Neither of us slept very well; we were both excited at the prospect of being with Alanna today. Ray, I think more so than me, is also looking forward to getting back home to familiar surroundings and Canada. Don’t get me wrong, I too am looking forward to coming home; more so to get back into doing something more “meaningful" than the stress-free travel environment. I am searching for a way to put my knowledge and experiences to good use.
When you travel the world, and see different cultures and ways of life, it helps you to understand “existence” on a broader basis. The world over, life is about survival. As humans we all need the same things to be fundamentally satisfied. That is all the majority want: food, shelter, and community. Why then do we refuse to respect that in each other and enter into war, violent disputes, and political mayhem? It doesn’t matter how much land you have, if it’s not arable you won’t get food, or if there are no resources, you won’t have resources. To strive for the bigger picture of a “supportive and co-dependent” existence might be an answer to finding a peaceful world solution. I don't mean by this that the only answer is "democracy". It may well not be, or it may be that each country needs its own unique form of government. We might also be forced into that scenario if bugs and diseases such as H1N1 become the pandemic that many predict it will. Cool and intelligent minds, co-operation among governments, and creative science for cures and preventatives are what will get us through such an event should it come to that. I don’t know the answer to a better world order, but I know I will support those who have a viable suggestion versus those who manipulate populations through power and superiority.
So, I know you will want to know (1) did we have a good trip; (2) what were the highlights and the lowlights; (3) what it did for us; and (4) where are we going next! Give me a few days to contemplate all of that, and I’ll post a “Post-Trip Summary”.
We were up around 7 am this morning to catch the Hoppa bus back to Terminal 5 at Heathrow. We had breakfast in “Giraffe" at the airport; then I went duty-free shopping. The London airports are so exciting to shop in, and it’s one of the few times I’ve had on the trip to “shop”. So, Ray sat and waited, and I took off with my credit card!!
Security checks at the airport take forever, and I wonder how effective they are against “terrorists” as opposed to catching the forgetful tourist who has packed his pen knife or nail clippers in his/her checked luggage.
Our flight on a British Airways Boeing 747 left about 45 minutes late. Once again it was quite smooth with the exception of one part as we neared Canada which got a little bumpy from the turbulence. The skies were bright blue, and we floated on our bed of white clouds for about 7 hours. We were so excited when we landed at Toronto that my stomach was churning with impatience at the thought of seeing Alanna again. We are not sure what was happening at the airport, but as soon as we stepped off the plane a customs officer was checking everyone’s passport, so you can imagine the back up of passengers de-loading. As with everyone else, he took my passport, read the information, stared at me directly in the eyes, and then handed the passport back and allowed me to go forward. When we got to the customs hall, there was a team of four customs officers searching the crowd. One had a dog and he together with the dog walked very briskly and purposely up and down the rows of the passengers waiting to go through the customs desks into the baggage pick-up area. The dog sat down three or four times in front of one guy who was probably off the Caribbean Air flight that had landed just before ours. Poor guy must have been sweating, but obviously he was not the one whom the team was looking for.
While waiting for our baggage, we saw the team questioning passengers randomly in the baggage hall. Never saw them take anyone away, so haven’t a clue what it was all about.
Finally we exited into the Arrivals area, and there was our lovely daughter, full of smiles and as happy to see us as we were to see her. We are soooo lucky to have such a beautiful and kind daughter! Then, as we were all hugging each other intensely, our good friend Randall Osczevski appeared with a huge grin on his face. It was the most wonderful surprise and means an awful lot to us that he would leave his office and come over to the airport to welcome us home.
And, that is it! We went home with Alanna, ate dinner, chatted and chatted, drank too much wine and finally after being up for about 25 hours, we collapsed into bed for our first night’s sleep at home since March 11.
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