Of course, we have no crickets in St. Anthony but if there were I bet they'd be right outside my window. I've been told that the deadline for November submissions to the CPSO Registration Committee was actually waaay back on the 5th which means my file won't be reviewed this month. So, the next opportunity is mid-December. While that could potentially mean a festive Xmas for my family and myself I can't help but wonder if they'll find something else to nit pick and ask for more info.
In any event, life goes on even if my professional life is stalled right now. Even though a rejection would really suck, it would at least let me move on and try to find a position somewhere else in the country. Unfortunately, the bad Anesthesia job market in Ontario seems to be holding true across most of the country. This is why I can afford to be patient right now.
So, I'm starting to make plans for travel this winter. I'll be back in Toronto for Xmas from the 22nd to the 28th. In February there's an Anesthesia conference in Ottawa in early February. I think that's during Winterlude which I've never attended. In addition, I've never had a beaver tail so I should get that out of the way as well. (Speaking of eating foods-that-will-eventually-kill-you, I'm planning to split a KFC Double Down with my brother -- maybe I'll have a quarter). I've got a friend in Winnipeg who I promised to visit and I'll man up and visit him in the middle of winter. So, this will likely turn into an Ottawa/Winnipeg trip.
The big news is that my father is planning on visiting China in April and he'd like me to tag along. This is momentous news because in my 34 years of life, this is only the 3rd time he has taken a vacation. The first was a summer in China when I was in Gr. 6 and the 2nd was a 1 week vacation in the Rockies/BC. He wants to go for a full month but I think I can only spare 2 weeks. Which is fine because my brother doesn't want to go for more than 2 weeks either so we can at least travel together.
Unfortunately, our travel itineraries aren't going to mesh well. My parents, naturally, want to hang around their hometowns in Guangdong province and aren't interested in touring the country. Now, I've been on a 3 week tour of China already so I'm not really interested in a cross country tour but there is one specific place I want to go see: Tibet. When I mentioned it to my Dad he immediately refused and cited health concerns (high blood pressure). Fair enough. I tried asking my brother and he's sitting on the fence about it. I'm in the early planning stages but I think I'll fly to Xining and overnight there. Then I'll hop on the recently completed Qinghai-Tibet Train. Hopefully, those 48 hours will be enough to forestall altitude sickness. So, the plan is 1 week for Tibet and 1 week to spend with my family in Guangdong and all those distant cousins I met 20 years earlier.
We had our first taste of winter in St. Anthony this past weekend with the first accumulation of snow. It was only a few centimeters and it'll all melt by tomorrow when the temp rises above zero. All in all, the meteorologists are forecasting a "normal" winter for us which hopefully means a good ski season. I've been shaving off the pounds for the last year and there's nothing like a 19.5 km cross country slog to get your metabolism going!
For the readers of this blog, I'll probably see most of you when I'm back in Toronto in December. Later!
