Homeward Bound

 The buyers of my car.

 It's amazing how attached you get to a good car.

The salesman Liam, taking my car away.

Saturday, January 7^th

I was up early this morning as I had lots to do and a couple of potential problems. The first stop was to the motel restaurant for the complimentary breakfast, before driving to the airport. Brisbane seems like an easy city to drive around, less crowded and more relaxed than Melbourne, and it didn't take too long to get to the airport.

The first thing I had to do was drop off my bicycle and the big red suitcase. I found parking on the third floor of the lot and then went in search of a cart. I wheeled the two pieces down to the main floor of the airport and then took the lift to the fourth floor to the departure level. When I got there the Air Canada terminal was not open yet (although the website said I could drop off luggage by 8). I had to wait a half hour for them to open. Then the lady weighed the bag and told me I was over weight by 2 kilos and she wanted to to unload some things. As I started to think about that she suddenly said 'Oh, you are priority class, it's okay.' That was a relief. She checked the bike box and it was also 25 kilos (as I had stuffed it with my bike and tennis shoes, my tennis racket, ten books that were gifts or I had bought with the parent given gift card, my helmet, and a few other bits), but no problem. She directed me to take it to the over size drop off. That was easy.

Next I had to take the car to the dealership. It took about 20 minutes to drive there and thankfully Liam was available and not with anyone else. He took the keys and told me that the money should be deposited into my account by early in the week. I took a photo of him driving my car into the service area.

Then I had the receptionist call me a cab and that took me back to the airport. When I got there I had to take my carry on luggage to the same attendant to have it weighed and tagged. All done and I had an hour to spare before boarding.

When I went through customs, I was asked to step aside and have my passport checked again and then I was told to sit to the side. I sat and waited for a short time before a customs guard came up with my passport and told me that I had overstayed my visa by a week! Oops, I thought that it was good for a year and since I had spent most of January in New Zealand I thought I was good. I guess that it actually has a start date, and more importantly, an end date. I'll have to check that when I get home. Anyway I asked what do I do about that. He looked pissed off but he just sent me on my way after saying I wouldn't be coming back on that visa (guess not it expired!).

Oops!

The flight left on time. The priority seating was more generous in size and quite comfortable. I settled in for a long flight. On the Vancouver leg I couldn't sleep. I watched a Rolling Stone documentary about when they played in Cuba in 2016 and the remake of the Magnificent 7. The food was pretty good and the extra room in priority was appreciated.

I left Brisbane at noon and arrived in Vancouver 13 hours later, at 8 am the same day. In other words I arrived four hours before I left... the wonders of the international date line. I guess time travel really does exist.