We're only a week away from the big trip now. I suspect most of this weekend will be prep work. I can mock Cathy's instance on lots of planning, but really, without her and all this advance planning, I'm certain the vacation would be a lot more chaotic. And we're looking forward to it. It's finally beginning to creep in around the edges that it's going to happen soon, which is cool.
Plus, Cathy could really use it. I had New York a couple of months ago. She hasn't been anywhere since Florida over Christmas(I know, poor us). Plus, she's been fighting a fairly vicious summer cold and could really use a break.
Of course, now that we're in the last stages of getting ready for this trip, I'm already beginning to look and see what else might be coming up. Australia will be next summer and we're booking that one on points shortly. But I am rattling around the idea of going back to Newfoundland later this year....solo.
No, there's nothing sinister about that, it's just the way things break sometimes. Cathy's vacation times are set in stone each year. However, just about everyone else in the world who is not a teacher has to discuss with their bosses when is the best time to go on vacation. Christmas and summer tend to be the high traffic periods, unsurprisingly. I can't get any more time off during the summer this year and I've already taken the last two Christmases off.
So if I want to go home, it has to be at "off-peak" time. And it would have to be by myself because Cathy obviously can't just disappear in the middle of the school year.
It seems I have slightly more vacation time that I originally thought. Also, while he's trying to hide it a bit, having spoken to my father a few times recently it's pretty clear that neither of my grandparents are doing all that well. I hate for that to be a reason to go home, but there are only so many more times I'm going to get to see them, I fear.
Plus, there are other things that merit a trip home. I'd like to talk to our financial advisor. I think it's time I did a serious deep purging of my comic collection (as in, gasp, throw useless crap into the garbage instead of praying for a collecting miracle of it magically becoming valuable) and then moving the collection into a storage facility. Last time I was home, dad was storing bottles of red wine on top of my comics.
It's his house and he's doing me a favour by letting me keep them there, so I can't really freak out at him. But clearly a move is in order.
And there are friends I would like to see - Barb, Pat and her demon hellspawn (hey, I'm sure she's called them that all by herself) out in Clarenville. And despite the times when it feels like everyone has left, I still do have a few friends in St. John's that would be nice to see, like Anne, Andrea, Suzy and Colette if she's back in town. Plus others.
So it sounds like a good plan, yes? Cathy's not completely enamoured with the idea of me going on vacation by myself twice in one year, and I'm a bit hesitant on that as well. But here's the big drawback. On a lark the other day I punched in travel times into a couple of websites to see how much tickets are going for.
Sweet, honourable Jesus. It's one thing to read about skyrocketing plane tickets. Quite another to see it in action. Thank God we got our Italy tickets before things started to go insane.
The most I've ever paid to travel from Iqaluit to St. John's was about $2,000 and even that nearly gave me a stroke. But a plane ticket from Iqaluit to Ottawa is now going for a little more than $1,800 return. A ticket from Ottawa to St. John's is around $1,000. So for around $2,800, taxes and fees included, I can go home for about 10 days.
Fuck me. I'm going to Italy for less than that.
So yeah, we'll see about going home in October. Depends on ticket prices (there's normally a seat sale by First Air or Canadian North in September), plus government elections and a national curling championship to organize in November. So a lot of "ands, ifs or buts" before this is locked in.
Last Five
1. Haiti - The Arcade Fire
2. Tire swing - Kimya Dawson
3. Brilliant mistake - Elvis Costello
4. The first five times - Stars
5. Surrender - U2*
3 comments:
I am now convinced that airlines have decided that low ticket prices were a huge mistake. They let all of the riff-raff onto their planes, and all we did was complain. They want to price us coach people completely off their planes and focus on people who will pay more.
So, a ticket to SJ for you costs $2800. I think my ticket there from Doha costs less than $2500 (school pays for it, fortunately). Of course, we booked the tix a couple of months ago, I'm sure they'd be different now.
ANother thing similar about the two places: you need to have a good vacation twice a year. It sounds like luxury to others, but not everyone can even live there to begin with. Sometimes people show up here only to turn right around, I suspect the same is true there. Some people love it, but the many find it harder to adapt.
Re: financial advisor. Do some of your own homework first. They (at least the bank ones) tend to put you into a program based on a standard questionnaire. That may not actually be right for you and what the two of you want, but you won't know it unless you do some research of your own.
Have fun in Italy - and eat lots of ice cream
ok here is a fun fact:
After I read your little bit about the airline costs, I freaked and went and checked. Heres the fun part: Cape Dorset to Ottawa $1,544, Iqaluit to Ottawa $1,644, First Air making no sense, Priceless!
SO if you buy yourself a little extra ticket that you won't use, you'll save $100! How does that even work, my head is going to explode.
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