Jill Browne, from home and away

Monday, April 4, 2011

Home: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Up at the airport yesterday to drop my friend off, I saw the newly-closed Barlow Trail.

The feds are expanding YYC, Calgary International Airport. This means building a runway where we now have a road, Barlow Trail. In fact it’s the main road for reaching the airport from anywhere east of Deerfoot Trail and north of Memorial Drive.

Barlow is a strange road because although there is a Barlow north of the river, and a Barlow south of the river (the Bow River, that is), and these two Barlows do line up with each other, they aren’t connected. Very confusing if you don’t know what you’re doing and you get on Barlow south of the river expecting to take it to the airport.

No worries now, though. Barlow is closed at its north end so you can’t use it to get to the airport at all.

Find another way and don’t trust your GPS. Revert to that good old-fashioned map thing.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Home: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

If you fly into Calgary on Air Canada, you often find yourself at the “A” end of the terminal. There’s a bronze statue of a cowboy’s head, huge, you can’t miss it.

That’s Sam Livingston. He was one of Calgary’s pioneers, originally from Ireland.

He had a farm in a sheltered part of the Elbow River Valley. The microclimate was pretty good there.

The farm is underwater now. We call it the Glennmore Reservoir.

You can stand at Sam’s house, moved to Heritage Park on the high ground above the reservoir, and look down at where the farm was.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Home: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

In addition to deciding to stop adding fluoride to Calgary’s drinking water, the City Council approved (by one vote, I understand) the building of a tunnel underneath the airport.

Without such a tunnel, the expansion of the airport will create a kind of barrier for those who want to get in and out of north-east Calgary.

The Mayor said it will cost more not to build the tunnel than it will to build it. I suppose the more comes from dealing with the stress on the rest of the infrastructure.

Now the city engineers and outside contractors have got a big job ahead, though in radio interviews the city’s engineer seems calm about it. Building a tunnel in and of itself is not an extremely difficult feat of engineering, and the city staff have already got a lot of the preliminary work done. The kicker is that the airport, which is federal property leased to the airport authority, is going to build the new runway starting soon. Barlow Trail closes in April 2011. It’s now February.

Expect lots of digging.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Home: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Weather: Grey again, but a lot warmer. Just above freezing, but not drippy.  Bit of a breeze.

Tonight, I’ll be making another trip to the airport, this time picking up.

The pickupee is in extreme pain, apparently, and unable to walk.

My job is to have a wheelchair ready, and get him from the baggage area to the vehicle.  Along with his baggage, which would be a problem, except I think there may be someone travelling with him who can help.  Mainly I have to find a wheelchair and also try and park in a reasonably convenient spot.

Assuming I do get a wheelchair (and I don’t really have a choice, I must find one), the only real problem I foresee is that the ride from the terminal to the car could be painful because it’s bumpy.  I may try and get parking on the plus-15 level to reduce the bumps, will see what’s available when I get there.

So that’s tonight’s entertainment.

Oh, and we have to put the garbage out.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Home: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Cold today, still in the -20 area. Not enough to feel terrible but enough to want it to be just a little warmer. In Canmore, about 100 km to the west, it’s 3 above. That’s the kind of strange weather we get, thanks to being close to the mountains.

But enough about the weather.

I’m back at the airport, dropping off this time.

It’s dead here!

We have a very pleasant airport and I can calmly sit here typing, enjoying my coffee, while I wait for confirmation that the plane boarding went fine, or that the plane took off. Either will do.

And then home through the dark cold night and into a nice warm bed. Even though all I’ve done is drive up here and back, I feel a bit virtuous thanks to having been out, if only for a quick moment, in that bracing winter air.

Saw a guy with golf clubs in the elevator as we arrived at the airport. He had a golf shirt on, no jacket. Was headed towards the parkade. Silly man. It may have been hot in Palm Springs when you got on the plane, but you can’t bring it with you, Sunshine.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Home: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Weather:  Cold.  The same cold as yesterday, but no snow today. Yesterday we had enough to have to shovel.  It’s still a dry cold.  And no sun, what’s that all about?

This is one of those stories I don’t like telling, because it reflects poorly on my city.

Yesterday on the afternoon news, I heard that an 82-year-old lady with a gel-filled prosthetic breast had been humiliated by the security screeners at our airport.  She didn’t say she was carrying more than the allowed amount of liquids and gels, never thinking the prosthetic would count.  Result?  Public humiliation.

What made me even more sad about the story was that the lady was so upset she said she was done with travelling.

To the lady and her family, I would like to say, please don’t let this bad experience keep you from enjoying travel again.  As a resident, I am very sorry to hear of this whole incident, and I trust the authorities are making sure it won’t happen again.

I was at the airport last night to pick someone up.  Couldn’t help but wonder, as I passed the occasional security person in the terminal, “Are you the one?”, and that is really unfair to them.  It only takes one jerk to give everybody a bad name.

“Airport security apologizes to B.C. woman, 82“, from CBC.ca