Once the bags were packed the only thing left to do was drag
them down 2 long flights of stairs to the subway. The designers of Toronto’s infrastructure
apparently never thought of travel in terms of luggage and so lots of subways
do not provide ‘all access’ and the station serving the manor made good use of
old fashioned stairways. The ambassador
huffed and puffed while transporting each of the bags to the next available
landing then running back for the next one.
Buck decided that if he were mayor he would install elevators in all
subways. The lady decided the ambassador
was a good egg. The ambassador decided they’d all over packed.
Once at the airport they received the news that their flight
was delayed 90 minutes which at first was troubling news to
get and then became an opportunity to have a beer. They just had to get through security first. At the checkpoint, the lady was re-routed to a
special line as her boarding pass had this on it “S S
S S”. No one explained what those letters meant but
when they saw them they frowned slightly at the lady and said ‘the airline has
selected you for special screening” and when they discovered the ambassador was
her travel mate they took him aside and checked his hands for explosive powders and such.
The lady was given
the choice of a pat down or body scan which seem to trouble her and then before
she could answer a small but stern woman appeared and told her to step into a
scanner. She was directed to put her
hands over her head in a pose of total surrender while encased in a clear
plastic container like a big Tupperware item.
There were no sounds or lights during the scanning and then she was
asked to step out and wait for the results.
The lady looked worried like her body would come up on the screen that they
were all staring at ( the ambassador ran over for a peek too) but all it showed
was a cryptic note and the security lady said ‘You may go now’. The lady nearly ran from there dressing
herself all the while. It was clear
that she was troubled by the whole event and it wasn’t a great start to the trip but once they made
it to the bar, she seemed to quickly
recover.
Finally, they made it on to their flight and were greeted
with 120 children and babies coughing, sneezing, crying and preparing to visit
a place called Disney world. Harried
looking parents spent the next 3 hours
trying to keep control of their offspring and the lady turned the volume to ‘max’
on her earphones. The ambassador was
happy to partake of the complimentary wine served by the airline to compensate
for the delay and Buck was just thrilled with all of the excitement.
