The genesis

Being awful, but getting better at writing this thing consistently, I realize that although I came up with a great name for a travel blog (humble, am I) I never explained what the hell it's all about.

I travel a lot for work. I have been to every province at least twice in the last 18 months and earned 50,000 Aeroplan miles. Sometimes it's total chaos. And if you've never travelled across Canada in the winter then you really have no sense of how ridiculous airline travel can be. In January 2006 I was in the midst of one of my many stretches where I travelled a lot. It was this bit of travel that inspired the name of this blog and a promise to myself never to travel in January again.

I had a day of meetings in Toronto and then had dinner with a friend from high school who is living there now. One of the great things about going to Toronto is that there are so many connectors to Montreal that one can do things like have dinner and still make it home at a decent hour. I boarded a plane to Montreal around 9 PM, cognisant that there had been a freezing rain storm in the evening in TO, but thinking that if we managed to take off all would be well. Sure enough the freezing rain had arrived in Montreal before we had and we were unable to land. A frustrating trip back to Toronto ensued where all flights had been cancelled for the night. All the passengers made their various arrangements in response - mine were to stay over night at an airport hotel and book myself on the 6:15 a.m. flight the following morning.

(I should digress here and say that it was in the aftermath of this unsatisfying flight that I witnessed "air rage" for the first time. After we landed again in Toronto a passenger actually waited for the pilots to deboard and started cursing them for having taken off in the first place. Apparently, this gentlemen thought that the pilots should have known they wouldn't be able to land in Montreal and allowed us all the opportunity to find other transport that night. I'm sure it made the man feel better to yell at the pilots, but I'm going to go ahead and say that I'd prefer that pilots attempt to make the flight conform to the pre-decided schedule, but that they stopp just short of endangering my life by trying something stupid in to do so. Something, like say, trying to land an airplane on a skating rink disguised as a runway.)

The next morning I arrived at the airport at 5 a.m. for my 6:15 a.m. flight. I discovered upon arrival that it was cancelled. I was not happy. However, by sheer dumb luck I did get a chance to meet Guy Lafleur at a restaurant in Pearson that morning. An unintended benefit of crappy luck on flights. (In fact, Air Canada should be using things like this to soften the blow when bad things happen. "We lost your luggage...ooops! Here's Ray Bourque to make things better!") I did get to Montreal, to a full day at the office, and then left a little early to head home nap, unpack, and then re-pack for a trip to Halifax that night. Seriosuly, that was my schedule.

Once again however, the god of January (or practical jokes) conspired against me. A lovely easy flight from Montreal to Halifax was suddenly transformed into a bit of nightmare roller coaster as we attempted to land in Halifax while 100 km/h winds buffeted the plane. I'm normally a good flyer and am rarely nervous, but I was honestly concerned for the stability of the plane. It was only after the pilot pulled up out of the turbulance that I realized with the amount of travel I was doing, pretty much the best i could hope for, was to attempt to land gracefully.

I was able to get to Halifax the next day, although I had another flight out there cancelled a few weeks later. Nevertheless a new rule (no January flying) and a new outlook were born of those wholely unsatisfying trips. Also, The Flower's autograph, will hang around in a very special place for a long time.

Until next trip...