Post Vacation Catch Up

Now that I'm back from vacation I figured I would catch up on a few things.

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I was angered to hear the recent announcement that the IOC was considering dropping wrestling from the Olympics. What kind of decision-making process came up with that? About four years ago I had a blog post where I touched on this topic:


In fact the Olympic events that annoy me are those that basically exclude the Developing World because of the costs involved to either participate in it, or to train people to excel at it. Could someone explain to me how most developing nations could have even a chance of competing in something like equestrian events? Or sailing? As far as I'm concerned the IOC should consider getting rid of most of these high-tech, high-expense events and focus on those that countries of any economic level have a realistic chance to participate in.


And here the IOC is going the opposite direction, removing sports that any country could potentially compete in yet keeping those sports that the Developing World really has no chance to participate in. How is this in any way fair and keeping with the spirit of the Olympics?

I really hope the IOC changes its mind.

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While a lot of flights had been canceled at Calgary airport due to the snowstorm thankfully mine wasn't. I landed in Doha fine but my luggage didn't make it with me. Guess that two-hour layover in Heathrow wasn't long enough for the bag to transfer across terminals. Finally got home at 2am after sorting things out with the lost baggage department at the airport, only to receive a text at 7am that my bag was now at the airport.

There are advantages to Qatar Airways flying to Heathrow at least four times a day. This is one of them. That's why I usually fly to London en route to Canada.

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Man was it hot in Qatar for the few days after I landed. I went from -5° in Calgary to 34° in Doha. I don't think I was acclimatized well to the change, I even had to put the AC on in my bedroom, something I don't normally do until around May. Nice to see it’s recently cooled down again though.

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Brought maple candies for people in the office to try and people appeared to enjoy them. It's surprising how many people have never actually tried maple before, it's one of my favorite flavors. Even better, maple syrup and other maple products (maple sugar, maple butter etc) are halal so Muslims can enjoy it as well.

Oh well, vacation is over, time to put the winter coats away and get back to the grind.