Life in SARS City

Here I am in Toronnah where SARS rules or at least the media has deemed that it does along with the WHO. Anyway, this is my farewell tour before leaving CDS next Wednesday. (This time next week I plan to be out in the back yard, weather permitting reading a good book and soaking up the rays.)

So far this week I have had 3 great lunches and a dinner. Today I lunched with my boss, two colleagues and our CEO (surprise guest) who told some really good stories. I also found out that he is as much of a dog nut as I am so you can imagine the dog talk over lunch.

Tomorrow is the grand finale lunch at a wine bar (it's like letting me loose in a toy shop) with a bunch of other people and then when that's over, it will be the goodbyes and heading off to the train station to head for home. It is a "bit" bizarre having this much of a send off, but then this has been a strange year all round. I will at least leave with no regrets or anger. I feel that I will have closed this chapter in my life well and will remember both the good and the bad as lessons learned.

In about an hour I have to go for my exit interview in which I get to say whatever about the company, then off to troubleshoot some Intranet issues and then hopefully go back to the hotel and relax.

As for SARS, I have seen some people wearing masks and the washrooms here in our building all have hand washing instructions (in a large font) taped on all the bathroom mirrors. So far I haven't witnessed much the approved handwashing procedure...but I have witnessed handwashing.