Canada: 19.09.25 - Day 15: It’s going to be a long day….!

It was our final morning and neither of us seemed to sleep well last night. Maice woke up with a dodgy stomach which doesn’t bode well for a 12 hour flight and I woke up with a very red left eye with both eyes looking a little swollen, my head hurt where I banged it whilst packing last night and my tattoo was starting to throb. Hopefully all will be good for both of us on the two flights home!

We forewent our yoga, our walk and breakfast as Myrna was driving us to the airport at 9am and we had lots to do before setting off to the airport, namely sorting a few things out in our cases, then heaving them up the stairs, then into the boot of the car. It’s true to say that they were one hell of a lot heavier than they were on the way here. We had four bags apiece; one suitcase, one carry on case which we actually checked in free of charge, one back pack and a shopping type of bag full of ‘stuff’ that wouldn’t fit anywhere else! All bags didn’t have an inch to spare and we were well and truly laden down.  We don’t get fed on the flight from Kelowna to Toronto so we made our customary cheese rolls for the flight, together with a bag of Lays crisps and an energy ball each so we were well catered for.

Myrna dropped us off outside departures. Usually she comes in and has a coffee with us but because the airport is under construction the short stay car-park was full and the long-stay car-park was a long walk away from the terminal so it was best for all that we were dropped off outside the terminal, plus its easier to say goodbye. We said our goodbyes and gave instructions to Myrna to read yesterday’s blog as we had set her a ‘challenge’ in it, waved her goodbye and headed to check-in. All went smoothly and we were lucky neither of us exceeded the 23kg bag limit although Maice’s case was exceedingly close to the mark. All checked in we headed off to Tim Hortons for a cappuccino. The upshot was, they didn’t have any, nor did they have any latte’s so we forwent the coffee and had a croissant and a cream cheese bagel instead. Not only was there no coffee, the service wasn’t that great either and this elderly guy was getting himself really worked up because his bagel was taking ages to toast and he had to go catch his flight. He demanded a refund but one wasn’t forthcoming with the staff saying his bagel was on its way. Five minutes later he demanded a refund again and once again none was forthcoming. Finally his bagel arrived but instead of ‘rushing off to security’ he sits down with his two lady friends and starts eating his bagel. Honestly, people don’t half get stressed when they really don’t need to! To top it all he was on our flight so he didn’t need to rush at all!

We made our way through to departures and as we sat down Maice decides a cocktail would be in order. What a good idea, and we promptly headed to the bar and ordered two Espresso Martini’s, thus ensuring that we didn’t miss out on our morning coffee after all! We did wonder what they would taste like, you know, as we’re at the airport but they were really nice and very strong.

There was a 15 minute delay on the flight which is fine, but omg what a complete malaver it was boarding. Everyone had so much big ‘hand luggage’ with them that there were no spaces left in the overhead lockers for the people still boarding to put anything in, honestly it was a right old rigmarole. Bags were being moved and swopped, people were walking up and down the aisle looking for spaces, the cabin crew were walking up and down the aisle looking for spaces and they hadn’t even ‘closed the doors for take off’ yet. We were an hour late taking off due to everyone faffing around. You see, we were very sensible. When they asked if we wanted to check our hand luggage in free of charge we jumped at the chance.

The flight when it finally got going was rather unassuming and we arrived in Toronto with just half an hour before boarding for our next flight to Heathrow. It was a 17 minute walk to the gate from where we’d landed so it was quick walking all the way, which was good for us as it meant we managed to get some steps in. On board, the take off seemed to go on forever, taking at least 15 minutes to taxi to the runway but finally we were up in the air and heading west, in the direction of the UK. For the duration of the flight Maice watched all five episodes of Chernobyl, I watched the final two and dozed the rest of the way.

We arrived at Heathrow half an hour late, collected the car which was ready and waiting for us and made our way back to Dorset stopping off at Fleet Services for a coffee. Well, imagine our surprise when we returned to the car and parked next to it was a motorhome with loud music emanating from within and all these people gathered around our car. When we approached they shoved a platter of food into our hands and told us to help ourselves! They were probably in their 40-50’s, of Portuguese and Polish nationality who were celebrating their Portuguese friend’s birthday, hence the music and the food.  We ate a few morsels of food, had a bit of banter with them, had a bit of a dance and then got in the car and drove off wondering what had just happened!

Well, it’s been another great holiday in Kelowna and the weather has been perfect.  We’ve managed to get out walking every day and clocked up well over 60 miles, all in flip-flops! As a pedestrian we’re lucky here in Canada to always have the right of way even when traffic lights are green and a car is turning into a side road…..if a pedestrian is about to cross cars must give way to them.  And when crossing a road with no traffic lights, cars must stop when they see you even if you’re not in a cross walk, if that makes sense! These drivers can be ever so polite. In fact, what we notice when out and about is that everyone is polite and the majority of people will say hello when you walk past them, you know, like they used to do in the good old days and of course you will always be greeted when entering a shop, even at somewhere like Costco a huge warehouse type store. Shop assistants will always engage with you in polite cheery conversation, are extremely helpful and can you believe this, even the buses say ‘have a nice day’ on the front of them!

We were out walking the other day and we had a conversation about what determines a road, street and avenue because we couldn’t understand the logic behind it. Back in the UK an avenue is usually lined with trees, but here a tree-lined avenue is referred to as a boulevard although boulevard will not appear on a road sign. For instance, Ethel Avenue has trees down it but is actually called Ethel Street whereas Cadder Avenue doesn’t have many trees so shouldn’t really be called an avenue.  Confused?  We asked Ruth when we were out the other day if she knew the difference. ‘It’s simple’ she said. ‘An avenue runs from east to west, a street runs from north to south, a road is rural and a boulevard is an avenue with trees’. As you can imagine, with that explanation we are none the wiser!!

As always we’ve enjoyed our daily walks, our daily cappuccinos and new to this year, our afternoon dips in the lake. We’ve spent quality time with Maice’s family, eating and drinking, going for days out, spending time in the garden at Tara and Dave’s and overall having a jolly good time. So a big thank you goes to Tara, Dave, Katana, Kerris, Kyran and Anna, Carole, Ginger, Sean and Blaise, Ruth and of course Myrna. In fact we say a Massive Thank You to Mryna who is amazing and has looked after us admirably over these past two weeks.  A very special lady with a very special family. Thank you for everything……it’s been an absolutely delight staying with you and your two beautiful cats, Jenny and Josephine.

Well, we’ve been up for well over 26 hours now so on that note, this is M&A signing off from Kelowna, BC Canada until next time xx

P.s.  Jane….. can you tell Sir Winston Maice is coming home!