Ottawa – Dr Marcia Falconer

Saturday 24 May 2008


Since arriving in Canada, I’ve had to come to terms with two things: one is that the cell phone I bought in LA from AT&T doesn’t work here (something to do with it being ‘locked’); and the other is that the bug I’ve been fighting off for the last couple of days has won. At the museum last night, I felt pretty ordinary and my voice was losing strength – not an occurrence I’ve had to deal with too many times in my life. Then when I called Jill this morning to discuss our breakfast arrangements, I found I had no voice at all. What came out was a whispered squeak. I have self-diagnosed laryngitis and hope it clears up in a day or so. Jill thinks it’s rather amusing having to do all the talking for me.

The four hour trip on the train from Toronto to Ottawa (both in the province of Ontario) was pleasant but uneventful. We arrived around 4.30pm to be greeted by Marcia Falconer, who had kindly offered to pick us up and drive us back to our motel. It was a lovely day in Ottawa, which seemed to bring out every single resident in the whole city for something or other. The roads were absolutely clogged with cars being blocked from going where they wanted due to what had to be more than one major festivity. I recall it being difficult to even book accommodation for this weekend in the town – and that was several months ago. We are actually staying in the suburbs closer to Marcia for both this reason and to have ready access to her for a more structured discussion tomorrow.

This evening was just reestablishing contact in a more a social context, which was very pleasant. And, of course, there was dinner at the local Vietnamese restaurant. That was a real treat. Tomorrow we will be discussing Marcia’s research in the area of inflammation and PPS. Stay tuned.