Not too much to update except finally our flights are sorted

You may remember from a post or two ago that FlightNetwork has rescheduled out flights from Victoria to Vancouver for a bit later and our flight from Vancouver to Toronto for a bit earlier to the point where we would have to defy all knows physical laws of time and space to make our connection (time travel backwards ala Marty McFly).

Alisma reminded me that it was time to start making some noises at them.  I found their well hidden contact info on Friday and called.  Last time I called, I got Shiva who was so confident that it was all going to work out that she gave me her direct line.   I started there.  No answer, no message box.  Hmm, who would have guessed?   So, back to the roulette wheel of Customer Service Techs.  This time I got Wasim who noticed that someone had already opened a file.  He said he would put me on hold and go see what was happening.  10 minutes,  15 minutes.  Then he was back and said I would receive an email within the hour with our new itinerary.  I went to use the rest of my lunch  break as it was intended - to eat my lunch.

When I got back my email had arrived.  It started by saying to check the connections and get back to Nazneen as soon as possible because there were very few seats left.  Umm, Shiva made it sound like this could all happen in the last few days before we left and it was all going to be all right and now Nazrreen was making me freak out.  I checked the connections.  Now we leave Victoria at 10 am, leave Vancouver at noon and fly into Montreal.  In Montreal, we have a 67 minute connection before our flight to Paris - to get from domestic to international, get through security and onto our plane.  I have never been to the Montreal airport but that seemed tight.  I tried to call Nazneen but he/she (? I am going to pick she for the sake of this story) wasn't answering.

So, despite the sense of urgency in the email, I took a couple of minutes to do some online research.  Apparently, 65ish minute connections are quite common in Montreal because I found many traveler forums asking the exact same question I was asking - is this enough time?  General consensus, yes it is.  I checked the map of the airport and domestic is beside international, the airport is smallish and the waiting time for security, at least when I was checking was no more than 20 minutes.  I emailed Nazneen and said to book it if that connection time seemed reasonable.  She assured me that it was (actually she said 'the connection is valid' so maybe Nazneen is really a robot, not a woman as I have gender assigned her).

Anyway, we have new etickets with valid connections so all is well.  Next task is to remember to reserve our seats 24 hours before we fly.  I should check with Alisma to see if she is a window or aisle kind of girl.  I am anticipating aisle.

Academy Purple

 Embassy Purple

I have been busy emptying my house and getting ready for my bathroom reno which has gone from a bandaid and a kiss on the forehead type of reno to a full renal transplant type of reno.  But I did pick my paint colour.  It is called Ralph Lauren Academy Purple. But as I looked for a colour sample, I found Embassy Purple which I may like more.  Another trip to Home Depot required. I have already done some damage when I bought a light fixture, a tub faucet, shower head and tap set and tiles on super sale (just the tiles, not the other stuff, that would have been too good).

Plus, I have finally finished painting my bathroom cabinets white (won't that look awesome with the purple? (the answer is yes). Alisma has been helping her parents move over the last few weekends so she has been busy too but is still managing to book us into various airBNBs.  I know we are good for Paris, Madrid and Barcelona (which was difficult).  And we are going to stay at an airport hotel outside of Paris

Aeroville Mall @ Charles De Galle 

(Premiere Classe Roissy Survilliers Saint Witz) on our last night because our flight leaves early in the morning.  So, my contribution to this part of the planning was to research if we can buy cheese, where we can buy cheese before we leave and how much cheese can we bring back to Canada.

This is 20 kilo of cheese with a small child to show scale

The answers to these important questions are, in order - yes, at the mall attached to the Paris Airport and 20 kilos.

Other than important cheese related tasks (I also added a cheese list to this blog), I have not really done much.  I was going to start to pack today (bring out my backpack and throw things at it) but I helped Chris make apple pies instead.

Rob has confirmed he is coming to cat sit.  I will leave him a pie in the freezer to make up for the cat getting a bit pukey in her old age.

Have I mentioned 'Welcome to Nightvale' yet. This is a podcast that Alisma got me hooked on a year or so ago.  I can't really describe it but it is about a community radio station in the weirdest community ever.  I highly recommend it. You can download it on ITunes if you want to check it out.  Anyway, Alisma has discovered a live Nightvale performance in Madrid while we are there so she got us tickets.  So, I have gone back and started listening from the beginning.  There is one episode called 'A Memory of Europe'.  I have hyperlinked to the YouTube version of the episode so if you want to have a taste, you won't have to download.  I would say that it is episode 21 so it might not make sense but it doesn't make much more sense even if you listen from episode 1.  A Memory of Europe inspired me to create a poster.  Here it is.

You are probably asking yourself how this post can be so long when I have done basically nothing in preparation for this trip.  And you may also be asking how I am going on such as long and expensive trip and am doing basically nothing to prepare.  I can't answer that first question, I am also amazed that I am still writing.  But for question two,  I did do a bit of research.  I found out that Renee from work has parents who live in Portugal so I cornered her for some info.  She had lots of good ideas for places to go and tips on getting around.  I took notes.  I want to spend more time in Portugal but this trip is getting very overloaded so we will have to see what can be pared back.

I also took my rejected books to Russell Books to sell ($70 thank you very much) and bought myself a Portugese Phrase book with some of my profits.  Speaking of language acquisition, my Spanish is not coming along.  I have decided to use this educational graph to show that learning while immersed in the culture is best.

Shamelessly stolen from Coolness Graphed 

Mom and Bill and my aunt Marilyn are going to Portugal in February.  And, unlike me, Mom has done some prep work.  Mom has lent me her Portugal book and map.  And Melissa is going to send us her S. Spain maps.  Alisma and I have decided to rent a car for longer than originally planned.  New plan is to rent one in Seville in Spain, drive through Portugal and then across N. Spain ending in San Sabastian where we will fly to Paris the day before we fly out.  That will give us so much more freedom to see small towns on the coast.  I will be driver since I can drive a standard and Alisma will be navigator since she can read a map.  I also discovered that my new tablet has downloadable maps of Europe that we can access without wifi.  We can detail right into small town maps. That should be useful

We now go to the sound of an aquarium pump.