whiplash

I'm back from the Southlands, everybody. I had a good break from work, although I spent several days in bed with a strep throat. Here are the lovely girls I spent New Years' Eve with.

Now that I'm back to work, I find I'm smacked by a mental whiplash. Concussed by moving from one frantic to do list to another, far too quickly. Talk about hitting the ground running... it was a harsh reality to return to.

The trip itself was interesting though. First Air, continually reinventing itself and finding a bottomless well of ways to interfere with simple travel plans, changed the plane we were all booked on. They changed us from an ATR jet to a twin otter. Twin otters are my favourite plane, when I know about it ahead of time. You can only have a very small carry-on for twin otter flights. In our case, they told us 5 minutes before boarding that we couldn't bring our carry-ons. I love twin otters. There is no wall between passenger and pilot, and you can see them work the controls and even look out the front windshield. It's a loud plane and conversation is impossible, and it's either too hot or too cold. Still, they are the safest thing in the air, and they have a special place in my heart. On bigger planes you can totally ignore takeoff and landing... you could sleep right through it if you chose to. You can't ignore a twin otter. They are loud, and you feel like you're really flying.

I found myself home an hour late and six pieces of luggage light, including my cooler of veggies, cheese and milk, which was sitting on the tarmac in Iqaluit. All's well that ends well, and it all ended well.

I am happy to be back. I wish I had another few days off, but I know I'll be glad to have the kids back tomorrow.