Final Countdown

This is it - today is 28 days till I am back home - and get to see Lottie again! 27 days till I see my dad and 25 days till I leave Vancouver... That came really quickly - I keep thinking that it's still 56 days!! I finish work on Friday and then have 2 and a half weeks to wander round trying to see what I can - even that doesn't feel like enough time, because I have my "list" of things to do (it wouldn't be me if there wasn't a list!) and trying to assign days to the 'things to do' is proving to be somewhat problematic!!

Um, ok, wow - I have to catch up on everything in the last month!! I've been posting random little comments and nothing newsworthy! Sorry about that! :(
(now I just have try to remember what I've done in the last month...)
Work-wise, we had a conference at the beginning of April, so the last couple of weeks of March were spent trying to get everything ready. We were ready and did an admirable job, if I say so myself! It was fun - things didn't happen seamlessly, but we made it look seamless and that's the point! There were some insanely late nights trying to get things ready for the next day and I ended up putting in quite a bit of overtime at work, but it's done! Funnily enough though, the first day I missed the train was this past week - I reached the station about a minute after the train had left - that was the only time it was unintentional! Now, my replacement starts this week and everything is hectic trying to make sure I'm not leaving anything unfinished! I'm kinda glad that I'm still around for another couple of weeks, so if there are any questions, at least I can be reached - thereafter, I'm on a different continent, so good luck with trying to get hold of me... I keep thinking of that lovely advert that used to be on tv and the tourist was on safari, demonstrating a camera and the guide takes him inside to show him the fax machine "Push button and it faxes - easy, huh?"!!

In general, I haven't really been up to much. We were allowed a sneak peek at the new convention centre (it's HUGE!) a couple of weeks before the grand opening. It's an amazing building, with stunning views and it would be an incredible venue for anything. I did manage to see a ballet (my first!) - a performance of "Peter Pan" - it was great, though I was so exhausted, I must admit that I think I fell asleep at one point! Then it was the interval and the second half was much shorter. I'm glad I saw it though! And I definitely learned the value of knowing the story before watching the ballet! If it had been anything I didn't know, I would have been soooo lost...
The other day we went to the place where they film the street shots for "Smallville" - seriously, that this place's claim-to-fame - it's the home of "The Talon"... The bus I take to work every morning drives past this really cool building and the one day I was sitting staring out the window at the door - it's fantastic - the engravings and colourings, the design is incredible. I decided then and there that I love that building! Two days later, I was catching up on an old season of "Smallville" - there's the building!!! As the Daily Planet!! I hadn't even registered when I saw the building. So when the episode is based in Metropolis, I sit there trying to work out where in Vancouver they are!! And my knowledge of downtown is better than it was (though not nearly enough) so I can kinda work out where they are - it's so much fun! :)

I feel like I'm mentally preparing myself to go back to SA - the other day I had a moment where it felt like I was in SA again. It was really strange. I used to have a lot of moments like that in SA, where it felt like I was in Canada, but until now, I haven't had many in reverse. I keep thinking of everything I have to get done when I get back home, but so much of it can only be done when-I-get-home... So I'm trying not to stress about it, but I don't think that's working because I am not sleeping very well at the moment!! Oh well. I'm taking a week to just do my own thing and then I have to start packing - I might start that next week, after the fuss-and-nonsense Mum and I went through trying to pack my cases for my trip here. I could've kicked myself: we had to leave for the airport at 2 and at 9am I was still packing... I cannot do that again!! (we shall see...)