I will go back to when I was in Guatemala. I was up very early for the flight to Miami - feeling tired but without the travel sickness I had earlier in the week. The flight to Miami was OK, the airport was again packed, and my hopes of catching the connecting flight to Ottawa from Chicago (30mins between flight connections) was screwed because the American Air (AA) flight was delayed for 5 hours! 5 hours, because there was no plane to catch in Miami - it was stuck at another airport due to mechanical problems! So AA put me up for the night in Chicago (Best Western Airport hotel) with a $15 meal/breakfast voucher. 8:30 the next morning I was on my flight back to Ottawa.
I tore my ACL - bugger it! I was playing flag rugby one Sunday afternoon in July - I had the ball and was in the middle of a huge sidestep to get past a player, when my leg got caught in a rut on the field - the leg stayed straight, while everything else (from my knee up) went with the sideways motion of the sidestep. I heard 2 pops, and hit the deck. 30mins later I was in A&E with Miriam, waiting to see a doctor. Diagnosis - something is torn (no shit) and you will have to see a doctor at a sports med (thanks for your expensive 15min assessment Doc!). So I left on crutches, and after an X-Ray and MRI (over the following weeks), it was confirmed that I tore my ACL more than 60% and had chipped my bone - fibia. Bugger! To cut a long story short, I started physio, booked in for an operation (with Doctor Don Johnston - I later learnt that he was one of the worlds best knee surgeons) and had surgery on October 16. Before the surgery I was able to play sports wearing the Don Joy brace (it stopped lateral/hyper-extension of the knee). Surgery wasn't like the old days, where you spend a night in hospital. Miriam drove me to a private clinic; my knee area was shaved; I was put under general anesthetic; had the 2 hour arthroscopic surgery; 1 hour of recover; Miriam backed up the car to the surgery door; I hobbled to the car; and we went home! It was funny, when I came out of my general anesthetic, I asked the nurse for laptop with Internet connection so that I could check work emails and get the blog post up for the ambassador - a bit of work stress there me thinks!
I was off work for 2 weeks, on some serious pain killers, with my CryoCuff ice pack, and CPM System. It has been 3 weeks now, and I my recovery is going OK (physio 3 times a week) - I drove for the first time last week, and made my first cycle revolution on day 8 (post surgery). I still haven't slept for more than 6 hours a night yet, the pain should wear off by next week. 6 months to 1 year before I am fully recovered - I hate sitting on the couch! My progress in photos are up on Facebook (a few below as well). Here is a video animation of the operation (this is a patellar replacement - for mine, they replaced my ACL with a bit of the hamstring).
Back in August (early September maybe) about 10 of us spent a nice relaxing weekend at a cottage on Bob's Lake (near Perth Ontario) - a cottage on an island that you could only get to by boat. It was an awesome weekend away with friends - sunbathing, guitar playing, swimming, eating, drinking, reading, fishing, and talking. Canada has some picturesque lakes. Some pics below, and on FlickR.
In September work sent me on a week long course in Frankfurt, Germany. The course was good (it was at the US consular grounds - huge grounds). On the way to the hotel, the taxi driver (while he was doing 180kmh on the autobahn - ahh, no speed limits) told my colleague and I that the Frankfurt Motor Show was on that week. Saweet! I ended up going to the show with an American and Italian from the course. the show was amazing - a dream come true for me, as I am fond of cars (not obsessed , jut fond of them). Some photos below, and here on FlickR. There is also a video on below and on my Facebook page.
My last night in Frankfurt I caught up with an old friend Lars (who drove from Cologne that night) and we had a great catch up and a few drinks. We ended back at the hotel a couple of hours before my flight back to Ottawa the next morning.
In September, Miriam and I went to see former NZ PM Helen Clark speak about her new role with the UN. After her talk, we went up and met her - very nice down to earth person (she was glad to hear some kiwi voices).
In early October (Canadian Thanksgiving weekend), Miriam and I drove down to the States to go to North Conway and Mt Washington, New Hampshire (the tax haven state with the slogan - 'Live Free Or Die' - the state that has relaxed laws - no helmets required on motorbikes, no seatbelts required over the age of 18). The drive through Vermont, and New Hampshire was amazing - the Fall colors were unreal (photos below do not do it justice). It was 3pm and we were 10 miles out of the little town of Conway, when we hit a huge traffic jam - of course not only was it Thanksgiving weekend in Canada, it was also Columbus long weekend in the States - so everyone was in Conway to view the Fall colors! So our hopes of finding a little B&B in Conway at 3pm, doing some outlet mall shopping, and then going for a nice meal were dashed, as it took 2 hours to drive that last 10 miles, and every hotel, motel, B&B, camping spot was booked out. We spotted 1 sign though in the middle of Conway with a vacancy sign. By the time we were able to make the u-turn and drive back 100m, the last room was taken:(. By 9:30pm (and 62 miles out of Conway) we found a room for the night (we were very close to deciding to sleep in the car).
The next day we did a little bit of shopping, then drove up the Mt Washington auto road (well 4 miles up of the 8 - it was too icy at the top). Mt Washington has the highest recorded wind speed in the world, and the weather conditions change rapidly (as it is where 3 weather systems collide). So we got the famous car sticker and certificate - "this car drove up Mt Washington".
Miriam and I have been very busy at work - Miriam is working on a presentation, and is getting a little nervous (the presentation is in a week), and I am finishing up loose ends before I finish on the 25th November. I have really enjoyed my work here, have made quite a few contacts (especially in Washington), and have won a few awards. I will miss the work, and especially next year when there might be a few Presidential visits!
So we have less than 4 weeks left in Ottawa :(:( I'm not going to go on about how much we will miss the place, I save that for another post. It has been busy organizing movers, selling the car etc, and buying some IKEA furniture for back home. We managed to sell the Subaru last week :( - it was an awesome car that took us to many places, and it was the best car for the snowy winter months.
So the next few weeks will be busy catching up with friends, including a hockey night, boys night out in Montreal (Miriam is having a girls night), and some farewell drinks at The Pump on Elign.
