It’s been a while. Feels like longer than it really was. My last update told you about plans to go to these places, now I’ve been there and am finally back — tired and worn out and ready to go back to work. I haven’t darkened the office door in over three weeks, which, for me, is a LONG time. Here’s how things went down:
- Traveled to Santa Barbara for a few days. The business side went fine, but the flights were a pain. Leaving Calgary, we were an hour and a half late. First, someone put too much fuel in the plane and we were over weight, then they were going to take some out, then we were going to sit on the tarmac somewhere and burn off the excess, then they asked someone to move from the front of the plane to the back, then they took off some of the “carry on” luggage that didn’t fit and they had to put underneath, then they got 2 people to get off the plane, then they shifted MORE people to the back. We did finally make it to Denver, where we were changing planes and literally sprinted to our connection and they closed the door behind me. Coming home, took us 12 hours. San Francisco was fogged in, so our flights were instantly messed up. Ended up flying through L.A. MUCH later in the day. I DID fly home beside Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy — they were opening at the Saddledome for Blink-182. Made for some interest. Pictures of the leisure side of the trip are in the gallery.
- Got home Wednesday and we picked up the new car Thursday. It’s got 333 km on it, and been through a half a tank of gas, and I still have only driven it twice. Sigh. Maybe I’ll go to work tomorrow so I can drive it!
- Left for Beijing on the Friday. There’s a lot to say about this, so I’ll add another update after this one.
- Got home from China and fell sick with something. Fever, chills and horrible lower gastric effects if you get my meaning. I spent 4 days in bed trying to get control of myself so never made it in to work like I wanted to. I’m pretty sure I got some bad water while I was there. There were two occasions. I was being very careful to stick to bottled water, but once I opened one and the seal didn’t break. I SHOULD have put it back down, but I figured maybe the guy next to me had opened it — now I find out this is a favourite money saving trick — they refill the bottles with tap water. The second time, I had tea and it never really crossed my mind that it was water…and it was only warm at that, so not boiled.  It had to have been one of those two occasions. I was just starting to feel better when…
- We were off to Saskatchewan for our annual pilgrimage, Saskatoon, Prince Albert, Shell Lake. Nice visits, I think we saw everyone, but frankly for me…
It’s good to be home. I seem to have control of my gut again — only took a week and a half — and I’ll probably be checking in a work tomorrow. Whew!