Daddy's Little Girl

Sometimes such small things can trigger such big memories or feelings.

PreZ is playing Jacques Brel's "Marieke", which, yes, is my name. Jacques Brel is a Belgian chansonier, and the song "Marieke" in particular emphasises the bi-lingual nature of Belgium, with parts being alternatively in Dutch (or Flemish) and French. I can't remember how many times I heard this song, and others by Brel*, growing up on Sunday mornings when my dad would be lounging around in the living room and we'd just kind of veg and drink some coffee or tea and talk.

It was a kind of ritual really, lazy Sunday mornings with my dad's music. Actual records in the case of a large portion of my dad's collection, and certainly the Brel, because it's probably at least as old as I am. I'm sure this song held a special place in my dad's heart for the obvious fact I shared the same name, and I have a simialar affection for it.

Those two songs, "Marieke" and "Ne Me Quitte Pas" never fail to remind me so strongly of my dad, and make me miss him like crazy.

It puts a smile on my face to hear PreZ play those two songs though, that he likes them too. It's an interesting tie between my past and present.



* Other songs like "Ne Me Quitte Pas" (Don't Leave Me), which is what made me download the "Marieke" song for PreZ, because one of the sketches in Cirque du Soleil's Varekai show uses "Ne Me Quitte Pas". And while the song itself is pretty somber, as singing that someone shouldn't leave you is never cheery, the actual sketch that they do in CdS is hilarious.

Bah Humbug

So Travelocity called us this morning, or at least their automated system left a message on our answering machine, to tell us that Delta had changed our flight to Vegas. Instead of a direct flight that would leave late Saturday morning and put us in Vegas around 2pm, we now leave several hours later, have a 90 minute stop in Atlanta, and arrive in Vegas around 7pm.

Good thing we didn't book any show tickets for that Saturday night.

Either way, this is a real pain in the ass. Not so much that the flight is later and arrives later, but that we have to go via bloody Atlanta. The only good thing about that detour is that I can scratch off Georgia as a "state I've been to" on that silly travel meme. And the only reason I want to be in Atlanta is to visit PreZ's cousin, not to sit at the sodding airport.

The part that's really annoying is that when we booked the flight, it was only 1/4 full, and we could even specify which exact seats we wanted, down to the row and seat number (the pregnant person would like an aisle seat near the bathroom please!). And then we get shunted off to a different non-direct flight, presumably because those jerk-offs at Delta have managed to put higher-fare paying people in those seats.

PreZ meanwhile is planning on calling either Travelocity or Delta to bitch at them. Here's hoping it'll have some effect.