Cocaine Princess here.
Oh wow! I can't believe its almost a month since I posted anything-- mental note to not let that happen again!
Last month after 21 months I FINALLY boarded a plane!! On November 8th the non-essential travel ban was lifted and FINALLY the US-Canada border re-opened to non-essential travel. Unfortunately what they didn't lift was the required testing. For those of you who haven't been keeping up with what's happening in the Great White North, in particular to the province of Ontario allow me to fill you in. Our entire government is not only run by idiots by for some reason they're allowing the medical officers to dictate what can and can't happen, for example vaccine passports exist up here and must be shown in order to dine in a restaurant, go the movies, the gym, sporting venues, attend university and if you want to travel. I am double vaxxed and yet they government still insists that one needs to take a PCR test upon boarding a flight and another one for when you return. Since I was heading to the USA I needed to take my test 72 hours prior to boarding. (The rules have since changed, now it's 24 hours) I was leaving on a Friday and took my test on the Wednesday. It isn't the most comfortable test, and as the nurse at the travel clinic in the hazmat explained, "you're going to feel like you've swallowed chlorine." My negative test was emailed to me within a few hours which I then uploaded to Air Canada. Air Canada then emailed me back approving my documents. Exhausting right? And the flight to NY is only 1hr and 30mins and I'd have to repeat this process on my return!
Complaints aside, I was so happy being able to step on a plane and leaving the country even if it was for a few days, and although I would have preferred packing for a warm tropical climate, this time I was packing for a cold climate-- The Hamptons!! Ahh yes, where the rich vacation. My reason for going? My best friend, I'll call her Pretty Lady, her boyfriend lives in The Hamptons and both had invited me back in the summer for his 60th birthday. Pretty Lady's boyfriend, I'll call him The Rocker, he was kind enough to send me a ticket. My flight was scheduled to depart at 11:30am. Usually I prefer the first flight out which would have been 8:30am but that would have meant Pretty Lady and her boyfriend would have had to get up before the crack of dawn, LaGuardia to the Hamptons is about a 2.5hr drive.
The airport here was quite busy and thankfully because I have Global Entry/Nexus I didn't have to wait hours in the customs line. Pretty Lady and I kept in contact thru texting. At duty-free I picked up J'adore by Dior and she had wanted me to pick up her Chanel foundation which I did after eating a nice and hearty breakfast. It was so weird I thought, in order to fly out of Canada from Pearson an individual must not only be fully vaccinated but they must provide a negative test as I previously explained, in saying that travellers still had to show their vaccination papers in order to sit down at any of the restaurants inside the airport. Common sense should tell them that in order for these travellers to fly out they need to be vaccinated so why would restaurants still need to see ones vaccination papers? To me and a lot of other travellers that didn't make sense. I was hungry and craving eggs so I showed my papers, wrote down my name and phone number (contact tracing info) and sat down. It was nice, very nice hearing and seeing so many happy travellers laughing, eating and having such a good time. Even waiting in the lounge, all the little kids zipping around with their carry-ons, some with their noses pressed against the windows watching the planes. I had checked in one piece, my silver Tumi. My other suitcase which I called my Minion on account of its color, Pretty Lady had borrowed it, which is why I had to also take a carry-on. Ugh, its so painful packing for a winter trip, bulky sweaters, coats, boots etc.
My flight took off on time and although it was only 1.30mins, the last 20 minutes or so was awful. The pilot warned us about turbulence and oh boy he wasn't kidding!! I jokingly thought to myself, "I survived Covid only to go down in a plane crash-- my first trip in almost 2 years! Lol) All was good, we landed safely and as soon as I did and I was able to get cell reception, there was a message from Pretty Lady that she and her Rocker boyfriend were waiting for me by the luggage carousel.
To Be Continued....
XOXOXO,
Cocaine Princess
