Back in Brum

So I'm back 'home'. What an incredible month off. Happy New Year to all of you, by the way, and hope you had a great Christmas.

I did all sorts of fun things with my family: we went to the Zoo, out for nice meals, went to a hockey game (go Flames!), did lots of shopping, to the theatre, went out to Kananaskis and Banff. It was great.

I went for a little looky-loo around the Children's Hospital as well, and was offered a job there in the Emergency. Is Calgary ready to have this chick back? Who knows? Certainly not me! I have pretty much been in a continuous spin cycle since then...

"I'll go to New Zealand...ah but (insert list of 25 reasons why Calgary is better)...yes, that makes sense. OK, I'll come back to Calgary...oh but, (insert reasons why NZ would be amazing)...I'm being silly, I'll go to NZ...although..."

Welcome to my little brain for nearly 3 weeks straight. Ah. Very exhausting!

Anyways, I am back here until February at least. I'll keep you posted. Anyone who has any suggestions, thoughts, prayers, or visions to make this decision easier is extremely welcome to let me know.

So my adventures since leaving Calgary?
Careful...I'm on a rant!

Well the flight home was one big continuous party. When we boarded, one extended family of about 25 people got on and sat pretty much at random wherever they wanted, despite all seats being prebooked. Now let me say the family were annoying and uncooperative to the n'th degree, but the stewardess (or "purser" as her name tag suggested, just what is that now?) did not help situtations at all by being a magnitudinous cow. It took almost an hour to sort out, while we just sat there.

Meanwhile, the couple beside me (very unfriendly) were discussing if they could grab the empty back row, despite me saying I thought it was reserved for the crew to take their breaks (clearly novices, well, not everyone can be an experienced jetsetter like moi!) ;) Every time the already agitated 'purser' walked by, the guy beside me would do that kindof litte jump, sit up straighter, try to make eye contact while extending his pointer finger in the air to get her attention. Then sigh when she (quite rightly) ignored him. In the end, when he finally grabbed her (and brave! Oh my goodness... I would not have made eye contact with this pissed-off woman for any money, let alone made a request of her!) she told him, in not nearly such a nice way that I did (ahem!) that it was for the crew and "don't you think we deserve to sit down sometimes too?!"

Things pretty much quieted down, and I even managed to grab some shut eye (although I was poked awake WITH MY BREAKFAST TRAY by same purser!!!) until we strapped in for landing. Now, I have experienced turbulence in my day but this was turbulence. We bumped, we jolted, we were thrown sideways. We experienced those kind of stomach-losing drops that make the back of your legs go numb and the whole plane collectively groan. The pilot came on the horn to tell us that we were in line for landing but would be circling for 10 more minutes. It was like being on the funfair ride that never ends and is not fun anymore. Babies were screaming, Mums were crying and Oh, the puking! I am not kidding when I say this was vomiting on a whole new level. Now, I don't like to be crass (OK...I do) but the chick in front of me was drafting in vomit bags from all over the plane, and filling them as quickly as they arrived. One woman (from the family of 25) actually got out of her seat and was thrown here, there and everywhere as she tried to make it to the bathroom (meanwhile, our favourite stewardess is screeching, get back in your seat! It's not safe!) All in all, there was 4 different people in my eyeline alone who were chucking (not that I chose to have my eyes open or watch them, you understand. My eyes were screwed shut and I had a death grip on the armrests!)

Eventually, we landed, surprisingly without the oxygen masks falling. And what does the crew say? "Gee, guys, that was a tough one, sorry about that, fortunately we made it?" Nope. "Here we are at London Heathrow. Thank you for choosing to fly with us, hope you had a good flight, please don't take off your seatbelts until the aircraft has come to a complete stop"

Now I would never be so low as to defame the airline, but it was British Airways (oops).

At least my beautiful sister, my wonderful nephew and the baby bump were all there to meet me. She took me back to hers, fed me, watered me, bathed me (just kidding!), let me sleep in their soft and warm spare bed. Things were great.

But reality hit hard when I returned back to my cold, empty flat. What's that smell? Death? Rotting?...

Knowing I was feeling low, the gods had decided to cheer me up by playing a little practical joke. At some indeterminate point in the 4 weeks we were gone, we had a little power cut. Presumably, when the power came back, things beeped back into life and started flashing 00:00. No harm. Oh, except, the freezer forgot to turn itself back on.

It is too depressing to talk about. Suffice it to say, my flatmate came back to a soupy mess last week. And being a boy, he threw all the food out (but left the garbage can full of rotting food!) and wiped the freezer once, then turned it back on (why oh why?), shut the door and left for another week. So I came home to a freezer that was entirely black and smelled like the plague.

Yesterday I spent my first day back home, jetlagged, lonely, and elbow deep in bleach with my head in a mouldy, icy, soupy, dripping pot of stinky gunge. I did what I could, but it still smells like terminal bad breath in here.

I have to go out now. I will write a more cheerful post this afternoon, but right now, spare a moment to feel a little bit sorry for me!

Love ya all