Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Bellevue!

I think it's been a bout a year since I was last here, and it looks a lot different. There are about a dozen new buildings, and most of them are skyscrapers! The office hasn't changed much. There are some new faces, and some familiar ones!

Shaun and I had an indirect flight here yesterday (Monday) which meant changing quite quickly at Chicago and a combined travel time of 14 gruelling hours. American Airlines is not exactly comfortable. The second flight was a bit more cramped, but I managed to get about 2 or 3 hours sleep. We made a fairly quick escape from SeaTac, and got a cab to our rented apartment building.

It was about this point that things started going wrong. We got to Bellevue to find there was no night porter on duty and so we couldn't check-in. So we rang the apartment management and they informed us we could find our keys in a security box somewhere in the carpark. Turns out the box was empty. So we rang back and they said they'd get hold of the security guard who was on duty. A few minutes later a very tired looking guy in a hoodie, shorts and sandals turned up to let us in to reception. He quickly found out that we dind't actually have a reservation, and pointed out that our travel agency had simply made up a confirmation. Thankfully he managed to make us a booking, and we managed to 'move in' around 2am (that was 10am for us!).

Got up at 8, went to the gym, had a shower and went to meet Rachel (our manager) and Will for coffee. So we were back on schedule pretty quickly! This evening Shaun and I are heading out to 'the new noodle place in the mall' which sounds like it could be fun. Although we feel fine now, we're both fairly sure we're going to feel the effects of jet-lag soon so there's a strong chance one of us will fall asleep in the restaurant.

Will speak again soon!