First Night

We spent our last night in Europe in a small hotel in a small town minutes from Gatwick Airport. We had dinner at the restaurant of a hotel across the street: once more I had fish and chips, with one of the two available lagers on tap. We didn't pick it for the experience, but for convenience - it was a nice break in the trip from Ipswich to Vancouver, and allowed us to start our long flight refreshed.

And what a long flight it was - about ten hours, the longest Sarah or I had ever flown. I had things to read, and there were multiple in-flight movies as well as BBC series episodes, but that's a long time to be in one place. The day before we killed lots of time in our room watching telly and one of the Bank Holiday Monday films shown was George Pal's film of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, and during the flight I was really wishing I could jog the dial forward a few hours. We chased the midday sun across the Atlantic, and though I did get a bit of a nap in, the sun kept me from really feeling tired.

The flight was remarkable for other reasons though. We hardly saw a thing - whenever I looked out the window, from takeoff until just before landing, I saw nothing but cloud below. And we also had quite a few empty seats. The entire row behind us was empty. I didn't think that happened on flights any more. But I should also mention that this flight, from the carrier Zoom, was perhaps the most pleasant flight we've experienced - checkin was quick and smooth, boarding was painless, the crew were unfailingly polite and friendly.

And then we were in Vancouver. There was a slight delay at customs - apparently we should have got a returning resident visa since we don't have our permanent residence cards yet. We picked up our car - much more expensive than we'd expected (prices are twice as high for us now!). We phoned Margo's contact about our vacation rental, and she met us as we arrived.

And now we have a home. Three bedrooms, leather furniture and a huge telly in the living room. We have closets again! Sarah is very happy with her room. We will be here three months, giving us plenty of time to find more permanent accommodation.

But we are also pretty tired. We arrived after 5pm local time. We have so much to do and learn. We got some cash (I'm glad the notes are colourful, but was disappointed that the bills aren't different sizes). But as we unpacked we deliberated on what to get for dinner. Pizza Hut won out. We'll get food tomorrow. I don't even know what our building looks like from the other side. I don't know what I can recycle or compost. I just spent time online finding out how much a bus fare is. But it will be exciting to be discovering.

Tomorrow we get Sarah registered at the nearby elementary school. I have two interviews in town which should keep me busy all day. The next day Margo has an all-day orientation so Sarah and I will run some errands and perhaps do something fun. There's so much to do ...