Life in Slow Motion

Where'd Summer go?

2006-08-13T09:57:00.000-04:00

Here it is mid-August already. The sun is starting to go down earlier already and I'm noticing it's actually starting to get fresh in the evening. It all goes by so fast in Canada. Mind you, during the day now it's around 23 or 24 which truthfully is perfect. Those days at 32 are just too hot although we'll probably get a few more of them before it's all over.

Life's been kinda blah lately. At work I feel stressed and a little threatened. I really wish I could just go out and find a new job somedays. Nothing's really all that bad but I'm tired of doing the same old thing everyday... there's no new and interesting challenges and I feel like I'm in a rut there. Nothing ever changes for the better for me.

Personally.. well I've had some successed. I've lost around 10kg over the past 4 months. Good stuff, I'm back to my weight that I was in my 20s. I actually accomplished my objective and I have to say if feels just great. I'm eating real foods as opposed to chemically enhanced packaged process or fast foods that's so readily available over here. I've made a list of basic supper types and how many times I'm going to have that eact month... so something like Beef 2 times, Fish 5 times, Porc 4 times, Vegetarian 6 times, pasta 2 times, Chicken 6 times, Seafood 5 times... and what this did was dicipline me and gave me a good variety. So when I go to restaurant I know now I can better control beef and pasta intake than a restaurant can plus they are simple and easy to make at home so I have fish, seafood or veal when I eat out. I also cut down on breads, potatoes, rice and sugary foods but I upped things like couscous, tabouli and vegetarian sides. Then with my ipod and goods half hour or hour long podcast I either go on a walk or on the tredmill everyday... so I get some excercise I wasn;t getting enough of before... shre enough it worked without me really reducing my food intake all that much and getting a nice walk or feel good excercise everyday.

What was really amazing is that once I switched to whole grain real and fresh foods I found it satisfied my body's needs much better than fast food and processed food. My body's cells don't know what to do with a lot of them because there are no or few nutrients in them... so you end up getting hungry again faster and therefore eat more sooner. Your liver just processes the rest in many cases. Now I never get hungry until my next meal even though I ate the same amount per meal as before if even less. That almost stopped overnight it was so obvious. It almost leads me to believe that some companies add in something to make you addicted or crave more of their foods. When you read the nutiritional contents of some foods it ends up being 75% chemicals.. stuff to keep it's color, somthing to add additional flavour, a chemical to keeps the foods consistency, tons of salt to preserve it, sugars in everything and often disguised under several different names, the word "fat free" in some cases then you see there's still 5% fat... the lack of revealing trans-fats... no wonder we're all so heavy.

On other fronts I took my car in for an oil change and ended up with a near $800 bill for a timing belt change. That hurt but I knew that was coming up. I'm planning to have two floors resanded and refinished then I hope to purchase a new bedroom set so the timing of this timing belt was very good.. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my old bedroom set though. I need someone to come take it away. I have no room to store it. It's hard to coordinate all this and it's expensive... but I spend more time in bed than I do in my car so well worth it.

Anyways... I really should start my day.. gotta get the lawn cut... I am trying to clean up the basement too... so much stuff to get rid of... little by little.

Summer madness

2006-06-14T19:13:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time since I updated this site so I thought I'd throw in a few words just to keep it active. I'll try and be more diligent working on this. That being said looking over my state I can say that practically no one comes through and reads my page so if you are then you are a rare bird.. a precious stone perhaps LOL...

Well let's see what's new... A good friend of mine has a brother two years older than me who was recently diagnosed with diabetes. He is overweight, drinks too much, is under stress and work and at home and does no little or no strenuous excercise. Now I'm not as overweight as he is and I don't drink anywhere near as much as he did and my stress levels are way down in comparison but I too excercise very little... until now :) Somehow I've managed to put myself back on the healthy eating diet that I now call my Ipod Diet... thanks to that little video gadget that's sweeping my life. I've discovered Podcasts and of course I'm going crazy with them. I now have reason to walk... so I stick in my earphone and head out the door and walk for an hour everynight... then each morning at 5am... I'm on my treadmill for 45 minutes listening to the latest BBC podcast.. and I've created a food schedule that's not really a schedule rather more like a list of how many times a month I can eat fish, beef, porc, chicken and vegatarian. Limiting beef and pasta to low numbers and raising fish and vegatarian.. the result is dropping from around 202 lbs to 189... my goal is 185 and if I reach that I'd ultimately like to get down to 175 my original perfect weight. Woo Hoo!.. I'm down two belt notches as well and for once I look in the mirror and think it's starting to look ok.. not perfect by any means (that's 175 with muscle).. oh I've also starting lifting a few weights to just tighten things up. So I feel good in other words.'

Outside of that work is going ok. My personal life is ok but nothing major or special happening in either case. I was suppose to go to Europe in April but it's been postponed to September now. I might make a sidetrip if I go back. I've become very enamoured with Flickr lately.. posting a ton of pictures and meeting people from all over the world. (Alan where are you?) My cousin from New Brunswick came into Montreal last week and we met up for the first time in many years. It was great seeing her. She's had a lot of drama in her life lately. Kinda sad in the end. I might post a blog about it sometime later.

Anyways it's warm now.. summer's almost here and it's too beautiful outside to stay inside for a change. I'm going to put on my Ipod and go for a walk.. the Feast of Fools is waiting for me. I need a dose of Fausto and Mark. They interviewed Sulu from the original Star Trek, George Takei the other day... it was great :)... what a voice he has, so animated. So I'm off... Leave me some comments, I'd like to know who's dropping in :) Thanks!

YUL-ORD-GRR-ORD-YUL

2006-03-27T20:27:00.000-05:00

Well my trip went well. It started off on the wrong foot though. I had a major argument with a client on the telephone before I left on Tuesday. The contact was so agressive and venonmous O came very close to hanging up on her. She just let out a continuous cry of insults and anger directed towards our company and eventually myself for messing up an order. I tried reasoning with her but her intent wasn't constructive anger it was destructive anger... so I let her vent and tried to calm her down only to find myself getting frusutrated with her eventually letting her go without barely speaking to her in the end. I understand people getting angry and I see the need for it everynow and then but if it's constructive in nature it helps build a relationship and find solutions. This type of destructive anger though was completely pointless, detroys relationships, solves nothing, works towards further destuction and just makes everyone feel bad.

I felt awful heading out on my plane Tuesday evening... this wouldn't get out of my head. Anyways, It got worse in Grand Rapids when I discovered we hadn't released several blocked orders that they asked to be prepared in advance. There was no way to get it all ready in time and I feared the worse today when I went into work. I was expecting all hell to break loose but instead I experienced one of those rare moments in life when everything you think about yourself and what you did actually rang true. The contact called and at first seemed afraid to talk to me then apolagized profusely for everything that happened... fearing I would have just quit our partnership in this project. I tell ya, I came damed close to it. I did talk it over with my boss in Grand Rapids and suggested long term they get someone to be a sales contact and leave me to do the technical end which is where my expertise it. He agreed so perhaps in a year or so this will happen.

For the trip however... I'll do it in pictures once Flickr is up and running again. In short though, American Airlines was excellent. The ERJ flights all went smoothly. I've come to really like that plane. It's comfortable and has nice big windows. Chicago went well. It was my first time going through American's terminal which wasn't as nice as United's but it was still pretty effective. I saw employees moving around on Segways there which was really cool.

I arrived in Grand Rapids near midnight and got a taxi to the Baymont Inn. The taxi driver picked up I was Canadian and had a load of questions for me about Canada. It was really interesting to see how fascinated he was with us. He wanted to know about if I wa happy about the Conservative government. He, like many Americans now, felt the need to almost apologize for their government's actions around the world.. he asked about Quebec seperation and if it made sense or would ever happen and mainly if it's still an issue. Quite cool... he asked a lot more questions than I ever imagined someone like he would.

Work down there went well. Eric was nice enough to stick by me most of time and show me around a little. I had my evaluation and it went quite well. My boss seems to think more highly of my skills than I do so that was cool. Even the CEO seemed a bit more receptive to me than normal so I felt better about that although I really do find him hot and cold.

The return was a day of watching the clock... My plan was to take Friday off and a taxi back to the airport and do it all on my own pace. My boss insisted someone drive me there so suggested I come into work in the morning...sigh... so I did that and we wrapped up fast so I ended up at GRR around 9am. My flight was at 11am. My mistake was checking in luggage. The earlier flight was there and I could have switched planes and spent some leisure time at O'Hare but I couldn't... then my 11pm flight was 40 minutes late. My connection to YUL was at 11:15 and I ended up arriving at ORD at 11:40.. plus, as always, I was at the end of the pier at G16 and my Montreal MD-80 was at the end of pier H and H17... so there I was leaping over luggage and small kids as I ran to the gate...LOL... only to find out it was delayed and the boarding process hadn't begun yet.

Boarding was a but messy. First off the flight was jammed packed and there were stand by passengers who had been there since the previous night. They boarded in Groups.. 1, 2, 3 etc..which were marked on your boarding pass. I was in group 6 for seat 9A. The trouble is many passengers had tickets with no group number marked on it. Furthermore many were unilingual French Canadians who were understandably lost. However we all board only to sit there for another 45 minutes with ATC got it's act together. The weather was ominous... very low dark clouds and some rain. Downtown Chicago was spectacular with all the low skyline hanging over the city.

The flight to Montreal was uneventful. The MD-80 really nice and quiet.. quite roomy. My seatmate was an older French Canadian who I spoke to for a bit. Service was sparse... beverages and pretzels but I have to admit they were better prtzels than usual but still they were pretzels. Montreal looked beautiful on arrival... the sun was filtering down through the clouds... I saw where I work from the plane and got a picture of it. We turned at the end of island and headed back west towards 24R... passing my house and the usual approach until we landed routinely. Customs was crowded. And Air France 777, Swiss A330 and and Air Canada A330 had landed just before us... plus I think there was an Air Transat flight too... so it was quite crowded but we did the zig zag thingy and kept moving although I was dizzy by the time I got to the customs agent. My bag was out way before I got to the luggage carrousel and shortly after I was on the Met on the way home... only to be stuck in rush hour traffic.. so no real day off.

Next month... Europe.

Spring is coming

2006-03-15T12:30:00.000-05:00

Ok it's been a while.. Nothing spectacular has happened although it's been a stressful few weeks with work and friends.

For work - we had the big bosses up here from the US and they let go of our purchasers. It was a consolidation move to centralize purchasing in the USA. What people didn't like was the two fellas were told they no longer had employment here and were immediately escorted out of the building without even having a chance to say good bye to anyone. That's rough especially since we all worked with them for over 5 years. The reason for them going though made sense and in the end it turns out they really didn't have a good grasp of what they were doing as the US has filled in and found a mess of problems that should never have occurred. So a good thing for the company but I can't help but feel bad for them. It seems strange to not see them any more and not to have at least said good-bye.

For friends - hum. I seem to be having issues with both my best friends. One a female and one a guy. For the girl we seemed to have clashed recently over world issues.. Iraq specifically. Well, actually this clash occurred right after the Iraq invasion. She took the US side, I took Canada's position and then we locked horns to a point where we really can't discuss this anymore without raising our voices. I would imagine this is not all that uncommon... Although I've known this girl all my life and we've never argued let along clashed on anything on this scale. It's kinda sad. It seems to have now boiled over to how we see everything else and we're discovering that we really are very different people at heart. She is much more conservative, right wing and pro-business... I am really much more liberal, left of centre and pro-struggles against governments and big business.

All this came to head over a discussion about Paul McCartney coming to Canada to protest the seal hunt. Now we both object to the seal hunt but I am suspicious of big celebrities making grandiose new conferences on issues far flung from their normal environment. I wasn't aware McCartney had been doing this for years however and I guess my protests over his presence just set her off. For me I ask why Paul McCartney is concerned about seals on an ice flow off Newfoundland when his own country has just bombed the hell out of Iraq for a cause that so far has proven to be non existent. Anyways, we butted heads and it then came down to how we see the world, how well we respect each other's opinions, how well we listen to each other, do we listen to each other in fact and I suppose we were questioning our intelligence and ability to decipher the events that shape our worlds.

The sad truth is the truth these days is almost meaningless. It seems our aim is to find sources that confirm our beliefs and hope that enough people support the same sources and then it becomes the truth for us whether or not it really it. Thus the huge divide in American society and for that matter all of us that judge them on their actions. God knows everyone is judging them these days.

For the male friend... I offered him and another friend to take my Air Canada points and go on a trip somewhere in the world they fly. I have enough points to really go just about anywhere so the three of us could have a good time in some far off exotic place. First they happily accepted then they hedged... then they said they were planning a trip on their own then the last time he wanted me to go to Toronto with them to see how we all got along. Ok, looking at it like that I can see this was a mistake on my part. I should never have made this offer. I'm very disappointed in this reaction and quite frankly now I'm not sure how to get out of it would hurting anyone's feelings.... or just wait until they finally say for me to go on my own... which is depressing enough as that is. Crap.

Academy Awards

2006-03-06T12:15:00.000-05:00

I managed to get through the Academy Awards last night. I saw the beginning, a little of the middle and came back around 10:45 for the end. Overall I enjoyed what I saw. The opening was pretty good starting with the computer generated fly into the theatre passing all the great actors and moments in movie history. Very well done. The skit about their search for a host was pretty good but what happened to Ellen?

For the films - I saw three of them this year. Good Night & Good Luck, Crash & Brokeback Mountain. I thoroughly enjoyed all three. I wasn't able to say beforehand that I strongly preferred one over the other. GN&GL was a steamy look into an era I knew nothing about and found it totally fascinating. Crash was an excellent playoff of emotions and tensions in our racially mixed world... a hard topic to broach and extrememly well done and acted and Brokeback Mountain was a powerhouse of emotional repression and an expression of realities that rarely ever get played out on the big screen. It really was an excellent year in film. Capote & Munich look like they'd easily fall into the same category of quality. So for all the losing nominees I'd surely say it was the best year to not have won one because any other year they would have blown the competition out of the water in terms of quality.

Highlights of what I saw... the opening sequence, John Stewart did a pretty good job of hosting the show and Ben Stiller desperately trying to ring some humor out of a screen screen costume. I can't imagine hosting is an easy task given all the big stars out in the audience and knowing there are over a hundred million people watching you live. Egads... Everyone looked good... there were no really big mistakes... the political side was kept low key for the most part at least from what I saw. George Clooney made some good remarks though..

I'm kinda glad Crash won though. Three cheers for independant films! It was a difficult movie to watch and it sent out a message to everyone about the reasons why we are like all are... everyone is connected and even the little things we say or do has reprecussions we never see. Glad to see it was directed and produced by a Canadian too. I guess it takes an outsider sometimes to see what we don't always see ourselves and in this case perhaps it took a Canuck to help Americans see themselves in a more realistic realistic light. So kudos to him.

Back on Track

2006-02-13T19:59:00.000-05:00

Well I've done a little traveling the past week so I thought I'd update this blog since it's been a while. I had a colleague over from the Netherlands and we did some work here in Montreal and then headed down to Grand Rapids Michigan in the US for a couple of days before we both split up and went home. Had a great time actually.

My colleague Bart is a world traveler. He's been all over the globe and the thought of him coming to Montreal in February was sickening. This is a really great summer city, one of the best in North America in my opinion but in winter it's cold and ugly as hell with all the slush and dirty snow, pot holes and icy sidewalks. It's a living hell in some respects and the last thing I want is people coming here during this seasonal mess... but somehow I showed him around, took him to some incredible restaurants, managed to hit all the right sites and in the end he said he really loved it and wants to come back with his wife and family. So I was pleased. We also had a really great time in Grand Rapids and both of us came away impressed with the city and the people. Best of all our American colleagues as well as my colleagues here in Quebec were really nice to him and I think if anything he was surprised by how friendly everyone was. I've learned many of my Dutch colleagues have a really negative opinion of Americans and North America in general but once they actually experience it a lot of their beliefs are proven wrong and they end up liking it a lot. Perhaps not everyone but it's not as commercial, cold and tasteless as they might think. It helps to have the right person show you around too.

Sheila, I'm pleased to say is back on the mend. She had a very serious if not major case of the flu which led to pneumonia. She's still not 100% now 5 weeks later but on Saturday we went out for supper and argued politics and well I knew she was back to normal LOL! :) It's great to see.

My personal life is still as bland and boring as ever. It was nice having Bart here because it gave me something to do after work. I find the nights long and lonely and it helps to have someone to go out and do things with. Lately I've been playing around with photography and posting my pictures on Flickr. It's kinda fun and somewhat obsessive. I really struggle to get away from it some days. Oh well.. better than just watching TV I suppose. Anyways here is a random selection of some pics I've taken over the past year or two that I like. Hope you enjoy them

I'm on Mont Royal and I'm an Iceberg... what's wrong with this picture...!?

2006-01-16T23:27:00.000-05:00

We had a colleague in from Michigan today at work. Jeannette & I took her out this evening to le Parchemin for supper. I have to say it was an incredible meal and well deserved after our trip to Mont Royal to see the city from the lookout. It was -31 degrees outside and the walk from the parking lot to the lookout takes about 5-7 minutes.... we froze going there. I froze my fingers trying to snap so phots. The city did look petty spectacular but it was to fricking cold...LOL Seriously...

Supper was a pleasure... so warm and comfy :)... We had a Five Course meal and as you can bet we were stuffed after. Anyways she liked the city and enjoyed herself.

Time to hit the sack. Tomorrow I take my car to Honda for it's annual big check up... there goes my Christmas bonus as always.. *sigh*...

:) Have a good evening..

Genghis Khan returns

2006-01-15T15:53:00.000-05:00

Back in the Deep Freeze

Another week has gone by and not much has happened. Work has been routine for the most part. I've rescheduled my Grand Rapids trip again... those big boys from the Head Office just run over us regardless of what we are doing or want... oh well, such is the life of an ant. LOL.. Anyways I'm now going to Michigan with my Dutch colleague on February 8th and then I return again for my originally scheduled trip on the third week of March.

Speaking of trips, a couple of friends have been in Playa Del Carmen since last Monday. I checked the weather all week and it looks like it rained every day. That sucks... It looked a bit better there for this weekend but really if they did get rain all the days I say rain then for over half their trip they had bad weather. I'll find out more when they get back. Poor guys, I feel bad for them. The resort however looked incredible. Five Star luxury with a giant pool and bar so I'm sure they found something to do ;)

I finished off my book on Genghis Khan by Jack Weatherford. I must confess it was quite fascinating. I knew next to nothing about the man other than some vague references from History classes taken decades ago about Mongol invasions as well as a reference in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales from Cegep....but even that was more about Kubilai Khan.

The tale that's told in this book unravels the somewhat hidden and suppressed story of the world's greatest military strategist of all time. He was the first to conquer vast regions using thousands of organized soldiers in precision lightening strike attacks.... Tactics that are copied and used today in the 21st century actually. Once conquered existing rulars remained in power locally, he later permitted freedoms of religion, ethnic diversity, laws against many of the most common tortures and the kidnapping of women. Because they were nomadic people that roamed the Mongolian Steppe they took goods and knowledge from all their conquered regions and brought them and their skills to Mongolia, introduced a paper currency in the 1200s (the first ever) to level out differences in commerce and trade in their territory; basically started the concept of international trade and the distribution of wealth and knowledge to everyday people... including the creation of mass book production. So in effect during his reign the Khans controlled everywhere from Germany to Iran to Singapore to China and of course Mongolia and back through Russia and everything inbetween.... basically all of Asia except Japan, the Arab world and Eastern Europe- a larger territory than any other conqueror before or since. They pillaged and raped it all destroying much in it's path before he took power but once in control it was Genghis Khan that stopped tribal fighting, set down a more liberal and just economic and political system everyone could accept and remain who they were and how they wanted to live their lives and practice their religion. They weren't Saints but for the 13th century they were progressive and in fact more tolerant than Europeans in many perspectives. They were compelled to gear everything towards religion so they were open to diversity and various types of freedoms of expression. It was only the Europeans in the 14th century that started to wipe out their history and demonize them to the point where today they are largely forgotten and ignored in the West. It's quite a remarkable gap in our knowledge of history (or at least mine)... so a good book to get aquainted with.

I stepped outside to get some fresh air. I'd been spending a lot of time uploading pictures on my Flickr site and I think I've been obcessing with it. It seems I've done nothing else all weekend. Well on Thursday and Friday it was record warm in Montreal, up around 6 or 7 degrees which is rare in January.... when I stepped out to wipe a light snowfall off the car I almost froze all the extremities on my body... It felt like -16 or -17 out there. The car was all frozen up. Sigh.... well it is January.

..anyways have a good week...

Allergic Attack

2006-01-09T12:16:00.000-05:00

I had a scare last evening in a restaurant. I was having supper at a local Greek restaurant when suddenly my breathing became very restricted and my eyes started to itch and swell up. It all happened so fast. Within a few minutes I was struggling to get a breath and my eyes were looking like goldfish eyes... egads..

When I went outside to get some fresh air it only got worse. My stomach now felt bloated and my whole chest felt like it was going to explode. So my dinner mate and I paid up and left quickly. When I got home I still had some medication left in my ventolin pump and quickly took a few puffs and within seconds I was starting to relax and be ok. Phew... I swear at one point during the drive home I was considering going straight to the hospital emergency. Had I not gotten home I might have gone into anaphylactic shock.

It's been years since I've ever had a sudden attack like this and I don't think ever as bad. I really don't know what set it off. The restaurant wasn't that smokey which is usually something that affects my breathing. In fact we had just started going back to this restaurant after about 5 or 6 years because we discovered they improved the ventilation. I've eaten everything on my plate before with no prior reaction. The only usuanl thing was escargot. The only other unusual thing was the fact that I seperated the shell of my shrimps with my hands and not with my fork like I normally do. Perhaps I scratched or rubbed my eye without properly wiping my hands and that set off a reaction. This happened to my neighbour and it sent her into the hospital. All because something was transferred to her via her eyes. The only other explanation might be that the combination of escargot and shrimp or some other combination of foods might had strted it. It's all a bit scary.

Oh well... anyways we're in the thick of winter now here in Canada. Montreal seems to havea lot of snow for this time of year. Temperatures are down to -18 at night now. I had a friend who just went to Playa del carmen along the Mexican Riviera last weekend... lucky bum. Unfortunately though the weather forcast for that region is rain all week so I really hope it's not accurate. :(

Here's some pics of things here around my place as they looked this weekend.

2006!

2006-01-01T01:06:00.000-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE !!!

Angels & Demons vs King Kong

2005-12-30T12:43:00.000-05:00

I finished off Dan Brown's book Angels & Demons the other day. I have to confess if was one exciting read.... Like the Da Vinci Code it started off with a murder but this time excellerated into a threatening Death experience for Vatican City....

There were many interesting characters, plot twists, on the brink of disaster moments, stunning changes in the characters and a surprise ending... You can't ask for much more. If I have any criticism it, like the da Vinci Code, tied itself up too perfectly at the end. Still you have to give the author credit for writing something that keeps you on the edge of your chair for over 500 pages... It's a must read for anyone interested in thrillers.

My Ipod's going back for repair...sigh... For some reason it's not being recognized by my PC. It's there as a seperate drive but inaccessible and not appearing on Itunes so I can't update it. The Apple technician told me to return it and they'll send me back a refurbished unit. Great... It's behaving like it's continually updating and each time I tried to format it or update it there was a message telling me it was not accessible. Sounds like a hard drive problem even though as a unit by itself it works perfectly. I Swear something simple has happened but I just don't know the solution to fix it. It's like the minute it's connected to the PC it starts updating without being recognized by Itunes so therefore occupied and inaccessible for anything else....

...I swear My Heaven will not include electricity......

I went to see King Kong last night with Sheila. This must be the 3rd or 4th remake of this classic tale of a giant Ape who falls in love with a small blond actress and is brought back to New York City to be a "freak show" on Broadway. It was three hours long and I heard from many people the first hour was boring while the remaining two very exciting. I found the whole movie excellent in fact. The first hour built up the story so yes is was less exciting but it held my attention the whole time. Once on Skull Island the excitement ripped... really, the amazing special effects blew me away and the show down with the dinosaurs was incredible. It took a more sentimental feel once they got this creature back to New York but the ending was classic Hollywood and I left the theatre feeling quite entertained. So it's worth the money, go see it if you want an exciting story played out before you.

Christmas in Ontario

2005-12-27T11:10:00.000-05:00

It's over. All the running around searching for gifts... the mad crowds in shopping malls.... the crazy drivers on the highways... Within an hour it was finished. I had a nice time in Ontario. Supper was delicious. Our hosts were great as always. I got to see a high school friend I don't get to see that often and everyone seemed happy with their gifts. It amazes me though how the religious element of Christmas seems to have been taken out of the equation. It's all about eating and presents these days.

Anyways, we left Saturday morning from a very wet slushy Montreal stopping off at Les Halles d'Anjou to pick up the usual stuff from the bakery and Tim Horton's.

It was a mad house there. The place was jammed packed with people getting their last minute preparations. We ended up parking in the over flow. Eventually the pizzas were bought, I had the coffee and donuts and off we went heading for the T-Can West.

The drive to Ontario was better than any of us expected. Roads were dry and the scenery was classic Canada in winter. Lots of pretty scenery of snow covered barns and homes in the woods. I sense the density of the forests in winter more than in summer. It took around 2.1/2 hours. I listened to my first Podcast on the way up which killed some time. I kinda enjoyed that. It was a half hour comedy show from London. I didn't et all the jokes because it often had a UK focus but it was still pretty funny. They had an American country Christmas parady called "Dammit I'm Vixxen" based on Rudolf the Red Nose Raindeer song... pretty hysterical.

The city itself was gray and dull as we entered it. Traffic was surprisingly light so we had a pretty good go of it along the highway.

We arrived for Christmas eve. Everyone was in good spirits. The kids had grown a lot since the last time I saw them. Each one getting more mature and not surprisingly more cocky, especially the girls.

The parents had a surprise for one of the girls though. They bought her a Dutch Rabbit which turned out to be the definition of "cute".

They had him hidden down in a cage in the basement so the girl wouldn't know.... but of course kids are experts in deceiving their parents and as it would be she found out and faked it all along that she knew nothing. Not a good sign for her upcoming teenage years... at least not for her parents.

This makes the fourth pet to join the family. They had a dog that had got to be the best dog on the planet... so docile and relaxed. I Just want to take her home every time I see her. Sheila's dog though was a holy terror which I'll explain later. There's also a new fish as well as a psychotic bird... ...get a load of him checking me out ready and able to pounce on me if he could....

..he just creeps me out ... I wasn't sure how the bird and dog would react to the bunny but the dog turned out fine. We didn't dare let the bird out.

Anyhow Christmas Eve came up on us quite fast. The house looked like a classic Christmas setting...

We went over to the neighbour's for drinks and some food. They lived directly across the street from them and it was my first time in their home. It was quite nice, somewhat smaller and more "normal" in size but of course massive compared to my little place. One of the NHL's hockey players who lives on the street joined us also as well as some of Sheila's family from the area.

I talked to the Sheila's nephew most of the evening. He's 14 now and I must admit quite intelligent. He was worried about being in an adult environment but relaxed when we started talking and admitted in the end he enjoyed it all. He's at that age now where he's too old for kid stuff and isn't really comfortable with adult environments.. that akward tween-teenage period where you feel you fit no where. For some reason though he seems to like to talk to me about things and he has a ton of questions and interests that he seems to just wants to get off his chest. He told me he like our discussion because his friends "no nothing" other than Gaming and food.

That late night fog settled in over Ottawa so Christmas eve was eerily silent. There was a light rain falling as we went back home around midnight.

Christmas morning came up fast after a sound night's sleep. I was the last up but I have to confess I get deep into Dan Brown's Angels & Demons and found myself coming downstairs around 8:30am... to the sounds of "FINALLY" from the kids, LOL... oh well..

Since they have grown up quite a lot over the year it wasn't the mad house it used to be when they were little kids. Sheila, her dad & I exchanged gifts on the 23rd actually so we wouldn't have to bring them up in the car. With the dog taking up the whole back of the SUV there isn't much room in the end once she's in place. Her family gave me a portable Ipod speaker set which was really nice. The sound is quite good from the tiny setup. They liked the gifts I gave them and I think genuinely so. So cool.

The dog below was terrible. She lives for food and food alone and managed to find a plate of chocolates and other baked goods on a table and went and helped herself to it when no one was looking..

The rabbit was given to the girl at the end of all the gift openings. She faked her surprise quite convincingly. The bunny was just too cute and the dog just sniffed and watched and then got bored with her and fell asleep LOL. Turns out the bunny is a living breathing poop machine. It was leaving little poop pellets everwhere all the time... I give it a year and it will be gone LOL.

Later we watched some movies on their giant screen TV. Something's Got to Give was one of them. I was poured so many Scotch's that I really can't remember the rest. It turns out I can handle liquor pretty well given the amount that was poured into me over the weekend LOL. Both Sheila and her dad remarked on it... not sure if that's a good thing or not...LOL

I called by cousin in New Brunswick for the first time in about 4 years Christmas morning. It was good to talk to her. She had sent me up a black and white photo of my parent's wedding. I'm glad she did that, not only for the photo but for getting back in touch with me. My last call to her was uncomfortable as it was around the days just after her mother's death (my aunt). She had called often when my parents were very ill but me being the self centered person I can be didn't do that in return and felt bad when I heard she died and hadn't been following it all. So I got the impression of me trying to say things too little too late and feared my last conversation might be the last I'd have with my cousin. Actually a cousin who was one of those most close to me when I was a kid. So we seemed to have cleared all that up and I feel much better about it because I always liked her and felt bad after the previous phone call fearing the worse. The only sad news from her though is she isn't talking to her brother (my other cousin also obviously) since her mother's death. Apparently there was arguing over the settlement of her will or remains (she wasn't that specific) and since then he's cut her off completely. I was stunned to hear this as I couldn't imagine these two ever coming to this point but there ya go... sometimes the most surprising things will happen. Very sad actually, I'd love to have a brother or sister and here's one case where they are so lucky to have each other and they (well he) won't talk. I hope for both their sakes and their children's sake that ends.

Regardless of my personal affaires supper was an incredible turkey. Delicious with amazing desserts which included a chocolate pecan pie that was better than sex and winning the lottery together... well, maybe not that good... but close enough. Of course everyone over ate and we all sat around after stuffed like the bird.

The hockey player and my high school friend joined us. I was more talkative than the last few times for some reason. Perhaps it was the alcohol. but it made it all the more enjoyable. Later I went and joined the kids and watched Hitch on TV. That was the movie I watched on my Swiss flight to Zurich in the summer. What a funny flick..

Anyways I slept really well although work was still on my mind. It's hard to clear it out when things aren't just right. We putted around the house this morning. I almost finished off my book which I must confess is so exciting that I just can't wait to turn to the next page..We watched Badder Santa (or was that last night too.. I think it was) that starred Billy Bob Thorton and it was pretty bad; then Anacondas this morning which was pretty good with quite a few good looking guys in it. The fear factor is this movie was pretty high. It had me on edge quite a bit.

The ride home seemed quicker. There had been a ice storm and everything was covered in ice. Too bad I was driving because the scenery was much prettier than the drive up. We stopped off at MacDonald's and arrived home in about 3 hours. All in all it was quite a nice trip.

Now I have a week off, woo hoo!

Winter slams into Montreal

2005-12-19T22:20:00.000-05:00

On Friday we got hit with 40cm of snow.... it was a living hell driving to and from work LOL... It turns out it was a record snowfall for December. Right now looking out my window it looks like late February, early March there's so much snow on the ground. The city is trying to deal with it but it's a slow process.

Going to work was the worse. It was coming down in massive amounts... so much so the drive along the Met was almost at a standstill. My back window was continually covered up by the snow, the de-icers and my heater had no effect... I had to get out 2 or 3 times on the elevated portion of the highway to clear it because I couldn't see out the back window or my right side window.. in short it was dangerous.

The worse came whem my wipers stopped working as I was approaching the interchange at l'Acadie with the 15... I literally had my arm outside wiping my windsheild with my snow brush as I manoeuvered around the worse part of the entire trip. I eventually stopped about a kilometer up the 15 and discovered to my enthusiastic delight there was ice that had built up around the base of the wipers and once removed they worked again... Phew... Laval city crews though pushed meter high piles of snow into intersections causing many cars to get stuck as they tried to cross the road... it was a disaster. Many cars were off on the side of the road, peolpe had trouble seeing ahead of them. There were several cars that hit snowbanks and got stuck as well as stalled vehicules. Two hours it took to get to work..

Coming home in was no better although the snow had let up. An 18 WHeeler had jacknifed on the 15 south leaving me stuck there for about an hour. The roads had deep snow and ice ruts with half meter high snowbanks between each lane at some points. I've never seen that my entire life. Then the entrance to the 40 was closed for snowclearing. I was forced onto the 40 West with no signage to indicate where to go to get East.. God forbid I was a tourist or business traveller. I knew to take Chemin Rockland even though I ended up on the service road of the 40 East and basically drove into what was effectively a 10 km parking lot... eventually we crawled past the l'Acadie Interchange only to see it wasn't being snowplowed.. they had all day to fix that but decided for whatever reason to just close it down. What idiots... really, like that helped the situation. They are paid to clear the roads not ignore them. Sigh... That whole multi million dollar Interchange revamp is a total mess. It floods in summer and now it is too dangerous in winter. I actually wrote my city counceller over that when I got home... it needs to be fixed big time; it was infuriating to have been forced away from it when we needed it the most. It took me 2.1/2 hours to get home and then I had 90 minutes of shovelling.

Anyways... such is life. The drivers were actually quite skillful throughout it all. People kept their distance and the speed down and seemed to respect one another. I guess we all knew what a mess it was and just accepted it for being exactly that. THe snowblowers are slowly clearing it all out. I heard them all last night and into the morning whirring away in distant streets around my house. The did the other side of my street this morning..

Anything but Amusing

2005-12-11T10:13:00.000-05:00

I finished off the book "Shalimar the Clown" this morning. It's Salman Rushdie's epic novel of a "love" story that sweeps over the main character's lifetime and takes the reader on a tragic journey through time from Kashmir India, Alsace region France and then to California.

The book got great reviews. It was my first Rushdie novel. This man of course was the subjected to a "fatwa" by Iranian Muslims over one of his earlier books The Satanic Verses where he supposedly was very critical of Islam. In many ways this comes through in this novel too.

I have to say that all the praise and critical acclaim this author gets it's well deserved. He is a brilliant writer. This book was very well written, structured in an amazing fashion and followed the story line of an Indian fable which intertwined with the novel. He gets into the mind of each main character like no other novel I've read since Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov". In that sense it was brilliant. He also had a way of seeing and expressing simple things in the most amazing manner. Little gem phrases that made you think "wow.. never looked at it that way before" kept popping up in unexpected places throughout the tale.

All that being said in the end I really didn't like the book. Despite the author's intelligence and skill at writing the story was depressing and there were no likable characters in the entire book. Even when at points you thought something positive was about to unfold it seemed to always unravel into a mess or something worse. His writing style isn't one I really like however. That is my personal taste but I'm aware many people do like it. For all his great writing skills it just took too long to get the tale out. After 400 pages there were perhaps 50 pages or less of storyline, the rest were flowery prose and endless flashbacks and descriptions of places, people or events that were relevant but not really directly relevant to telling the story at that moment. It was as if he was imitating Charles Dickens who was paid by the word. Although it was logical and for some people marvelously and intricately woven together, the story for me though dragged hopelessly.

Although a completely different type of book the Da Vinci Code for instance wrapped up it's ending way too cleanly. Everything fell into place in a predictable way. It was almost a television show ending. This book however seemed to scatter itself all over the globe and in the end you are left to write the last few lines in your own head... It was anything but nicely tied up. I don't like either of these scenarios. A good book to me has a bit of good and evil with some open and closed endings along with a few twists and surprises. Making everything fit in place or nothing fit in place really doesn't satisfy me because those scenarios in life rarely happen even though I must admit the "no-ending" endings are more realistic.

Lastly you could sense the author's political leanings throughout the storyline. The endless killings and terror, the hypocrisy in governments around the world, the irony of a Shangri La turned into a living hell... Whatever anything appeared to be at first it was always stripped and revealed for it's less beautiful truth in the end. Everything sucked in other words... perhaps for me it was a little too close to reality and so in the end a bit too depressing. Yeah for sure he's a far superior writer than Dan Brown but the Da Vinci Code sold more copies for a reason. There are many times I realize I hate living my life along the lines of what ever "the masses" like... usually that leads to watered down sentimental crap but if I had to choose between the two of these tales I have to admit I was more entertained by the Da Vinci Code in the end... Oh well.. still I'm glad to have read this epic and I can say I do admire Rushdie's skills it's just too bad he's just such a downer... but then again like the characters in the book his life too layers itself continuously on top of each experience he has and together they've ultimately shaped his mind which came up with such a complex, intricate, tense albeit destructive storyline. For that you've got to admire him

Inventory thoughts - Winter Election - Blah...

2005-12-04T16:13:00.000-05:00

Well here it is Sunday December 4th and I'm sitting at my desk at work doing Inventory... the end of year ritual... I stopped off at McDonald's drivethru to pick up an Egg McMuffin thingy this morning and when I went to pay the girl reaching out to hand her the coins I twisted my back in such a way that I pulled some muscles and now I'm in a lot of pain... I can't find a comfortable position to sit in and getting up and down is painful... sigh... man I can't win.. bad enough I'm working on the weekend but to have put my back out on top of it is annoying.... thankfully I'm not in the warehouse counting because this would be just "too convenient" and no one would believe me.

Anyhow we're in a slow spell this morning so I thought I'd write something here to kill time.. I'm listening to my Ipod... Everlast "Seven Years" is playing through my PC speakers.. kinda smooth... So let's see, what's happening out there in the world these days...

The Federal Government fell... whoop dippity.. Idiot Opposition calling an election when the numbers aren't even strongly there for them. Having the campaign over Christmas and into the freezing cold of January no less.... Pollsters say we'll likely elect the same minority government with a slight chance of a Liberal majority. There's no decent Party to vote for anymore.

The Liberals are corrupt and should have been kicked out years ago except the parts of the country are head strong on electing local niche-interest parties pushing their regional issues at the Federal level. The Bloc being the main culprit... like they care anything about Canada or have any interest in helping to make it work or even make it work better. All they care about is making Ottawa look bad in the eyes of Quebecers so they can win a referendum on Independence or whatever they are calling it these days. So Quebecers selfishly vote for them ensuring no large group of Canadians will ever put their vote behind any other party other than the Liberals and then they'll turn around and complain nothing ever changes in Canada.... Effectively leaving Ontario to decide the country's fate and ensuring there will be very few ridings in Quebec who'll have actual members in the Government to pass legislation and makes significant changes in their ridings. All they can do with the Bloc is voice opposition and push for change which I'm sure they would prefer not to see happen too often since it would go against their political goals of proving Ottawa in ineffective. In effect by voting for the Bloc ensures the same idiots they know and love to hate stay in power. Nothing like trying to keep your enemy close at hand so you can continue to manipulate a known entity.

However that being said there isn't any alternative worth wild out there anyways. The Conservatives lean towards American Republicanism and need to be sent back to the Opposition for all their hard line right wing values that won't go down with most Canadians.. the NDP is perhaps the best alternative but pushing union and alienating the wealthy needs will only lead to more confrontation... so the Liberals are still the best option despite the fact they stole millions of dollars and lied to the public about it... wonderful, the best option has a criminal element to them... says a lot for Canada. Maybe Les Quebecois are right, we really just need to split from them all. Sometimes it really does seem hopeless here and perhaps we are really just in the way of the rest of the country's progress.

Oprah was on Letterman the other night. Sheila PVR'd it and we watched it last night. The way the audience reacted it's like this woman has become a saint or something lately. I have to say though she is at least making the effort to help people with all her money. Criticize her all you want but she's not obliged to do anything she's doing. It's excellent that she puts African issues out on the table for public awareness and discussion. It would never surface on the radar otherwise. Although you'd never know by watching the news they are among the most serious issues facing the planet at the moment. AIDS, serious illnesses, lack of education, hunger, poverty, a low life span, orphaned children, Darfur, lack of jobs and industry, war and suppression of females and the weakest people there. So I tip my hat to her for at least acknowledging that. By focusing on education she at least has her sights set in the right direction even if she admits herself it's only a drop in the bucket... but it's much more, hell, significantly even amazingly more than what I or most people are doing. Letterman seemed pretty good with her, he must really have pissed her off and now he's wooing her big time for whatever reason.. it was a good show actually. I'm not sure what all the feuding was about and she too seemed a bit confused by it all.. perhaps it was just marketing on the Late Show's part...

Any ways.. waiting for St-Hubert to arrive.....sigh.... Krispy Kreme came in this morning too... might as well cart me out to the car this evening... have a fun day..

Every man has his price

2005-11-22T20:51:00.000-05:00

Ok I broke down and bought an IPod last weekend.... one of the new Video 60 GB ones... and yes it is amazing. I had lots of trouble getting it recognized on my PC but once the frustration was over and my PC still safe from my near destructive clutching hands I now love it. The video quality is amazing. I've loaded something like nearly 2000 songs on it and bought three videos. The only thing that I don't like is that ITunes really doesn't have the biggest selection, they still don't have television shows on the Canadian site to select (I wanted to download Lost and Desperate Housewives) and I find the quality of the earphones a little tinny... but overall these are minor complaints.

One thing though that gets me is when you go through your entire music collection and look at what you've bought over the years it really is reavealing about yourself and a little scary. I have the weirdest collection of CD's. Everything from candy pop, Alternative, Latin, World, Rap, New Age, Classical and Jazz and more... Ok I was robbed back in 1999 or 2000 and had to make a whole new CD selection so I replaced what was stolen with then more current music but man... some of it is scary... My old vinyl album collection is better really. I ended up getting a lot of Greatest Hits to kinda cover the bases but now I regret it.. however that being said I seem to have tons of CD's with one or two hits and nothing else to speak of.. literally hundreds of useless boring songs with a few gems coming from within. I wish there was a way to transfer teh vinyl to MP3 format..

There were songs I loved as a teenager but when I hear them now I want to throw up LOL... Man I don't know how today's kids are going to be when they are say 75 and harken back to the good'l days of the early 21st century singing P.I.M.P along with 50 wearing Depends and holding a cane instead of a mic... I can just see an 85 year old grandmother mouthing the words "motherfucking P.I.M.P"....with a bent over highly tatooed and wrinkled black guy trying to act tough for his retirement home homies.. Well... I'm left listening to the Carpenters and I'm no where near 75 but already feel revulsion... LOL. I guess it's like looking back at high school year book pictures... seeing the hair you should never have had, the clothes that look ridiculous now and the goofy pimpled faces that only later in life turn into something better and more appealing. Sometimes I wish man had never invented Time... still the IPod was one of his better pieces of invention.

My Short Trip to South Carolina

2005-11-12T11:36:00.000-05:00

Trip Report

YUL-CLE-GSP, GSP-ATL-YUL

• YUL-CLE: DL2223 Expressjet (Continental Express) ERJ-145 N11119 Seat 17a
• CLE-GSP: DL3435 Expressjet (Continental Express) ERJ-145 N113913 Seat 17a
• GSP-ATL: DL510 Delta Airlines MD-88 N910DE Seat 16E
• ATL-YUL: DL 4891 ASA (Delta Connection) CRJ-200 N930EV Seat 5D

This entire trip started off in a confusing manner even right down to the first step into my house on my return it continued :) Well I have to say I entertain myself well if nothing else but overall it was fun and successful.

The purpose of the trip was to go to a small town in South Carolina called Fair Play to examine an EDI system our company has set up there for a large customer. Lately it’s created fake order lines, ghost lines and missing lines making the order process very unreliable. They asked me to look over the process to see if I could improve the way in which it was working. Ok simple enough I suppose...

The day before I'm set to leave, Monday I find out our head office in Europe has been working on a completely new solution for the EDI setup there. It would seem no updates were ever communicated to anyone and no one including the manager of the branch nor the company VP who asked me to go down to look at it was aware of this... so really why was I going? In effect I was going to try and fix something that was going to be completely replaced shortly. So hardly inspirational but I still set out to do my bit regardless.

I left the office on Tuesday at around 10:30am to get my 2:00pm departure. Although a Delta flight it was code shared on a Continental Airlines ERJ-145 Jungle Jet bound for Cleveland. My head must have been in the clouds that day thinking about the mess in which this all unfolded. I went down Higway 13 (go figure) and promptly took the 40 West.....the 40 West! Where the hell was I going... obviously not to the airport... so realizing my stupidity I had to find a convoluted workaround through a construction zone to get back onto the 13 South and get back on track to the airport... sheesh.. not a good start but I had plenty of time to spare anyways.

I parked in the massive long term parking lot. Well I didn’t look not did I realize they are expanding the multilevel parking garage at YUL located between long term and short term parking. I could no longer could I simply walk straight through it to the airport in like I normally do. I was now met with a barricade of construction and not many other obvious options to get around it. There was no Shuttle bus in site and no signs to say where or how to get to the terminal. I noticed a "Pietons" marking (Pedestrian walkway) on the ground and followed it. What a waste that was... it led diagonally across the long term parking lot directly to some Federal building and vanished with no sign to say where to go after that. I just walked across several dangerous roads coming out of the terminal then alongside the western end of the parking garage and up the ramp to the terminal. All in all it was a very long walk, perhaps a kilometer in length. Continental of course was located deep in the centre of the terminal another long walk. I was pretty exhausted by this point... but I checked in fast and without problems and started to walk to customs.

US Customs went smoothly up to the customs officer but once into the security zone all hell broke loose. No one seemed to know what they were doing. No signs to tell anyone anything. Several people asking me to bring my bag to them... then they argued over me settling on the fellow with the big mother of an x-ray machine that sucked in my bag and x-rayed it. I was first told to place it on the main luggage belt then someone said it was broken. I then had two people pointing in different directions where the alternative was. When I went to another guy throwing bags into a hole in the wall some other agent told me he had to examine my bag (again). Yet another agent started to scold him because it had already been examined by the mother if all x-ray machines earlier. It was like the Keystone cops... no one knew what to do nor who was handling what... it was a mess. I was never so glad to get rid of luggage in my life.

I then walked over to the personal x-ray scanners. Two were opened and I chose the one at the end of the walkway. Suddenly I had two more agents instructing me because I had a laptop and the other scanner way over on the other side was apparently for people with bags... yeah right, again no obvious sign to tell you that. Could I do anything right in their eyes?!?!?! Gees...what a bunch of assholes. The lead you astray then scold you for not paying attention to basically nothing. Once past that I was out of there and not looking back.

Of course Continental's gate was way at the very end of the new US wing, gain another long exhausting walk. The wing was generally quiet as it was noon. Other than having my Northwest Worldperks points added to my boarding card I sat down and started reading a new book on Genghis Khan I bought at the airport bookstore. A small crowd of mostly American male businessmen gathered at the gate. I had seat 17A a single seat on our ERJ-145, this one with winglets. Nice plane but narrow inside still though it was roomy and comfortable. We took off on schedule, were served drinks and given pretzels and in just under two hours landed at Cleveland Hopkins Airport. Continental impressed me... polite staff, nice clean planes with an eye pleasing comfortable interior and good leg room. The black male flight attendant was very attentive and polite. What more could I ask for really? It was my first trip through Cleveland Airport though and all in all it went very smoothly and I came away impressed. When we landed the plane came to a very fast a forceful slow down. I literally found myself sliding forward in my seat. That was unusual.

CLE has a long rectangular terminal with glass walls so very open and airy. Most every plane I saw was owned by Continental and very few if any larger than an ERJ or 737 so not overly interesting from a spotters point of view but it worked well for me and I'd use it again if I had to. The next ERJ I was to board was without winglets and was waiting at gate D08, not far from our arrival gate at D03. I think the registration was N13913, I only saw 913 or 813/513 on the nose cone but found N13913 only in the airliners.net database so it must have been it. The airport itself was fairly busy, Most everyone waiting at the gate for our plane looked like typical white working class people. Gone was the business crowd. Boarding was on time. I had the same seat, 17A but this time with a female flight attendant plus the same choice of drinks and this time two bags of pretzels... ahhh supper... :)

We took off on schedule and headed right up towards a massive thunder and lightening storm. It was amazing! We flew around it but it was a wall of very high thick or dense clouds some very black and at points lightening was going off continually inside it. It was a real spectacular light show! Nature at it’s best and I had a front row seat. I was a bit nervous as the plane hit many rough spots and jumped around but it all held my attention until we got to South Carolina where on the other side there was a spectacular sunset. We landed in Greenville (GSP) on time and headed to where else...the furthest gate at their terminal from the exit...sigh... more walking. God must be telling me something about my need for exercise...

Danny, the branch manager was waiting for me at the gate apparently... no security issues here... he was literally at the entrance to the gate I exited... I totally missed him and headed down to baggage claim and ended up calling him on my cell LOL... another winning moment... He was expecting a Delta plane not Continental not realizing it was a code shared flight but he did find the gate in the end. It was good to seem him; he's a super guy and loads of fun. We got into his SUV and drove to Anderson SC where I had a room booked in at the Holiday Inn Express... very nice place... King Size bed Whoa :) 100 channels on the TV (don't ask how many were worth watching though). The trouble is the first night I woke up at 3am, the next night at 4am and last night at 2am and in every case didn't get back to sleep so I still am exhausted....

The next day I went to the office... it was my first time there. I found it isolated as people had told me and surprisingly quite large but it was a dump in the office. It looked like it had never been cleaned in years. For two days I worked over the EDI system only to find out it was not compatible with Windows 2000 their operating system. Furthermore the old manager had tried an upgrade to the software but never completed it correctly so there were likely all sorts of conflicts going on. The software manufacturer told me they’d supply us with a newer upgrade but later we found out the maintenance contract had expired... well, it turns out Danny later finds out the entire account will be moved to Michigan and there's a good chance the branch itself may close or be reduced in size so again making my whole trip really worthless and the goal of solving this issue pointless in the long run.

At least I got to go to South Carolina and enjoy the 25 degree temperatures. I was my first rip to South Carolina. It's very pretty country with rolling hills and clay banked lakes. There's quite a lot of business. People are very Southern... kinda slow and laid back. They are if anything almost overly friendly. Everyone kept telling me to have a nice day LOL. They have a reputation for being "slow" though. The last two managers couldn’t deal with it. They hated the state and especially the people. One of them, Rich who I was trained with for SAP, used to say that everyone in the state was stupid and ignorant. He really hated it there. The women in the office though seemed very friendly and knowledgeable. Woodrow, the warehouse guy was polite and soft spoken. I liked him right off the bat including his really traditional American name. I didn’t see any evidence of mass stupidity. I am aware of the states racial past though and I know some of the sentiments still linger. They still have a long way to go to break with traditional thinking.

This morning however it was time to return home. Dan and I had driven the relatively new company Toyota Truck to the hotel last night... well I drove the truck, the first time I've ever driven a truck and followed him in his Isuzu SUV... and this morning we had to take it to the dealership because in less than a year the previous manager had put so many miles on it going back and forth to Myrtle Beach and Charlotte that the lease requirements are already fulfilled. They need a new one.

Once that was done we drove up to Greenville Airport where he dropped me off. GSP is a really pretty airport. It’s very small and traditional but in a pretty wooded setting. Again it was like Cleveland a long functional rectangular terminal although much smaller. I was very early and had tons of time to kill. My Delta MD-88 wasn't even there yet. All the key airlines that served GSP showed up. It was surprisingly busy. Delta had CRJs everywhere... one ERJ-135, our MD-88 and a 757 eventually came in. There were ERJ-145s in US Airways, American Eagle and Continental colours. CRJ's from Independence Air, Northwest and United Express came and went. There was also an Airborne Express DC-9F parked there too. Planes came and went continually so it was a surprisingly active airport compared to what I expected. Looking out from gate B03 you could see the long elevated runway that paralleled the terminal. Although it didn't have olive tree laden mountains in the background it reminded me a lot of Athens Greece in terms of the view of the runway as well as the design and setup except this terminal was actually nicer although smaller.

At one point the gate next to us had three CRJ’s parked and were taking on three sets of flights at around the same time. Two CRJs were parked one in front of the other and the activity of baggage handlers and people boarding both planes at the same time made for quite an entertaining site. It was genuinely busy. The fellow next to me at the gate was talking on his cell phone in German and later in the flight I noticed the couple in front me were speaking an Asian language, I think Korean… so also surprisingly international.

Our plane looked like it was going to be pretty full. We boarded by zones, a new boarding method I guess. I was in zone 7. They called zones 1 & 2 right off once boarding started. That was first and I suppose business class. Then we waited about 20 minutes for the remainder of the zones. Eventually ours was called. My seatmate, woman went and took my window seat... I let her have it even though I thought that was a bit nervy. She ended up being very nice though, we spoke for a bit as we approached Atlanta. ATL looked spectacular from the air... huge and sprawling and you could see the new runway they were building... as if they needed more runways...I think it's the largest airport in the world in terms of passenger flow at the moment... but it competes with Chicao O'Hare and ORD occasionally takes the lead so I'm not sure where they are but it still is massive and incredibly impressive. We landed at Concourse B. My CRJ was leaving Concourse C. The airport was full of Delta and Air Tran jets.

I stopped off at Sbarro's in Concourse B and munched on a Pepperoni Pizza slice that was too doughy but still decent. It hit the spot since my current diet of pretzels just wasn’t working for me. The air traffic out the window of the food courts area was amazing. Mostly Delta and Air Tran but I saw KLM's 767, Hooter's Air 737 but not many other airlines to speak of. The runways were continually flowing with planes coming and going. Our ASA (Atlantic Southeast Airlines) CRJ was packed to the rim... full flight. I had a rather large lady next to me on the aisle but I was still comfortable. I think she felt a bit confined. She too was very nice to talk to. The female flight attendant Marsha wasn't though. She had that sweet southern accent but was a bitch. She seemed to like ordering people around. She scolded a passenger in row one for talking while she was making announcements. She told one passenger walking down the aisle looking for his seat to go to the front so she could ge to the front of the cabin instead of letting him pass her or her moving back to let him board. She blamed passengers when she dropped all the cups off her food cart in flight because she hit something in the aisle they had dropped or left there. She had warned everyone to clear the aisles but come on don’t blame them and make them feel badly about it. Then later in flight she scolded people including my seat mate for standing waiting in line to go to the washroom and made them go back to their seats and watch the occupancy lights. Yikes... people were making fun of her. I swear after the safety instructions she was going to come around a test us on what we remembered LOL... It was like being in grade school and quite frankly after a while I wasn't impressed by her. She was too strict in her mannerism to the point it was becoming noticeable among the passengers.

The flight though left on schedule and was smooth all the way to Montreal. We got drinks, cheese and crackers and peanuts. I didn't take the drink since my dinner tray was slightly broken and not level for fear it would spill. I still had the Evian bottle I bought from my flight down anyways. The view from the window was akward thanks to the CRJ's low window line... it's hard to look out especially when on the ground. Montreal came into view looking spectacular all lit up this evening. The full moon reflected off the St Lawrence river in spectacular fashion. It was around 6pm and we flew past the airport and got a nice view of YUL all lit up. It seemed so small compared to Atlanta. It's a shame I didn't bring my camera on this trip... missed many nice views from the window... beautiful mountains (Smokey mountains? Appalachians?) and some spectacular lakes. One in particular was long and large with many islands. But overall there wasn't a lot of interest during the whole trip to take pictures of and ATL despite it's massivce volume is essentially a two airline airport. We landed 20 minutes early actually.... then I came back to YUL's problems again....

First off being early at YUL ironically doesn't mean it's a good thing. There was a plane at our gate so we had to wait, and wait, and wait. We waited them moved to new position because another plane in another gate had to back out... then we ended up making a complete circle thanks to yet another plane trying to back out from our new position. We literally were circling at the US trans border tarmac trying to avoiding aircraft movements... oh brother. Just what was the multi million dollar airport wing expansion for? People were starting to comment on the stupidity of the situation and the irritation of being there and not being able to get off was starting to get to some. I was in a good mood so it didn't bother me that much but this being my home town and hearing people make bad comments made me feel embarrassed especially after leaving such an amazing airport like Atlanta. We pulled into the low (ground) level gates at where else... the very end of the wing, the furthest point from customs.... the walk this time was crazy. First I had to go up 3 levels of escalators and then take a very long walk to the first of two moving sidewalks then another long walk to customs. The woman next to me I noticed for the first time had a cane and a limp and was struggling to make the distances. It would have been nice to have had an electric cart waiting for people like her. The airport was not providing a good service for this if you ask me. I didn't see any electric carts waiting just in case some people needed them. They also need another moving sidewalk in at the very end of the wing on the top level to make the first initial walk easier for older people or people with leg issues.

Customs was a crowded mess. The lines were zigzagging over half the Hall's capacity meaning only half the lines were opened but some Air Transat vacation flights had arrived I believe and our passengers were there and it took quite some time to get to the customs booth. We constantly moved back and forth though about 8 to 10 lines of passenger traffic as we headed to the exit to the customs booths. I felt like we were cattle being led to the tough except there was no food at the end dammit! LOL... Anyways it took about half an hour but I was out and my bag was waiting for me.... then the next mess... trying to get the Navette to long term parking... I wasn't walking way out there again especially in the dark.

This was the worse of everything; I got outside and quickly adjusted to our colder weather which wasn't all that bad thankfully. The terminal walkway was jammed packed with people and lines of luggage carts in the way making it all the more difficult to maneuver around. People had their bags in the way and they huddled together talking blocking traffic movements of those seeking limos, taxis or shuttle buses. There didn’t seem to be any organization at all. It felt like a free for all. Lines of people didn’t have a start and an end. There were no over head signs telling you where anything was and the standing signs were blocked out by people who had gathered around them to get on whatever they were getting onto.... It was also poorly lit. Shit it was frustrating, I could barely read the sign posts, barely get through the crowd and there was no one there to help you.

Finally I found the long term parking stand Shuttle bus and plunked myself down next to a group of people who I thought were waiting for the same thing. A bus came up that had a sign scrolling across the front that said Long Term-Employees... yeah like make that more confusing... people were asking each other if it was for employees only or for the long-term parking or for long term parking for employees only. I asked the driver and he said it was for parking so I got on, dropped my bag in the main baggage section and sat further down exhausted and a bit annoyed although on the scale of problems this wasn’t a biggie.

The doors closed and he moved all of perhaps 5 meters and stopped. Opened the doors and other people flooded in. My once relatively accessible bag was now in a sea of bags and many people had filled in the aisle around it with their bags. Oyiee... I had visions of me eventually coming all the way back here again to do it all over LOL. We got to section 52 where I had parked and I literally had to push people out of the way to get my bag and get off the bus. The driver looked at me sympathetically with that "I've seen this mess before and I feel sorry for ya Bud" look. I was never so happy to get off a bus in my life... what a pathetic mess... it was like a 3rd world airport... well BGI was much more organized than that in fact. I truly understand why YUL isn't a major hub... it can't handle the basics let alone anything major. There is little direction for people on the ground, signage is poor to non existent in some key places and the facilities are still cramped in many key areas. Any major increase in passengers and it would collapse under it’s own weak infrastructure.

I drove home stopping off at the bank on the way. I arrived, dropped off my luggage and went to the bathroom for the first time since 10am and then went to to get something at MacDonald's only to have yet another confusing experience trying to get and order for chicken slices or whatever that new chicken trio is. The drive through clerk really didn’t care less about getting my order right. THose stupid microphone booths you have to talk to aren't clear. Throw in my poor French at the girsl has trouble understanding me. It seemed her face would crack if she smiled and tried make you feel good for helping pay her salary. In the end she still neglected some of what I ordered but really by this time I could care less. I at least had something to eat and I was home and free of all that LOL... I'm free... FREE AT LAST!! LOL My door is closed and locked! They can't get to me now. Anyways, I’m happy it’s over and the experience despite the problems was a good one. I’ve heard much worse airport stories than these. My flights all left on time and were smooth. All the airport experiences went well. My luggage wasn’t lost and quite frankly had I been more attentive driving I wouldn’t have gotten lost nor parked where I parked. Also there wasn’t any need for me to interact with the bitchy flight attendant so really it went well.

Changes on the horizon?

2005-10-30T19:20:00.000-05:00

Ok I'm exhausted tonight. I spent the afternoon helping a neighbour put up their "Tempo". A Tempo is an "Abri" or in English a tent for your driveway. Many people here in Quebec have them so they won't have to shovel snow and the car stays cleaner. In essence it's a "temporary" garage used only in the winter time. I actually have one of myself but unfortunately I don't use it anymore despite the gfact they are genuinely useful. My driveway for some strange reason is narrower than everybody else's and in order to install the tent it needs to be squeezed into place when assembling it. So I have to hire people to put it up and take it down and it just gets too expensive. It's also dangerous to take down as poles can snap out. They are ugly as hell too. So I shovel snow all winter instead. Sigh...

Anyways two and a half hours later we finished. It's nice having a regular wide driveway... I'd love to have one up despite it all. There's nothing worse than getting up at 5:30am to shovel snow then shower and eat then go outside to leave to work only to discover the snow filling in your driveway again and the plow came around and filled in everything you shoveled the city plowed in the over night. It's a Montreal thing I think... and after all these years I'm kinda sick of it LOL... I might rethink all this on my part.

Tomorrow is Halloween. I'm taking the day off. I have to admit I hate Halloween. I didn't even like it as a kid. It's the most senseless holiday of all the holidays in my opinion. We spend 364 days a year trying to teach our children not to talk to strangers, not to accept candy from strangers and not to eat too much sweet... then there's the 365th day, Halloween, where all that goes out the window and the rules suddenly don't apply and the strangers they're suppose to fear are sometimes even disguised to make it all the more fearsome for them and are now free to hand them candy. Then we check the candy for dangerous things like razor blades and poisons... and scare the little ones half to death fearing what they just got from strangers might be exactly what we told them it could be if you ever talked to them.... no wonder so many kids grow up confused. No wonder (and perhaps thank goodness, LOL) I don't have kids... but I don’t participate in any of this. It's too freaky and I won't even touch the notion of grown adults dressing up in fantasy clothing.... there's a whole other psychological analysis there alone LOL... but for those of you who engage in all this, Happy Halloween none the less.

Next week I'm off to South Carolina for a few days for work. I have to analyze an online Internet VPN setup with a major customer to see why it's not working to their satisfaction. My boss also asked me to go to Grand Rapids in December to have a look at the new facilities there. It will be my first trip there since they moved to the new place. I have a feeling they may ask me to move down there. It would be more logical to have the head of IT at the head office like I used to be when Montreal was the head office for Canada... now that the servers are back in Europe Montreal is just another branch albeit one of the most important in the entire organization. It is kinda pointless me being stationed here and not in the head office. I'm not sure how I'd feel about this if they really do ask me to move to the USA. I have strong objections to the right wing elements of their government and political thinking. I don't like the fact religion and morality is so entwined with politics down there. I do like the people individually in fact I admire a lot of them and how they help the world when there is trouble. They are the most generous people on the planet.

Grand Rapids is in the middle of this moralistic Republican right wing mindset. Montreal is such a large cosmopolitan liberal minded open accepting metropolis in comparison. Grand Rapids can't hold a candle to this city. Walk down rue St-Laurent and you meet people from Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. You can easily hear 5 or 6 languages apart from French or English. In fact Arabic is on the verge of becoming the second most commonly spoken language here knocking Engish into third place. There are restaurants from Mauritius next to Japanese or Portuguese or Brazilian. Further to the south gay people can openly walk hand in hand in the Village or elsewhere. Go to Rue St Denis and you can see outdoor cafes in the summer filled with people taking in the sun and sipping real cappuccinos while munching on fresh French croissants. Go to Vieux Montreal and you feel like you're in the heart of an Old European city. Chinatown bustles like a very little Hong Kong. Little Italy has that Italian flare from the markets to the Porches and Lamborghini’s that often lined the streets.

Grand Rapids is nice and quaint. It has The Bob... It has a pleasant downtown. It has a sprawling suburb reminiscent of the West Island or Mississauga. The people all smile and say "Have a good day". What it doesn't have is a soul or at least I have yet to see it... at least not a soul that pulses anywhere near as hard as in Montreal. It would be so hard to leave this city.... but for my job and perhaps for a short period I could do it... but it would be painful. I'd miss Canada. I'd miss hearing French all day. I'd miss the bring your own wine restaurants and the St Lawrence River... I'd want nothing to do with US Politics and couldn't stand the thought of listening to people rant on about Republicans and Democrats all the time... or God forbid Iraq. Oh God that alone would kill me... LOL I'd have to be very quiet and keep my opinions to myself and just live it out. It's a city that I'm told takes pride in have the least number of Black People in it's population.... like what's with that mindset? That alone should tell me to stay clear of them... but I'd at least be around respectful drivers... that alone should send me to a psychiatrist after all the years of brainwashing the streets here have done to my driving skills. I'd actually have to really stop at stop signs... not sure if I could handle that... I am Canadian and a true Montrealer... it's not something that's disposable and can be easily replaced. I take deep pride in that and even if I do go to the US this reality will never leave me.

Anyhow it's all speculation at the moment anyways. It may never even come up. I'm still a crucial contact manager to a major customer. Their overall happiness with all their accounts apparently rests on the fact the one division I handle is really happy with me and the service I've been giving them. I'll see in December how it all evolves I guess. I hope the trip is exactly what it is billed to be and nothing more. Anyways. I'm off to watch Six Feet Under where the swearing isn't censored nor are the straight and gay sex scenes... ya just gotta love living here. *Sigh*

Thanksgiving in the Distinct Society

2005-10-10T19:04:00.000-04:00

Well it is Thanksgiving here in Canada. I'm discovering after all these years it really is just an "English" holiday. My French Canadian colleagues don't celenbrate it at all other than by taking the day off with the rest of us. No one had any special plans and turkey wasn't on their menu for the weekend... and when I stopped in at the Marché to pick up a pumpkin pie or something traditional for the celebration there was nothing set out specifically for "l'Action de Grace" as it is called in French. Stores in Ontario were closed while here in Quebec everything was opened as usual. In short it was a non event here.

I suppose all this is logical if you really look at it historically. The British Pilgrims started it in North America (I believe) and New France (Quebec) really wasn't following any Pilgim traditions therefore other than being absorped into a "British" colonial system once part of Canada the English tradition carried on but was never in the heart and soul of the people here. I'm just amazed it took me this long to realize it.

This is the holiday that makes me take stock of the year and what's happened so far. I see my friend's children getting much older. They aren't the cute young kids who used to run to the door in anticipation of our arrival. Now they are teenagers more interested in showing little or no interest. Not entirely but the change over has started. We are all getting older.

I look at work and wonder if I really am progressing or just stuck on an endless treadmill. I think more likely the latter actually. I'm not really all that happy at work any more. I'd like to break free of it all but now at my age it starts to become riskier than when I was younger. This is not to say it's impossible but it will take a lot of courage on my part and quite frankly that sadly isn't one of my better qualities. I'm a chicken at heart. Regardless I still have a good life by many people's standards. It's always been that way, not so awful it pushes me to change, not so bad that I get up and make a change. I'm standing right at the middle point of success and failure. I seem to excel at mediocrity.

On a personal level I've resigned myself to the fact I'll likely always be alone. This saddens me the most because deep down it does little to motivate me to try harder and grow. I have no central purpose in life. I feel like I'm stuck in neutral. However I am thankful for the good friends I do have. They are challenging though and there are days I love them from the core of my being while others where they just annoy the hell out of me LOL... I guess that's true friendship. They are good enough to stick with me but in the end it is true that all men are an island to themselves.

Anyhow hope you enjoy the pics.... of the turkey the dining room where I was at... I had a great time and quite frankly 24 hours later I'm still stuffed.

Also my grasses in my backyard that have finally bloomed. Together with the maple tree turning a beautiful redish-orange it looks pretty fall spectacular.

Given the Tsunami in Asia, the three devestating hurricanes in the Caribbean, terrorist attacks in Britain and now the earthquake in Pakistan we have a lot to be thankful for here in Canada. I can't forget the ongoing events in Darfur and the deadly effects of AIDS in Aftrica s well as the continuous trouble in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's been one long devestating year for everyone. I hope next year is better for the planet.

Aren't Angels suppose to have Wings? Whoa!!

2005-10-02T20:27:00.000-04:00

I finished reading the latest Mitch Albom novel "the five people you meet in heaven". It's a short novel and beautifully written. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Normally I love non fiction but every now and then I head back to fiction to try and get my head into a space like no other. This book did the trick.

It's about a man in his 80's who is killed trying to save a small girl. He ends up in Heaven and meets five people there who explain his life to him. Each person was unrelated and in some cases they never met the man in life. The explanations gave meaning to what was on the surface a rather ordinary life. The message given was that regardless of how little and insignificant we feel we are we are ultimately connected to everyone. Our actions have meaning through the people they touch. We just may not know it at that moment in time.

The book makes you think about what lies beyond Life. Is there an afterlife? Do we come back as someone else later? Do our actions today have significance in the beyond? It's a very interesting topic to ponder. I've always believed that for our souls to devlope and grow we would have to experience many lives with many varied experiences. Some would be good others bad, some male and some female. At least that's what I'd like to believe. Maybe when we die we just cease to exist and that's all. I hope not though. The thought of coming back suggests that what we build in this life time we can benefit from it in the next. It at least gives purpose to contributions we all make to the growth of society while we are here. It also makes sense of very short or unique lives for instance children who die young or blind or severely handicapped people. Perhaps they were small projects to help the rest of us grow in this life. Then later they come back and live out a full more traditional life of their own. I don't know really what will happen, no one does. It is comforting to hold onto a belief like this. It gives me a purpose to my life.

Anyhow, the book was a nice read. I couldn't put it down once I started it. It's less than 200 pages so doesn't take long to go through. Enjoy it :)

Oh God Aliens have landed!

2005-10-01T18:32:00.000-04:00

The movie Flightplan has come out thise weekend. It's a Jodie Foster thriller that takes place on an airliner. Her daughter disappears and no one claims to ever have seen her. The story revolved around her daughter or the Foster character's sanity. Interesting stuff.... but... for some reason the Flight Attendants union is calling for a boycott claiming passengers will start to mistrust cabin crews because of the film. Gimme a break...

This fear is up there with all the yahoos calling for Dan Brown's head over the Da Vinci Code. Another decent thriller that claims Christ married Mary Magdalene and had offspring that survives until today. Let's look at one very common thread running through both these stories. They're FICTION. One's a NOVEL (meaning: a made up story for entertainment purposes only) the other's a MOVIE (meaning a film presentation based on a made up story for entertainment purposes only). What is it the Flight Attendant's Union and all those religious yahoos don't get about the concept? Do they think we really are that stupid we can't figure this out? Dan Brown didn't write a serious thesis on theology and Jodi Foster doesn't talk to imaginary people (at least to my knowledge). Well adjusted people know the difference between fantasy and reality. Most of us fall in this category. Perhaps all that high altitude and holier than thou work has loosened up a few scews?

Somedays I just want to live on a far away island

2005-09-28T19:39:00.000-04:00

What a busy day today. I'm gearing up for a major migration of servers to Europe from our Montreal location. I was in touch all morning with my colleagues in the Netherlands trying to organize the physical transfer of the equipment. My fear is local users are not taking this seriously and people are going to be stuck with lost or missing data. You know who will face their wrath even if they've already been for warned. I need thicker walls around my office LOL.

Anyways, I find it interesting that neither Fed Ex nor UPS has delivery service in Europe on the weekends. This left me scrambling for an alternative solution. Meanwhile a major customer bombarded me all day with finicky alterations to their buying program. I gave them notice I would be wrapped up with the IT project for three weeks and it was as if they took that as a signal to bombard me with even more than the usual number of changes and alterations to their program. I kept getting e-mails that started with "I know you are busy especially in the mornings but if you can get to this I'd appreciate it... it's not pressing..." then they'd say at the end send it Fed Ex overnight... meaning it's critical.. Oyiee... Customers... well they are the centre of our universe so I guess I can't blame them. However between the two things I spent all day going in circles and somehow it will worked out.

A couple of things in the news caught my attention. Our Premier Jean Charest said we wouldn't get the tax cuts they promised us during the election. In fact taxes have actually gone up. We are the most heavily taxed people in North America. Just great. I wouldn't mind if I felt I could see the benefits of handing over a larger share of my income to the government but honestly I look at other Provinces and States and think they have more perks and programs and better roads and highways than we have. I mean it's not all bad here, far from it. I love Montreal and Quebec and feel it's a great place to live but I don't sense they government spends its money wisely. I'd like our taxes to come down to average tax levels and see some tangible benefits once in a while.

Mike Brown the former head of FEMA went before a Republican Congressional committee yesterday and put all the blame on the State and local New Orleans City governments for the delays in getting rescue aid to the people of the Gulf Coast during the first days of Katrina. The Mayor blames FEMA. The Governor said the Buck stopped at her desk but so far I haven't heard her admit to any fault other than not asking for the army to come in sooner. President Bush never suggested it to her either and yet he too hasn't offered up any real admission of blame but at least admitted it all was badly run which is more then the rest of them have done. It's become the political blame game. These are just bad politicans.

One point in Brown's hearing that I thought was interesting was revealed on ABC News last night. They said there was a secret government report that was available to FEMA and specifically Brown that stated the local New Orleans city government and the Louisiana State government were not well organized, did not communicate well and were not capable of handling a large scale disaster. It suggested to FEMA to be prepared to act on its own and make decisions on action before being asked by the local or state governments specifically because those very same governments would not be capable of reacting fast. Well that says a lot about how the US Federal government thought about the State of Louisiana and New Orleans. It also says Mike Brown should have taken control from the start and should have been leading the way for aid to get to the victims. However at the hearing he kept saying he wasn't asked to act and seemed totally ignorant of this report. He put the entire onus on the other two levels of government and denied he did anything wrong. I think he's not living in reality and still doesn't get it. The other two levels surely lived up to the Federal government's assessment of them and the US Federal government certainly didn't push much harder to go above and beyond all this to get aid to the people at all costs. Maybe Bush or his aids should have pushed Brown.

I'd still like to know if Canada would be any better... I seriously doubt it but thankfully we don't get serious hurricanes. Well maybe Newfoundland and Nova Scotia on occasion but very rarely. It's earthquakes and tornados that worry me here.

There's a weird development in the Mayoral race for Montreal's City Hall. Mayor Tremblay is using the slogan "Go Montreal". Well, someone has complained to the l'Office de la Langue Française" that it is not French and should be banned. It turns out Bill 101, our language law, allows for unilingual religious and political signs and this slogan is not breaking the law at all. Honestly some people have too much time on their hands. Even Francophones interviewed on TV had no problem with it. The use "go" in their daily speak all the time. No one at work even mentioned it. My guess is the person who complained was an Anglo trying to make a silly point about the language laws... but it back fired for whoever launched it. LOL... Go Montreal! I'd like to just go away on my own private island for a few weeks and escape all this. ahhhh....

Rita hovers over Montreal

2005-09-26T07:37:00.000-04:00

It's pouring rain outside this morning. Rita has finally made it up to Canada and is approaching Montreal. This means nothing more than a lot of rain for us thankfully.... and that's exactly what it's doing outside. The drive in to work was slower than usual.

Nothing too special happenened this weekend. The leaves are starting to change colours finally. I have a nice sugar Maple tree in my backyard and I can see some reds and oranges starting. Besides that I helped Sheila set up her new PC. It's a beauty and a huge improvement over her old Pentium 2 133MgHz with the 13" screen. That was starting to look like a deliberate antique. Gee I wonder if in 50 years people will display old computers from the 20th century like antiques in their home... if any are left?

I bought two new books on Sunday. One is called "Cross Bones" by Kathy Reichs. She's an American living in Montreal and centered her CSI type thriller around Montreal which is kinda cool. It's very rare Montreal ever is the real centre of any book or movie. Film companies often use the city to portray US or European cities but rarely do they actually make in the centre of the story. I'm looking forward to this if only for the novelty of it. The second book is "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom which I've already started. It's about an 80 year old guy who dies and goes to Heaven and meets five people who explain the reason for his life to him. So far it's quite interesting. There has been a lot of good commentary on the book so it should be a nice read especially after finishing the fascinating but dark book on Africa.

Anyways... gotta get to work.. stay dry if you live somewhere near me.

Update: Here we go again... people seem to be taking an interest in this shot I uploaded to myaviation.net... again another cabin entrance shot and again peculiar interest in it... weird..

MyAviation.net:

Photographer © Doug Bull

They Poured Fire on us from the Sky

2005-09-22T12:28:00.000-04:00

I've just finished reading the book "They Poured Fire on us from the Sky". It was written by three of the "Lost Boys" from Sudan. They were three of the thousands of very young children who were forced to walk to Kenya from their villages after being forced out by Arab Muslims and the government during their country's civil war.

They walked for five years and over 1000km to get to the UN Refugee camp at Kakuma Kenya. One of the three started the trip two years after the first two. All encountered the horrific effects of the war including bombings, death, beatings, mutilation, starvation, rape and any other sort of human suffering you can imagine. On top of it wild animals attacked and ate many of the children. Hundreds if not thousands died along the way. Adults were occasionally sympathetic to them but more often than not were untrustworthy and dangerous. Thirst and hunger were their biggest threat but somehow they stayed focused and survived. It took over 5 years and the three at the beginning ranged in age from 5 to 7 years old.

This has got to be one of the most amazing books I have ever read. It is a tribute to the human spirit and man's (boy's) determination to survive. At times I had to put the book down finding it difficult to read what they went through. It was heartbreaking at times. I had to keep reminding myself they were all less than 10 years old facing death and devastation that would have destroyed a grown adult let along a child. I suppose their youth helped them through it to some extent. They didn't comprehend the political events and perhaps feared things less for the sake of their innocence. However that innocence didn't last long as they kicked into survival mode. They clung on to the things that mattered to them namely their kinship and their desperate hope to reunite.

It was probably written as a means to cleanse oneself of the anger and bitterness all three of them must feel as adults now living in California. Yes they actually managed to survive and get to the USA. Two of them went from one of those stereotypical "Bi-African children with sticks for limbs and a big ball belly and head" to healthy 25-year-old men living in San Diego. The manner in which they wrote the book was both raw and from their hearts. Each one told their story individually linking all the tales together as one long arduous journey. Two were seperated brothers who longed to reunite. In fact the family tie between them all is so powerful it is overwhelming throughout the book.

Too often we hear of horror stories from Africa. We see images on TV of these very same types of nameless children clinging to life in a disease infected area with no food or water. This is the first time I've ever heard the story from their perspective. It was the first time one of the children had a name, a face and a tale. It was amazing to see it from such a young perspective. I've read General Dallaire's book on Rwanda (Shake Hands with the Devil) which in itself is a powerhouse of a book and one everyone should read... but so is this one. At one point one of the boys was starving, quite sick, emaciated, weak and frail and all alone and seperated from the other two. He had a badly infected leg, owned only a pair of shorts and a blanket and nothing else.. he was beaten and tired and felt lonley and so very alone. Even at that low point someone wanted to steal his blanket from him. He sat down, fought and pleaded with the thief to the point where he had to struggled to produce enough energy for tears and through sheer determination managed to save his one possession.

I'll never forget this book. It has that sort of impact. It makes one look at our own lives and realize we take so much for granted. I'll have to remember it the next time I complain about something because believe me I have so much and such a good life in comparison to these boys back then and many Africans today. The same brutal attacks still goes on in Darfur to this day. The refugee camps still exist. Meanwhile North America is pretty much selectively blind to it all and eats itself into oblivion. We put more effort into seeking ways to diet and lose weight than to make sure everyone on the planet has something to eat. The book kinda put things into perspective for me even though after reading about Rwanda and Liberia and seeing documentaries on Ethiopia and Sierra Leone I was well aware of it. It's just so much more powerful when it comes from someone who lived it and survived.

Breaking News Night

2005-09-21T21:42:00.000-04:00

Wow... lots of exciting news coming from the Depression Channel (CNN) this evening.. For starters they have been tracking Hurricane Rita which is now a Category 5 hurricane. At this moment is the third strongest storm ever recorded. It picked up speed before passing by Cuba and entered the main open area of the Gulf of Mexico at Category 2. It then quickly hit Category 5. Computer tracking modules have it hitting shore somewhere near Galvaston Texas by late Friday night or early Saturday morning. Evacuees from Katrina in Houston are being evacuated again as is most everyone from the Texas Gulf Coast right through to western Louisianna. New Orleans is bracing for residual rain and potential flooding that could break the broken levees. Galveston itself is almost completely evacuated and like New Orleans is also partly below sea level and risks being flooded if not wiped out by this massive storm.

Ok if all that wasn't enough a Jet Blue A320 took off from Long Beach heading for New York at around 4pm EST and ran into mechanical problems right after lifting off the ground. The front nose gear somehow turned 90 degrees to one side leaving the front wheel section facing sideways. The pilots were unable to straighten it out. I sat with CNN and watched them follow the plane circle for an hour or so (it had been circling already for an hour before I joined in... Clem called and told me to turn on the TV to see what was happening). They had pilots and other experts discussing options and potential outcomes. All in all they handled it quite well. It was just an incident with no real threat to anyone's life. There was the risk of a nose gear collapse on landing and the threat of injuries from people jumping down the escape chutes if they needed to be deployed... and another risk of fire or injury should the plane have had a genuine belly landing with all the landing gear retracted...

Some pics from airliners.net & my aviation.net (best one is the last one on the list)

http://myaviation.net/?pid=00453678

http://myaviation.net/?pid=00452851

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/926275/L/

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/926274/L/

Ok a Category 5 hurricane is barreling towards Texas meanwhile a Jet Blue A320 was circling with bad landing gear setting the viewers up for a spectacular smoke and sparks landing when..... suddenly a tornado touched down in Minneapolis. People on the ground there confirmed seeing a tornado heading towards the downtown area.. Paula Zahn said in 30 years she's never seen anything like this... one breaking story after another.

Well all is good with two of the stories. The tornado so far hasn't turned into anything serious. At least they haven't shown any evidence of destruction or any video of damage. The tornado warning was lifted and they more or less sidelined the story. The Jet Blue Airbus came to a pretty spectacular landing. The pilots skillfully came in keeping the nose high and only setting it down late as it touched down the runway. The nose gear now completely sideways started smoking and slowly shredding then catching fire leaving a blaze of fire that ran right back underneith the fuselage. Eventually the tires ripped off but the nose gear held strong and the plane came to a complete and safe stop. There was no need for an emergency evacuation. Congrats to the flight crew for that. They did an excellent job and everyone now has a pretty good story to tell. I have to admit my heart was pumping when the plane touched down at LAX. It was quite spectacular I must admit!

As for Rita...yikes! It looks like the type of storm that might just create a Category 6 level for hurricanes. It has a very tight eye and is massive in size. 266 kph winds have been recorded. There's a high pressure that's keeping it south in the Gulf which may help New Orleans but poor Texas looks like it will be hit very hard. At least this time around they are learning from Katrina's mistakes and if anything good comes out of this the three levels of Government have a chance to redeem themselves for the mess in Louisianna, Mississippi and Alabama. People were bussed out. Pets went with them and names were recorded who went on what bus and where. Priority was put on hospitals and nursing homes and in Galveston it was a mandatory evacuation. There are emergency vehicules with relief already lined up ready to be sent in and the Federal Government has issued a state of emergency for the region already in preparation for massive destruction. So 100% better than last time at this stage of the storm.

Just a couple more interesting points I picked up this evening. The USA's worst natural disaster was a hurricane that hit Galveston in 1900. 8-9000 people died. The city was totally destroyed. Film images from back then showed awful death and devestation. It was then the second wealthiest city in the USA after New York but never recovered that title from that storm onwards. Also the worse year for hurricanes was 1933 if I recall correctly. 21 major hurricanes ripped through the Caribbean that year. This year there have been 17 and it's only half way through. They are expecting to match 1933 or become the worse year ever for hurricanes in the Caribbean. Global warming I guess is starting to take it's toll. I'm curious to see what type of winter we are going to have.

So quite the night for news and excitement...

Back to the Future

2005-09-19T19:01:00.000-04:00

NASA announced today it wants to return to the moon in 2018 and then onwards to Mars. The sad thing is the replacement for the Space Shuttle will be a conventional rocket that looks at behaves like the Apollo rocket that sent Neil Armstrong to the moon. So much for the future.

I understand the logic here. Standard rockets are simple, cheap and known technology. In short it's not rocket science....Ahem.. well... Even the landing module they unveiled in a computer generated image is a slightly bulked up version of the original lunar Lander from 1969. The plan is to send astronauts to the moon, stay there for several months and then blast off on a trip to Mars from there.

It seems our futuristic fantasies have been grounded by economics. Mass supersonic transport turned into the technologically limited Concorde flying only the most wealthy of us across the Atlantic in 3-4 hours....today the same trip is 7-8 hours in a conventional plane. That flying car I was suppose to have by 2000 turned into a 4 wheeled Honda that is praised for it's ergonomics and gas mileage not a futuristic power source and ultra violet bubble cockpit. The magnetic trains of the future are only on limited test tracks of today. Ships go no faster these days than they did 50 years ago. In fact the Titanic was probably more luxurious than today's high capacity cruise liners. The video-telephone we were assured to have became the camera cell phone. Even the vision of space travel itself pretty much sputtered out once the Russians abandonned their competitive missions. Only computers, digital camera, Plasma TVs, instant bank machines and faxes kinda fit where futurists were predicting we'd be heading. Blah.... I guess the world of Star Wars and Minority Report, minus all the bad stuff, if still a long way off..

A Tropical storm that will become hurricane Rita is about to hit the Florida Keays this evening. It's predicted that when it moves on to the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico it will turn into a powerful hurricane that could hit land anywhere from Mexico and Texas to Louisianna... Right now there's a 10% chance New Orleans could be hit again so they are preparing to evacuate in case it does. The weakened levees could fail again reflooding the city. Everyone is watching this storm closely.

I uploaded more pics on MyAviation.net... here's some for anyone interested... still uploading my trip through Zurich;

MyAviation.net:

Photographer © Doug Bull

MyAviation.net:

Photographer © Doug Bull

MyAviation.net:

Photographer © Doug Bull

MyAviation.net:

Photographer © Doug Bull

Blink!

2005-09-16T23:30:00.000-04:00

I just finished the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. It's premise is that out first initial impressions of people and things often give us greater insight than does weeks of examination. To some degree I think this is true. A quick glimps of a face or a "feeling" you get when meeting or seeing someone for the first time can really quite accurately sum up what they are really like. It is clean and pure and not cluttered with all sorts of things that can throw you off once you take your time to better get to know them.

Was it a great book? No, but it was entertaining and I like reading things about human insight which this is all about. I think deep down I'd like to be able to see through people and have that edge over them. I don't know why but I do. I find the world very phoney at times. Many people walk around with different "hats" and present different faces to the world. Some are straight forward and honest about it all. I would just like to see people for who they really are.... at least in most cases. :)

Art Show for handicapped

2005-09-10T18:31:00.000-04:00

WHat a beautiful weekend so far. The weather has been just perfect.. around 20-21 degrees and pure sunshine. I think this time and Spring are THE best times of the summer in the Montreal area. I wish I could take my vacation now.

Anyways after days of watching the horrors of the Gulf Coast unfold and still unfolding I took a break from it all and went with Sheila to an art exhibit way out on the West Island in Pointe-Claire. It's an annual event where local artists display and sell their work in a pretty setting along the waterfront of the St Lawrence. Half the proceeds will go to handicapped charities so a good worthwhile event. The prices of the work though are out of my league but I still like to go look around and enjoy the paintings and watch the people. It's really relaxing and today was just perfect for it. Here's some pics of the event including Lac St-Louis (a large lake that's part of the St Lawrence on the southern part of the island of Montreal) and some of the paintings we liked.

First off though I planted some sunflower seeds this spring and this near 3 meter monster has popped up! LOL

The setting itself is very pretty. It's in a park like area along the water front of Lac St-Louis. There's an old mansion that is the centre of activity. A local singer serenaded everyone with some Caribbean sounding songs. Made for an interesting mix of sights and sounds.

The lake itself was so pretty. I'm always amazed this is only 20 minutes from home and a city of 3.5 million people. Nice to sit down by the shoreline and listen to the waves and watch the ducks... 3 of them sleeping each on one leg.. kinda cute.

Now some of the paintings we liked. I really would have liked to purchase the Autumn scene with all the colours in it, or the Montreal Grey Stone water colour done of a home on rue St-Denis or St-Hubert.. both really pretty. Lots of talent here.

Some other shots... this dog was so beautiful and enormous! When sitting it was as tall as it's master. Also it was so calm and quiet and had big beautiful eyes. If I could own a dog in a perfect environment this would be it. Someone remarked it stood like an Afghan which it did but it was not. I don't know which breed it was. Quite nice though.

Even the trees themselves were so old and had a lot of character. I Love tall trees like this. Also my second giant sunflower finally opened... quite spectacular up close.

So a nice event and something to take all the horrible of images coming from the television away for a little while.

Disaster Exhaustion

2005-09-08T07:30:00.000-04:00

I guess the link says it all on a somewhat small scale. Reporters and aid from Canada got to New Orleans residents faster than FEMA and the US Military. ABC News also reported that the local New Orleans city government and I believe FEMA practiced a mock disaster evacuation of the city based on an imaginary Category 5 hurricane wrecking the city and the levees breaking. In their plan several hundred school buses were planned to be used to evacuate those people without transportation or unable to get out. Then they showed an image of those very same school buses in the disater plan sitting in a huge parking lot with water up to their roof level. None were even moved.... I'm starting to get disaster weiriness like most everyone. I just wish we could back time up and change everything and save all those lives..

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050908/wl_canada_nm/canada_canadians_neworelans_col

What draws people to this picture?

2005-09-05T09:34:00.000-04:00

Ok this one has me scratching my head. When you post pictures on airliners.net or myaviation.net they record the number if hits your photos take. Well airliner.net is a huge site and you practically have to be a perfect photographer to get your photos accepted on their site but if you are so lucky or skillful to do so you get enormous amounts of hits as people view and download them. It's a bit of an ego busting experience however because you normally get 10 rejections before getting a picture accepted so I've uploaded my most recent pictures on myaviation.net instead. It's the sister site of airliners.net that acts as a personal storage space for anyone with aviation photos. There are no rejections and they still count and have many of the same features you find on airliners.net.... so I uploaded my pictures of my flight on Swiss airlines last June... or at least so far the part that covers the trip over there and there's been a strange phenomena with the last batch...

For some reason this photo (see below, click image for larger version) has got a lot of hits (for MyAviation.net) and I really don't understand why. There's absolutely nothing special about it. It doesn't even show much of the aircraft. There are no exceptionally good looking women or men in the photo, just average people doing a very ordinary thing... queuing up to board an airliner. It's about as mundane as it gets... It should logically be ignored. Is there anyone out there with any clue why someone would be attracted to this particular image especially when there are others I think at least are far prettier and more interesting from an aviation stand point? If you saw it what would draw you to click it open and look closer ?

MyAviation.net:

Photographer © Doug Bull

Meanwhile Photos like these sit next to it and have hardly been viewed yet I think they are far more interesting?

MyAviation.net:

Photographer © Doug Bull

MyAviation.net:

Photographer © Doug Bull

MyAviation.net:

Photographer © Doug Bull

Anyways.. more stuff coming later. Sheila & I checked out some townhouses on the west island and Clem, Pascal and I went out for a drink last night and got a plan laid out for an emergency survival pack for 7 days if the city was ever hit with a crisis that debilitated it like New Orleans.

New Orleans finally gets relief but what a disgrace

2005-09-03T22:32:00.000-04:00

It took more than enough time but it seems finally someone has a grip on the situation in Louisiana and Mississippi. The Army has rolled in with flat bed trucks filled with emergency aid. People with authority are actually giving the survivors direction. Victims are now deemed refugees and are being bused out to cities like Houston and Dallas and to other neighbouring regions. The situation seems to have improved but still there are trapped people and dead bodies left untouched since last weekend.

I think the USA is embarrassed and ashamed at what has happened. A city of around 2 million people has been devastated as well as a surrounding region the size of England with little or no help sent to them for over 5 days. It is shameful actually. I know Canada had emergency aid including a mobile water purification plant ready to ship out early in the week but we never received the ok to send it from the US government. It sat waiting for days up here in Ottawa. I sense that once the immediate crisis is over there will be a huge re-examination of everything that took place to make sure it will never unfold like this again. I for one thought the USA of all nations was the one country on the planet best able cope with such a disaster but in the end it turned out to be no better than what has happened to third world countries with the added feature that locals got access to weapons which added to the overall dangerous mess. It's unreal and I honestly expected more from a country of such great wealth and means. A country who's people boasts about its greatness when ever and where ever.

Some African American leaders, aid workers and local politicians are now claiming there was a racist motive behind why aid was so slow in coming to those most severely affected. Although I understand logistically it was difficult I still have to wonder the same thing. The levees were built to protect the city from a Category 3 hurricane. Katrina was category 5 then 4. Why did they not raise the levees knowing this could be the worst case scenario? Why was funding to the levees and pumps cut back earlier in the year knowing the hurricane season was approaching and meteorologists were predicting a warmer than average gulf water temperature and warning of more potentially powerful hurricanes this season? Why was there not a mandatory evacuation with transportation provided for every living soul without means in the New Orleans area knowing full well for days in advance such a storm more powerful than the levees could hold back was coming towards the city? Why was there no organized emergency rescue plan to go right into the city immediately after the storm hit and not 5 -6 days later? Why was the army so late in getting to New Orleans? Why was there no replacement for the US National Guard knowing most local members are in Iraq? Why did it take so long for the US government to sign out emergency aid funding to get things rolling and into place on day one and not day 4? Why didn't the US immediately call for international aid from the very start of the hurricanes onslaught and not days later? Why was it decided to protect property and not humans once the outbreak of lawlessness led to shootings and street madness? Why was there no plan to get up and running emergency generators and a basic electric grid and water supply that could supply hospitals and essential services right after the storm? Lastly, why were homes in New Orleans not all built to the city codes and people were permitted to live in regions below sea level in the first place knowing full well the levees could be breached?

Ok I don't suppose many other nations of that size would do a heck of a lot better given the shock of what happened but the difference is that in the US there are people and organizations that are paid to plan for exactly these sorts of disasters. Instead of thanking every government official on television for basically doing their jobs they should have been helping ship off water, food, tents and clothing to the stricken region as well as creating and organized plan of action based on the immediate circumstances and all the proactive drills they were suppose to go through to make it all happen right away. I sensed they were spending more time praising each other for basically nothing than actually doing their work.

Now, the question is why all this unfolded like it has? Is it about the logistics of it all? Is it about poverty and wealth and the priorities of wealthy politicians? Would the same thing happen if it was Beacon Hill or Lower Manhatten that was flooded? Would it be different if the stricken area was populated by historically strong Republican voters in the oil, gas, coal or auto industry states, those who helped put Bush in power in the first place? How about if everyone left in New Orleans were white and not black? I suspect it's about all these things... poor black people who hold no power and influence... who don't run giant corporations that make giant donations to political causes, who basically cost the government money and don't generate new money. They are people who don't have the resources or power to fight back in the courts. They are Democratic voters who weakened the South's Republican voter percentages. They are people who don't fit into the Republican platform of increasing the wealth of the wealthy to make the entire population better off. They are seen more as a hindrance than a benefit. They don't hold wealth or power and offer little the rich can gain from. In short they are disposable.

Since African Americans in the South are largely poor they represent all this in the mindset of many Republican politicians making the decisions to move aid into the region. No I seriously doubt anyone sat down in Washington DC and said "they're black and no one cares" but I do think there was a subconscious feeling that this was not going to be anyone's priority unless it unfolded in an ugly way where they could be hurt politically. The effort before hand just wasn’t there as it might have been for people and a social class deemed important. Image after all is everything in Washington. They basically gambled and lost. I seriously doubt they would have taken that risk had it been a wealthy white Republican region that was threatened.

Thankfully this time the news media, although not perfect, did put pressure on the politicians to react but let's face it that is not something they should have to do unless forced to... those politicians are paid by Americans to react willingly because it's part of their job description not because Anderson Cooper or the Mayor of New Orleans gets on TV and starts screaming at them to get off their asses and do something. It's been a disgrace and I feel for the American people for all of this and especially those hit by the disaster. They all deserve better from their elected officials and levels of government including the President. If I were American I would ask some serious questions about the quality of their politicians. Evidentially substance is more important than image. Gee what a new concept. People must demand that of them in the future.

Still as I write there are new stories of murder, hospital or illness related deaths, rape, gunshots, theft and violence coming in from New Orleans. A shoot to kill policy was in effect at least until the army arrived. I still have trouble understanding how the US could criticize China for turning on its own people in Tiananmen Square and accepts a shoot to kill policy aimed at American citizens for stealing electronic goods in a flooded out New Orleans. In effect this puts priority on this over getting people rescued and dead bodies removed. It looks like consumer merchandise was deemed more important than human lives in a sense although I'm sure the genuine aim was to just curb the shootings to protect human lives. Just putting the priority of getting aid to the victims while getting them out seems a much more logical goal than shooting to kill. Who gives a shit about stolen electronic goods at this point in time?! Let them have it they can’t use it anyways.

It's going to be a long six months or more of this I'm afraid. Refugees will become restless. There will be psychological scars. People need a purpose to live and there must be one for everyone who's been displaced. The cities that take them in will find it straining their finances and services. Crime could increase like it already has in Mobile where some victims were taken in already. What will happen to New Orleans itself? The toxic water probably means most of the city will have to me mowed into the ground. It may become uninhabitable in the end. It's all going to trickle down on many levels world wide before the dust finally settles. I can't think of anything, including 9/11, that had been as depressing and sorrowful to watch unfold. I truly hope the world somehow shows its love for these people because up until now there's been everything but.

New Orleans Mayor lashes out

2005-09-02T07:28:00.000-04:00

The situation in New Orleans is looking like a disaster movie most moviegoers would dismiss as too far out and unrealistic. According to the news there is lawlessness, chaos, looting, dead bodies floating in the water that itself it toxic and filled with human waste. Mosquitoes are breeding and now they are expecting an outbreak of disease. Police are barricaded up protecting themselves from snipers.

All this continues to deteriorate as still about half a million people are left to fend for themselves with little help coming from the US Federal government. A mandatory evacuation is in place but efforts to get people out seem so little relative to the scale of the disaster. President Bush sits back and states help is on the way but it is now day 5 and people are desperate and getting even more desperate as their lives are being threatened. The Mayor of New Orleans got on the radio this morning and blasted Federal authorities for not doing enough to help the victims of Katrina. He basically told Bush to get off his "God Damned Ass" and make things happened. Although those words were used I don't think he specifically referred to Bush in that way but essentially that was his message. He was so emotional in the manner and way he spoke which came right from the core of his soul. This is a man devastated, exasperated and at the end of his rope. At the end he broke down and had to leave in tears. Nothing so far has brought all this home to the heart than hearing him talk about his city and his people and what they are going through.

You know if this were Beverly Hills or Long Island I can bet help would have been there immediately not five days later. Those most affected are poor African Americans not rich white people. Americans have been asking where is France and Germany. Well where is Saudi Arabia, England and Japan their supposed best friends? Canada has offered help and has things in place ready to go and still no one has told us to ship anyone or anything to the region. I get the sense still that it is deteriorating and no one yet has a grasp on the situation and how to handle it. Meanwhile oil is not being pumped, gas prices hit over $1.50 a litre in some parts of Montreal yesterday and the economy of the continent is poised to take a nose dive if something isn't done to restore some sense of order down there soon. That disaster could translate into a continental or even global disaster if Bush doesn't get a grip on things soon.

In another story two American men, 23 and 20 were found dead in Laval yesterday not far from where I work. In fact I believe saw the helicopter that spotted the bodies in a quarry a few kilometers south of our building. They disappeared Aug 22nd after a night of partying and headed into Laval to go to an after hours nightclub. They were two male strippers and one was a porn star. They were in Montreal after their show had wrapped up its Canadian tour. They stripped for both men and women and were with a show similar to Chipendales. The story has been gripping the city for the past week but this morning they confirmed the two bodies those of the two men. I find it ironic that women are always referred to as strippers in the news when something like this happens but these guys were labeled as "models". Still though very sad... it's not sure how they died but they were located at the bottom of a deep quarry at the back of the nightclub. Perhaps they fell in a drunken or drugged state although people with them in Montreal said they took no drugs and were not drunk when they left. Perhaps they crossed someone in the porn business and were killed and shoved over into the quarry. I guess time will tell. Quite tragic though.

Update: I went and topped up the gas in my car at lunch. I had exactly half a tank left... $41 plus change.... so $82 for a full tank. A yearago $41 would have been a full tank. It was $1.34 a litre. Reports just before lunch had prices going up to $1.47 in the East end of Montreal when I live. *Sigh*

Katrina dumps water on Canada

2005-08-31T19:24:00.000-04:00

I know I really can't complain after watching the news on TV the past day or two. Katrina dumped a lot of water on Montreal today and blew it all over the place. I went out at lunch to put some air in my tire with the slow leak (just my luck to have to do it today) and I was totally drenched within 5 seconds of running to my car from the company's front door.. a distance of perhaps 3 meters. I was soaking wet... then had to pump air in the tire with my $9 umbrella wrapped around me spilling water down into my pants. Regardless of the volume of rain it still wasn't all that bad. Nothing really flooded like before but some trees were uprooted in NDG and a couple of cars destroyed. Minor stuff unless you were the owners of the cars.

Some pics (click image to see full size picture);

The TV images of New Orleans though are hard to take. I can't imagine being in their situation. When the ice storm hit Montreal a few years ago I had no power for 2-3 days and I was worried at that point if it went beyond 3 days there would be no fresh food and I would have to go to a shelter. These people are looking at months of no electricity, no work, no income nor available fresh food. It's a nightmarish situation actually. People are looting and there is gunfire at night. It isn't safe to be there. I also read there are even alligators now in the flood zone. Imagine.

The news headline photo on today's Globe & Mail pretty much says it all;

President Bush made a tour in Air Force One and a later a speech where he said it would take years to rebuild the area. Gas prices have gone up in the US. Today it went to $1.34 a litre in some areas here. I paid $1.19 at lunch. I never knew I was getting a bargain so I only put in $30 worth. Damn.. anyways.. hope things work out soon.

My friend who works at New Orleans Airport sent out a general mail to his friends including me to update everyone on their situation. It's a good reflection of what a lot of people must be going through down down there at the moment. At least he still has a job to go to so his situation is probably one of the better ones. He will have to make a lot of critical decisions over the next few weeks unfortuantely. It must be very upsetting and difficult for them. My heart goes out to him.

Today was a day of making various contingency plans for when we are allowed to return home. We are still with my in-laws in West Monroe, LA.

The president of Jefferson Parish, where our house is located, is telling us that we can likely come back next Monday. His advice is to come in, collect some essentials, then clear out again for what could be up to two months.

Our thinking now, and I've been in touch with my boss at the airport with our thoughts, is to take two cars down on Monday, load up one with more stuff to bring back here, and I would stay at the airport with my car. The airport is asking those of us who can get back to do so when we can, and the airport will likely be one of the better places to be down there, and most likely I'll be living out of my office at the airport for the time being.

Regarding longer range thoughts, we are seriously considering our daughters in school up here for the time being. We've already been in touch with the Ouachita Parish School Board and they are quite receptive, and are thinking they'll be getting more similar requests.

Our spirits are good, we're thinking through every contingency we can think of. Of course, our thoughts and prayers are with those left at home.

Again, thank you for all your thoughts and prayers, and we love you all.

Katrina heads for Montreal

2005-08-30T20:23:00.000-04:00

Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast. What a mess, on TV it looks like the tsunami aftermath from Christmas. Lots of poor people who were unable to evacuate were killed and the dikes around New Orleans broke open and the city is now flooded. It's pretty much the worse case scenario. There's looting and stranded people in among dead bodies and wreckage.... Spilled oil and chemicals are mixing with the water to create a toxic mess and oil refineries are seriously damaged. Yikes. God help them.

My friend in New Orleans wrote me back to say he had evacuated safely but his home is in the city basin but on slightly higher ground.... but he expects it to be damaged. I haven't heard back since the storm hit. I have another friend in Philadelphia with family in Alabama but he wrote me this evening to say they were 200 miles north of Mobile and only got heavy rain. So at least the people I know of personally in the region are physically safe. That's good news.

The storm will ride it's way up north and go right up the St Lawrence over Montreal on out to the Maritimes and the Atlantic again... so we expect Katrina's remains tomorrow. They are predicting very heavy rains and winds. Remember last time we had heavy rain and I ended up stranded out on the West Island and got home at 9:30 at night because of the flooding at l'Acadie... Tomorrow it will be Pie IX and the 440 both there and back just to be safe. Regardless it will be nothing compared to what hit down South.

I had supper with friends last night at a pretty Greek restaurant on Duluth street in Le Plateau. It was an open air courtyard that went perfect with the warm humid night. The food and conversation excellent. Two of the guests were from New York City and they were touring around Montreal the past few days and seemed to have had a nice time. I really enjoyed myself actually. Eating out like that on a warm night is one of the things I like to do the most.. throw in the pleasant courtyard terrace and it doesn't get better... summer in Montreal at it's best.

Huricane Katrina looming over New Orleans

2005-08-28T22:11:00.000-04:00

I've spent some time watching the television news about impending hurricane Katrina which at this moment is about to hit New Orleans. If what the analysts are saying is true it will be devastating. It's a scary thing. Over 1 Million people have been evacuated and the rest are stuck in New Orleans and surrounding areas. I wish them all well over the next few days.

Thanks to the Internet I know of one fella who works at MSY (New Orleans Airport). We've been out of touch over the past couple of years but I sent him an e-mail wishing him safety. Another one of my friends has family down in Alabama which is also on the hurricane track for this storm. Hopefully they too will be safe. It all becomes such a small world when we start interacting on global discussion boards. Suddenly I know or know of people everywhere.

Anyways, apparently New Orleans is in a basin between a lake, a bay and the Gulf of Mexico. There are 18' high levees protecting it but since Katrina is a category 5 hurricane with 280kph winds they predict the storm surge of 20' or about 7 meters. If they break over the levees the city will be submerged. There are 25,000 people held up in the Superdome all of whom will live in the stands above ground level since they actually expect the stadium to flood. I hope the roof stays on. That's one tall massive structure for the winds to hit. All in all it's shaping up to be the Perfect Storm.. Hopefully something will happen to make it veer off and slow down.. Anyways good luck New Orleans.

Testing picture HTML Code

2005-08-27T15:35:00.000-04:00

I'm going to test out a new feature in airliners.net and myaviation.net. They now allow us to generate code to view pictures off their sites. So this is one of my shots from my trip to Switzerland and Holland back in June using the code. Hope it works...Click the images for the full size photo

MyAviation.net:

Photographer © Doug Bull

MyAviation.net:

Photographer © Doug Bull

MyAviation.net:

Photographer © Doug Bull

MyAviation.net:

Photographer © Doug Bull

MyAviation.net:

Photographer © Doug Bull

Wow cool... works well. Good to know.

End of Chapter One

2005-08-25T19:30:00.000-04:00

What a shock, Chapters, the huge bookstore at Rockland shopping centre closed up. OMG.. It was the only English language bookstore near enough to the East End to be convenient for me. If there are three major English bookstores left in the city region now I'd be surprised. This will mean I will have to go all the way downtown or out to the West Island to buy a book.... bummer... I'm really ticked off about this. Rockland was the perfect place for me.. half way and the turning point between work and home, between the 15 and the 40... I could stop in afterwork and pick something up without even blinking... now it's going to be a big trip.

The stylist that cut my hair at Rockland... yes it does actually grow... said there was a new bookstore at Centre Laval but I'm 99% sure it would be a French bookstore. There's no sizable English population in Laval to support one and downtown Laval is almost totally French. Yes perhaps there will be a small section of foreign language books but that's exactly what it will be. The one at Rockland was huge with many choices...sigh... oh well.. What I should do is start reading French books I guess. It seems like it will come to that at some point anyway. C'est la vie.

Bad weather & assassinating a world Leader?

2005-08-24T07:30:00.000-04:00

It's been as typical a week as it can get for me so far. I've had to battle my way through traffic each morning and night. Montrealers must be among the worse drivers out there. I know every citizen claims it's city's drivers are the worst but honestly we're up among the worst of them all. I've driven in Rome and Athens and admittedly they are "special" as people would say here... in fact so special in Rome I was forced off the sidewalk by an oncoming car once... ok so Rome is ahead of Montreal but let me tell ya we're right on their heels LOL..

There are some interesting things in the news lately though. This morning they announced a study that showed that Quebec has the worst weather in all of Canada. Apparently we have the most cloud, the least amount of sunshine, the most rain, the second highest snow accumulation by the end of January and the most rain during the summer months. There were more categories as well we topped but I can't remember them. I'm a bit surprised because I would have guessed Vancouver or some place in the Maritimes/Newfoundland would hold the most rain or cloud category. Anyways, if this is the worse then it's not all bad. It's been a beautiful summer and with all that rain I guess we probably have the lushest gardens in the country...?

Another quirky thing came out of the US last night. This just brings out the irony of American thinking. For all the criticism the US has thrown out at extremist Islamic leaders they now have one of their own to point a finger at. Pat Robertson an Evangelical Minister in the US has called for the assassination of Venezuela's Communist President Hugo Chavez. Ok, I know many people might think assassinating a brutal dictator would be unethical but at the same time would be less risky to the lives of soldiers and of course more cost effective. Forget that it's illegal and immoral and against the principles we fight to protect. Forget the "If we can do it to you then you can do it to us" factor. Forget that we preach freedom and liberties which presumably means the right to be something other that what the USA wants.

Regardless we do mutter about the possibility of this type of action among ourselves. You have to admit it would be a lot cleaner and cheaper than sending thousands of troops to war and potential death... but it would open a pandora's box of countries taking out the leaders of nations they don't like. It would end up like the Old Wild West and the OK Corral. The thing is however if it comes out in public I'd expect it from someone like Howard Stern not Pat Robertson. Now we have radical American religious leaders speaking fire and brimstone. It only goes to prove that even among a civilized democratic society we too can produce nut balls that lack common sense. I'd like to see how a Christian Leader can justify murder as a solution to any problem. Pat, you should have kept this to yourself now you look like an idiot even if most likely a lot of people agree with you. *Sigh*... anyways, Chavez of all people. isn't Iraq's Saadam or instigating brutality like in pre-genocide Rwanda, at least isn't to my knowledge. If he's as brutal then I'd like to know what all the press and media have been doing lately because it sure hasn't made the news if so. This was a totally irresponsible comment which probably reveals a lot about what right wing religion in the US is really all about. I wish the US would genuinely seperate religion and the State. I hate seeing political decisions being made based on religious principles. Not everyone is of the same religion and it opens the door to all sorts of conflicts and accusations.

Sadly there was another plane crash this week. It was a TAN Airlines Boeing 737-200 based in Peru. I think this is the 5th crash in as many weeks. It is a strange blip in the statistics I would imagine. Add to it a nose gear collapse of a Northwest 744 in Guam and a couple of other emergency evacuations that made the news and the public is starting to get a bit jittery about flying again. There is no reason to be like this but the media of course brings out the fear and I guess the reaction is logical.

Sheila and her cousin came over last night to watch The Others on DVD. It was the Nicole Kidman suspense thriller about a family living in a haunted post war English countryside home. It is an excellent film with a real surprise twist at the end. I loved it when I saw it in the theatres and loved it even more after watching it last night. They played off Kidman's character's madness, the strange sounds of the "ghosts" and the fears of the kids perfectly. It had both Sheila and her cousin wrapped up in pillows and squirming all over the couch LOL.

Anyhow… I should get to work. Lots of little projects are on my plate and I have to be in touch with my Dutch counterparts so hope your day goes well :)

They'd sell the hairs on your head if they could

2005-08-19T07:17:00.000-04:00

I was looking over the statistics of this website last night just to see where everyone was coming from. I noticed a sudden spike of several hundred percent in people coming here. I figured my link must have been posted somewhere and a large number of random people suddenly had access to it and dropped in. I thought It was odd because blogger.com really doesn't have the tools like other blogging sites to create "communities" or promote your site or seatch and get it out there and known. Anyways not that anyone would care much about my boring little life or what I have to say about events in the world but there are those who are willing to go to every extreme to get noticed and they will attract large numbers of people. In turn advertisers seek them and ultimately people like me out.

Regardless of who would or would not care about this site I did come across something that's a bit disturbing. This discovery came after I suddenly got "attacked" by cyber spyder robots who plastered one of my posts with fake comments disguised as everyday bloggers but with the sole aim of promoting their product or service. So when I checked the counter stats I found to my amazement a site that is selling my blogsite traffic to advertisers at a going rate based on the volume running through it. I have a link but I cannot get it to show below: So try this...copy paste the link and just add in the http before the two :// where it should be.

://blogshares.com/blogs.php?blog=http%3A%2F%2Fyulfly1011.blogspot.com%2F

It appears my site along with all the sites on this blogger site is being sold for advertising purposes. This doesn't really surprise me but to see it with a going rate and varying trends is a bit disturbing. It makes me feel like someone is selling part of me without my permission. Because I write about my life and the world around me suddenly someone is trying to profit from me. Everyone on my links also has a similar site and theirs is for sale too.Although it's probably not illegal it is just makes me feel like I should have a shower.

When I look at everyday life and how we are all inundated with advertising it sometimes make me sick. It is everywhere from escalator steps, road signs, television, movies and the Internet. I have a Videotron digital TV package $20 for 20 stations and when I flipped through them the last night I counted roughly 60% of them were showing TV ads as I ran through the channels. It's like that all the time, more advertising than programming. There is even television ads that run for 60 minutes disguesed as ligitimate TV shows...we've even created a name to justify them: "infomercials". It's as if everyone has one hand in your pocket and the other stroking your back saying how great you'd be if only you had my product. Life would be bliss.

Worse still everyday people are now willingly do it for free. This I have a hard time understanding. While Nike is willing to pay someone like Tiger Woods or an NBA star millions of dollars to promote their products kids at High Schools, Universities and even grown adults will help promote Nike by buying shirts, caps and shoes with the Nike Swoosh on it. Free advertising and the wearer gets nothing, in facts pays them to do it so in effect buys into their marketing and thinks he or she looks cool. They paid Nike for their product and agree to advertise for them for free. Why shouldn't they get a share of the profits if they in fact help promote the product line? There's even one step beyond this when some kids shave the Swoosh (insert corporate logo of your choice here) into their haircuts or start pasting it on their suped up car rear windows or as tatoos on their bodies. Do you really think Allen Iverson would wear any product logo for free? I don't think so but these giant companies sure have us convinced that it's the right thing for us to do. Advertising and promotion is necessary in order to sell the product but it's as if we've crossed a line and we no longer realize how "used" we are. Sad really.

Govenor General ducks reporters

2005-08-17T07:20:00.000-04:00

Recently Prime Minister Martin appointed Michaelle Jean to the post of Governor General of Canada. This is a largely ceremonial post that ties in Canada's government to the Crown in England. She is effectively the Queen's representative in Canada. Vestiges of colonialism I suppose and something someday we probably should do away with but it still exists and the role still has a purpose.

This 46-year-old woman is a Haitian born immigrant with citizen ship in Haiti, France and Canada. She's a well-known reporter in French Canada and has been seen on the CBC hosting excellent shows like the Passionate Eye and other CBC efforts. My first reaction to her appointment was very positive. She's well known, a black immigrant, multilingual, highly intelligent and successful as well as chic and beautiful. She typifies the idealistic Canadian of the 21st century. A good choice.

My second reaction though was that knowing other Canadians I was sure I would hear people outside Quebec grumbling about the Federal government giving a "plum job" to another Quebecer even if a Quebecer hasn't held the post of Governor General in 19 years. Well that may have happened but honestly I never heard it. Unfortunately though the Separatists got the better of all of us and immediately accused her and especially her husband of being a Quebec Separatist. Typically separatist, they stabbed her in the back before she even officially took hold of the post.

Last night CTV had old film footage of her and her husband at a gathering of well know Separatists. Also, they remarked on a book they both were quoted in supporting the Separatist cause. Her husband, more than her, was supposedly very outspoken about the cause and a lot of the focus has been on him. Well, I have no problem with people being separatists and wanting Quebec to be an independent country or whatever the cause is today. After all we live in a free society where freethinking is openly encouraged and if it is all done through legitimate channels then people are free to want and believe in this. Personally I even see some benefits to it for both Quebec and Canada but I'm not sure I want the disruptions to our lives it would likely create. I do however have a big problem with Separatists holding a job where the primary function is to represent Canada on the world stage and promote Canada to the world. It would be like a Federalist holding the position as head of the St-Jean Baptiste Society, a nationalistic French Quebec organization dedicated to the separation of Quebec from Canada. This is a line that shouldn't be crossed by the other side.

This morning on the radio another issue has come up as well. Now France claims it may revoke her citizenship because according to French law no French Citizen can hold key positions such as head of the military in another country. The Governor-General's title is attached to such things even if it is ceremonial. So she may lose her duel French-Canada citizenship. Well you know France may have done us a favor there. So far Jean has not publicly stated anything about this controversy. Her position is publicly unknown. The Government says the Separatists are engaging in a smear campaign. Perhaps they are but if it is all true it is something people should be aware of. It turns out most Canadians outside of Quebec know little about her and perhaps they should know the truth especially from Jean herself. Her continued silence is starting to make the press uneasy and is raising questions in the minds of many people in the country. Now that France has made an issue over her citizenship she will have to pick what country she's really loyal to and as Governor-General one would presume the choice would be both obvious and easy - Canada. We will see if it is.

It will be interesting to watch this unfold. I'm also curious to see how the rest of the country takes it as well. Other Canadians often bash Quebec for pretty much everything we get from Ottawa be it a major contract, a government position, money or anything else that can be perceived as efforts to keep Quebec thinking it's benefiting from Ottawa - contrary to what the Separatists claim. We are seen as favorites of Ottawa and a big black hole where money is sent and wasted. French Canada sees exactly the opposite. Recent scandals have only intensified this feeling towards my Province. Also you must question how closely the government looked into her credentials before selecting her. Again, were they sleeping on the job? This has all the potential to turn into an ugly mess unfortunately. Sadly this woman was looking like the hip young ethnic urban success story of Canada's 21st century but now she's ducking reporters. She still might be all that but she or her husband better say all the right things because if not if will go downhill very fast I suspect. Even if it turns out to be true then at least admit that and come clean with the country. I think people would be more comfortable with at least that and then maybe even accept her in the role knowing it. In the end though it's a shame, what started out as a really positive thing has now been tainted.

Waiter, there's a bug in my drink

2005-08-14T12:11:00.000-04:00

Clem, Pascal & I headed out for supper yesterday evening. These guys are a gay couple I've known for many years. We thought we'd get a little exercise in and take a walk on Mount Royal for a bit and then head down to the Plateau to find a place to eat. It turned out to be a really nice time.

I haven't really been to the mountain in several years which is a shame because it is basically a massive park and quite quiet and relaxing. We drove up from Cote des Neiges which was really odd to me since in all my life I've never approached the mountain from the west side. Once parked and out we thought we'd head over to the lookout then stroll down to Beaver Lake before going to the Plateau.

There were lots of tourists. I think I heard every language but English and French there. Everyone was getting pics of themselves in front of the skyline. Arabs, Chinese, Hispanics and several unknown European languages. A veritable United Nations of people up there last night.

The view was nice as always. The skyline has changed over the years but it's not all that much different. A few new skyscrapers here and there and just generally more of them be they small or large. The mountain is the ceiling level where no skyscraper can be built higher. The aim to not block out the view of it from downtown and I guess the South Shore. Also visa versa from the mountain to the other side of the river. I'm not totally in agreement with this because in the end you might get two 30 story office towers instead of one 6o story so ultimately there could be just so many buildings it becomes congested and that might block out more general viewing than a handful of very tall buildings. This canyon effect can ruin the ambiance of downtown in my opinion. There's not much to worry about though, Montreal hasn't doubled its population in my lifetime and there doesn't seem to be so much economic activity that there's any need for 60 or 80 story office towers anyway.

Lots of nice flowers up there. I have an 8' high sunflower growing like a beanstalk in my back yard... here's the city's smaller version (mine isn't out yet).

So here's some pics of the cityscape view;

Here's a nice panorama of the skyline

It's actually even nicer at night with all the lights on but still it's a classic image of Montreal that's usually shown to the world when my city is showcased somewhere.

Clem took a pic of me up there... so here's my ugly mug LOL :

Anyhow we then walked over to Lac des Castors (Beaver Lake). All my life it's been rumored the lake was the crater of an ancient volcano. I've since heard none of this was true but I'm really not sure to be honest. It would really have to be ancient though if so.

The Lake however was a huge disappointment. Normally this is a very pretty site filled with people relaxing, getting their feet cooled off and lots of ducks and so forth... but today it was practically dried up thanks to all the heat we've had this summer. There is a water shortage in parts of the city. The walkway around it was a crumbling mess and the building at the far end of it was being renovated. It needs a total renovation actually. So hardly impressive for anyone let alone the tourists. I really don't understand where the city puts it's money sometimes. It sure isn't going here nor is it going into road repair... they city's a crumbling mess in some ways. I know snow and frost damages a lot of the infrastructure but come on, we're not that poor we can't maintain it. God knows Quebecers pay enough taxes, more than most places in Canada. The touristy areas are the one part you want to keep updated, clean and nice especially on the mountain. If anyone comes to this city Old Montreal and Mount Royal are the two places everyone has to see if nothing else. Last night though I would have taken them from the viewing platform straight down to Vieux Montreal and skipped the lake...

Here's a pic at sunset with St Joseph's Oratory way in the background.

Some people exercising too.. lots of joggers and cyclists.

...the dog is cute :)

We parked on St-Hubert in the Plateau. Lucky us, it's one of the most difficult places in the city to find free parking. We walked along ave. Mont-Royal doing some window shopping. They've got the most colourful and imaginative stores along there. Finally we ended up on rue St-Denis, the city's most well known night time street. Tons of restaurants from all over the world, lots of bars and beautiful unique stores. Mont-Royal and St-Denis is a bit to north for the best places. It's several kilometers long actually. We went even a bit higher if not to the very top where any of this activity would begin. Actually I think we ended up in the Brazilian section of the city if I'm not mistaken.. several Brazilian bars and restaurants were along there. We passed one we went to a few years ago in fact... ought to go back really, it was good.

We picked a restaurant called Ouzerie du Plateau. It was a large urban chic Greek bistro with a wine list from here to Athens. I ordered salmon, Clem had Octopus and Calamari and Pascal, Crevettes. I also took a garden salad to begin but it was a meal in itself. Neither of them were overwhelmed with their meals but mine was delicious. So was the white wine Clem ordered. After the meal I had with some home made Greek yogurt with honey and nuts as well as a Grand Marnier, Clem had a tart/pie which he didn't like... so they were disappointed but I really couldn't complain. This is typical of us.. I often order things in new restaurants I'm at least vaguely familiar with and hard to get wrong. lf they get my choices wrong then the place really is no good. They really ought to learn from me LOL.

We talked about their mini vacation they just took. They headed down to the Gaspé and then to New Brunswick. Pascal is from the South shore of the St Lawrence just west of Quebec City in fact. They made the entire trip around the peninsula including Percé and an incredible bird sanctuary. Then they went into New Brunswick and checked out Magnetic Hill (which they said was a rip-off) and the Bay Of Fundy as well as some really beautiful beaches. I've spent a lot of time in Nova Scotia and PEI but just passed through New Brunswick on the way. My parents had their honeymoon at Percé in the Gaspé many many years ago actually. One day I'll make that trip too... just riding up to LaPocatiere the view across the St Lawrence as it widens in spectacular!! So beautiful with rolling hills and little villages and church steeples... quite the site.

Anyhow we had a good time there even if it was typically noisy. My Grand Marnier had a bug in it though which I noticed as we were talking about the Maritimes.. the waitress was mortified when I showed her and got me a new one LOL. She joked about it when she asked if she could get us anything else with or without bugs. He he.. oh well, it was summer and in Montreal when it's hot like this everything is open air so these things happen.. just like in the Plaka in Athens. This place would have went well in the Plaka actually... brought back some nice memories of it for me :) I really have to go back to Athens one day.

We then headed out for a drink downtown and called it a night. It's rare I see them on a Saturday night so kinda neat.

Canadians are willing to give up civil liberties

2005-08-11T07:18:00.000-04:00

A survey out this morning says 72% of Canadians are willing to give up some civil liberties in order to make the country safe from terrorism. I'm sure some politicians must be popping champagne with this news. I'd like to see in detail what "some liberties" really means to most of us.

I hate the notion of terrorism even though I fully understand why it exists. These people come from poor historically torn or corrupt countries. They have no cruise missles, F22's, nuclear power submarines, nuclear bombs or thousands of highly trained specialty forces...nor in most cases any serious money to get even some of these things ligitimately. They have no clout in the major governments of the world and cannot get what they want through ligitimate organizations like the UN and other so called "effective" structures even if that term is truely questionable these days. In fact they see all this as working against them. So they turn to the uneducated and "brainwash" them into suicide bombers giving them an effective bang for their buck. It renders all the high technology of our forces somewhat useless. This in turn tries to instill fear in Western countries and distrupt our economies and hopefully force the population to move our political thinking in a way more to their liking. In short it sells well with their "home audience" because it makes it seem like they are effectively fighting the power nations of the world. It would seem however, despite the many varied reasons for terrorism Al Qaeda just wants us all dead and that pretty much drives home the point why all this has come up.

They are not playing by our game rules so we label them "terrorists" and make sure the local population here sees it exactly like that. For the most part I tend to agree terrorism is like a cancer and does not work towards any sort of peaceful reconciliation with the countries/governments they oppose and it truely must be stopped. It is a genuine threat to peace. If we don't we'll end up living in semi-organized chaos. I think though, part of the solution is for us in the so called West to change as well. It's not all one sided since terrorism did emerge for a reason and so far no one seems to be identifying the reason and trying to deal with the root causes instead of just the symptoms. Bombing men, women and children in third world nations won't get anyone on our side. We are also too focused on the economic fallout and the overall money aspects despite all our claims about human lives and freedoms.

That being said giving up my civil liberties in order to fight these people suggests once again we are giving into them. On the one hand I don't really have a problem with more security cameras around public spaces so long as they are used for seeking out genuine criminals and these so called terrorists. However I don't want them to be used to just pick up anyone they think is suspicious or doing something the user behind the camera interprets as wrong... it then becomes a form of Big Brother... Their use must be regulated and checked.

When it comes to changing the laws we live under and losing rights in areas where we currently have freedoms it is another matter. Governments and corporations would love to be able to have more control over the population. We see that in dictatorships which are really the extreme of this direction. They keep the population uneducated, use force to keep themselves in power and instill fear to prevent any revolt. Well luckily much of North America is well educated but sometimes I think people rarely think outside the box. We live in a structured paradym and accept it without question. Our mass media and other institutions support this. The government does instill the fear or terrorism be it real or not. Given that reality we have to also realize one man's terrorist is another man's mercenary. So it really comes down to all of us to keep our government's focused on the right things and not accept everything they tell us with blind acceptance. In short it's imperative we be able to think for ourselves. The media too must ask the tough questions and not be responsive only to their sponsors. The government must be truely responsible to the people and not just to it's financial backers.

Giving up civil liberties might be the start of a dangerous road we may later regret going down. It's more evidence of the rising tide of Conservatism that's sweeping this continent and one that we should ensure is checked so it won't go beyond what is truely needed if it's needed at all. Canada is one of the best countries on the whole planet to live in and I wouldn't want to see it go from a shining example of human freedoms and respect of fellow citizens to one of suspicious fear and government control.

Peter Jennings Passes Away

2005-08-08T19:39:00.000-04:00

Sad news this morning, American News Anchor Peter Jennings passed away over night. He had lung cancer. I remember seeing his last appearance on TV explaining his situation to the television audience looking pretty good but with a horribly horse throat. My dad too died of lung cancer and I knew right then and there listening to this sickly ABC News anchor it might very well be his last appearance, and so it was.

I have to say I used to watch him everynight. I always watch US News because inevitably CTV gets the same feeds as ABC but they actually cut them shorter in many instances. Seeing the full show meant I'd have a fuller view of the event, and an American interpretation. I could then turn to Canadian news at 11pm and see how we saw the same events. To me this is important. I consider myself lucky to be in Canada and have news feeds direct from other countries. CTV/CBC from English Canada, RDI/TVA from French Canada, BBC from England and TV5 from the French nations of the world... but of course CNN/ABC/NBC and CBS from the US. It gives me a more global view albeit still very Western and first world. Still Jennings and ABC were the best of the best in the US. He came across as credible, intelligent, diplomatic, articulate, kind, inquisitve, sensitve and even poetic. There's no one out there today who could match him. He's a Canadian we could all warm up to. So many of us head to the US for global fame and fortune... he headed there to be a more rounded intelligent human being. It would seem he worked hard to get what he got and in the end probably had one of the most interesting lives anyone on the planet could have in the late 20th and early21st centuries.

Anyways, I'll miss his perspective on everything. It will never be the same watching the news again. I still have Lloyd and that every rising or lowering hairdo which always puts a smile on my face. He's also one of the few great ones left albeit known only in Canada. It seems the world is changing and the old solid structures of the past are moving on. People, including myself, get their news from the Internet now. Seriously, I'd say in most cases I see the news first on this blessed PC before anything then turn to television to see the images.... but like the Air France tragedy in Toronto last week... it still is the one form of media that can "bring the story home". There's little that can match a powerful image and a slightly emotional reporter standing in front of it. Like newspapers it will never disappear but like many reporters said on ABCNews tonight while recanting their memories of Jennings, there will likely never be another great anchor like him ever again. A sad truth... thanks Peter for helping me understand Americans and for bringing me the world from a truely "Canadian" perspective. You did us all proud.

Strange Portugese men in my dream, A shift to the right & backyard Plane spotting

2005-08-06T20:06:00.000-04:00

Last night Sheila & I headed out to Au Vieux Duluth in St-Laurent for supper. I have to admit I like Greek food even though they do pile on way too much. We both had the same thing, chicken brochette with garlic scampis. Yes it was delicious.. yes it was too much.. yes we had dessert and yeah we had cheap wine... so I guess it's understandable I slept lousy last night from feeling bloated and tired the rest of that evening. I had the strangest dream though... there were older Portuguese men sitting around talking in my living room.. I could clearly see their faces with one in particular remarking on how much he liked this country....!? weird.. he was wearing an orange shirt. I have no clue where that all came from but it seemed as real a if he was really sitting in my living room talking... accent and all..

Anyways, Sheila went up to see her brother in Ottawa today but I declined to go. They have a nice large pool and three pre teen kids and usually a load of neighbours and family coming over so it gets a little over whelming. Plus I have tons to do on the weekends to keep my house up.. cutting grass and doing laundry and so forth I did my thing and let her spend time with her family. Anyways her brother is a nice guy but a somewhat of a right wing redneck and I have to admit I feel a bit uncomfortable around him at times. I think if we ever sat down and seriously discussed anything political or touched on some of the social issues of the day we'd clash so seriously I might never go back... Once he has had a few beers and some wine he starts and some of the things he says is offensive to me. Sheila is no where near as opinionated but in the past few years I've seen a real right wing bend in her way of thinking and this starting to disturb me. There's good things in both the right and left way of seeing life but once you go beyond certain boundaries in either direction you start infringing on the other to a point where the balance of power starts to shift and that is where if gets dangerous. We're at that point in the world these days and look at the mess of divisions it's created all over the planet. I don't want to have the same sort of thing happen with the people in my life that I love so it becomes a delicate balancing act for both of us. Life can be so phoney once you become a working adult.... rarely does anyone sober tell you what they really think to your face. Everyone just smiles and changes the subject.

I did some arm chair plane spotting from my back yard this afternoon. First off, this plane flew over the city at I would guess around 35,000'... It's definately a blue finned 777-200. I think it's Continental but I don't see any of the gold in the tail.

It's really hard to tell since I've cropped the pic substantially and so it gets "noiser" and less sharp. I can't think of any other blue finned 777s that would be found in this part of the world. ANA would be darker with some white on it, United would have a blue underbelly and mostly white tail, Delta would have red and the tail cone would be painted, Varig would also have a blue underbelly and it wouldn't be over Montreal for any reason... so Continental would seem to fit the plane. The underbelly and engine colours also matches CO and it could have been an early flight off to Europe from Newark or maybe even Houston. It was travelling in an odd directon, NW which probably eliminates Newark.

For the rest.. well the only thing of significance heading into 24L was Air Canada's new Embraer 175 which I saw for the first time every today. It came in around 11am and I have to say caught me by surprise. I took a pic of it thinking it was an A319 in new colours then noticed the larger winglets. It was very quiet in comparison to other planes. The pics didn't turn out because I had a slow shutter speed and they blurred. It was quite nice and sleek. It will be a great addition to the mainline fleet. I'm sure in a year or so I'll be sick of seeing them LOL.

Air Transat was the most significant other however.. a lonely A310 coming up from the Caribbean this afternoon.

I wonder what Transat will eventually get to replace the A310 fleet? It's getting to be an old aircraft now. The 787 would be good for them but probably too expensive. Some older 767-200ERs might also do the trick but they too are about as old as their Airbuses. That will be a interesting order once it is made. There was rumor of them looking at 777s but personally I think that aircraft would be too big for Transat. Who knows, maybe A350s are in their future as they would be compatible to the A330s they fly now... but it's not really an A310 replacement.. only the 787 really fits that category at this point.

Some other shots that made my day.. My sun reflector and some bright flowers..

I wrote an e-mail to Clem this evening to see if he wanted to go out for supper but never heard back from him. So I'm all by myself.. I think I'll update my website. I need to completely redo it. Some of the pics on it are of such low quality it's embarassing. I can get away with the claim they were of old classic airliners though.. but I need a total revamp. So off I go..

New Bathroom fan & the Heat

2005-08-04T19:41:00.000-04:00

It was a slightly unusual day today. I worked from home as Home Depot had their subcontractors come in to install a ceiling fan and electrical outlet into my bathroom. I live in a house built in the late 1950s so none of this was standard and I like most of us around here have lived without such things for years. We opted to just open the door and window to vent out the condensation but lately I've noticed some mold and peeling paint so I decided to get the fan installed.

It should have been a quick two hour job. I planned on going into the office in the afternoon. No such luck. First off they came expecting me to have all the purchased parts ready. They didn't and had to go to Home Depot to get them. Second, the quote I already paid for didn't included the purchase of the electrical outlet for the bathroom. I had to pay them seperate for it. None of this was a big problem. They guys were Italian and were quite friendly but there's always an undertone of being ripped off when it comes to these sorts of things. The next issue was to vent through the eaves, the side or the roof. The roof was their last option as it is major work. It turns out my home is so well built with large solid materials every option was a nightmare for them. The eaves were not accessible. The roof would be risky and prone to leaks so they opted for the side of the house. It turns out there was 6" thick support beams... brick and wood siding under aluminium siding plus some other layers he had to drill through in 34 degree heat. The guy was a pool of water in the end. He said he never has seen such a well built house anywhere he's worked. He didn't even have the drill to really penetrate the wall in order to vent out the piping.

In the end though I wasn't really all that happy. They broke my dimmer switch and I opted to have them install a regular one in it's place. I'll get a new dimmer myself along the lines of all the others. I love a dimmer in the bathroom... especially at night when it helps cut the shock of facing bright lights coming out of the dark and a deep sleep. Then both around the switches, outlets and around the fan they made the hole in the plaster (yes plaster) too big and it shows in both locations even after the plate was put on. I'm going to have to build that up to hide it later when I repaint the room. So their work was a bit sloppy and I'm out a dimmer and had to still pay for more parts. The guy apologized though for breaking the dimmer which at least was nice. He was mad at himself for doing it.

This evening I just stepped out into the heavy heat and humidity... It felt good to get away from my laptop... working from home is nice since there is no drive to and from work but hell it's distracting with all the beautifuil sunshine, the backyard, the TV and fridge all way too close. I did sit there for 8 hours and only at the end did I start to give up as the connection speed made any really serious work kinda difficult.. so I drifted to the Internet for a bit around 4pm.. Oh well..

The heat though has it's effects.. look at these Cardinals who seem to be enjoying themselves a lot more than me this evening LOL...

Pretty colours on the male....

The news is full of things that make you scratch your head these days. Al Quaeda is threatening the US and the UK again. I guess this signals a warning of major attacks to come. Not a good sign. You have to wonder how they can sleep at night... then again I ask the same question about George Bush. The Space shuttle has been repaired with a space walk and this evening the last of the known threats to the craft have been given the ok by NASA so it should return without incident. The Canadian built robot arm did wonders... Video game developers are at it again. Recently it was a hidden sex sequence that could be unlocked if someone found the key to activating it in a program sold to young people. Now it's a game aimed at mimicking the London bombings and 9/11. We have weird priorities in this world. We freak out over any thing sexual and accept violence and theft without much after thought. Seems to me kids will grow up and have sex but they hopefully are not going to grow up and blow people's heads and limbs off and steal cars and rampage through villages. We ought to have our priorities straightened out. Gas is up to $1.06 a litre! Egads.... I need to ride my bike more...

I guess that's it. Back to the regular routine tomorrow.

Air France A340 Crashes in Toronto

2005-08-02T19:16:00.000-04:00

It's the only news in Canada this evening. An Air France A340-300 en route from Paris to Toronto touched down at Pearson Airport in a raging thunder and lightening storm and skidded off the runway and ended up in a ravine in two pieces. Fire broke out as over 300 people evacuated the jet successfully and climbed up the ravine and walked out onto the airport ground and the 401 highway. Amazing....

So it's a good news story actually... tragic in that people were probably scared to death at the moment it happened but knowing it all ended in the loss on one aircraft and nothing else was a relief for everyone especially the passengers and flight crew. It could have been so much worse. When I first saw the pictures of the wreckage burning on CNN I was sure there would be deaths. In fact I listened to live radio reports all the way home from work and people were then discussing the remote possibility of survivors so the image I had in my head was of carnage. Thank God the media was wrong. They run with whatever they can get their hands on when they are live and so often totally miss the truth.

For instance in the very beginning people were reporting the plane to be a Westjet 737. Then once it was established to be an Air France A340 the plane's size and passenger capacity went all across the board from 200 to 400 people. Reporters first started saying wind shear brought it down. Then someone said it was struck by lightening because the plane "lost power" just before touchdown. The lights went out apparently which isn't all that uncommon actually. Others said there was no lightening. Then one passenger said the plane made a sudden drop and fell hard onto the runway. This was followed up by someone claiming the plane came in too high. This was followed up with the plane was landing too fast. Another said the landing itself was quite normal if not smooth. One even said passengers broke out and applauded on touchdown. Another said they thought the plane blew its tires so lost braking power. An early report had an engine falling off. Fire supposedly broke out before hitting the ravine. Speculation led to the plane being low on fuel therefore forced to land. One guy had the plane skidding on the "driveway"... Ok they were emotional and I guess were talking out of sheer adrenalin. It must have been horrific.

I've run scenarios like this through my mind several times especially when I fly. I've seen the emergency instructions so often I can almost get up and perform the instructions myself so I listen only out of one ear when they are presented. One thing I always do though is count the number of seats away from the nearest exit I am in case I have to get off crawling on the floor in thick smoke. It never hurts to have a sense of perspective of the exit from your seat. Normally though I'm not sitting around thinking anything like this would really happen. All reports have said that passengers were expecting a normal landing in rain and were not prepared for anything unusual before hand. That's a bit creepy actually to have a placid normal experience suddenly turn into one of your worst nightmares. Now though their most pressing issue will be to see if any of their luggage survived. What an arrival into Canada.. imagine if their passports also were left on the plane.. you enter a foreign land by simply walking onto a highway with literally the clothes on your back. I hope the airline, authorities and local people take good care of the visitors who are now stuck in this situation. I'm sure they will.

So it looks like we should all applaud the cabin crew for getting everyone out with relative safety. Only 17 people had minor injuries. It will be interesting to see the investigation and what comes out of it. Lots of questions will be asked. Why was the airport opened when the weather conditions were so bad? Did ATC do something wrong in their procedures in helping land this plane? Why did the pilots choose to land when there were alternative airports to go to? What exactly happened to the aircraft and what caused it to slip off the runway? Was there wind shear? Did the landing gear wheels blow? Did the engines fail? Did the hydraulics or reverse thrust fail? Was the runway conditions fit for landing? So was there excess water or some debris on it? Was there pilot error? Did the plane get hit by lightening? Was there a maintenance error? Time will tell.

Anyways it captivated everyone for a few hours this evening. I found myself glued to CNN actually. CTV and CBC were ok but CNN of course had the most people on the story and fed into CTV's images and the occasional live report when the story was worth it. It was a repetitious set of video of the plane burning. I was amazed no television crew could get better pictures than what they got. A fuzzy fixed camera from a high position and an unsteady hand held camera from a car... and that was about it looping continually as reporters did voice overs.

I'm anxious to talk to my colleagues tomorrow to see what they saw. Most of them take the 401 past that runway since our office is right near that location. I've taken it myself dozens of times and have landed on that runway about as many times. In fact on my last trip last Thursday that's the runway I took off of. So I'm sure many of them will have driven right past the wreckage this evening. The plane is a write off. Kinda sad seeing the Air France tail surrounded in smoke. A was beautiful plane at the end of its life. It's last flight. Imagine being the passengers waiting for it at the gate for the flight back to Paris... *gulp*... At least though it can be replaced; we can't say that for the passengers. They however all survived :)

A New Planet is Found

2005-08-01T12:26:00.000-04:00

Hey, a once in a lifetime thing has occured here in the early 21st century. It seems astronomers have discovered a 10th planet in out solar system. It orbit is way out beyond Pluto and is apparently half as big as Pluto, the last planet to be discovered back in 1930.

This is not something that happens very often and it gives us living souls the right to put a name to it the rest of mankind will use from here on in. Kinda neat eh? (Canadianism coming through eh...) So what will we name this sucker? Right now it's named Sedna (An Inuit Goddess of the Ocean) or 2003 VB12 but it will likely get an official name sometime soon. I hope nothing too controversial (wish us all good luck on that point)... nothing specificially English or oriented to one language or culture on this planet. Nothing political (Liberty.. Democracy..) or religious (Jesus.. Christ..) or anything that will start some sort of global debate which ultimately will create even more ill will towards Americans who were the founders of the planet. The planetary scientist Californian Michael Brown in fact was the fellow who actually made the discovery.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3511678.stm

It will come down to the International Astronomical Union to make a decision. Probably going in line with the current names based on Roman Gods;

Aesculapius God of Health and Medicine
Apollo God of Sun, Truth, Music, Healing
Aquilo North Wind
Aurora, Mater Matuta Goddess of the Dawn
Auster South Wind
Bacchus, Liber God of the Vine, Wine, Merriment
Bellona Lesser Goddess of War
Ceres Goddess of the Corn, Earth, Harvest
Cupid, Amor God of Love
Diana Goddess of Wild Things, Hunter-in-Chief
Discordia Goddess of Discord
Eurus East Wind
Fauna, Bono Dea Goddess of Fields, "Good Goddess"
Favonius West Wind
Flora Goddess of Flowers
Fortuna Goddess of Fortune
Inuus,Faunus God of Flocks, Sheep
Janus od of good beginnings
Juno Protector of Marriage
Jupiter, Jove Lord of the Sky, Gods, and Thunder,
Juturna Goddess of Springs [Water]
Juventus God of Youth
Libitina Goddess of the Underworld
Lucifer Light-bearer, Star that brings in the day
Lucina Goddess of Childbirth
Luna Goddess of the Moon
Mars God of War
Mercury God of Commerce and Market, Zeus' Messenger
Minerva Goddess of the City, Education/Science, and War
Neptune Ruler of the Sea
Pales Strengthener of Cattle
Persipina, Libera Goddess of Spring [Season], Underworld through Hades
Pluto God of the Underworld and Precious Metals
Pomona & Vertumnus Powers Protecting Orchards and Gardens
Priapus God of Fertility
Saturn Protector of the Sowers and the Seed
Sol God of the Sun
Somnus God of Sleep
Suadela Goddess of Persuasion
Sylvanus Helper of Plowmen and Woodcutters
Terminus Guardian of Boundaries
Trivia Goddess of the Crossways, the Dark Side of the Moon, and Magic
Venus Goddess of Love and Beauty
Vesta Goddess of the Hearth and Home; also Fertility(Greek only)
Victoria Goddess of Victory
Voluptas Goddess of Pleasure
Vulcan, Mulciber God of the Forge and Fire, Workman to the immortals

Lol.. Vulcan is available... not sure which one I'd pick. I actually thought the name Polo after Marco Polo might be good. Someone on CNN thought Apollo but that is a Greek God.. might still be a good one. Regardless of the God the names Aquilo, Ceres, Pales, Sol, Vesta & yes Vulcan sound like planetary names. Libitina might have an edge with an American since it sounds a bit like Libertina or Liberty.

It is kinda important. Look what happened when they namd "America" for the two continents back in the 16th century after their so called discovery. Although Columbus wasn't the first man to land here (Scandinavian Vikings I believe takes that honor after having reached Labrador back in the 1200s) the Spaniards still went with the name of a wife of one of their Kings if I am not incorrect. Americas became the name for North and South America and not Columbus as was originally strived for. Imagine living in North Columbia... and you'd be a Columbian and not an American... the USA would be USC... well not all that bad I guess... but let's hope we get this right this time.

I think I like Aquilo best. It rolls off the tongue, has no really strong relevant meaning, won't insult anyone or be controversial, sounds like a planet (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Nepture, Uranus, Pluto & Aquilo... and would be universally easy to pronounce.

Anyone out there with any other suggestions or perhaps choices from what I mentioned above?

Comments on the News

2005-07-30T17:25:00.000-04:00

What a B-utiful day out there today... 26 degrees.. puffy clouds.. light breeze.. the perfect summer day. I lazed around all morning then had breakfast outside on my deck. I'm slowly getting through my 800 page book... it's a long read but so far not too bad. Mornings like this are perfect for it.

I haven't got much to say really. In the news the only thing of significance is the London Police have captured the four men suspected of trying to set off bombs on the London Transit system earlier this month. This happened after the four that actually went off and killed people two weeks earlier. The police acted fast and got the men in a really short period of time. I swear all the video cameras around London sure helped. We should have more here like that. So kudos to Scotland Yard and the London Police!

The Space Shuttle is in orbit again for the first time since Discovery fell apart on re-entry on the last mission. The news has focused on the launch and bits and pieces of the external fuel tank that fell off on lift off. Just like last time but hopefully not with the same tragic result coming back. Let's face it the Space Shuttle for all its marvelous technology and innovation has been a dud. It was originally designed to lift off once a week and now NASA is lucky if, when it is flying, it goes up once a quarter. I think they need to rethink the whole space objective, get a workable plan, a realistic goal and objective and start fresh. When I was a kid space was the ultimate frontier the possibilities seemed endless. I really expected moon bases, an attempt at landing on Mars and tourists up around Earth by the year 2000... instead it's really gone no where. Worse still the Russians, Chinese, Europeans and Japanese haven't really done anything on their end either other than put the occasional rocket into space. It would seem mankind can't come up with a common goal everyone can strive for in space.

There's another African crisis that's hit the world again. People in Niger are facing starvation and once again we are seeing scenes of fly covered emaciated African children nearing death on our TV screens. Once again the world was notified of the impending crisis and once again the G8 nations of the world ignored it leaving these people to the mercy of their hunger. All this puts the war in Iraq into perspective for me... somehow getting rid of Sadaam and his non-existent weapons of mass destruction was deemed more important than aiding poor Africans who face critical water shortages, disease, famine and death by nature or death by brutal dictatorships. None of which suddenly started the last couple of years... The Western countries of this planet will never see beyond their own interests to really put their help where it's truely needed.

In fact didn't Tony Blair of England recently try to raise funds globally to help get African nations out of their financial debts? When he was doing this Niger never came up? No one thought it might be a good idea to put Niger on the agenda then before people started dieing like they did in Somalia and Ethiopia? Do we have to leave it to the Rock Stars all the time? I have to admit this sort of blindness to humanity makes me angry. Food, water and shelter are basic human needs what better cause for an industrialized nation like those of the G8 to stand up and give genuine assistance? Do they really have to get a financial return in order for them to do it? It would seem so... Iraq has been so much more profitable it would appear. Africa too thoough is a tough sell. People gave en mass to the tsunami victims but the repetitve nature of African atrocities and famines makes people numb to it all. Here's where the generocity of the Muslim world would show the planet their good side. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States are so close to places like Ethopia and Somalia, can't some of their money go into helping the people in their back yard? If it does we don't hear or read about it. Very sad.

Pic of the day.. On my morning walk to get the newspaper.. Sherbrooke Street East.... nothing special but hey better than a blank space.

Past Life Regression

2005-07-29T22:31:00.000-04:00

The CBC tonight ran a documentary/investigative show on past lives. I have to admit it was rather interesting. A woman in Ontario was put under hypnosis and went back through six lives her subconscious revealed to her. Of course no one knows if it's true but you can't help but be intrigued. She claimed under hypnosis she lived in Africa, Russia, Germany and other parts of the world.

The female investigator picked one of the lives, as a male farmer named Karl who lived outside of Hamburg in the 1830s and went back to the area where she claimed she lived. She found a church and various things that came up in the hypnotic regression, flew the Canadian women over to the location and went through it all with her. The subject was highly emotional. The hypnosis data was vague and general in many instances, probably nothing to really take too seriously but still enough to make it interesting.

I have no clue if any of this could be true but it would be interesting to think we can come back and live other lives in the future. I've always felt that it would take several lives and the experiences in those lives to broaden and develope our individual souls. It would also give us reason to work towards building a better future in our current lives so we can benefit from it in our next lifetime... so giving purpose to humanity's constant drive to develop, build, explore and invent. It can explain why we are so driven even if in the end we all know we will die. Yes most people do it for their children's future but perhaps subconsciously we do it for ourselves as well. It would also clarify why some people come to Earth for very short periods of time and die young. Perhaps it was a mini project in between major lives.

If I look at my own life there are things that I've been fascinated with for no explainable reason. Aviation is one. No one in my family is an aviator or any sort.. past or present. I've loved planes from the beginning and was perhaps stimulated by a flight to London England when I was two years old. In fact I'm fascinated by anything in the sky as I'm always looking upwards when I'm outside. I've been fascinated by African and Egyptian cultures as well as two periods in British History, the 19th century and Tudor England back in the 16th century. Each one being a preoccupation of mine at different times in my life. Arab, Asian and South American cultures seem much more "foreign" and distant to me. Black/American/African culture though seems to dominate now and I am strangely drawn to it but cannot say why. I also felt when in Athens a strange connection there too.. perhaps that was just a tourist thing but the sense of returning home ran through my mind several times and most strongly when I was at the Theatre of Dyonisus at the base of the Acropolis.

Personally I'd love to undergo one of those hypnotic regressions just to see what comes out. I've heard stories of people under hypnosis in these events suddenly speaking foreign languages they never spoke before... naming things and places or events that later were confirmed. Was it just part of things we already knew but forgotten or were they really things embedded in our eternal memories? Like they said at the end of the show, maybe it's just the thought of this possibly being real but the knowledge that we will never be able to confirm if that makes it all so appealing to us. Like UFOs, Ghosts, the Paranormal and other things or events like out of body and near death experiences that intrigue us and capture our imagination.

Life today is sometimes way too mechanical and scientific. Everything is somehow explainable. When I heard medical researchers claiming that certain electrodes stimulate certain parts of the brain to define and create people's feeling of love I thought about how robotic-like we may really be in the end. It all comes down to neurons, brain cells and genetic manipulation and whatever else that can be manipulated here and there to create whatever type of person you want or don't want. It begs us to ask if we are really individuals by self creation or by some explainable predefined genetic makeup that defines us and which can be completely reprogrammed to make us totally different. Are the Picasso's, Einstein's, Shakespear's, Galileo's, da Vinci's, Marco Polo's, Edison's, Wright Brothers, even Hitler's, Bin Laden's and other famous or infamous people through time really special or did they just have lucky or unlucky "wiring" in their genetic makeup? Perhaps manipulation of that will lead to the cybernetic person of the future. ...to the so called perfect human being. Meanwhile past life regression just seems so magical and unexplainable therefore fascinating... at least until someone comes along and spoils it all for us.

Trip Report: Montreal-Toronto-Montreal

2005-07-28T22:34:00.000-04:00

Back from Toronto. No pics though, I didn't bring my camera. It was a half day business trip and I didn't want to be lugging it around with me along with my laptop. Good thing I didn't actually, it wasn't all that hot but it was humid and I was sweaty uncomfortable at the airports and it would have been a burden to carry.

My flights were as follows;
YUL-YYZ AC 101 A321 Seat 29A C-GJWI Gate10
YYZ-YUL AC424 767-300ER Seat 30K C-FCAG Gate 124

My A321 was scheduled to leave at 10am. I wanted a later flight so I'd arrive in Toronto around 11-Noon... this way the two salesmen I'd have to train would have their morning free to do their work undisturbed and there would be pressure on them to stick with me in the afternoon knowing my time was limited. It seemed to work at least in James' case. Sean got preoccupied with some deliveries later in the afternoon but essentially I got done what I had to get done.

Anyways, the day was absolutely beautiful for flying. My morning flight out was pretty packed, I'm guessing 75%. I never saw so many A321s in Montreal before in my life... seemed like they were everywhere. Normally this is a rare plane in the city. Security went smooth... Gate 10 was full but quiet. I took a seat facing outside. Boarding went smoothly. We lifted off of 24L and headed out to Toronto following north of the St Lawrence River. We leveled off quite low... I'm guessing somewhere between 15 and 20,000' then shot up to 30,000'+ but that took forever to get to. Landing in Toronto was a very long process. We had to make one giant circle to delay our now already late arrival. Touchdown was smooth. I was out of the terminal around 11:45am.

The only planes of significance at YYZ this morning was a Korean Air 747-400. I noticed a lot of Asians on our plane. The flight was continuing on to Vancouver so I guess many people were heading out across the Pacific. The two fellas next to me had a ticket to Tokyo in fact. Again the Asian presence in Montreal seems to be rising each year. Interesting. I'd love to go over there some day.

We arrived at Toronto's new Terminal One. It was quite open and airy as usual but I hardly took notice of it as I headed out for a taxi. My Punjabi cab driver gave me a confused look when I told him the address in the Industrial Park so I directed him. I made a joke about all the recent shootings in Toronto but he just stayed silent... not sure if he misunderstood me or his reaction was something else. I just shut up in case he took it the wrong way. $34 bucks and 20 minutes later I was there at work.

It's always good to be in the office in Toronto. They are a great gang. This time in summer mode half the staff was there and the manager was on vacation so it was very relaxed. Linda is still off recovering from her mini stroke. Corey, Paul, Dave, Lori & Drew were all there looking good. I met Franca for the first time... a real sweetheart :) In the warehouse a few new people. Ian was his grumpy self.. Rob is always a pleasure to talk to. I met Kim who was rougher around the edges than I expected but still very nice. Chad, the guy at the counter is a little hottie LOL.. seriously... and Tony, the older Indian guy who's been there for ages and is like a rock in that company was his usual polite friendly self. I really like him a lot, it's very quiet and does his work without complaining and gives 110%. I mean ya gotta love a guy from India named Tony.

Anyways before we headed out to Boston Pizza where I treated the guys Gina showed up! She quit about two or maybe three years ago. This chic is something else. A little tiny hefty Italian ball of dynamite LOL!! Seriously. The things that happened to her in her life (her son in a serious car accidents, a War of the Roses divorce... being thrown in jail for battering her ex, trying to steal a huge contract from the company, law suits at her and from her and calling Ward at his home to bitch about someone else being fired who later turned around and abandoned her) matched the number of swear words that came out of her mouth on a hourly basis.... but still she's full of love, always hugging and kissing and gets so excited to see people it can only make you break out in the biggest smile. She didn't disappoint as she practically flew across the room so shocked to see me... grabbed me and gave be the biggest kiss. It was kinda cool to see her. She has more personality than everyone else in that company combined and many of them are full of interesting stories in themselves.

One other interesting thing, Lori and Franca also were really pleased to see me too for some reason. I guess because I'm always friendly on the phone with them... asking how they are and joking around before going on to other people I need to talk to. It was the first time I've ever met Franca and she is even prettier than I thought she'd be so that's cool. Lori though was amazed how much weight I lost!? News to me... I dunno but she claims I'm a lot thinner than the last time I met her. It might be true, I could have lost some weight since I haven't weighed myself in, uh... ...several years... (there must be a phobia for this fear... :) Anyways she won my heart right away LOL... Humm... she must want something from me? :)

James, Sean and I got down to work after lunch and we hacked out all sorts of issues, consulted some of our colleagues in the US... and fired off e-mails to Europe for some needed changes to the label program. I hope it all works out. It was pretty productive and they both seemed happy I came and spent time with them. It was a good learning experience for me too. It's so important to understand what's happening with the end user and the customer. Sometimes we lose sight of that.

Returning to Montreal went well but Toronto is so big and busy it's a hassle moving about. The office is located at the end of the North runway along Derry road but it still takes about 35 minutes to go all away around it to the Terminal for James to drop me off. With no luggage the kiosk spitted out my boarding pass.... er, boarding paper now (which I don't really like since it's so flimsy and could easily tear or get wet compared to the stiffer paper ones in Montreal). I went through security. and found gate 124 quickly. I was hungry so tried to find a restaurant to eat at. There was some bar/café thing that was small and packed with no tables available so I walked over to the other pier where I found a cafe that sold grilled sandwiches. I ordered a roast beef sandwich and a Latté. The sandwich tasted awful and left a bad taste in my mouth. Terminal One really has no where decent to eat.

Lots of interesting planes this afternoon there though. British Airways, KLM (New colours) and Lufthansa's 747-400s were all there. Austrian's A343 was at the mid field terminal while Air France's A343 was at terminal 3. LOT sent in their Star Alliance 767. I saw Jazz's green CRJ-705, Finnair's 757 and SATA's A310. Air India's new 777 was parked at Terminal 3 but best of all Air Canada's Free Spirit 767 pulled up next to our 767 as we were pulling back and I got my first really good look at. It has a huge eagle painted the whole length of the fuselage in a native Indian artistic style. It's really nice and there is only one plane in all of Air Canada's fleet painted like that. It was then I was really disappointed I didn't bring my camera; it would have been a beautiful set of shots. Oh well.

Take off was noisy as always on 767s. It was an ex-Canadian 767 still with CP's seats. Mine was broken, as we climbed my seat kept reclining and I had to press the arm button to bring it up... I had to do it over seven times on the climb out of Toronto. I later reported it to the flight attendant so it would be fixed. The pilot said we'd cruise at 33,000' but I swear if we ever got above 15,000' I'd be surprised. We leveled off low and headed straight towards a bank of clouds just past Lake Ontario a we were heading up the St Lawrence, the flight crew raised the wing flaps and the plane dipped under them which was kinda cool but made for a rough portion of the flight. We never climbed after than instead flew at an altitude I'd expect in a Beech 1900D or Dash-8. I kinda liked it because I could spot all sorts of things on the ground and actually see cars and trucks driving on the 401, something you never normally see from much higher altitudes. Plus with the sun setting the shadows on the ground were quite striking and the scenery very pretty. I love looking out of aircraft windows. It always amazes me how fast the trip is to Montreal from Toronto. Once past Lake Ontario it's almost over.

Service was pretty good. A mostly French Canadian cabin crew. I only had water... they don't offer you anything but pretzels or something to buy and it's rarely anything worth buying mind you the food at the terminal was so lousy it couldn't be any worse and perhaps might have taken the bad taste out of my mouth.

We made a nice fly by of Montreal's airport. I saw half the gates at the new International Jetty were occupied...Air France's 747-400 & British Airways 777 was in and a strange large plane was parked at the Aeroquay... I couldn't make out what it was. We flew eastward, turned around over Les Galeries d'Anjou and headed back to what I thought would be 24R but instead we landed on 24L. Touchdown was smooth. The strange plane was a Corsair 747-400 in Blue Tui colours... nice, my first spotting of the Tui 747!!.. so lots of firsts... Air India's 777, Korean Air's 744, LOT's Star Alliance 767, the CRJ-705, Finnair's 757 and I think even Austrian's A340-300 which I have not seen in Montreal yet.

I was out and on my way home in about 20 minutes. So all in all a good trip. I'm relaxing now and perhaps should eat something to get this taste out of my mouth that's still bugging me. Back to work tomorrow as usual.

Cité Divers 2005

2005-07-26T21:39:00.000-04:00

First day back at work yesterday, yeah vacation is over... it went well. Traffic is practically non-existant because the last two weeks of July is known as the construction workers vacation period... so all construction workers in the city are sent off on vacation with skeleton staff on sites around the province. Add to this Bombardier is off until August so I had time to catch up on a stack of e-mails.

The only thing of significance is I have to make a quick half day trip to Toronto on Thursday to go over label processes for a couple of the salespeople there. It's long overdue and I thought I'd do this while Bombardier is off and things are slow. I'm flying out on Air Canada (A321 & 767).

Last night Clem, Pascal & I headed down to the Gay Pride Parade which is an annual event here in Montreal. Normally it is held at the end of Gay Pride week and on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. This time some brilliant person decided to hold it Monday night instead. I've never been to one before and have resisted mainly because I tend to see it as the annual event for straight press/media/photographers to get their yearly supply of flaming gay men, drag queens, leathermen and whatever other gay stereotype you can fill the heterosexual world with. Nothing like feeding stereotypes into the minds of those who are looking exactly for that.

To sum it up... I wouldn't have wanted to come from out of town to see this. It was ok but hardly big league. Anyways.. some pics. Those without a flash actually have a surrealistic air to them... I kinda like them more now that I see them, graininess and all.

A pretty good turnout;

It started off with a small rock band

Then the Drag Queens and Lesbians

I kinda like this shot.. someone else's flash but hey it made for an interesting pic

Beefcake & a Queen...

The first flatbed.. this group was somewhat subdued

Finally... some ethnicity..

ok, first good costume if not the best..

Some of the participants

Air Canada's contribution (gotta love Smart Cars)

It got a little bit more elaborate but not much more than this.. I was expecting a whole lot more.

Leather bears perhaps?

ok this is scary...

The former mayor of Montreal, Pierre Bourke

Lesbians

A Drag Queen in one of the best costumes of the night

Sexe dans la Cité... kinda cute... probably the best seats in the parade..

This was nice

Sports minded? I'm not so sure... I think they're just happy to be wearing the white shorts...

Uh....? Yeah, ok...

More men

Ok the CIBC had simple float but it had the most energetic people of everyone... this crowd was really into it

maybe too into it...

anyways... I left through the Village... nice effect on this club..

My Uncle in England

2005-07-23T22:29:00.000-04:00

I called my Uncle Bill in England this afternoon. He's the uncle who lost his wife (my aunt obviously) a couple of weeks ago. I thought I'd give it a try even though Pat told me he was very hard of hearing. I was expecting an old man in his mid to late 80s to answer with a frail voice and a lot of requests to repeat myself... well.. it was anything but. :)

He sounded strong and clear and confident. He had no trouble hearing me and was a pleasure to talk to. In fact he said he tried to get a hold of me several times but turned out he was dialing one number in my telephone number wrong. He was worried something had happened to me. I really am bad at keeping in touch with people, it's one of my weak points and not one I really do intentionally.

Anyways the funeral went well, they had a gathering at the little church opposite his old House where I stayed several times as a kid. All the family gathered and he said it was so nice to see everyone and hear how well they were all doing. It's the first time in years they've all been together. He also went into detail about my Aunt's Alzheimer's.. how she was tested and how they got her medication right at the beginning so fast enough to prevent it from worsening. At the end of her life though he said she was really gone and was not responding to the medication (for her Pancreatitis). In other words she was ready to go.

Saw the first rainbow in Montreal in years tonight as I headed out for supper... Perhaps a sign from my Aunt and Parents above that everything is fine LOL... well.. ok kinda sappy but I'd still like to think that.

Plane Spotting & New Glasses

2005-07-21T21:09:00.000-04:00

I phone the optician this morning to see if my new glasses were ready. They were so I headed down to Rockland to pick them. I have to say I'm pretty pleases with them. They have a top rim and are more rectangular. They also have the Transition lenses that darken in the sun which so far I have to say I love!. I went outside to the car and immediately they turned into sunglasses... since I rarely wear sunglasses this is perfect for me. Anything will help. They go back to normal quite fast once you go inside. I can't see them being any good for Sheila though since she like really dark glasses. She's paranoid of everything so UV rays and Glocoma are just sitting there waiting to attack her... in the car the tinting wouldn't be enough for her. For me they are perfect :) I'm really pleased.

I then headed out to Fairview Pointe-Claire and mulled around the shopping mall. I bought nothing. I've decided to wait until later... get a list of what I really need and do it slowly over the next few months. I desperately need classic clothing... a leather jacket, good brown shoes, casual black shoes, a Polo shirt or two, a quality T-Shirt or two, more pants... things that don't go out of style next season.

From there I went over to the airport to do some more spotting. Mark suggested getting together but never said what time or where so I took a chance he might show up... but he didn't. He probably went this evening but I was pretty tired and had seen several new things so left pretty satisfied. Youri dropped by and so did Vince, two guys from the YULAviation board. Both are them were really nice to talk to.

Since I've posted a lot of pics of the same planes I'll try and post new ones or variants of ones I've posted before.

Air Labrador's Dash-8 came in. I rarely see this plane. Dash-8s are hardly anything to get excited about but the deep blue colour of their livery is quite stunning.

Now, I saw a United Express Embraer 170 approach the runway but he seemed kinda high. Suddenly he powered up and aborted the landing.... flew over the runway and off to the north..

He came back about 10-15 minutes later and made a successful landing. I don't know what happened or why it was aborted but it was unusual.

Another plane I rarely see landing... Air Transat's massive A330-300

Air France sent in it's 777-300, one of three daily flights from Paris for the French National Airline.

Mexicana flew in this tiny A318... a very rare plane in this corner of the world. Kinda cute actually and in new colours.

The Czech nation airline Czech Airlines's A310 landed from Prague;

My favorite, Swiss Air Lines' A330-200 came in from Zurich;

Air Canada's Star Alliance 767-300 arrived from Frankfurt. It's another rare spotting for me;

Another favorite, KLM's MD11 arrived from Amsterdam Schiphol;

Now the highlight of the afternoon... Corsair's 747-300 came in from Paris. Over 500 passengers on this plane, a charter flight. It would later fly back to Paris via Moncton New Brunswick of all places. Nice plane though, 747s are increasingly rare.

Several Air Transat A310s landed... this one as the Mexicana A318 was leaving for Mexico City. It had a very short turn around;

All in all pretty good. Sata also had an A310 that headed back to Portugal when I arrived and Miami Air flew in a 737, both planes left from 24L so my pics were not very clear. This summer has been quite active with lots of flights and very few lulls in arrivals or departures. The airport must be having an excellent year. It sure works well for us spotters

Being a tourist in Montreal

2005-07-20T19:23:00.000-04:00

Ok, it was blistering hot and humid outside. I said I would take one day and go downtown and be a tourist in my own city just to get out of the house and enjoy doing something different on my vacation. So I did it.

For starters when I got to the subway booth to buy tickets the operator was coming back from the little Metro store, saw me, asked if I had correct change and when I confirmed this he let me go on for free..........! Cool... Beats me but he must have been in a good mood or liked my face.

I have to admit I did the traditional tourist run.... there are so many other parts of the city worth visiting (Mont-Royal/Le Plateau, rue St-Laurent, rue St-Denis, rue Crescent, Mont Royal itself, Outremont, Westmount, the Lachine Canal, Ste-Anne de Bellvue, along Riviere des Prairies, Ile Notre Dame & Ile Ste-Helene... but what I photographed here would be what a tourist coming for a day or two would see.. the highlights of the main parts of the city.

Basically I went to McGill station and onwards into Eaton Centre, up to McGill University, down to Peel & Ste-Catherine... across Dorchester Square to PVM, up to deMaisonneuve Square, down to Victoria Square where I had lunch.... over to the new Cité International.. further on into Chinatown then south to Old Montreal where I finished out the day... here it is in picture format with comments...

...starting with my free ride drop off at the McGill Metro station. I see they've installed huge video display panels showing live advertising. Like we don't have enough advertising in our lives... This station is one of the busiest but it could do with a make over.

Eaton Centre was quite busy, THe sun filtered in from the skylight giving it a morning air feeling. I looked at some shirts at Old River but in the end bought nothing but water. For some reason I saw a lot of Asian tourists... seems like a theme with me lately. I wonder if Montreal is finally getting recognized in that part of the world. Beats me why they go to some cities in North America, ours can beat out most of them as far a I'm concerned.

McGill College Avenue hasn't changed all that much. It still looks in pretty good shape. SOme new outdoor cafés though have added to the ambiance. Most are on the east side which I've never seen there before.

McGill's Roddick Gates still are impressive. An interesting thing about these gates is that they were originally designed to be outward facing but the people who constructed them put them in backwards...

This statue of James McGill is new. It was never there when I was attending McGill. Quite nice actually. The campus still looks like a peaceful haven in hte heart of the city. I loved it then and I still love it today. The walk up the main road brought back memories and I found it very calming and relaxing.

These kids were just tooo cute... Future students I suppose.

The main Arts Building

...and the impressive view of upper Montreal's downtown core.

OK, here's one of the reasons why I took the Metro and not my car... and one of the main reasons why I hate driving downtown. Throw in a weekly festival with streets blocked off... idiot drivers, crazed double parking trucks and cars and forget it... the city is impossible to navigate without getting frustrated.

The restaurant Clem, Pascal & I ate at last Sunday after seen Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

Peel & Ste-Catherine, the unofficial heart of the city. I have to admit the sidewalks and roads are a mess in Montreal. They are all crumbling. Trees with dangerous holes around their base. Sidewalks cracked up with concrete coming up ready to trip an unsuspecting pedestrian.. they are a mess.

Dorchester Square looked a little better than usual although this is such a well travelled park in the centre of the city it's impossible to keep clean and unspoiled. There was some event with a band there but I didn't stop to watch or listen.

Some of the builidngs around this and Dominion Square across the street.

The Paramount Theatre where Clem, Pascal & I saw Star Wars on Sunday. Arguably the best theatre in the city... many levels, an IMAX and al sorts of amazing things to do in there.

McGill College Avenue & Ste-Catherine (Place Montreal Trust);

...as seen from the Plaza at Place Ville Marie

THe PVM Plaza itself - After all these years I finally noticed the statue in the middle is a "whale woman" for lack of a better term... a fish with brests or a woman with fins...

Place Ville Marie itself

This is cool... the reflection of on of the newer skyscrapers in another buildings facade.

This is the actual building is called Les Promenades de la Cathedral. There's an entire shopping complex underground... beneith both buildings and connects to the two (unseen) buildings to the east and west of it.

One of the city's main shopping stores... Les Ailes de la Mode

I think this is St James church but don't quote me.

Nice architecture on the front. They seemed to have cleaned it up nicely

DeMaisonneuve Square was a mess of people. Another square over run by humanity. The poor guy sits on his pedistel and gets shitted on my every pidgeon in the city

The Montreal Symphony Orchestra workers were on strike and protesting at the square as well... so I was bombarded with leaflets and so forth.... striking musicians;

Heading down Beaver Hall Hill... a traditional information post but one on steroids...

The IBM building looming far away... the tallest building in the city;

Victoria Square has changed so much since I used to work in this area. It's now really beaufitul.

I stopped off at Victoire Hot Dog for a couple of Montreal Steamies and greasy French Fries.. this little nothing place was here ages ago and the same Greek family still is there running it just like before. This is the exact restaurant Dan Akroyd go his inspiration for the famous Cheeseburg/Pepsi restaurant skit they did on Saturday Night LIve way back when... they still bark out questioning you if you want a Cheesburg or Pepsi..LOL. Lots of character in here and the steamies and fries are the best.

Place Victoria loomed overhead;

...and lots of people were in the park taking in the beautiful weather.

I then headed into the all new Cité International which is really impressive/

A beautoful square with this nice fountain fills what was just landfill a while back.

The new extension of the Palais des Congres is colouful... not everyone likes it. I think it's ok.. better to have colour than everything steel grey or black.

Chinatown beckoned me... they were having a street festival.

not sure what this is for;

Next I headed into Vieux Montréal

Notre Dame Church was the centre of activity as always

The BAnk of Montreal building is one of the most beautiful buildings in the area actually. I'd recommend anyone to go inside and see the beautiful architecture and high ceilings.. but outside the stonework is actually quite amazing. I never really noticed before so I took these pics.

An amazing clock on the east side of the square;

Lots of Caleche riders around.. didn't see many carrying people though. Perhaps it's too hot and I'm sure too hot for the horses.

City Hall looked impressive

The main square, Place Jacques Cartier wasn't as busy as usual but still was quite active.

The old Sailer's Church always looks nice from this view

This restaurant has a date of 1725 on the outside...

One of the outdoor terasses in the main square. I've been here.. high prices, average food.

Looking up from the bottom of the square

Some more terasses

Rue St-Paul, the main street through Old Montreal

Les Deux Pierrots is a well known club in Montreal

More terasses

A well know prestigeous restaurant Vieux St-Gabriel

Humm... interesting

Down into the old Port area

Looking back up at Notre Dame church.. a contrast in architecture and years

This is in the heart of a region of 3.5 million people?

More kids LOL

Ok not California but it is getting better and the boats a bit bigger...

Bonsecours Market

The Sailer's Church from behind;

The Jacques Cartier Bridge & Clock Tower

The main square again

Ok is this a georgeous woman or what??

I noticed this on Nelson's Column and thought it was well done

The fountain outside City Hall

The view of downtown from Old Montreal

Some city governmnet building

Champs-de-Mars Metro station

The newer trains on the Orange Line

The original trians on the Green Line

All in all a nice day. I was pretty tired when I got back... relaxing now

One Nite in Mongkok

2005-07-19T19:30:00.000-04:00

This morning the clouds threatened heavy rain but it never came. I took Sheila's dad over to the funeral home. He's getting on in years and Sheila was worried about him driving on the Met at his age. The drivers here in Montreal are Neanderthals at best and he would be meat in no time... anyhow it all went smooth. I came back and picked up some groceries and headed out after lunch.

Eyvind and I set out for the Fantasia 2005 Film Festival to see the Hong Kong thriller One Nite in Mongkok. http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews/one_nite_in_mongkok.htm This is the Hong Kong Film Festival's award winner and I have to say it was a gritty, dirty, exciting fast paced movie. All or most of it took place at night over three days. A series of gang deaths sets off a revenge spree and the Hong Kong police were caught in the middle trying to track down a hired assassin from the Chinese countryside. It was in Cantonese with English subtitles so it was a bit hard to follow as the subtitles were sometimes faster than I could read.

Basically the cinematography was excellent. The gritty setting of Hong Kong and specifically the sprawling inner city of Mongkok was perfect for the setting. The contrasts presented were quite stark and some funny. Man versus machine or more specifically man vs technology... logic vs emotion, 21st century consumer society vs Chinese rural life... everything contrasted. The assasin was very uneducated, couldn't read or write, was focused entirely on finding his sister, seriously able to defend himself and was the only person in the entire movie that showed any deep emotion. The rest were like robots to some degree. The dialogue was weak at many points. Too simplistic and unnatural. I'm not sure if that's a translation problem or if that's really the way Cantonese translates directly. Somehow I didn't see the characters in the movie matching what they were saying at times. It got too sappy on occasion and just didn't fit the type of characters they were. The open scene of the initial gang clash though was the most intense and really set the mood. It made you swallow and grip your chair. Quite a fast agressive start actually.

Lastly the film was a real downer at the end (warning...spoiler coming...) pretty much everyone shows their warts and most of the main characters die violent deaths. The police come across as corrupt and those who remained alive, especially the female lead, never built up enough character appreciation to really care if they lived or not. Also, as commonly seen in Japanese movies, the over use of blood really came out at the end. It was a bit disgusting.

Even though I pointed out a whole lot of negative things the film was still quite good. The story was even throughout. Although I never really found anyone I was rooting for it still was exciting and fast paced. Not for the faint of heart though.

Anyhow after the film ended we headed over to Mesa 14, a Mexican restaurant just outside the Concordia University theatre and had a beer and some nachos. The food was better than normal. The heat outside though was overwhelming.... it soaks the life out of you. I can't stand the high humidity.

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

2005-07-17T23:50:00.000-04:00

Clem, Pascal & I headed downtown to the Paramount Theatre to see Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. This film was absolutely outstanding, amazing, incredible, awsome and more... I was hooked from the first few seconds and it never let me go to the very end. I can't think of a movie that has ever entertained me more. There was nonstop action, a complex story that brought all the other Star Wars films to a conclusion or at least it was the final gap filling in the Star Wars storyline since it ends where the very first Star Wars movie takes off. The special effects were so believeable and over the top it just left me breathless. Clem and Pascal too came out praising it the rest of the evening. We absolutely loved it... and seeing it in the Paramount on that huge screen just made the whole experience all the better. I felt like I left Earth for a few hours and just lived inside my imagination.

We had supper out at a restaurant L'Entrecote Saint-Jean on deMaisonneuve and Peel. It was a genuine European French restaurant with snotty waitresses, a decent wine list and good food. I have to say my steak was outstanding but not two inches thick and bloating like most North American steak houses. This was decisively French but in the best of French tradition (minus the snotty waitress). We talked about the London Bombings and the stupid right wing mood in the US and how it's affecting everyone... got our anger out at the terrorists though. Like most Canadians (or at least Eastern Canadians) we are for the fight against terrorism, for the supression of the Taliban in Afghanistan and wholeheartedly against what happened in Iraq. I think this is what most of the world feels except for 51% of Americans.

I actually got a free parking space on Metcalf downtown. What's up with that? I never find parking downtown except in parking lots... must be my lucky day. I should have bought a lottery ticket :)

Anyways, my vacation continues tomorrow. I'm mulling over the idea of going to Quebec City on Wednesday or Thursday just for the day. It's been a while and it's such a beautiful city it's worth the three hour drive. I'm heading out with Eyvind on Tuesday to the Fantasia Film festival to see a Hong Kong movie called One Night in Mongkok. It took top honors at the Hong Kong film festival. It's in Cantonese with English subtitles. Should be good. Also there's the Just for Laughs festival. I might head down tomorrow if the weather is good... just to bum around the main site and see what's going on. There's always crazy stuff happening on the street. They often film the Just for Laugh Gags segments there. I've seen these on KLM flights, those silent jokes they play on everyday people. Some are really very funny. It's universal comedy. Speaking of which I watched Charlie Chaplin's film Modern Times on DVD this afternoon... what a blast, another great movie... from Modern Times to Star Wars Revenge of the Sith... a massive gap in years, technology and Hollywood evolution yet both were equally riviting in their own way and totally entertaining. Nice to know some things never change.

Vietnam vs Thailand & Camera Settings

2005-07-16T17:34:00.000-04:00

Another beautiful day here in Montreal. I love summer. Last night was the perfect night... probably around 23 or 24 degrees, a light wind. Sheila & I went to L'Escale du Saigon for Vietnamese on Laurier only to discover the restaurant is now a Thai restaurant called Phayathai. We were not really surprised. Each time we went to L'Escale du Saigon it was empty. Both of us a kinda scratching our heads as to why: it wasn't overly expensive, it's on a busy street with lots of sidewalk traffic, in an area of town where people would likely eat out, Vietnamese is a well known cuisine in Montreal, the owner had a similar and successful restaurant in Paris... yet it never caught on for some reason. Last night the food was excellent also. I had Paenang Curry Chicken and man was it ever full of flavor. I loved it. The place has an open wall in summer to form a pseudo-terasse. It's right on the sidewalk. Again though we watched all sorts of people come by, check the menu and walk on. This new restaurant had an enormous selection of even more resonably priced meals... weird. I don't quite get it. Thai too is a well known cuisine in Montreal. Perhaps it's just that neighbourhood that has a particular taste for certain types of foods and Asian just isn't one of them. I hope this place stays, I'd go back in an instant.

Anyhow, I was a lzy guy all day today. I did nothing but read, go on the Internet, clean up a small mess outside, read some more, slept outside on my lawn chain and finally got to my camera book instructions to try and resolve what should have been a simple problem I was having with my camera. The problem? Well.. I had the right side of the focus area defaulted instead of the centre. Even when changed to Single focal area mode it still stayed to the right. I tried everything in the settings to make it the centre but could not find a way to individually move the primary focus point around any of the five possible selections. It was driving me nuts. When I was plane spotting I always had to focus on the right side and hold my shutter button down to lock in the plane and take the shot. When the plane got very close it often refocused as I repressed the shutter and sure enough several good shots came out out of focus because the camera focus was defaulting to blue sky on the right of the aircraft and not the plane itself. It's been like this for over two trips through Europe and one to the USA. Anyways after about an hour of sifting through the Nikon booklet I finally figured it out. There's a lock on the focal settings I never knew of. Once it's unlocked I have a rotation button on the back of the camera to select what part of my viewing screen I want as the default primary focal area. I reset it to the centre then relock it. I must have played with the lock feature and button at some point an unknowingly reset the focus area.

Oh well, I tested out the camera some more.. high speed shots, strong contrasts etc.. again more boring flowers and ordinary stuff but the results are good. This camera never ceases to amaze me especially with the night shots... anyways.. out to supper again tonight.

My water sprinkler taken at high speed;

Some deep contrasts...

Just some colouring I like off my Canadian sugar maple tree..

Ward's Retirement BBQ Party

2005-07-15T18:06:00.000-04:00

My former boss left for retirement back in January if I recall correctly. At least it was the beginning of the year. It was all rather sudden as some strategic employees moves were made and he was offered a golden handshake and accepted. Anyways we always said we'd get him a gift and do a retirement party for him later in the year when the weather was better. Well it was around 30 degrees and perfect sunshine this Friday at noon... everything was in place and we had our company BBQ for him. I said I'd go up and join them during my vacation and I'm glad I did, it was a lot of fun. Julia came in from Vancouver and Marty from Grand Rapids and most of the regular gang was there with a couple of exceptions where people were away on vacation. Chantale couldn't make it but sent an e-mail wishing Ward the best of luck which was really nice of her.

Anyways here's the pics with some comments

We had it outside where we have a small patio for people to eat out during the summer. The company also provides a BBQ for anyone wanting to cook something for lunch which is rather nice.

André, Sophie & Stephane

Bernard & Jacques from purchasing, Martine & Amélie from Administration

Three of the guys from the warehouse

Precillia looking pretty cool

Gaston and his two cuties.

Julia having a good time

Gaston again... this guy is 45 but has a body of a 20 year old.. amazing actually.. if only I could work out like him.

A general shot of everyone

Carmn, Precillia, André, Stephane & Melanie

The Three Babes...LOL Julia, Dorit (Ward's Wife - not sure of the spelling) and Jeannette

Gift Time.. Ward is the fella with the white hair of course

Gaston. Frantz, Bernard & Sophie taking in the event

Out President for North America, Marty looking on

Ward

..and his wife

The big present;

Ernie & Carmen looking on

Same for Francois & Jeannette

Martine & Precillia

Francois & Sylvain

Jean

The unveiling

It was a nice wine cooler

He seemed to genuinely like it.

After the Party I went down to Rockland and took the plunge and bought new glasses. The insurance will pay $200 but I got Gucci frames so it came to $549 so I really pay $349 which isn't all that bad. I took the Transition lenses, the ones that will turn dark when in sunlight and have UV protection... so let's hope they'll be ok. I have to say they looked pretty good on me. The salesman was really good.. knew exactly what to say and really sold them to me. There was another pair he and I also liked, perhaps a little younger/funkier but with the Transition lenses I thought the fact the lenses were smaller might negate the purpose of them being both sunglasses and regular glasses. I would have liked to have bought but anyway. They will be ready next Friday. They are rimmed glasses as opposed to rimless ones I have now. My current ones are ok except I find them too light actually. They aften flip off me.

Some bad news came out of the party unfortunately. Linda in our Toronto branch had a small stroke at the start of the week. She went blind temporarily! Imagine. Her eyesight came back and she went to the emergency in Toronto where she underwent a whole battery of tests. In the end they diagnosed her with TCI. Not sure what it stands for but the bottom line is she's lucky to be alive and not have any side effects from what happened to her. Apparently smoking, stress and other things brings this on. She said she had dizziness and numbness (in her arm) over the past little while but never connected any dots until this happened. More reason to watch what your body is telling you. Glad she's ok. I spoke with her this afternoon and she sounded fine.

New Water tank, Air France aborted landing

2005-07-14T17:23:00.000-04:00

Well the plumber from Home Depot came as scheduled... around 1:30 he and his assistant showed up to take out the old water heater. Up until now I was getting about 5 minutes of hot water in the shower. The old one, below, was nine years old so it was due to be replaced.

The new one is a 60 gallon so a little bigger. He told me I had to have an electrician rewire it and fix up the circuit breaker. Nothing major but right now it doesn't conform to standards. It might trip the circuit breaker if it isn't corrected, that's all. I'm quite happy now... longer showers and instant hot water yahoo! LOL

Took some more pics of the flowers in the garden. They are looking pretty cool now that it's mid July..

My grasses are doing well too.. last year this baby hardly grew... now it's almost as tall as me.

I like these two shots because the sun played well with the colours... nice contrasts making them a little artistic

Lastly I did some plane spotting from my back yard. An Air France Triple Sever flew by and I took a few shots noting some nice flaring off the wings

Suddenly five or twn minutes later it came back but this time from the south. IT had gone around the city, apparently aborting the original landing because it overshot the runway... so here it was right over head.. quite a site at this level... what a long plane the 777-300ER is.

Some other European arrivals;

Czech Airlines from Prague... their A310 heading to 24R

Hey, Swiss' HB-IQK, the A330-200 I flew on to Zurich came in next

KLM send in a 747-400 today to Montreal... nice site

I also spotted Corsair's 747-300 but didn't get a pic of it. Sheila's dad dropped by as he was curious to see the new water heater. He seemed quite impressed. One thing I didn't like though was I spent $40 to have the guys take the old one away... they just took it upstairs and left it outside on my front walkway for the city to take away... boxes an all.. not what I was expecting. Anyhow, we sat down and had a beer and soaked up the sun and shot the breeze. He is an amazing guy for someone in his 80s. I gave him my mother's old walker now that he has some hip problems bothering him. I was joking I was saving it for him but he said he'd take it now so that's great, I'm sure it will help him.

Tonight I'm suppose to head out for supper with Clem and Pascal. So far I haven't heard from Clem but usually it's a late supper. I still have the Syropwaffellens from Amsterdam to give to him. I also bought him a bottle opener from Switzerland but it dawned on me who used bottle openers anymore.. I'll see if he wants it, somehow I think it will be a relec from the past very soon LOL.

Bathroom renovation - finally

2005-07-13T14:45:00.000-04:00

This morning I checked on expedia.ca for some last minute vacation deals. I looked at Lisbon, Athens, Casablanca, Cairo, Barcelona, Paris, Barbados, Guadeloupe, Nairobi, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore.... not that I really expected to find much in those further off places, only hoping there might be some outstanding land deal out there... Well there wasn't. The package deals ranged from $2300 to $6000+ averaging around $5200 per week. I love to travel but it's so much more appealing when the company is paying for it LOL.. If I am going to spend that amount of money there are better things that I can do with it I'm afraid. Perhaps I could look into something for later in the year when prices drop. Barbados was a good indicator for me since I've been there many times. The average price of a week's package seems to be $1000 to $1500 higher than what it was when I was going there in the past. That's quite a hike even if it is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to.

Anyways, instead I shopped around Les Galeries d'Anjou, picked up some socks and tried on some summer shirts. Jeannette keeps telling me I need to get something more colouful and free. I saw a cool shirt that was beige with crimson red and navy flowers with some paisleys in it.. with a red T it looked nice but I really questioned if I would wear it. I swear if I heard one bad comment and I'd never put it on again. There was also a really nice balck and white small check shirt but I have no casual black shoes just dress ones... so I'd have to get the shoes too. What a pain... but I'll think about them and still look around.

Stopped off at Home Depot after that and made some decisions. I ordered the ceiling fan installation for my bathroom. Then I went and ordered a new hot water tank for the house. The water tank will be done tomorrow and the ceiling fan probably after the two week construction workers holiday... one of those Quebec traditions where everyone leaves the Province the last two weeks of July. The hot water tank is something I really need though. Right now an element is burned in my current one and I only get about 5 minutes of hot water at any given time. It's been like that since about 2000 so it's due even if I can live with it. Plus I ordered a 60 gallon tank to replace the 40 gallon one I have. Better for anyone who might move in here after me. So that's my big home purchases for this summer. Once in I'll repaint the bathroom and get a new shower spray and perhaps a new sink... just to finish it all off.

For my pic, so far I've taken nothing but I'll put in this photo of one of my garden plants I posted on my other blog. I kinda like this picture for some reason. Looks like an artificial Christmas tree actually...

Start of Vacation & a death in the family

2005-07-11T10:38:00.000-04:00

Man, felt good to get up around 9am this morning. Not sure what I'll do on this vacation. I've kinda got it in my head to catch up on things I've left for too long. Things like cleaning up the basement, some gardening, getting some excercise... also I'll try and head downtown for a day one day. Mark wants me to go planespotting with him on Tuesday when a real variety of planes and airlines come into Montreal. I'm thinking about going to Mont Tremblant for a day too, just to get out of the city. Perhaps Quebec City a city which is really beautiful actually.

Next week..humm.. I have it in my head to go to a travel agent this week to see if there are any last minute deals to someplace. I've always wanted to go to Spain, Portugal or Morocco. I'll bet there are good deals to Cuba and Florida now that Dennis has wiped them clean :(.. same for London after the terrorist attacks. But then again it would be neat to go to some place exotic like Africa but...$$ I guess and I'd probably need all sorts of medical shots. Egypt perhaps to see the pyramids. Wish I was loaded with money.. oh well, Quebec City would be nice. I do have a ton of Aeroplan (Air Canada) points so theoretically I could fly to anywhere in their network.. but now at peak summer time it would be a miracle if I could work something out. I Don't need an expensive fancy hotel so long as I'm in a nice place to tour around.

Anyone out there with any non-traditional suggestions?

I just got a call from my cousin Pat in England. My aunt Rene passed away last Friday. My father was from London and he had several brothers and sisters. His brother Bill married Rene 64 years ago. Imagine. She was 83 and died of pancreatitis. She also had alzhimer's apparently although that was the first I had heard of that. I'm not really in touch with my family in the UK. My first line aunts and uncles were the ones I was closest to. Most have passed on now. Their offspring, my second cousins I suppose you call them, I don't know very well. Pat, my cousin who called me is Rene's daughter and the one person I stayed with on my last trip to London about 5 years ago. I guess she is the only one I really speak to. I tried calling my Aunt Becky, my father's sister, the only other sibling still living, had a 20 minute conversation with her before I realized she had no clue who she was talking to... I kinda gave up after that although looking back now it was kinda funny.

Anyways, Rene was a character... short and shall we say larger than life and full of fun and energy. I remember her coming to Montreal and going to some exhibit on Ile Notre Dame.. we stayed very later and had to leave after the parc had closed. We climbed over a fence and she got stuck... she sat there and laughed and laughed until someone could finally get her down. Her laugh and good nature is what I'll always remember about her. My uncle Bill will miss her a whole lot. She had a long and good life and Pat says she died peacefully at a time she chose. It's amazing when people face death how they wait to the right moment to let go.

One other thing, Pat went into detail about about the bombings in London. I was concerned about them and ironically I was going to call to see if everyone was ok. I checked a London website this morning just to see the list of names of the missing in case I recognized anyone but given a lot of the women in my family there may have married I still wasn't too sure everyone was fine. Anyways they are although my cousin Yvonne still lives in East end London and works in the financial district ironically in a building near the Algate Underground, one of the stations that had a bombing.. so she was in the middle of it but wasn't affected. Apparently she also works for a taxi company and said that they worked a 10 hour shift trying to get everyone back home since the transit system shut down. The double deckker bus that exploded did so right in the heart of a Middle Eastern neighbourhood full of Muslims... so that's interesting. If it was caused by Al Qaeda or Muslim terrorists why would it explode in the heart of a Muslim district? This story might have a more interesting conclusion than what most people think. She also said the tunnel holding the last train rescue workers are still trying to get to is the deepest of the entire London underground and is below two other levels of track. Engineers are trying to prop up the tunnel for support to prevent further collapse. It's a really awful situation.

More Planespotting

2005-07-10T23:17:00.000-04:00

Another weekend.. Sunday this time and Jordan suggested we go plane spotting once again. I am on vacation and everything can be pushed aside for now so I jumped on it.. well with a small job to do with Sheila first.. Sergio took some convincing but eventually he came around and joined us :).

First off Sheila & I got her two sectional sofa from the basement and lugged them upstairs. She's found a school in our neighbourhood that takes furniture for the poor and for AA people so we thought we'd bring it over to them. We lugged it into her SUV sweating and gasping for water in the heat... drove over only to find it was closed. We then decided to leave it outside on her driveway and lug it over tomorrow... sure enough under two hours someone came along and took both of them...LOL..

Anyways like last weekend I met Jordan & Sergio at the MacDonald's on Cote Vertu and headed out to runway 24R and then later on along Chemin St-Francois where we met up with Ian, the moderator of the YULAviation board. It deteriorated to such an extent one of the members is threatening a lawsuit for defamation by another member. That member was kicked off and all the threads locked down. However.. since the guy threatening the lawsuit never reveraled his full name I don't see how he can do that... and hey, it's an aviation discussion board people should know when to stop arguing if they see it's going no where.

Anyways, here's the pics from today's outing...

Swiss' A330-200 again

Air France only sent in a 777-200 this time

US Arrways 737 from Philadelphia

Northwest's DC-9-50 close up

...and touchdown

Air TRansat's A330-200 in old colours

Air Canada's 767

KLM's MD-11 in old colours arriving from Schiphol Amsterdam

Jordan spotting at our end of runway location

Humm.. Jazz has a CRJ in Star Alliance colours :)

Air Canada's 767-300

Landing...

An old 727-100 from First Air coming in from the Arctic

A nice Green Jazz CRJ-200

Delta's Comair CRJ from Cincinnati

Mor new colours for Air Canada

American Eagle's CRJ-700

And American's 737-800

Another Air Canada 767-300 touching down from Chemin St-Francois' perspective

Westjet's 737-700

A summer sight.. Thomas Cook's beautiful 757 coming in from London or Manchester

American's MD-80

A cutie.. a Jaz Dash-8-100

Air France's 747-400 came in from Paris

...with St-Joseph's Oratory on the mountain in the background

This old dog stopped by and rested near us.. another cutie but had a bad leg and couldn't walk very well. Poor thing. He seemed very gentle.

Afterwards we headed out to Baton Rouge for supper. I had ribs which were delich... and then a wild ride home on the Met driving into what looked like a looming thunderstorm... I could hear thunder and Jordan told me later he saw some wicked lightening... hope things don't flood again..

Anyways.. until tomorrow... when I can get up at 10am or....whenever :)

Fridge magnets & sleep

2005-07-09T19:08:00.000-04:00

Last night I headed out to Fresco with Sheila for supper. I was in a sleepy mood. I woke up earlier than normal yesterday morning.. around 4am and couldn't go back to sleep. I felt it in my eyes all day but by last night I guess I was tired and exhausted. I guess I really need my two weeks of vacation that starts today afterall... Anyhow the veal was good and Sheila tried to make the conversation interesting but I was only thinking about sleep.

This morning I woke up after a good 8 hours sleep which is remarkable for me... I guess my sun God was watching over me LOL..

It rained all day. The news on TV is still focusing on the terror attacks in London. It's interesting to see the differences and similarities between the US and UK reaction to all this. Shock, fright and determination to go on are a common thread. Anger at people for attacking innocent commuters without warning also. I'm sure there are a lot of people in Madrid who can relate to how people must feel in London these days. There is still a train in one of the tunnels they haven't gotten to yet. CNN though has been it's melodramatic self. Thankfully the British citizens they've shown on TV are realistic and down to earth. I've yet to tune into the BBC for comparison.

The YULAviaiton board I go on alot has been a hotbed of aggression lately. It's an aviation board for God sake yet people act like it's Extreme Fighting Ring. There's a woman on it that's taking on everyone for every comment they make that disagrees with her. Those who make valid points are dismissed by belittling them and trying to make them irrelevant. She's on a right wing war path demanding moral justice for this and that... no comprimise or acceptance of people who aren't like her. Sort of like a Dr. Laura on steroids... What gets me is why people continue to argue after a certain point. It's not like anyone is going to change their views. Aggressive arguing usually just forces people to back up their stand with even more resolve.. not seek out compromise solutions... so in effect it's pointless.

With the rain and dull weather I had nothing to take pics of today... say my moose staring back at me on my fridge and thought I'd introduce him and some other magnets to ya LOL.... so from Whistler BC my snowboarding moose;

From Veradero Cuba, my good luck rooster;

...and from Hollywood California my Grauman's Chinese Theatre replica...

Three of my favorite places I've been to in the Americas.. Vancouver for the beautiful mountains... Cuba for friendly people and California for it's unique cultural style in one of the prettiest settings in the USA.

Anyways... I'm out to Scores tonight just to get out of the house.. tomorrow it should brighten up and I've got my vacation starting...

London Attacks

2005-07-07T21:45:00.000-04:00

I was totally swamped all day today. Lauri kept flooding me e-mail from Bombardier. Nothing too major per mail but enough to keep me at my desk and away from most everything else all day. We are getting a lot done but it is tedious.

I stopped off at Rockland this evening to get my haircut and pick up a new book. I found this mother of a book.. From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present... 802 pages of reading... phew.. it will be work. It covers the development of cultural life of the so called "Western World".. major figures and events in history that have shaped the planet's cultural development. There's enough blurbs on this book to suggest it's pretty good. Sounds like heavy reading but I don't suspect it will be all that bad.

With this and other books I've read I'm trying to strengthen my understanding of history so I can better understand the world today. There are times when I feel like a tiny spec on the planet. I feel so insignificant. I know a lot about many things but I'm an expert in so little and my world is so confined to such a small group of people and way of thinking... I miss school and learning. Life now seems repetitious and empty on this level. At least with this I can better place myself in the world and feel I have a grasp of where it all began with the hopes it will give me a clue where it is all heading... for what purpose I need this I have no real clue other than to give me direction. It's a start anyhow. Most people never even open a book for pleasure these days sadly.

There were some terrible bombings in London this morning. Terrorists attacked the London Underground and some double deckker buses. Awful.. Everyday people were victimized. I have family in London but they live out in the East End or out in the country. I hope they are ok, I presume they are. To my knowledge none of them work in the Financial District where this happened. Yesterday London celebrated winning the 2012 Summer Olympics... today they are mourning an awful murderous attack on the city. CNN is already pointing the finger at Al Qaeda. I have to admit it seems to fit their pattern but nothing has been proven yet. The scenes on TV look horrible.

Anyways.. one more day to go then I'm on vacation!! woo hoo!!.. :). I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do but my alarm clock will be off and my BBQ fixed and I plan on relaxing.

Crunch!

2005-07-06T12:34:00.000-04:00

I went out to Patisserie Bernard to get a baguette jambon & fromage sandwich at lunch. WHen I wrapped up there and walked out I heard the unmistakable sound of metal crunching. Sure enough at the corner where I turn to go back to work, I think it's des Laurentides and Dagenais where the MacDonald's is, two and perhaps three cars were strewn all over the place with glass and metal everywhere.

I'm not sure what happened but a little white Chevy, their smallest model (not sure of the name) had a huge crash mark on the left side. A gold colour Cavelier was up on the median and had knocked over one of thise huge flower pots into the other lane. It was crunched up on it's side and front... and I think a car on the other side got hit too but not sure. The flower pot had spilled all it's contents into the road.. they are huge and heavy so it much have impacted it pretty hard.

No one seemed to be hurt but people were all about looking pretty shook up. Mostly women but some kids bikes to so perhaps they crossed on a red and threw off the driver causing the accident.. dunno but all the cars had major damage. I had to go up and around des Laurentides to get around them. That must be a sickening feeling for the drivers. I remember my accident, where else but on the Met right before the spot where you see the blue car in the photo of the rain. It's frustrating and annoying because it didn't have to happen and of course the follow up with insurance, repairs and the dealers are aggrivating and time consuming. I feel for them but I'll bet it happened over something stupid..

Update... the drive home tonight was sweet... a breeze.. listening to the Black Eyed Peas all the way home. Funky stuff. Here's some pics of nature at it's best..

The Drive Home from Hell

2005-07-05T21:44:00.000-04:00

My day went well even with a million things crossing my desk. I finally ordered the back up unit... almost $9000.. this company has more money than brains me thinks... of course it will come and be installed while I'm on vacation so you can bet I know where I'm going to be one day during my vacation...sigh..

I left work at 5:30pm.. it was very dark outside and was starting to rain. On a normal day it takes me anywhere from 35 to 40 minutes to get home. I arrived at 9:30pm tonight....

For starters I stopped off at Home Depot in Laval to see some of their BBQ's. They had some pretty good ones but I swear most are huge enough to cook food for a small third world nation. It's actually silly... might just as well do it indoors with all the gizmos and attachments most come with. I wanted a simple single gas BBQ... there were a couple by Wrangler but with small propane tanks or in fact they were charcoal or electric grills. I was a bit hesitant... A cool young guy came over to help me out and in the end I just bought a new burner and will try that first before delving into the new world of gas BBQ's. They don't even use lava rocks anymore... Someday I swear contractors will find a way to swing out the kitchen into the garden to cook your food and swing it back into the house when you are done..

When I left Home Depot it really looked threatening outside;

I headed down the A15 in relatively light traffic... the rain really intensified. I even saw a gusher spewing out of a sewer about a meter into the air... weird..

...then around Cote Vertu it came to a halt... and just crawled towards the A40... but crawled in a continuous manner... strange, not the stop and go pattern of cars zippering onto the highway. Gradually it go slower and slower until it stopped. It just stopped for what seemed like forever... but really for about 40 minutes. People were going crazy.

Some guys tried to get ahead by driving up the shoulder past everyone. An 18 wheeler Provigo truck tried to pass everyone on the right and push its way into our lanes... others were jumping the low median to take the westbound lanes... I sat there in the middle of this mess watching everyone try and get out so I advance closer to the A40 but only because cars were somehow leaving the queue... suddenly I saw a car coming right at me... it's front headlights on heading north oin my southbound lane...

Oh man... the rain had poured so heavily it flooded the Met again. The woman from Ontario in the blue car told me the Met was closed due to flooding. The eastbound Met was entirely closed. L'Acadie was again a lake... all cars had to turn around and head back out northward then westward...oyieee... I followed suit and found myself heading out to the west island. I passed ab 18 wheeler in the left lane and the car started to aquaplane at around 100 kph... it scared the shit out of me as I had the median on my left and an 18 wheeler with full water spray on my right and my car not steady on the road... I was fed up and headed to Outback on des Sources and just went there for a beer and supper..

Coming home it was still raining. I wasn't going to go close to any major arteries. I took Gouin all the way to Henri Bourassa. Man beautiful homes on Gouin. It felt like another city... old southern styled homes with huge clasic veranadas... nice vistas of Riviere des Prairies... quite a wealthy area I guess... I felt like a stranger in my own city. Anyways, once onto Henri Bourassa I headed down Pie XI and then to the service road of the met and down Langelier... getting in a 9:30. Despite it all I kept my patience and sense of humor... did the logical thing - get out of it and clear my head and relax... then carry on after the worse was over.

I have no clue how bad it was all over.. if anyone was hurt or any property damage done... the flooding must have been extensive. I called Sheila & Clem to see how they managed. Sheila was on the MEt just before me and before it closed. She said the flood water was rising and it was scaring her how deep it was getting. I think Clem was home but he warned Pascal about it all. It just feels good to not be behind the wheel of my car right now....

Jazz Festival - Montreal

2005-07-04T20:14:00.000-04:00

Last night Clem, Pascal & I went down to the Festival International du Jazz de Montréal. We took in a few free outdoor shows. The organizers shut down four huge streets in the downtown core and make it into a giant perdestrian outdoor Jazz fest... along with many indoor paid concerts. It's always great fun and a good atmosphere and last night didn't disappoint.

We started off with supper at Basha... Arab fare.. very nice actually. Even a gang of young Arab guys next to us gave it all some flavor and atmosphere. Cool language they have actually.

Now, I'm hardly a Jazz officianado of any sorts but I like to listen to Jazz on Couleur Jazz FM and own a few Jazz CD's and probably get more satisfaction from them than most other types of music. I must admit though I really like a broad spectrum of musical styles..

Anyways, we started off at the Complex Desjardin exit to the festivities and caught this three woman act called The Moonlight Girls who kinda reminded me of the Pointer Sisters except they really sang songs from the 30s and 40s so more like The Andrew Sisters. They were good but the other acts we caught were much better.

The initial thrust into the Festival for 2005

Some crowds had started to gather.

We decided to go up onto Place Des Arts terrace to see if we could get a better view. I've been in the centre of the crowd before and it's scary. It can reach 70,000 people when the big show in the middle of the festival is on and once you are in you can't get out... but this was a smaller show.

The fountain was cooling people off as always... looks pretty at dusk..

The show was heating up and people were getting into the groove;

We weren't overly impressed so we decided to walk to the back side of the Festival to see the Blues stage then the Hip Hop stage, passing through all the food and drink areas on the terrace;

On the Blues stage was an incredible guitarist, David Gogo... this guy made his guitar sing like crazy. I've seen some amazing acts here on this stage over the years and this one one of the best. The crowd was going nuts. We were all glued to the stage.

At 10pm we headed over to the Hip Hop stage to catch a techno band. Humm.. jazz and techno fused.. interesting. Montreal's Jazz fest is a mix of everything. The performers were a three man band from Brooklyn New York called Tortured Soul. The beat was rhythmic and repetitious. The drummer amazing... he was so into his music... his head throbbing back and forth. The sound was mesmerizing and the crowd just grew with the beat. Everyone was dancing at the end.

They wrapped up around 11:30 after two encores and a sales pitch to buy their CD's and T-s. We headed back to the main stage on Ste-Catherine Street where we came out. The Moonlight Girls were performing still but the crowd was larger and more sensual by now. Jazz just goes with nightime.

Anyways.. after a beer or two we split up and I headed home.. had to be up around 6am and it was already 00:30.. the crowds were still pretty thick and music was playing everywhere. I'll be back later in the week to catch some more.

Planespotting mania

2005-07-03T17:03:00.000-04:00

It felt like the perfect summer day yesterday. Not too hot, not too cool.. I only had a handful of small domestic crises and plane spotting was on the agenda for the afternoon...

I was nearing the end of my book The Third Translation so I got wrapped up in it all morning... so much for solving the BBQ crisis, cutting the grass, fixing the clothesline and what ever else was going to break down, need attention or give me heartaches for the weekend. The book by the way is a strange one... it's not really mass market reading although to some extent I guess it's riding on the coat tails of The Da Vinci Code even if it's nothing like it... just the whole concept of cracking an ancient code is enough to sell it. The main character in the story seemed illogical to me. If he spent half his time trying to see his situation in a realistic clear headed manner instead of getting stoned and drunk half the time I think he'd have had a lot less problems. Perhaps it says something about the author, I don't know... but nevertheless I did finish it off and it was satisfying even if nothing really tied itself up in the end. A reverse criticism of how I felt about The Da Vincic Code where everything tied itself up too neatly... life isn't like either of these books. Still it was different and worth the read... but back to non-fiction for now.

Anyways, by 2:30 I was on the Met heading for a MacDonald's in Cote Vertu, a part of town I go to rarely so I wasn't sure where it was located. On my way up it dawned on me I had no clue where the Cote Vertu Metro station was beyond being on Cote Vertu somewhere and quickly grabbed my car map searching for and a way to get to it.. With a few wrong turns and a detour I finally found it, picked up Sergio and Jordan and headed off to the end of YUL's runway 24R where we could do our thing.. we plane spotters are a unique group of peope... nerdish for sure.. obsessed also.. and the most bizzare things can set our moods into a rollercoaster ride. I sometime question if we are fully human...

Anyways, for those of you out there that love planes.... here ya go.. I'll start with the props and regional jets and build up to the good stuff...

American Eagles is sending it's ATR-72s back to Montreal. I think it's coming in from Boston.

ASA flyes CRJ-200s for Delta on the Atlanta run

Continental Express sends in these ERJ-145s from Cleveland under the Expressjet name

Air Canada's CRJ-200s are slowly being shifted over to the Jazz brand.

Comair's CRJ coming in from Cincinnati for Delta.

US Airways CRJ200 arriving from Philadelphia

American Eagle sends in these new CRJ700s from Chicago O'Hare

Air Canada Jazz now operates CRJ200s out of Montreal.. nice in these colours

Air Air Canada transitions to it's new livery many planes are in this hybrid mode.. old colours on the fuselage and new colours on the tail like on this A320.

Northwest is one of the last airlines using DC-9s which are now near 30-40 years old. THis one is coming in from either Detroit or Minneapolis.

Here is a fully painted A320 in Air Canada's new colours. It's often referred to as a breathmint or a toothpaste tube given the blue green "polar ice" colours. I personally don't like it.

American Airlines sends in their MD-80s from Dallas Ft.Worth.

Cubana Airlines leases out planes with other airlines. This TACA A320 is operating for Cubana on the Havana-Montreal run or perhaps Varadero-Montreal.

A Westjet 737-700 with winglets

An Air Canada A319 in the old colours.. tail looks kinda faded.

A Westjet 737-700 without winglets.

Humm.... looks familiar...:) Swiss's A330-200 HB-IQA, their first A330. Like the one I just flew on last week. Cool to know exactly where this plane originated.

This has got to be the most graceful aircraft flying today.. looks like a giant bird landing with it's wings outstretched and wheels looking to grab the ground.. simply amazing..

Corsair is a French Charter Airline... this A330-200 is coming in from Paris.

One of my favorite planes and one I've flown very often.. KLM's MD-11. An older aircraft but powerful and beautiful especially in these colours. I've flown everyone of KLM's MD-11s as I go to the Netherlands for work quite often.

Here's an Air Canada 767-300 in new colours. The colour itself isn't awful but there's just way too much of it. They should have broken it up with a darker green or blue somehow.. perhaps painted the engines the darker colour. Also the tail design is sharp up close but from a distance it looks like a cloud hangs over the Maple Leaf.. kinda sad really.

Now here's the same plane but the -200 model in their old colours. Kinda plain but I think better. The tail was dark I agree and the fuselage too white. Anyways, nothing's perfect I guess.

Air Transat flies charters and some scheduled flights from Montreal to Europe and the Caribbean. This A310 was probably coming in from France somewhere. They fly to about 6 or 7 cities in France. The A310 isn't really a popular plane but I kinda like it.. a stubby widebody.

Still the Queen of the skies, this 747-400 flies faily to Paris from Montreal for Air France. It's the only airline sending in 747s now although KLM does on occasion and I believe Corsair will too. I've flown this plane as well.. 747s feel so right in flight.. big, huge, smooth.. I luv em.. it's a shame Air Canada has gotten rid of theirs.

In 2007 Air France will send it's double deckker A380 to Montreal... so that will be a site to see when it happens. For now they have 3 daily flights in the summer, 777-300s, 747-400s and I believe wither a second 777 or an A340. AF tends to change it's aircraft on the YUL route quite often with the 747 being the only one that's consistently in here.

Zoom is based in Ottawa... flies YUL-CDG with this 767-300. Nice colours.. I can take this more easily for some reason. Perhaps the white logo breaks it up more or the colour is more appealing. I believe they also fly to Gatwick in London from here too.

Lufthansa is flying to Munich from Montreal... summertime only though with this A340-300. Another graceful bird.. basically a 4-engined version of the A330. Technically it's got a reputation for being a "slow climber". Watch an MD-11 soar up into the air and this baby here will take twice as long and half the angle... it struggles to get in the air or so it would seem. Still though it looks good in LH's colours.

Olympic coming in from Athens.... lucky people heading back :) They also use the A340-300. Unfortunately OA isn't in the best financial situation so no one is sure how longthey will last flying inter-continental flights. I hope they survive and keep fling here, they seem to do well out of Montreal... been flying here for decades.

Lastly Air Canaada's A330-300.. the stretched version of the Swiss A330 I took last week. They use it to fly to Paris and Toronto.. this is likely coming in from Toronto for the outbound Paris flight that left later in the evening.

Afterwards we headed out to Ste-Anne de Bellevue and took a walk along the boardwalk and then ate supper at the Thai restaurant where Clem & I went a week or two ago. The food was ok this time but not outstanding. The waitress seemed underpressure and hurried. We were desperate for water and I think Sergio had a headache brought on my hunger as it was around 8:00 now.

The walk along the boardwalk was nice. Many people were out for the Canada Day weekend. People was dancing on their boats, all the restaurants were full... lots of activity. It felt like we were out of the city.. it's just such a shame the railway bridge goes by it all.. kinda ruins the atmosphere when a train rumbles through. Still though it was fun. It was the first time for Jordan and Sergio and I think they liked it. We saw a few good looking students as it is a college town... anyways, here's some pics of the area;

I kinda like this pic, the town is very picturesque.. very 1930's...

THis is kinda the main drag.. many restaurants on the left side with the boardwalk on the other side.

The Thai Restaurant we went to;

J & S up against the fence at 24R;

It's a long way from that restaurant in Amsterdam to here.....

Of all things CLem called tonight and wanted to come over for a BBQ..... is that bad timing or what?... I took my BBQ apart but really can't see what caused the flame out. I guess I'll have to buy another one tomorrow at lunch.. I swear it's not two years old yet. I miss it already. ANyways we're either going down to the Jazzfest... which will mean a ton more pics tomorrow or out to Lachine and find a place along the canal to eat.. both good options but I would have loved to have had them over for a grill fest...oh well..

My trip to Amsterdam via Zurich

2005-07-02T09:42:00.000-04:00

I’ve had a chance to rest up and organize my thoughts on this latest trip I’ve taken for work. The Itinerary was as follows;

YUL-ZRH June 25/05 LX87 Swiss A330-200 HB-IQK Seat 37A
ZRH-AMS June 36/05 LX724 Swiss ARJ-100 HB-IXN Seat 18A
AMS-ZRH June 29/05 LX725 Swiss A319 HB-IPV Seat 15A
ZRH-YUL June 29/05 LX86 Swiss A330-200 HB-IQJ Seat 40A

Around 12:45 PM I called a local taxi company to take me to Montreal International Airport for my first leg of the trip to Amsterdam. The dispatcher was quite abrupt so I called on a second company where I met another abrupt person on the other end of the phone. From my experiences the Montreal taxi scene is very rocky… sometimes excellent sometimes an unpleasant uncomfortable experience. In the end though the driver himself was nice and got me to the airport three hours in advance of my flight to Zurich on Swiss Air Lines.

The airport was busy with a lot of Air Transat and Air France passengers mulling around the terminal. Swiss counters were located along the front of the departure level and next to the Air Transat counters where a large number of people heading off to Cuba. The line up at Swiss was only about 5 or 6 people and the counters hadn't opened yet. Once LX personnel arrived the check-in procedure went very smoothly and my seats and boarding passes were processed as planned...also my new frequent flyer points with Swiss were added in. It seems today you have to join everyone's plan or else you find yourself with no choices in the end. It’s become rather meaningless actually.

My colleague joined me about half an hour later and she too went through it all very smoothly. The LX Check in staff was very friendly. I had checked in one very small bag, she had a large suitcase. Knowing that this would be my first time through the new International Jetty I was anxious to go through security and have look around.

The security check went smoothly. There wasn't much of a line up and we were out in no time walking past the now closed up duty free shop. Within a minute we walked into the new International Jetty and a whole new Montreal. First impressions were excellent and though we entered into the blandest antiseptic section which leads you into the gate areas it still looked modern and impressive. To begin with we stopped off at an excellent restaurant where they served pasta to go, unusual pizzas, really innovative wraps and sandwiches.. in short a pretty decent fast food styled sit down restaurant. I chose a small pizza, My colleague also but a more exotic mix of toppings and we settled into a booth that lined windows looking out into the apron. I noticed the old International section of the Aeroquay was being torn down as an Air Canada A320 pulled into the gate next to the restaurant. The past was being removed for good. An amazing site I never thought I'd ever see and done so quickly!

We finished up and headed into the main shopping area of the new Jetty.

It was around 3pm and still pretty quiet. There was no real activity as our A330 would be one of the first planes in although a Czech A310 was parked at one of the gates so was an Air Transat A333 at the very end south side. It was generally quiet.

We started to look in the duty free and bookstore. The atmosphere was pleasant and the selection of goods was decent. The bookstore offered more things of interest to me. I picked up a few magazines and some Sun Chips. Some stores were not opened yet but most were. Business at that hour was slow or non existent.

Our gate was 58 on the south side of the jetty.

Some people had already started to come in but we walked to the very end just to look around. My colleague seemed quite impressed overall. We sat in a couple of the twin chairs facing out at the old hangars so we'd see our plane as it came in. Air Canada sent in a toothpaste 767 which parked itself right at the end north side next to where we were sitting. Another parked on the south side closer to the Custom’s Hall. I've come to the conclusion I don't like their new colours. I'm sick of it already... too baby blue/green for my taste and too much of it.. plus the tail design looks dirty from a distance. You practically have to be boarding it to appreciate its subtleties. I hope it doesn't last long. Air France came in next with a 777-300 so I snapped some pictures of it.

It's hard to take pics from this terminal because the windows slope out, are large and there is lots of sunlight so lots of reflection. At the end it's almost impossible to get a good shot looking north in the afternoon.

The Swiss A330-200 came in shortly after we settled in. It looked spectacular in it's bright red and white livery. In the beginning I was skeptical about this branding but over time it has appealed to me more and more. I was so anxious to get on board and get moving.

HB-IQK was the registration. I was destined for seat 37A at the back of the plane.

The view from our gate was so similar to Schiphol it was amazing. The best part was it felt like a BETTER version of Schiphol.. more modern, more colours, more comfortable seating.. Higher ceilings, larger windows, nice boarding areas... it feels too good to be true. When I think back to cramped seating area at Heathrow and compare it to this nice open space in Montreal it’s a bit like night and day. When the Air Transat A310 pulled out and a KLM MD-11 pulled in next to us I had to take a double take to make sure I was really in Montreal. It all felt right and very good.

Right on schedule, I guess in the usual Swiss way, we started to board our plane. It would be my first experience flying Swiss, my first A330-200 flight and my first time into Zurich Airport or for that matter into Switzerland. We boarded via the second door and were greeted by smiling flight attendants. My first impression of the cabin was positive.. nice dark blue seats, two each on the window sides… roomy and comfortable looking.

I settled into 37A, my colleague was next to me in 37B. I had no cabin luggage to stow in the overhead bins, only my camera and a bag of magazines and a water bottle.

Looking at the cabin more intensely I could see it was quite attractive. Dark blue seats, a beige coloured bulk head and walls that were white with a pinkish colour overlay. Leg room seemed pretty good but the seat pitch felt tight, perhaps as tight as KLM or maybe a little less. KLM seats are quite tight by comparison. Once nice feature was they had lumbar adjustment so you could change the lower back of the seat to fit your body shape. I’ve never seen that before on an airliner, only in cars. The plane looked roomy and airy. Toilets were ahead of us at the bulkhead and none at the rear. The windows were large but not as large as the MD11s. All seats had nice PTVs on their backs... a really great toy to play with throughout the flight. It would be a 7 hour plus flight and we'd arrive around 00:20pm our time or around 6:20 CET. It’s one of the earlier European arrivals out of Montreal so you are not really a mess at that point.

I had posted a message on the board for anyone to take a picture of me leaving the runway and sure enough l-749a who works at YUL said he'd do it. He told me to watch for a Jazz truck to come up and he'd actually take a shot of me looking out the window.. so cool. My colleague thought that was different and quite amazing. Unfortunately though we sat in the plane and roasted. It was well into the 30s and this A330 model had no individual air vents and everyone was boiling hot. We were breaking out into sweat and only after about 20 minutes did they power up and start with the air conditioning which quite frankly made little difference. The Jazz truck eventually appeared and I totally forgot about the heat.. here's him from my perspective taking his pics :):):)

…and his pictures of me staring out the window and the plane taking off;

We started to leave pretty much on time and he followed the plane and managed to get shots of me taking off! Unreal.. Thanks so much Frederic, merci!!;

...cut to inside the plane... now from my seat 37A my perspective… We took off on 24R passing the terminal;

Take off was powerful and steep. The plane seemed to me to be about 95% full. I saw no empty seats but my colleague said there was one or two empty behind us. We both settled into our spots and turned on the PTV's. We began with The Pacifier (Vin Diesel) and then Finding Nemo. Supper was served during the first flic. The devices were easy to operate with a remote control that was lodged in the arm rest. It works much like a TV remote. There were games, a flight path channel, news, audio selections and of course movies.

The movies were excellent! Vin Diesel was amazing and reminded me of a bulked up bald version of Mark.. they have the same eyes and mouth and similar facial expression.. I think they might possibly be related way down the line somewhere...LOL… and Ellen Degenerous playing a supporting role in Finding Nemo was an absolute hoot. The Supper was unbelievably good also. Probably the best or one of the best I've ever had on an airplane. Unfortunately for us being seated at the back we had no selection choices at this point but still I loved everything about the dinner, it was scrumptious. Chicken, potatoes, a nice salad, bread, Swiss cheese and desert with some wine.

Watching two movies takes up 4-5 hours of flights time and because of it the whole trip seemed to fly by. I had no time to sleep and we were hitting England by the time Nemo was found and the credits were rolling. The sun was coming up at 5am... the sunrise was beautiful and I could see lights over Wales. The longest part of the trip was behind us and it felt like we had just left.

By now we had time to evaluate the cabin crews. My colleague was used to flying KLM and only came on Swiss because I was flying them. Their price was almost $1000 cheaper and of course being an airline fanatic I saw this as a big opportunity to try Swiss out. So she agreed but I thought she was doing so with a little reluctance. She would be out of her comfort zone and make everything a comparison to KLM. Perhaps she was a good study for me to observe actually.

At this point in the flight she wasn't too impressed overall. She was annoyed there were no above head air vents and the plane never really cooled off much. The cabin crew was not very friendly or overly helpful. They were also quite old on average seeming a little seasoned. She sensed they just wanted to get it all over with and go home. The Swiss crew just didn't stand out on that level, at least on this outbound flight. Also their dark blue uniforms blend in with the passengers and it was often hard to tell them apart unlike KLM or say Martinair who's bright blue or red uniforms are exactly that and quite striking.

Anyways, in my opinion they were not bad while the whole flight experience for my colleague going over just wasn't anything exceptional. She's also the type of person who goes to the washroom every half hour so they being located in front of us and shared with the forward cabin also was a problem for her as people from the forward cabin also used it so they were occupied a lot. It left her under impressed.

I guess her opinion brought me to a more critical examination but I was generally happy with them although I can't say they were any better than KLM or British Airways. I generally liked the A330 but I would have liked individual air vents as well. They aren't on BA's 777s either by the way.. so a new and unfortunate trend by some carriers for what ever reason. I’d thought had she not been there I’d be praising them much more highly. For me it was a very good experience. Her points were legit but perhaps the things that bothered her were not things I’d hold up as highly important for my flying needs. Give me a modern high tech widebody, an on time departure, a window seat, decent leg room, a pleasant professional cabin environment, a cabin crew that tends to you needs without hovering over you, a functioning PTV, an on time landing and I’m satisfied. Swiss met my needs.

We approached Zurich on time and I anxiously looked out hoping to see the Alps somewhere. I was unfamiliar with Zurich and the surroundings. The mountains are further south actually but probably close enough to get some glimpses of them.. we did but only briefly... Check out the pic below with the Alps barely showing at the bottom and the moon hovering way above.

I love the painted winglets.. the white on red cross is so striking against the deep blue sky.

The surrounding landscape of Zurich is spectacular on it's own right regardless that the larger mountains are further south. The city is located at the end of the Zürichse (Lake of Zurich) and we flew in a circle outside the city to gain some time for ATC and then went around the lake and along the other side for the landing at Kloten.

Downtown;

Touchdown was smooth and we headed for the Intercontinental terminal and gate E22. Zurich Airport is divided up into three areas basically… a isolated Intercontinental terminal (E), an attached European and domestic terminal with two piers. It’s most striking features are hidden in areas you don’t see right away. Terminal E is large, long and is basically a concrete and glass rectangle. Functional but not visually impressive… but more so on the inside.

We pulled up along side Swiss' A330 sister ship A332 HB-IQC

A glass loading bridge was our exit into a cold concrete and steel terminal. We walked to the centre area where we would now grab an internal train and head to the Continental/European terminal A. Our ARJ-100 would be waiting to take us to Amsterdam in an hour. The international presence at ZRH was similar to YUL in the sense of numbers of inter-continental airlines and airport activity. The usuals, at least from my trips were there, Singapore Airlines' 744, a BA A319, and Aeroflot A319, Thai 744 but not much else except a beautiful line up of Swiss tails everywhere... more so than you'd see Air Canada at Montreal but not much more if not less than Toronto. The terminal/train experience felt very "Swiss" like... Tall mountainous ceilings and a concrete cavernous feel at some points. It was quite interesting actually. We headed down long steep escalators to catch the train along with incoming passengers from the Singapore flight. As cool as this is I can imagine it being a serious bottleneck if a lot of flights come in at once... we waited for the second train with this relatively small crowd.. Also if the escalators ever stopped it would be exhausting to climb if people had no other choice. Still though it was all quite impressive and typically Swiss :)

The high tech trains were run on a pully system, I guess on the same principle as those used in the Alps. A set of cables pulling them around between the terminals. My colleague was more impressed than me though.. perhaps a good thing given her criticisms of the cabin crew. LOL I still liked ZRH but overall I thought YUL was much more impressive with it's new Jetty. We clearly match what they offer if not better it. We cleared security again and headed into Terminal A.

Shopping at ZRH was pretty good but we had no time. There were lots of stores, many Chocolate stores and of course Watch stores... prices were in CHF (Swiss Francs)... and everything looked amazing but it was mostly high end and I didn't know the exchange rate. Many of the other stores were familiar higher end brand names we see over here.

We now had to grab a bus to go to our ARJ-100 which was remotely parked. We headed downstairs to a gate at the end of the terminal... where a temporary customs desk was set up to stamp our boarding cards and then go out onto a large wide bus. We were going for a trip around Zurich Airport, how cool was that?! Now I started noticing the local carriers... Helvetic in purple/pink, Edelweiss with a wild flower logo and red and white design.. I’m sure I saw some old Crossair planes, more European carriers and more Swiss aircraft, ARJs, A319s, A320s, A321s, A330s and A340s. They all look so impressive lined up. The Red and White tails are really striking when seen like this. Look below they are only A319s, A320s and A321s yet they stand out with the sun blazing those colours.

Our ARJ-100 HB-IXN was sitting out with several others parked away from the terminal. We boarded via it's own stairs passing those two engines on the upper fuselage wings as we went in. It would be my first ARJ flight too. I’ve always wanted to fly one of these but never had the opportunity. They are kinda cool looking planes with no other types like them really.

My colleague reluctantly put her cabin bag onto the outside rack so as to pick it up when we got off the plane at Schiphol. She fretted about it the rest of the trip. The plane itself was spacious with nice leather seats. Less leg room than on the A330 but I think a wider pitch. In all it was a nice atmosphere and perhaps 55% full. A Dutch football team boarded with big athletic men in their 20s wearing black jerseys with Nederlands written in orange on their backs. The cabin crew was younger and friendlier.

Some planes came by as we waited and then started to head out to the runway. I had a nice view of all the activity even though I was getting sleepy by now.

Take off again was swift and steep and the views impressive;

The moon was still above us and spectacular landscape below us

The Alps were hidden in a haze.. working with this pic I can see them now better than I could live. They are impressive. I was more concerned about my colleague seeing them as I had that beautiful view for two hours when crossing over them en route to Athens last December. They still impressed me now. The more that made her happy the less critical she’d be LOL. It seemed to be working at least for now.

Sleep was now catching up to me. We each ate a chocolatine and I fell asleep for a bit. The flight took about an hour and a half. When I awoke we were over Holland descending into Schiphol;

We landed safely, pulled into gate G2 and out we went. AMS was full of planes from everywhere as usual... much busier than ZRH. My colleague was expecting her bags to be given to her when she walked out the door but the gate agent told her to get it with the regular baggage at the carrousel. Well she fumed at that and wasn't a happy camper until we got to baggage claim and it came out safely. The Swiss experience part one was finished.

The Netherlands
I’ll throw in some of the land portion. One of my European colleagues took us and some of the other participants to the meeting I was attending out on Sunday evening to an old bar in the woods... it must have been from the late 1700s or early 1800s.. quite simple but fascinating. We had a beers or two and some snacks.

Some typical scenes in Tilburg, southern Holland

Some window boxes near by were striking;

After it was all over my colleague and I planned to go into Amsterdam for supper. We took a taxi up to the Ibis Airport Hotel after work. We'd then take the shuttle bus to Schiphol and hop the train into Central Station and grab a bite to eat somewhere near by. The double decker trains below are made by Bombardier actually..

Central Station was a bustle of activity as always. You get thrown full force into Amsterdam's pace of life the minute you get off the train.

It's been a couple of years since I've actually gone into the city itself. We've all seen it so many times now that we don't feel we need to anymore. However it turned out to be a great idea and I was again struck by the beauty of it all once I stepped out into the lively atmosphere around Central Station. A world of exotic people from everywhere on the planet.. good looking young people everywhere from every culture. Languages of all sorts.. very old buildings next to very advanced high tech gadgets, cars, trains and the latest fashions in the stores and on the streets.. Sophisticated, bustling and simply amazing only begin to describe the city and it's pulse.

Ok look at this... typical Amsterdam. A parking lot for bikes.. yes bikes... and each level went on into the horizon forever....amazing eh?!

Our restaurant - excellent home made pasta at this amazing place!

After supper it was 11:30 and the sky was still light.. felt like 8pm in Montreal visually. We walked back to Dam square where I took some pics. This is a famous square from the beginning of the city. The Royal pace sits there but overall it's just a large open central place for shows, displays or whatever else they want to put in there.

Central Station even looked impressive at night;

We headed over to Schiphol at 7am the next morning. The shuttle bus from the Airport Ibis Hotel was crowded. The line up at the LX counter was short but they seemed so unorganized and it took forever to process all of us. Everyone who got to one of the two agents seemed to have a story and needed something special. The business class check in agent just sat there and served no one when she had no people to check in. We were getting impatient because we were going nowhere fast and we wanted to shop dammit LOL...

Once in past security we did a little shopping and eventually headed to G2. The view below is from the restaurant we had breakfast at.

Some spotting pics from AMS. I’ve taken so many over my trips I left disk space for Zurich on this trip.

This time around it was Swiss' A319 that we would board. HB-IPV and seat 15A. My colleague had the middle seat.

Boarding was quick and smooth and we were greeted by friendly staff;

The atmosphere in the cabin was a notch above the ARJ with leather seats as well. I learned they've even upgraded this on some planes.. in my opinion it was already pretty good.. lots of leg room and good seat pitch. Cabin staff was very friendly like they were also on the ARJ flight... better than the overseas flights.

We pulled out and headed to the runway for a smooth takeoff. Check out the overwing loading bridge here;

Although I only got a head shot I saw my first A318.. an Air France model. The view from the plane was typical of Dutch countryside;

Lots of pretty clouds in-flight as we headed over Frankfurt and Stuttgart.

The Swiss countryside is more hilly and colourful.. it came up on us within an hour, a much shorter flight;

The approach was totally different than the A330 approach. I never saw the lake of Zurich this time. We were approaching the airport from the east or west instead if the north like on arrival;

We landed smoothly and slowed to a stop;

An A340 took off next to us as we taxied to our gate.. whizzing by me suddenly and caught me off guard for the photo;

Some other general shots at the airport;

Here was a rare bird these days.. an A300 in Qatar Airways colours no less.. cool, a rare spotting for me.

We pulled into gate A73 and I was ready for another train trip.

My plane was the middle one of the three I believe;

The ZRH terminal now took on a whole different look to me.. I kinda liked it more this time around and so did my colleague.

We took the train over where our plane was sitting at E47. Shopping was good at the Departure level. I picked up a key chain and a bottle opener.. 24 CHF... I have no clue how much I really paid LOL.. They both had Swiss flags on them so small mementos.

So some more general shots from the gate area of Terminal E;

Humm... looks familiar :)

Out plane was already at it's gate. HB-IQJ. Gate E67 was located downstairs in an area like we would find for regional jets in a North American airport except there were full fledge loading bridges to them. Three gates shared the end of the terminal location. Our A332 was there next to an Air Berlin 737 and soon a Royal Jordanian airliner that hadn't arrived. Lots of people were waiting for our flight.. it was another packed flight set to go to Montreal.

The main departure gates inside Terminal E

Downstairs….

Other planes near us included this El Al 737.;

Boarding

The Y cabin in front of us

I sat in 40A this time around.

We waited about 40 minutes on the ground due to heavy air traffic in
France so I Spotted from the window of the plane.

Finally we pulled out and headed to the runway

Emirates A340-500 had arrived. Quite impressive actually.

It was cool seeing Privateair’s 737 Good for the banking crowd I would imagine. I also noticed Balair has changed it's name to Belair.. perhaps due to Swissair's demise and Swiss' emergence.. same company but a slight change in name and look to make it all legitimate.

Take off was very bumpy and we hit a few very deep air pockets that disturbed many of the passengers. The plane shook from side to side and we dipped more than once and deep enough to make even me a little uncomfortable... but it was soon over; The flight crew said nothing, I guess they are used to this when flying near the mountains.

I did manage this cool shot of a couple of wide bodies that passed me earlier readying for take off. The old DC-8 at the top is probably used for emergency procedure practices and/or fire brigade drills.

Supper again was outstanding! .. Really Swiss excels in this.. but again they ran out of choices for us at the back. The F/A gave us each an apple sauce as an extra compensation. The cabin crew on this flight were much better, younger and much more friendly. Even my colleague was happier with them.. plus the plane was cool and comfortable. BA was also like this where the inbound to Montreal was better all around.. I wonder if it's because the cabin crews are heading out so they are psychologically prepared for it whereas when they are coming home to Europe they are tired and just want to get home... plus the night makes if more difficult.. I dunno but we were both much more impressed with the flight coming back to Montreal

I watched Hitch and Be Cool... both were excellent flics.. and perfect for a plane ride. Will Smith is always amazing to me and the plot in Be Cool was really clever. Andre 3000 was a riot and that chair no one could sit it just had me rolling in the aisles.. I love stupid humor sometimes.. When the Be Cool credits rolled the first islands of Labrador were coming into view outside;

We crossed over Sept Iles ( the bay clearly in view) and flew straight down the centre of the St Lawrence river at 12200 meters until it eventually veered off to the north of the plane's routing somewhere just before Quebec City. It was cool to see the two sides of the river even at it's wider points... gradually narrowing all the way. Montreal soon came into view as we crossed over onto the island from the South Shore.

Place Versailles near my home was clearly visible.

We headed over the 40 onto 24R

..and landed smoothly parking on the north side of the new Jetty and pulled into gate 61 alongside an Air France 773.

We took the upper level to the Custom's Hall where it was busy but moving. My colleague remarked on how plain and white it was......(sound familiar?). One of the older passengers tripped while walking out into the "box" to head upstairs... she actually fell sending many of us including me rushing to her aid. She somehow tripped over a small piece of metal stripping on the floor which I really don't know how she managed to even find it let alone trip over it.. she was ok we think but was shocked by the fall.

In a very short time we arrived at the Custom's Hall.. It is so much easier to get to than from the old Aeroquay.. We had a conversation with an ex-Montrealer now living in Charlotte NC who was experiencing the CH for the first time while going through the dizzying paths to the booths. She was impressed. Our bags were waiting for us when we got to carousel 2.. Another big plus for the airport/airline..

So to summarize it all.. the inbound flight was better than the outbound in regards to in-flight service. Food on Swiss was excellent. The European flights had friendlier crews or as good as the inbound 332. I really loved the A332 despite the missing overhead air vents. I think the more traditional design of the ceiling and overhead bins beats the 777's curvy look. The engines were quieter overall compared to BA's big Trents. Swiss' choice of colours and seating was professional and impressive. They are as good as KLM but quite frankly after having flown AF, BA, AC, KL & LX none are exceptional and a cut above the rest.. They all excel in some areas and are weaker in others. It really comes down to what matters most to you. ZRH was a cool airport and the transfers went smoothly. It would be a great airport to go spotting at or near give the numbers of hills around the airport. Lastly the new international Jetty is absolutely amazing from a passenger perspective. Nice open and airy, close to the custom's hall... modern and restful. I loved it and thought it was as good if not better than a typical pier at Schiphol.. it just needs to be bigger and also replicated on the domestic side.

If anyone has made it this far and read the whole thing then good for ya LOL.. and thanks.

The beginning

2005-07-02T00:03:00.000-04:00

Ok here I go... I'm going to post this as a test. I use Xanga.com at the moment but I thought I'd try this site out. I want to post lots of pictures but so far it seems much more difficult here... let me experiement a little and see what happens... stay tuned :)