Where Has The Time Gone?

It seems like just yesterday that I wrote my last post and I was horrified today to realize how much time had actually passed. Well, there's not much I can do about that is there..

It has been a busy summer for us here in T-Dot, with the hip recovery that sent me to therapy three times a week, a wonderful visit from my offspring and family including of course, my granddaughter Elliotte. What a joy that little girl was.

Yesterday they went home and to my horror I now have two days in which to pack for two months away. Making decisions on what to take and what to leave behind is proving difficult this year. The airline has very severe weight restrictions with every overweight kilo costing ten bucks. Makes me think twice if I really need maple syrup or if I can live without it for two months. Those are my dilemmas and I'm sure to most people they are trivial. Yes well that's life, to me some things are important...
My biggest problem as always are shoes. Since the hip was measured as being 2 cm shorter I had all my shoes adjusted to 1.5 just in case there was a change. Well there has been a change since I started physio and now on the eve of leaving that figure has changed to 1 cm. It's too late to go back to the shoemaker so I spent a little time out in the garage with the grinder myself . I did mess up a bit and have a few gouges on a couple of heels but I'm working on it. I still have a couple of days left to get it right. If not I hope they have shoemakers in Greece.

The hip still hurts almost three months post surgery but I'm told that that is normal. I'm told that after six months I won't even know it's there. I wish I could remember how it was with the first one but I cant. Old brain I guess...

I will post some pictures and impressions from Greece as I always do but this time I will be more careful not to go negative on the country. Seems that from time to time I upset some Greeks with my observations as an outsider.

Later...

Travel

When my stepson from California gets on a plane for Toronto tomorrow he will have to go through one of these new body scanners. Ever since the Christmas Day scare over Detroit, security is nuts. Instead of racial profiling, which is something the Israelis do, all travelers are subject to the full body scans. My question has always been, can they really see everything? We're going to embarrass poor granny who has to wear Depends for nothing.

Here's an article in today's Times Online that puts this entire security measure into doubt. Seems that breast implants can be used to bring a plane down. Will the scanners detect this threat? I for one won't feel much safer flying.

Welcome Home...

Those were the words of the Canada Customs agent that greeted us and never have I heard sweeter words. Yes we are home and I for one am glad. Not that I didn't have a good time with some wonderful people and relatives both in Germany and Greece, but there really is no place like home.

I don't know if the airline gods just hate me or if I just have bad travel karma but geesh, I really do have the worst luck. The new Olympic Air brought us safely to Paris as promised but the wheelchair that was to be waiting for me never did materialize. I gritted my teeth and told me sweetie we would walk. Biggest mistake ever...

Paris has three terminals of of course we needed to get to the farthest one. There is a labyrinth of moving sidewalks, escalators that criss cross each other and an electric train. It took us an hour to reach the correct terminal. Good thing we had plenty of time.

The Air France flight was overall pretty good. The service on board was better than with the old Olympic Airlines and the food was quite tasty. What was bad for me was the non existent leg room. The Airbus 340 was so tightly configured my knees touched the seat in front of me before it was even reclined. We unlucky had two young women travellers sitting in those seats and they immediately reclined them and then proceeded to bounce around in excitement for the duration of the trip. At one point Steve asked one of them if she wanted to sit on his lap, she was practically there anyway. They didn't get it.

Now we just need to get over the jet lag and I need to heal my foot. By the time we got home my ankle had swollen to twice it's size. Of course there are four suitcases that have to be unpacked...someday soon.

Just Imagine... This Your Backyard

The friendly elk...

And this your town...

Or maybe spending a couple of nights at the Banff Springs Hotel...

Priceless...

I'm A Procrastinator - Now I'm In Trouble

It's my job to sort out our airline tickets for the upcoming trip to Greece and I fu__ed up royally. I can't get us a flight out of here on our preferred date. Three weeks ago I started checking airlines and dates and trying to figure out how I could avoid Olympic Airlines. Those who read regularly will remember my rant of last October, well deserved I thought, and my vow never to fly with them again.

After doing much checking for important things like leg room and luggage allowance my foggy brain finally realized that I had no real choice. Not if I wanted to take more than 24 kg of clothes for 7 weeks and have more than 12 inches of leg room (that's Transat). My other alternatives where of course to fly through another airport with either Lufthansa or KLM which required changing planes and in effect turning a 12 hour trip into anywhere from 18 to 20 hours. That's not really a good option for someone with arthritis and fybromyalgia. I'd be dead by the time I finally arrived in Athens.

So yesterday, I bit the bullet and called the trusty travel agent and asked him to book September 2. Seems that I waited too long to decide and now that flight is full, booked solid... Well not quite, there is one ticket available, but there are two of us. What gives, I thought people weren't flying, I thought we were in a recession?

I'm getting a headache trying to figure out what to do next...