Back in Canada...the surprise visit.

O Canada...

For those of you I wasn´t able to see or tell of my visit back to Canada...surprise...it actually happened! But never fear...I´ve left the country again.

I arrived at Pearson Airport on April 24th to much fan fare just like in most of the other countries I´ve visited. Hundreds of people were lined up in the waiting area to greet me, but most seemed to succumb to their abundance of awe and wonderment and were unable to approach me and welcome me home. It´s a good thing my pal Yabo was there to pick me up and drive me back to London. Thanks Bo!

As I´ve already commented on in this blog, we Canadians are the very few who travel with our flag proudly displayed on our luggage and it was nice to see a new crop of proud travellers in the airport about to head out to conquer the world. It was a great feeling to be home even if it was only for six days.

So why a six day trip back to Canada you ask??? I´m starting to wonder about the sanity of that decision as well, but it was great to see family and friends after almost seven months abroad. I just wish the jet lag of traveling in from Bangkok wouldn´t have had me sleeping by 10pm most nights and waking up at 4am most mornings.

The flight from Bangkok started on April 22nd at 9pm local time and had me arriving at Dubai airport at 11pm local time. Don´t let the times fool you...it was a 6 hour flight. And what does a backpacker do when they arrive late at an airport with an early morning connector...that´s right...we´re either dumb enough or cheap enough to sleep at the airport. It wouldn´t have been so bad except that all the carpeted floor space was already taken and those floor tiles are COLD. Let´s chalk up about 1-2 hours sleep maximum.

Then it was on to London, England at 9am arriving around noon local time...just another 7 hour flight, but who´s counting. The next "fun and games" situation happened the next morning as I anxiously awaited my flight back to Toronto. I arose nice and early at 5am to make sure I didn´t miss my 6am shuttle to the airport. And just as I was about to leave, I checked my watch to make sure I was on time and saw that the real hour was just before 3am. I had changed my watch to London time, but not my cell phone that I use for my alarm clock. Let´s just chalk up my stupidity with another 4 hours of sleep. So basically, by the time I found myself asleep (toss in another 8 hour flight) in Canada from my Bangkok starting point...I had gone more than 70 hours with only 5-6 hours of sleep. Yes, I hear the violins playing!!!

But hearing my mother squeal with excitment realizing I was home; seeing the shock on McAuley´s face when he saw me in the TELUS office; and drinking with my good friends on Saturday night (Natigo...why do you have a potted plant on your head??)...the lack of sleep and hectic schedule was well worth it.

So I decided to go to Switzerland for some well deserved rest after all that! Wouldn´t everyone?

Two things...I´ll have you know that even a published author is reading this blog. Oh yeah...kudos to me. Amy...I just hope you´re reading it for the entertainment value, not to use me as an example of horrific grammar!

Finally...I was so proud to have my blog up to date for ONCE when I left Thailand only to find out that now I had to wait to live some adventures before I could write them down...and a few people were once again sending me hate mail for being so slow to update my blog. Oops...I´ll blame Yabo since it took him awhile to send me the pictures from the party. I promise never to be up-to-date with my blog again. Cheers...