Last Thursday was my last day at Arterra. My last working day was the Friday before that, but technically, I was on the books until Aug 31.

I joined the company in July 2021, after more than two decades in and around banking, excited to get behind the scenes at the Canadian wine industry. While it had nothing to do with my day job, I was excited to meet some of the winemakers and viticulture team, the importers and exporters, the masters of wine, the purchasers and supply chain experts…it was a real education, and a chance to understand more of an industry I’ve come to love. And it was fun to be the resident wine nerd among the executives.

There’s another opportunity in the works that I’m hoping comes to pass, but in the meantime, I’m taking September off. I can’t be certain, but I’m pretty sure I haven’t had more than 2.5 consecutive weeks of vacation since I started my working life in 1997. The first couple of weeks were sheer downtime (in part because I’ve been so sick), but we have some fun plans coming up.

So, yeah…as I type this I have four more weeks of vacation, and I have to say: that sounds pretty good.