Jet-Setter

Business trip, anyone?

Who, me? Yes, apparently even low-level federal government drones can be sent away on “business!” I did not know this. However, as it turns out one of my biggest events this summer was a 10-day business trip to Regina for a training seminar. Why would my work send me to a week-long training seminar in Regina when we have perfectly good training facilities here in Vancouver?

Because that’s where the training is held, of course.

I’d been to Regina once before, about 12 years ago on a high school trip. We stayed for all of one night and then just kept on driving on our way to BC. I remember an A&W. That is all.

This time I was coming from BC, thankfully not on a tour bus, and thankfully not with 40 other 16-year-olds (although it sure was fun at the time!).

Starting out in Vancouver on Monday morning, Chris was still away on his own Eastern pilgrimage, so I had to and make sure I put the house back in order after my two wild weeks of singledom, and last but not least make sure the car was parked perfectly straight (lest The Driver have a giant cow when he gets home).

My stomach, as per usual, was all in knots about packing and getting ready but once I finally pulled the key out of the door I was cool as a cucumber!



YVR: expertly navigated. Flight on tiny jet plane: totally smooth. Pickup in Regina: on time. Hotel room: giant - and last but not least: free!


Home sweet home. Never had two beds all to myself! Take that, band trip.


My chic seaweed-green bathroom with curvy tub and wheelchair-height vanity. Cool, I've always wanted to see my knees in the bathroom mirror...


Even a microwave! More luxury than home.

The first night in Regina we had a welcome dinner at a place called Beer Brothers. Beer? I think I quite like these people already! On the prairies again, I saw fit to get a Winnipeg brew and a perogy dinner. Yeah!

After dinner it wasn’t even close to getting dark out, and after my plane ride I was still quite restless. Besides, I wanted chocolate and tea. Seeing as I was in a foreign city’s downtown (apparently bordering its sketchy neighbourhood), I asked the front desk about the nearest convenience store. She looked at me like I was out of my mind. “It’s raining. There’s a Shopper’s but it’s five blocks away. You’ll probably want to just use the vending machine upstairs.”

Umm. I'm not sure but I think I can handle five blocks. And it’s only drizzling. I’m from Vancouver after all. Look, I even have an umbrella.

Suit yourself crazy Vancouver lady!

So out into the flat streets of Regina I went, in search of the snack food oasis that is Shopper’s Drug Mart.


Oh no! Drizzle!


Success! And a giant new one at that! Sure beats the vending machine.


Of course the mosquito-spray shelf. Hah. Haven't used that stuff in years.

Now that I'd procured my goodies for the next few days, I made my way back all five blocks to the hotel. I took a more residential street this time, and here the cars were stopping for me left and right. Like, on streets with traffic lights. THEY had green lights. Yet they stopped so I could cross. Regina, so cute.

The training itself ran during the regular workday in Service Canada’s huge Regina training facility. The view from the basement windows onto the sidewalk was slightly less impressive than the mountains and harbour here in Vancovuer, but at least the chairs were comfy. The whole session was geared towards client service and effective communication. (Just so you know, they didn’t send me here because I needed improvement! Apparently everyone in my position is supposed to go to this thing when they start working. It just took them 3 years to get my trip arranged. Hrm.) So for a week and a half we spent our time with a group of adorable and fantastic leaders, doing a lot of “adult learning” type activities, you know, with lots of standing in circles and groups and using markers and flip charts and stuff. We also got to tour Regina City Hall and the mayor’s office, which was cool. All in all it was pretty fun. Better than actually working, at least.


All aboard the “adult learning” bus!

Since my office only seems to be able to send one of us to this seminar at a time, I was the only one from Vancouver in the whole 35-ish person training group. Looks like I’ll have to make some friends or this will be a very crappy two weeks! Lucky for me, there were a lot of awesome and interesting people there from all over the place. It was like camp! Only with beer.

And the beer paired perfectly with the hockey. Oh, HOCKEY. Of all the weeks in the year, I had to go and leave Vancouver during the Stanley Cup finals! Fortunately, I had some other Canucks fans in my group and we made sure to find a bar and watch each and every game. On non game nights, I actually made sure to eat healthy foods and go exercise so that I could handle all the beer and pub food that I knew was coming my way. For some reason jogging in Regina was really easy... hmmm.




Yes, those are blueberries in my beer. Marilyn was super impressed.

In the end, suffice it to say that the Caucks did not sweep the series and leave me alone in Regina while they paraded through downtown Vancouver with the Stanley Cup. I was lucky enough to make it home for the last few games. And that is all I am going to say about that.

How did we get around to all these bars, you’re wondering? Well, Regina isn’t huge, and the downtown is not really a “happy hour” kind of place. But here we were, 35 government employees with no other responsibilities at the end of the day but to spend our meal allowances! Seeing as we were all visitors from far away and had no vehicles, getting out for the evening occasionally required a little ingenuity. One of the strategies we discovered early on was the pimpin’ Casino Regina shuttle bus – oh baby. As fate would have it, our Holiday Inn was located in the general vicinity of the Casino Regina. And Casino Regina had a complimentary shuttle bus, so when we wanted to go somewhere, we would just walk into the casino for a few minutes, then casually ask an attendant for the shuttle to take us back to our “hotel” on the other side of town. Within a few minutes we would be whisked away – for free – in an air conditioned, leathery, sparkly, minibar-outfitted party bus!



Overall, Regina was pretty good to me. The people are incredibly nice there. Even the airport security, which is a rare thing indeed! Aside from that first day, the weather was also pretty great, and I am still treasuring the memories of some amazing Thai food, a fantastic farmer’s sausage, and a really nice glass of wine with a delicious lunch on a beautiful patio. Not needing to cook or clean for 10 days was pretty sweet, of course, and I decided to take advantage of the “me” time by going for a massage-chair pedicure at a really nice spa. That, and a lot of sitting in my hotel room with a bag of popcorn watching Food Network.


And Regina loves ME.


Just regular ol' prairie folk.


My lunch time hangout, Scarth St.


Anyone for an awesome patio lunch in the prairie sun?


Yes! Food make strong.
(This is my new buddy Jon from Winnipeg - "the homeland")


I found another friendly face at the spa! Sp-bahhh

So I guess I can now say that I have travelled on business (and not just taking the train to Surrey to peddle music folders). Of course, it was no conga-line glow stick middle-aged dance party but it was good enough for me!

Now I know what you’re thinking… Jen, you were gone for 10 days so there must have been a weekend in there somewhere. What did you do? Did you get sloshed on government money? Did you party with the Roughriders? Did you count cards at the Casino Regina? No…

I went to Winnipeg!
More about that soon.