The Joys Of Modern Air Travel...

As I write this, I am sitting in the Maple Leaf Lounge at the Ottawa airport awaiting my flight to Halifax which departs in about 90 minutes (I was in Ottawa fro Christmas). I've already been here for 60 minutes, taking heed of the Transport Canada and Air Canada warnings to arrive three hours before my flight due to the new travels rules in place as a result of the aborted terrorist bombing in Detroit.

I have absolutely no issues at all with the new regulations (except for the one saying nobody could get out of their seat in the last hour of a US bound flight - luckily cooler heads prevailed - that one could have gotten messy...). I just find it somewhat ironic that it was a failed attack and yet seems to have had the desired result of increased delays and inconveniences.

I must compliment the security staff here at the Ottawa airport - they were friendly, courteous and professional - I can only imagine how hard that must have been to do with all of the reported delays of the last few days - it's the front line folks who take the abuse. Today there were few delays getting through security even though I was randomly selected to be patted down, so here I am spending 2.5 hours waiting for my plane (old military habits die hard - I spent a lot of years at military air terminals two hours ahead of departure and that was for flying on Yukons and Hercs!!...). All I can say is if you travel regularly by air these days and you do not have lounge privileges, GET THEM!, it's the only way to travel these days.

So wherever you may be off to, safe travels and get to the airport early. I'm off to have a free cup of tea. Hmmm...

Adventure of a Lifetime...

My friend and colleague Dave Jellicoe, has just launched the adventure of a lifetime - for the next year (at least), he will be teaching in Japan at the Hohoku School in Sendai . You can follow his adventure at his blog, The Uncarved Block.

Have a blast Dave and stay in touch! Hmmm...

My Virtual Cross-Canada Trek 2009 - Montreal and Beyond...

It's been a crazy weather year, like summer hasn't really started yet - lots of wet and rain and fog with the odd sunny day tossed in as a teaser of a summer that hasn't shown up yet.

My cross-Canada trek continues - I'm about 100 KM east of Ottawa - in fact at one point I thought my virtual and real selves might have met his week as I am actually in Ottawa right now, but heading home tomorrow. Just as well - wouldn't want to be messing about with that whole space-time continuum thing anyway :-).

Montreal is one of my favourite cities in the World. I lived in Montreal many years ago and love it every time I go back. It's city full of life, and culture, and always something to do, and the food is amazing. From Dunn's for cheesecake to Schwartz's for smoked meat, you never need go hungry in Montreal (and both are MUST stops during any trip to Montreal). Old Montreal is an amzing collection of restaurants, boutiques, and artisans - a very cool place. If you like vibrant, mult-cultural cities with lost to do and see - head for Montreal.

Hard to believe I'm almost 1400 KMs into my yomp across Canada - next stop is Ottawa, then up over Northern Ontario for Sudbury and Thunder Bay. Now if only the weather would cooperate and allow summer to start...

The Joys Of Winter Travel Or Have We Left Yet?...

As a Canadian, it is my primal right to complain about the weather, and being able to complain not only about the weather, but travelling and weather is the perfect storm.

One of the joys of living on the East Coast is that there is always weather to complain about - we are on the frequent flyer plan of most of the weather that heads this way - storms blowing their way across Canada have this lovely way of connecting with storms sliding up the Atlantic Coast of the the U.S. and holding family reunions over our heads. Not so bad in the summer, just some great bouts of rain and the occasional hurricane, but it is in winter when we truly get to exercise our weather complaining genes - bad weather and travel together - who could ask for anything more?

Now travel, particularly air travel, and particularly this time of year, can be an adventure in Canada. For the purposes of the airlines, Toronto is the center of the universe (this is not an acknowledgement on my part of this fact, just an explanation of the airlines reality), so if the Pearson International Airport is storm-stayed, then air travel across the country is affected. This past week, Pearson has been a mess due to a swath of storms blowing their way through Ontario. On top of that Vancouver has gotten snow and cold tempeartures causing delays there too (and introducing residents of the Wet Coast to the frozen variety of their normal weather), so the result was all sorts of delays - and boy is that good for the real official Canadian sport - weather complaining. I made it here to Ottawa for the Holidays, but even then there were delays because planes couldn't get from Toronto to Halifax to fly other places (and two hours after I landed in Ottawa a storm blew through paralyzing air travel in Eastern Canada). Speaking to friens travelling later during the day, the delays set in and the complaining began...

The other main travel types in Canada are car and train - car is an adventure due to road conditions, and well, rail travel just isn't what it used to be - so that means you meet most of the happiest complaining Canadians in airports across the country - like one of my co-workers who finally got to their warm-weather Christmas destination after three days of trying to get to Toronto, or the family from Vancouver who spent 5 days flying home to Maritimes - the good news is they all eventually made it to where they were going, complaining all the way...

So wherever you are this Holiday Season, or wherever you are going, may you travel safe, and warm, and with only enough complaint to satisfy your Canadian constitution. I know it's not terribly Canadian, but here's hoping your travel is delay and complaint-free and that you and yours have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year...

P.S. I sort of cheated - the picture is from "White Juan" the blizzard that hit Halifax in 2004...

STLHE 2007 - The Trip Out

I spent most of yesterday in airports and airplanes, travelling from Halifax to Edmonton (through Toronto of course) - why does everything go through Toronto (insert appropriate or inappropriate Toronto joke here...)?

Air travel has basically been reduced to riding a bus with wings - it's convenient, relatively quick, someone else is doing the driving, and you spend most of the time reading, eating or sleeping (although you have to pay to eat now :-). Actually I spent most of the time on the Toronto-Edmonton leg of the trip watching a movie son a little 5"x7" screen - a whole new experience for those of us in the progressive lens set.

Left Halifax in the cool and rain, arrived in Toronto to 31C and humidity and landed in Edmonton to 10C and cloudy - gotta love a large country and its weather. I am now firmly ensconced in the Lister Centre - the University of Alberta's conference centre.

Nice and convenient to the STLHE Conference which takes place across the street about a 5 minute walk away. The U of A is a huge, sprawling campus - I'll be posting pictures up on my Flickr site later, now that I have Internet connectivity.

Let the conference begin!!