Edinburgh-Glasgow-Calgary

Playlist
King Crimson – The Law of Maximum Distress (2-CD-R)
King Crimson – Heavy ConstruKction
David Reilly – Anthology Vols 1-4
Rheostatics – Melville
Rheostatics – Whale Music
Rheostatics – Introducing Happiness
Gentle Giant – Octopus
Gentle Giant – In a Glass House

Today, Anne and I were off to Canada for a trip to celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary, which doesn’t actually occur until October – but it’d be too cold by then of course...

Up at 5:30 and left Crispycat Towers at 6:30 driving over to Glasgow and on to my adopted hometown of Paisley, for Airport Parking...

A short minibus drive took us to the Airport where we had the quickest check-in I can remember...

Breakfast of coffee and croissants was unrushed due to the long check-in-to-take-off period and by the fact that the flight was delayed by, a very bearable, 45 minutes...

Having played the same six numbers in the National Lottery since its inception, we cannot now of course stop, otherwise, to find that our numbers had come up would be rather bad news – so, having discovered the only machine at the airport was out of order, a text to sister-in-law Jane secured our entries over the next three weeks...

(The fact that I’m still writing this should be taken as a clue as to our success or otherwise...)

Kylie Minogue was the first recipient of our holiday spending money, as the executive producer partook of one of the diminutive songstress’s perfumes in Duty Free...

After what seemed a long wait, during which I was mainly accompanied by the improvising of the 1973/4 line up of King Crimson, we were called to the gate and the plane took off around an hour behind schedule – no complaints from us though – we were underway...

A very comfortable flight, which lasted around eight hours, followed, as we flew to the Western regions of Canada, our first stop being Calgary, Alberta...

We were entertained for 90 minutes by the recent animated film “Kung Fu Panda”, which wasn’t that great, but passed the time – as did the various meals, unlimited soft drinks and coffees...

I also watched “Million Dollar Baby” without sound, understanding reasonably well, the rather clichéd story (apologies if it’s actually a true story)...

Rather too early than we ought to have been, I thought we were crossing the shore of Canada – of course I realised later it was Greenland - we were taking an Arctic route...

The vista from the window changed as we moved West until we finally touched down at Calgary and passed through the minimal customs...



We were out from baggage collection in record time, only to face a 40 minute queue at the Hertz desk...

Once at the front of the queue, we were told it’d be a further 25 minutes if we wanted the small car we’d ordered – instead they offered what was described as “a truck” (with a free tank of petrol to compensate for the worse fuel economy)...

However, the huge car we accepted wasn’t in the garage downstairs and we were quickly directed to a Ford Edge, a large SUV which was extremely comfortable and very easy to drive – even with my hand injury still smarting from over a week ago at the fives...

Our first lodgings were over on the other side of the city and we took the Trans Canadian Highway for a 40 minute drive and found the house no problem...

As soon as our bags were in our room, we were offered home-made lemonade and directed to the Bow River down at the end of the garden, where we sat and relaxed in the sun, watching people out for a fun afternoon, floating down the water on boats and rafts...



A great start...

We drove to the nearby Park and Ride (where we saw the strange sight of a fully grown hare bounding through the car park) and caught a train downtown...

It was 5 in the afternoon – midnight back home and we were a little tired to say the least...

But we took a walk through the centre of town, viewing the Calgary Tower...



...and the shining buildings which have sprung up due to the local Oil Industry...



...before sitting outside The Unicorn Pub to enjoy a burger each, lamb for Anne, and a Buffalo Burger for me...

Tasty...

By the time we got back home, it was almost three in the morning our time and we retired for the day at around 8pm with the sun still shining outside...

Of course I awoke at 1am and couldn’t get back to sleep, spending the rest of the night dozing whilst listening to the trusty Jukebox...

So far, so good...

Highlight of the Day : Arriving in Canada...