Temp: 22 degrees
Sun and clouds, still windy. Streets were wet this morning like it had been raining, but seemed to clear up - still not particularity warm, (overcast mostly) but I hear it was POURING in Vancouver, so I can't complain.
You know, I used to love travelling for work. A little more than a decade ago, I got sent places like Palm Springs, La Jolla, San Diego, Maui, Whistler, Edmonton, Ottawa, you name it, I loved it. Wow. That seems like a lifetime ago, and yet, to think that only twelve or thirteen years ago, I stepped on a plane for only the 2nd time in my life - and I had never been to any of those places before. What a strange irony that the wonder and amazement I had back then at how much smaller the world gets when an airplane can take you 1000 miles in an hour and a half, has been replaced with such a jaded attitude towards airplanes and airports... now, it's just a pain in the ass. It's no big deal to fly to Calgary in the morning for a meeting and be back home in Vancouver in the afternoon. The plane trip just becomes an hour that I'm wedged into an uncomfortable seat.
In the past 12 years I can't even count how many planes I've been on... but, in the last 6 months alone I've been on ... um... I guess TEN planes... Is that right??? can't be that much...
1.) Vancouver -> Las Vegas
2.) Las Vegas -> Philadelphia
3.) Philadelphia -> Salt Lake City
4.) Salt Lake City -> Vancouver
5.) Vancouver -> Phoenix
6.) Phoenix -> Puerto Vallarta
7.) Puerto Vallarta -> Phoenix
8.) Phoenix -> Las Vegas
9.) Las Vegas -> San Francisco
10. ) San Franciaso - Vancouver
... Wow, looks like I was WAY off, lots more planes to go!
11.) Vancouver -> London
12.) London -> Berlin
13.) Berlin -> London
14.) London -> Vancouver
15.) Vancouver -> Edmonton
16.) Edmonton -> Vancouver
SIXTEEN? Sheesh! No wonder... SIXTEEN flights in the last 6 months.
So where was I ... oh yeah ... I used to love travelling for work, I would get to see, even if just briefly, parts of the world I'd never seen before. But now, after being away from home for two and a half days, I just can't think of anything else - I just wanna be home... but it sucks that I've got to take yet another airplane to get there.
TO THEIR CREDIT, the airports are a dream if you're only flying domestic - and this is the first domestic flight I've taken in a LONG time... I'm so used to the hours and hours of lines and queues and waiting and delay when taking international flights - especially to the US - in fact, if I never had to visit the US again, I wouldn't mind a bit. Not that I don't like the country (the leadership is a whole other matter) but mainly just because of how hard it is and how long it takes to get through customs, imigration, border patrol, etc.
BUT - for these quick domestic commuter flights, it literally takes 3 minutes to walk into the airport, do the self-check-in at the kiosk, print your ticket, and walk into the boarding area. You don't even get asked for ID. And you don't need to be two hours early either. 20 minutes is fine.
So I was at the Edmonton airport at 4:40PM, and even after being selected for a "random" (yeah right, random my ass...) security check, I was sitting waiting at the gate 4:53, and had 20 minutes to kill playing 'breakout' on my blackberry before boarding began. And since the boarding process is a half hour before departure, I seriously could have got to the airport an hour later (5:40) and still made it onto the plane with time to spare.
120 minutes in the air, and I'm back in Vancouver at 6:15 localtime.
And it's GOOD to be back... even though it's raining.
Posted by Calvin at July 12, 2006 10:42 AM