Business Trips

First off, looks like the Regina Fire Dept needs my driving skills


I recently return from a two day business trip to Winterpeg , and this will likely be my last business trip for sometime… maybe ever. Early in my career I found it quite exhilarating to go on a business trip. Having your company pay for flight, meals, hotels, pretty much everything is a treat, but I after doing it a few times the novelty wears off quickly.

I was always surprising to me how many people travel on business. I think the majority of flights within Canada contain more business people than people traveling for personal reasons. Maybe this doesn’t surprise most of you, but for me, when I went on my first with RBC I thought I was special in a way, a fortunate soul who was getting a bit of a benefit getting to travel, but then I looked around most others we also the business type, traveling alone, wearing a suit…I was just a face in the crowd, not special at all. What a blow to my ego.

The reasons not to enjoy traveling are many:

First and for most are Airplanes and Airports. You have to arrive a hour early (or more), then stand in line to check your bags, then stand in line at security, then you wait at the gate, then stand in line there, then you wait to get in your seat, wait to the plane taxi’s to the runway, wait until you arrive, wait until you taxi to the gate, wait to get off, wait for bags, wait for taxi’s…and so on. I am not a patient person and I do not enjoy waiting. Especially in an airport where everyting seems to be hurry up and wait. There are delays – especially in winter. Nothing like spending two hours sitting in an airport waiting for your flight to leave. Serious Boredom. On your luckiest days you manage to strike up a conversation with an interesting stranger. I don’t fit on planes either, there is no head room and no leg room. I literally can’t even stand up straight on the Air Canada Jazz flights, my head hits the roof. I’m also not a big fan of flying period; it makes me a little nervous. I don’t trust the airlines that they would ever tell me if there was something wrong, and when I don’t have any control it bugs me. If I could drive the thing I’m sure I would enjoy it much more.

Cabs – well let’s face it, I am one of the biggest back seat drivers on earth. I would much rather be behind the wheel then letting some two bit cab driver get me around. Plus they are dirty and expensive- and I have to wait for them.

Hotels – I don’t have a huge issue with hotels, I’m not picky, but I just can’t sleep in them. Often they are too hot, too bright, and too noisy. Thus I always feel tired when I’m traveling. Having to get my drinking water out of the bathroom tap also disgusts me a little. For some reason I also relate hotels to hangovers – I always seem to wake up in a hotel room hungover, which is not a good thing.

Eating – it’s pretty much impossible to eat healthy on the road. Eating in restaurants you usually eat to much, it’s possible to order reasonably healthy food, but I just eat too much. It’s dificult to eat between meals so I am too hungry when it comes time for the next meal. When at the hotel, unless you pack something, the only food available is junk food. And not that I should complain, but every meal seems to come with beer or wine, and while enjoyable, not good for my waistline. All this causes me to get indigestion and feel like a large bag of poop. Yes, I’m sure with the proper planning and will power I could eat better on the road, but it is mighty difficult thing to do.

I’m sure someday I will miss the chance to get out of the city once in a while on an all expense paid trip somewhere, but not for a while. Maybe the problem is that I never really got to go any where cool. All my road trips have been to Calgary, Winnipeg, or Saskatoon…not exactly my list of top destinations. I went to a conference in Banff, which may have been cool if I hadn’t been there 5 times before. Lots of people in my company went to places like Vegas, Vancouver, Toronto, Nashville.. all places I would like to go someday, but never got the chance to do it while employed in the corporate world.

Somehow I doubt the fire department sends many people on business trips to Vegas. Maybe if more hotels keep lighting on fire...

I'm back

So it has been a while since I posted anything on this fair blog of mine, and I have to admit that since return from the land that Castro built I haven’t really had an itch to blog. Likely it is just a combination of fatigue from a vacation and playing catch up at work, so I figure I will just force myself to write something in hopes that I will re-inspire myself.

Prior to leaving I was told that my blogs were getting a little “sappy” and I can’t argue with that. What with all the wedding stuff, Christmas, and the end of another year there was just too much mushy stuff to talk about. But enough of that, it ended with my crying at the reception, I will now refocus my posts on random rants on random subject, with the odd personal story if it fits.

I guess the obvious thing would be to talk about Cuba, but I really don’t know where to start. Most of my readers were there, so they know it was wicked good times, and for those of you who weren’t, I will give you the low down sometime face to face. There are plenty of pictures and face book and the now Mrs. Brady and I will get some pics up there soon. A quick summary of Cuba though. Long flights, nice hotel, ok food, awesome wedding, creepy Europeans, great GREAT times, lots of rum punches, pepto and Imodium, cigars, jeeps, hangovers, beautiful weather, relaxation, sweet Chinese food, Havana, shark, lizards, and dominos. I don’t know what else to say.

I will add that I hate ESPN. It is a junk station with junk programming. Even though my beloved TSN Sportscentre is basically the little sister to ESPN version, their version is a shit show that jumps all over the place spending the entire time talking about basketball then football, then basketball, then football, and so on. Junk. I had so much hockey to get caught up on when I got back. That station creates a deep hatred within me for our neighbors to the south. I could never live there for sports reasons alone.

Speaking of hating Americans…Cuban’s hate Americans with a passion. I can’t blame them really, for as long as most people can remember the US has basically treated Cuba like a cancer of the face of the earth. Granted I’m not completely up to speed on all the issues, but it seems pretty silly to me that after all this time the relationship hasn’t been fixed. Can’t we all just get along…oh, getting sappy again.

And speaking of hockey, I am pumped the my leas fired their GM, John Fergeson Jr. He never really got it together. Now we got a 72 year old, who man or man not be senile. But al least it isn’t Glen Healy. I hate to say it but they need to trade away Mats for a boat load and get this team in a rebuilding phase that will allow us to compete again in a few years.

Well I think that’s enough for now. It’s good to be back in the world of blogging. Talk to you all soon.