Go south where the air's a little better, son, where you can learn how to breathe (YVR to LAX)

Yesterday, it was a Sunday, the weather forecast called for a sunny Monday. 

I wake up today and tear open the curtains full of joyous expectation. Puddles and rain  extinguish the joy in a record time.  When I check the weather forecast, my mood further dampens (pun intended) when I see that it's supposed to rain all week.  

SNAP. That's it.  I'm getting out of Soggy Town!

2 hours later I have booked my plane ticket.  YVR to LAX direct return for $280. A small price to pay for dry feet and a sane mind.




A two-bridges bike ride from North Van to Downtown to East Van to North Van confirms the validity of my decision.  I'm wearing rainproof pants, jacket, and gloves, but the constant water supply is enough to annoy even the calmest soul.  
The constant swish-swish noise of car tires on wet roads does the rest.


Chinese Water Torture comes to mind!

And as the poor guy in 1860 Sing Sing prison found out as well, the lack of  bright daylight only adds to the torment.

The fact that this is a torment shared with a million Vancouverites every Rainy Season doesn't really help. 

Because a large percentage of my co-sufferers have Prozac to help them through the winter and I don't.



I get back to my place mostly dry, but with soggy socks and water-chilled toes. 

When I visit Grandma, she has the TV on a North American channel and it shows how a storm ransacked LA. Cars squished under trees and LAX was shut down for a short time. Good thing those storms don't last for two days ;-)

I wake up Tuesday morning.  And there is something I should remember.  What is it again? OH RIGHT. I'm leaving today !!! Amazing how much energy that thought gives me ;-) I also play that song on YouTube in repeat. The one in the post title.  It's a song by KO, by the name of MOVING MOUNTAINS.  Play it!

My first cigarette outside tells me I was right.  It feels like Incheon in February. COLD and the wind doesn't make it any better.  Speaking of Incheon, when I arrive at Denny's for breakfast, I see that the Korean waitress is back. I haven't seen her for 2 month and after she brings me the wine, I try my gomapseumnida on her, and she actually gets what I'm trying to say.  But I have to say that in my quest of knowing how to say Thank You in the languages of the countries I travel to, this one was so far the hardest !

The trip to the airport is the usual. Even Skytrain personnel has no idea how one gets on the Sktytrain with the 2 zone NON-Compass ticket that is sold on buses once the Compass fare gates are closed. Brilliant thinking.  HATE this city.

A Stargate

A metal detector gate

I show my boarding pass at least 10 times before getting to the gate. Now they ask for it RIGHT BEFORE you go through the metal detector gate AND RIGHT AFTER.  Do they really think a person without boarding pass could use their metal detector gate as a kind of STARGATE and just beam in from a different location?  They don't even look remotely similar !!! But hey, thinking went out of fashion in this city a LONG time ago.

Against all wisdom I eat at Canucks Restaurant in the airport. When I ask for chop sticks, with my Asian dish the carribean-born waitress says apologetically "we don't have chopsticks, you know, Canadian .... " When I interrupt her by saying "I know, why do you think I'm flying out of here?" I get a big smile and bright laughter.  The sad thing is that it's those Canadians who would complain bitterly if they weren't provided with a fork even in the remotest depth of Cambodia.

1:08 pm. I'll  be airborne in half an hour and I'm already dreaming of tomorrow morning.

La dolce vita April 2015