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Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Another goat thing

We got up at 4:45 AM to go to the airport and discovered that our flight had been canceled - as had all flights to Toronto.

The Air Canada website indicated that we would be automatically booked on the next available flight. We tried to find out what this was online but the computer said no. We then tried for some hours to get onto the number provided but could not even get past the busy signal to get into a queue.

So we went to the airport where the check in ticket counter person also said no. She said that she could not help us and that we had to keep calling the number until we got through. Cate offered her gold card for the airline affiliation to which Air Canada belongs and was told it was worthless.

Miss unhelpful told us that no flights at all had been rebooked and that we had to fend for ourselves if we could ever contact Air Canada.

We came back to the hotel and checked in - to the same rooms which we had asked them to keep for us in the inevitable event that we would return. We expected to find that the hotel had been fully booked for a wombat strangler's conference - but fortune smiled upon us.

We finally got through to Air Canada after another three hours and a very unhappy man told us that the first available flights were on Friday - three days hence. This man shouted at Cate and she had to tell him to breathe into a paper bag for a few minutes.

We then tried everything we could to get off Newfoundland and looked at all options including driving across to the other side of the island to catch a ferry, going home via Atlanta or Boston or New York and catching a train or bus from Canada to Indianapolis. We could find nothing practicable - so we are here until Friday.

Cate has spent some time sending emails to Air Canada to let them know she is not pleased. She does this in the certain knowledge that they do not give a rat's ass.

I have rung the Cat Nanny and made sure that the cats are OK and will be looked after until we get home. Apparently we still have power so they will be warm enough and with luck our pipes will not burst.

Indianapolis is a catastrophe and it is a good place not to be at the moment.
Conservative commentators are saying that the polar vortex is a name made up by the government solely for the purpose of promoting the climate change hoax.

8 comments:

  1. Too bad you didn't get to go to Fogo, as by definition it should have been warmer there, hahaha - fire joke.

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  2. I think, perhaps, that you've overdone your need to be cold at Christmas time...

    Keep warm and snug and good luck with your homeward journey.

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  3. Vortex, schmortex. It's one nutbar conservative commenter spouting gibberish and blaming "liberals and the media," not government, for the meteorological phenomenon that has you stuck wherever you're stuck. If you insist on criticizing the people of the country of which you are not a citizen, at the very least conduct a fact check, lest you come off as a nutbar commenter spouting gibberish as well.

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  4. Dear Badger and Cate: I’ve found the missing adjectival expression that describes you rather well (with necessary explanations to Merisi). Stranded in Newfoundland in the worst winter of all times, with your leaky Ugg boots, you are truly so utterly Byron Bay. (Try fixing up the leaks with Vegemite.) But I have the impression that you’re living dangerously, stupidly. Maybe your imprisonment in Newfoundland might bring about a fit of healthy introspective meditation concerning your new life in northern America… but I’m not too confident. You’re obviously both hell-bent upon some kind of crazy undefined destiny. And I wish you godspeed.

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  5. What? "living ... stupidly", hmm, this sounds rather rude.

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  6. Esb: I think it was indeed warmer in Fogo. But we had a nice time not being there.

    Annie: I think you are right - at least in North America

    VictoriaK: I love America and all those who sail in her. I am not criticising Americans - only the ratbags who spew out rubbish every day. I think you are taking my blog entirely too seriously.

    William: we have learned that you do not travel in North America at thanksgiving or in winter. I think our next trip will be somewhere where there is no so much snow.

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  7. Oh dear, scary reactions to your tongue-in-cheek goat-thingie-post. ;-)

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  8. Merisi: surprising really that anyone takes my blog seriously. Perhaps I should attach a disclaimer

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