One Rad October: 2022 Flashback

In the spring of 2022 it occurred to me that my Mum was turning 80 in October, and it would be nice to have a special birthday event for that. However, this birthday was during the school term, and I was teaching 2 courses, so it was not very practical to travel. Living in Saskatoon meant that I was far from family and needed a plane ride to come home, but Air Canada did a 2.5 hour direct flight so it was reasonable to do for a long weekend and arrive at the office (perhaps a bit late) straight from the airport on the first flight of the day. Now I am also a flight away, but really it is always at least 2 flights, and the total travel time would take up a full weekend, so it only becomes reasonable to make longer visits of at least a week – and that is harder to fit into a University term. My summer trip to BC was great, but in retrospect this Autumn trip was a real highlight of the year.

But, I talked to my colleagues, and arranged some guest lectures, and called in some favours (and incurred some favour debt), and cleared out a week to go to Canada. It might be a bit of a jetlag bummer, but armed with a good travel pillow and some melatonin I figured it was doable. Miraculously, everything went smoothly with hardly any delays or hiccups, and everyone helped to make the trip easy and also really special. My niece and her partner brought their 3 pre-school down from Grand Forks, my sister came up from WA, and my best friend picked me up in Vancouver, drove me over on the ferry, and we all stayed in a hotel in Vitoria for a few nights with her Mum, who drove down from the Comox Valley. My brother cut work to come over Vancouver Island mid-week, and we got to see many of my aunts and uncles. Mum was also thrilled to have all her kids, and grandkids, and great-grandkids visit her on her birthday week. Graham had other work travel, but Mum sent along some cheezy-crunch for him so he didn’t feel left out.

In retrospect, we might have fit too many things into a single week, and after several parties and many fancy scones and Township lattes and a trip to Abkhazi Gardens (totally worth a visit if you are ever in the neighborhood), it was good to have some quiet morning walks and some family yoga as well. I spent more time enjoying myself than taking photos, but there is a small gallery below showing some highlights. I was pretty tired by the time I boarded the plane back to Sweden, but it was all worth it!