OT: Sens Lounge - Golf season edition

[Qward]

Check the flight history, rock eater.

This is a photo of me when I first met Gisela. Ask @branch - he knows the truth

You got some nice legs...Whatchu doin later?

 

[Stylizer1]

You got some nice legs...Whatchu doin later?

Probably cleaning his room?

 

[Qward]

Probably cleaning his room?

we're talking about the blonde...right?

 

[Stylizer1]

we're talking about the blonde...right?

I don't judge, most of the time.

 

[ACLEVERNAME]

Those German smoking rooms are something else...

Haven't smoked in years but still have Chesterfields imprinted in my minds eye. Good times lol

 

[ACLEVERNAME]

God I hate flying. Haven't stepped on an aircraft in over a decade now. I'll be happy if I never have to again.

By land or by sea. Aviation is the work of the devil.

 

[NyQuil]

God I hate flying. Haven't stepped on an aircraft in over a decade now. I'll be happy if I never have to again.

My last trip to the Winnipeg area a couple of weekends ago:

1. We were held up by security on our outbound flight. Apparently children's suntan lotion (even traces) sets off the explosives detector. Both on the stroller and in the toddler bag. Scrub down those spills and don't have it near anything that goes through security, people!

I was waiting by the gate while CATSA took 30 minutes to interview Mrs_NyQuil in a tiny room on her wherabouts and known terrorist affiliations.

She was unable to contact me because they took her phone (I get it, but still), so I'm standing there with my child wondering if my wife was kidnapped or ill or disappeared or something because she had been right behind me in the line.

I ended up boarding the plane with my kid without her because I thought it would be easier to rebook one person than three. But I had none of the usual trappings you need for a child on a plane, so that was concerning.

Ultimately, a heroic pilot RE-OPENED the flight after the door had been closed to allow us to travel together with our 2 year old son. The passengers gamely applauded positively (not sarcastically) which I will never forget, because they overheard our story.

Unfortunately, our luggage didn't arrive (clearly was removed from the flight due to them closing it) and we had to go shopping for wedding clothes (which were re-imbursed by the airline).

The wedding was an hour away from the airport so we had to come back into the city the following day to buy our wedding clothes. The airline did drive our luggage to the hotel and it arrived two days later during the dancing portion of the event.

2. For the flight back, having scrubbed the stroller and bag and arrived extra-early, we were in really good shape, having eased through security.

It was late arriving, and they had to deal with a maintenance issue which delayed departure by an hour.

After boarding the aircraft, and getting ready to leave, they announced over the PA that they were going to reset the plane's power to make the caution light go away. Upon resetting the aircraft, the caution light remained, and they deplaned the entire flight, cancelled it, and towed the plane to a hangar.

We were rerouted through Toronto to the last Ottawa flight of the day, which was delayed and left Toronto at 11:30 PM.

Instead of arriving in Ottawa at 4:00 PM, we arrived at 12:30 AM that night, which was an extra 8 and 1/2 hours of travel with a 2-year old.

Yes, it wasn't the Donner Party or anything, but still made for a few stressful and long days. Interestingly, we took two different major carriers for the flight there and the flight back as it was cheaper.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

My last trip to the Winnipeg area a couple of weekends ago:

1. We were held up by security on our outbound flight. Apparently children's suntan lotion (even traces) sets off the explosives detector. Both on the stroller and in the toddler bag. Scrub down those spills and don't have it near anything that goes through security, people!

I was waiting by the gate while CATSA took 30 minutes to interview Mrs_NyQuil in a tiny room on her wherabouts and known terrorist affilitations.

She was unable to contact me because they took her phone (I get it, but still), so I'm standing there with my child wondering if my wife was kidnapped or ill or disappeared or something because she had been right behind me in the line.

I ended up boarding the plane with my kid without her because I thought it would be easier to rebook one person than three. But I had none of the usual trappings you need for a child on a plane, so that was concerning.

Ultimately, a heroic pilot RE-OPENED the flight after the door had been closed to allow us to travel together with our 2 year old son. The passengers gamely applauded positively (not sarcastically) which I will never forget, because they overheard our story.

Unfortunately, our luggage didn't arrive (clearly was removed from the flight due to them closing it) and we had to go shopping for wedding clothes (which were re-imbursed by the airline).

The wedding was an hour away from the airport so we had to come back into the city the following day to buy our wedding clothes. The airline did drive our luggage to the hotel and it arrived during the dancing portion of the event.

2. For the flight back, having scrubbed the stroller and bag and arrived extra-early, we were in really good shape, having eased through security.

It was late arriving, and they had to deal with a maintenance issue which delayed departure by an hour.

After boarding the aircraft, and getting ready to leave, they announced over the PA that they were going to reset the plane's power to make the caution light go away. Upon resetting the aircraft, the caution light remained, and they deplaned the entire flight, cancelled it, and towed the plane to a hangar.

We were rerouted through Toronto to the last Ottawa flight of the day, which was delayed and left Toronto at 11:30 PM.

Instead of arriving in Ottawa at 4:00 PM, we arrived at 12:30 AM that night, which was an extra 8 and 1/2 hours of travel with a 2-year old.

Yes, it wasn't the Donner Party or anything, but still made for a few stressful and long days. Interestingly, we took two different major carriers for the flight there and the flight back as it was cheaper.

That is a crazy story. Never heard of that before.

 

[Micklebot]

My last trip to the Winnipeg area a couple of weekends ago:

1. We were held up by security on our outbound flight. Apparently children's suntan lotion (even traces) sets off the explosives detector. Both on the stroller and in the toddler bag. Scrub down those spills and don't have it near anything that goes through security, people!

I was waiting by the gate while CATSA took 30 minutes to interview Mrs_NyQuil in a tiny room on her wherabouts and known terrorist affilitations.

She was unable to contact me because they took her phone (I get it, but still), so I'm standing there with my child wondering if my wife was kidnapped or ill or disappeared or something because she had been right behind me in the line.

I ended up boarding the plane with my kid without her because I thought it would be easier to rebook one person than three. But I had none of the usual trappings you need for a child on a plane, so that was concerning.

Ultimately, a heroic pilot RE-OPENED the flight after the door had been closed to allow us to travel together with our 2 year old son. The passengers gamely applauded positively (not sarcastically) which I will never forget, because they overheard our story.

Unfortunately, our luggage didn't arrive (clearly was removed from the flight due to them closing it) and we had to go shopping for wedding clothes (which were re-imbursed by the airline).

The wedding was an hour away from the airport so we had to come back into the city the following day to buy our wedding clothes. The airline did drive our luggage to the hotel and it arrived two days later during the dancing portion of the event.

2. For the flight back, having scrubbed the stroller and bag and arrived extra-early, we were in really good shape, having eased through security.

It was late arriving, and they had to deal with a maintenance issue which delayed departure by an hour.

After boarding the aircraft, and getting ready to leave, they announced over the PA that they were going to reset the plane's power to make the caution light go away. Upon resetting the aircraft, the caution light remained, and they deplaned the entire flight, cancelled it, and towed the plane to a hangar.

We were rerouted through Toronto to the last Ottawa flight of the day, which was delayed and left Toronto at 11:30 PM.

Instead of arriving in Ottawa at 4:00 PM, we arrived at 12:30 AM that night, which was an extra 8 and 1/2 hours of travel with a 2-year old.

Yes, it wasn't the Donner Party or anything, but still made for a few stressful and long days. Interestingly, we took two different major carriers for the flight there and the flight back as it was cheaper.

That's crazy.... my most recent airline story is nowhere near as good, but...

My oldest son's first time on a flight was with his mother coming home from the Toronto airport a couple years ago, I was to pick them up when they arrived, unfortunately that was the day Ottawa experienced crazy amounts of fog. The flight 'arrived' in Ottawa only to circle around for an hour and finally turn back and returned to Toronto. They spent the night sleeping in the airport (the airline was reimbursing hotels from what I understood but they were having trouble finding any so his mom opted to let an exhausted parent with younger kids go ahead in the queue). I was fortunate that one of the security guys at arrival was able to fill me in so I knew not to wait around for them and picked them up the next morning. They were able to call me from Toronto and give the full update, but what a first flight.

Prior to that, years ago I'd gone to Cuba for a wedding, the groom was in the CAF, as were a bunch of the groomsmen, my wife worked for Parlement, and I for National Defence, so needless to say the security checkpoint slowed right down to a crawl when our group got to the front. They were pretty good though, nobody was pulled out for extra attention.

 

[NyQuil]

That's crazy.... my most recent airline story is nowhere near as good, but...

My oldest son's first time on a flight was with his mother coming home from the Toronto airport a couple years ago, I was to pick them up when they arrived, unfortunately that was the day Ottawa experienced crazy amounts of fog. The flight 'arrived' in Ottawa only to circle around for an hour and finally turn back and returned to Toronto. They spent the night sleeping in the airport (the airline was reimbursing hotels from what I understood but they were having trouble finding any so his mom opted to let an exhausted parent with younger kids go ahead in the queue). I was fortunate that one of the security guys at arrival was able to fill me in so I knew not to wait around for them and picked them up the next morning. They were able to call me from Toronto and give the full update, but what a first flight.

Prior to that, years ago I'd gone to Cuba for a wedding, the groom was in the CAF, as were a bunch of the groomsmen, my wife worked for Parlement, and I for National Defence, so needless to say the security checkpoint slowed right down to a crawl when our group got to the front. They were pretty good though, nobody was pulled out for extra attention.

I've had quite a few stories over the years, Mrs_NyQuil's cousin calls us the "Disaster Twins" because of our flying escapades.

One time, we were rerouted on our way to Hawaii through LA because the de-icing meant that there was no way we would make our Toronto to Vancouver flight. Three Air Canada agents worked tirelessly to get us an alternate route.

Unfortunately, and tragically, it was the day of a shooting of a TSA officer at LAX, so all the planes having landed in LA were sitting around on the tarmac as far as the eye could see. We were shunted off to a terminal that isn't used anymore. Thousands of people in the rebooking line.

Again, I was impressed with the human spirit as most people were pretty unflappable, as I saw little anger and animosity. The news was grim and sad. We managed to make our much delayed flight because it hadn't left yet, and we were pulled from the line. The pilot announced that he was waiting as long as possible to try and get as many people on the flight as he could.

Needless to say, I find flying to be an exhausting and unpredictable affair.

I did spend a night sleeping in an airport in Minneapolis on one of my longest routes: Gabon-Paris-Montreal-Minneapolis-Las Vegas. I'd been in Africa for a conference as Mrs_NyQuil was waiting in Vegas.

We were heavily delayed in Montreal, and when we made Minneapolis, our flight to Vegas was in the other terminal. The screen said "Boarding" so a few of us tried to hot foot it there.

I would say it was at least a few km and we were sprinting. I was in my business suit with carry-on, and as the race wore on, more and more folks were dropping out due to exhaustion.

"Bless you boys, good luck!" called out one older fellow as he fell by the wayside.

We arrive at the gate only to find...everyone standing around. The plane wasn't in fact boarding at all, because there was no crew for the aircraft.

Finally, they announced that they cobbled together a crew, and boarded the plane, to much rejoicing.

As the plane was about to leave, they announced over the PA that some of the crew had exceeded their monthly flight allotment, and that the plane could not leave after all.

Northwest gave us like 8 bucks in vouchers and I spent the night in the terminal where the loud CNN screen was on all night. Having travelled for almost two days, it was a tough pill to swallow when I was one flight from the end.

I'm sure loads of people have similar stories, but as someone who flies quite frequently, I feel like there's about a 33% chance that something will go wrong.

The alternative is taking months on some ocean-going vessel, so I understand it, but you pretty much have to factor in that "anything can happen" factor to retain your sanity.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

I've had quite a few stories over the years, Mrs_NyQuil's cousin calls us the "Disaster Twins" because of our flying escapades.

One time, we were rerouted on our way to Hawaii through LA because the de-icing meant that there was no way we would make our Toronto to Vancouver flight. Three Air Canada agents worked tirelessly to get us an alternate route.

Unfortunately, and tragically, it was the day of a shooting of a TSA officer at LAX, so all the planes having landed in LA were sitting around on the tarmac as far as the eye could see. We were shunted off to a terminal that isn't used anymore. Thousands of people in the rebooking line.

Again, I was impressed with the human spirit as most people were pretty unflappable, as I saw little anger and animosity. The news was grim and sad. We managed to make our much delayed flight because it hadn't left yet, and we were pulled from the line. The pilot announced that he was waiting as long as possible to try and get as many people on the flight as he could.

Needless to say, I find flying to be an exhausting and unpredictable affair.

I did spend a night sleeping in an airport in Minneapolis on one of my longest routes: Gabon-Paris-Montreal-Minneapolis-Las Vegas. I'd been in Africa for a conference as Mrs_NyQuil was waiting in Vegas.

We were heavily delayed in Montreal, and when we made Minneapolis, our flight to Vegas was in the other terminal. The screen said "Boarding" so a few of us tried to hot foot it there.

I would say it was at least a few km and we were sprinting. I was in my business suit with carry-on, and as the race wore on, more and more folks were dropping out due to exhaustion.

"Bless you boys, good luck!" called out one older fellow as he fell by the wayside.

We arrive at the gate only to find...everyone standing around. The plane wasn't in fact boarding at all, because there was no crew for the aircraft.

Finally, they announced that they cobbled together a crew, and boarded the plane, to much rejoicing.

As the plane was about to leave, they announced over the PA that some of the crew had exceeded their monthly flight allotment, and that the plane could not leave after all.

Northwest gave us like 8 bucks in vouchers and I spent the night in the terminal where the loud CNN screen was on all night. Having travelled for almost two days, it was a tough pill to swallow when I was one flight from the end.

I'm sure loads of people have similar stories, but as someone who flies quite frequently, I feel like there's about a 33% chance that something will go wrong.

The alternative is taking months on some ocean-going vessel, so I understand it, but you pretty much have to factor in that "anything can happen" factor to retain your sanity.

I have over 400k miles of flying in the last 8 years. I have only been delayed a few times within reason, and only once did Air Canada forget to send my bags to the destination.

We also had some super low cost airline damage/misplace our bags for vacation on a domestic flight in Mexico.

I guess I have been pretty lucky. It may also be I fly mostly international vs within Canada

 

[NyQuil]

I guess I have been pretty lucky.

Or I really am one of the disaster twins.

Another ridiculous story was Mrs_NyQuil returning from Dubai via the US for a case she was working. After the extremely long intercontinental flight, it was a short jaunt from Chicago to Ottawa (or Toronto).

On this United flight, a guy wouldn't accept that his carry-on luggage wouldn't fit in the overhead compartment, so he kept jamming it again and again until he broke the hatch.

They managed to remove the bag, but the hatch was stuck in the open position. Despite the fact that there was nothing in the compartment, TSA rules state that a plane may not fly with a broken overhead luggage compartment in the open position, and they had to deplane and take a later flight.

"Sorry...." mumbled the moron.

It's really the airline's own fault for charging for bags. Now everyone tries to go carry on, even non-business travellers, and it's getting ridiculous.

Virtually every flight they announce that it's "to capacity" and that some carry-on bags will have to be checked "for free". Not to mention, the massive line that forms an hour before boarding so that they can put their carry on over their seat.

 

[coladin]

Damn, @NyQuil , please let me know when you are flying, flighit number, etc...so I can avoid it!

Oh, and @branch , Congrats and welcome to the club!

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

Or I really am one of the disaster twins.

Another ridiculous story was Mrs_NyQuil returning from Dubai via the US for a case she was working. After the extremely long intercontinental flight, it was a short jaunt from Chicago to Ottawa (or Toronto).

On this United flight, a guy wouldn't accept that his carry-on luggage wouldn't fit in the overhead compartment, so he kept jamming it again and again until he broke the hatch.

They managed to remove the bag, but the hatch was stuck in the open position. Despite the fact that there was nothing in the compartment, TSA rules state that a plane may not fly with a broken overhead luggage compartment in the open position, and they had to deplane and take a later flight.

"Sorry...." mumbled the moron.

It's really the airline's own fault for charging for bags. Now everyone tries to go carry on, even non-business travellers, and it's getting ridiculous.

Virtually every flight they announce that it's "to capacity" and that some carry-on bags will have to be checked "for free". Not to mention, the massive line that forms an hour before boarding so that they can put their carry on over their seat.

Those idiots with big carry ons piss me off.

I am one of those folks that always checks luggage (business or economy class)

Carry on luggage is just ridiculous. It is the main reason flights take so long to board.

I was on a Cathay flight once when one of those nimrods whacked the flight attendant in the head with their bag trying to jimmy it in and out of the compartment. poor woman looked like she was really hurt, but just kept smiling and being polite with the turd.

 

[Mingus Dew]

Wow I'm very much on the other side of this issue.

1 small carry on and 1 personal item (backpack, purse, etc.) used to be no big deal until the God forsaken airlines decided to jam more and more seats into their planes without expanding overhead compartment space.

The cost isn't what stops me from checking a bag. It's the hassle of having to get off my (usually short-haul) flight and then wait 20-30 minutes for a bag. If I'm taking a 2 hour flight to NYC for a weekend trip I don't want to sit in Newark and wait for my shit when all I've got is a small overnight duffle.

If airlines want less people to carry on then they should limit the amount of (more expensive) tickets they sell so folks know at purchase that they will be forced to check a bag.

Instead, these cretins tell everyone "yep you are good to carry on" when tickets are purchased and then within 10 minutes of boarding starting they go "whoops guys turns out you can't carry on like you totally planned for in reliance on the ticket you purchased. Not our problem!"

 

[maclean]

Checked luggage tends to come pretty quick these days. Of course that's assuming it comes at all. Visiting Canada this summer one of our bags got delayed (seems to happen to us about 50% of the time), but it wasn't lost, just didn't make the connecting flight so we got a text as the bags were coming out that it would be put on the next flight the next day. The problem was the flight was late and we only had half an hour to make our connecting bus, not nearly enough time to wait in the line and file our claim. I said to myself, it's OK, I've done this before, just have to fill out the form on the Lufthansa website after.

Ah, but, as it turns out, Pearson Airport operates in a different universe and as soon as you enter it on the online form, it tells you you can't register anything that goes through there. Cue endless attempts to get through to someone who can help by phone. Lufthansa and Pearson both refer to each other and there's no way to register my claim.

Here's where it gets interesting. A friend of mine in Toronto says his partner is going to pick up friends at the airport, so she can try to inquire on-site. I give him all the flight data and a description of the suitcase. The friends they were picking up, they look around in the baggage carousel area and they find my suitcase, just stacked up against the wall with a million others. They're like, should we just try to take it? I'm like, uh, maybe? So they did, but the airport staff did miraculously notice them doing it and stopped them, so they explained the situation and the staff took my contact info and called us right away and sent the suitcase. So, a happy ending, but one that only came to be through the most unlikely of happenstances.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

Wow I'm very much on the other side of this issue.

1 small carry on and 1 personal item (backpack, purse, etc.) used to be no big deal until the God forsaken airlines decided to jam more and more seats into their planes without expanding overhead compartment space.

The cost isn't what stops me from checking a bag. It's the hassle of having to get off my (usually short-haul) flight and then wait 20-30 minutes for a bag. If I'm taking a 2 hour flight to NYC for a weekend trip I don't want to sit in Newark and wait for my shit when all I've got is a small overnight duffle.

If airlines want less people to carry on then they should limit the amount of (more expensive) tickets they sell so folks know at purchase that they will be forced to check a bag.

Instead, these cretins tell everyone "yep you are good to carry on" when tickets are purchased and then within 10 minutes of boarding starting they go "whoops guys turns out you can't carry on like you totally planned for in reliance on the ticket you purchased. Not our problem!"

True about charging for bags has increased the carry on problem. I think ground crew costs and the risk of bag loss has moved airlines into accepting more carry on as well.

I still have status checked bags are free. I guess if I paid for bags, I may have considered carry on for short trips.

 

[Qward]

Heading to Ottawa tonight with friends. Which strip club is best? Only familiar with Pigales, but it's a treck

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

Heading to Ottawa tonight with friends. Which strip club is best? Only familiar with Pigales, but it's a treck

Cross the border into k-bec.

 

[StoicSensFan]

Heading to Ottawa tonight with friends. Which strip club is best? Only familiar with Pigales, but it's a treck

The Nu Den used to be decent, havent been in a long time though. Avoid Barefax

 

[Ice-Tray]

Victoria doesn’t have a strip club, and hasn’t for years. In fact there is only one on the entire island apparently and it’s in Nanaimo.

We used to have two.

 

[Qward]

Victoria doesn’t have a strip club, and hasn’t for years. In fact there is only one on the entire island apparently and it’s in Nanaimo.

We used to have two.

Which is odd considering it's history. At one point Victoria had more brothels than churches.

 

[ACLEVERNAME]

Last time I went to a strip club (10+ years ago) they wouldn't let me in because I was wearing a very nice and well priced 'hoodie.' Trying to play it off as some 'upscale' establishment - f*** that, you know what you are and you know why I'm here. If I can pay for and eat a $60 steak dinner in this same shirt I can definitely pay to watch 'Mercedes' do her thing.

Just another customer lost.

 

[Micklebot]

Which is odd considering it's history. At one point Victoria had more brothels than churches.

Now that's a tourist destination

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

Always knew this guy was a leaf fan