Kermit was rather miffed that he missed the entire Montreal International Jazz Fest because I left him in my bag, so I tried to make it up to him by letting him roam Ottawa.

We just returned, much later than expected, from Montreal with a detour to the nation’s capital. It’s been a great Canada Day long weekend; will post more and catch up on comments after some quality time with my bed.

Kermit stops to kiss the ground. We’re home!

The aborted landing was in Toronto and wasn’t explained until after we were back in the pattern. I don’t think we were much more than 500 ft above the runway (if that) when suddenly we went full throttle and made a power ascent. Everyone became very, very quiet. You could hear the worry. I wondered if it was our plane (a very new Embraer 190) or an order from Air Traffic Control. It was later explained that there wasn’t enough space between us and the next plane to land safely, so a quick decision was made to abort.

Whew.

Now that I’m home, I was half-hoping some Icelandic elf had stowed away in my luggage to whip my place into shape, but alas, it still looks exactly the same as I left it: an indoor yard sale!

Even though I carried Kermit in my bag every single day in Iceland, I kept forgetting to take him out! Sorry Kermit! I promise I won’t let any French people near your legs! We arrived in Paris about 12 hours ago and Claude of Blogging in Paris has been taking care of us — with wi-fi, photowalks, hospitality, and the most impressive set of computer skills I’ve ever seen by a self-confessed “elderblogger”!

I haven’t written for my last few days in Iceland, but when you see the photos, you’ll know why! In a word, it’s been amazing. More to come…

Technorati tags: Kermit, Paris, Eiffel Tower

Melissa giving Kermit a bird’s eye view to watch the dolphins and belugas.

We had a big day today in Vancouver and West Vancouver, the kids, Kermit and I. We’re all pooped. The Ms are in the bath getting cleaned up for bed and I’ll read a few books to them, but I doubt they’ll last very long (they didn’t last). Photos forthcoming.

… and he’s driving Ebi bananas.

How did it get this late/early? If I was in Toronto and it wasn’t Good Friday, I’d be on my way to work right now. But it’s not yet 6am in Vancouver so everyone’s asleep and here I am, looking at the city lights.

I must be delirious, because I titled this picture “(Kermie)osity killed the cat”. Later on today I’ll probably renounce my ability to speak the English language — I punned myself into The Hall of Shame.

The flight was great — the best I’ve had in ages, even though it left an hour late. The plane was at capacity, this being Easter weekend and all, but I managed to score the window end of an exit row. The only thing is that the Airbus 321 I was on didn’t have power points in Coach/Economy and my batteries (both!) were only partially charged. I didn’t make it through An Inconvenient Truth on my PowerBook, but I was so wiped out I wouldn’t have made it all the way through, anyway — I fell asleep. That snooze on the plane is why I’m still awake right now, but at least I got my sushi fix, had a catch-up with the West End gang, and I’m ready to snooze again!

Technorati tags: cats, Kermit

Kermit showing his true colours.

I did an inordinate amount of sleeping in on Canada Day. Shocking.

My SFU Geography classmate, Alina, rang me up in the afternoon and asked me if I wanted to meet them downtown. It has been nearly two years since I’d seen her, so I jumped at the chance! My little local eatery where we had pizza last time was closed at 6pm, so we went up to Davie and Thurlow and had — in honour of Greece’s victory — a big Greek meal. Wow, was I ever stuffed… I only ever eat lamb on rare occasion, so when I do, my stomach gets a little shocked.

Kevin, Alina and Dan’s son, had a Canadian flag painted on his cheek, as they’d just come from the Canada Day festivities. It was great to catch up, and we talked about travel and all that good stuff. They’re from Romania, so it seemed very fitting that on Canada Day, we’d be celebrating multiculturalism with food!

never too old for a kiss from mum