On to Toronto!

11 September 2018

I think that having coffee any time after about 11:30 seems to keep me awake in the middle of the night. I woke at around 03:00 and didn’t go back to sleep until after 06:00, when (of course) I fell into a deep sleep, then struggled to get up when my alarm went off an hour later! Ian was good enough to get up first and shower so I could sneak in an extra half hour of dozing, then I chivvied myself up and out, ready for another day of travel!

Cornelia woke up perfectly – I was about to rouse her when I heard her get up and go and greet Daddy in the kitchen. She was dressed straight away, and ready for breakfast. I’d warned her yesterday that we would need to be speedy this morning, so that we could get to the airport on time, and she was good as gold, eating her porridge, brushing her teeth (with the toothpaste she doesn’t like!) and generally being helpful.

I’d called a cab (Uber doesn’t exist in Vancouver) and after several misunderstandings finally booked it for 09:15, as none was available at 09:00. (Must be my British accent!) The cab subsequently turned up at 09:00 (🙄), so we had a bit of a mad dash leaving the apartment, but just enough to scrawl a note to Annie saying that as we hadn’t heard anything about the dishwasher, we’d left it mid-cycle.

The airport wasn’t far away and soon Cornelia was on yet another trolley ride to check in our bags. The airline (Air Transat) annoyingly couldn’t accept our credit card for our hold luggage (which is bought at the airport rather than included with your ticket) as it needed “online authorisation” (ie, a PIN) but their card machine couldn’t take PINs or signatures. Very frustrating! We had to use my U.K. credit card which will now incur a fee. Sigh…

Anyway, apart from that little hiccup, we boarded the plane to Toronto with no issues and Cornelia used her Kindle’s headphones or fish for various items that I put on the floor while waiting to take off. (Shoes, a pen, her water bottle etc!). Predictably, our credit card was again useless when buying lunch on board, so we used the trusty old Tesco card once more, and Cornelia gradually worked her way through her macaroni cheese. I had to do an unexpected change of clothes for her on the plane, as her water bottle had been lying on its side next to her and had leaked all over the seat. Thankfully I had packed her waterproof coat in my hand luggage, so she was able to stay dry for the rest of the flight in fresh pants and leggings!

The remainder of the journey passed relatively quickly. It was good to have a daytime flight where sleeping and waking weren’t a consideration. It certainly suited Bugsy as she remained cheerful and compliant the whole time, and by the end of the flight, we were receiving compliments about how lovely and cute and happy she was. I keep having to remind myself that this is her usual state, and she’s just going through a bit of a difficult patch at the moment. I know she, like me, misses her friends at home, and it’s quite a big thing to try and cope with emotionally at just four. She really is doing brilliantly, all things considered.

Post flight, we took some time to collect our baggage, but we were in no particular hurry. The time difference is three hours ahead here in Toronto, and we landed at 18:45 local time. We knew it’d be a late evening for Bugsy, as we had to collect our hire car, and visit a supermarket before we reached our AirBnB.

The supermarket was well-stocked and varied, and it was a luxury to have loads of choice at affordable prices! We get much better value, it seems, for the Canadian Dollar than we did for the US Dollar. Keeping things simple, we all agreed that a jacket potato would be perfect for tonight’s supper.

We finally arrived at Vine Street, Toronto, our home for the next four nights. We squeezed into the parking space in the yard and let ourselves in with the key code Ram, our host, had provided. It’s a funny pad. All the small kitchen appliances are new, as are the mattresses and sofa bed, but the rest is very old and tired and, dare I say it, a little grubby. As soon as I put my bags down on the kitchen table, I realised that the tablecloth was dirtied with dried in rice and crumbs, and it rather set the tone for me. Having said that, the rest of the apartment seems clean – it’s just a bit old and outdated.

Cornelia managed to not eat her jacket potato in the 25 minutes she was given, and subsequently lost both bedtime stories as her eating time was extended by a further ten minutes. She was upset by this, but couldn’t argue about it, as she’d agreed to it all in advance. I did cuddle her, once she was in bed, and I almost fell asleep with her! The thought of wine and chocolate summoned me from my laziness, and I moved from her bed to the sofa for half an hour, before heading to bed. I am determined to sleep well tonight and wake at a decent hour in the morning!