Having travelled up to London the night before, I set off for Vancouver at around 10am.

I was full of excitement and adventure (see my previous post) and found it almost impossible to sleep on the plane. I amanged to watch Kong: Skull Island (surprisingy good), Dying Laughing (a documentary about the nature of stand-up comedy) and something else I can’t recall that was edited to the point of torture. Throw in a couple of free drinks and some surprisingly good food and the nine hours seemed to whizz by.

That’s a lie. After what seemed like forever I looked at the remaining time: 5 hours to go. Oh lordy. This was going to be fun.

Once I arrived at Vancouver airport, I made my way to check-in and, conveniently enough, so did fifty thousand other people. I was tired and this was long and I just wanted to get to my hotel. First though: selfie time.

To sleep…perchance to dream…

After a short ride on the shuttle bus, I finally arrived at my hotel. What amazed me on the way there was the amount of Asian signs that I could see: restaurants, doctors, dentists, supermarkets. I never realised that Canada had such a large Asian population.

Once I’d checked in, it was time to get a couple of hours sleep. I was absolutely knackered and – having arranged to meet a fellow acomegalic from the States later that evening – I thought it best that I be at least a little bit fresh. But could I sleep? Could I bollocks. My brain didn’t know where it was at and, best of all, my room had an incredibly annoying hum. Zombified, I made my way down to receiption to see if there was anything they could do. There were no other rooms, but they said they would send a maintenance man to check it out. He had no idea.

Oh well then. Let’s go and explore the local vicinity. I soon realised that not knowing where you are, being really tired and having poor eyesight doesn’t make for the best experience in a new city, so I quickly returned to my room and hid under the sheets.

Under the Bridge

The next challenge was to make my way downtown to find Bella and her friend. I figured out where to catch the SkyTrain (not as exciting as it sounds) and after a frantic taxi ride, finally made my way there.

And boy am I glad I did. It was great meeting Bella and her friend Paula who was accompanying her. I’d spoken to Bella previously on Facebook but it’s always far nicer meeting people in person. We ate some amazing squid for starters, followed by an exquisite platter of salmon and ???. It was divine. And what an incredible setting too.

Delicious Squid

Delicious Squid

Bella and Paula

Meeting Bella (right) and Paula

under the bridge

Under the Bridge

 

We spoke about living with acromegaly and what he hoped to get from the conference. And the next day we were going whale watching. I went to bed that night and prayed for sleep.