Monday, July 26, 2010

Dublin-Glasgow-Boston-2005 time travel

I really enjoyed my Dublin trip. Although it was just a day and a half in the office there it was long enough to get to know the lads there a bit better. I had an enjoyable night out with a colleague of mine who is about equivalent to me in career path, although a year older. It was good sharing views while breaking bread over my donut pizza. Wish I had a picture but the Italian place we went to is known for their pizza and I ordered the pizza and salad. Except they made it without the center part of the pizza – it had a hole, where they put the salad. Strange.

My visit to Glasgow was good. Still love the accent there and need to remember to separate my work experience from my experience visiting the country. Then back home on Saturday. Again, crazy fluke with the flight. I never had a chance to check-in early online so when I got my ticket I got stuck with a middle seat. Unless I wanted to pay $75 to bump up to an exit seat. I had resigned myself to a 6.5 hour trip stuck between two full size adults in undersize chairs. But low and behold when I board, the two people on each side turned out to be a mother/daughter couple who wanted to sit next to each other so I got a window seat after all! Virgin Atlantic has seen better days. Last time I flew with them was 10 years ago and it was wonderful – they were ahead on the technology curve. This time they were outdated equipment but the food was still good.

I was starting to feel like I was in a movie – you know the part that is a montage of travel scenes. Going to the airport so often and unpacking the suitcase each night. I did the math and it was four countries in five days. I had my share of security lines and ticket booths. Surprisingly enough, I only had to take my shoes off at Logan in Boston. No other country. It was a total of seven different flights for the whole trip – quite a record for little ol’ me.

And home I arrived Saturday evening to my two boys. It was so good to see them. We had our selves some snuggle time and I was trying to recharge enough to make it to my friends big 3-0 birthday bash later that night. But no dice – jetlag for me over the weekend. I guess it’s the old age, just can’t absorb it like I used to. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like the weather has changed much. I left when it was 90+ and super humid and I return to the same. Today was better but it’s supposed to get bad again later this week. Not a big fan.

And then today, first day back in the office and I had a strange time travel experience. We’re moving and a colleague of mine had narrowed the options down while I was gone. The top contender being another office space in downtown Boston, not far from our current office. We went to take a look at it before signing the contract. It was very strange since it was a place I had recommended that I had occupied when I was with a previous company. We went and checked out the office space we’d have – just two doors down from the old office I had occupied five years ago. The whole floor had been remodeled but it was basically the same layout. It brought me back memory lane when it was our old gang, many of which are my best buds in the area, even as we’ve moved on to different companies. We signed the agreement and are moving in less than a month. It will be interesting to see how the first week is. How much déjà vu there will be.

So that’s me:
- 20 years since my last visit to Paris
- 15 years since my last visit to Dublin
- 10 years since last flying Virgin Atlantic (to London)
- 5 years since last occupying our new office space

Some strange cycling back – all in increments of five – hmm….

Oh, and I just noticed this is my 300th!! Post that is. Very strange indeed.

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