I have hockey tonight at 10:30 so I have some time to kill right now.
Today was good, had a day long process map meeting where we really only spent an hour looking at the process map but had some good discussions.
Afterwards I went for dinner with two of my coworkers, both from Winnipeg but in Montreal for different reasons - one guy was here for the process mapping while the other is here for aircraft testing. It was good to spend time with them and catch up on things back in the Winnipeg office.
I can't wait for the weekend where I can catch up on my rest and laundry. I seem to be getting enough sleep each night (I was in bed at 9:45 last night) but I really need to stop the work aspect. It's tough when you don't really have much else to do other than check emails yet at a certain point you need to draw the line and turn the work brain off and relax from the daily stress of dealing with customers.
We will see what the weekend brings but I'm thinking of heading off the island to Laval to check out the shopping there and just to get out of the busyness of Montreal.
Maybe I'll make ham for supper on Saturday, that would be good...
Thursday, 8 November 2012
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Waitin for tires
Today I'm getting winter tires installed. I spent part of the weekend looking for the best deal and ended up going with a deal from Canadian Tire - four tires installed on my rims for $487. I was originally looking for (at least) steel rims for my car but this deal was too good to pass up.
So I dropped my car off at Canadian tire at 6:00 and was told it would be ready at 7:30. I went to get something for dinner thinking this would kill some time. Of course, Murphy's law prevails - I ordered honey seasame chicken stir fry from Jack Astors thinking this would take time to make. No word of a lie, 5 mins after I ordered, my meal was ready... So much for killing time... And here I thought my order would take more time than my second choice - chicken fingers and fries... Boy was I mistaken.
After dinner I went back to Canadian tire and wandered around. There must be something wrong with me, after 5 mins of wandering I was done. Guess I didn't prove my dad proud on this one, lol.
So now I write this in the waiting room with French hockey news on the tv. I don't know what they are reporting on, I just heard Lemieux and Gretzky and try had highlights for the 87 Canada cup, must be reruns. At least they aren't running a simulation of a hockey season from a video game and reporting highlights on it like they were last night on Off the Record... See what happens when there is no NHL hockey? We go crazy...
So I dropped my car off at Canadian tire at 6:00 and was told it would be ready at 7:30. I went to get something for dinner thinking this would kill some time. Of course, Murphy's law prevails - I ordered honey seasame chicken stir fry from Jack Astors thinking this would take time to make. No word of a lie, 5 mins after I ordered, my meal was ready... So much for killing time... And here I thought my order would take more time than my second choice - chicken fingers and fries... Boy was I mistaken.
After dinner I went back to Canadian tire and wandered around. There must be something wrong with me, after 5 mins of wandering I was done. Guess I didn't prove my dad proud on this one, lol.
So now I write this in the waiting room with French hockey news on the tv. I don't know what they are reporting on, I just heard Lemieux and Gretzky and try had highlights for the 87 Canada cup, must be reruns. At least they aren't running a simulation of a hockey season from a video game and reporting highlights on it like they were last night on Off the Record... See what happens when there is no NHL hockey? We go crazy...
Monday, 5 November 2012
It sure is dark outside
That is the one draw back from the time change, the fact that it gets dark super early. I guess it doesn't help when you leave work at 7:10... So much for going to the gym tonight, I'll do that tomorrow after I get my winter tires installed.
Cooking supper:
Cooking supper:
Sunday, 4 November 2012
Running in Westmont
Just finished a run outside in a 4*C Montreal fall Sunday afternoon. I forgot how much a slight incline adds to your run...
You can check out my route below:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/view_workout?w=200724725
Many houses for sale in this area. I was curious how much they go for. So, I looked up some of them on the Internet. Prices range from $850,000 to $1,700,000... No wonder I liked them...
You can check out my route below:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/view_workout?w=200724725
Many houses for sale in this area. I was curious how much they go for. So, I looked up some of them on the Internet. Prices range from $850,000 to $1,700,000... No wonder I liked them...
Saturday, 3 November 2012
Did I make enough?
I guess I'm still learning how to cook for one... Oh well I'll have chilli for a few days this week ;)
Friday, 2 November 2012
Tradeshow Photos
 |
| Bombardier's Booth |
 |
| Eurocopter's Display Helicopter |
 |
| Embraer's Display - full size mockup |
 |
| Honda's Booth - F1 race car in the foreground, HondaJet mockup in the background |
 |
| Our Booth |
Thursday, 1 November 2012
Orlando and the Biggest tradeshow I have ever seen
There are trade shows and then there are TRADESHOWS. Holy man, this one was massive.
The flight down was good, basically on time. This was the first time in a long time that I had to check a bag (well technically it was 5 days since my Tucson flight, but that's irrelevant). When I got to Orlando, my bag actually beat me off the airplane. I got tot he carousel and basically walked up and grabbed it off the belt (my walk was a little more fast paced when I say my bag about to go around the far side and I would have to wait for it again.
I made my way to find my co worker Udaya so that we could grab a cab to the hotel. We got in the cab and arrive at our hotel (Wyndham Orlando Resort) about 30 mins later. We got checked in, took the golf cart shuttle to our building (# 10, hmm... Fitting, never thought if that sooner...) and then went and grabbed something to eat as it was 8:30 and I hadn't eaten since lunch back in Winnipeg which was a pizza lunch in the office for a lady who was going on medical leave for some reason, don't know exactly why but I'm assuming it is something to do with her rheumatoid arthritis.
(Side note - I love westjet flights from Toronto to Montreal or vice versa free beer and wine to compete with Porter airlines).
Where was I, oh yeah dinner. We went to a place called Kobe Steakhouse, a new Japanese steakhouse just across the street. I had cashew chicken, it was good but couldn't eat much because it was pretty late and I lost my appetite, kind of like I'm thinking is going to happen today when I get home at 930 or so...
Afterwards, back to the hotel and to bed. The next morning started early, Udaya invited me to go or a run with him... At 6 am... I figured, sure, why not, what's sleep on the first night. So, 6 am we started out on our run (route here). The weather was a balmy 48*F, remnants of Hurricane Sandy. We returned at 630, showered and then went for breakfast before getting on the shuttle at 830.
We got to our booth and did a quick orientation (and I met all of my colleagues from Wisconsin, some whom I met previously but most I had not).
Most days I spent time just manning the booth. I was involved in a few meetings with existing and potential customers. For the most part, I felt kind of useless because I don't know a lot of the technical details on our products. But, I generally know enough to answer vague questions and if the questions got more technical j would get someone else who knew lore than I did. If course, if it was engineering and certification that they were interested in, I was their man. But most times it was not....
One meeting we were asked when. I could move to Peterborough to support one of our customers. Afterwards Udaya and I were laughing saying that I must have made a good impression last month when I was there... Don't worry, I'm not going to Peterborough. I suspect this customer was maybe the one who sent a recruiter after me a couple years ago looking for a "certification engineer for a southern Ontario client"...
Overall, I learned a lot and got to meet some new people and reconnect with some people I dealt with in the past.
Just to give some context here, this conference is SO BIG that:
There is so much to talk about... I'll post pictures tomorrow.
I was a little disappointed that I didn get to the static aircraft display where they have actual airplanes, that flew in, on display. I simply ran out of time... Too bad because the biggest airplane from Bombardier was one that I had inspected a few weeks ago, don't worry I let people know this, including Udaya who was going into a meeting with the customer where I told him the aircraft serial number.
Today was pretty calm, sounds like numbers at this tradeshow are down quite a lot from what is usually seen. I saw one paper that said the numbers yesterday were down 4%, only 24,000 people showed up... We figure a lot of this has to do with Sandy and the impact this had on international flights and flights from t eastern seaboard.
Flight from Orlando to Toronto was a little delayed but nothing major. Toronto to Montreal was an hour late but I made it here.
Now, at 9:50 it is time for supper.
The flight down was good, basically on time. This was the first time in a long time that I had to check a bag (well technically it was 5 days since my Tucson flight, but that's irrelevant). When I got to Orlando, my bag actually beat me off the airplane. I got tot he carousel and basically walked up and grabbed it off the belt (my walk was a little more fast paced when I say my bag about to go around the far side and I would have to wait for it again.
I made my way to find my co worker Udaya so that we could grab a cab to the hotel. We got in the cab and arrive at our hotel (Wyndham Orlando Resort) about 30 mins later. We got checked in, took the golf cart shuttle to our building (# 10, hmm... Fitting, never thought if that sooner...) and then went and grabbed something to eat as it was 8:30 and I hadn't eaten since lunch back in Winnipeg which was a pizza lunch in the office for a lady who was going on medical leave for some reason, don't know exactly why but I'm assuming it is something to do with her rheumatoid arthritis.
(Side note - I love westjet flights from Toronto to Montreal or vice versa free beer and wine to compete with Porter airlines).
Where was I, oh yeah dinner. We went to a place called Kobe Steakhouse, a new Japanese steakhouse just across the street. I had cashew chicken, it was good but couldn't eat much because it was pretty late and I lost my appetite, kind of like I'm thinking is going to happen today when I get home at 930 or so...
Afterwards, back to the hotel and to bed. The next morning started early, Udaya invited me to go or a run with him... At 6 am... I figured, sure, why not, what's sleep on the first night. So, 6 am we started out on our run (route here). The weather was a balmy 48*F, remnants of Hurricane Sandy. We returned at 630, showered and then went for breakfast before getting on the shuttle at 830.
We got to our booth and did a quick orientation (and I met all of my colleagues from Wisconsin, some whom I met previously but most I had not).
Most days I spent time just manning the booth. I was involved in a few meetings with existing and potential customers. For the most part, I felt kind of useless because I don't know a lot of the technical details on our products. But, I generally know enough to answer vague questions and if the questions got more technical j would get someone else who knew lore than I did. If course, if it was engineering and certification that they were interested in, I was their man. But most times it was not....
One meeting we were asked when. I could move to Peterborough to support one of our customers. Afterwards Udaya and I were laughing saying that I must have made a good impression last month when I was there... Don't worry, I'm not going to Peterborough. I suspect this customer was maybe the one who sent a recruiter after me a couple years ago looking for a "certification engineer for a southern Ontario client"...
Overall, I learned a lot and got to meet some new people and reconnect with some people I dealt with in the past.
Just to give some context here, this conference is SO BIG that:
- There were two full size helicopters on display
- Many full size mockups for Pillatus, Hondajet, Lufthansa Teknik, Cessna, Gulfstream and Embraer business aircraft.
- Pratt and Whitney had several engines on display
- Some companies had cars they were raffling off, I think there were 6 in by he convention centre.
- I took this video of a model/mockup Boeing Business Jet (called a BBJ)
- Honda had one of their race cars on display
- I would claim that Gulfstream had the largest display, however Bombardier wasn't far behind
There is so much to talk about... I'll post pictures tomorrow.
I was a little disappointed that I didn get to the static aircraft display where they have actual airplanes, that flew in, on display. I simply ran out of time... Too bad because the biggest airplane from Bombardier was one that I had inspected a few weeks ago, don't worry I let people know this, including Udaya who was going into a meeting with the customer where I told him the aircraft serial number.
Today was pretty calm, sounds like numbers at this tradeshow are down quite a lot from what is usually seen. I saw one paper that said the numbers yesterday were down 4%, only 24,000 people showed up... We figure a lot of this has to do with Sandy and the impact this had on international flights and flights from t eastern seaboard.
Flight from Orlando to Toronto was a little delayed but nothing major. Toronto to Montreal was an hour late but I made it here.
Now, at 9:50 it is time for supper.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)