Lunch With My Wife...During the Workday! :-)

Ah, what a nice day it was today...

My wife has one of her very rare days off from running the daycare today. My little boy was picked up by my Dad, with plans to go to the Bowmanville Zoo (about 1 hour away from where we live). Suprisingly, my Dad told me later this afternoon that when they arrived at the gates this morning, my son did not want to go see the animals, so back they drove... :-( ).

Anyway, in the 10 years I've worked with my company, never once have I had the opportunity to have lunch with my wife by ourselves during the workday (either she's working, or I'm off, but we're with our son). Today was an immeasurable treat, for sure. She biked here (North York) from Markham...about 1 1/2 hours of riding. She arrived much earlier than I thought, as I accidentally bumped into her on the ninth floor here, as I was showing one of our clients to the elevator after a very productive meeting. I was tickled pink that she showed up, and so I gave her the royal tour (meeting the few people who decided to come in today as it is a long weekend), followed by a trek down to my favourite restaurant around here, a dim sum place which serves more than dim sum. We ordered a seafood noodles dish, along with soup appetizers, something from the dim sum menu, as well as dessert. It was so delightful to have lunch with her - I swear, it was like we were dating again. We just chatted away, and I had an opportunity to introduce her to the owner and the staff there. Lunch was excellent, as usual.

Afterwards, when I realized that we took about an hour-and-a-half lunch, I checked in with my staff in the office, saw that it was still a rather slow day, told them (to cheers) they can all leave at 4PM, and subsequently met my wife downstairs and we headed over to Starbucks where we had expressos / hot chocolate on the outdoor patio. It was a sunny day today, around 22 degrees celsius - absolutely gorgeous weather to spend the noon hour (and beyond) hanging out with my dear wife, sipping Starbucks products outside. It was so fun - we were talking about possibly making this a regular thing, but I'm not sure how the daycare parents will like that, not to mention my Dad, who has to drive in to watch our son.

I have to say, I think North American culture has it completely wrong. Most countries in the world, except for maybe Japan, embrace a slower pace of life, and sitting around, drinking coffee in the middle of the afternoon, is considered a one of the pleasures of a typical day. In this day and age, when in the big city people seem to go from one place to the next, it is simply wonderful to be able to enjoy a beautiful, sunny afternoon outside, with my spouse. Of course, I am still on the work clock, so I had to get back to the office, but once nice thing about being in management is that no one razzes me when I take an extended lunch (particularly when it's so seldom that I do so, and I work enough unpaid overtime anyway). Of course, it doesn't hurt that I decided to let everyone out early so they enjoy their afternoons as well.