report from toronto

report from toronto

well finally we're here.

after a long long long day that started on wednesday afternoon and ended on friday night, it's been exhausting. was supposed to fly out on thursday morning but the US embassy stuffed up my visa. it only came an hour before our flight was due! the lady who processed my application promised it the week before but as US officials are considered arrogantly inconsiderate by travellers around the world, it came as my gut told me.

so we had to cancel the flights. andrew's boss scrambled arond to get another flight the next day and we left friday morning. hannah was we-thank-God-for-mercy-fully wonderful on the flight. a bit whingy here and there but nothing bad at all. the couple next to use with their 23 month old boy had a real troublemaker on their hands... and kept on feeding him sweets and SUGAR-FILLED treats! not real wise. anyways.

got to the LA airport with an hour to spare for the connecting flight to toronto. scrambled around for the check in counter which was not real easy to find and then went through scanning process. i got called up for extra scans... no explanation given, maybe i was marked as "red passport" or "declared food". they insisted on seeing *MY* bags... even though we tried explaining that we were married and therefore it was all "our" bags. so in the end we just pointed out two random bags, they went through it and checked my shoes, all WHILE HANNAH WAS ASLEEP IN MY ARMS.

then andrew beckoned to me urgently, he had heard the intercom people announce our flight number and paged a "yen" sounding sound. but no hurrying US customs officials. so after releasing me, we ran all the way to the gate amongst slowly-sauntering people. hannah still asleep in my arms. and both of us getting acid in our legs and arms from luggage and bubba bouncing around.

we found the US airport staff pretty ok, despite MANY MANY MANY reports of LAX staff to be rude, condescending and unhelpful. maybe it was the sleeping and crying bubba in our arms that moved the sympathies of the staff.

got to the gate, found out nobody called our names and the flight was delayed a while. finally got on, packrat style. again hannah was a great bubba, who slept almost all the way there. got to toronto and finally got to our serviced apartment. we were so tired we didn't sleep much at night.

hannah is grumpy, we are tired, and this place has nothing. no soap, no food, no water jug, no lightbulbs!! but it was a relief to tuck into bed.

finally we fell asleep at 4am. hannah slept with me and andrew found relief in the second bedroom which is blessedly darker, today we were rudely awakened by a false fire alarm. then we got up and walked around looking for a grcoery store. 4 hours later, grumpy and tired, we got home, no grocery store. found a cheap "friends convenience" store 12 blocks away and bought blessed shampoo and shower gel.

now, we're tired. tomorrow we're better planning our day. we need to get clothes, grocery and cheap entertainment.

so far toronto is alot like sydney! people here don't have real good sense of humour! but they all love hannah :) she's so cute. (but constipated)