Playing Catchup

This past week was once again spent in Toronto. I flew out Monday and got back home about midnight on Thursday. We were doing training with all our Marketing Coordinators from across Canada for the Hbc Run for Canada and it was great to be able to meet the people I would be working with for the next 6 months. Other years we have always done the training over the phone and this was by far better!

I really enjoyed my time there this time around. We were staying at the Marriott Eaton Centre which is connected to the huge Eaton Centre mall. They have the softest beds ever and my king size bed was so comfortable. They also have large 37" (I think) flat screen TV's in all the rooms with lots of TV channels. I also ended up having VIP status since I was in charge of the group so when I got to my room I had a fruit bowel waiting for me along with a 1L glass bottle of water. I also had access to the VIP lounge which served a free breakfast every morning as well as hors doeuvres in the evening. It was great to use that a bit and I took a few of their mini jams home because they came in little one serving jars which I thought was cool. It was a great time but I only ended up sleeping about 4-5 hours per night as I was always ensuring things were ready for the next day. It also didn't help that at 1:00am in the morning one night the hotel also had a fire alarm. It turned out to be a false alarm but it still woke everyone up in the hotel.

I arrived home Thursday night after a terrible flight on Air Canada. First, the take off was horrible and as we started into the air the entire plane swayed back and forth. Then for the entire first hour they wouldn't turn off the seat belt sign because they were worried about turbulence. So that meant no snacks, no drinks, no headphones (they give you free ones) and they didn't turn the movies on (they also have free movies to watch). Finally they turned off the seat belt sign and the TV's came to life...but after about 2 minutes the seat belt sign was on again. Luckily the TV's stayed on and so those people who happened to already have headsets they had brought (or taken from a seat as they walked in the plane like I did) were able to watch movies. The problem was the person I was travelling with did not have headphones. I told her to just quickly get up and go see if she could grab some off the seats in front of us as we saw lots of them on the way in. So she quickly got up and walked up a few rows. Instantly, over the speaker system on the entire plane, the flight attendant said "Miss, you need to sit down...I don't want to embarrass you but you can't walk around." I guess they take that sign seriously.

So then I started to watch a movie and chose to watch Stardust. But I could hardly hear the sound because the plane was so loud you had to press the headphones to your ears to hear anything. And it was freezing cold as well! Finally the seat belt sign went off and due to all the sitting they offered everyone free drinks, including alcohol. So although I rarely drink, I decided to have a rum and Coke...and didn't really enjoy it, but at least I got my money's worth! Then it happened once again...with about 10 minutes left in my movie they turned off the TV's because we were going to land. UGHHH! That is the second time now. The first time was about a year ago when I missed the last 15 minutes of The Departed (I still don't know what happens) and now I don't know what happens at the end of Stardust. That is very annoying.

Now I'm back and home and glad it's the weekend. Although travelling is fun, it is exhausting and I'm glad I'm home for a while...until we go to the Dominican...but that's another story.