Travel and whatnot
Mar. 4th, 2023 09:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shivverYou know, I am really exhausted for just having had a two-week vacation.
With the pandemic and staying at home 24/7 being the new normal, I've forgotten what it's like to actually be outside, with actual people. I hadn't even realized that I was going on vacation until about two weeks before, even though the vacation had been scheduled since around last August. This was bad - it meant that I hadn't fully prepared people to take on my work responsibilities, so when I got back, they'd made a bunch of mistakes that, four days later, I'm still trying to correct. To be honest, though, I had written step-by-step documentation that, if they had followed it, they wouldn't have made any mistakes. It was pretty obvious that they read the first couple of steps and followed them, then forgot about reading any further. Or possibly they thought they knew what the rest of the steps would be and just assumed they were right.
The vacation was for Gallifrey One, which skipped 2021 (they had just finished in 2020 when the pandemic hit) and which we bought tickets for but didn't attend in 2022. We decided to take the train rather than fly, so we baked in an extra day before the trip and two extra days after trip than we normally do.
Then, around December or so, my sister calls up and says, "Hey, we're driving from our home in the Midwest to the West Coast to visit some friends, so we thought we'd come up to see you! We'll be there RIGHT DURING GALLIFREY ONE." Seriously. My sister has never come out to visit us in the twenty-five years we've lived here (we always go to her), and she chose the single week in four years (from March 2020 until next January, because we're not traveling again this year) when we're not going to be in town.
We managed to massage schedules so that she would visit during the three days after we returned, so it's all good.
Since I didn't really realize that the vacation was approaching, I hadn't gotten excited for Gally, and I have to say that I couldn't really get my enthusiasm up, but once we got there, it was great and it really refueled my excitement for Doctor Who. I'm going to post a longer thing about the con a little later, so I won't go into detail now, but one of the most exciting things was that not only were Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall there, but also Janet Fielding and Sophie Aldred, and the general impression I got was that everyone loved "The Power of the Doctor" and having the Doctor and the two returning companions (as well as Bonnie Langford and Katy Manning to round out the Companions Anonymous meeting a little more) at the con really made it extra special.
The train trip down and back was fun... at least for me. I had plenty to do while enjoying the scenery, but my husband didn't really bring anything, and the one thing he did bring (his Switch), he refused to pull out (it was too deep in the carryon, apparently). It didn't help that there wasn't any wifi, since the train spends too much time deep in the mountains where there's no reception. So, I guess we won't be doing it again, at least not a 24-hour trip. Maybe short trips.
It was great to see my sister and her husband for the first time since 2019, and against all odds, we were all perfectly healthy. (Last time, we visited her and came down with death colds basically nullified five of the seven days we were with her.) This hopefully will happen more often, because they spent a week at a house on the coast and loved it so much, they're thinking of doing it every year.
My sister is really into wines, so I took her to some of the local wineries for sampling, and that was a nice, relaxing half-day. She also loves to just sit, eat, and chat, so that was also perfect for her. (When we went to England together, we spent one whole day on Harrod's - part of it was shopping, which is another of her passions, but three hours was sitting in the tea room having afternoon tea and chatting.) Other than that, I took her to the best restaurants and pubs (this town is known for its microbreweries). We had wanted to go the raptor center, but it was too cold and rainy. Maybe someday I'll convince her to come visit in the late spring.
With the pandemic and staying at home 24/7 being the new normal, I've forgotten what it's like to actually be outside, with actual people. I hadn't even realized that I was going on vacation until about two weeks before, even though the vacation had been scheduled since around last August. This was bad - it meant that I hadn't fully prepared people to take on my work responsibilities, so when I got back, they'd made a bunch of mistakes that, four days later, I'm still trying to correct. To be honest, though, I had written step-by-step documentation that, if they had followed it, they wouldn't have made any mistakes. It was pretty obvious that they read the first couple of steps and followed them, then forgot about reading any further. Or possibly they thought they knew what the rest of the steps would be and just assumed they were right.
The vacation was for Gallifrey One, which skipped 2021 (they had just finished in 2020 when the pandemic hit) and which we bought tickets for but didn't attend in 2022. We decided to take the train rather than fly, so we baked in an extra day before the trip and two extra days after trip than we normally do.
Then, around December or so, my sister calls up and says, "Hey, we're driving from our home in the Midwest to the West Coast to visit some friends, so we thought we'd come up to see you! We'll be there RIGHT DURING GALLIFREY ONE." Seriously. My sister has never come out to visit us in the twenty-five years we've lived here (we always go to her), and she chose the single week in four years (from March 2020 until next January, because we're not traveling again this year) when we're not going to be in town.
We managed to massage schedules so that she would visit during the three days after we returned, so it's all good.
Since I didn't really realize that the vacation was approaching, I hadn't gotten excited for Gally, and I have to say that I couldn't really get my enthusiasm up, but once we got there, it was great and it really refueled my excitement for Doctor Who. I'm going to post a longer thing about the con a little later, so I won't go into detail now, but one of the most exciting things was that not only were Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall there, but also Janet Fielding and Sophie Aldred, and the general impression I got was that everyone loved "The Power of the Doctor" and having the Doctor and the two returning companions (as well as Bonnie Langford and Katy Manning to round out the Companions Anonymous meeting a little more) at the con really made it extra special.
The train trip down and back was fun... at least for me. I had plenty to do while enjoying the scenery, but my husband didn't really bring anything, and the one thing he did bring (his Switch), he refused to pull out (it was too deep in the carryon, apparently). It didn't help that there wasn't any wifi, since the train spends too much time deep in the mountains where there's no reception. So, I guess we won't be doing it again, at least not a 24-hour trip. Maybe short trips.
It was great to see my sister and her husband for the first time since 2019, and against all odds, we were all perfectly healthy. (Last time, we visited her and came down with death colds basically nullified five of the seven days we were with her.) This hopefully will happen more often, because they spent a week at a house on the coast and loved it so much, they're thinking of doing it every year.
My sister is really into wines, so I took her to some of the local wineries for sampling, and that was a nice, relaxing half-day. She also loves to just sit, eat, and chat, so that was also perfect for her. (When we went to England together, we spent one whole day on Harrod's - part of it was shopping, which is another of her passions, but three hours was sitting in the tea room having afternoon tea and chatting.) Other than that, I took her to the best restaurants and pubs (this town is known for its microbreweries). We had wanted to go the raptor center, but it was too cold and rainy. Maybe someday I'll convince her to come visit in the late spring.
