In Ottawa

The plane ride was fairly uneventful. I haven’t flown West Jet for a while, but thankfully everyone on board still had a great sense of humour, and the flight was nice and smooth. I was pretty happy to see that new Harry Potter on the in flight entertainment, since I haven’t had time to see it and I had really wanted to. On West Jet, you have to pay if you want to watch a movie, but I figure I can kill a paperback in about 4 hours or so, so paying $5 to watch a movie isn’t that bad a deal.

The rest of the time I spent messing around with my new iPod, and I have to say, that thing is really slick. Whenever I hit a snag and think to myself “oh, Apple really left this out when they should have put it in,” I usually end up finding that they did in fact put it in. An example is the alarm clock. I thought they had gotten rid of this since it was a rather useless feature in older iPods (since you basically had to have your headphones on to wake you up). However, not only did I find the alarm clock feature in the iPod touch, but Apple has now added a small speaker and it was definitely loud enough to wake me up this morning. So good job Apple.

Sunset over Ottawa
The plane flew directly over downtown Ottawa on our final approach and did a slow circle towards the airport — from my vantage point, I got to see autumn in all it’s splendor, lit beautifully by the setting sun. Fall in Ontario is absolutely gorgeous, and people who have never seen it really are missing out. The trees are so colourful and varied, and I’m definitely looking forward to taking a nice stroll during one lunch hour this week.

Downtown Ottawa
Since I didn’t check any bags, I was out of the airport in about 5 minutes flat. The cab ride from the airport to the hotel was about $60, and I really had forgotten just how far Kanata is from everything. During that process, I got a call from the receptionist of the medical clinic in Vancouver saying my test results are back and they wanted me to come in. I explained that I was in Ontario, and couldn’t come in for at least 8 or 9 days, which for some reason, was very hard to her to understand (even though I told the doctor this last week – that if the results came in after Friday I would be gone and unable to come in for the results). I asked her if her or the doctor could give them to me over the phone, and she said no. And then asked if the results warranted medication, and she said yes. So I said “what do you suggest I do then?,” to which she didn’t really have an answer.

I asked if they could please call the prescription into a pharmacy out here for me, and she said she would check with the doctor. At that point she said to call back tomorrow and try to sort it out. Of course, I don’t like being deflected, so I said “I’m calling now from Ontario, so I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a note for the doctor and ask him if he can take care of it, or call my cell phone if there’s a problem.” I didn’t really feel like her passing the buck on this one.

So anyways, hopefully tomorrow I’ll know just how messed up my gut is, and hopefully start some medication for it. In the meantime, I’m basically stuck out here in Kanata for four days, which isn’t terrible since I have a lot to do and next weekend is probably going to be a gong show. I had a nice dinner at the hotel bar, and then spent the next hour bouncing between the gym and the pool. And now, I’ve cracked the mini-bar and am enjoying a nice rum and diet coke before bed. I couldn’t find the ice machine on my floor, so I called the front desk.

“Oh sir, we deliver the ice to your door for you. We’ll be right there.” Nice.