There ARE angels!

As we wrote the last blog, we thought that our odyssey was almost over - but we'd forgotten to allow for the presence of angels ... what's an angel? ... it's a person who brings 'luck' and joy into our lives.

On Sunday, as we began the transformation from being travellers to living a normal life, we used our kitchenette to cook for the first time in three months - duck soup from our delightful meal of the previous night, and egg fried rice, also from leftovers. When we finally wandered through Vancouver's chilly Sunday-afternoon streets, everything fell into place. We had intended to go to the German-style Christmas Market, a block away, but the queues were so long that we changed our minds - thanks, angels ... next morning there were no queues, admission was $2 instead of $5, and we had a great experience before leaving town.

We wandered and shopped a little, sought out a music store to buy a CD containing Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot's Railway Trilogy (or is that Railroad?), which a fellow-passenger had introduced us to, then realised we were only a block from the cinemas - we walked in to find that the session for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had started, literally, one minute before, with ads and previews ... as we sat down, the film started - someone was looking after us! Fully sated, and delighted with the movie, we set off through the dark streets (dark before 5pm - now it was nearly 7) to our hotel ...

Three blocks from 'home' we stopped outside the Orpheum Theatre to check our map, noting that there was a performance on that night, and commenting "Wouldn't it have been wonderful? to each other. We located our position, and as we turned to continue our walk, up popped a sprightly Chinese angel, dressed in black, saying "I have two complimentary tickets for tonight's performance of the Vancouver Academy's Youth Orchestra, and I can't use them - would you like them?" Yes, thank you, we would ... and we spent a wonderful evening listening to Mendelssohn, Chopin and Beethoven!

Our luck continued ... as we returned our hotel room keys, planning to wait an hour for a shuttle, the previous shuttle, running 5 minutes late, arrived, and as we were the only passengers, our Indian driver gave us a guided tour of Vancouver on the way to the airport. We NEARLY had a problem in Los Angeles, having been directed from the United airlines Vancouver-LAX flight (code-shared with Qantas) to the United flight to Sydney, instead of the Qantas flight which left from another terminal, but we flagged down a people-mover, driven by a large, very determined, black lady - having noted Frances' walking stick, she drove us to an elevator, left her wagon, took us down to the road to wait for a special bus (which she had called on her cell phone), handed us over to a driver, who drove us all around the many terminals of LAX airport and then passed us over to a little Chinese man with a wheelchair which just magically transported us through all the red tape - a VERY different scenario to the rudeness we'd experienced at LAX on our inward journey.

The main angels, though, were the ones we didn't see - our house-sitters, John and Vickie, had left our house sparkling (and everything in its right place!); our cat, Theodora, fat and happy; our car, collected from the Akers' house, back in the garage; our garden looking wonderful, and a cooked roast lamb dinner waiting in the refrigerator as an Aussie 'welcome home' ... and had disappeared to their new home on the Gold Coast. The house was full of flowers, some from John and Vickie, and Stephanie's wonderful arrangement of Australian flowers, designed to make us feel at home. Our mail contained wonderful things ... and we found all our emails!! And to top off a wonderful, wonderful trip, as we were reading our messages, an excited email arrived from our niece, Jess (whose frequent messages have lighted our way as we travelled, commenting on our blog and linking us with home) saying "I passed! I passed! I passed!" .... congratulations, Jess, and may your 4th year of Veterinary Science be as wonderful - even though you'll enjoy the surgical aspect much more than we would!

There ARE angels ... and we appreciate you all ... the friends who travelled with us in spirit, the ones who helped us along the way, the ones who fed and housed us, and made us feel so welcome in their countries and in their homes ... and all the ones we haven't mentioned. Thank you all for enriching our lives.