Return to the 'wa

Six months after heading over the pond to live in the 'burra (and 10 months for B and D) we flew back to Ottawa on Monday for, amongst other things, a little bit of R&R, seeing lots of good people, and getting the band back in shape. The flight over here was a bit insane - we left over two hours late since the plane was late leaving on the previous flight, due to being late the flight before that - a domino effect of late flights, as it were. Anyhow, we set off across the Atlantic, and just as we were getting close to land, the pilot comes on and says that due to stronger than expected winds, and our not being able to get the altitude they had hoped for, we didn't have enough fuel to make it to Toronto. As a result, we made a refueling pitstop in Goose Bay, Labrador.

I have never been to Labrador before, but it's not like we were allowed to leave the plane, otherwise there would have been a whole mess of customs problems to deal with. I will also admit that I don't really know a whole lot about Labrador, except that my impression of it from the plane window is that it would probably be a great place to go camping and canoeing for a long stretch of time, really frontier-like. And with a name like Happy Valley-Goose Bay, how could it not be good times?

Anyhow, a half-hour later and we were heading back into the air for another couple of hours until landing in Toronto. From there, we got a ride to Brockville with D's dad, had some dinner (including my first real poutine in well over six months) then we caught the train back to Ottawa, and made it to my parents place about 22 hours after we left our flat.

So what am I excited about for the coming weeks? Well, to start with, there are friends I want to hang out with as much as possible. We've already had one full TRS practice with a couple more on the way, and then there are four shows in the following two weeks - Toronto, Sudbury, Montreal and Ottawa. I'm excited to see my niece & nephew, spending some time outside in the sun, and maybe if I'm lucky, a bit of camping.

Unfortunately, it's not all fun and games for Your Humble Narrator. Since I'm still on contract, I am going to be spending some days working and sorting out stuff I can't do from Scotland. People also seem to want me in on meetings now that I'm back. But really, it's a small price to pay for getting to work remotely for the rest of the year.

Next up - a weekend in Cornwall. Stay tuned!

(Image via Wikipedia.)