I work at a little company called Left (formerly Left of the Dot), right in the heart of the Fraser Valley in Maple Ridge, and on April 1st I celebrated five years with them.  In our morning standup meeting, my boss, John, recited this poem:

You’ve grown old fine fellow, in our company
Five years in… And still – you do tolerate me.
You do not bitch, or moan, or gesticulate
Wait… that’s not right. Let me ameliorate.
You’ve grown old fine fellow, in our company
Five years at Left, and this is what you’ve done to me
I started skinny and Chris had hair
Now look at him standing over there
Hmmm… my tribute seems to be going adrift
These words are wrong, but perhaps a gift
Might lift your spirits above the highest peak
As we say thanks to our grey beard geek
So Lefties do note this stuck point here
Alan and Joe are out, they’ll be back for beer.

(Joe is my friend and awesome designer and owner of Full Frame Marketing who has also been working with Left for a number of years.

Now, because of SEO you’ll already know how this story ended. But a quick run through anyway… I had no idea what was going on, at one point during the day Joe disappeared, but it was just out for a meeting. Around lunch we were pulled out and John and Chris, the founders of Left, took us out.  We had an …. “adequate” lunch at the cafe at the Pitt Meadows airport, I think I remarked that I was happy that five years garnered a lunch of a chicken wrap…

After though, we were taken to Sky Helicopters and introduced to another Alan who was going to be our pilot.  A bit of this and that, many, many thanks given, and we were handed a mysterious picnic basket and sent on our way.

Taking off in a helicopter is weird.  My first time in and the sensation of lifting up, but not being entirely stable, was odd.  After that we took the 20 or so minute trip up to a glacier in the cascades, chatting with the pilot and looking at the really unique view we had out of the bubble cockpit.

Arriving on the top of the glacier we touched down to something out of a movie.  Cold snow below us, mountains surrounding us on three sides, a view (though a bit smoggy) down the valley with a view of what I assume is Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge.  The sky was the brilliant blue of a rare gem and the sun was blazing down through a cloudless sky.  Even though it was cold we were warmed by the sun and the excitement of doing something we’d never done before.

Pictures were taken, selfies snapped, etc. The picnic basket was opened up and lo and behold some lovely scotch and two glasses came out and we toasted to our good fortune.

After about twenty minutes of marvelling at the view, the location and our good luck we got back in, and flew back home.  The trip was fantastic and my huge thanks to my amazing company for the unique experience!

Thanks goes to:

• John and Chris and Left of the Dot
• Sky Helicopters