So this week will, in Bert’s annals anyway, forever be marked with a happy face. For this is the week that we got our Roomba.

It all began with an IM while I was away:

Bert ‘hey, do you want any input into the vacum cleaner or should I just go ahead and buy one?’

Me ‘oh go ahead, it’s only a vacum cleaner afterall’

Me (again) ‘as long as it’s not like a Roomba or something’

This was followed by a long period of IM silence from Bert.

So anyway, this week our brand new Roomba arrived after a rather long delay - I think the guy from ebay was writing the address at the rate on one line per day - with a break every other day to recharge his pen or something.

I have to admit, despite my initial misgivings (I figured that the whole thing must be a gimick) the Roomba is actually pretty cool, especially when it goes back to its dock all by itself.

Meeka also seems to have settled into a Roomba routine. Everytime the Roomba starts up, she rushes into the room that it’s vacuming and one-by-one picks her toys up off the floor and carries them into the other room.

I think she thinks she’s ’saving’ her toys from the Roomba. I know that after all the training trying the get her to pick up after herself, all we really needed to do was get a robot vacum cleaner.

I wonder if the same trick works on kids.

So the past couple of weeks have been insane.

I managed to get back to Montreal without any problems and then spent the last two weeks:

1. Working stupidly long hours
2. Getting shouted at by my boss
3. Getting shouted at by other people for doing what my boss shouts at me to do
4. Spending hours and hours editing documents, and then editing them back again
5. Helping three people move - three people who don’t even like me at that
6. Alternately wading through mud and slipping on ice as Spring has a bit of an identity crisis.

There have been some good things too though:

1. We agreed to go to Sweden for vacation this summer
2. I planted my seeds and am waiting for them to grow
3. I am home
4. I am eating home cooked meals
5. I am not sleeping alone

So all in all the world is good, life is good and I promise to be better about blogging - but then again I’m pretty sure I’ve promised that before

And not a bite to eat.

Yesterday I decided come hell or high water, that I was going to go out for dinner with a glass of wine and all.

So I rushed to finish my work and then off I went.

The first restaurant was closed.

The second restaurant was empty.

The third restaurant was empty.

By the fourth restaurant I didn’t care if there was nobody else eating there so I went on in and asked for a table for one.

After two or three minutes of consultations between the bus boy, the waiter, and two other guys at the back of the restaruant they finally came back to me.

And asked me to come back in half an hour because the kitchen wasn’t open yet.

It was 7:50 pm

There comes a time in every business trip when I start to look exactly how I feel.

Unfortunately after being in 7 cities in 3 days (granted some I was only in for a couple of hours) I am tired. And, given the 2 meetings I am responsible for in the next 4 days, and the woefuly abysmal state of preparedness I currently face, I also happen to be stressed.

What this means, is that when I wake up at 6 am in the lovely city of Rome to continue working on the workshop report / presentations / agendas / background documents / you get the idea, I look in the mirror and see:

unattractive dark circles under my eyes

unattractive zits on my face

unattractive dry frazzled hair, and

unattractive despair in my eyes.

Ok perhaps despair is too strong a word but the theme here is unattractive.

And there’s nothing quite like getting up to speak in front of a large group of people knowing that you look like hell.

I can’t wait to see you again honey. If you have a hard time recognizing me at the airport, I’ll be the ugly one.

Two posts in two days…how good am I? Well I’m off to Brussels via Bangkok and Helsinki (cause that’s so not the most direct route - but it’s the cheapest).

Australia was very interesting and blooming expensive. I mean seriously, $4.50 for a muffin!?! And that doesn’t even get you a fancy muffin, just a plain old, muffin express muffin. I think maybe I’ve been living in Montreal for too long.

I also learned some great new phrases like:

‘ducks and mandrakes’ - as in, the door is going ducks and mandrakes on me today
‘crisp bloke’ - as in, he’s a crisp bloke in that suit of his all right
and, of course, ‘g’day’ - as in g’day mate (which I really thought people only said in the movies).

So aside from the lack of muffins (cause there was no way I was spending that much) I would definitely come back again, but on vacation this time so I can actually do some of that sun-worshiping stuff you’re supposed to do at a tropical beach resort.