Airports

I was talking to my colleague yesterday about my trip, and realized I'm going to be in 11 different airports on this trip:

Vancouver
Toronto
London-Heathrow
Birmingham
Barcelona-Girona
Malaga
East Midlands
Liverpool
Paris
Dinard
London-Stansted

Heathrow, then Vancouver again. I think this might be the record for a single trip. I thought last year there were more, but there was a lot of overlanding, in cars. I only counted 8 airports, but it was a shorter trip:

Vancouver
Calgary
London-Gatwick
Dublin
Shannon
Brussels
Milan-Bergamo
Zurich

It's a good thing I like to people-watch. I find the people-watching opportunities too great a distraction from reading books in airports. I think the longest layover I've ever had was in Sofia, Bulgaria, on a flight from Bangkok to London, and there weren't many people in the aiport at that hour. This Bulgarian guy gave me his card and chatted away endlessly, but I didn't discourage him as he was the only thing keeping me awake.

More airport stories later. I have a bunch. Ask Kristin.

try this!

from a friend of a friend's site

Trip Prep

Time to get crackin'... I haven't booked any accommodation in Spain yet.

I now have two Virgin train tickets from London to Wolverhampton... the second one in case I miss the first train. My insurance--ha! ha! If you've heard the London stories, you'll know why.

I'm going to take regional buses in Spain, and take my chances--no train or coach reservations. I'll let you know how it goes!

Vancouver Auto Show

Eliza had two passes to the Vancouver Auto Show, so we headed over to BC Place yesterday afternoon after I picked up the rest of the display items from the Granville Optical window, and lunch at Hon's on Robson.

Mini convertible

PT Cruiser convertible

Beetle convertible

I'm no car nut. After all, I joined a car co-op so the only thing I have to do with cars these days is drive them. I don't have to mess around with maintenance, insurance, Air Care, or BCAA. But, I like to look at the occasional car, admire them for their design features, and gawk at the futuristic toys of the like you see at car shows. And, I like driving around Vancouver in Eliza's Mercedes convertible, I must say... makes me want to drop all my classes this summer just so I can convince her to drive up to Whistler often! Reminds me of my Banff days when Lynn and I would cruise around town in her green (Mustang?) convertible. (If you've been to Banff, you'd know this would be a rare sight indeed!)

Eliza and I did our share of gawking at luxury cars, too: Mercedes, Audi, Cadillac, Rolls Royce... I took some photos of this wacky looking Cadillac, which I think was called "Sixteen"--what that means, I don't know... I didn't read the spec sheet.

One thing I did notice was the convertibles: Daimler's PT Cruiser, the new Mini Convertible, and Beetle Convertible were all very fun-looking. If I had my choice between the three, I think I'd pick the Mini Convertible... the Beetle Convertible I liked, but the Mini Convertible is something different on the road. I'm not really into the flashy sports cars, but I am partial to Aston Martin and Bentleys. Cruising around Vancouver in a Bentley would be fun for a while, but the novelty would wear off pretty quickly. Too pretentious, not to mention ostentatious. Or, wholly unpractical. I mean, where would I put five carseats?

More photos of the Vancouver Auto Show here.

All Five Ms on Sunset Beach

I got a phone call yesterday morning from Cheryl, saying that they decided since it was a nice day that they would take all the kids to the beach, the twins included!

Oy vey, what an operation: getting 3 small children and two newborns all packed up and ready for the beach. Then there are all those potty stops, feedings, changings, etc.

It was a glorious day for the beach, of which there is one located conveniently across the street from my apartment building. We set up by some logs and watched kites flying from Kits Point, and sailboats in English Bay. The babies were fast asleep in their double stroller (they both fit in one seat at the moment, and Maddy sits in the front), and the kids got out their new beach toys to make -- under Allan's supervision -- large-scale cities out of sand.

I told Michael to build an empire, and he earnestly set about to do so.

Michael: "Look Attie Gail, my empire fell over!"
Cheryl, laughing: "Michael, empires don't fall over, they collapse!"

As you can see, the van is FULL. With five kids and five carseats, there is no room for any other passengers, so I had to crouch down on the floor while they dropped me off later downtown. There was a major cacophony in the back, with Michael yelling something and Maddy following, while Melissa covered her ears to shut out the sound. Meanwhile, the twins were fast asleep...

Turks & Caicos

You need RealPlayer for this, by the way.

Rick Mercer's rant on why Canada should annex the Caribbean Islands Turks & Caicos.

There's been some talk of this for a while now. Canadians argue that we need a holiday destination to escape the Great White North, but frankly, this is hogwash--what do we need to annex these islands for?? Canadians can go there, anyway. Stamp out neo-colonialism! Foster good relations with them, let them promote their islands to Canadian tourists, but give them full control of their tourist -- and any other -- income!

Ah, Prius Again

I just picked up the Toyota Prius to take to the office in, oh, about 6.5 hours. Driving it back to my apartment, I was quickly reminded of why I like this car so much. It's been a while since I drove it--yesterday I drove both a Mazda MPV minivan AND a Mazda Protegé sedan, and there's not much appeal to either of these vehicles.

I've stopped counting how many co-op cars I've used, but there's been at least 10 in the past few months, and the Prius is still my favourite. The deceleration in electricity mode is probably the main adjustment, after getting used to the gearshift lever that reminds me of the old slot machines in Vegas.

Parole?

We'll see how long this lasts...

----- Original Message -----
From: help@orkut.com
To: "Gail E." gailontheweb@yahoo.ca
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 11:40 AM
Subject: Re: [#30526] why am I in jail?


Thanks for your note. Due to a technical glitch, we have not been
receiving all of the incoming orkut email. Your message just arrived, and
we're very sorry that we were unable to respond sooner.

Your account has now been unlocked. Again, we apologize for this
inconvenience.

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Back in the Slammer

The Orkut saga continues. Most of the Vancouver community members who post regularly are also in jail. Somebody in Orkut must REALLY hate Vancouver.

I'm Outta Jail!

Finally! Did I take pictures inside the Orkut Detention Centre? Yeah, but they ripped the film out...

In other news, I did check out the festivities at Heritage Hall -- sorry, muckdog, I didn't get any shots of the Tropicana (Vegas show-)girls. Next time. They kinda looked like this, but their outfits were skimpier.

Will write more about it tomorrow... ummm, later today, I guess that would be.