Toronto to Tokyo
What a long and sort of strange day. Laurence has himself not been feeling well, He has what is probably/possibly a torn rotator cuff, plus has pain in both his upper legs, possibly from pulled or strained muscles, as he works out and does yoga regularly, This has been getting increasingly worse over the past couple of weeks, and he has found himself wondering whether he can manage the trip, especially as we will be carrying backpacks. He’s thought about canceling the trip, and said he felt some relief when it seemed I might have had pneumonia (I don’t), and in that case I would have had to cancel. This is because I have had a viral infection/cold for the past three weeks, although my x-ray earlier in the week confirmed it is not in my lungs or chest (and I don’t have pneumonia). But, I felt pretty crappy driving up to Toronto yesterday, and this morning felt really lousy and wondered if I could handle a 13½ hour plane trip, without hacking my lungs up. I really thought about whether I should cancel, at that very last minute, knowing that Laurence would feel somewhat relieved if I did. But I didn’t and he didn’t, and off we went.
Almost as soon as we started the short walk to the subway station for our journey to the airport, I felt much better, and actually stayed much better all day (perhaps with the help of a cough suppressant and antihistamine), and we went on our way. But it was evident right away that Laurence was having difficulty with his shoulder and at least one leg, and needed to take it easy and slowly as we walked. Still, to the airport we went, where we had good omens along the way.
The transfer train from the subway we were meant to take was canceled and the fare was was waived for us (I really don’t understand why, but there you have it), and when we got to the airport they checked both our backpacks in at no cost (mine was a little too big to go in the overhead compartment), and the gate attendant additionally re-seated us at no additional charge (Air Canada assigns a seat, but if you want to change it you have to pay) so we could sit together, and there was no-one else in our row, so we had plenty of room. So off we went, high tailing it to Japan. My cough and everything that went with it stayed under complete control for the entire journey, and all well went smoothly on the seemingly interminably long trip.
Long it was. I watched three movies, and dozed some (but not much). Frankly, I will think two and three times about such a long journey again in the future. That’s a long time to be seated on a plane. When Bev and I flew to Hawaii, she said she wouldn’t want to take that trip again because of the length of the flight. I didn’t feel that way at that time, but now, at 75, I agree with Bev. Still it was an easy and comfortable flight, despite its length.
And that was the entire day, because flying west you lose a day, so today became tomorrow, and we left Friday early afternoon to arrive Saturday late afternoon. So continued tomorrow.