Hard to believe that this day a year ago I landed in Newfoundland. Especially for a job that I didn’t ever expect to hear from.
For some reasons, and I really have no idea why, I like anniversaries and tradition. Anyone who knows me probably knows this, and if you don’t, then you don’t know me as well as you think you know me. I guess. So, for my one year in Newfoundland and from the blog archive, here’s the first ever post, written the day after I landed.
001 | false sense of security | Sunday, April 22
As usual, before takeoff the pilot came on the speakers in his usual laid-back voice, gave a few details on the trip and what to expect during the flight and upon arrival in St. John’s: warm and sunny (could it be everyone back home was lying to me?). The plane ride itself was pretty uneventful, mostly involved me reading the same page of my book, nodding off, catching myself, and rereading the same page again. This went on far too long for my own good. Eventually I sat back and zoned out for a bit until the plane jumped and we started to make our descent.
This is where the Pilot came back to tell us how much of a liar he is and it’s actually cold and snowing with visibility of about 5 miles (no, people back home weren’t lying to me). Which, in airplane terms means that as soon as you break cloud cover, you’re about to hit the ground.
I later found out from Jena that only Air Canada will dare landing in those conditions and any other airline would have diverted the plane to Gander. Not quite sure what I think about that yet.
My first, delightful impression of St. John’s is grey, everything is grey, and all the trees are covered in ice. Home sweet home.
As promised, Jena met me at the airport, drinking her Tim Horton’s coffee (Newfoundland isn’t that different afterall) and we had a good little chat while waiting for my luggage to come in from Heathrow Airport (at least, that’s what the sign claimed). Then she drove me around, gave me a tour of the city (of which I remember little), the offices where I’ll be working (remember slightly more) and then took me for breakfast at Cora’s (and even though there are several in HRM, it was still my first trip). I had eggs benny with ham. No crazy seafood snuck in, but there was a piece of bacon in my potatoes. I considered it a bribe to get me to like St. John’s and quickly ate it before it was discovered.
Later in the evening, Jena and Michael picked me up and took me out to a lovely little place called “Get Stuffed” that, despite the name, is actually very classy. There are pillows on the benches. It was great, we had a good talk, covered a lot of stuff that’s been going on and talked a lot about back home and what St. John’s is like. Jena and Michael shared a bottle of wine while I fought with the server over their beer selection.
“Do you have any reds?”
“No.”
“Do you have a beer list?”
“No.”
“Do you have any beer at all?” Michael then asked him.
Eventually I settled on a Sleeman’s Honey Brown. Followed by the milk that came with Jena’s cookies that she didn’t want and another beer while they were having another glass of wine.
The hotel I’m staying at is not unlike my apartment on North Street. In fact, the layout is almost exactly the same, but flipped. The combination fridge/sink/two burners brings back bad memories. Who wants to FedEx me my Panini maker? Other than that it’s great. Even has a recliner I made use of, a TV I haven’t made use of yet, and a bed that was occupied for a good twelve hours when I finally collapsed.
I took this in the afternoon, not at 1:57 in the morning. That might be next weekend. We’ll see. But it’s a fair approximation of the last thing I saw before becoming unconscious for a good twelve hours.
It’s actually sunny today with blue skies and a high of three. Going to try the walk to work and see what downtown is like.
-devo
Still possessing his keys, and the spare keys that were supposed to be given to mom.
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