Collecting Akis

Akis didn't want to miss out on too many classes when coming home for the weekend and so we decided that he would fly in after me on the Thursday night red-eye. I took the time to go and visit Liz in Bayfield and spend some time with her. The plan was to spend the night at her place and then head down to London to collect Akis and come back home.

Akis, is not the best traveller when it comes to going somewhere he hasn't been before, or taking new modes of transportation, so I knew it wasn't good when Liz came into the room at 12:30 and said, there is something wrong with Akis' flights. I called Akis and learned that they were now planning on re-routing him through to Toronto instead. Turns out that the inbound plane from Kelowna had problems and would be delaying the flight to Calgary. This meant that anyone going to Calgary with a connection would need to make alternative arrangements. Akis spoke to the gate agent and his choices were, go to Calgary, miss the connection and fly on to London the next day or take the flight to Toronto and get in a cab with a voucher and drive to London. Neither was overly enjoyable, but we opted to have him go to Toronto and I would leave a bit earlier to pick him up.

As I got back into bed, did some mental arithmetic, I realized I only had 3.5 hours left to sleep and I had better be ready for a long day. Up at 4:30, I got my tea, got my stuff ready to head out to the car and then looked around and wondered hmmm, where did those keys get to. After a bit of searching, I found the hiding spot for them to keep them out of the hands of an 18 month old and then checked the internet for directions. I took everything out to the car and was on my way. 5:10, not bad. And then I had a moment where I thought, I have 1/4 a tank of gas, I should be able to get to Kitchener, but I better check to make sure I have my wallet. As I searched I realized it wasn't there and thought to myself, I wonder where that is. Yes, it was under the front seat of Liz's car from our walk on the beach the day before. So luckly I was only 5 blocks from their place, I returned and skillfully started to make my way into their car. Despite living in Bayfield, the doors were locked and as I entered and exited their house on multiple occassions in search of the keys and ultimately the remote to open the car, I was sure they would be getting up any moment and wondering if they were being robbed.

I was finally on my way and to be quite honest, I was surprised to see other cars on the road with me. I made it into Kitchener, and thought my Aunt Sharon would be glad that I did check for my wallet instead of needing to call her at 6:00am to borrow money for gas. I arrived at the airport about 30 minutes after the plane was suppose to have arrived and started the circle around Terminal 3. On the 4th loop and after confirming that the plane had landed 30 minutes ago, I decided to park as I suspected Akis of sitting inside waiting for me. As it turns out he was walking down the hall towards the escalator and I realize now how much easier life can be with cell phones...

We drove back to Dad's, stopping at Tim's for our morning meal. Insisting that Akis could not live on just Boston Cream donuts, we got an egg sandwich and back in the car we went. We approached Paisley and I mentioned that I was getting stiff and my back was a bit tired, Akis says to me, 'I thought you liked long road trips'... I think what he failed to remember was I had already spent 2.5hrs in the car before picking him up just getting to Toronto.

I think what made the whole situation funnier, was I had asked Akis to transport some Feta which we had bought in Vancouver. We had a couple of discussions about the Feta and if there would be problems bringing it and I assured him that he was not crossing borders so bringing the cheese would not cause a problem. I guess this assertion didn't take into consideration the fact that Akis decided to wrap it in tin foil. As he went through security, the guard asked if he could search Akis' bag for illegal drugs. Akis said sure and he went directly for the brick covered in foil ~ he was asked what he had, and responded this is feta cheese. It became a bit of a joke that the guys were searching for illegal cheese, so I guess the moral of the story is, don't wrap your brick like objects in foil.

Oh well, at least everyone, including the Feta got where they needed to be!

Trip home ~ before the celebration

To celebrate our wedding, Akis and I will be throwing a party for some family and friends on the 22nd. I have opted to come early to finalize a few things and also spend some time with the family.

Taxi Jim graciously picked me up at the London airport ~ which I have never flown into. I was surprised to see that they didn't offer jetway service to the 737 which we came in on, rather we were instructed to disembark from the front and rear of the plane by the stairs. The other hints that the airport was small were that the only 2 luggage carousels in the place backed onto the boarding lounge and the cost for parking was $3/hour.


The Lavery-Loveys clan arrived the next day and we took advantage of the weather to spend some time at the beach and on the boat. You can tell I haven't seen my niece in a while ~ there were photos galore!

The Beach














Our Boat trip:

And now for a job

With Akis going to school, I have been on him about finding a part time job. He is currently spending about 20 hrs a week at school with most of the time being in the afternoon, leaving his morning and evenings free for homework and hopefully for part time work. I know it has been a number of years, but I don't recall 18 months of school costing so much! As such, the endeavour to find work is to help us be only a few thousand dollars in debt when all is said and done rather than the 24 that the program costs.

Akis has been spending time looking at the advertisements and applying for jobs. He was surpised to see that for even jobs at Starbucks or the local grocery store, they are wanting you to complete a full application and document your schooling and previous work history. After a few unsuccessful attempts, Akis did hear back from the folks at Staples. Unfortunately the hours they were looking for didn't match with what Akis could work. The upside of that day however was Akis did receive a call from 'No Frills' ~ a grocery store ~ asking him in for an interview. The interview was to be on Friday, however that was pushed to Saturday and ultimately Sunday.

So Sunday ~ Akis birthday ~ in amidst the rain, we headed to the store in the West End near Stanley park. Akis met with a man and I waited out in the mall area. Less than 15 minutes later, Akis walked out but didn't have a good look on his face. My heart sunk as I thought, jeepers ~ what do I do if he didn't get the job. I was expecting that they would give him a call, but instead of that, they gave him a hiring package and said they would call and he would be starting in 10 days. Armed with forms to complete, we headed home, celebrated both his birthday and employment with friends. The phone call came the next day asking him to start on Tuesday.

I am proud of Akis for being able to get out there. It takes a lot of courage to go look for a job in a language that is not your native tongue. I am hoping that with this job will also come the experience working in Canada and even more confidence with his english. Wahoo ~ we can now pay for school!