Notes from my apartment

I've obviously spent a lot of time at home lately given my battle with the pneum. What I have noted so far is;

• IGA really is just downstairs. You can pick up gingerale and Lipton chicken noodle soup between the hours of 7am and midnight. Does it get any better?
• Other than the occasional pile drive at the construction site my place is quiet enough for a day time nap for a person, like myself, that is light sleeper.
• While I want to get rid of cable I am really enjoying Shaw On Demand movie service. Same price as pay per view but you can watch the movie you order anytime, pause, rewind etc. and you get it for 24 hours. Just wishing I wasn't working yesterday so I could have watched Pineapple Express for a second time.
• On a Sunday night when you are extremely short of breath you can text your sister a block away and let her know you might be needing her to take you to the ER. I felt very confident she would step up to the plate. Just need to provide her with an extra set of keys in case I had passed out.
• The chaise can be turned on an angle and is perfect for watching 2 movies back to back. Very comfortable.

Looking forward to a day of rest that will involve laundry, grocery shopping and seeing the gold medal sledge hockey game at 5pm.

The only thing that would perfect this day would be a nice visit from my new nephew Kaz. Not even a photo yesterday from Dave. Do we have to beg?

whose counting?

Really enjoyed my day at home. Watched the movie 'In Bruges'. Quite good. Watched some TLC (managed not to call and cancel cable today). Did some laundry. Drank vitamin water. Peeled grapefruits. All in all it was success. Barking cough is still there but I no longer feel feverish and exhausted. One more day of rest and I think I will have beat pneumonia.

Back to work Friday and Saturday but Sunday will be off. Going to watch the gold medal ice sledge hockey game at UBC with Ritchy. Should be fun.

Day 10 or 14: Something is terribly wrong...and now I know what it is

Pneumonia! Damn bug is apparently the cause of my 8 days of fevered work, labored breathing while walking up the stairs and panicked texts to Rachel that I think I might not make it.

Have made executive decision to take a full day off tomorrow and half day off Thursday. Have unloaded an 11 hour shift and 9 hour shift on to other staff. I just used the p word and everyone backed away in fear and told me to stay the hell away from them. It is really effective. Almost like telling people I have the plague.

This ends my 14 days straight of working. Getting sick on day 3 really put me over the edge. Going to sleep and watch movies for all of tomorrow. Have tons of fruit and veggies here to provide me with nutritious meals on the road to wellness.

Relieved I have not gotten around to cancelling cable yet. A little Oprah tomorrow will be just what the doctor ordered.

Day 9 of 14: Too much and too little

Wandering around in a complete fog with this cold. Really need it to end. Have doctor's appointment tomorrow. I was feeling bad for myself until someone from another department complained to me today that they haven't had a day off since January 4th. Now, you may ask what will I do next year at this time? This time next year we have a 17 day event, break and then another event. Not three months continuous of events and trying to do our day jobs.


Making fish and green beans for dinner. Hope healthy eating will help me kick this thing.

5 days to go until my day off!

When are we going to see photos of the new addition? I keep refreshing the blog to see if brother Dave has posted an update. Or maybe he will post to facebook. Still confused on what the name is but hoping mum will bring back clarification and photos when she visits later this week.

Day 5 of 14: failure

We've been yelling 'failure' at one another quite a bit at work lately. It seems harsh but has us laughing more than anything else. For instance; when I was working at the sliding centre the ceremonies team failed to meet their time standard for getting the medal ceremony started. We walked away saying 'Too bad the whole event failed because of the ceremonies team.'

Well today I 'failed' to make it to the office. The cold is sitting on me like a parked truck with ebrake on and does not look like it will be moving anytime soon. Feel like hell. I did work from home; firing off emails and taking phone calls. Have managed to infect others in my team and they too are at home cursing an open work environment that spreads germs like a day care full of snot nosed toddlers.

My friend Sarah sent me this ecard and told me to give to my coworkers. I laughed out loud and proceeded to print it out so that I can give it to the one person on my team that plays baseball.

Back to vitamin water and spicy foods.

Day 3 of 14: rock the Kasbah

Today I officially submitted my vacation request for April. Maybe it was the fact that I have woken up with a cold, maybe it was the fact that tomorrow is a suit day, but I needed to firm things up for my vacation in April.

I then came home and put the deposit down on my trip, entitled 'Morocco Kasbahs and Desert', described as;

'Compact and independent, this adventure gives you the best of Morocco with maximum flexibility. Experience a 4x4 excursion of the dunes of the Sahara, climb high-walled kasbahs, cross the High Atlas mountains, and wander the rabit-warren alleys of Fez and Marrakech - Do it your way.'

Over 8 days I visit; Casablanca, Rabat, Roman ruins of Volubilis, Meknès, Fez, Merzouga, 4x4 desert sand dune excursion, Todhga, Ouarzazate, Ben Haddou, Marrakech, Djemma El Fna Square.

At the end of this I will meet up with Chris and Rachel for some sightseeing in Marrakech before we head to Tangiers to catch the ferry to Spain for a week of relaxing in the sun.

The thought of this trip is really keeping me going.

Must go sort out my dry clean only clothing for tomorrow.

Day 2 of 14

Today is day 2 of 14 days straight of work. March 1st will be my next day off.

So far I am feeling good and still fitting in a workout a day. The true test will be to see if I can still eat well, keep my apartment tidy and not run out of clean clothing.

I have a mix of very formal events for work (suits) and working out of a venue (fleece vest, jeans and running shoes) this week.

There will be a mix of double or triple (Swiss) cheek kisses for my European counterparts and long hours at an indoor, but extremely cold, venue.

Managing expectations, volunteers and time.

Communicating via cell phone, email and radio.

Working at HQ, HIL and the Westin.

Off to get a good night sleep in preparation for Day 3.