‘Twas the day before the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival (which officially starts today, the 16th) and all through the town busy festival staff, volunteers and other helpers worked diligently to stuff bags, sort t-shirts and finish all those niggly last minute details and final arrangements that make this festival such a favourite and memorable experience.

I know. I was there at the office - adding to the workload.

You see - the airline lost my luggage. I arrived on the direct flight from Toronto. It did not.

Luckily volunteer festival driver Cathy Parsons showed up just-in-time. She assured me it’ll all be fine, and while we waited for the next plane to arrive, I ate one of those terrific value-priced airport meals. Cathy regaled me with stories of Taiwan and explained the difference in weather between west coast NFLD and St. John’s ( the west gets snow and a real winter, St. John’s gets wet.) Then we exchanged addresses of our favourite “luxury” Paddington Station hotels in London, learned that we both did not care for sea cucumber (texture of elephant snot), and made plans to go and eat cod tongues later in the week (who else wants to come?) She can’t believe it either, but she’s never had them.

When the next plane did not arrive with my luggage, it was Cathy who was smart enough to suggest going to the the office to pick up my delegate’s bag and t-shirt so I can get a fresh change of clothes. She also said Johnny Ruth’s has great arseless underwear. Good to know.

We stopped off at the office, and after hugs, intros and the warmest welcome from Kelly and the gang, they gave me some vintage festival t-shirts to wear (way cool.) We also decided that in a pinch, the ever-versatile Johnny Ruth scarf that comes in the delegate’s bag has a 7th style - I could wear them as gauchies by swaddling myself diaper style. Hey, if it worked for Jesus, it would work for me. And did I just date myself by using the word gauchies, or is it spelled gotchies?

Either way, I’m pretty lucky. I had to send off a last minute work related email, so Cathy then took me to her fab apartment on Duckworth, one of those glorious old houses, with high ceilings and wide-planked wood floors so lovingly protected by years of bad linoleum. Then, when I couldn’t connect my laptop to her wireless connection, she showed me her MacGyver trick of using her camera as an external storage device, and we loaded it with my Word doc, transfered it to her computer, where I was able to email it.

Then, only 3 hours behind schedule, we finally got onto the road for Kay’s Bed and Breakfast off the East Coast Trail, where I was supposed to drop off my luggage, now laptop only, so that I could meet up with the Newfoundland Camino Pilgrims.

It’s always an adventure!

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Tags: Cathy parsons, Kelly Davis, St. John’s International Women’s Film Fest, Kay’s Bed and Breakfast

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