1. This flu is getting seriously annoying. I'm feeling better than I did yesterday, but I was pretty miserable so any step upwards is a good thing. Part of the reason, I suspect, is that I finally got a half decent night's sleep (part of the charm with this flu, along with the sore throat, fever and coughing, has been my back muscles locking up). I broke down and bought some NyQuil (insert your Dennis Leary routine here) and that seemed to have helped.
I'd call it 50/50 on going to work tomorrow. I hate losing too much time at work, but going in looking like a plague carrier does no one any good either. It's funny, I normally get off easy when it comes to getting sick and Cathy is usually the one who gets hammered. She's bounced back much quicker than me on this bug.
2. So to cheer things up, we apparently decided to spend money...mainly on finally booking the tickets to San Francisco. We've been stretching out buying the tickets over several Visa bills to ease the pain somewhat. Plus we were hoping for a seat sale, which never really materialized. And since it is now less than three months until we go, we figured now would be a good time to book. A week in San Francisco and a week for going to Disney and the San Diego zoo. It's going to be fun.
Cathy is a little annoyed about one thing, though. Two tickets from Ottawa to San Francisco return...cost less than her ticket from Iqaluit to Ottawa (I managed to luck into a seat sale). Travel out of here is just insane. Did you know Canadian North and First Air are two of the most profitable airlines in North America? Big surprise.
We're also flying United...just because Air Canada is pissing us off that much. We were going to have to buy meals on Air Canada, the cheap bastards. It's a goddamn eight hour flight. It also looks like Cathy is going to have to fly WestJet when she goes home at Christmas because of Air Canada's ridiculous ban on allowing pets to travel at that time of the year. As of October, they're not even allowing them in the cabin, even if they're small enough to fit under the seat. Air Canada....making travel as inconvenient as possible. Wankers.
3. It makes me sad watching West Wing these days. Only one more left and they're all so good. I'm glad the show is going out on a high note; it deserves it. And they're tying up most the characters nicely. Tonight's episode with CJ was great stuff, with her trying to figure out what she wants to do next. And we even got to see Toby again, for what I assume is probably the last time. And even 30 seconds of Charlie. But it was all the little moments that make it work. The entire bit with the billionaire (a Bill Gates rip, I assume) and her staff telling her to "ask for some of Montana." Her scenes with Toby. The bit Danny at the end, including "there's apparently a grammatical error in the constitution." "You should get someone to look at that." "Toby's on top of it."
It's all fun, fun stuff. No Josh and Donna, though for the the second week in a row. I'm curious if they eloped while on vacation.
4. The name "Benji" came to me as a name of the dog. Terrible unoriginal, but it's probably going to end up looking like a Benji eventually. Right now it's, well, a fetus. We have paid a lot of money for a downpayment on a fetus.
Life is odd, sometimes.
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8 comments:
Don't get me started on First Air. For the price of three of us to fly to Ottawa from Nanisivik return, almost 12 people can fly Toronto to Sydney Australia return. I don't even want to talk about freight.
Benji?????
I've been pricing flights from St. John's to Stephenville lately. I can fly to Toronto for 200 dollars less. Completely nuts.
Rag on Air Canada all you like--they deserve it. A little bit of explanation on the pet-carrying policy though which may explain the difficulties. Airlines flying in Canada will not not carry pets during the winter if they're flying a particular type of aircraft because the cargo area of that aircraft is not heated and the temps in winter are too cold for pets. Some planes can't carry animals at all because they don't have pressurized cargo holds.
Flying out of Fredericton, Halifax and St. John's every Christmas, I had to check and double-check when I made my reservation that the aircraft could take pets. Some of the planes on that route couldn't. (And I have to say that the Air Canada staff were really good with Willow. She got home before I did once when we were stranded at Halifax airport during a storm.)
And Craig, are you sure that Air Canada still allows pets in the cabin? Max had to go cargo as I recall even after you were sure he could go into the cabin. Has Air Canada specifically told you that small pets are allowed in underseat carriers or are you just assuming that they do? I thought they discontinued that practice years ago due to passenger allergies.
Please don't call the poor mite Benji. Wait until you see him--he'll probably tell you his name.
I was wrong. AC does allow pets in the Hospitality cabin only. But I notice that they're discontinuing that as of September 6th of this year. All animals will have to travel cargo after that.
I was delighted recently to see that Canada and UK have signed an open skies agreement. Air Canada versus British Airways - real tough decision. AC, the bastards, are discontinuing the flight between London and St. John's, as if the damn thing wasn't always full! They're probably anticipating no one wanted to fly with them once BA operates there.
Off sick again this morning. Jesus, it's the flu that never ends. Spent half the night up with a hacking cough. Which, of course, kept Cathy up half the night, the poor dear...
To respond to Clare, yeah, it could be worse for me. They gouge you flying out of Iqaluit. Flying out of more remote parts of Nunavut is almost the equivilent of rape.
My dad and Dups have both expressed an interest to come and visit next year. I thought rather than sticking around Iqaluit, going to Arctic Bay might be more fun. But it's $2,000 return each, so I don't know.
And Colette, we did the research on Air Canada because we're going to have to book our tickets home with them soon enough. I understand the restrictions regarding pets on some planes, but AC does make it as difficult as possible. WestJet seems to be far more cooperative.
Mireille, I think people would dance in the streets if BA started flying into St. John's. I don't know how good United is, but even though it cost about $20 more to go with them to SF instead of AC, we simply didn't want to give the bastards our money if we could help it.
And I thought Benji might get a reaction...;)
Yum, yeah - Go West Jet - they let us "check on" Sophie when we changed planes in Hamilton when we flew home for the wedding. It was nice to see that she was doing fine! We tranked her for the flight, so she mostly slept through the whole thing!
I also really prefer West Jet to AC - just an attitude thing - yes they pack you in like sardines, but they know it, and they make fun of it. And they warn you well ahead of time to pack your own lunch. AC randomly decided to either feed you or not - last summer, they fed us on the 45 minute flight from Edmonton to Calgary, and nothing else from Calgary to Halifax or Halifax to St. John's. Odd. At least with WJ, you know to pack a lunch!
I've been poking around online for an inprompt trip to St. J for Little man and I sometime between now and when he turns 2 - big surprise for my folks - but I refuse to pay over $1000. If I can get a flight for less, I'll go, if not, I won't.
Don't f*%*(% get me started on AC. This time for my big trip flights I have paid extra to avoid AC.
To those that don't know the story, I showed up on Xmas Eve in Halifax after 20+ hours of flying. AC had screwed up, I needed to stay overnight but I had expected that and AC was supposed to put me up. When I went to pick up my hotel vouchers, she says "Nope, not available, but there is one person left in Halifax airport that can help you". She brings the requisite woman to me who looks at me and the other woman and says to her (not to me even) "I'm off duty, it's Christmas Eve., I don't have time for this" and walks away. Even the other AC employee was embarassed and shocked.
Yes, one of my many many AC is evil stories. May Westjet rule the skies.
Cheers
Dups
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