We arrived into Toronto last Wedesday evening. The night before we left, Hong Kong was hit by a Signal 8 strength typhoon that caused quite a bit of interesting damage. The storm settled by mid-morning the day we left, but our flight was still two hours late to depart. Reportedly, the airport staff were a little careless when loading a cart of food onto the plane. The typhoon’s high winds overturned the cart, blowing food all over the back of the plane that then had to be cleaned up and new food ordered. The pilot made up one hour en route.

Upon landing in Vancouver we missed our flight by only a few minutes:  the Westet transit desk was closed. The timing of the connection was based on us going directly to that desk. No luck – upon arrival we found it closed and had to haul our luggage across the airport to the domestic check-in. C$ 42 each later, we were stand-by on another flight from Vancouver to Toronto. We made the flight, arriving into Toronto at midnight instead of the previously planned 9:30 PM. Overall the kids were very good about the trip, despite having had very little sleep. The first two nights were crazy – the kids were twisted all around and had  hard time sleeping through the night. On Friday night the kids slept right through for seven hours and Saturday eleven hours. Therefore, we are back on track. (Above: my sister Penny & Dad.)

Also on Friday night, Tess & I went to the Royal Canadian Yacht Club Summer Ball. The theme was "Beijing Night" in honour of the upcoming Olympics. (Above picture – we were greeted by Chinese dragon dancers after arriving on the island.)  The RCYC will have several young sailors representing Canada in the Qingdao olympic sailing events. Several jokes jumped about all evening about Tess & I arriving from Hong Kong to attend a Chinese event. When I ran my business in Toronto years ago I attended the RCYC balls faithfully, typically hosting a table with plenty of friends. Going back after living away from Toronto since 1992 was, of course, surreal. It occured to me that the last RCYC Ball I attended was in 1990. I had two dates for The Ball – lucky me – with Tess and my sister, Penny, gracing my arms. My sister, Carolyn, and her husband, Keith, also attended along with my Dad and his date, Marnie. The weather was gorgeous. I have a "hole-in-the-wall" tailor I use in Hong Kong with a mandarin collar dinner jacket on display in the window. The  chinese theme for the ball gave me the perfect excuse to have one made for myself. In the past my shawl collar dinner jacket usually drew comments referencing James Bond. With this outfit I was a villain, looking more like Dr. No. Hmmm…. Pictures ended up being spread across several cameras but once I have them all I will post them.