Every year, I combine business with pleasure and extend my PIS conference with some sightseeing. In the past, it’s been Sabah, Hawaii and New Zealand, where I went bungee jumping and other skylarking things. This year, it was Las Vegas again and a great chance to catch up with Colin and Pauline in Toronto and see their new “condo”.
My fantastic “Holiday Wizard” got me an extraordinary fare on a one-way ticket that also included New York, London and Rome. A quick R&R stop in Singapore meant that I should arrive home after 31 days, ready to go back to work.
About a month before I was due to leave, some changes in my business meant cutting the trip short and it was just going to be Las Vegas, Toronto and Singapore. Air NZ flew me direct to Auckland where, since I had a ten hour wait between flights, my Wizard arranged some airport hospitality for me. Forty-three hours after leaving Perth, I checked into Planet Hollywood.
My girlfriend, Merilyn Ide, was sharing with me and she introduced me to the Fashion Outlets. For the first time in twenty-five years, I got to do what the wives and girlfriends do – shop!
We had a fantastic conference – very high calibre keynote speakers; I managed a workgroup of eleven for three days through all the different streams and breakout sessions for case studies (first time I have had to “work” my way through a conference I had paid to attend). We enjoyed excellent hospitality at night and on the final day 1200 of us gathered on the steps of PH for the traditional PIS photograph.
Before I left LV, I took a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon, saw a tribute show to the “Fab Four”, and watched Steve Wyrick create his incredible illusions. He made a West Coast Chopper disappear in mid-air and somehow ended up sitting right next to me and gave me his popcorn.
The next day, I flew to Toronto to stay with Colin & Pauline for four days holiday. Pauline slept while Colin and I spent hours talking. Then it got hectic: Pauline had a job interview; I met Colin’s workmates and saw some of his exciting work where he surveys buildings and tunnels to make sure that new construction projects will not bring down their neighbours. Colin and I had lunch with Christian; I slept; Janet and Bruce were collected on their way home from South America. Colin slept while the four of us and another Bruce went out for “Chinese” and we sat up talking in a 24-hour café until they left. Pauline & I got home about 4:00am and slept while Colin went to work.
That’s when tragedy struck. I awoke about lunchtime with a “stiff neck”. Gradually, it got worse and worse – by midnight, I was virtually paralyzed – able only to move my head a tiny bit and every step was agony. After sitting up all night, I phoned my Wizard and asked him to get me home as soon as he could.
His magic was stronger than that of Las Vegas! While he organized a “wheelchair assist” for me back to Perth, Pauline took me to a local doctor, complete with kippah. He was gentle but thorough and explained I had “an awry neck” caused by sleeping with my arm above my head. It might last a day, a week, a month – but it would pass. He provided me with some excellent painkillers; wrote a nice note for my travel insurance and ordered no stopover in Singapore.
Now I know that every major airport has a secret room – filled with little old ladies like me: in wheelchairs – well out of the sight of the general travelling public. We get Coke; water and tissues. We wait. We get on planes first and get off last. We go to the head of the queue for immigration but wait while our luggage comes off on the same carousel.
Direct from Toronto via Hamburg and Singapore to Perth is a long trip and without exception airline staff attended to me with good humour and gentleness. I cannot wait for next year’s conference. Kuala Lumpur is only five hours up the road!
PS: I did not think to ask the Doctor how he keeps his kippah on his head – see the story Hooked
