephew's comment on being hoisted over the barrier for the traditional Welcome to Canada hug was "Why is it always me that has to do this?". I don't know, seven and a half going on 13 - I thought I had a couple more years at least before the teenage angst set in. Oh well, time flies I guess.

The other sheer joy about being away (apart of course from seeing my big sister) is the novelty of running water. Having endured, freezing temperatures, snow, ice, flu and a horrible cold/cough so far this month, to end it all on Thursday my mains water supply decided to freeze up, leaving me with no water supply at all to the flat. Fortunately I have great friends, who gave me coffee first thing, and very tolerant neighbours who let me have a shower at their house and gave me buckets of water to re-fill the toilet cistern. Fortunately I also still have my car so I was able to make an emergency visit to the supermarket for bottled water. I must have been the only person in the entire shop not buying turkey, vegetables or chocolates.


So anyway, I survived and I've made it to my Pacific Coast retreat. All that's left to do now is relax, recover from jet lag, eat lots and watch the little person enjoy Christmas. Bliss!