This is my first time in London; although, I won’t get to see any of the city. I’m in Heathrow with time to spare before catching my connecting flight to Cologne. Like a true social media-ite, it’s hard to stay offline for any measure of time.

So far, my travels have been all about connections. While waiting for my flight in Ottawa, I ran into a daycare parent I haven’t seen in about two-and-a-half years — since our daughters graduated out of the pre-school rooms and into Kindergarteners. It was nice to catch up and look at photos. And it was therapeutic to discuss the shock of how quickly our children are growing. Oddly, I ran into Callum’s wife a few weeks ago. I guess I’m all caught up with them now.

As I collected all of my belongings after going through security in Heathrow, Adam introduced himself to me. He’s an Officer in Training in the US Military and off to Lithuania as part of an educational term. Adam has a particular interest in politics and we talked about the current US election. In particular, we talked about Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama and John McCain. It was an engaging conversation that came to an abrupt end at the fork to terminals 2 and 3.

In a few hours I’ll be in Germany — another first for me. I’m looking forward to meeting some amazing people and exchanging more ideas… all with an international flavour.