Journey – 2012
Navigating this
South American
Diary:
Diary of a Journey to South America – Part Six
Last Legs
Friday, January 11, 2013
We’re back in Canada now. 32 But we’re not home yet, and won’t be home until Tuesday, January 15th. We’re staying with my daughter Ariel, and her husband, Shai. In Toronto.
It’s funny how being here feels like “we’re home now!” Usually a trip from home to Toronto – 2,500 km. and three days’ journey by car – is a great undertaking and expedition, but given that we’ve just been at the other end of the world, Toronto feels normal – familiar – as if the trip is over.
Fact is, there is much yet to happen; much to look forward to. My other daughter Rachael and her boyfriend Michael will come here on Saturday, to watch football on Shai’s new big screen TV. Then, on Sunday, Ariel will be performing in concert, after which the six of us – Heather, me, Ariel, Shai, Rachael and Michael – will all go out to dinner together, to celebrate Rachael’s birthday (the actual date of which was last Sunday, but as you know, we were in Buenos Aires and Rachael was in Boston, so the celebration was delayed for a week).
Having my family all around in a big noisy heap is my idea of heaven.
But our real reason for this lengthy stopover in Toronto is that Heather has a meeting to attend, tomorrow.
The Chancellors of all the dioceses in the Anglican Church of Canada are having a conference. A “chancellor,” in church language, is a lawyer who advises a bishop and a diocese about legal matters. Because so many people in recent years have sued the church, alleging past abuses; and because some congregations, upset about recent decisions around same-sex orientation, have tried to break away from the Anglican church while retaining ownership of buildings and financial assets; these Chancellors – all volunteers – work very hard. Conferences, such as the one taking place tomorrow, help them to serve the church with excellence. Heather advises a diocese where the majority of church members are aboriginal, and where some of the above difficulties have occasionally been quite intense. Thus, from the beginning of our planning for this trip, we have included a long stop in Toronto so that she can be part of this Conference. Now – at least for Heather – it’s the end of the vaction and a return to very serious matters. For me? Well, I’m still very much in a holiday mood.
Unfortunately, I’ve not been very well. On our last day in Buenos Aires I came down with something gastro-intestinal, which I think was from a restaurant dinner that consisted entirely of salad stuff (carrots, lettuce, celery, and a number of other things that I no longer recall). Luckily it was at the end of our trip, and the washrooms that I blessed were on planes, and here at Ariel’s. I’m functioning, I’m coping, I’m enjoying myself, but I’m not 100%.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
in Toronto, at Ariel & Shai’s home
Heather’s conference was quite satisfactory, and she is glad to have been there. We got her back to Ariel and Shai’s in time for...
Two major NFL football games. 33
Shai, Michael and Rachael are huge fans of the sport, so the plan was that we would all watch the games together, a process that lasted from 4:00 PM until almost midnight, with snack food and beer and Chinese food and much shouting and yelling at the important turning points of the games.
Frankly, I could care less about American football, and in fact watch almost no sports of any kind. But the family dynamic made this whole evening a very special and memorable time for me: good humour and family bonding of a very high order.
Football fans?
(Nope. Fond parents).
The most fun was this: Shai happens to have in his possession two caps displaying the logo of the San Francisco 49ers – the “49ers” being Michael’s favourite team (and now Rachael’s). When Rachael and Michael phoned to say that they were on their way over, Heather and I put on these caps, causing no end of hilarity when the young couple came in! In fact Rachael took the photo you can see here, and immediately posted it to FaceBook over the words, “Family football night! Greatest parents ever!”
Another fun thing: Heather decided that she was going to try to understand American football, and before long she was predicting certain plays, and predicting certain final scores. And she proved to be 100% correct in all her predictions! Undoubtedly this was a fluke, but it generated plenty of banter. I particularly liked the notion that we tossed around, of taking Heather to San Francisco’s Candlestick park to just sit there during games and guarantee the 49ers’ every win. After all, we are dealing with Rachael and Michael’s team here, and with Heather calling the shots the 49ers did win this evening’s tilt, an accomplishment that none of the professional commentators could see coming.
I was nowhere near as spectacular as Heather; I just sat beside Michael and near to Shai, occasionally asking them the purpose of certain manoeuvers, or the meaning of the various calls by referees (questions that they always answered with great patience).
I may be hopeless as a sports fan, but I was where I wanted to be: with my family and their loved ones.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
in Toronto, at Ariel & Shai’s home
This afternoon we went to visit Markus Harwood-Jones, our unusual grandchild. 34 It was an excellent visit, and we came away feeling that Markus was evolving into a wise and perceptive adult.
Then we went to St. Thomas’ church for Ariel’s concert and Evensong. The concert part is a rather creative gimmick for a church like St. Thomas’, whose worship gives so much attention to fine music and beauty: they put on free concerts by local professionals (the musicians donate their skills) as a “Prelude” to their more formal worship. Some people come for the concert and tiptoe away before the worship begins, but some stay... it’s an upside down sort of evangelism, but heck, if it works...?
Ariel sang magnificently. One of her mentors later typed “stunning!” on her FaceBook page, and I agree.
The worship was true St. Thomas in every respect. The music was wonderful, and the liturgy was both precise and reverent.
Rachael and Michael came, and sat with us. When Benediction 35 was in progress, I found myself wondering what on earth Michael might be making of it, since he comes from a strong American Evangelical background, where devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is either unknown, or even completely anathema. After the service ended, I asked him if we could have a brief conversation on the topic, and he accepted. On and off over dinner he allowed me to outline some of the history and theology underlying the veneration of the Sacrament; and he asked intelligent questions, seeming to be thoroughly engaged in the conversation. It was, if you will, a reversal of yesterday’s football evening, where he was the expert and I was the one who was on unfamiliar ground.
This took place in the context of Rachael’s birthday dinner. We went to her favourite Toronto restaurant, which proved to be extremely noisy, so that when we arrived it was almost impossible to think, let alone to hear, or have a conversation. But we got along. And again, with my family all around me, I was as happy as could be.
Unfortunately, though the meal was leisurely enough, there was to be no lingering over coffee because Michael, having gone to extraordinary lengths to be in Toronto for the occasion, needs to be back in Boston very early tomorrow. And once again we are faced with Air Canada having no standby seats available! 36 With no room on Air Canada’s Toronto to Boston flights tomorrow, Rachael and Michael will have to get up as early as 3:30 AM, and drive to Buffalo, New York – a two hour drive – where Michael has managed to purchase a confirmed seat to Boston on a U.S. airline. Obviously we had to let them go as soon as we could.
But not without singing a birthday song for Rachael! This dinner was her official birthday dinner, and Michael told me that she had dearly wanted to have it, having not had her family together on her birthday for many years. He and I then considered the rights and wrongs of singing a birthday song, and he came up a hugely funny alternative to the standard “Happy Birthday to yoooouuuu!” He suggested singing these words to the opening notes of the “Howdy Doody” tune: “This... is... your birthday song! It isn’t very long.”
Yes, that’s all of it; the song stops dead, right there. Which is one of the funniest solutions to the staleness of birthday singing that I have ever heard. We all sang it, and Rachael – who as we were about to sing showed real anxiety that she would be subjected to a public rendition of the regular birthday song – in a restaurant – absolutely loved it, and clapped her hands and shed a little tear.
The Birthday Dinner L-R: Shai, Ariel, Tony, Heather, Rachael, Michael |
Monday, January 14, 2013
in Toronto, at Ariel & Shai’s home
This – the last day of a wonderful holiday – has been a pleasant, quiet, “vegging-out” kind of day. I wrote a number of emails and worked on this blog much of the time, while Heather read, and began to get her head back into lawyer-mode.
When Ariel came home, we had a very pleasant couple of hours just visiting. Dutiful daughter that she is, she encouraged me to tell her a saga or two, 37 so naturally I did that. She appears to genuinely like my sagas.
However, there was a bit of a sign of my advancing years: I said, “Did I tell you the saga of...” and she said, “Yes, dad!” And I said, “I did???” And she said, “You did,” and proved it by repeating to me some of the salient details. But I found one that she had not heard in all its glory, and I launched into it with a will. She oohed and aaahed at all the right places, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly.
And I have enjoyed myself thoroughly telling you the saga of our trip to South America. But that story, sadly, is now coming to an end. Tomorrow morning early, Rachael will pick us up and drive us to the airport. We hope to be able to get on a plane where she herself is one of the flight attendants, which, if it happens, would be a lot of fun. But if that flight is oversold (which at this point it appears to be), we’ll wait at the airport for the next flight, which seems to have a few available seats. Once more we are under stress, because Heather has a committment in Winnipeg tomorrow night that would be a serious problem to miss. This business of flying standby in our capacity as Air Canada family members may be inexpensive, but the stress toll is awfully high.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
back home, in Winnipeg
Well, we did it! We even got on the flight where Rachael was a flight attendant – a first for us – and we’re home in Winnipeg, safe and sound, and in good time for Heather’s appointment!
So now it is done, this long-anticipated, truly extraordinary trip halfway around the world and back.
It has been wonderful, really. Absolutely no bad events of any kind – no broken bones, no lost luggage, no missed departures of boat or aircraft, no crashing inadequacies of hotels, 38 nothing stolen, and no trouble with government authorities. Yes, there have been tensions of various kinds, particularly around air travel, but it was all resolved quite satisfactorily.
Now to get to work on making this a properly-written piece of anecdotal literature.
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FEEDBACK AND COMMENTS
from Cathy C., January 13, 2013, 4:01:31 PM EST (CA)
Tony – I look forward to reading ALL your Chronicles/Currents, re your latest cruise and other adventures! I have just dipped into your travalogue, but plan to read the entire journal soon. I am delighted that you keep such a fascinating account of your travels!! Enjoy your day or two in Toronto. It is balmy here [even up at the cottage where we are].
FOOTNOTES:
32 The trip from Buenos Aires to Toronto had us either in the air or waiting in airports for almost twenty-four hours, and we arrived exhausted late Wednesday night. But the journey came off without a hitch, for which we are very grateful.
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33 These were “quarter final” games: Baltimore Ravens vs. Denver Broncos; and Green Bay Packers vs. San Francisco 49ers.
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34 See my entry for November 15, 2010.
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35 Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament: a ritual in which the worshippers kneel before the consecrated bread of Communion, reflecting on the mystery wherein divine became human in Jesus Christ, and the related mystery wherein Jesus feeds us with Himself in the sacrament of Holy Communion. See the article in Wikipedia, and a YouTube video of the ceremony uploaded by Trinity Episcopal (Anglican) church in Redbank, New Jersey.
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36 Up to now, staff members and their families could usually fly standby whenever and wherever they wish, but Air Canada, along with most airlines, has figured out how to fill all their aircraft to capacity, so that standby travellers sometimes end up waiting hours, and even days, before being able to get a seat. This is what happened to us when trying to leave Buenos Aires, and now it is afflicting Michael, who generally travels Air Canada as Rachael’s significant other.
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37 As you well know (since you’ve managed to read so much of my narrative), I am capable of telling very loooonnng stories, which has caused family and friends to call them “sagas.” My offspring sometimes groan when I launch into a saga, but they also, on occasion, indulge me and listen patiently.
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38 You may be asking what I mean by “crashing inadequacies of hotels.” Well, I just made up the phrase and I rather like it, but it refers, of course, to things like cockroaches, or perhaps mice; filth; things that don’t work, from air-conditioning to toilets; management accidentally double-booking your room; drunken parties next door. Stories about this sort of thing abound among travellers. And we had none of it.
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