Work from Home

As in, Home from Home, but it was a workplace that was similar...

Hutch is my Dad's direct counterpart in Canada, and on Wednesday I went in to work with him to have an explore, a meet with others I knew from home, and to occupy myself. Wednesday was in fact 'Office Assistant Appreciation Day', so we went in with a box of chocolate toffees for Cheryl and went out for a meal at lunchtime. The workplace was very similar to Dad's which I had visited a number of times, but arguably less interesting for the lack of the giant cinema and arguably more interesting for the presence of a live tank. Hutch and Dad had a tele-conference with their boss early on in the morning, I listened to that to start off with but was soon checking emails and not listening to what was said.

Lunch took place in the Officer's Mess on the army camp where Hutch works, with Cheryl and another colleague of Hutch's. I was telling Cheryl about why I was in Medicine Hat (to learn more about UAVs) and what I hoped to do on Saturday (not much), and she mentioned that her husband Craig owns a small 2-seat Cessna light aircraft. She also mentioned that he likes to fly it every weekend, especially if he's got someone new to fly with. She asked if it was the sort of thing I fancied doing on Saturday- of course, I leapt at the opportunity and she said she'd find out if he was planning to fly.

After lunch I spent most of the afternoon with Mark, another one of Hutch's colleagues who showed me around the tank (and how to get in and out of the driver's seat) which was being worked on in the workshop. Cheryl popped in to say that Craig was indeed going flying, and would love to take me for a flight early on Saturday morning. But it was soon time to pack up and head home, for another of Kay's delicious meals. I've missed home food soo much...

That evening, I was given my first taste of a Wii, which I'd never played before, and found it a lot less intuitive than most people suggest. Also, I found that the games are only really designed to make as much use as possible of the interface- which means they were mainly restricted to sports such as golfing, tennis and boxing. However, the multiplayer is still great fun and the boxing really gets your heart racing. And I haven't been beaten up by a 12-year-old girl before...

Next we had a go at an interactive quiz game, with Hutch and Kay as well, on the PS2. This was great fun and was in the form of a typical TV game show, everyone having their own answer selector and 'big red button'. I didn't win, mostly because I kept getting the colours mixed up (green, orange and yellow), but enjoyed it none the less. I played as a character who looked remarkably like The Fonz...

On Thursday, after a bit of a lie-in, Kay took me to my first UAV appointment at CCUVS, the Canadian Centre for Unmanned Vehicle Systems. I had arranged to have a chat with their manager, who happened to be a glider pilot, and I gleaned loads of handy information and contacts. It's an exciting industry and now it's just a question of how I can get involved! After our chat had ended, I was released about half an hour before I had arranged to meet Kay so I started walking towards town. After 5 minutes of

wandering aimlessly round the airport looking for what I thought was a shop (which was actually a fire station!), the manager of CCUVS came and picked me up and brought be back to the office. I explained that I was being picked up in half an hour so they kept me inside until Kay came.

I bought us lunch in Cafe Caprice, a small but very pleasant cafe in central Hat, then she took me to the other side of town for my tour of Meggitt with their manager. It was equally interesting but there was more to see, and their manager gave me a very good explanation of what I should be focusing on during the next couple of years

at Uni and in my own time, if I want to get involved with UAVs. Once again, I was released a little earlier than when I was being picked up, and once again I started walking towards a shop (Costco). Once again, a car pulled over and gave me a ride, but this time it was a friendly person in a pickup who gave me a lift to Costco. I browsed around the huge warehouse for a while, picked up some beef jerky (which is so expensive in Banff) and some Ferrero Rocher for the Hutchinsons, then bumped into Cheryl and Craig. We confirmed our plans and Craig said he was looking forward to flying, so it was a very lucky meeting. Next, I headed to the TV aisle to watch the HD demos, before coming to the end of the loop and went hunting for free samples.

I got chatting to Deb, the Strawberry Bran sampl

er after trying the jam-on-pitta and the honey roast ham, and we amused ourselves for a while until Hutch popped up, and promptly bought a packet of Strawberry Bran. A ton of dog and cat food later, we drove back to his house for some dinner, then all 5 of us went back into town. We dropped the girls off at Taekwondo, then went to Mark's (from Hutch's work) Tapas bar.

Oh dear Del Boy!

A drink or two later, we picked up the girls and went ten-pin bowling. Beth and I seemed to have a much faster start than the others, but Hutch soon caught up and overtook us to win the first round. The second round, I was the one who started of slower, but I switched to a lighter, faster ball (hard to find one with at least reasonable-sized finger holes!), and soon had a score of... 1... after the first two frames. But after that, I started racking up the points, ending the last frame with a spare, a strike and a 7, to snatch glory from Hutch in the last moment!