Greed

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Geo: 51.0451, -114.063

greed noun \ˈgrēd\ : a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed

Yes, though I am a cheap bastard, my greed for travel is well-documented. Thanks to a flexible work arrangement, the past five years have been an embarrassment of travel riches, turning me into a spoiled travel brat. A month off work? Easy. Five weeks? Doable. Six weeks? Tough, but possible. But this year? 18 days? WTF??!?!?!?

Just over two weeks ... that's not enough time to get into the travel groove, just barely enough time to begin to unwind, to pull off that backpacker vibe. What happened to the life of zero ambition and negligible responsibility? Somebody call HR, my human rights are being violated at work! Call your member of parliament, write a letter to Amnesty International, somebody must help rectify the situation!

Work is a funny thing ... last summer's pace was slower than a snail, a result of the economic downturn. Little work = little pay which sucked in a way, but was good in another, because still being able to scrape together some travel money, taking a big chunk of time off was still possible. But this year? There's too much work, meaning there is tons of travel money but no time to take advantage of it. This is pure torture!!!

But of course ... only a greedy bastard would speak like this. I've still been able to get time off, but in smaller chunks. Three days of powder in Whistler, a week in Paris, Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix ... I shouldn't complain. But I will!!! It's never enough - give me a month and I'll ask for two.

Honestly, you can never get enough of it, always wanting more and more ... sometimes it seems like the more you see, the less satiated you feel, which is contrary to logic. It actually makes you hungrier and greedier for more travel, because visiting more places only serves to point out how much of the world has yet to be explored.

The greed continued today at the airport - upon arrival for check in, an Air Transat employee approached and advised that she was looking for volunteers, as today's flight was overbooked. Uh oh ... the last time this happened to me on a flight to London, my plans were thrown into disarray, and it was a royal pain in the ass.

But this time, it was different - a bump to an Air Canada flight, you say? A flight that lands at Heathrow instead of Gatwick, and only an hour later than the original flight, you say? A $400 credit to be used for future travel with Air Transat, you say? Hmmm ... comfier seats, more legroom, and better food on an Air Canada flight ... it would also save me the hassle of transferring from Gatwick to Heathrow, since that was where my connection to Barcelona would later depart from. And still, I would have the chance to pop into central London for lunch and a quick stroll, should I so choose. Greedy bastard is tempted, and greedy bastard says yes, oinking like a pig! Give me more, more, more!!!

But of course, there was a catch - they wouldn't know the exact situation until an hour before boarding, so I'd have to check back then. No biggie, since I needed to continue a long-standing travel tradition of cramming down some bad Asian food before a trip, grabbing Edo while I waited.

But alas, greed is a terrible thing that should never be rewarded so of course, there were a few no-shows, meaning there would be no bump to the Air Canada flight, nor a $400 credit to be had. But for all my troubles, I did get a free upgrade to premium class, though it wasn't really out of kindness, it was out of necessity - it was the last available seat aboard the plane.

So it wasn't all bad and was actually quite fortuitous that the bump wasn't available - because who should I see but Gufran, whom I haven't spoken to in years! The last time we saw each other was probably three years ago, when he popped by my place to drop off some pastries shortly after his son was born. Fast forward three years and he's no longer a newborn, but a happy little boy sitting with his mom and dad at the departure gate. So the moral of the story? Being greedy for travel is good, it brings people together!

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Photos

The Last Crappy Asian Meal Before Boarding ...
... beef yakisoba. I doubt Bulgaria will have any Asian food, so this will have to tide me over for over two weeks.