The Life of Radostsguy

Here we go again. Actually, this will be short because my memory .... errr .... What am I doing? .... Oh yeah! Writing a blog. My memory is short!

The upshot of the stolen briefcase is that I lost all my Vital Documents, and was left with two options

1. Return to Canada.
2. Become a man without a country.

Since one cannot do the latter now as one could back in the Good Old Days of Captain Kidd, et al (pisses off the omni-present apparachiki), returning to the Big C was all there was. One problem. of course. The frigging Airlines want MONEY for tickets. How crass! Decadent Imperialist Capitalist Pigs!

Now, here I have to say something about some of the Members of the Lounge Forum. No names, no pack-drill. I had made clear the situation on the Forums, and all of a sudden, PM's started coming in saying that they were prepared to help a bit. Frankly, without their help, I'd probably rotting in some jail somewhere. This may be a bit late, but let me say,

Thanks, guys and gals!

Anyway, once the $ were in hand, I went and ordered up the cheapest flight the Travel Agent could find, which was Berlin-Frankfurt-Toronto. I had hoped to be able to stay at my friend Shannon's place, but emails went unanswered. Finally I asked Jaz who lives in Oshawa too to try to track down Shannon. The answer came back, "Shannon is in the hospital with cancer, and likely won't come out." What the hell is this? Some sort of Great Cosmic Joke?

So I finally arrive in Toronto in late August of 05, and was picked up by Jaz. She took me to the hospital to see Shannon. She could/would barely speak. Previously, she was Ms Motormouth! She looked terrible too, of course. She told me that I could rent her room at a very low price.

Shannon passed away in January of 06. The Good die young.

The long wait in Canada was mostly because I needed a new Birth Certificate before I could apply for a new Passport. The BC comes from the Ontario Govt, a World Model of Sleeping Apparachiki. 14 weeks, it takes. In comparison, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs takes only 4 weeks for a Passport. I thought that Computers were supposed to speed things up. Nope. Not where Our Glorious Leaders hang out.

My life there was a minor sort of hell. There were two other men staying in Shannon's home. They were diametrically opposed to my whole being.

About all I could do was spend some time on Shannon's computer, which at least had broadband, and watch TV. About all that was worth watching were re-runs of Star Trek and Andromeda, a few things on Discovery and History, and 12 O'Clock High at 04:00! And, of course, the Jon Stewart (?) show.

Finally, things got done, and I was able to book air flights back to Sofia. They were on British Air (up the Empire), a Boeing 757 Toronto - London, and an Airbus 340 London - Sofia. Nice Aircraft!

Best of all, my arrival in Sofia was on 12 March, my Birthday! And there at the airport awaited the World's Best Birthday Present - Radostina!