after 9 hours of flying and what felt like one hundred hours of waiting, I am home sweet home. Back in my studio, my kitchen, my bed, my life with the people I love most.

Travelling for work, though always a little bit fascinating, is awful and tedious and tired. While some can wax on at length about the beauty of new cities (and I can see this perspective), what they sometimes fail to see is the no-time, no-patience, no-energy you’re left with at the end of a long (and sometimes longer than long) work day.

I will gladly spend the next few weeks *not* talking about price-points, and RAM requirements, and offering up a “would you like to see a demo?” because you can really only talk about any of these things non-stop for five days without having a bit of a breakdown.

but despite the crazy work and the show that was one day too long, and the long flights, and the trying to answer emails in my room between show duty and dinner and socializing and omg, the overcrowded 8:42 tram #4, Amsterdam was hands down one of the nicest cities I’d love to see again. And I know some people would disagree, but I think it’s like having centretown times 1000 + bikes (!) and H&M (!) and way better coffee.

And now all I’ve got to do is look forward to doing it all again next year. :)

In the meantime, I’m going to be happy to settle for my (if only slightly) overgrowing porch. Hello basil!

After flying to toronto tuesday night I boarded another louder bigger plane, bound for Amsterdam.

About an hour into the flight, I was gazing out the window and recognized a “big” lake spread out below me, reflecting the shadow of the moon back in every shiny inch of its surface. The lake of course, was Dows Lake. Home. Almost home, anyway. The more I looked the more I could see and recognize and miss. I could see the odd grid of Centretown, the lustre of the canal shining it’s glossy surface back at the moon. I could see the major streets (Somerset, Laurier, Gladstone, Elgin) and I hadn’t truly felt far away from home until I could trace the outlines of home onto the window next to my seat, listening to Laura Veirs sing about Galaxies. Galaxies indeed.

And now that’s it. I’m here. And so far, I love this city. In many ways it feels like a city whose streets I have walked before, though everything is new. You can follow along in photos over here, if you’d like. If you’re not a bicycle lover, you may wonder “geez – what is UP with all those bike photos she is taking?” but seriously, you cann’t avoid them here. They are *everywhere*. And I love it.

I’ve been reading a lot lately. I tend to go through phases with books – there has to be just enough time to laze about turning pages for me to really get into it, otherwise I get too stressed about having enough time to finish it up. Welcome to my time-planning-compulsion.

The four books above are the ones I’ve been whipping through these past few weeks. Amsterdam is kind of self-explanatory. I didn’t go all out and get a “tourist guide” because, well, I have access to the internet, and secondly, I’m there for work. Which will likely consume about 1000% of my time. But it makes good page-flipping fodder, and I get to think about what I *might* do, if I had the chance. I’d like to get out and at least do something, like the Van Gogh Museum, and take a zillion photos. Luckily, we’re staying near the flowermarket area, and we’ll have to tram everyday to get to the conference center. Travel time – picture time!

The second is Party Of One: The Loners Manifesto, a novel by Anneli Rufus on why society makes it tough to be an introvert, but all the same, being an introvert is ok. I was inspired to pick it up after I read her farewell chronicles – an amazing book on how people really cope with death, and why it shouldn’t be such a taboo subject.

The other two I haven’t been able to get into yet…perhaps they’ll be reborn as plane fodder if we’re still allowed to bring books onboard….

And on that note, a funny link about air travel.