I'm finding it extremely difficult to work these days. Today was The Day most people around the office found out whether they would be on their way out or part of the structuring company. Even though this round of layoffs had nothing to do with me, having known my situation for a week now, the desire to know who was let go was still distracting. That and the fact that I really had no concrete work to do, aside from read about what's been on the go in the Telecom industry.

It's a real shame knowing that our company, which held the #1 spot on BC Business's Top Employer list, will fall victim to the troubles of the high-tech industry once again. The layoffs seemed to see so many of the great employees that gave the social feel go, and I wonder whether the people remain will even see their "survival" as a blessing. I am aware of a few people who question whether they still want to stay at the company after the changes, as there will be a huge cultural overhaul, not withstanding morale issues.

Nevertheless, sometimes change is good and it usually doesn't happen unless it's forced. I'm looking forward to new opportunities, whichever way they should appear.

As I watch tonight's Canucks game at Anaheim, I witnessed one of the most amazing things I'd seen in a hockey game:

Copied from www.canucks.com --

"This had nothing to do with the game, but it's just so weird it merits mentioning. About a minute after Martin Gerber took over for Giguere, the Twins pulled a stunt that will never be repeated. Daniel walked over the Ducks' line and into the face-off circle before unloading a slapper that beat Gerber and rang off the near post. The puck bounced straight out to the opposite dot where Henrik sat with stick cocked. He rifled it and it caught the other post and rang out.

Two twins, two consecutive shots and two post. Heck, the tone of ring was even eerily similar."

I had a posting the other day about the WJH Championship that I wrote right after the game ended. But blogger died, and my long post disappeared. Bummer.

Anyway, I'm back at work after more than 1 month off for recovery. So far, it's been a quiet day. We'll see how things ramp up.

Happy New Year!!

Why aren't there any good outdoor places to go for the New Year's countdown? I was out at Robson and Thurlow, which seemed like the biggest crowd in the area. The intersection was filled, and there was a fine police presence. We parked (somewhat illegally) about 1 - 2 blocks away, with 2 minutes to spare, and ran to the intersection. The problem with the little clock tower above Banana Republic is that there isn't a seconds hand!! Well, that's not going to make for a good countdown, is it. I quickly pulled out my camera to take a short video, and by then, everyone started cheering and the "New Year's anthem" was playing. Not quite like what I saw on TV earlier when the clock struck twelve at Times Square. In any case, the crowd dispersed and we headed back too.

I hear that Granville Island is a good place to go to bring in the new year. Where else other than a $50 - $100 dinner/dance party?

Since I started recovering at home, I've been less compelled to write up blogs. Unfortunately, I've also stopped reading other people's blogs. I'll get back into that slowly.

5:30am. I'm heading to the hospital for my surgery. For more-than-full details, read the Dental Chronicles in my links.

I've brought bad weather back with me to Vancouver. It was sunny the day I got back, then overcast skies the next day, and it's now pouring rain. I think I snuck in a little too discreetly and the skies didn't realize I was back... otherwise they would have greeted me with showers the day I returned. Haha... suckers!

The weather is always better above the clouds.

I'm home.

My journey home started with the flight back to London from Montpellier, where I sat beside an Irish woman and Dutch guy who were talking (I was at the far right, next to the Dutch guy). The other two had just met, and kicked up a conversation that lasted the entire ride. The Irish woman did most of the talking, yammering about 85% of the time... talking about herself (early 50's, rejuvenated by her in-process divorce from her husband of 20+ years after he's been cheating on her with one of her good friends for X number of years -- this being her 2nd husband, I believe). Anyway, although I didn't take part in the conversation, my eavesdropping has me feeling like I know her intimately, from her take on sexuality and dating to her beautiful daughters to her travels and her self-run business.

We landed around 10:30pm, fairly on schedule and I caught an 11pm Stansted Express train to London. Somehow, the 45-minute train ride lasted over an hour, making it very possible that I wouldn't be able to catch the last Tube connections I needed to make. But fortunately, I caught the last Picadilly line train of the day, and got to KevinC's place around 12:45am.

After a good night's sleep, it was off to Heathrow Airport. The 9h20m flight went by fairly quickly as I read some complimentary Top Gear, Time, and Business Traveller magazines, slept, and watched some on-board shows. And so my trip ended -- coming into YVR at 3:15pm.

It's rather nippy here in Vancouver, but it's good to be back. Somehow my 1400 photos/video clips only appears as 1250 on the computer. Not sure what happened there. I hope I just miscounted. I'll have some selected pictures posted shortly. Thanks for reading.

Just wrapping up my trip here in France. On Saturday, I went to the Pezenas market in the morning, then met up with Florence in Montpellier. We had lunch with her friend Julie, and then we walked around the main areas of the city, which has a nice mix of older (but well kept) buildings, and new modern architecture. Quite a nice city actually. But their traffic plans are screwed up, because it took me 30 minutes to get out of the city and back onto the highway! Too many one way streets, and poor usage of signs.

Yesterday, I drove down to Agde and Cap d'Agde, down by the Mediterranean Sea. On a sunny day, it would have been cooler. Would have also been better had I left the house earlier too. Then I drove for about 15 - 20 minutes along the sea to Sete, which also would have been nicer on a better-weathered day... and with more time. But at least I can say "been there, done that".

Trish and Trevor have both been suffering from the flu, so it was just me driving around. Would have been nice to have them there with me, but what can you do?

I am ready to head off to the airport in a couple of hours for a 2hr flight back to London. I am hoping to arrive at KevinC's place around 11:30pm for the night. Ok... see ya.