Pandemic it is

To begin, I was reminded by a loyal blog reader that Tim Horton’s bagels actually contain more calories than a donut (even a frosted one I’m told). And although I knew that, I didn’t get a chance to tell the co-worker on Election Day. When I mentioned it today she said “well I threw it in the trash anyway” and I said “and we did with the candidate too” as he had come in a distant third.

Had a short note from the baby daughter yesterday saying Thanks for the shout out in the blog :) still in Amsterdam, taking the train to Luxembourg and then to Brussels tomorrow :D :D A slightly longer one saying she wasn’t feeling well today, had slept all afternoon and there was a thunderstorm in Brussels. That’s no fun when you’re traveling and she wasn’t clear on what sort of symptoms she was experiencing, could be anything from a cold to a stomach bug with the schedule she’s been keeping as she’s off to Paris tonight.

The WHO declared the H1N1 influenza A pandemic today (and you can only imagine how that complicates the work lives of infection control practitioners and occupational health nurses everywhere) but did not place travel restrictions. I instructed the homeward bound daughter to find some Tylenol, drink lots of water and stay away from the infrared scanners in terminals which are set up to pick off those who with a temperature.

Today was quite a day for thunderstorms here as well with the power off for long stretches at least three times. Although we were on generator power, the computers weren’t operating and one of the outages came after I had spent about 50 minutes trying to modify a brochure and of course the changes weren’t saved. I had to call a workmate to send a message saying I was off grid as others wonder if you were abducted.

Speaking of computers, at the end of the day one of the IT techs arrived and we had a confused conversation where she wanted to check to see if there was an extra network port in my office and I thought she was there to give me access to a directory on the shared drive which had been requested weeks ago. My first mistake was to move over and give her my chair so she could attempt to figure out where the directory was. She has this belief that there should only be three or four desktop icons displayed as we had this difference of opinion about a year ago when I resisted her efforts at reorganizing my desktop. After some unsuccessful detective work she disappeared and when I reclaimed my chair it faced…..a practically bare desktop. I was not impressed as I thought this was very presumptuous behavior – like clearing out someone’s closet when you put your coat in as a visitor.

The plan is to see Angels & Demons at the local theatre on the weekend and the reviews are saying it’s as good as the book. We shall see as I really enjoyed the novel so it’ll be a tough sell.

Speaking of social life, it’s hard to believe that someone wouldn’t snap up this gem of a cruise ship speaking gig:

Sixth Star Entertainment and Marketing has a last minute 50 % administrative fee opening for a Special Interest Lecturer to provide an entertaining program onboard the Tahitian Princess sailing through the Norwegian Fjords from June 19 - July 7, 2009.
No need to respond if you are unable to go. Thank you

Tahitian Princess
18 nights Land of the Midnight
Roundtrip Dover, England
June 19 - July 7, 2009
London, England
Day at Sea
Kiel Canal Transit
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Dover, England
Day at Sea
Stavanger, Norway
Flaam, Norway
Day at Sea
Tromso, Norway
Day at Sea
Aalesund, Norway
Magdalena Fjord, Norway
Day at Sea
Honningsvag, Norway
Day at Sea
Murmansk
Day at Sea
Gravdal, Norway
Trondheim Fjord
Geiranger, Norway
Hellesylt, Nowary
Bergen, Norway
Day at Sea
Dover, England
If you are interested in this cruise...

Parameters
On this cruise, you and your guest will receive all onboard meals, daytime activities, and evening entertainment. You will have to provide airfare and onboard gratuities.

We look forward to hearing!

Last year this time I was putting my name in the hat for the Norwegian Fjords cruise but this one is a real Cadillac. Nice to be able to say that you’ve already visited most of those ports of call though, although it’s the workload issues which will prevent us this year.