4. The Weight Revisited

Dennis and I developed a fixation on weight.

“So what are you at now?”

“Just over 70 lbs”.

“The shoes I’m taking weigh almost two lbs, I’m finding lighter ones. We will be too tired to go for any real walks anyway.”

“I bought a new pair of lighter shorts. Less the 1/2 a pound.”

I had two scales set up. A kitchen scale to weigh each individual item (underwear 2 ounces, t-shirt 7) and a bathroom scale for the bike box. Everything heavy I needed and light things don’t matter. Well don’t matter until you add them all together. Arghhhh!

Then I decided no more. Thought of a song by Steve Forbert. Anyone remember him?

It Is What It Is and That’s All

Great hook in the song and cute lyrics: “Life is so brief that you think times a thief, better live for whatever it gives.” Click on the title and give it a listen. You will have it in your head for the rest of the day. I think I got it from Jim Patek while sailing across the North Sea. Jim was smiling and Hal and I were feeding the fish. It was what it was.

So I quit weighing things. Don’t know what it is all going to weigh. Don’t care. I’ve convinced myself. It is what it is.

Travel Games

We are both flying from Victoria to Tallinn on the same day. Today as a matter of fact and we are both at airports. Are we flying together? No way but we arrive 30 minutes apart. Flying together would be logical but that is not how the travel game is played.

I have a RBC Avion credit card. Dennis has Westjet. So here is my credit card rant for those who haven’t heard it 20 times. Nearly half the cost of flying to Europe is taxes and fuel surcharges. (Note that when flying to Asia the fuel charges aren’t there. Planes use less fuel flying to Asia? Don’t think so.) When flying on points Avion doesn’t cover taxes and fuel surcharges so your free flight costs you $700. Now they will pay up to $1,300 but the ticket costs around $1,400 so their share is $700 meaning your aren’t getting the best return. Solution? Upgrade your ticket so that it costs over $2,000. Your share will still be $700. And premium economy is so much better than stowage. But it is a hassle to book. The rant is because of the $700. Go to Asia instead. (Interestingly Westjet didn’t use to have the surcharge on their flights to Europe. Now they do.)

Dennis isn’t flying on points. Poor Dennis. He is flying Westjet to Calgary and KLM from there. But still, because of his Westjet status he doesn’t have to pay for his bike, even though he will only be on their plane for a short hop.

I learned another thing about travel insurance. As you would suspect it pays to shop around. Dennis had commented that Costco was half the price of others. OK, but….. I deal with RBC and since Avion covers you a little, as in very little after you turn 65 I use them. But because of Dennis’ comment I did some checking. I went onto the RBC website and priced insurance not based on Avion. Then I called the Avion number to get a quote to add time. It was $80 cheaper not using Avion. The lady at Avion gave me a bureaucratic non-sensical explanation but basically told me to buy it based on my RBC account as opposed to my RBC Avion account as it was the same policy only cheaper. For the record the RBC website was the same price as Costco but they were both nearly $200 less than BCAA. Go figure.

The Great Hack

Dennis decided we should use Whatsapp for communications while over there. Has some handy features. In the next sentence he said I should watch The Great Hack on Netflix. The Great Hack for those of you who don’t know is basically about how much information tech companies are gathering about us and then selling it sliced and diced to the customer’s requirements. Whatsapp is owned by Facebook and is free. And as they say, if the product is free then it isn’t the product; you are. Once you finally have Whatsapp set up it has access to everything on you phone. I mean everything. Did Dennis not join the dots? Which brings up the story of Butt Grease, but maybe I’ll disclose that gem another day.