We left Halifax this morning on a 7:30am flight to Vancouver via Edmonton. It was raining in Halifax. Having never been to Edmonton, we were looking forward to a fleeting birds-eye view of the city. Alas, it was raining with a low cloud ceiling so all we saw was the airport. Not much different to any other airport, although very quiet. We passed the time on the six hour flight listening to a passenger seated next to us. It was hard to get a word in. When she heard we were Australians, she reached into her handbag and brought out a cotton bag with a picture of the dog on the tuckerbox near Gundagai and words from the related poem. Her niece, who lives in Melbourne, had sent her the bag and we were able to give her some background to the story and also explain what a tuckerbox was. She is a newly retired teacher who had spent the last 13 years at La Loche, a remote aboriginal community 600 km north of Saskatoon in Saskatchewan province. She taught at the school where a mass shooting took place earlier this year. It was depressing to hear her talk about the learning difficulties of a majority of her students and the violence experienced in the schools and community. I was amazed that a person could talk non-stop for six hours.

We had a four-hour stopover in Edmonton before a short 90 minute flight to Vancouver where it is raining. There is a four hour difference between Halifax on Atlantic time and Vancouver so we will suffer a bit of jet lag. However, the new time is great for watching the Baseball World Series as it will start at a respectable time rather than late at night as it did in Halifax. Go the Chicago Cubbies!