Back on Home Soil

I'm back!!

Actually, my flight was half an hour early and I was out of Customs & Immigration, got my bags, then out the door by 3:40pm. Which is quite amazing since my flight wasn't due in until 3:40, and I'd never spent so much time in the Immigration queue before -- a pile of flights arrived all at once, so the entire area turned into a giant maze. The problem with being a half-hour early is that the people picking you up don't know that, so you wait around for a while, anyway.

The weather was gorgeous coming in -- I love coming home to sunshine, mountains, clean air, a waterfall at the airport, "welcome home" at the Immigration counter, and walking into my apartment with a view of the ocean... NOTHING in this world matches this.

Went to CinCin restaurant to pick up the keys from Matt, who I barely recognized with his shaved head and shaved face, took my parents to Samurai (where our total bill came to less than $20, not like the bill in London last night that was £235+, or around $600 Canadian!!), then home to crash and burn... spoke to my boss, who was in New York and phoned me on his way out to the airport, because I have a presentation to make in a matter of hours... don't ask... this is my life -- no stopping, no transition, just go from one thing to the other...

And boy, did I crash -- I lay down on the couch looking at the ocean, and woke up at nearly 2am... what was supposed to be a little snooze turned into a full-on coma. If I'd have slept on the plane, I would've been OK, but I spent probably at least half of the 10 hour flight chatting to my one seatmate, who works for the Canadian military in bomb disposal -- which makes for interesting conversation, as you can imagine.

So, around 2:30am after I woke up a bit, I started to download stuff off my flashcards, and Matt arrived. We poured drinks and put some of my French CDs on, and now it's after 5am, and I haven't started anything. He's asleep now, and after a couple of glasses of wine and some gin I'm ready for bed again, but there is so much to do still... the birds are chirping, I'm buzzing, and will need a shower to wake up again and get energised for my morning of work.