Hopefully all the sheets, commercial icons and reissued superheros have a great evening running around demanding milk-flavoured confection from the guardians of candy. Make sure that you try to minimize the “throat burn” from all that chocolate.
Add comment October 31st, 2006
No, not the play, the jet company. Flying to Tallahassee this week and Kirk chartered a jet because there are 6-7 of us going. Which means (a) we get to fly direct, not connecting through all manner of airports to get there and (b) we can set our own schedule of when we are going and returning (which is fantastic). Looking forward to that trip but sadly I can’t get used to it as it is far from the normal state of affairs.
Add comment October 30th, 2006
Karen and I went downtown for some more walking on the Royal Mile. We headed down to the Queen’s palace at the bottom of the Canongate and ventured up into the park towards Arthur’s seat. Arthur’s seat is the largest hill surrounding Edinburgh and provides a very beautiful view. Lots of windy and wet stone pathways and some difficult climbing, but it was nice to spend two hours outside and doing some walking on a beautiful Scottish day. At the end of the walk we were really wiped out, we headed back to the hotel and ate dinner and packed up early to make sure that we were set to go early on tomorrow. We tried and tried to watch the recorded episode of Lost I had but it was difficult to download and the internet stopped working. Since we didn’t have normal TV to watch, Karen and I got hooked on “so you think you’re a beauty technician” reality TV show where people get very crazy beauty procedures done (a BC&S). It’s been a very fun time in Edinburgh these past couple of days; Karen and I could definitely live here in Scotland, it’s a very nice place.
3 comments October 28th, 2006
Karen and I met Adrienne downtown for a early evening “chocolate drop” (Adrienne picked up Karen’s remaining candy on order from people back home). We ate dinner at a local bar called Monster Mash that specializes in nasty greasy sausages. Because I didn’t want any of those horrible sausages, I actually had haggis, neaps and tatties (based on the recommendations of the guys at work) and it wasn’t bad, mostly like wet meatloaf and oatmeal. The three of us then went to see an improv show (the ONLY improv show) performed by the Improverts; it was largely identical to a ToTE show, so much so that I think they got a hold of Hugh’s old handle list and just work from that. We said farewell to Adrienne (who was crazily doing a full weekend of fencing competition and has sadly not done any stage combat recently) and headed towards the bus. Unfortunately we got there during the normal bus to night bus switchover, so we were waiting for a bus for about an hour (with Karen getting more unhappy by the minute but her cuteness factor going up proportionally with each passing tick). Eventually we managed to hail a cab and that was our chosen route for getting back home for a long nights rest.
2 comments October 27th, 2006
Karen did a tour of the Edinburgh vaults today and learned lots of the history of the city and the bridges of the Royal Mile. The HB team in Scotland are nice, a focused team of 14 guys working all in one room. After work Karen and I went back to the vault tours and did the “ghost walk” which was similar as to the day tour that Karen had done but with a much more significant ghost storytelling component. The tour guide Euan picked me and an English man out of the crowd and we represented a pair of English businessmen that the Scots tortured for being treasonous (whipping included). We did the walk through the dark bridge spans and ended off the evening with a pint at the pub and the tale of Burke and Hare, two notorious killers of Edinburgh. It was a fun evening, definitely love the Royal Mile, I kept dreaming of all the street theatre and sword fights that could be done.
Add comment October 26th, 2006
Apparently that’s the way the saying goes, but we are definitely getting tired of this city. I went to work via the tube today, however it was VERY busy and very crowded which wasn’t very fun. I can see why people don’t like working with North American’s, their afternoon (meetings and phone calls) really screws up your evening and it’s super inconvenient. Got back to hotel early so that Karen and I could jet off to Edinburgh. Landed by 8:30pm and had dinner at a nice restaurant after getting money from the very short ATMs - it worked to alleviate some of my developing grumpiness.
2 comments October 25th, 2006
I went to work today to meet our Docklands team. That was fun, seem like nice guys. Part of the unfun bit is that when you travel for work, you have to miss all the neat stuff. The ladies all went on a tour of London today, hopping on the double decker bus and travelling all through the city. Then they got on a boat and did a short tour of the Thames river (or so it seems from the pictures anyway) — apparently that’s the way to see London, from the the water. I took the tube back from Canary Wharf to the hotel, a cost of £3 vs £30 for the taxi in the morning going to work (now I know where I’m going, I’ll tube it tomorrow). We had a dinner in a pub just down the street from the hotel but the service was abysmal; afterwards we found that there was a button beside the table marked “push for service” (d’oh). Karen and I took Anna and mom to the train station via the tube. Had about 3-4 switches which was more than needed and made the trip seem unnecessarily complicated. It is also so hot in the tube which we didn’t like so much, but that’s what you get when you have thousands of travellers hundreds of feet underground (can’t imagine what that’s like in August). Got them settled on the train and said goodbye and made sure they were safely on their way to Mike’s. Karen had to go to the washroom but in the station they are all toll controlled. After wandering around the theatre area and spending 40p we headed back to the hotel for our final sleep in London.
Add comment October 24th, 2006
Had a smashing (notice how I adjust linguistically) breakfast this morning and felt much more adjusted for the time zone. Bundled up mom and Anna in the car and the four of us left for London. I had planned to drop off the car at the downtown location not too far from the hotel. It was a straight line into London, didn’t even have to change streets really to get to the hotel, but it is still very stressful because the street names aren’t labelled and it was a constant watch by Karen that kept us on track. We parked illegally on a side street while we checked into the hotel, dropped mom and Anna off with all the luggage and then got back in the car to attempt “the return”. We were just south of Hyde park and needed to go up the east side of it to a complicated bit called the Marble Arch. Due to Karen’s confidence and navigation skills, my slow and steady driving and a bit of luck from both of us where we just randomly said “turn here” we found the drop-off with only one quickly corrected mistake. I definitely didn’t enjoy driving the four lanes up the east side of the park and trying to go around large roundabouts with so much traffic. We took a taxi back to the hotel where we had lunch just around the corner (with a nice bartender taking care of us) and then used the rest of the day to unwind.
Add comment October 23rd, 2006
Karen and I landed safe today (albeit tired of course) at Heathrow. Picked up our rental car and headed north to Birmingham (after a short refresher on how to drive). Made a few misdirections as Karen and I always do when she knows the route and I don’t believe her (M25->M40->M42), but with that we ended up safe and sound at Mike and Tricia’s place. Mike and Tricia are some of the most accommodating people I have ever met (let alone relatives) and they were pleased to see us and gave us a room to nap in for the afternoon (so we could adjust to the TZ). We woke up just before 5pm and went off with Mike to the train station to meet Grandma, mom and Anna coming back from visiting Kathleen. Mom and Grandma were apparently stunned but Anna wasn’t too surprised since Jason had spilled the beans that I might be dropping in (apparently he gave up the secret after being asked the question ONCE - so MI5 shouldn’t be recruiting him anytime soon). We got back to the house and Tricia had made an amazing dinner for us all. It’s tough sometimes coming from Canada because they are so nice and do so much for you but never want you to help them with anything. It was so nice to see them again and very fun that on the other side of the ocean we got to see Grandma, Anna and mom.
Add comment October 22nd, 2006
John and Paul have been flying all over the place. It seems that Paul’s new plane purchase and John’s renewed interest in flying have combined very well for the last little while, resulting in lots of fun trips all over the province. Since they were likely to be flying around anyway, I asked if they could pass over Waterloo Park and do aerial photo for use by me with planning around the medieval faire. Apparently they must have been at a pretty serious bank because the shot they got is phenominal! It’s also neat that you can see the holes we dug for all the banner poles for the tournament ring, so I can even use it as a reference point for next year. Really neat and with the fall colours, it’s just so beautiful.
View a side by side comparison against old aerial image
Add comment October 21st, 2006
This is amazing… I want one of these projection whiteboards at work. I don’t need the actual simulation part, I would just settle for the drawing recognition… if it could also auto-build visio diagrams that would be cool too. Those MIT guys really do some very innovative, bleeding-edge work.
Add comment October 20th, 2006
Last night I sent an email to the Mazda dealership just outlining my position — why I shouldn’t be paying more and an itemization of all the issues I had with them. Got four phone calls on my cell during the day but couldn’t answer as I was in a executive customer meeting. At the end of the day I call him and say, “you called”. He says yes, he did and that he read my email. I asked what new information he might have and what he can do for me given the email I sent. He says that there has been no progress and still hasn’t found a car for us at this time. At this point I think - why did he try to call me four times today with no change in the situation? Right after I get off the phone, I call the other Mazda dealership (referred by others at work) to explain my situation. I ask if they can take care of this and give me the price I want? He says he’ll check. 20 minutes later he phones back and says yes. Now, he can’t actually sell me a car yet because there are laws in Ontario and I’m still under contract with the first dealership. I call Karen and talk about the situation. I leave work and get a ride home in Darryl’s new Mazda 3 hatchback (damn him) and then take the one car we have remaining and drive to the dealership. While I’m driving there, they apparently call and say they’ve found a car in Ottawa. I show up at the dealership and sit down with the manager. I say “we’re going to walk away”. He defuses my ire completely by saying that he understands, can’t win them all, apologies and will refund my deposit. That was classy and very smart of him. It turned a swear-fest and a day of stewing into basically a mild grumpy and funny story. It also means that I won’t write them off in the future. We’ll give them another chance when we buy again as it was an honest mistake and really his situation was intenable.
That dealt with, Karen and I hop in our one car and go to the other dealership and sit with the agent that we were referred to (Mike Cole). Easiest sale he ever did probably as we had all the stuff worked out already. We get through it quickly and if everything holds (and the 3 cars in Canada haven’t already been sold) it means we will be in the car a week from Monday. Got a call from the bank verifying financing (it was noted as a priority rush, so I got a call at 9pm at night, for which I was impressed) so that shouldn’t hold up anything. Stay tuned for the conclusion…
4 comments October 19th, 2006
Karen and I carefully coordinated today… She had to get the plates off of Ol’Bluey (the sunbird) and dispose of him before we could go and pick up the new car. She took the car to a wrecking yard at lunch and then a co-worker drove her back to work — we didn’t elect to give it away to a charity as it would have taken them 2 weeks to actually pick it up. At 5:00, I ducked out of a very important work meeting to go and pick up Karen from CiTS. I picked her up by about 5:30 and we left Kitchener very excited to go and get her new car. Pulled into the dealership and went in. Talked to the sales guy and Karen asked to see the newly delivered vehicle. We walk in and see a phantom purple, dazzing and shiny, NON-HATCHBACK Mazda 3. So, naturally I say “that’s the wrong car model”. Sorta stunned looks are exchanged between all three of us and he runs out to go check the computer. Comes back and shows the paperwork and it says Mazda 3 GT. We say it’s the wrong car, we wanted the hatchback. We go back out to sit at his desk and he looks at the computer again. Everything apparently that was punched into the computer was for a GT and not a GT Sport (the difference in why we didn’t get the hatchback model).
Then it begins. He’s apologetic that it’s the wrong car. He punches some stuff into the computer and says to get the hatchback it will be an additional $600-$700 for that model. This causes me to get very loud and start swearing at him. Let me recap. I inquired about, test drove and handed him website print outs from CarCostCanada with the hatchback photo and the correct model number on it. Now we don’t have a new car, we don’t have an old car and I’m going to pay more for the experience? Karen and I stepped outside while the manager and the sales guy tried to work out a solution. Karen very much wanted to walk away with a car, any car, and that makes a lot of sense since we now only have one car to use between us. Fortunately as luck would have it we don’t really need a second car for the next little while so we’re not going to be too inconvenienced. Karen and I talk for about 30 minutes and eventually resolve to stick to the plan and wait and get the hatchback (which it seems there are only 3 of them in the entire country for some reason). We go back in and tell them to get us the car we want. They say sure (it will cost more) and they’ll start looking for it tomorrow morning. We leave very unhappy.
3 comments October 18th, 2006
Unbeknownst to Mom, Anna and Grandma, I’ve been coordinating a surprise for them on Sunday with Mike (Grandma’s brother) overseas. They will likely be very surprised because I managed to coordinate my work committments to match up with the last few days of their stay in Solihull. The plan right now is to go and get them from the train station when they arrive on Sunday night, so that should be very funny when they see us waiting on the platform. Should be a very unexpected thing and their reaction should be quite interesting. Hopefully they are having a good time so far.
3 comments October 17th, 2006