All we had to do was keep well, don’t fall ill or come down with any ails and we’d be fine and for once that’s exactly what happened, although at one point it was touch and go!
Since Easter, for some reason my face kept getting red, blotchy and swollen….why? Well who only knew why, but I must say, it wasn’t a pretty sight. With no known reason why it was happening, as quickly as it started it stopped and over the last few months I’ve not had a flare up. However, not wanting to ‘miss out’, Maice’s face, in rather spectacular style took over where mine left off and started to became red, blotchy, swollen and wow, did those eyelids swell up to such an overhang it really did look like she’d gone a number of rounds with Frank Bruno! It pains us to say this but…..it wasn’t a pretty sight! Thankfully at the time of said affliction the weather was sunny so she was able to wear her over-size sunglasses for protection thereby limiting the amount of facial exposure to the outside world, but it didn’t stay sunny forever, as we brits can contest. So, what to do? With the holiday looming, the last thing Maice wanted was an unpredictable face to have to contend with so an appointment with the doctor was arranged. Turns out, that after eliminating various facial products it was her Trinny Vitamin C based serum that was the culprit. Well who knew. So since she stopped using it over the past few weeks fortunately Maice’s face has been back to normal and after an email to Trinny a refund for said product was issued.
Then, totally different subject, a couple of weeks ago ‘I gotta text’ from Maice which I read at 3.30am in the morning which said….‘you may need an ETA for Canada unless the one you got last time is still valid’. Panic set in. How far in advance do I need to apply for a visa. Would it come through in time? I couldn’t find any details of my last application two years ago so presumed it had expired. Still not quite awake I immediately set about sorting out said ETA at 3.50am and went through GovAssist, thinking it was the main Canadian site. After paying the grand sum of $61 plus the transaction fee my ETA came through only to realise that it was valid for 5 years which meant that the one I did two years ago was still valid which meant the transaction I had just done had not been necessary. Furious!!
As usual Milly and Sir Winston were dispatched to their holiday homes. Much to the delight of Winston he was off to Wool to spend his holiday with Jane, Mike and their dog Geordie. As usual his 6th sense came into force and he clung to Maice’s side, knowing something was up when she started to pack his bags. Of course as soon as she’d dropped him off and then left, all thoughts of Maice had disappeared and he settled in immediately. Milly as usual was off to stay with Alison at Purrfect Cattery which had come at the right time as she needed to get out of this habit of peeing and pooing on my carpets! Bless, she is an old lady now and getting quite forgetful in her dotage! After I’d dropped her off I popped round to see Maice who’d sent a text saying she and her neighbours were enjoying a glass of wine in the garden, so of course not one to miss out on an opportunity of some wine I joined them. Neither of us had packed and as it was now 6pm and we were leaving at 7am the next morning we’d best get a wiggle on!
We’d decided to take one suitcase each, one piece of hand luggage each and our backpacks, a lot of luggage we know but they weren’t full cases. Our plan was to scour the consignment shops, which sell some amazing clothes, including designer clothes……cheap. So, just in case we were to purchase a ‘few’ items we needed space to bring them home. There is logic there somewhere!
It was 7am Tuesday morning and I had arrived at Maice’s to collect her and her entourage of luggage for our trip to the airport. We weren’t flying until 14.10pm but we like to be early and taking into account our previous disastrous trip to Bristol airport in June we were taking no chances. The good thing was that normal service had been resumed…..I was driving and Maice was in the passenger seat who had the important job of navigating us to Heathrow airports Terminal 2 Meet and Greet parking lot!
As car journeys go, it was a pleasant trip to the airport, stopping off as usual for our Costa Coffee cappuccino (other coffee establishments are available) which we enjoyed together with Jane’s crunchy corn nuts. She’s such a good friend as she always supplies us with provisions for the journey. We were supposed to ring the Meet & Greet people thirty minutes before we arrived but we didn’t, thinking that it wouldn’t make a difference if we didn’t, but as we found it does make a difference and we had to wait twenty minutes to check in and then we were going to be charged!!! Apologising profusely for our ‘over-sight’ we were let off with the charge and have now ‘learnt a lesson’. If it says call, call!
Check-in would have gone without a hitch if it hadn’t have been for the over helpful ‘I’m here to help’ Air Canada guy who was quite put out that we didn’t want to check in our cabin bag luggage but then was insistent that he print out our luggage labels and attached them to our cases. It wasn’t until we got to bag-drop that we realised he’d put the wrong label on the wrong piece of luggage so with the assistance of the ‘I’m here to help Air Canada lady, we got it sorted!!
Our large pack of oversize playing cards were once again pulled over and frisked to within an inch of their lives before being placed back into the pack. We did question why this always happened as there didn’t seem to be any logic to it but they didn’t seem to know either. It would remain one of those mysteries, unless anyone out there has any other theories?
Once through security we filled our water bottles at what must be the slowest water station ever and then went for breakfast at Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant. We went for the breakfast deal….£25 for smashed avocado, tomatoes and a poached egg atop a piece of sourdough toast together with a Bloody Mary. It was lovely, and so it should be at £50 for the two, oh yes, plus £9 service/cover charge!!! We’re saying nothing other than to say that we are at the airport, we’re a captive audience and these are the prices one has to pay for the privilege of spending a few hours at the airport!
After our breakfast experience we ‘did the shops’ which lasted all of five minutes due to a) there was not many around b) they were mostly designer shops and c) their products were far above our price range. There was nothing for it…..we headed off to our gate, B42 and due to us chatting and not paying attention we took the wrong turning and ended up at B33 which was at least ten minutes walk from B42. Ah well, at least we were getting our steps in!
The flight was on time but my, it was a very cold flight. The air con was on all the way from Heathrow to Vancouver. There was a wee bit of respite in that the airline provided you with a blanket, a rather thin blanket at that which helped to keep the chill off a little bit but when we first boarded the plane we had to walk through ‘first class’ where those fortunate to be able to afford first class were sat in their little pods with proper pillows and DUVETS!! Sometimes life is just not fair!
An hour and a half into our freezing flight lunch was served. We were still pretty stuffed from breakfast but hey, as it was hot food hopefully it would warm us up and the bottle of wine went down pretty well too. Before we knew it we were told to close the window blinds, the lights were dimmed and we were sent to sleep! We were woken up with another round of food and wine. We watched a film. We did a puzzle. More food came out and another bottle of wine (small of course) was consumed. We were so stuffed, we don’t think we’ve eaten so much on a flight before.
Our connecting flight from Vancouver to Kelowna went without a hitch although we did order a freshly squeezed fruit and veggie drink from Joe & the Juice to give us some energy as we were flagging by now. We’d been awake now for at least 24 hours and we still hadn’t arrived at our final destination.
We arrived at Kelowna airport, British Columbia at 19.50pm where we were greeted by Myrna, Maice’s mum who’d come to collect us and take us home. At last, our long journey had come to an end, however we still had time to a) drink Prosecco and b) unpack our bags and hang everything up. Myrna now has two one year old cats who are quite timid and avoided meeting us so, there is the challenge. To make friends with them and have them sitting on our laps by the time we leave in two weeks. Talking about challenges, Tara, Maice’s sister rang and set us a challenge. Unlike last time we were here when we used to go to the same cafe for our morning cappuccino we were challenged with going to a different cafe every morning. So Tara, challenge accepted. Of course we couldn’t leave it there could we, so we offered a counter challenge back to Tara. We need to dine out in different eating establishments other than those we ate at last time we were here and of course, challenge accepted!
Finally after being up and on the go for 30 hours we were off to our beds, me down in the basement and Maice on the sofa in the lounge. After such a long day we needed our beauty sleep so on that note…….see you in morning!
M&A xx
I’m going to nickname you two Laurel and Hardy
Good start to the holiday ladies.
Enjoy yourselves xx