Travel Karma

Years of travel have taught me that I'd rather stay home.  Despite having travel nightmares before we go anywhere, my dear man loves to travel, although he may be rethinking this after his recent trip to visit his Mum in Wallasey England.

We've known that our travel Karma has not been great.  I am sure that most people have experienced the inconvenience of delayed flights etc but crash landings and entire bird families murdered when encountering our airplane engines...I think like penguins, we are not meant to fly.

Friends have mentioned that they would prefer not to travel with me given my history but this week proves that it is my better half, not me, that carries the negative travel vibe.  I am neurotic about travel, having everything printed out in order of use, documents separated out and carried close to my person, packing is down to a science, while Tony shakes his head and accepts me for better or worse. I don't let him pack for himself anymore either given that he has more often than not forgotten his medications, or underwear or both.  Although he seemed determined, I asked him not to rent a car in England given that they drive on the WRONG side of the road, at breakneck speeds and its been a long time since he played that game.  Once again, I should be careful what I wish for because my angel really does seem to take me seriously.

We watched the weather reports for days before his flight out of Windsor on Air Canada...our national airlines motto has unofficially been reported to be "we're not happy until you're not happy"...as I cannot recall a time in the last 20 years that our Windsor Toronto flight has been on time.  Knowing that they won't fly if it rains, looks like rain, there is a rumour of rain or the crew is just too tired,  I noted the thunderstorm warning and suggested that I drive him to Toronto in time to pick up his charter flight to England.  But false reassurances by the airline left him sitting on the runway during the rainstorm and then for another hour as Toronto closed to incoming flights, but unfortunately not departing flights.  And so he missed the charter, had to overnight in Toronto and buy a full price one way ticket on our favourite airline the next morning.

This flight only delivered him to London, England and too late in the day to take a connecting flight or train.  28 hours into his travel adventure he got on a bus to Liverpool.  Tony noted that the bus smelled like someone had died on the vehicle 3 days earlier and had not been discovered.  He gingerly checked out the bus and its washroom, and with some relief, was unable to find an offending corpse.  Exhausted, he found a seat as far from the stench as possible and collapsed to sleep through the journey to Liverpool.

It wasn't until he arrived at his Mums in Wallasey that he discovered all his travel documents, money drivers license, health cards and banking/visa cards were missing from his person.  And that's when Tony became John Doe.

Money cannot be wired to a person who does not possess identification I discovered while desperately trying to see his way through to resolving his identity crisis.  He could not rent a car or even pay for a train ticket without identification.  The next day was filled with completing forms for the Canadian Embassy, calling friends to be guarantors, emailing copies of anything that would prove his identity, borrowing money from his sister and arranging travel back to London to visit the consulate for the day.  A week that was intended to be a break for his sister in caring for their Mum, turned into a nightmare for the entire family.  Our constant communication meant minimal sleep for either of us given the time differences and by the fourth day of his trip, dementia was starting to set in.

The upside is that Tony had the opportunity to visit Canada House, our little piece of Canada in the middle of London, and appreciate some sites that he hadn't seen for many years.  The downside is that the embassy was calling our friends at 5 am without a lot of success to confirm his eligibility for a $400 temporary passport.  I ultimately suggested that they call labor and delivery because there were sure to be several staff who could confirm who Tony was, and with any luck, they were all awake.  And so Tony got his passport, after waiting for 7 hours.  With three days left of his holiday, he boarded a train back to Liverpool to spend the remaining time with his Mum, helping her celebrate her 89th birthday.

He flies back home tomorrow.  There are thunderstorm warnings.