Home again

My travel yesterday ran on rails. Well, that sounds rather odd since none of it was on a train, but there was hardly a hitch - in fact at times it was almost too efficient.
I was a bit surprised that the railair link bus has now changed its route. It used to go around all the terminals dropping and picking up, now it goes to terminal 4 - the British Airways terminal - then the central bus depot which serves all the others. Not a problem I suppose, but I just feel they should have checked with me first.

Check-in, clockwork, I do love the e-ticket system. I can remember the first time I didn't believe anyone would let me on a plane with just a piece of paper that I had printed off my own computer. Air Canada like to have your passport number ahead of time, so their system is slicker than oil, sometimes they don't even look at my itinerary, they just scan my passport. I'm all for this, I don't at all care if it smacks of Big Brother. The good old Protestant work ethic and I'm sure the Catholics have this too, lead you to believe that an all-seeing God is watching you at all times so that you can never slack off, or not wash your hands after the toilet or ignore your guilt.

Boarding was ahead of schedule, so much that I found myself having to run to the departure gate because ten minutes ahead of the time the check-in guy had told me boarding would start, the screen was telling me 'Last Call'.
Everytime I say how much I love Air Canada, there are always groans, clearly other people have had different experiences, but this whole flight was what I have come to expect from them. Polite, efficient, information given, water kept coming, food was good. I even had a Monday's Guardian given to me free Karen and Gail, so that will be passed on too.
There was only one moment reminiscent of the last flight, that was when we all stood up to leave, got our baggage out of the overheads, the pilot asked us to sit back down again because the RCMP were about to board. Some complete pillock had been smoking in the toilets. What a wally. The RCMP certainly looked like they meant business, they came on board with tasers and escorted the guy off.

I had a lovely trip home, saw not all, but most of the people I wanted to see and spent lots of time with my kids and grandkids.
But it was a good moment when the immigration officer stamped my passport and an even better one when I saw Kevin approaching in the car to pick me and my heavy luggage up. Couldn't help singing that Tourists number 'it's so good ooh ooh ooh ooh, it's so good, ooh ooh ooh ooh, it's so good to be back ho-o-ome again.'