Friday night the six guys I was training for this new program I'm working on developing left after two weeks of training. I was eyeing that date for about three months. Pretty much all the work I've done since taking this job has been about getting to last Friday with everything running smoothly, going well. I definitely had my doubts. A lot of first-time experiences for me. I was undertaking a pretty major project for a pretty major corporation, without any direct experience. And I've certainly never run a training course before. But I was banking on a lot of my experiences with the band and with poker translating in different ways to what I am doing now, and it worked out I think. Not that it went perfect, but honestly looking back over the last few months I'm pretty stoked with how it's all turned out, work-wise.
So now that I can breath a bit, this weekend I finally felt a bit home sick. Saw a facebook post with a picture of a quintessential Vancouver evening. Couldn't get my family on Skype, and then when I was indisposed for like five minutes somehow Rachel got on Skype with my brother and his family and I missed that. Started thinking about the band out there on the road, imagining them in the same hotels, on the same stages, driving the same roads that I drove for 15 years. And it felt really, really weird that I wasn't there. Just goes to show how busy I've been with work that these things are just hitting me now.
But anyway, recent bouts with homesickness aside, I think things are going pretty great here. Definitely expected a tougher transition. We've met quite a few cool people, including some with kids around Henry's age. We probably have more "couple" friends here than we did at home, which is pretty bizarre.
We bought a season train pass and have been exploring the island on weekends. The job is uber-demanding (I think I worked about 150 hours over the two weeks the trainees were in town) but also very rewarding, very enjoyable, challenging in a good way, and somewhat flexible (I'm going to have a family train adventure Wednesday morning, for example, and just work from home later in the day). It's weird going to an office and having a boss, but I love the company and respect my boss (very, very smart guy) so it's weird but not a bad thing.
I like the place we're living a lot. Rachel is so-so on it, I think. It's only a three month lease, so not sure if we'll be staying longer or not. I don't really want to move, but Rachel spends about five times as many waking hours here as I do so her call. It's a ten minute walk from my work, and the sea views are incredible, and we're across the street from the seawall and we can walk straight down the seawall into town. The town is actually more charming than I expected, even if a lot of stuff closes up real early and a lot of other stuff doesn't even exist. I mean, you can't compare it to Vancouver (or any major city, obviously). But if you just sort of accept there's no cool breakfast spot, and the coffee shops close at 5pm, and most of them don't have WiFi, then it's not that big a deal. If you feel like there's absolutely nothing in this town, then you realize there's actually quite a lot. Some okay restaurants (okay, that's a bit of a stretch, but there's some expensive restaurants anyway), plenty of shops and whatnot (and Amazon provides free shipping). Lots of parks, actually lots of events going on (might not continue to be the case once summer is over but whatever). Hell, Elton John was here last month. We didn't go, but it happened.
Still can't get used to people driving on the wrong side of the street. I just about get killed every other day. Not driving, just walking (we don't have a car). My neck refuses to look right first. And when it does I level myself and believe I'm looking the wrong way and look back to the left anyway. It's terrible. Why can't they just conform with the rest of the world?
We've been running really good, weather-wise. Doesn't really get that hot, but we haven't seen that much of the famous Isle Of Man rain. Or, at least, the timing's been good when it has rained. I've walked to and from work every single day. I'm told some days the weather will necessitate a taxi or else I'll be a wet dog at work. But I haven't had it be an issue yet.
Henry's sleeping through the night, more or less, which was unimaginable a month ago. Still can be hard to put down, and can demand some brief comforting at random times in the wee hours, but 100% better than it was. He's getting brattier as he nears in on two, but he's still overall the mellow, happy kid he's been most of his life. The only thing I really don't like about my job is sometimes I don't get home until after he goes to bed (not often, except the last two weeks when my training went into the evening so it became somewhat regular). That's hard. And he's been a bit clingy with me in the morning, probably as a result of that, which makes leaving for work hard too.
Man, I love that kid. And his mother. I guess that's probably right now the thing the Isle Of Man has going for it more than anything else, more than the wicked job or the sense of adventure or the beautiful scenery or the delicious egg mayo sandwiches: it's the current home of my two favourite people in the world.
And now you're up to date.
