So, it's been a week since i sold up most of my earthly possessions and made the move to Canada to be with my beautiful partner Cordelia. Being the lovely person that she is, Cordelia shouted me an upgrade on my flight to premium economy. To be honest I didnt think much of this 'upgrade'. A lot of the differences were in the type of food and service, but add to that a few little extras like bubbles before take off and priority baggage pick up and i guess the little things make a fourteen hour flight that much more bearable. The seating was still a little cramped, and my entertainment system didnt even work, but the lovely gentleman seated next to me gave his up so that it wouldnt ruin the experience. But having said that, i had to change seats with him, which in the end kinda backfired because i got stuck in a window seat and had to negotiate past two people who seemed to like to star-fish in their seats when they slept, so getting to the toilet was a mission.
The first half of the flight was almost like a dream, much like the day leading up to my departure. I was so impatient to go, and keeping my excitement levels up was tiring, so I kind of went into auto pilot for that last day, which regretfully made my farewells at the airport forgettable and rushed, although I still love all my friends and family for coming to see me off. But this sort of trance that i was in continued in to well over half the flight. I distinctly remember waking up and looking at the flight path, and we were directly above Honalulu, and the 'snap' i was out of this haze, and my mind began to race with all the possibilities that this year might bring, and it almost made me cry. I took several deep breaths and at the end as i let the last one out, a huge smile spread over my face and it stayed there for at least an hour. The rest of the flight passed with out incident and every so often the smile would return for a few moments. If anyone saw me, i imagine that i would have looked like a goofy stoner smiling a dopey smile out a window that was pitch black on the other side, almost like a 'mirror mirror on the wall' moment.
The approach over Vancouver Island was almost otherworldly. The snow capped mountains and trees side by side with these crystal clear lakes immediately reinforced that this was not NZ anymore. The splendor and beauty of such a foreign landscape made me pause and think why hadnt i done this a lot earlier in my life, why did i wait until now to do this. As we made our approach to land, the city of Vancouver hove in to view, and it was crap. It was raining, overcast and the temperature was 3 degrees, and that was the days high! Immigration went without a hitch, but the wait was like 40mins because 3 other flights came in at the same time, and that sucked, but i did see a celebrity. Couldn't remember her name, but she was probably just some B grade actor because she was waiting in the same line as me. (shame) Then i breezed through baggage with my priority pick up, but then weirdly i got pulled into customs. I didnt have anything to declare and I didnt think i looked like a terrorist. So i got there and the officer was a wondering why i'd been directed here as well. So as he went off to check with his supervisor i surveyed the customs area and all around all i could see were people, who to the suspicious eye, looked like terrorists, but to the normal eye they looked like Indians, Latinos, everything but your stereotypical terrorist. So the guy comes back and it's obvious that they think i looked like a flight risk, that i would get in to the country and disappear. Come on really, me an overstayer? I think I learnt that lesson back n the 80's when me aunty was caught under the bed at home. But seriously, he kept drilling me on all my details about where i'm staying and where i'm going after. He talked in circles for about half an hour until he was finally satisfied that i was gonna run into the wilderness as soon as i was past the door. So after a grand total of an hour and a half from landing to customs, i was finally in Canada!!
