It must be hard to be a travel agent

It must be hard to be a travel agent these days, what with everyone thinking that you’re irrelevant now that it’s possible to book most everything, anywhere, on the Internet.

And I must admit, for about the last 5 years I’ve not used a travel agent for anything: I’ve probably booked $50,000 worth of air travel for myself and my extended family during this time, using the Air Canada website and Expedia websites to book, and a variety of other sites, like CheapTickets and Travelocity to comparison shop.

And I’ve done pretty well. For short trips — Toronto, Boston, New York — I can’t see any reason to do anything else, especially now that travel agents are starting to charge processing fees as their commissions get cut more and more by the airlines.

But this is not a story about not using a travel agent.

In the middle of February the wee family and I are going off the beaten track for real (at least the beaten track as defined by “usual destinations for parents of 15 month old children”) and heading to Thailand for about three weeks.

When we made the decision to travel, I sent off faxes to three travel agencies here in Charlottetown. The only agent to reply in suitable detail was George Stewart at Admiral. I got an almost instant acknowledgement of my fax by return email, and a choice of three itineraries within 12 hours. Over the next 2 weeks, George fiddled and twiddled with the itineraries in response to our whims, and today we wrote out the Big Cheque (it’s cheap in Thailand, getting there is another thing altogether!).

I found dealing with George a pleasure: he’s entirely email immersed, and responds quickly, usually within an hour or two. He didn’t bat an eye at any request we made of him.

If you go to Expedia and search for the lowest published fare from Halifax to Bangkok, they’ll tell you it’s $1917. Travelocity’s lowest published fare is $1902. Of course those are only published fares, and when you start looking at actual seats available on actual planes, you start getting quoted fares in the $3000 per person range.

George got us tickets on Air Canada and Japan Airlines for $1500 each ($1200 for wee Oliver).

So we dealt with a local business, saved money, and earned some peace of mind from dealing with someone who knows the territory. I’ll probably continue to book my own flights to Boston and Toronto, but for anyone else, George is my man.

Which David Moses would you rather be?

There are three David Moses in the Internet Movie Database.

David Moses (I) you have to wonder about: he is reported born on April 10, 1962, yet he is also credited with playing the role of Technician in the 1969 Raquel Welch movie Flareup (at age 7) and the role of Robber in a 1972 episode of Sandford and Son (at the age of 9).

David Moses (II), no birthdate, has one credit: the role of Ned in the animated series Eckhart.

Similarly, David Moses (III) has only one credit: writer on the mid-1990s television series Caroline in the City.

Which Davis Moses would you rather be? And is there actually only one?

Age

Catherine said the other day that she had no idea how old she is: she looks at other people, everyday or famous, and has no concept of how old she is in relation to them.

I realized I suffer the same problem.

So I did some basic famous people research.

I was born on April 5, 1966.

Nancy McKeon, who played the rebellious ‘Jo’ on The Facts of Life was born the day before me.

Robin Wright was born three days after me.

Cynthia Nixon was born on April 9th, 4 days after me.

Stephen Baldwin, the youngest of the Baldwin brothers was born a month later, on May 12 and four days after that came Janet Jackson.

Helena Bonham Carter was born later in May, and Julianna Margulies was born in early June.

I’m also the same age as Dr. Dre, Cindy Crawford, Edie Brickell, Kurt Browning, John Cusack, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mike Tyson, Luke Perry, David Schwimmer, and Kiefer Sutherland.

I can’t say that many on that list came as a surprise to me, although generally I think I feel younger than most of them (this is probably because they are famous, and thus appear to have achieved more in a shorter time).

Here’s an interesting idea for a website: take a list of, say, 100 famous people and present them one by one, giving the option of selecting “older than me” or “younger than me” and then average out the results. Anyone?

Frank Shuster

Well I see by the clock on the wall,
That’s it’s time to bid you one and all
Good-bye
So long
Adieu
Be Good
Stay Well
Bye-Bye
Till à prochaine,
good bye till when we meet again!

Frank Shuster, dead at 85.

Kit Kat

I’m in a phase where I’m thinking that the Kit Kat may be the perfect chocolate bar. This happens to me about every 3 years or so. When I’m off the Kit Kat, I alternate back and forth between Skor and Laura Secord French Mint. And once in a blue moon I get a hankering for a Caramilk.

Sporting Intentions

One of the places I originally left off the Businesses We Support list was Sporting Intentions on North River Road in Charlottetown (it’s on the list now).

We’ve purchased a canoe from them, and life jackets, camping gear, and today a back pack for our upcoming trip overseas. Their staff have been universally helpful: they know their products and are good at communicating about them. There’s a lot of product that you can only buy at their shop if you want to get it on the Island too, and they’ve a good selection of most items.

They do tend towards the “outdoorsy” rather than “sporty” part of their name: canoeing, kayaking, cycling, skiing, camping, hiking rather than hockey, softball or soccer. If you want to buy a tent or a kayak, though, and don’t mind paying for quality, they’re the best.

I also left off Smooth Cycle, the cycle shop just up the street that I wrote about earlier here. If you need a bike, they’re good. I’ve added them to the list too.

Dental

Wee Oliver had his 15 month checkup and immunizations at Public Health here in Charlottetown yesterday. I can’t say enough good things about the people at Public Health: they are a bunch of caring, knowledgeable professionals who are making raising a child that little bit easier.

We take their services for granted here on the Island, but their role is diminished or non-existent in other jurisdictions. Our friends in Nova Scotia, for example, didn’t get a helpful series of home visits from a public health nurse during the first months of their child’s life like we did.

And yesterday we learned of a new benefit: for $15/year, the Province will cover the cost of Oliver’s regular dentistry from now until the time he’s 17 years old. I remember the child dental benefit being held up as a campaign promise by the David Petersen Liberals back in the late 1980s in Ontario and going nowhere; it’s surprising (and heartening) to see that the dream came alive here on PEI.

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