All the Way Home

April 7, Thursday

Air Canada gave us a nice hot meal about an hour into the flight. I, unfortunately, got a little bit of salad and dressing stuck on top of my "windpipe" and had a terrific coughing fit. I think I alarmed the stewardess, because she later gave me not only a glass of orange juice but a whole can of Sprite, and that was a great help in getting over the cough.

I slept surprisingly well for about 5 or 6 hours overnight, in spite of being in the middle of three seats. Breakfast was served on the plane about an hour before we landed.

We landed about 25 minutes early, and that was fortunate because we both had just two hours between flights and needed to go through customs, pick up our luggage, and find our connecting flights. Getting through customs was fine, no problems, and when we found the carousel with our flight's bags, mine came through promptly, but D.S.'s nice new duffle wasn't there.

He asked an airport employee about it and was told he was in the wrong area. On the way to the baggage pickup we had seen two confusing signs. One directed people with International connections to go to the left, and the other directed those connecting in Canada and US to go to the right. He was told rather abruptly that he had made a mistake and should have followed the International connections route and he should be in area 3G.

So our time together came to an abrupt end as we had to head in different directions. We said a quick goodbye and went our separate ways. It was a quick, strange ending to our two and a half weeks together, but in some ways I was glad it came up so suddenly. The last few days I had been feeling sad that this wonderful adventure together was going to end pretty soon and this quick cutoff meant I didn't have time to cry over it!

I made my flight easily, and was even able to change my seat assignment from a 24A (window) to 13D, an aisle seat much nearer the front, always my preferred choice.

This flight landed late but Dear One was not at the luggage carousel when I got there. About five minutes later he came down the stairs and I ran to greet him. So happy to see each other again! He said I looked better than he had expected, based on my email. (I had taken time to wash my face, comb my hair and apply some makeup after I left the place. I wished I had my toothbrush, but

that was in my backpack.)

All the way home I chattered about the wonderful time I'd had. I fixed some dinner, had a shower and then a good, long nap. When I woke up there was a welcome home present for me: This beautiful bouquet of deep red roses (darker than in this picture). They were outstanding and lasted for well over a week.

Now it's back to the ordinary routine as the garden centre is becoming busy. In the four weeks since I came home there have been several string rehearsals, two concerts (since I skipped the Mozart Requiem rehearsals and performances) and Dear Sis came for a week-long visit from Arizona. Life is full and life is good!