Archive for August 24th, 2006

24 Aug 2006 Arrivederci Toronto!
Author: Gail |  Category: Flying, Friends, cameraphone  | One Comment

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20060823(002).jpgWe all went to the airport yesterday to drop off our bags then have dinner together before catching our flights. I checked in online and printed off my boarding pass in the afternoon, and the others were on a charter flight back to Hamburg, so they could take their bags up to five hours in advance (four, for me). Our flights were 15 minutes apart, so it all worked out nicely.

24 Aug 2006 Vancouver — 12 Months or a Lifetime Later
Author: Gail |  Category: Travel  | One Comment

20060823(004).jpgIt’s nearly 7:30 in the morning Toronto time, and I’m awake on account of sleeping much of the flight away. I’ve been wanting to make this trip for so long that when the time came to get on the plane, I didn’t want to think too much about it. I wanted it to be like any other flight, just a routine trip across the country. Most of my journeys this year have been under tragic circumstances or to serve a purpose, and even the trip to New York in February and Orlando a couple of weeks ago were — although for leisure — to complete travel within a certain timeframe.

But here I am, one year after leaving Vancouver in a terrible rush, returning with a crop of grey hair and an odd feeling of familiarity mixed with more than a tinge of sadness. All the hope and excitement last summer of planning our wedding and returning eventually with David has been replaced with something else entirely, but what that is I can’t describe other than the sensation of the heart and the mind occupying two different places at the same time. This separation seems to characterise much of how I’ve been feeling since late 2004, and until I’m settled for more than a few months in one place, I don’t expect that sensation to subside any time soon.

There are a lot of things I want to do while I’m in Vancouver, and I’ve set up my ticketing to allow myself some return date flexibility in case my friend Claire in France decides to fly later than planned to Toronto.

In the meantime, for those in Vancouver: if I haven’t gotten in touch with you already, contact me at gail [at] gailatlarge.com and we’ll set up a time/place to meet!