Let’s pretend it is Sunday

Okay so I have been having some difficulty getting my blog posts done on time these days.  Normally I have them ready but just don’t post them but yesterday I just completely forgot.  I remembered at about 5:45AM this morning that I forgot to post yesterday. Sorry peeps – I’ll try to get back to my oh-so-reliable posting schedule.  And to prove that I am dedicated to you, my public, I will post twice today.

Excuse me, pardon me…uh, move!

The Beaches Jazz Festival is on this weekend and instead of joining the masses on the street, my friends Craig and Petula decided to open their house up to anyone who wanted to enjoy the sounds of the music in a more comfortable environment.  Taking them up on their offer I headed over there to hang out for a few hours tonight.  After leaving their house, I walked along Queen for a bit.  Some of the music was quite good but I could have done without the wall of humanity that filled the streets.

Thanks to Craig and Petula for the hospitality!!

Sign me up

Intended for July 28

3 day work-week.  Lots of social visits.  Early departure on Friday. 

Now this is how work should be – wheee!

Farewell Mark!

Tonight a bunch of us went out to celebrate Mark’s departure from our little work world.  His last day (after 14 years) is tomorrow and so we all raised a glass to wish him well.  It will be strange not to see him around the office but I am sure that our paths will cross again.  And we will always have our blogs to keep us connected. 

Good luck on your future adventures Mark!  Stay in touch!

Not bad, not bad at all

Intended for July 26 

First day back after a two week absence and it went pretty smoothly. Thankfully there were a few people that were happy to see me back in the office.  I was expecting more “oh crap, she’s back” responses but perhaps those were said behind my back. 

I left the office feeling back on top of my area which is strange seeing as it used to take days to get back in sync with stuff.  What a relief to have a fully-staffed, competent team and a new task management process that works – I am starting to reap the benefits for sure!

My new flat panel monitor arrived while I was away and so it is like having brand new eyeballs.  Sooooooooooo much better than my 6 year old piece of crap monitor that I had before.

Back to the grind

Today is my final day of vacation.  Tomorrow I am headed back into the office.  I will admit that I did clean up my email box today though.  I had only 367 emails in my inbox actually.  That’s not bad for only 8 days.  I know some of you are probably wondering why I would read my email while I am still on vacation but walking into the office when my inbox is at zero is a heck of a lot less stressful than trying to deal with the 367 emails at the same time as trying to field a constant string of questions on my first day back.  I didn’t do any work though – I just created tasks for stuff that needed it and filed the rest.  I actually haven’t even turned my blackberry on yet – aren’t you impressed??

Yuck! Jet lag

Written July 24

Last night I stayed up until 11:30.  I was hoping that would help get my body back to sleeping at the proper times for Toronto.  Unfortunately I woke up at 4:45AM and had to force myself to lay there until 7AM.  By 6PM tonight I was dragging myself around fighting to keep my eyes open.  France is 6 hours ahead of us so at 6PM my body thought it was midnight and time for bed.  It is now 7:30PM and I am headed to bed – I can’t keep my eyes open any longer…YAWN!  Thank goodness I don’t have to be back in the office until Wednesday.

Wheels up, wheels down, wheels up, wheels down again

Written July 23

Stage 1A – Drive from Brujas to Montpellier

Stage 1B – Flight from Montpellier to London Gatwick

Stage 2A – Bus from Gatwick to Heathrow

Stage 2B – Flight from London to Toronto

Stage 2C – Drive from airport to my house

It took about 18 hours but I have made it home.  I spent the day in transit and by the time I picked up my luggage at Pearson I was very happy to be home.

[tags]Brujas, Montpellier, Gatwick, Heathrow, London, Toronto, Pearson[/tags]

Last day in France

Written July 22

To make up for the lack of sleep I have been getting this past week, I decided to sleep in this morning.  I crawled out of bed at about 10:30 and enjoyed a very relaxing morning.  For lunch we headed a wee bit down the road to a friend’s house for a barbeque.  Another day of heat in the high 30s had people headed into the pool between courses.  After lunch I tackled the task of repacking my suitcase and prepping for our departure tomorrow.  Another meal, some alcohol and some conversation and we headed to bed.  I will be in transit for 17 hours tomorrow so this gal has to get some sleep.

55 degrees in the sun

Written July 21

This morning Linda, Nicolas’ mother and I headed out to walk to the market in the neighbouring town of Barjac.  Even at 8AM it was sweltering hot but getting out and doing some exercise felt good after sitting in a car for 4 days.  After an hour and a bit we reached our destination.  It was a great walk but we were HOT!!  After the market we headed to the pool to escape the heat.  In the afternoon the thermometer showed 55 degrees in the sun.  Talk about hot!!