Leaving, On A Jet Plane

All my bags are packed

I'm ready to go

  Ok, not quite ready to go. And my bags aren't packed because I don't do that until just before I leave. Penny's packed, because that's how she rolls. I have it all planned out though and I'm not executing my plan until tomorrow. By the way, my plan is registered with the CIA, top secret, eyes only, if I told you I'd have to kill you. Like that. I will tell you it involves all the laundry being done, but that's all. You could waterboard me and I wouldn't say anything else.

  For me, packing is easy. Throughout our travels in the past almost year I've been a minimalist. I was much more of a minimalist after our clothes were stolen, but I digress. The point is, I don't take much so it's quick and easy to pack. My feeling is, if I didn't bring it I'm sure I can buy it wherever I'm at. Of course, we haven't traveled to deepest Somalia or Burkina Faso so that's not a universal law but it works for most places.

But the dawn is breakin'

It's early morn

  It's a trans-Atlantic flight so we leave in the evening. Yeah. Change 'morn' to 'eve'. And it won't be dawn. Dusk. Well, night, 'cause it's still winter here in the Great White North. And the most recent weather forecast says Athens ain't warm. They expect it to be around 9C when we arrive so we're not hitting the beach. No snow though, so small victories. Guaranteed to be warmer than where we are, so that's a plus.

  Athens should be great as it's off season so no crowds. The temps should be in the mid to high teens and it will likely be sunny so should make for great weather to be climbing around the Acropolis. We'll be staying at a hotel across the street so no need for transit, taxis, etc. as we'll be within walking distance of everything we want to see during our two day stopover.

  People ask us if we'll head to some of the Greek islands after Cyprus but it won't be very warm. Not sure it makes sense to head to the warm beaches of Santorini or Crete to be the only people standing on a desolate sandscape in the cold wind. That's to be determined next month.

The taxi's waitin'

He's blowin' his horn

  No. No taxi. Also, 'eve' doesn't rhyme with 'horn'. Maybe he's blowin' his 'sleeve'. Eww. No one wants a cab driver with a runny nose. Anyway, one of our wonderful children will drive us to the airport, likely, to arrive precisely three hours before departure, like the airlines say. Penny likes to be on time, according to the rules, no exceptions. Unlike her siblings she's not on Casson Standard Time, which is an hour behind everyone else. I prefer to roll in as late as possible as I get uncomfortable waiting to leave. Well, uncomfortable isn't really the right word; it's more like shitty.

  Back in the 80's when we lived in Australia and I traveled a lot on business, before security screenings, I was the guy who'd show up as they were closing the aircraft door. Yes. That guy. To my eternal consternation they don't let you do that anymore. Bastards. Now we have to line up with everyone else. Sigh.

  Of course, being at the airport early does have it's benefits. For example, we'll have time to see the sights. Ok, no sights. We could watch airplanes take off and land. Well, a couple of times before it, too, gets boring. We could indulge ourselves in a culinary repast at one of the four-star eateries. Or, we could get a $17 sandwich. Did I mention I hate waiting?

  I should mention here that just the thought of going to the airport excites me. I'm like the Energizer bunny when someone wants to fly. "I'll drive you!", I'm always guaranteed to blurt out like a kid who just leveled up to stage 40 in the latest video game.

  I just love airports and no one can convince me any of them are bad experiences and we've been in some bad ones for sure. My favourite so far is the grass strip in Kisaro, Uganda where we talked to locals under the watchful gaze of the official whose job it was to make sure we had the correct papers. No badges, just papers. Think about it. It reminded me of a time when Jen landed in Warsaw to change planes and had to pass through customs. The officer wanted to know why she was visiting and, when informed she was only changing planes, was told, "That's good. You don't want to come here."

Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane

Don't know when I'll be back again

  Well, I do know when I'll be back again. We return to Canada March 13 for two weeks before we hit the road back to the USA. And, I'll be back here (to this blog) again in a couple of days when I'll be reporting from Athens.

  One little administrative note. Some of you like to comment on the blog episodes and those comments are most welcome. The problem is, this platform sucks at dealing with comments. If you want to have a discussion about something I said you're better off dropping me an email at mike@m2renterprises.ca otherwise you'll never see my response.

  Something else you might have noticed on this episode is my love of italics. They're some of my favourite things and I decided today that I just don't use them enough. How much do I love italics? Well, they're on my list of favourite things somewhere between Rocky Road ice cream and socks that match. They're on the list.

  Also, while I've got you here, it's worth noting there's been no mention of weird and wonderful Atlas Obscura oddities for quite some time. I feel like it's not a thing where we're going but I promise, once we're back on North American soil we'll be hip deep in strangeness wherever we go. Looking forward to it.

  In the meantime, think of John Denver, who wrote this song well before hits like Rocky Mountain High and Thank God I'm A Country Boy. He left on a plane and didn't know when he'd be coming back. He didn't. We will.

Thanks for reading.

Ready, Set...

   Hello friends! We were at a restaurant recently where all the staff greeted us with "Hello friends!" so I've decided my New Years resolution would be to steal someone else's greeting and, there, I've done it. Success. First time in years I've actually accomplished one of these things. I can't wait for next year.

  It's been six weeks since my last missive and, since we're gearing up to hit the figurative road again, I thought this would be a good time to wake you all up with some, more or less, coherent ramblings now that the somnambulistic effects of a week's worth of turkey have worn off. 

  We've spent the past five weeks at Jen's and we've enjoyed the holidays with the fam and seeing all our friends as much as we can while we're here. I've also become addicted to the Great British Baking Show and have taken to baking bread, only three years after everyone else took it up during COVID. Better late than never, I say. I may get more involved in baking more complex things now that I know the difference between puff pastry and rough puff pastry and short crust pastry and hot water pastry and phyllo pastry... I'm already exhausted and the flour's still in the cupboard. Maybe later.

  It's finally turned cold here in balmy Southern Ontario. This morning we woke up to -15C which is loads better than the -35C people are dealing with in Canada's west. Now, -15C isn't crazy cold as winter temps go but, after a month of mostly above zero, it certainly feels cold! The nice thing about it being cold is we finally get to see the sun. I think I could count the number of sunny days we've seen since returning home on one hand and I don't think I'd have to use my thumb either.

  Two weeks from tomorrow we hie ourselves off to the nether regions of Toronto's Pearson Airport so we can trust ourselves, and baggage, to Air Canada's capable(ish) hands and wing our way to Athens.

  We have a month-long house sit booked near Paphos, Cyprus (the Greek side) starting Feb. 4 so Jan. 30 sees us take off for a couple of days in Athens then off to the eastern Med on the 3rd. It's our first overseas sit assignment after touring North America last year. Also, it's the first one where the homeowners are supplying a car for our use. Without a car we're limited to assignments close to a transit hub which significantly reduces our  opportunities.

  At the end of the sit we have another nine days in Greece which we have yet to plan. There's some embryonic ideas of going to Meteora to climb up to a monastery or two as well as Vergina to see the recently reconstructed Palace of Aigai where Alexander The Great was crowned 2,400 years ago. We're also talking of touring the Pelopponese Peninsula, the home of ancient Sparta and maybe hitting a Greek island or two. Stay tuned as weather will play a large part in our decisions.

  We return to Toronto March 13 and we'll hang out at Jen's (again) but only for two weeks as we have another month-long sit booked for coastal Virginia in April. Following that we have another few days booked in Baltimore so I can add two more baseball parks to my list when the Jays visit Washington and Philadelphia in early May. After that trip the only MLB parks left to hit are Tampa, Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Denver, San Diego, LA Dodgers and NY Mets.

  Our Spring house sitting schedule concludes with two weeks sitting for son David and his wife Sarah, who will be off with near two year-old Nora in Norway for a wedding then a week in England. Following that, our plan is to stay in the Toronto area until Thanksgiving when we hit the road once again. We don't figure to stay with Jen through the summer as we think she'll have had enough of the old folks by the time June rolls around. We'll figure something out.

  That's about it for now. Stay tuned for when we set off for the wild blue yonder Jan. 30 and I'll return to being your intrepid blogging house sitter. Until then, find a spot in front of the fire and grab a glass of the good stuff. I've got some Costco tequila I'll be breaking out to keep me warm.

Cheers!