Seven Weeks, One Day, Four Hours

Nonie has landed safely back in Harbin. Seven weeks, one day, four hours snce we last saw each other. This is longest we have been apart since we first met on November 30th, 1973. She experienced no problems along the way. All her flights were on time with her luggage arriving in Harbin at the same time as she did. I can relax now. Tom, a fellow Canadian has lost his luggage on three out of four trips back and forth between Canada and China. I think that I can count on two fingers, the number of times we have lost luggage in all our years of travelling. I would like to say it is all due to careful planning but I cannot in all honesty claim that. We have had some hairy connections over the years. I remember one that had us running through LAX like O.J. Simpson on his way to the Hertz counter. We arrived 90 minutes late to catch a connecting flight in another terminal. We made it to the gate only to find we had been given the wrong gate number on our boarding passes. This little glitch required another Simpson like dash to the other side of the terminal. Despite this, our bags managed to arrive with us in Vancouver. Perhaps we should have let the baggage handlers get us to the correct gate.

Nonie arrived to a impromptu hall party organized by the younguns. They were as thrilled to have her back in Harbin as I was. She was greeted by a huge bouquet of balloons and a welcome home sign decorating the elevator lobby on our floor. Lately, the lobby has been the location of a number of social gatherings. It has a nice couch and two comfortable chairs with more room for a crowd then in our apartments. Word quickly spread around the building of Nonie's return and the lobby was soon filled with well wishers. Even the building staff wandered up to say hello. I am constantly amazed at how quickly we have bonded with the people here. Most are in their twenties and they remind us so much of our own kids. Full of life and way to much confidence. It will be difficult to say goodbye over the next few months.