Worldwide Gathering in Perth

Eclipse staff from around the world gathered for team building in Perth this week. Sounds very exciting, except our worldwide staff is made up of only 18 people and we travelled to Perth, Ontario, not Australia. It claims to be the "prettiest town in Ontario", as chosen by TV Ontario in an unspecified year. Hmmmmm.

Perth is just over an hour away from Ontario, but I'm terrible with directions and was paranoid about getting lost and being late. Luckily Barb and Janet took all the pressure off. They missed the first exit on their drive and ended up in Renfrew, about an hour and a half away in the wrong direction. I think it'll be a long time before they live that one down.

We're all staying at the new Code's Mill Inn. I lucked out with my hotel room. I’m right next to the party suite. Basically an extra big room that the hotel gave to Sharon W., for organizing all the meeting arrangements. From my room, I could hear joviality going on in the suite so I knocked on the door and joined the party. We had pre-dinner drinks, then went across the street to Fiddleheads for dinner.

Well, after 32 years I finally broke down and tried poutine. I didn’t love it. I’m not big on gravy to begin with. And now I can’t talk about how I’m Canadian and have never tried it. Darn you poutine! I also had a pasta dish with emu, which I’ve never tried. It just tasted like beef, but the meal wasn’t the greatest, so it might be better if I tried it again. I reserve judgement.

We closed down the restaurant, but many from the group still wanted to try and find another bar. I wasn’t optimistic about our options in Perth on a Tuesday night, so I went back to the hotel. I tried out the jetted bathtub instead of bar hopping. Instead of the usual jet thingys (the technical term), the tub had pinholes all around the base, providing more even bubble distribution. The downside was I couldn’t figure how to turn them off! I’d press the button and they’d shut off, but the lighted button would continue flashing. Then 15 minutes later they’d come on again - even after there was no water in the tub. I couldn’t call down to have someone turn them off for me because I had already washed off my makeup. And the fact that I would look like a loser. I found out the next day that it did this to clean the water out. If I had just stopped screwing with it and pressing the button every time the jets came back on it would have stopped. Tip to the new Codes Mill Inn – leave some instructions in the guest rooms! The majority of us are idiots. Put that in your employee handbook.