I worked this weekend. Not selling travel, but at the Good Food Festival (http://www.goodfoodfestival.net/) promoting the Last Minute Club (one of our companies) and handing out business cards to potential clients. I guess the first question is: “Why would a travel agent be at a food show?” The answer, a free booth!

So, we were giving away a free membership to the Last Minute Club (value $55) and a chance to win a free trip for two to Punta Cana at a five star hotel. Not too shabby, but in case you forgot the following details: in the last 10 days, one tour company went bankrupt, a plane was hijacked in Jamaica, and now we have swine flu. Oh did I forget to mention another ship got attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia again on Friday? Don’t even get me started on that!

Here is the scene of the show. Picture hall 5 at the international centre, filled with row upon row of food vendors, giving out free, did I say free, samples! The greed, and rudeness of so many of the people was unbelieveable. People who come to these shows are a very interesting breed. The walk down the aisles, with granny buggies, suitcases on wheels, or any other type of grocery carry on item with a deep pouch and wheels and looking for the free items. They would take the table cloths off the tables if they thought they were free. (aside, I did manage to obtain 4 sample packages of the free Jello product they were giving away).

It was just the ignorance and rudeness of people that I observed this weekend. We were advertising that we would giving away a “FREE” Sunquest trip. I can’t count how many people actually ‘challenged’ us that Sunquest was the company that went out of business. I finally asked a gentleman, “Sir, do you think we could really give a trip away sponsered by a company that was no longer in business?” I mean really, need I say more? I should state, in case you don’t know, it was CONquest that closed their doors, not SUNquest, who is still VERY much in the travel business.

On the positive side of the weekend’s adventures, I got to spend time with my friend Lorrie chatting, laughing and catching up. We both work from home, so it was great to actually be face to face with each other and the public. Spent money on Planters nut products, Canadian Club BBQ sauce, Kettle creek chips and a HUGE jug of already peeled garlic. They said it will last 4-6 months in the freezer, but I think I will be rid of it a long time before that. I use a lot of garlic, but I think this was a bit obscene, but for the price ($2) I could handle it. Now, if only my car and condo didn’t smell like garlic, I would probably be enjoying it more!

For anyone who doesn’t know, I had a car accident on February 21st, 2009. I am feeling much better now, and that is thanks to an amazing therapy clinic not far from my house. I go there twice a week and have massage therapy, active release therapy and acupuncture. The doctor’s and therapists are amazing and they have been teaching me a lot, as well as helping me in the process.

So…back to the story. I was having my massage therapy yesterday, and there were some very tender spots in my lower back, hips, butt area. While he was trying to work them out (believe me, it hurts), he told me that I could work on it myself at home. I don’t know about anyone else who has massages, but sometimes I hold my breath during the pain. I have been advised that it is not good to hold your breath, since you are not allowing oxygen to come back into the body and help the muscles. See what I mean about learning new things.

Back to the butt……he told me to take a golf ball or tennis ball and sit on it. Yes, I said sit on it, roll it around until you find the tender spot and then work out the tension with the ball. The first thought that popped into my head was the show “Happy Days”. You all know it and loved it, and Ralph Mouth always used to say, “Ah, sit on it Potsie”. I almost laughed out loud, but the pain got in the way.

At the end, I asked him again what to, and he showed me. It looks funny, and I haven’t tried it yet, so I will update once I do.

It gives a whole new spin on the saying, “sit on this and rotate….”

When I lived at my parents house, I used to love getting mail. I remember always asking my mother when I spoke to her from work, “did I get any mail?” Now, mail is just a pain in the ass.

You are probably saying, well of course mail is a pain the ass, it is always full of bills. But that is not the only reason.

For those of you who live (or have lived in a building/condo) and park in an underground parking spot, you know what I mean. The mail room is NOT user friendly. When I park my car underground, and always have something in my hand, the last thing I want to do is go to the ground floor, down the hall to the mail room, get the mail, go back to the elevator and upstairs to my suite. So, I don’t check the mail every day, or every week. Well, usually once at week on Fridays so I have the whole week’s worth of mail to go through.

Now, that is another thing, usually there is very little mail there of any value. There are coupons, and flyers, flyers and more garbage. AND the same real estate agent(s) flyers every week. I get that they want me to remember them when I am ready to sell, I really do, but every week is not necessary.

I am not being naive, I know that the mail can’t be delivered to each individual suite as they do with houses, it is just one aspect of apartment living that takes getting used to. Or maybe you never do…I probably won’t. Can’t be bothered.