I still live on the Island I grew up on.  I have visited other places, and I think about living in some of them, and even though my Island is huge– like, bigger than Japan–there are still some realities that make Island life…interesting.

One of these realities is that unlike some islands, say, the province of PEI, we have no fixed link to the mainland.  Well, ok, there are gas and electricity lines, but as far as human travel, there is only by air or by sea to transport humans, cargo or other.

A few years ago, I had occasion to more frequently travel to the Mainland (in this case, Vancouver and surrounding areas- that’s another peculiarity of island dwellers– there is The Island and there is The Mainland.)  In any event, while I will occasionally fly over on a commercial jet or float plane, I usually take the large Car ferry.  You have 3 choices of ferry terminal all within an hour of where I live, and while public transit is somewhat tragic in my town, it borders on stellar in Vancouver proper, between the now-linked bus, sky train and sea bus conveyances. I won’t, however, venture over on my own in my car.  If public transit is stellar, traffic volume is nuts.  Terrifying, for a small town girl. Here is the point, when you drive aboard the ferry, you pull up to the kiosk, pay your money, take your receipt and drive aboard.  When you walk on, though, you purchase a ticket and receive a receipt AND a boarding pass.  And this is where the point of this post makes an appearance.

The first few times I boarded the ferry as a Walk-On, or “footy” as I like to say (as in Foot Passenger), I began to notice that there was a Code word on the boarding pass– something simple to allow the crew to ensure you had a valid pass for the ferry you were boarding.  I remember code words such as “Eagle”, “Orca” and “Seal”.  But, as they cycle through the sea animals in any given week/month, they move on to other things, like colours….and land mammals… and that’s when this happened….

Now, depending on who and where you are, you may not know that, well, some women of a certain age are a bit sensitive to being referred to as this particular feline… or possibly any kind of cat…. Oh but wait… just you wait, gentle reader, for THIS is what happened next:

But worse (or better) was that I pulled “Cougar” at least three times in a row.  Adult Cougar, no less. I (reminder: 95% extrovert) started to post these *hilarious* boarding passes on Facebook.  Before I knew it, it actually became a thing, and my friends posted the Secret Words they got… it it’s all become quite hilarious, even the innocuous sounding “Adult Purple” or:

Today’s may be my all time favourite yet, though: Off to the workhouse, I guess….