From the Gateway to the North to the Jewel of the Isle

Had my flight down to Victoria this evening. Yup. I'm here in Canada's Largest Retirement Home.

So I get to the airport no problems from my place. I've got my ticket confirmations, and everything I'll need in my bags: Change of clothes for 4 days. Black socks for the tux. Gameboy. Discman. Digital Camera. Book to read from Dev.

When I'm talking to the Air Canada rep, she of course asks me if I've got any sharp objects in my carry on bag and my suitcase.

"No," I reply.

Have I had my bags the entire time?

"Yes."

And I don't have any nail files, clippers, etc?

"No."

I go through the metal detector. Just peachy. But my bag's been flagged for some reason.

So the security guard and I cleaned out my entire main pouch.

Gameboy, camera, headphones, discman, letters from my mailbox I forgot to clean out, tie after tie after tie after tie. Pens at the bottom of my bag.

"Um, what are we looking for?" I ask him.

"Nail clippers."

"Are you sure? I'm pretty sure I don't have any."

Then we check the front pouch. More mail. And nail clippers. That have been there since about, oh, at least eight months prior. Maybe when I moved out of the House.

Call me sheepish.

* * *

I tell you, there's nothing quite like seeing the city of Calgary at night during takeoff.

At a few hundred feet, all you see is neighbourhoods lit up from within, due to the streetlights. A soft light making all the crescents look like an artery, or a circuit board.

Beautiful.

Or, at least, until I saw Vancouver at night from above.

Oh. My. God.

As docile as Calgary looked, Vancouver looked vibrant, alive. Almost neon moving lights, just making for sort of a river or waterfall of light.

It'll be intersting for the return trip, through Kelowna, at morning. Probably not half as beautiful, but the valley and mountains might make up for it, barring any cloud cover.

Also, I love the sight of flying between two layers of clouds, with a blue hue where we are flying.

Just amazing.

* * *

I was reading the book that Dev lent me on the plane. About forty pages in, I find a bookmark from when it was last read, I guess.

And what a bookmark it was, too.

A movie stub to Batman and Robin from Summer 1997.

Two things popped into my mind:

1. "Wow, that's a long time. That's seven years ago."

2. "Dev paid to see Batman and Robin in the theatres? I still haven't seen that movie."

* * *

Wow. Three posts in two days. Scary. Getting back to the whole updating thing quite quickly.

Remind me to tell you about Axler's and my conversation before my flight left. He had some interesting points about my writing style...