Tag Archives: holiday

Sleeping on a plane

I still marvel at the idea of large planes traveling with the weight of people and luggage, defying gravity, thanks to forward propulsion and Bernoulli’s Principle. It still seems like magic to me. But the cost of this miraculous feat is such that people are squeezed into planes like sardines. This is not conducive to seats that are comfortable for sleeping.

That’s not a big deal for short flights, but on long trips, and multiple trips with layovers, that extend over several time zones, the lack of sleep is less than desirable. For me, travelling east is harder than travelling west, and getting some good sleep on the trip would be desirable… but not achievable.

Every time I do a trip like this I think, there must be an app that helps you plan your trip such that you reduce jet lag. But, I don’t travel enough to actually make the effort, and besides, even if I did, I still wouldn’t be able to get the recommended sleep suggested.

I just had a 4.5 hours flight from Vancouver to Toronto that was delayed almost 2 hours. Then power walked to a gate that felt 2 kilometres away to arrive at the gate for our our next flight about 20 minutes before boarding. That was a 7+ hour flight from Toronto to Paris. Now we’ve just finished a 4 hour layover and have a 2 hour flight to Barcelona. I’m tired. I didn’t sleep enough, but I’m afraid to even try sleeping now for fear of getting up in the middle of the night ready to start the day.

My strategy for not being able to sleep on a plane is to fight sleep until regular bedtime in my new time zone. It doesn’t make for a very comfortable travel day, but hopefully I won’t be falling asleep on my first full day in my new destination. Wish me luck.

Airports and airplanes

Today we travel from Vancouver to Toronto to Paris to Barcelona. Including an early arrival to the airport, on one of the busiest travel days of the holiday, we will be traveling for 26 hours. Add another 9 hours on the clock to that for time zones and this makes for a looong day!

But we finally get to see our daughter, who turned 23 a couple days ago, for the first time since she moved to France. And our youngest daughter is with us, and this is our first family vacation in a few years.

We are going to spend a lot of time in airports and on airplanes… but I’m finally getting excited about the trip. And I’ve got a few episodes of a show downloaded on my iPad as well as 2 audio books on my phone. I have snacks, headphones, and AirPods, and a battery power bank to keep my devices charged. I’d like to just click my heels and arrive at my destination, but if I’m going to spend a whole day traveling, I might as well keep myself entertained.

Barcelona… here I come!

Travel plans

I find it odd how much time we spend planning to go away. We have a cat that needs attending to, and fortunately we have a nephew who will be staying at our place while away. There are flights and places to stay to arrange. There is the packing, and the planning of things to do.

Holiday getaways are wonderful things, and I feel fortunate to be able to enjoy the great trip to Spain we have planned, but I don’t get excited by the planning and prep work the way I see others get. I don’t know how to ‘do’ anticipatory excitement. But I love arriving at a new destination. I love waking up in the morning in a foreign place knowing that the sights and sounds of the day will be different and new. I enjoy the flavours of new foods.

Now it’s time to start packing so that I’m not in a scramble the night before we leave… and hopefully a little excitement will creep into the tasks I need to do.

4-day work week

Maybe it’s my age, but I really wish the work week was just 4 days long. Too often a weekend feels too short. It’s not even about rest, it’s about wanting to do more in such a short time.

We’ve had a few 3-day weekends recently and I’ve really noticed a significant difference compared to this past 2-day weekend. I got stuff done beyond the ‘need to do’ stuff when I had one more day.

I don’t know the history behind the 5-day work week, and frankly I don’t care to look it up. It doesn’t matter what the reason was, it just doesn’t seem necessary anymore. Add an hour a day to the school day, Monday to Thursday, and Fridays get added to the weekend.

What would it take to make this happen? Whose game to try?

Understanding orange

Today is orange shirt day.

4 years ago I shared this 3 minute and 43 second video on Facebook:

I’m thankful for TJ, teaching me and allowing me to share his story. I’m thankful to Inquiry Hub student Madison for sharing her ‘Every Child Matters’ artwork with our school and community.

I am thankful that as more Truths come out about Residential Schools, the stories have inspired us to recognize that there are two parts of Truth and Reconciliation… there is the truth of what happened, and the reconciliation that is beginning to happen.

It would be easy to see Truth and Reconciliation Day as just another holiday from school, It’s harder to understand why it matters. Harder to see that reconciliation work is something to foster beyond the day off from school, and well into the future of our communities and our country.

Every child matters. Wear orange today and share your support.

Holiday decompression

We arrived home yesterday from a wonderfully relaxing Kelowna holiday. Today just disappeared. It’s already almost 5:30pm and I’m left wondering where the day went?It doesn’t matter that the holiday wasn’t a run-around-fun holiday, and that most of what I did was relax anyway. Day one after returning home from a holiday feels like a recovery day.

Is it just me or do you often feel like you need a holiday to get over your holiday?

Decompression time

Holidays are funny things. There is this delicate dance of feelings whereby one moment you are wanting to plan what you will do with your day so it isn’t wasted, and another moment whereby you are enjoying doing absolutely nothing. Well, not nothing, but going for a walk, laying in a hammock, listening to a book, or taking a nap.

It takes a while to decompress and allow yourself to enjoy doing nothing. It takes a while to appreciate being still, and not spending your time planning what’s next. But once that’s achieved, then decompression really begins.

It’s fun to plan things on your holidays, and it’s also fun to plan to do a little bit of nothing.

Summer mode

There are still a few things I need to do before I go full into summer mode. Most I’ll get done this week, but a few items will drag into next week. But I’m already feeling distracted and like I’m slowing down. I don’t feel very efficient right now.

Part of this is the routine woes that I already spoke about. I have tried to keep my routines, but it’s 6:30am and I’m usually done writing and meditating by now. I’ve already pushed my workout later in the day twice and missed a workout this week, and it’s only Thursday.

Part of me knows it has been a long year and I’m partially checked out, which is easy to do going to a building where there are no students or teachers, and even my secretaries have been relocated for summer. Part of me feels like I’m just being lazy. No matter how I look at it, I’m less productive than I should be. Yesterday I checked two things off of my ‘To Do’ list and I added two more. Today I hope to add nothing new and just check off a few more.

One item I’m excited to do will have to wait. It’s a series of lessons I’m developing based on James Clear’s book Atomic Habits. I want to create 10 two-to-three minute lessons to run over 2 weeks, with a goal of students starting a good habit that they decide on. My whiteboard in my office has had most of the concept and plan on it all year, but I really need some uninterrupted planning time to get it from idea to reality, and my ‘to do’ list is too big of a distraction right now. Still, I’m excited to get this ready for September, and I know I’ll be coming into my office to get it done over the break.

But for right now, I need to stay in work mode and get stuff done. Summer holidays won’t feel like holidays until I can put my ‘away from office’ notification on my email. Until then, I need to push summer mode to the side.

No matter where you go…

More than half a life ago I had a girlfriend that was a fair bit older than me. She was very well travelled, including a solo trip to Africa in the early 80’s. While I haven’t seen her in almost 30 years, I still remember one of her favourite sayings, “No matter where you go, there you are.”

That saying is said by a lot of people, but I finally understood it when she said it. There is no escaping yourself. If you are kind in life, you’ll be kind in a sunny destination spot. If you’re a jerk, you’ll be a jerk at a touristy landmark. If you feel lost, you won’t find yourself on the peak of a mountain. You take whomever you are, wherever you go.

So whether you seek adventure, excitement, relaxation, or rest, it’s your own expectations and hopes that will determine what kind of trip you have. Disappointment because the room wasn’t quite what you expected, or although the room wasn’t what you expected the view was spectacular and made up for it? The food was more expensive than expected, or the food was pricey but you would have paid double for that red snapper last night? Are you looking for disappointment or are you looking for opportunities to see, hear, and feel positive experiences in a foreign land?

No matter where you go, there you are. Sometimes it takes travel experiences to truly understand what that means. As the world opens up, I hope people find exactly what they are looking for when they travel… just make sure you are looking for the right things.

Hit the road running

I won’t pretend that I didn’t do any work over the last couple weeks of March break. I’m on a Ministry committee that required two online meetings, and there was a district deadline for online learning that required a fair bit of communication with my bosses. But for the most part I really let work go from my mind and enjoyed my break.

Now on the eve of returning to work, work life is creating back into my brain. There are new covid protocols to review. There are neglected emails to look at. There is a ‘To Do’ list pushed to my calendar for my return.

I’ll enjoy a nice family dinner tonight, I’ll do a bit of planning for the week, I’ll get a good night’s sleep. And tomorrow I hit the road running.

I hope fellow educators got some rest and relaxation, and feel refreshed as we head into the home stretch.