Weekend Getaways
It has been a little while since I have given anything resembling a quality update to this journal. I have been exceptionally busy with work and have hardly had a chance to breathe. I think I have been averaging 70 to 80 hours per week since January. In my last decent post I wrote that I was going to London for 48 hours. That was a great trip and I accomplished what I wanted: a haircut, Indian food for dinner and just a general breather. I also got to visit my uncle and his family and I took in a show on the Saturday night.
I flew Ryanair for the first time and was quite pleased, though I must say that Stansted is a heck of a long ways outside of London. The train service from Stansted is nice and frequent but not cheap. I seem to remember 15 pounds round trip if you bought your ticket on board the flight. Gatwick and Heathrow are not exactly close to the city centre but at least with Heathrow you can take the tube into the city for less than 5 quid.
On the Saturday night I decided I wanted to take in a show. I ended up going to see National Anthems at the Old Vic starring Kevin Spacey and Mary Stuart Masterson. The first act was slow and I struggled to stay awake but the second act was a little more interesting. It was a little odd, it was almost like my mother was sitting beside me. Since she was a young woman my mother has had these 6-10 gold bracelets that my grandfather gave her. When she moves her arm you hear the bracelets jangle. My grandfather got them when he was working in the Middle East. The woman sitting next to me had very similar bracelets.
For a variety of reasons I ended up working agreeing to work two assignments: Candela & the third unit at Tavazzano. One was supposed to follow the other but things got pretty desperate around the Easter as we hit major milestones down south and I still needed to get some stuff done up north. The following list of flights best shows how crazy things were:
03/10/05 AZ1634 BRI MXP
03/14/05 AZ1635 MXP BRI
03/26/05 AZ1636 BRI MXP
03/31/05 AZ1631 LIN BRI
04/04/05 AZ1634 BRI MXP
04/05/05 AZ1631 LIN BRI
04/07/05 AZ1632 BRI LIN
BRI - Bari is an hour south of Candela, MXP - Malpensa and LIN - Linate are the two main Milano airports. Even taking Easter Monday off think I still worked 80 hours in a one week period. Needless to say the weekend of the 9th I absolutely crashed. I had wanted to go away somewhere on Easter weekend but I think we ended up running through Easter Sunday. So much for getting away for the weekend.
One of the things that I learned from the circus following the pope's death was how much he meant to the citizens of Poland and how much credit he was given for helping to bring an end to communism. It was amazing how much the funeral wreaked havoc with Italy. I even got SMS messages on my Civil Protection folks telling me to use public transport if I was going to Rome to pay homage to the pope. Be ready for long traffic jams, hot during the day and cool at night. How considerate of them. What they neglected to tell me is that people were renting cars in Milano to drive south. On the 7th I arrived at Linate and I had not had time to make a reservation with Hertz for a car. I arrived just after breakfast and when I said I did not have a reservation I was told I was out of luck. I could not believe it. I took public transit into the main train station to Hertz there, still no cars. I asked them to call Malpensa to see if they had cars, during this time they told me that they had a small car for me. I thought they said Smart Car (as in Smart fortwo) but it turns out it was a Ford Ka. (The car must have been named following a misunderstanding with someone from Boston.) The Ka is not so bad, I can get it up to 140 without trouble but you really do not want to go over 160 as it starts to get scary. (For reference the Smart fortwo that I had was electronically governed to 140 km/h.)
This Sunday my friend Amy is getting married. Last night I bought a ticket to go home for the weekend. US$575. Not bad for 3 days notice if you ask me. I regularly read ljtravel and often you get people posting looking for cheap tickets. The trouble is people never define cheap. For me the ticket I bought is a bargain but I bet others would call it too expensive. Timing is everything and this is not high season. I am looking forward to a couple days back in Toronto, I fly out Thursday afternoon and fly back Sunday night. I must be insane.
Oh and the best news of all is that this summer I am scheduled for an assignment in Galway, Ireland. I can't wait.
I flew Ryanair for the first time and was quite pleased, though I must say that Stansted is a heck of a long ways outside of London. The train service from Stansted is nice and frequent but not cheap. I seem to remember 15 pounds round trip if you bought your ticket on board the flight. Gatwick and Heathrow are not exactly close to the city centre but at least with Heathrow you can take the tube into the city for less than 5 quid.
On the Saturday night I decided I wanted to take in a show. I ended up going to see National Anthems at the Old Vic starring Kevin Spacey and Mary Stuart Masterson. The first act was slow and I struggled to stay awake but the second act was a little more interesting. It was a little odd, it was almost like my mother was sitting beside me. Since she was a young woman my mother has had these 6-10 gold bracelets that my grandfather gave her. When she moves her arm you hear the bracelets jangle. My grandfather got them when he was working in the Middle East. The woman sitting next to me had very similar bracelets.
For a variety of reasons I ended up working agreeing to work two assignments: Candela & the third unit at Tavazzano. One was supposed to follow the other but things got pretty desperate around the Easter as we hit major milestones down south and I still needed to get some stuff done up north. The following list of flights best shows how crazy things were:
03/10/05 AZ1634 BRI MXP
03/14/05 AZ1635 MXP BRI
03/26/05 AZ1636 BRI MXP
03/31/05 AZ1631 LIN BRI
04/04/05 AZ1634 BRI MXP
04/05/05 AZ1631 LIN BRI
04/07/05 AZ1632 BRI LIN
BRI - Bari is an hour south of Candela, MXP - Malpensa and LIN - Linate are the two main Milano airports. Even taking Easter Monday off think I still worked 80 hours in a one week period. Needless to say the weekend of the 9th I absolutely crashed. I had wanted to go away somewhere on Easter weekend but I think we ended up running through Easter Sunday. So much for getting away for the weekend.
One of the things that I learned from the circus following the pope's death was how much he meant to the citizens of Poland and how much credit he was given for helping to bring an end to communism. It was amazing how much the funeral wreaked havoc with Italy. I even got SMS messages on my Civil Protection folks telling me to use public transport if I was going to Rome to pay homage to the pope. Be ready for long traffic jams, hot during the day and cool at night. How considerate of them. What they neglected to tell me is that people were renting cars in Milano to drive south. On the 7th I arrived at Linate and I had not had time to make a reservation with Hertz for a car. I arrived just after breakfast and when I said I did not have a reservation I was told I was out of luck. I could not believe it. I took public transit into the main train station to Hertz there, still no cars. I asked them to call Malpensa to see if they had cars, during this time they told me that they had a small car for me. I thought they said Smart Car (as in Smart fortwo) but it turns out it was a Ford Ka. (The car must have been named following a misunderstanding with someone from Boston.) The Ka is not so bad, I can get it up to 140 without trouble but you really do not want to go over 160 as it starts to get scary. (For reference the Smart fortwo that I had was electronically governed to 140 km/h.)
This Sunday my friend Amy is getting married. Last night I bought a ticket to go home for the weekend. US$575. Not bad for 3 days notice if you ask me. I regularly read ljtravel and often you get people posting looking for cheap tickets. The trouble is people never define cheap. For me the ticket I bought is a bargain but I bet others would call it too expensive. Timing is everything and this is not high season. I am looking forward to a couple days back in Toronto, I fly out Thursday afternoon and fly back Sunday night. I must be insane.
Oh and the best news of all is that this summer I am scheduled for an assignment in Galway, Ireland. I can't wait.