August 9, 2024
Life Skills
Cycle touring and travel in general often throws up tests of one's life skills. We expect that, but today was unreasonable, producing several tests of increasing difficulty. Here are some of them:
First up was Booking.com. Our original plan was to cycle from Paris to Tours over four days, before hopping a train into Nantes to join the kids. When that went out the window, we had to cancel four hotel bookings. Fortunately these were cancellable without charge, so good. But we had already paid, so a refund was in order. Enter Life Skill test #1. We had paid with a debit card from our French bank. But that bank was so lame, and their service charges so high, that we had told them to cancel the account. Still, Booking said yup, they had sent the refund money to the bank, to the closed account! After some yelping on my part, they agreed to draw the funds back, but I would have to prove that the account had been closed. Now one of the lame features of the bank was that they never would communicate - not routinely, and not in reply to messages and emails. I only really knew the account was closed because they had locked me out of it! Still, in the dim recesses of my mind was the recollection that they had indeed sent one statement, and on that statement had been the simple unadorned word "cloture", to explain why my balance had suddenly been zeroed out. Bingo! Booking would surely buy that. All I had to do was send them four separate emails, one for each hotel, citing the booking reference number and making my case. It's the kind of life skill I have, if placed in a quiet corner with my computer for half and hour, anyway.
The next challenge was also not so tough, anymore, since I have been training lately on SNCF-Connect, the booking app of the main French train company. We had enticed Susan Carpenter to cycle with us, from Saint Lazare station, where we would arrive after getting on a train with our bikes, near Boubiers. The cycling destination would be Austerlitz Station, where we hope to catch a train to Orleans. Susan's simple question was what train were we coming on, identified by its number or town of origin. I knew we would get on the train at 8:59 a.m. at Liancourt - St Pierre and that we were going to Saint Lazare Station. That should easily be enough to nail down the further details, on SNCF-Connect. I already knew that for SNCF to show me trains around 9 a.m. I had to ask for midnight, or at least 22:00, since 00:00 is nowhere to be found in their world. And I put in Gare Saint Lazare, which it took. Only thing, it only found trains going to Gare du Nord. I figured that out, somehow, redirecting its attention to "Paris - Sainte Lazare", vs. Gare Sainte Lazare. Bingo! I could now tell Susan that our train would originate at Gisors. Score two!
Jubilation was short lived as the phone lit up with a message from WestJet. They had broken one or more of the planes we were booked on for tomorrow, or at least wanted to do some "unscheduled maintenance". Consequently our flights were canceled. But never fear, they said, they would soon propose some kind of alternative itinerary. A little later an email came with the proposal. As far as we could see they just wanted to put us on a one hour earlier flight to Calgary, from which we would still fly on the same plane to Paris. We pressed the "Agree" button, and all was well. But Dodie noticed the minor glitch that they had her as Miss Miller, and we felt we should fix that, in case a stickler official would claim her ticket did not match her passport. So I phoned WestJet. On the first try their system said they were too busy, and disconnected. I tried later, and after joining their supposedly shorter queue for those leaving soon, started what would be a three hour wait for them to pick up. We would not have hung in that long, except that while staring at things, I noticed in the finer print that our revised flight was not only one hour earlier in the day, but also for two days later in the calendar!
We kept the phone line open all through the one hour drive back home from the hospital, and then on the kitchen counter for a very long time. When WestJet did answer, they worked on the problem for a long time, frequently putting us on hold to explore various options. It left us praying that the line would not drop. Finally there was a resolution - we would fly Air France from Seattle, not WestJet from Calgary. Only problem - how to get to Seattle? No problem, Delta would fly us there - tomorrow morning, from Vancouver, at 8 a.m.! We had had a plan, and a booked ferry, to ditch the van in Nanaimo with the Prices, and to get us to the Vancouver airport at 11 a.m. Clearly we had to get on a different ferry right now, get to Vancouver, and sleep in the airport. But we live 75 km from the ferry. How to get there now?
In such circumstances, there are a few hapless friends that we can call on. Kind hearted and easy going Marvin and Erika often find themselves at the top of the list. Marvin, typically, also gets the call to scrape us off the floor at the ferry or airport exit, as we return from some traumatic experience abroad.
So on very short notice, Marvin was at our door with the electric Bolt. And as so many times before, he put our stuff in the back. The stuff this time includes that big and sort of expensive camera, eating up one whole bag. I walked out of the house, forgetting the bag. Marvin retrieved it, but Dodie advised him not to help me, so I would learn to remember my bag. In the photo you see the kind hearted Marvin helping with it anyway. We are really lucky to have such friends. But I will take credit for a "Life Skill", to have known to call him in in the first place.
Our next life skill is to get some sleep on the airport seats. To do this, I will have to keep the kid opposite from continually kicking the seat back. I may have to move to the floor! Sleeping on the floor is another necessary skill!
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