Building a Bridge - A Case in Favour For

Last Wednesday, I attended a mentoring conference in Vancouver, an event that I had been looking forward to as we are starting our own mentoring program at VIRCS. I always like going over to the mainland as there are friends and family there, as well as great eats and shopping.

My journey started Tuesday afternoon. I left the office at 1:30 to catch the 3:00 ferry. I wanted to arrive in Vancouver early enough to buy dinner for my grandma, who has had a nasty fall recently. Everything was fine until the bus broke down in Saanichton. Although the bus driver assured us that another bus was coming shortly, we waited about 15-20 minutes. You'd think that they would send two buses - one that would go through Sidney and another that would go directly to the ferry terminal - but no, they sent one bus, crammed us all in, and slowly meandered through Sidney. Those who rushing for the ferry were stuck watching in frustration as the 3:00 ferry sailed away from the terminal.

Two hours later, I boarded the 5:00 ferry. I arranged for my brother to pick me up at a bus station, but more delays occurred due to traffic and so on. I finally arrived at my grandma's doorstep at 8:00pm...SIX AND A HALF HOURS after I left the office. My aunt had already bought some takeout, so I missed my chance to buy dinner and my poor grandma had her meal well after her usual schedule.

Next day, the conference ended at 4:30. There was a wine and cheese reception after - a great networking opportunity - but I thought I would have a quick glass and then head off early so as not to repeat the debacle of the day before. At about 4:50, I left for the bus station downtown, thinking I had plenty of time before the 7:00 ferry. After all, the Vancouver buses only take about an hour or so to get to the terminal. I texted my brother to compare the times for the public bus and the Pacific Coach Lines, and decided to treat myself to the coach, but I misread his message and thought it left at 6:20. So I wandered around a bit and then made my way to the station. Suddenly I was hit with the sinking realization that there was no way that the coach would leave so late and started to panic. I arrived at the station at 5:50, but the coach had already left at 5:30! I had no idea that the coach would actually take longer than the bus. By now, it was too late to catch any bus, and I was stuck waiting 2 hours for the next ferry - again. Of course this time I had no one to blame but myself...although I am convinced that the long travel day yesterday must have addled my brain a little. I caught the 9:00 ferry and my other brother kindly picked me up so that I wouldn't have to take the bus. I arrived at 11:00...six hours after leaving the conference.

So, in total, I travelled about 12.5 hours. Let's see where I could have gone in this time:
Vancouver to Toronto: 6 hours, 20 minutes
Vancouver to London: 9 hours, 40 minutes
Vancouver to Tokyo: 10 hours, 25 minutes
Vancouver to Mexico City: 10 hours, 30 minutes (via L.A.)

Of course, I'd have to add six hours of travelling time to get to Vancouver...

Normally I would not be in favour of building a bridge. I like living on an island. But when it takes me more time to travel to Vancouver and back than it does to fly to Japan, I have to re-think it a bit. Some Islanders are worried about "city slickers" invading Victoria - but I am willing to risk it!

On the up side - and I can see the funny side of things now that a few days have passed and my blood pressure has returned to normal - I got to read a lot from The Know-It-All, a gift I received from my friend, Susan. It is a memoir of this guy who has read the Encyclopaedia Britannica from A-Z, micropedias AND macropedias.

This is an impressive feat in my eyes. Our family are also proud owners of the EB - I remember years ago, a salesman came to the restaurant and pitched to the books to my dad. My father, who has always regretted not getting a university degree, was seduced by the fancy leatherette covers. Hoping to provide the privileges for his kids that he never had, he bought a set. I also tried reading all the volumes, thinking that I would know everything at the end. I didn't even make it through Volume 1 - A-ak to Bayes - but then again, I was 11. That's the great thing about The Know-It-All; the author has compiled a kind of "Best of the EB" in bite-sized entries. I'm already on "T" in only a week!

One of my favourite entries was about Sherlock Holmes. Watson, his assistant, was amazed that Sherlock was familiar with over 100 different kinds of tobacco, yet could not name the planets in the solar system. Sherlock replied that the brain could only hold a certain amount of information, and he chose to remember only what was useful to him; being able to identify tobacco could help him to finger a suspect, whereas knowing which planet is after Jupiter is completely useless. So there you go - all that information about how an internationally-trained engineer can get his/her P.Eng designation, or the licencing requirements for a crane operator has somehow pushed out any knowledge I had about bus schedules in Vancouver!