Back to work

Today went relatively well.  Other than going through 540 emails this morning (literally all morning) and then trying to pick up the pieces to a few projects that fell apart while I was away, today was ok.

I guess it helps when you get a good night's sleep.  Let's go back to Saturday.  Time: 10:45pm...

Flight departs Lihue (pronounced "Lih" "hooey") on time.  There is no one on the inboard (aisle) seat and Gwen is by the window.  A few minutes into the flight we complete our declaration card and start to watch a movie on the iPad.  This movie lasts about 20 mins before Gwen is asleep and maybe another 15 before I'm out.  We both slept relatively well.  Of the 5 hrs flight, I probably got 4 hrs of sleep - not bad for "red-eye" flight.

Arrival in Vancouver at 6am.  We clear customs and wait for our bags on the carousel - pretty long wait, must be because of the early timeframe and the rampies not wanting to work that early (or late) in their shift.  Oh well, we have time to kill.

Then we have to leave the customs area - this is where it gets interesting.  We flew West Jet from Lihue to Vancouver.  Gwen, Mel and Devin are flying WJ to Winnipeg; me, I'm flying Air Canada to Montreal (much better travel options from Vancouver).  As we go to leave the area, you go to the right for AirCan and left for WJ - I asked an agent what to do as we both are on the same declaration card (for customs) and he said that I would have to go back through security, there is no way as the bag drops require you to hand in your declaration card.  DARN!

The WJers go and drop off their bags at the "connections" bag drop for WJ while I leave the customs area and go to "check in" my bags at the check in upstairs in the terminal.  After 10 mins walking through the terminal, I get to the check in area and see tons of people. Luckily these people are waiting for self serve kiosks and I was able to go to the baggage drop agent and ask him to print me a bag tag (phew!).  I drop off my bag and then make my way through security when, who do I see, the WJ trio!  It turns out that the only step that I saved was the bag drop, they still had to go through security (weird because they left a secure area only to have to go through security again, such a waste of time).  So it wasn't so bad then.

After I cleared security I met up with the others and we went for breakie.  Kind of hard to eat at 7:30am when it feels like 5:30am...  We ate and then Gwen and I said goodbye as I made my way to my gate on the other side of the airport.

The flight to Toronto was routine - left almost on time, a few naps, ate a wrap that I pre-purchased and watched a good movie (End of Watch).  Arrival in Toronto was slightly ahead of schedule.  My seat was by the window, usually I don't elect for this seat as I would prefer to have access to the aisle if I want to go to the lavatory (airplane speak for washroom ;) ) and I don't like being crammed against the sidewall/window and feel like I have to lean into the person beside me.  Luckily this flight was on a Big plane (Boeing 777, capacity of maybe 200 passengers) (notice the plane is only Big, not BIG like the A380...)

My time in Toronto was about 1.5 hrs before we had to board.  Just enough time to walk the terminal in search of a Starbucks (for Mint Tea) only to learn that it was right by the gate I came through from the Vancouver plane... oh well, I had lots of time to kill and needed to stretch my legs.  Departure from Toronto was 6pm (2pm Hawaii time) and got me into Montreal at 7.

In Montreal I picked up my bags (15 mins of waiting) and then grabbed a cab "home".  Once "home" it was to the grocery store for me to grab some food for supper and breakfast and lunch the next day.  20 mins I returned "home" with my frozen pizza and not only milk and yogurt for breakfast (options, mmm) but with some veggies for stir fry for supper today (Monday).

With the pizza ready and a cold beer, I started watching the end of the football game only to realize that the third quarter was on hold due to a power outage at the stadium in New Orleans.  I watched the third quarter while eating and then laid down to watch the fourth quarter - or so I thought.  Completely missed the 4th as I fell asleep, waking up at 11pm to some tv show.  Oh well, checked my phone to see who won and then got ready for bed.

Slept AMAZING - woke up only once at 4am for no apparent reason and then back to sleep until 8:00am.  I guess this is what happens when you have at most 5 hrs of sleep for two days...

Then, it was back to the grind where my day went ok.  I guess it is nice to see that I am needed at work, sometimes too much it seems.

This weeks plan is:
- watch the Jets game tomorrow (GO JETS GO)
- entertain two Transport Canada Engineers who are coming out to see me do some walkthroughs on Wednesday
- play hockey Wednesday night (GO CHUCKS)
- play hockey Friday night

Then, its the weekend where I need to get laundry done, clean up the apartment a bit and go shopping in preparation for next week's guests who arrive Thursday at 20:45 on AC8522... not like I'm tracking this or anything ;)

Hope things are well back home.

Boeing 777 in Vancouver, ready for boarding

Inside the the 777

The Rockies

One of the things I'm missing right now... the other is in Ottawa...