General Chat

Yes, I know it is early ................ but we leave on our travels in a few hours, and I won't be posting again until the new year.

I hope you all have a great time xxx

To
SylviaInCanada

merry xmas and happy new year

Abby

Have a lovely time.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOURS.

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 :-) :-) :-) :-) <3 <3 <3 <3 :-) :-) <3 <3

Sylvia, my very best wishes to you and to your family for a happy Christmas and a good new year. Thank you for the help you have given me in the past, too.

<3 :-)

A very Happy Christmas to you and yours Sylvia <3

Happy Christmas to you and your family..xx <3

Happy New Year too <3

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Sylvia.

Guess you're running away from that horrible weather that you've been having on the so-called "Sunshine Coast"

Not sure if you are on your way yet Sylvia but have a lovely Christmas.

Merry Christmas, Nadolig Llawen to you and yours <3 <3

Have a lovely Christmas and New Year.

well, we're back ......................

Thank you everyone for your good wishes.

We had a great time, with fun at the daughter's, and great people on each of the 6 trains.

But, it was also one of those holidays where there were strange events almost every day .........

........ every train was late, with the cause ranging from a slow-moving freight train that wouldn't get out of the way, to frozen sensors between carriages, frozen brakes, broken rail (due to the extremely low temperature). The food was good, and the beds were comfortable, and we were warm inside the train :-)

........ there was construction and renovation inside the hotel where we stayed over Christmas, resulting in us having 2 flooded bathrooms (we moved rooms once, so the floods happened in different rooms). Neither of the floods was out fault!

.......... it was bitingly cold everywhere, but we ended up having a warm green Christmas in a place that almost always has a white Christmas

We could do nothing but laugh.

The worst was receiving a message on the 16th, from the Train Manager that my 86-year-old UK sister-in-law had died ............... not in the least unexpected as she had been in a coma-like state for 2-3 weeks (Parkinson's).


We returned here yesterday to find that "Banana land" has been in a deep freeze since before we left (began on Dec 5th), with a snowfall late on New Year's Eve resulting in the snow becoming solid ice before people could clear it ................... and there is no salt to be had. The sidewalks are largely solid rutted ice. More snow due at the weekend!

OH spent time after we arrived and then this morning trying to chisel away the ice from our garden path and the sidewalk.


Now to try to get back to our "normal" life, whatever that might be :-)

Happy New Year!!!

Cold enough for you Sylvia? :-0 Put your skates on and skate up and down your sidewalk, faster than walking and possibly safer too.
As long as they can keep the TransCanada open until my brother gets here that is all we're asking for. Then it can snow as much as it wants.

RMS .............

hope they do keep the TransCanada open :-)


It was a very interesting trip, but one in which something strange or unusual happened almost every day! We really enjoyed the trains, the people we met on there and the long interesting chats we had, and of course, the time with the family. But talk about weird happenings!!!

As a little snapshot ......

...... every train was late including the one that is almost never late.

...... every train had some sort of problem, from frozen brakes, to frozen sensors on the links between carriages, to pipes freezing under the carriages so people had to be moved out of their cabins (not us!!), to a "hot spot" developing under the carriage we were in about 10 minutes from the Halifax station

......... I got stuck on a stair lift (a larger version of the ones put in your house) used to take wheelchairs down to the train level at Montreal station, and had 5 or 6 very voluble French-Canadians using a crowbar to hammer away at the metal post that had got stuck in the lift mechanism because "someone" had moved it across the landing. I wish I knew French ......... I could have learnt some new swear words

........ the tyre fell off the golf cart being used to move myself and 4 others from the train into the station in Halifax, and I sat there in -8C temperature until a wheelchair was brought out for me. One of the train attendants kept me company, and finally said "Was that you in Montreal on the stair lift? I saw that!".

....... the hotel was undergoing major renovation, and was in fact closing entirely on Jan 1st ............ only 1 floor (floor 2) was occupied by guests, floors 3-7 were already being "demolished". Makes for an interesting stay!!

We could do nothing but laugh as each new event happened. We had experienced some on earlier trips, some "events" were new to us.