Thursday 28 February 2013
Sunday 24 February 2013
EIT not much longer...
So I logged in to do another EIT report, thinking that my time at Air Canada would never be approved but got a surprise - it is approved! All that remains is approval of the 6 month report that I completed in August last year!
I'm pretty excited, pretty soon I will be a big boy engineer just like Gwen (except she is a big girl engineer) ;)
I'm looking forward to having my P.Eng certificate signed by the President of APEGM, Dawn Nedohin-Macek.
I'm pretty excited, pretty soon I will be a big boy engineer just like Gwen (except she is a big girl engineer) ;)
I'm looking forward to having my P.Eng certificate signed by the President of APEGM, Dawn Nedohin-Macek.
Saturday 23 February 2013
Snowy Saturday
It's been snowing all morning and afternoon so far. Boy they sure get a lot of snow out here in Montreal. I feel like I should do some more snowboarding, just need to find someone to go with.
Last week was good when Mom, Dad and GWEN came for a visit.
I picked everyone up on Thursday night and made sure that they could see me so I made a sign that said "COOLIDGE". They liked it. I also made a sign for my coworker who was on the same flight to Montreal for work. He liked it too.
After all the bags were picked up, we made our way to my car and loaded it all in. I then took everyone on the arrival to Montreal tour which starts with a drive to the Bombardier plants to show where I work. From there, we drove past the apartment and to the look out on Mount Royal. We stopped up there and looked out over the eastern part of the city and a little bit of downtown. After that, we returned to the apartment and got everyone settled in.
Friday I went to work and everyone else toured around downtown and old Montreal under the terrific direction of Gwen. I came home from work early but then proceeded to work for another hour and half, coordinating travel arrangements for 3 people to come to Quebec City for a meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Friday night we met up with the Kohuts who were in Montreal celebrating the triplets 30th birthday and Auntie Marge's 60th birthday. We went for dinner at Steak Frites. I made reservations because I wasn't sure if a party of 8 would be able to get into a restaurant easily on a Friday night downtown. Good thing I did...
The Kohuts thought we were going to the Steak Frites by their hotel (about a 10 min walk away). They found out at there are 17 Steak Frites in Montreal... That was the wrong one. They found out they were at the wrong location when they said that we had a reservation for Gwen, or Adam, or Coolidge. The restaurant didn't have a reservation under any of those names. Eventually they found out where they had to go and hopped in a cab to get there.
For us, I (thought) I knew where I was going. I did, actually, but the map wasn't very accurate. We walked to the corner of St Laurent and St Paul where the restaurant was marked as being. Well, restaurant is more on St Laurent, south of St Paul. Not at the corner. After 5 mins walking around I called the restaurant and they told me the address. We then found the small side door through which we were to enter. So confusing.
Dinner was good, it was a BYOB meaning you can bring your own beer and wine. We brought two bottles and a case of 6 beers. The Kohuts also brought a bottle of wine. My mom likes how you can buy wine at the grocery store, it is pretty convenient unlike the Kohuts experience to find wine.
After dinner, we went back to the Kohuts hotel for a night cap, our second bottle of wine, and then took the metro home at about midnight. The picture is outside their hotel, on a solid ice bench and table.
Saturday was ski and snowboarding day. We left the apartment at about 7:30 which got us to Mont Tremblant at 9:30. Gwen was coming down with a cold and it was taking full force on Saturday. We ski'd and boarded from about 11 until 3:30 with a lunch break at noon.
I was quite impressed with runs at Tremblant, they are pretty comparable to runs in the Rockies, albeit not as long as the ones at Lake Louise. The one run whee we thought of tracking the distance was over 3 miles long and took us about 18 mins.
The drive home was good, everyone got to experience some light traffic on the Met, we were able to do over 20km/h so that is why it is light. Some days it is 5-10km/h...
For dinner we went to Baton Rouge, similar to Tony Roma's. Gwen was pretty under the weather but was a trooper and made it through. We returned to the apartment and had an early night.
Sunday was another touring day. We went to Schwartz's for some smoked meat. This is THE place for smoked meat in Montreal. After we went for fresh bagels at Fairmount Bagel and then return to the apartment to drop off the car.
Next, we hopped on the metro and went back to Old Montreal for some shopping and wandering around. We grabbed an early supper at La Cage Aux Sports and then made our way back home to watch the jets game.
I had to go to work on Monday so Gwen took everyone else back downtown. I met everyone at the apartment at noon and we went to La Belle Province for lunch. After lunch I dropped mom and dad off at the airport and returned to work to do an inspection.
After the inspection I returned home to a sleeping Gwen and curling on the tv. We made supper and then drove 3 hrs to Quebec City for my meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday.
While I was at meetings, Gwen toured around QC and did some shopping. Tuesday we went out for dinner and drinks with guys from work (2 coworkers from Winnipeg, 2 guys from Tucson and one guy from Montreal).
We made our way back to Montreal Wednesday night amidst the snow and blowing snow. I was happy to pull into the garage at 10:30, it was a tense drive on the 20. Lots of drivers who were not confident in their driving ability, got worse as we got closer to Montreal.
Thursday morning was an early one, dropping Gwen off at the airport at 7am. I got to work early which meant I could leave early, and I did. Left at 4 for a nap and make supper before the jets vs hurricanes.
Geez, busy week now that I look back on it, no wonder I was tired last night... Too bad I couldn't
sleep past 9 am. Oh well, before 11 I had done 4 loads of laundry, drank coffee and ate some breakfast and washed my car. Now, watching the jets game (pic 2) and most likely will have a nap sometime this afternoon.
Hope all is well back home. It is still snowing here...
Last week was good when Mom, Dad and GWEN came for a visit.
I picked everyone up on Thursday night and made sure that they could see me so I made a sign that said "COOLIDGE". They liked it. I also made a sign for my coworker who was on the same flight to Montreal for work. He liked it too.
After all the bags were picked up, we made our way to my car and loaded it all in. I then took everyone on the arrival to Montreal tour which starts with a drive to the Bombardier plants to show where I work. From there, we drove past the apartment and to the look out on Mount Royal. We stopped up there and looked out over the eastern part of the city and a little bit of downtown. After that, we returned to the apartment and got everyone settled in.
Friday I went to work and everyone else toured around downtown and old Montreal under the terrific direction of Gwen. I came home from work early but then proceeded to work for another hour and half, coordinating travel arrangements for 3 people to come to Quebec City for a meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Friday night we met up with the Kohuts who were in Montreal celebrating the triplets 30th birthday and Auntie Marge's 60th birthday. We went for dinner at Steak Frites. I made reservations because I wasn't sure if a party of 8 would be able to get into a restaurant easily on a Friday night downtown. Good thing I did...
The Kohuts thought we were going to the Steak Frites by their hotel (about a 10 min walk away). They found out at there are 17 Steak Frites in Montreal... That was the wrong one. They found out they were at the wrong location when they said that we had a reservation for Gwen, or Adam, or Coolidge. The restaurant didn't have a reservation under any of those names. Eventually they found out where they had to go and hopped in a cab to get there.
For us, I (thought) I knew where I was going. I did, actually, but the map wasn't very accurate. We walked to the corner of St Laurent and St Paul where the restaurant was marked as being. Well, restaurant is more on St Laurent, south of St Paul. Not at the corner. After 5 mins walking around I called the restaurant and they told me the address. We then found the small side door through which we were to enter. So confusing.
Dinner was good, it was a BYOB meaning you can bring your own beer and wine. We brought two bottles and a case of 6 beers. The Kohuts also brought a bottle of wine. My mom likes how you can buy wine at the grocery store, it is pretty convenient unlike the Kohuts experience to find wine.
After dinner, we went back to the Kohuts hotel for a night cap, our second bottle of wine, and then took the metro home at about midnight. The picture is outside their hotel, on a solid ice bench and table.
Saturday was ski and snowboarding day. We left the apartment at about 7:30 which got us to Mont Tremblant at 9:30. Gwen was coming down with a cold and it was taking full force on Saturday. We ski'd and boarded from about 11 until 3:30 with a lunch break at noon.
I was quite impressed with runs at Tremblant, they are pretty comparable to runs in the Rockies, albeit not as long as the ones at Lake Louise. The one run whee we thought of tracking the distance was over 3 miles long and took us about 18 mins.
The drive home was good, everyone got to experience some light traffic on the Met, we were able to do over 20km/h so that is why it is light. Some days it is 5-10km/h...
For dinner we went to Baton Rouge, similar to Tony Roma's. Gwen was pretty under the weather but was a trooper and made it through. We returned to the apartment and had an early night.
Sunday was another touring day. We went to Schwartz's for some smoked meat. This is THE place for smoked meat in Montreal. After we went for fresh bagels at Fairmount Bagel and then return to the apartment to drop off the car.
Next, we hopped on the metro and went back to Old Montreal for some shopping and wandering around. We grabbed an early supper at La Cage Aux Sports and then made our way back home to watch the jets game.
I had to go to work on Monday so Gwen took everyone else back downtown. I met everyone at the apartment at noon and we went to La Belle Province for lunch. After lunch I dropped mom and dad off at the airport and returned to work to do an inspection.
After the inspection I returned home to a sleeping Gwen and curling on the tv. We made supper and then drove 3 hrs to Quebec City for my meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday.
While I was at meetings, Gwen toured around QC and did some shopping. Tuesday we went out for dinner and drinks with guys from work (2 coworkers from Winnipeg, 2 guys from Tucson and one guy from Montreal).
We made our way back to Montreal Wednesday night amidst the snow and blowing snow. I was happy to pull into the garage at 10:30, it was a tense drive on the 20. Lots of drivers who were not confident in their driving ability, got worse as we got closer to Montreal.
Thursday morning was an early one, dropping Gwen off at the airport at 7am. I got to work early which meant I could leave early, and I did. Left at 4 for a nap and make supper before the jets vs hurricanes.
Geez, busy week now that I look back on it, no wonder I was tired last night... Too bad I couldn't
sleep past 9 am. Oh well, before 11 I had done 4 loads of laundry, drank coffee and ate some breakfast and washed my car. Now, watching the jets game (pic 2) and most likely will have a nap sometime this afternoon.
Hope all is well back home. It is still snowing here...
Friday 22 February 2013
I'm back
Wow, has it really been 10 days since my last post? Sorry for the delay folks, I've been busy entertaining guests (including GWEN) and then had a meeting for two days in Quebec City (yes I took GWEN) with me.
I literally just got home from work, had a late inspection today and to complicate things the aircraft was outside doing some tests so I had to wait for the right time to be able to leave the airplane.
I'll blog more about the past weeks events during the weekend.
My plan for the weekend will be to catch up on sleep, do laundry, wash my car and watch the jets game. Should be pretty relaxing.
Oh yeah, I'll talk to GWEN too...
(Ps - GWEN is capitalized because she was upset I didn't mention her in my last post, I only mentioned my parents. Well GWEN, is this better? Lol)
I literally just got home from work, had a late inspection today and to complicate things the aircraft was outside doing some tests so I had to wait for the right time to be able to leave the airplane.
I'll blog more about the past weeks events during the weekend.
My plan for the weekend will be to catch up on sleep, do laundry, wash my car and watch the jets game. Should be pretty relaxing.
Oh yeah, I'll talk to GWEN too...
(Ps - GWEN is capitalized because she was upset I didn't mention her in my last post, I only mentioned my parents. Well GWEN, is this better? Lol)
Tuesday 12 February 2013
Go Jets Go!
I haven't blogged in a while I hope my followers didn't give up hope ;)
This week has been busy, surprise surprise. Got my car fixed today. Turns out my drive axel was causing my clicking sound not the CV joint. With this, an oil change and another small plastic part replacement (was rattling) total bill was still less than $600. Much (much) less than I expected! (Goal Ladd!)
Hockey over the weekend was good. We played three games in total for a charity tournament. We won our two games Friday night which meant we play on Sunday on the outdoor ice. Sunday was a good game. We should have won but lost our momentum between the second and third period. Instead, we lost 8-6 with an empty net goal...
Next game is Monday next week.
This weekend should be busy with mom and dad coming out. We will go for dinner with Auntie Marge and the triplets on Friday night in Old Montreal. Saturday will be skiing and snowboarding at Mont Tremblant. Sunday, no plans yet. Maybe some night skiing if we are up to it. Otherwise probably some more exploring around town.
Well I should get back to the game., having a hard time multi tasking here;)
Lol - the flyers hockey channel which I'm watching online just had a survey question what is the name of the jets mascot. One of the options was Jasper the Jet. Lol
This week has been busy, surprise surprise. Got my car fixed today. Turns out my drive axel was causing my clicking sound not the CV joint. With this, an oil change and another small plastic part replacement (was rattling) total bill was still less than $600. Much (much) less than I expected! (Goal Ladd!)
Hockey over the weekend was good. We played three games in total for a charity tournament. We won our two games Friday night which meant we play on Sunday on the outdoor ice. Sunday was a good game. We should have won but lost our momentum between the second and third period. Instead, we lost 8-6 with an empty net goal...
Next game is Monday next week.
This weekend should be busy with mom and dad coming out. We will go for dinner with Auntie Marge and the triplets on Friday night in Old Montreal. Saturday will be skiing and snowboarding at Mont Tremblant. Sunday, no plans yet. Maybe some night skiing if we are up to it. Otherwise probably some more exploring around town.
Well I should get back to the game., having a hard time multi tasking here;)
Lol - the flyers hockey channel which I'm watching online just had a survey question what is the name of the jets mascot. One of the options was Jasper the Jet. Lol
Friday 8 February 2013
What snow?
Snowed all day today, here's the result.
Gotta take the car to vw on Monday (no not to trade it in) to get the drivers CV joint looked at - making some pretty serious noises when making hard turns to the right.
Gotta take the car to vw on Monday (no not to trade it in) to get the drivers CV joint looked at - making some pretty serious noises when making hard turns to the right.
Monday 4 February 2013
Back to work
Today went relatively well. Other than going through 540 emails this morning (literally all morning) and then trying to pick up the pieces to a few projects that fell apart while I was away, today was ok.
I guess it helps when you get a good night's sleep. Let's go back to Saturday. Time: 10:45pm...
Flight departs Lihue (pronounced "Lih" "hooey") on time. There is no one on the inboard (aisle) seat and Gwen is by the window. A few minutes into the flight we complete our declaration card and start to watch a movie on the iPad. This movie lasts about 20 mins before Gwen is asleep and maybe another 15 before I'm out. We both slept relatively well. Of the 5 hrs flight, I probably got 4 hrs of sleep - not bad for "red-eye" flight.
Arrival in Vancouver at 6am. We clear customs and wait for our bags on the carousel - pretty long wait, must be because of the early timeframe and the rampies not wanting to work that early (or late) in their shift. Oh well, we have time to kill.
Then we have to leave the customs area - this is where it gets interesting. We flew West Jet from Lihue to Vancouver. Gwen, Mel and Devin are flying WJ to Winnipeg; me, I'm flying Air Canada to Montreal (much better travel options from Vancouver). As we go to leave the area, you go to the right for AirCan and left for WJ - I asked an agent what to do as we both are on the same declaration card (for customs) and he said that I would have to go back through security, there is no way as the bag drops require you to hand in your declaration card. DARN!
The WJers go and drop off their bags at the "connections" bag drop for WJ while I leave the customs area and go to "check in" my bags at the check in upstairs in the terminal. After 10 mins walking through the terminal, I get to the check in area and see tons of people. Luckily these people are waiting for self serve kiosks and I was able to go to the baggage drop agent and ask him to print me a bag tag (phew!). I drop off my bag and then make my way through security when, who do I see, the WJ trio! It turns out that the only step that I saved was the bag drop, they still had to go through security (weird because they left a secure area only to have to go through security again, such a waste of time). So it wasn't so bad then.
After I cleared security I met up with the others and we went for breakie. Kind of hard to eat at 7:30am when it feels like 5:30am... We ate and then Gwen and I said goodbye as I made my way to my gate on the other side of the airport.
The flight to Toronto was routine - left almost on time, a few naps, ate a wrap that I pre-purchased and watched a good movie (End of Watch). Arrival in Toronto was slightly ahead of schedule. My seat was by the window, usually I don't elect for this seat as I would prefer to have access to the aisle if I want to go to the lavatory (airplane speak for washroom ;) ) and I don't like being crammed against the sidewall/window and feel like I have to lean into the person beside me. Luckily this flight was on a Big plane (Boeing 777, capacity of maybe 200 passengers) (notice the plane is only Big, not BIG like the A380...)
My time in Toronto was about 1.5 hrs before we had to board. Just enough time to walk the terminal in search of a Starbucks (for Mint Tea) only to learn that it was right by the gate I came through from the Vancouver plane... oh well, I had lots of time to kill and needed to stretch my legs. Departure from Toronto was 6pm (2pm Hawaii time) and got me into Montreal at 7.
In Montreal I picked up my bags (15 mins of waiting) and then grabbed a cab "home". Once "home" it was to the grocery store for me to grab some food for supper and breakfast and lunch the next day. 20 mins I returned "home" with my frozen pizza and not only milk and yogurt for breakfast (options, mmm) but with some veggies for stir fry for supper today (Monday).
With the pizza ready and a cold beer, I started watching the end of the football game only to realize that the third quarter was on hold due to a power outage at the stadium in New Orleans. I watched the third quarter while eating and then laid down to watch the fourth quarter - or so I thought. Completely missed the 4th as I fell asleep, waking up at 11pm to some tv show. Oh well, checked my phone to see who won and then got ready for bed.
Slept AMAZING - woke up only once at 4am for no apparent reason and then back to sleep until 8:00am. I guess this is what happens when you have at most 5 hrs of sleep for two days...
Then, it was back to the grind where my day went ok. I guess it is nice to see that I am needed at work, sometimes too much it seems.
This weeks plan is:
- watch the Jets game tomorrow (GO JETS GO)
- entertain two Transport Canada Engineers who are coming out to see me do some walkthroughs on Wednesday
- play hockey Wednesday night (GO CHUCKS)
- play hockey Friday night
Then, its the weekend where I need to get laundry done, clean up the apartment a bit and go shopping in preparation for next week's guests who arrive Thursday at 20:45 on AC8522... not like I'm tracking this or anything ;)
Hope things are well back home.
I guess it helps when you get a good night's sleep. Let's go back to Saturday. Time: 10:45pm...
Flight departs Lihue (pronounced "Lih" "hooey") on time. There is no one on the inboard (aisle) seat and Gwen is by the window. A few minutes into the flight we complete our declaration card and start to watch a movie on the iPad. This movie lasts about 20 mins before Gwen is asleep and maybe another 15 before I'm out. We both slept relatively well. Of the 5 hrs flight, I probably got 4 hrs of sleep - not bad for "red-eye" flight.
Arrival in Vancouver at 6am. We clear customs and wait for our bags on the carousel - pretty long wait, must be because of the early timeframe and the rampies not wanting to work that early (or late) in their shift. Oh well, we have time to kill.
Then we have to leave the customs area - this is where it gets interesting. We flew West Jet from Lihue to Vancouver. Gwen, Mel and Devin are flying WJ to Winnipeg; me, I'm flying Air Canada to Montreal (much better travel options from Vancouver). As we go to leave the area, you go to the right for AirCan and left for WJ - I asked an agent what to do as we both are on the same declaration card (for customs) and he said that I would have to go back through security, there is no way as the bag drops require you to hand in your declaration card. DARN!
The WJers go and drop off their bags at the "connections" bag drop for WJ while I leave the customs area and go to "check in" my bags at the check in upstairs in the terminal. After 10 mins walking through the terminal, I get to the check in area and see tons of people. Luckily these people are waiting for self serve kiosks and I was able to go to the baggage drop agent and ask him to print me a bag tag (phew!). I drop off my bag and then make my way through security when, who do I see, the WJ trio! It turns out that the only step that I saved was the bag drop, they still had to go through security (weird because they left a secure area only to have to go through security again, such a waste of time). So it wasn't so bad then.
After I cleared security I met up with the others and we went for breakie. Kind of hard to eat at 7:30am when it feels like 5:30am... We ate and then Gwen and I said goodbye as I made my way to my gate on the other side of the airport.
The flight to Toronto was routine - left almost on time, a few naps, ate a wrap that I pre-purchased and watched a good movie (End of Watch). Arrival in Toronto was slightly ahead of schedule. My seat was by the window, usually I don't elect for this seat as I would prefer to have access to the aisle if I want to go to the lavatory (airplane speak for washroom ;) ) and I don't like being crammed against the sidewall/window and feel like I have to lean into the person beside me. Luckily this flight was on a Big plane (Boeing 777, capacity of maybe 200 passengers) (notice the plane is only Big, not BIG like the A380...)
My time in Toronto was about 1.5 hrs before we had to board. Just enough time to walk the terminal in search of a Starbucks (for Mint Tea) only to learn that it was right by the gate I came through from the Vancouver plane... oh well, I had lots of time to kill and needed to stretch my legs. Departure from Toronto was 6pm (2pm Hawaii time) and got me into Montreal at 7.
In Montreal I picked up my bags (15 mins of waiting) and then grabbed a cab "home". Once "home" it was to the grocery store for me to grab some food for supper and breakfast and lunch the next day. 20 mins I returned "home" with my frozen pizza and not only milk and yogurt for breakfast (options, mmm) but with some veggies for stir fry for supper today (Monday).
With the pizza ready and a cold beer, I started watching the end of the football game only to realize that the third quarter was on hold due to a power outage at the stadium in New Orleans. I watched the third quarter while eating and then laid down to watch the fourth quarter - or so I thought. Completely missed the 4th as I fell asleep, waking up at 11pm to some tv show. Oh well, checked my phone to see who won and then got ready for bed.
Slept AMAZING - woke up only once at 4am for no apparent reason and then back to sleep until 8:00am. I guess this is what happens when you have at most 5 hrs of sleep for two days...
Then, it was back to the grind where my day went ok. I guess it is nice to see that I am needed at work, sometimes too much it seems.
This weeks plan is:
- watch the Jets game tomorrow (GO JETS GO)
- entertain two Transport Canada Engineers who are coming out to see me do some walkthroughs on Wednesday
- play hockey Wednesday night (GO CHUCKS)
- play hockey Friday night
Then, its the weekend where I need to get laundry done, clean up the apartment a bit and go shopping in preparation for next week's guests who arrive Thursday at 20:45 on AC8522... not like I'm tracking this or anything ;)
Hope things are well back home.
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| Boeing 777 in Vancouver, ready for boarding |
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| Inside the the 777 |
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| The Rockies |
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| One of the things I'm missing right now... the other is in Ottawa... |
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