The World According to Me

Windows Live Writer

2012-01-09T16:03:00.000-08:00

I bought a new computer and it came with Windows Live Writer on it. So thought I’d try it out. Seems to make writing blogs easier. Though being that I’m both lazy and busy, I’m not sure that it’s easy enough. And to try out the photo, let me see if a link to a picassa web album works…

New Old Computer

2010-09-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

I’ve rebuilt a freebie computer from work and put in extra memory (also freebie) and old 300GB & 160GB hard drives from an old computer and am now playing. Did Windows Updates and it installed Windows Live and Windows Live Writer that supposedly make it easier to write blogs… well, I figured I’d play… Here’s the only photo that happens to be on this computer… a photo from Phoenix this past New Years with the sis and bro’s family (or many of them, Alison and Max missing) on the way to a Coyotes game (the old Jets).

I'm a Celebrity

2009-09-24T06:02:00.000-07:00

I've got some photos to post of trips Netherlands, Turkey and Norway, but going to be a week or so before I get around to it. But in the mean time, just to prove I actually was there, here's a photo of Pat and I in Stavanger...

finally a post again

2009-08-15T05:13:00.001-07:00

Okay, it's been a few months. Probably most people have given up on me posting again. Work got a little intense and it's summer and... I've got a list of excuses, let me go grab a couple more :)

Work was intense. Second week in July I got out a report that was three volumes and over 1000 pages documenting most of what I had been working on for 13 months. And then July 30 I was in Belfast to present the reports to the regulator and have a meeting. Anyway, since getting the reports done I've started to refocus and reduce the workload and have been doing a pretty good job.

I've been doing a fair bit of play as well... I've spent a weekend sailing around the Isle of Wight (near Portsmouth), have been hiking in Dartmoor (SW England near Cornwall) and Gower (south Wales), climbing in the Wye Valley (on the border with Wales and England at the River Severn), kayaking near Brighton, etc. etc. So definitely have been getting a chance to see some of the British country side.

I've been pretty bad about bringing my camera or getting photos from others (or just too lazy to keep them in one place). Here are a couple from Gowers a couple weeks back:

And a couple weeks ago I got dressed up and went to the Cartier's International Polo and saw England and Argentina play along with my buddy Prince Chuck. Quite a snooty affair, but fun none the less:

As for the next few months, I'm still trying to get to the Netherlands to visit Jen, Darran & Jenny and Lisette, also Norway to visit Pat & Stef, and various places. I've bought tickets to climb Mt. Toukbal in Morocco starting on my birthday (Oct. 7 for those that want to send an early present) and I'm off to Turkey in a couple weeks though I still haven't bought my ticket. And I need to do a better job of working from France as I don't pay taxes when I work there!! (just did my UK taxes and getting 15% of my taxes back from last year!) I'll try to do a better job of snapping some photos and writing blogs in the coming months!!

Florida wildlife from past days...

2009-04-12T07:07:00.000-07:00

A few animals from the Florida everglades...

first week in France

2009-03-03T01:48:00.000-08:00

Last week was my first somewhat normal week working and living in France. Not entirely, but somewhat. I travelled to Lyon (plan) Tuesday afternoon and caught up with Jim (from our Germany office, we're both Project Managers) at the flat. The flat is a 2-bedroom with a living (w/ pull out couch) and a small dining area and kitchen. And all stylishly decorated with flat screens in living room and bedrooms, so not too bad.

The next day I went into the office of the company we're partnered with in France and got neck deep in the projects I've kind of been ignoring for a bit. And I won't bore you with details, but mostly just scoping and setting up proposals and such for the French projects right now. And then for Thursday and Friday I mostly worked out of the flat and didn't go into the office, which means I could have been working on a beach in Asia (a consideration!!), but anyway... went out a couple times once to a good brew pub near the stadium... Gerand was it? So that was my first somewhat normal week in Lyon.

To keep things interesting, I left Lyon Saturday morning and headed to Paris by train. I've a friend here and spent Sat & Sun night. Wasn't a cloud in the sky and over 20 so we sat around in tshirts on the Seine Saturday afternoon... very rough... Then went to a house party on Sat night on the hill near Sacre Coeur (Montemarte). Here I drank what seemed a very reasonable / normal amount of beer, but in retrospective, drank too little water during the day, leading to nice headache Sunday morning. So Sunday started rather slow going to a markets (near Bastille) and we sat around in a sidewalk cafe for a couple hours. And then I got setup with a couple other friends going to the Musee Pampidou, which was free along with all museums on the first Sunday of the month. And was good because one of these friends didn't talk English so it forced the conversation for the afternoon/evening entirely into French, which is much better for my practicing!!

Well, that's about it. Had a nice home-cooked salmon dinner last night and now I'm on the trainsoon to go into the chunnel and should be at work in London in another hour. Must admit, I've spent ~€350 on trains coming home through Paris (which I plan to expense) rather than the €70 a flight would have cost from Lyon to London, but I'm not charging my travel time, so I feel no guilt. But it is still amazing that trains can be that much more expensive than flying. But travel city center to city center sure makes life easy (I left the apartment about 1hr 10min before my train was to depart, just try to do that for the airport!)

And my goal now is to stay in London for 2 weeks without any travel. I'm thinking I've got a shot!! Other goals for those who care:

- make all my French classes for next 2 weeks and actually do my homework
and practice occasionally (there's a few French group get togethers I
can attend if I get off butt)

- make it to the climbing gym again for the first time in 6 months

- get signed up with the gym across the street from work that work pays for
and I haven't registered with despite being full time in London since July

- getting telephone and tv at the flat tomorrow - have to stay home all
day :( internet will follow in 12-15 business days

- thinking I might by a plant for the flat and make it look like someone
lives there (did I mention I bought a print for the wall? a Lichtenstein...)

- I'm avoiding putting work things down as priorities to do, though the
sad realiity is....

- make plans for some trips... Netherlands in April to visit Jen, Darran
& Jenny and soon to be Lisette as well!, find a time for Canada in the
summer, and then my sister and her kids in August (Lyon and then Greece
& Italy I think is the plan) - but I'm also thinking of working in a trip
to somewhere new... was thinking Egypt, someone just planted the thought
of Istanbul... somewhere for just a 3-4 day weekend might be nice and
easily doable.

- oh, and I hopefully hired someone on Friday, but assuming they accept,
they won't really start until April 10, so I can't start dumping on them
until then. this should really help give me more of a life!!

Okay, I must stop writing and go for my pain au chocolat, jus d'orange et grande creme (whichis more or less a cafe au lait or maybe a latee from what I can tell). Priorities!!

So does this blog make my mother happy? And I'll have a phone in my flat so you can start calling me at 4AM! And my sister can rack up my cell phone with roaming charges in Paris while I give instructions on how to install a portable hard drive! Seriously, that's pricey tech support!! :)

(Quick little side note... it's the next day and I'm finally putting this into the blog... missed French class last night and went for some really yummy Indian food instead... just got my landline hooked up, the number for which I'm not going to put online!! now waiting for the Sky-tv guy...)

to watch or not to watch...

2009-01-27T05:57:00.000-08:00

The biggest dilemma of my life right now is whether I should get cable and internet. Right now I snag wireless off the corner coffee shop and it is slow and unreliable. So here are the considerations:

- ~£30/month, 12 month contract for sat TV (w/ digital box w/ 40hr recording), high-speed internet and a phone line

- I'm supposed to be paying an annual TV tax that everyone with a TV pays; I've avoided it so far and could be prosecuted, but plan to play the dumb Canadian who is hardly ever here (not far from the truth). But if I get my sat TV hooked up, I'm going to have a hard time playing dumb (okay, I can still pull it off pretty easy).

- As soon as I commit, I'll get fire or want to move.

- If I don't commit, I'll be in London for 13 years without good TV.

- If I do commit, then I can watch Battelstar Galactica & Lost live on TV, recorded on the Sky digital box, or via high-speed internet (via my US work VPN)

- If I don't commit, I could take the ~£450 at the end of each year and go on vacation (this rationale falls apart because whether I spend the money on the TV has nothing to do with whether I'll go on vacation).

So it more or less comes down to the fact that I'm an analytical Libra who doesn't make decisions very quickly. An intuitive friend in the bar last night suggested that I treat digital cable boxes and women the same way... I keep looking at the specs, weighing the options, humming and hawing, and then do nothing until the decision is ultimately made by me moving countries. Ouch, but somewhat true! So maybe I should:

A. get married
B. get cable
C. A and read more books
D. B and go to the bar more often
E. A but only after B and only if B doesn't cause A not to happen
because I never leave the house

Well, too much babble about nothing I know. Besides cable/TV/, life is good. Was in Madrid most of last week for training and meetings. Came home Friday 9PM and found the construction guy (washing machine leak of months ago finally being fixed) had locked a lock on my door for which I didn't have a key. Forced me to go sleep at a friends Friday night. This week I'm in London for the entire week (yahoo!) and next week off to Lyon Mon-Weds for meetings. Hopefully be my first time staying in the new flat (Ed, Lisette, Robyin and others that have already made reservations - should be getting it any day now).

Only other thing new is that I'm taking French classes Mon & Weds nights. I've got homework to do tonight actually :) This and my time in Lyon should do wonders! I'm already much more fluent in being able to have conversations, but the future conditional, future proche and future simple are all causing me to revisit my past... quite strange!!

So between the travelling, classes, work still being nuts and some general trouble causing and visiting of establishments providing alcoholic beverages (Madrid was bad for this!), I'm rather out of control. One of my new year's resolutions was to slow down and haven't quite managed that yet. Though meeting with the recruiter at 4:30 this aft about some possible hires to support me this has been listed as high priority for him for 2 months now and still no one hired while our #1 competitor has laid off 25% of their workforce... how can we not find a suitable candidate?!?!

Did I mention I'm finally feeling 100%. Had a nasty something when I got back from NA, strep or mono or something that laid me out for most of a week with a fever and then kept me wiped for the next couple weeks (several family members back home had it all weeks apart, which makes it sound like mono, which would also explain the tiredness afterwards, though my niece just last week, about 3 weeks after I left, came down with a confirmed case of strep). Anyway, finally feeling like my old workaholic self. And speaking of that, I'm leading a conference call with the client in 2 minutes and I guess I'll be winging it!!

winter update...

2008-12-06T03:07:00.000-08:00

My mother has complained I haven't blogged in while and whether I still have a cold (that was so two months ago!! quite healthy right now). And I hope I stay health as things are too busy right now. Everything is going very well, just 9.5 out of 10 on the pace. Mostly work, but other things too. Maybe I'll start off with the work Xmas party a few nights ago. I'll share a few photos (there are some others, but there are some work photos that just don't need to be widely distributed!). The party was at the Kensington Roof Gardens, which are owned by Richard Branson and supposedly a posh venue. Unfortunately it was cold and we never really got to take advantage of the roof garden (except Christian and I sneaking out the staff door to see the flamingos).

(actually, the dialog box to add photos is showing up on my 2nd monitor, which isn't attached - despite clicking the right boxes on the driver settings, it's still not working, so maybe we'll add photos at a later time!)

I have another Xmas party this coming week for the Olympics in the London Dungeons space. Not the official dungeons, but an equally neat space of mazey type rooms. I've been there once before as it's also like a club / strange space on Friday and Saturday nights. I'm sure it will be fun and messy.

Work in Ireland is still going full speed, but I'm not making any more site visits (maybe till March when everyone gets together for a meeting onsite). The project is still humming and I'm trying to delegate and hire someone to delegate more. And the delegation is largely because I've taken the PM role for two projects in France, one of which is completely in French, and I'm about to get thrown into another. I'm off to Strasbourg on Dec 15 for a few days to kick off one of the projects. We're talking about renting a company flat in Lyon so myself and others can have a place to go and stay for a week at a time type thing.

Had my first visitor come for a visit (friend from California) and that was nice. I felt a bit guilty that I didn't have more time to "hang", but work blows up when I don't stay on top of things. I have another visitor coming next weekend, but just for a couple days on her way to Africa.

Let's see... other things... I was in Madrid for a few days of meetings and team chartering. (my boss from France came for the meeting and we went out partying till 3AM the day before I led the team chargering meeting... bad idea!) I spent a lot of hours building a Data Management team over the past couple months (all non-billable!) and managed to do what every said was impossible and get two of the key team members (one from Milan, one from Madrid) sent to California for two weeks of training. Now if things don't go smoothly it's my neck on the line. And the really sad things is when I was getting the funding approved by the Global Lead, he asked if I should also go to California to oversee the training and make sure all goes well. And the really really sad thing is, I'm so busy, I had to say no. How pathetic!! Oh well. One of them is in San Francisco tonight and he's being taken out by a few of my friends, so that should lead to some good stories!

I'm heading back to Winnipeg on the 19th for 12 days. (12 days of Christmas?) Then I'm off to Chicago for New Years! Chicago has always been on my list of cool cities to visit and a friend and I have excess Hilton points and we're staying at the Drake for 3 nights! I know nothing about the Drake except it was often the hotel you'd here at the end of Oprah or Wheel of Fortune or some show like that where they'd say "Our guests stay at the Drake located on the .... blah blah". Anyways should be fun.

Okay, must get a move on as I'm off to a French movie this afternoon with some friends. Have been going to this French conversation class thing every Monday and trying to practice as much as I can. I think in the new year I'll be taking proper classes, too. I better since the proposals and workplans and such on one of my projects is entirely in French. Yikes! Hope all is great with everyone!

update from Northern Ireland

2008-10-12T04:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I say update from Northern Ireland, but I'm actually back in London for 72 hours. And even then I went up to Birmingham yesterday. But I figured I'd visit my apartment to make sure it's in one piece. Quite a strange feeling to be coming back to London and have a sense of coming home (maybe not home home, but home none the less). Though the flat still does need some work to feel like home (like say something hung on a wall?!).

I've got a good set up in in Derry (aka Londonderry depending upon your religious & political persuasion) with a nice flat (5 of us in the same building), though it definitely wouldn't be my city of choice if I ever chose to live in Ireland (would definitely choose Belfast or Dublin). I'm really looking forward to having some more time in London, but as far as field jobs go, it's a good set up with good people. And the UK driving is coming along... I can now say I am 98% when shifting with my left hand and staying on the left (wrong) side of the road. I still find myself routinely trying to get in the passenger door to drive and can't reverse looking over my left shoulder, but will probably come.

Work has been quite intense lately. I'm managing the Northern Ireland project and doing very little "field work" despite the fact I'm in the field (I spend most my time sitting in the field trailer drinking lattes). But the budget has tripled since I took over and has gone from me managing 1 or 2 people to having a team of 4-5 people full time and many others part time with me trying to hold on to the reins. I've been working from site trying to train up the field team and deal with all the clients that want to come and see the site. Has sometimes felt like I'm getting very little done and everything is piling up. But everyone (including bosses and clients) and very happy with the status and prospects.

At the same time I was in Lyon for meetings a few weeks (month?) back and I'm now senior hydro for a project in Strasbourg. I need to do a site visit and kick off some work there in a few weeks. Apparently the client is sold that the N. Ireland project is going so well and was quite impressed at the meeting and Ireland site visit, so now they want me to the same in France. So I'm getting lots of kudos (literally told I have been the turning point for sealing the contract for the next 3 years across all of Europe), but lots of pressure to keep up the pace! Sheesh.

And then at the same time I've been given the task of recruiting another hydro for the London office and a data manager for the Milan office. I'll probably head over to Milan in late October for a visit while some staff are visiting from the US. The sacrifices I make... :) Starting to get involved in recruiting and my more regional roles are great for the career, but I have time to do this like I have money to burn (which obviously I don't with the stock market down - though I must say I've been hoarding cash in savings accounts for the past 18 months and I'm feeling like a genius right about now).

Well, that's a lot of babble all about work, but that's certainly been most of my life this past month. What else... I made some friends in Paris during my travels to Lyon and that could be fun in the coming months (especially as I have more upcoming work in France). And I've been on a couple dates with someone I met in London (though she's a doctor living in Birmingham, so definitely limitations). And I've bought my ticket home to Winnipeg for Christmas and Chicago for New Years (home to Wpg on Friday Dec 19 and leave Wednesday Dec 31). And there are 3 flies in my apartment.

Oh, almost forgot, I think I'm almost a Canadian employee again! At least they've screwed up and can no longer direct deposit my US paycheques / expense cheques - a sign the transfer really is happening!! Not sure if you can all follow this as I know I can't.... I'm currently a Canadian with a US work visa based in US but working in the UK with a UK visa (I'm double visa'd right now). Soon I'll be a Canadian employee being paid in Canada but paying taxes and living in the UK with a UK Visa. Follow? All I know is that the original UK offer was ~35% more than my US salary and the CDN expat offer is ~15% more than that and since I got CDN Expat offer the CDN dollar has gone up 5%, so I won't complain about the $1800 (!) plane ticket home at Christmas (should have worked that into the Expat contract!). Okay, heading back to Derry in a couple hours so must do some errands...

some Thailand photos finally...

2008-08-29T01:25:00.001-07:00

Okay, I admit, I've been a little lazy with regards to any sort of photo taking lately. Phases and busyness? Is busyness a word? Has taken being home sick on the couch for 2 days get it done. Anyway, here's some photos from Thailand back in... May? Was there for Ben's wedding and travelled around a bit with Michelle from Calgary.

The trip started off in Bangkok, and I'm sure a bunch of photos were taken, they were all on Michelle's camera and she's been too lazy to share! And being it wasn't my first trip to Bangkok, I wasn't all that eager to snap away either. But it was a nice visit for about 5 days because Ben, Samantha and Connor were there and we did some touristy stuff, some good eating, some foot and back massages (envision myself, Ben and Michelle with beers in hand getting foot massages and some divey place... then envision Ben falling asleep and starting to snore!). The trip even involved me babysitting once (I hope the damage isn't permanent!).

So before I get started babbling and photo posting, here's a few map of Thailand, mostly from google maps:

After Bangkok, Ben et family headed to Phuket to start doing wedding prep type things while Michelle and I headed north. Our first stop was for one day (literally just the day) at Ayutthaya. Here's a snipped from Wikipedia...

The kingdom of Ayutthaya (Thai: อาณาจักรอยุธยา) was a Thai kingdom that existed from 1351 to 1767. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese (Annam), Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the city walls. In the sixteenth century, it was described by foreign traders as one of the biggest and wealthiest city in the East. The court of King Narai (1656-1688) had strong links with that of King Louis XIV of France, whose ambassadors compared the city in size and wealth to Paris. Before Ayutthaya fell to Burmese attack in 1767, its vassals included the Northern Shan states of present- day Myanmar, Lanna (Chiang Mai, Yunnan & Shan Sri (China), Lan Xang (Laos), Cambodian Kingdom, and some city- states in the Malay Peninsula.

At around 8 or 9 at night we caught the night train up to Chiang Mai. It was nice travelling with Michelle as neither our budgets were particularly tight (at least in the Thailand sense - I'm sure if we were in Hong Kong I wouldn't make this statement) and we got a first class cabin for ourselves. The 2nd class bunks didn't look too bad either, but then we heard stories of people partying all night and people snoring and people being sick and all of a sudden, $40 for a train ticket seems quite cheap! Was a little disturbing to wake up at 10AM and find Michelle already on her first beer (closeup of phone as proof... 12 MP has it's benefits)...

>

One of our first outings in Chiang Mai was a day trip to a temple in one of the hills surrounding the city. There were also waterfalls and some hikes to do, but it was rainy and we were pretty slow in getting going...

Another couple days in Chiang Mai were spent doing a 2-day trek in the mountains to the north. The first afternoon also included something I'm not so sure I wanted to do and still not sure I should have done (on ethical grounds), but none the less, I rode elephants for the afternoon. Actually, several aspects of this trek into the homelands of the hill tribes is rather ethically questionable. Tourism has radically changed these people, the tourism has resulted in roads being built which has changed the crops that people grow, erosion is a massive problem because the crops are being grown in large plantation for sale and export, etc. etc. I picked our guides brain about this and he thinks it's all beneficial as the farmers all used to grow poppies (i.e., heroin) and now they don't, and now they are getting civilized, which is a good thing I guess. Anyway, here's the photos...

More later...

Busy days...

2008-08-29T00:58:00.000-07:00

It's Friday morning, about 9AM and I feel kind of crappy. Could definitely feel something coming on yesterday afternoon and I wasn't the only one in the office complaining of the exact same symptoms. So I'm set up in my home office today (i.e., lying down underwear on couch with blanket, pillow on lap for laptop and mouse on adjacent coffee table). Over the past few months of travelling I've led some pretty important conference calls from the funniest of situations. But I digress...

London is good, though weather is so so. Last weekend was fun with a trip to Stonehenge on Saturday with a friend and then a handful of us from the Olympics project got together for the London 2012 handover party in Trafalgar Square. Though the "party" was very non British and not much of a party as it had no booze. Not even a beer garden. Ummm... excuse me? Live music for how many hours without booze? What kind of alcoholics did they want to attract? So we all left half way and went to the pub. Which led to a bar. Which led to a club. All quite messy as usual...

Oh yeah, I don't think I had been to Ireland last time I blogged. Ended up flying into Dublin and driving to site up north (Derry). All went quite well and got to know some of the voices on the phone, had a good productive week of work and then got to spend a fun night in Dublin and they way home. I had come with another person from the London office and we were trying to figure out the best way to get home and I personally thought a night in Dublin was essential to work in. He was sure as it might cost a bit more or at least be questionable. Then I reminded him I was the Project Manager and I guaranteed his expenses would be approved. So all in all, I must say Dublin is a fun city and could definitely spend some time there (for those who've been reading my babble for a while, you'll remember they were pushing for me to relocate to Dublin many months ago).

Not too much else new... I've been extremely busy at work, but things are also going very very well. I've now tripled the budget forecast for the next 6 months (okay, I say "I" and clearly there is a team, but sometimes I spell teim with an i). I'm also working on my French and have even taken a couple lessons / tutorial type things. I'm going to France on Sept 8-10 for meetings and going to be managing a project just outside of Lyon, so I'm trying to get some practice. Going to a french meetup thing tonight actually which is just a thing where frenchies get together on Friday night at a pub and socialize, but a good way for me to practice (and when there happens to be some hot french women, such is life).

Last night was funny. I made Christian (friend mostly, but also landlord) come over to help me change light bulbs. I texted him saying can you come over and help me change a lightbulb and it sure sounded like it was a booty call! But the lights in the kitchen had only 1 bulb out of 4 working and I had bought the wrong bulbs which were pulls and the actual bulbs were push in (hard) and turn. Anyway, I thought that it was funny that I had to have someone come over to change my lightbulbs :) Okay, till later...

Returned with a Visa...

2008-08-09T05:34:00.000-07:00

I'm back in London with work visa in a new passport. Getting both of these seemed like big challenges a handful of weeks ago, but actually the passport took ~72 hours and the UK Ancestry Visa even less (though it did require me going to Vancouver). If only now I could actually get a job contract now. While I was away, International HR got involved and now instead of being a UK employee, I might be a Canadian employee with an expat deal (it's my choice but the expat deal is slightly in the lead). Which is all kind of funny because I'm currently a US employee. Any volunteers to do my taxes this year? Anyway, both job offers are on the table and we're working through issues - mostly boring stuff like if I'm a UK resident (therefore non-resident in Canada) employed by the Canadian branch of the company, how do I receive my ~6% company-match RRSP contribution because I can not contribute to RRSPs as a non-resident. Seems the company is more familiar with US ex-pats and I'm sure by the time this is all worked out they should have just given me a $20,000 bonus, told me to sign and saved all the HR expenses. Anyway, there are about 6 or so good dilemmas / issues like the RRSP issue that must be figured out before agreement is reached.

With that said, I'm very busy working. In fact, flew in at 6AM and was at the office by 8AM. The $600K proposal I presented in Philadelphia at the start of the North America travels and then completed somewhere between Winnipeg, Calgary and San Francisco (literally) is full steam ahead and I'm off to Northern Ireland on Monday to kick off the work. So needless to say the 3 days this week in advance of this kick off have been intense. All this while having hour long meetings with HR interspersed. I can deal with work, I can deal with HR, dealing with both might kill me. I'm very thankful I kept my flat as dealing with hotels and unsettledness at home could have put me over the edge! (and yes mother, I know unsettledness isn't a word, but my english ain't always so good)

Had some good days this week catching up with some old friends and just getting settled. A fun evening at the Earl's Court beer festival where a few beers were sampled (about the only time drinking half pints is acceptable). Had some big plans Friday night (not really), but ended up not getting out of the office till 10PM. Now I know that sounds bad, but to be fair, I slept in till noon and 10PM is and still kind of feels like 2PM (Winnipeg time that is). And the hours after everyone left were incredibly productive and I know have less than 20 emails in my inbox!!

It's Saturday afternoon right now and I've had a relaxing morning followed by a wander around Brixton shopping. Brixton is a strange neighbourhood if I may say. I'm midway between Clapham and Brixton with both having a lot of energy, but Brixton being the more ethnically interesting (largely black with a lot of African and Carribean flavour). It almost feels like a black Chinatown or Thailand with a web of indoor and outdoor fair type booths all covered in tarps carrying everything from coat hangers to pigs heads intermixed with shops and dollar stores etc. etc. (it looks quite quiet in these photos, which it certainly wasn't this morning, so clearly I've stolen these photos as I'm too lazy to carry my camera, but here's the source)...

And Brixton is pretty neat. So far this morning I've learned Sharon Osbourne and David Bowie are from Brixton. And the Eddie Grant song Electric Avenue is based on the Brixton night life. And I found the Brixton Acadaemy which is quite a famous venue for live music (about 7 minutes from my flat). If you really want to know more about this history of Brixton... (P.S. I live a few flats off of Acre Lane).

My big purchases were a white wicker basket with lid for dirty clothes, a brown bean bag cube chair / foot rest and a stainless garbage can for the bathroom. Wild and crazy I now. That with some hangers ran me £40 ($80) on the nose at Woolworths. I'd give

I'm being a tad unsocial at the moment... not sure if I'll even call anyone tonight or just enjoy some more downtime. The last many weeks have involved visiting so many people which is really great, but absolutely no down time. Between unpacking and repacking, the last visit in Winnipeg didn't even leave time to visit the grandparents. What a bad grandson I am! Maybe Sam / Justin / Rob / Gabe want to have a beer and game of pool at the Elbo Room - wait, wrong city...

Okay, I'm going to go play with my Thailand photos (maybe they'll still get posted some day) and I'll give another update after Ireland - I hear there are 8 women for every guy, so maybe there will be some interesting stories, or maybe I'll schedule myself to do all the fieldwork? ;)

West Coast Travels

2008-07-20T15:18:00.000-07:00

Hi from San Fran. Having fun bouncing around visiting Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle and San Francisco so far. A lot of fun, but also a lot of work. Got the UK work visa taken care of and then the application mailed off in Vancouver, but this left me passportless so I had to do a land crossing to get into the US. And now training taken care of in SF and working here for a couple more days.

I'm heading to LA on Wednesday for a work medical and visit with friends and going to catch up with my brother's family in Anaheim Saturday night. And since my UK visa has been approved (in amazingly short turn around!), I'll be able to fly back to Calgary (was worried I'd have to do another passportless land crossing). Though Calgary will just be for a day to pack up furniture to move to Winnipeg (so much fun). Thinking furniture will be for a new cabin I'm buying with my dad in Arnes.

Must say I've taken on too much work and since I'm doing more work than I'd like. Seems management type work means I can't just disappear without responsibility anymore. Kind of sucks. With that said, I should be back in Winnipeg by ~Aug 29 and back in London August 6 for a meeting. Of course all the HR stuff hasn't been settled, which is a bit of a stress, but I assume it will get taken care of. So in the meantime, here's a couple fun links...

108 Occidental Gallery
My friend Justin has opened an art gallery in Seattle. Check it out if you're in Seattle!

3Prong Power Inc
Friend Dan in Berkeley has started up a company that upgrades Toyota Priuses to full electric. Saw one of the cars yesterday and was quite neat.

www.drhorrible.com

When the Hollywood writers went on strike last winter, it was speculated that television and film's loss would be the Internet's gain.

It's been several months since the strike concluded, but there's finally evidence that that lull in production has resulted in a game-changing online creation from Hollywood professionals looking for a new avenue.

The first episode of the three-part Web series “Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog” was posted Tuesday at drhorrible.com, and it doesn't take a mad genius to realize its quality, its humour and its inventiveness signify a great leap forward for online video.

The series stars Neil Patrick Harris (“How I Met Your Mother”) as Dr. Horrible, a wannabe mad scientist who blogs about his unrealized dreams for world domination and his refused entry into to “Evil League of Evil.” For example, he's working with a vocal coach on his maniacal laugh....

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080717.wgtdrhorrible0717/BNStory/Technology/home

London music and decisions made

2008-06-14T01:45:00.000-07:00

I just ticked off #2 last night! (http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/apr/03/london.music http://www.thedublincastle.com/) Apparently the bar (and Camden) is the origin of Madness (of "our house, in the middle of the street.... our house......") judging by all the posters on the wall....

So when is help coming to check out the other venues? Pretty sure I've been to the Hope & Anchor, but didn't see any music. And the Windmill (Brixton) is minutes from my flat.

And speaking of my flat, I just got my transfer offer yesterday and looks like I''m a Londoner. And I think I've swung some deals (with work & landlord) so that I don't have to move out of my flat even though I'll be in US/Canada till Aug 1 (serious considerations at $1700/month). Anyone want to sublet for the next month? Or need a vacation flat in London this July? I'm leaving tomorrow for a week in Milan to "get to know the team" there, then Phillie for a meeting on the June 25-26th, then back Canada to get my Visa and relax (road trip out west for sure). And almost certain that I'll be rolling through SF on my way to London (late July / early August).

I'm kind of unwinding at the moment. Could be travelling to Italy today and enjoying a new city, but I've decided to take my time getting out of London (i.e., leaving tomorrow). Was all kind of stressful this week including balancing two jobs (Olympics and "normal" CH2M are in different offices, so it's almost like 2 jobs) and me rejecting the first transfer offer and having people freak out that I'd go home (which I contemplated, via Africa of course), but worked out in the end. Sort of. Even with a good raise, I'm sure my standard of living will be lower (my latte while writing this email was £2 / $4). Though 25 days of vacation, 8 statutory holidays and a seemingly weeks of sick time (which Brits do flagrantly abuse) will be nice. Not to mention my flight to Italy tomorrow, which I still haven't booked, will be $120 last minute - can't complain about that!!

I babble with my latte induced whir... so... I'll be back in US/Canada all of July and mid-late August till early September I'll be working in Northern Ireland, but besides that (and assuming I don't move, which isn't looking likely) I will have a 1 bedroom London flat with futon in the living room!! And there's lots of good live music! Hint hint :)

Leaving London, but just for a bit...

2008-06-08T04:54:00.000-07:00

Hey folks. Just another quick update. I’ve been busy working in London the last month and a bit since Thailand. Mostly working on the Olympics project, but slowly working more on the DuPont projects (Ireland, Netherlands stuff). But only have another week here in London and then need to get out of the country to get my work visa and such. So I’ve given up my flat as of this coming Friday and I’ll be living and working out of our Milan office until flying to Philadelphia for a June 26th meeting. With all this said, I still don’t have my transfer offer, and if it really sucks, I won’t be coming back (my way of ensuring I get my 25% raise to adjust for $6 beer).

Life here has been quite good. I haven’t been travelling at all, mostly because I’ve been content spending time in my own flat and working. It’s been a while since I’ve been this settled in a place I call my own and just as long since I’ve really felt engaged and excited about work (field projects have a different excitement). I must admit that working on the Olympics is a bit energizing. I’m putting together quite a significant presentation for this Monday (dry run) and then Wednesday (to our client) that summarizes most of what I’ve been working on (and the entire team) for the last few months. The presentation will then continue forward (in some form) for a multitude of things (contractor initiations, other client meetings, etc.). So I’m heading into the office momentarily (yes, it’s Sunday) to finish off the presentation. Kind of sad, but since I’m not going to be around for the next month, I’m trying to NOT give the presentation, though it’s looking like I know the information too well and can’t delegate it all. But not much use getting my face up front with the client if I won’t be here to follow through.

And looking forward, I’m hoping to be back in Canada for the July long weekend. Yes I know, apparently this is not the best time to come home with other guests and such in town, but it seems that when you start making work commitments you have a little less say on things. Well, actually, it’s only the June 26th meeting in Philly that has really tied my hands. I could still end up being in Canada till the end of July depending on how long the work visa takes. And when I get back to the UK in late July / early August, I’ll only be here a week or two before heading to Northern Ireland for about a month. That’s it in Ireland though as I’ve kind of insisted on making London my home base for now. After making friends and getting to know the place, I just couldn’t bring myself to moving to Dublin right now. Especially since my company has a much bigger presence in London and isolating myself in Dublin just isn’t the right thing to do.

So hopefully I’ll have a flat in London again by September 1st? (important info for you travelling & likely-to-visit types) Though feel free to come and visit before then if you’d like, but I’ll probably be staying in hotels in either London or Dublin (could be worse). I thought about keeping the flat, and still a chance that I will if work pays for it (which they currently are, but until transfer letter gets in my hands and terms get settled...). Just keeping the flat seems the easiest, but flats seem easy enough to come by and at $1700/month, I don’t think I’ll be here enough in the next two months to justify me paying for it! But then again, moving my crap this week sure seems like a lot of effort too never mind having to look for a place in the future and the idea of hotels again… sigh…

Trying to think if there’s anything else somewhat exciting that I’ve forgotten... hmmm... I've seen a few shows lately including The Weakerthans this past week – a really good indie band from Winnipeg of all places (so had to go). I was supposed to go up to Inverness / Aberdeen this weekend to visit Pat & Stef and Pat’s brother Graham from Victoria (I knew Graham from elementry school / Camp Stephens), but work just got too nuts and I couldn’t take the days off (sheesh – I’m working Sunday!). But next weekend in Italy with my friend Jen from Amsterdam should be loads of fun, so I’ll quit my bitching. And I’ve made a few new friends in France, Spain, etc. that will all make wonderful visits sometime in the near future!!

But that’s it for now, must get to work!! Hope to see many of you in the coming month or so. Definitely those in Winnipeg & Calgary. Maybe those in Victoria? Maybe those in San Francisco / LA (not sure how the US visits might work as I will be passport-less while my visa application is in progress and the US has just put passport requirements in place - maybe on my way back to London, though not exactly on the way, are some work justifications i.e., ways to get work to pay for stop off).

If I had to vent right now... how come Europe is become less restrictive on passports and travel, work, etc. (I travelled from Poland to Germany without a passport!!) while North America is going the other way. Just a thought for the day...

I missed summer in London and what to do with my life :)

2008-05-18T03:48:00.000-07:00

I have a few blogs in progress, but doing the photos takes too much effort!! So just thought I'd give a shout from London with no photo.

It's actually mostly sunny today, but cool. When I got here on Tuesday it was really nice, warm and sunny and I'm told it was like that all last week or even longer. And then it started to rain Wednesday and just stopped this morning for a bit (probably rain again this aft). Everyone is joking (sort of) that the last couple weeks were the London summer and that I missed it. Hmmm...

So I'm back working on the Olympics for the next few weeks. And then after that I'm supposed to start working with the usual CH2M HILL office (more commonly referred to as the Kensington office). Not sure how engaged I am in anything right now. Still wondering why I left Bangkok.... the money hadn't run out and there were beaches, massage courses, cooking classes and, well, lots of things to do! Sigh...

So instead of massage course tomorrow, I have a meeting with the regional business group manager that will largely resolve my future in Europe (?). Outcomes range from me saying "thanks, no thanks, I'm going travelling and back to North America to work in a coffee shop" to me getting a really sweet UK salary with paid accommodation (thanks Mum & Dad, I already know your vote!). Reality is probably somewhere in between, but closer to the latter as I'm more ambivalent about what happens right now and they're in dire need. You see, one of the key London hydrogeologists is in the Territorial Army (sort of like reserves) and just got called up to Afghanastan. So its gone from "we're interested in having you join...." to "we're desperate to...". Combined with my ambivalence, seems a good time for negotiating!

Since you're reading this, you get to think through with me what my key requirements are:

1. I'm going to be in London till late June and I'm sick of hotels. They're paying for the accommodation and this will continue (negotiating point #1a), but I want it to be in the form of a per diem that I can use for whatever (point #1b) i.e., there are a couple sublet opportunities that have come my way that will be much nicer than hotels - also, if the sublet is less than my per diem, then I pocket the cash.

2. They've requested I attend a meeting near Philadelphia on ~June 30th. I've already told them I'm taking 3 weeks off in North America after this meeting. I need to confirm this and make sure all tickets are paid for. I'm hoping work in San Fran will pay for a trip there too. And hopefully I'll just have to pay for 1 ticket to Winnipeg. And I need to move the meeting so I can make the Canada Day long weekend in Winnipeg.

3. Upon returning from North America in say late June, they want me to work in London for a bit and then work in Dublin. Ideally they'd like me to settle in Dublin for the rest of the year, but they'd accept a London residence if I resist (client is in Ireland and the client is pushing for "local staff" even the project site is in Northern Ireland and would still require flying to the site???). And they'd also like me to support the same client in the Netherlands and France. Which all sounds great in a lot of ways, but wow, I'm just starting to make a group of friends in London and thinking about which neighbourhood I'd like to settle in and now boom, time to change cities again! I've been living out of the same two suitcases since January and haven't been more than a month anywhere in probably the last two years!! And if I settle in Dublin then I won't be able to work on the Olympics project at all because they're in London and.... So many things to consider. If they want me to be mobile and live in Dublin, then we're seriously talking a "show me the money" type thing. Settling down somewhere is high on my priority list and this sounds like the opposite.

4. I'm a part time employee. Everyone seems to forget this including you, me, my boss, everyone I work with, etc. This is my attempt to make work a lower priority and other things (historically travel, relationships, volunteer work, etc.) a higher priority. I'm more or less failing and working too much and doing too little of the other things. Good for the bank account, bad for the life. How can I tell work people that I will commit to stuff but don't want to work too much? I pulled it off fine in San Francisco after working for many years and then people just accepted it because I did a good job when I did work (usually) and maybe more so just because it was San Francisco (more laid back than London). But I need to subtly bring this up tomorrow that I don't want to manage 3 projects, support 4 others and work on 60 hours per week. Or if I do work 60 hours per week, I take every second month off (which is fine when you work field jobs, almost like contract work, but not so hot when you're managing the projects with a high level of responsibility).

Okay, since I'm babbling after 2 cups of coffee, here's a funny one. This was my list of priorities from an email exchange between Laurel and myself a couple weeks ago (I've deleted her answers as I wouldn't want to influence anyone - also her response of "move to Ireland for the hot Irish chicks" while very true, I'm thinking going where the chicks are hottest isn't the best way to plan my life... though there is definitely more thought required on this point). She was requested to put these in order or priority and figure out what to do with my life. Feel free to take a stab and then I'll average responses and do what people say so that I don't have to make any decisions myself :) Cheers!

__ Work on Olympics project in London - committed (and now doing) May 13 - May 31

__ Start long-term commitment for Ireland/Netherlands/France project June 1

__ Support a project in Canada, ~1-2 week effort (could fly to Canada, but not
conducive with above European work commitments or Canada vacation schedule)

__ Visit friends (Jen L. and Darran & Jenny) in Netherlands (but might be
working there soon enough to make visiting now silly)

__ Visit Canada for at least 2 weeks (family in Winnipeg, move stuff in Calgary)

__ Visit Calgary to move possessions from friend's basement to ??? and to help
Mr. McNeil celebrate finishing his PhD!! Thinking of maybe putting my car
back on the road to drive out to Calgary, maybe Vancouver too in first weeks
of July...

__ Visit Laurel in Egypt? Ethiopia ? E....? some E country in Africa :)
Actually, it's Ethiopia, and could also do some Engineers Without Borders work
in Tanzania. But I don't think Africa is worth it unless I can take a full
month off and just not sure how to fit this into my upcoming work schedule.

__ Visit San Francisco to do training, have fun, etc. Could almost certainly
get work to pay for this if I was already in North America.

__ More travelling, maybe China, maybe India in October with a newly-made friend,
France to visit some new friends, maybe over there, how about there, how
about... (again, work commitments seem to inhibit my travel desires)

Sliven, Burgas & Plovdiv

2008-05-17T07:56:00.000-07:00

I finished up my stint in Bulgaria a couple days ago (actually, now a several weeks ago since I'm so slow actually finishing this post). I ended up working several extra days due to typical Bulgarian problems and because I told the next geologist I'd finish it off. I thought it would just be an extra day or two, but everything from drilling issues to simple stuff like getting shipping boxes and coordinating the shipping of samples to Italy seemed like heroic tasks. If you can believe it, the FedEx depot in Sliven doesn't take credit cards, only cash. And since the shipment was going to be 2300 Euros, I wasn't too keen on going to the bank machine 12 times and carrying a massive wad of cash around in a place notorious for mafia and people carrying guns (during the time I was in Bulgaria, my translator was robbed in Sofia - I know, law of small numbers but...). I could have paid with the corporate FedEx account, but then the price was a little over 4000 Euros. Interesting to say the least. Before I get on to more interesting things than work, here are some photos I took while "working" including a couple abandoned military watch tower buildings (gutted by gypsies for the copper), some scenery shots where I was drilling and me playing with the macro.

I did a half-day trip to the Black Sea on my last Sunday in Sliven. I worked the morning very hungover and things were mostly finishing up and I was annoyed at having to work my second weekend in a row that I called up Tara (a peace corp volunteer that I met from the nearby town of Yambo) and said let's go! She was up for it as she wanted the beach and I had the car. So off to the Black Sea (Burgas, to be more precise) we went. There are some much nicer and touristy towns right around Burgas, but she mostly took me to a nice beach and some cool places in town. The weather was sunny and 28 degrees C, but the water was chilly (at least too chilly for anything but my feet).

The town of Burgas was surprisingly nice. I guess I had become a little too settled in Sliven, a moderate sized town but quite rural. Not that Sliven is really small, but it's somewhat isolated and behind the times compared to Burgas which feels a bit more European / modern / happening even though it's further east. Burgas has blocks and blocks of walking streets, though this seems to be more the standard for Bulgarian cities. In fact, probably the most impressive thing about Bulgarian towns is that all the downtown cores I've been too have pedestrian streets that seem to rule the downtowns. And not just one block, but block after block that make turns, join at a big square / plaza and continue in multiple directions. Very nice. In Burgas, it was nearly 30 degrees out and all the streets and markets were packed.

A few things I like about these photos... doesn't the church look like it's leaning? I know it's some photographic / visual illusion whose name I can't recall, but... Also I was just looking at the brass sculpture photo and there appear to be two boys making out... how scandalous!! :) Lastly, I'd like to give a moment of photographic honor to Zagorka, a fine beer and my beverage of choice for many a day! The same can be said of McDonalds only once on the 3-hour drive from Sofia to Sliven, which has a McDonalds drive thru exactly half way and sadly proved too tempting ;(

After I finished up work I headed to Plovdiv, almost the half way point between Sliven and Sofia (Sofia being where I was flying out from). I had grandiose plans of spending one night in Plovdiv and another night in a monastery in the mountains (which comes highly recommended), but alas, work took too long and I was burnt out. I think this was about Day 16 without a day off - though granted I did take an afternoon here or there - and I was getting a tad grumpy and just repeating to myself "show me the money!" A good part of the drive from Sliven to Plovdiv was on a small secondary road that was ridiculous (map showed it as a highway, but that was a bit of an overstatement). I essentially travelled from a mountain range in the north down into the valley that runs (it seems anyway) nearly from Sofia to Sliven. Then Plovdiv is across the valley further to the south approaching the next (and bigger) range of mountains that are an extension of the Alps sort of? Anyway, my rental car was a fun little 1.4L (?) Spanish car with a stick shift (it drove and had several things about it that were very Volkswagon, so I'm guessing there had to be some joint something or other between the companies). I don't think I've ever driven such twisty roads with severe swtichbacks, 20% climbs / declines, obstacles (trees, animals, potholes that would swallow a truck, sudden changes to gravel or near disappearance of road, etc. etc. And was kind of strange as all signs of human life nearly disappeared for over an hour with only one logging truck being seen and there were no signs in any language I recognized so I was highly uncertain that I was on the "highway". In places the road was partially overgrown so I was trying to recall if any nuclear reactors had failed in Bulgaria. With such strange conditions, I naturally drove the crap out of the car and for about 1 hour (still not knowing if I was on the righ road) and it was either full on acceleration up hills, hard braking and downshifting (the car loved the redline) into a corner (or to avoid animal or tree or...) with the odd burst on very rare straight aways. Quite intense and I burnt off much of the work frustrations (as well as 20% of the engine life and 50% of the brake pads).

I took a few random photos of interesting things along the way, both in the hills and then upon hitting the valley. The randomness of the photos from the hills doesn't come across because several of these things had no sign of life for 20 km on either side and then all of sudden there was a fountain or a building or some ruins. I took a photo of the sign post because it was the first thing I had seen in english confirming I was in the right spot in quite a while. And I have no idea what the half naked woman on the billboard is trying to sell, but I find this kind of product endorsement / spokesperson is much more effective than say Tiger Woods.

I made it to Plovdiv around 5PM. Tara had hooked me up with a couple of Peace Corps friends in town and I had dinner and drinks with them that evening. Unfortunately the work requests to finish up this and that kept coming and I spent much of the next day in my hotel room scanning, faxing and tabulating until I was ready to tear someones head off. But finally I made it out for some more touristy things, which was quite easy since my hotel was in the heart of the old district (I had Roman ruins literally 300 feet from my hotel). I really liked Plovdiv, the former capital that had also been occupied by the Romans in times long long ago, then the Turks, then the XXX, then the XXX, etc. But somehow, the occupiers never leveled the place so it has become quite the architectural collaboration. Was a really nice city with some great hills overlooked by mountains, the aforementioned great architecture ranging from Roman to Islamic mosques to churches, to Japanese to Russian, and a nice balance between eastern and western Europe. Here's a handful of photos I snapped (yes, I admit, my blog is more of a photo album than a blog, but what's your point?).

Green curry is so good!

2008-04-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

Hello from Chiang Mai! It's raining right now and I thought I'd say hi and let people know where I'm at. I ended up working more than planned in Bulgaria and only had a couple days off in Plovdiv at the end. And even those days off involved some to a lot of work on the computer. Such is life.... but last Thursday's paycheque (for the first two weeks of work in Bulgaria - about 140 hours!) has paid for the Thailand vacation and probably the next, so I can't really complain I guess. Especially when the hour Thai massage only costs $4-7! But I do complain none the less because whining is so much fun! In whole, Bulgaria was work, but really pretty great with a beautiful field site in mountainous farm land, really getting to live and meet people, having a fun car to putt about on mountain roads, and way more real than just being a tourist ever could have been. I like this idea of working in different places, though it gets old too. I'll put some photos up at some point when I'm not being drawn to swimming pools, wats, massages, etc. etc.

So I flew out it out of Bulgaria last Thursday and spent a couple days hanging out with Ben, Sam & Conner in Bangkok (I even babysat for an afternoon... yikes!!). Then Michelle arrived and we spent one more day in Bangkok. Definitely fun all hanging out together, having drinks, wandering about Bangkok, having a suit & shirts made, getting foot massages together, etc. etc. Now Ben & Sam are down in Phuket getting wedding stuff prepared while Michelle and I are up in Chiang Mai. We took the night train up and among other things are booked for a 2-day trek tomorrow and a full day organic farm cooking class on Saturday.

The cooking class (I think) we're going to take is described pretty well here in someone else's blog that I found by trying to get some info on the different places (we've found a few places wandering and talking to people, but since I'm stuck travelling with my laptop after Bulgaria and the hotel has free wireless, why not...)

Also came across this Thai cooking lessons website that might be interesting (my connection is too slow to watch streaming video, but maybe yours isn't?).

In case any wedding folk are curious, we're flying to Phuket direct from Chiang Mai Sunday May 4 arriving Thai Airways at 1445. Should be perfect timing to get checked in, cleaned up and make the reception get together thingy at 6PM. I think our plan is to stay in Phuket at least till the 7th, maybe the 8th before moving on to Ko Phi Phi (maybe, elsewhere too?) and finally Krabi. Michelle and I fly to Bangkok from Krabi Sunday May 10 9PM.

I'm very conflicted, but I've tentatively confirmed with the London Olympics project that I'll work starting May 13 for 3 weeks. Part of me wants to stay in Thailand by myself and do a week-long massage course or something just totally relaxing. I could just sit in a hut by myself and read? Or maybe go join Ben in Vietnam for a week before he flies back to Australia for a holiday? Or maybe fly to Ethiopia to visit Laurel. I don't know, but going back to work so soon just seems silly. Like, who needs to work, like really? (that statement should be said with full valley girl dizziness) Any suggestions?

rock & dirt in Bulgaria...

2008-04-12T00:22:00.000-07:00

Hello from Sliven. About 3 hours east of Sofia (the capital). I must admit my geography of eastern Europe is a bit skewed, so if you're like me... it's a couple hours north of Greece and not much further to Istanbul (both of which I'm contemplating next week assuming the work finishes up). Bulgaria used to have some coast line on the Adriatic, but Macedonia split off and took the coast with them - I remember reading about how Greece objects to them calling themselves Macedonia because Greece has states (provinces ?) called Macedonia and they don't like the confusion and maybe also worried their states will join with the new country of similar name? Like the Kurds in Turkey/Iraq? Ignorance is bliss...

The last week has been a bit intense. Finishing up in London and getting rushed onto this job very last minute was... rushed. And this job (doing geotechnical borings in farmland for what someday will be a US Army base) has been very poorly planned in many aspects. And given the job is in Bulgaria, it's kind of like being thrown to the wolves. But still in a fun way.

Getting a rental car and leaving the airport here is a challenge. You leave the airport and there are two choices for directions, but no signs. Ummm... thanks for that. And even if there were signs, they'd probably be in Cyrillic. And then I get onto a fairly major road, but still no signs that provide any indication as to which direction I'm heading or anything. And of course since everything was rushed I had no maps and the map Hertz gave me only had the downtown core and didn't show the airport. And unlike every Hertz rental in the US where they try to push GPS units on you, Bulgaria doesn't have them. Lovely. Anyway, I somehow made it onto the highway I wanted, and despite not really getting the road signs, I did the 3 hour drive to Sliven without too much incident (arriving at 10PM, 4 hours later than planned thanks to snow in London).

Sliven, it turns out, is a very nice city of ~100,000. My hotel is I think the nicest hotel in town and right in the central district on a park and pedestrian street. Lots of shops, cafes, outdoor restaurants, etc. And a very cheap place to get my US cell phone unlocked and a new battery for my old cell, which has a Bulgarian SIM in it (it's free to call me, but costs to for me to make calls, so ask for my number if you want to call). Here's my first Sliven photo taken from my hotel window...

The work has been slow, but also what I was expecting. In 4 days, we've accomplished 4 meters of hole. Everything from the driller (my subcontractor) showing up with a drill rig & crew that they has been in turn subcontracted (subcontractor to the subcontractor). And then they don't have the right equipment, and then this breaks and then that and.... well, let's just say we're working the weekend and it's 11AM and I'm doing a blog in my hotel because we're waiting for a part... The work was supposed to be 5 holes up to 25 meter each to do geotech properties and sample collection, but rock is very shallow and most holes look like they'll just be a few meters. Anyway... here are a few photos of the crazy looking Russian drill rig, the hired band of Gypsies (that show up in their horse drawn cart) digging a mud pit and some random rock / soil photos:

I had an interpretor for the first 5 days, but now I'm on my own. Was kind of nice having someone to hang out with while we did nothing. Milkana knew some neat little towns with little restaurants up in the mountain villages and we had a few 3 hour lunches and such. I really wish I had taken my camera for some of these places as they were incredibly quaint. Life is rough... but now I'm sort of working.

Work will go for at least another week. I'm hoping to be done by next weekend and I don't fly out till the following Wednesday or Thursday. Which will give some time to go to the Black Sea? Turkey? Greece? Bucharest? Serbia? Maybe a road trip to all of them? Will all depend on when the work finishes and how burnt out I feel. And on the 23rd or 24th I fly to Bangkok to catch up with Michelle on the 26th and head down to Ben's wedding in Phuket. Then back to London on May 12 I think, but that's still weeks away. Anyway, that's what I'm up to... Hope all are well everywhere!

Working in the London

2008-03-21T05:33:00.001-07:00

I flew from Berlin to Glasgow to catch up with Pat & Stef who were taking a weekend vacation in Edinburgh. P&S once again were gracious enough to put me up for a couple nights not to mention bring my luggage from Aberdeen (they did get some babysitting out of the deal, which involved no effort since Chloe never woke up once). I was travelling Poland/Germany with just a small day pack, which is most certainly the way to travel. I finished writing the the last bit of the Berlin blog on the train from Edinburgh to London on Monday (which had wireless!) and then Tuesday....

I'm finally in London working! Was what I first talked about in when I left San Fran in April 2006! More specifically, I'm in the Canary Wharf office working on the 2012 Olympics for the next month or so (until Vietnam/Thailand). Which isn't really a CH2M office - it is, but isn't - more of a project office dedicated to the one project. Kind of different lifestyle as the office is right in the center of the financial district (21st floor of the Barclay Building) and I'm taking a ferry each morning from the Hilton Docklands. Let's just say I'm going shopping this weekend to buy some nice close to fit in a bit better!! And I'm also checking out of the Hilton for a slightly more reasonable hotel (only a mere £120/night) and, more importantly, a funner neighbourhood (Old Street). It has been quite a shock from the stay in London a month ago - a £14 4-bed hostel room to a £200 hotel.

There have been numerous phone calls and emails over the last few weeks about my future in London (post Thailand). Nothing confirmed, but looking like the Olympics project may try to keep me part time and the work in Ireland wants me for ~3 months (based out of the main CH2M London office). And the client for the Dublin work also needs support for sites in the Netherlands & France. All this looks like lots of travel, but doesn't look to be too settled. So choices are looking like:

A. Forget about work and travel (Ethiopia & Tanzania are still quite interesting)

B. Support projects in a few countries for up to a few months at a time, get to travel, but don't really get to settle in a have a normal life.

C. Settle down in London, get a flat, but then have all the London expenses that somewhat limit travel.

I'll have some decisions to make and no doubt some will get made for me. And in order to get this all settled, they want me to attend a quarterly client meeting on April 29-30 (apparently the Ireland client really likes local staff and will have to be won over by Canadian charm). But this is just a few days before Ben's wedding and they are unwilling to hold the meeting in Bangkok - how unreasonable! Everyone seems eager to get me on board, so hopefully my absence at the meeting isn't a fatal blow.

And a really funny one... I spoke some words of French with the PM of the Ireland work (who happens to be French and lives in Marseilles) and next thing I know I'm getting a request to do a senior review of a report in French. Ummm... big difference between being able to order a meal or navigate the metro and do a senior review of a technical report! I could have brutalized it after a few beers (my French vastly improves after a few beer!), but not understanding the subtly of one word can greatly change the meaning of a sentence and.... I spoke French with Chloe my entire time in Aberdeen (granted she's 2 1/2 years old), but my experience there makes me think that a few weeks in France talking French (maybe taking a class) would do a world of good. Hmmm... maybe that should be Choice D above?

Krakow & Berlin

2008-03-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

And off to Krakow, barely looking at a map, not knowing how to say hi, not knowing if it's in the EU, and really just being quite ignorant and indifferent to my ignorance - bliss, perhaps. Turns out Krakow is a very nice city with lots of old buildings, churches, palaces, etc. (the only largish Polish city not to be leveled during WWII). It's one of the cities where I feel I could settle down and just hang out for a few weeks without wanting to leave. I really didn't take many photos of the town itself as kept planning to get evening photos (the town square had great light in the morning and evening), but I never got up early enough and then always forgot at night, so I stole the last two...

As a summary, I'd have to say Krakow was great. I'm left wanting to do a lot more travel in Eastern Europe. Prices are reasonable, people are more or less friendly, lots of fun, beautiful tourist things, nice when out of the tourist area, beautiful women (as in holy cow), and they love to party. What else could one want? Was a good time to visit as well being fun but a quieter than the summer months (which can supposedly get a little crazy). But to put it in perspective, I arrived at the hostel at 9PM and was out at a club by 10PM (of course with no food or water, so...).

On the tourist side, I did a day trip from Krakow to Auschwitz, the infamous WWII concentration camp in which a few million people met their fate (predominantly Jews & Poles). Wasn't exactly a destination that you want to go, but more a destination you have to go. Was quite impressive, if that's the right word.

And then from Auschwitz we went to Birkenau, which is right next door. Auschwitz was a Polish army camp that the Germans took over and then they built Birkenau so they could hold more people. Many parts of Birkenau got destroyed / burnt as the Germans left so you have to use your imagination when you just see rows and rows of chimneys just how many people actually would have been in this camp.

More on Auschwitz & Birkenau from wikipedia...

Auschwitz-Birkenau (Konzentrationslager Auschwitz (help·info)) was the largest of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp complex. Located in German-occupied southern Poland, it took its name from the nearby town of Oświęcim (Auschwitz in German), situated about 50 kilometers west of Kraków and 286 kilometers from Warsaw. Following the German occupation of Poland in September 1939, Oświęcim was incorporated into Germany as part of the Katowice District (Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz), or unofficially East Upper Silesia (Ost-Oberschlesien), and renamed Auschwitz. There were also around 40 satellite camps, some of them tens of kilometers from the main camps, with prisoner populations ranging from several dozen to several thousand.

The camp commandant, Rudolf Höß (in English commonly Hoess or Höss), testifed at the Nuremberg Trials that 3 million people had died at Auschwitz during his stay as a commandant. Later he decreased his estimate to about 1.1 million. The death toll given by the Soviets and accepted by many was 4,000,000 people. This number was written on the plaques in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The Museum revised this figure in 1990, and new calculations by Dr. Franciszek Piper now place the figure at 1.1 million about 90 percent of them were Jews from almost every country in Europe. Most deportees were killed in gas chambers using Zyklon B; other deaths were caused by systematic starvation, forced labor, lack of disease control, individual executions, and medical experiments.

Another afternoon trip was to the W Salt Mines. Wasn't sure if I'd enjoy this trip, but as a geologist, I figured going into a mine is always good. And it turns out the mine was a very worthwhile trip. It's not so much of a mine as a serious of rooms. Well, it is a mine with I think 250 km of tunnels, but the rooms they've carved out are cathedrals, music halls, elaborate swimming pools which now function as resorts, etc. etc. All with hundreds of sculptures lining halls and rooms. Very nice and well worth an afternoon. (photos cost extra, so the last couple are scavenged off the net)

After 4 days in Krakow and after work stalled a bit more, I decided to go to Berlin on the train. Rather than doing a night train (Krakow to Berlin ~11 hours), I broke up the trip with a night in Wroclav. But since my bed in Krakow ranged from 4 to 5 in the morning and usually involved many vodka drinks, Wroclav ended up being a movie night (Control - about Ian Curtis of Joy Division) followed by early to bed. So I actually didn't take any photos here.

Berlin was another unknown for me. I had never been to Germany, though I felt like it would be more like home and it was. I think in part because Germans are so well educated and also travel so much, english is never a problem (Poland was sporadic, though the younger folk are definitely more worldly). Similar to Poland, I arrived late (8PM) and ended up finding myself cabbing it home from a club at 3AM. Unfortunately, the subways and buses were on strike, so the 3AM cab ride was a tad pricey, but the only option was to wait till 4:30AM when the overground train (S-baun) started to run (I took this option the following night).

I was really just in Berlin for one full day, so I had to make the most of it. I did a free walking tour by the same group that do the walking tour in London (and a couplie other cities, too). The tour took us through many buildings and statues and such with WWI and WWII relevance. Was quite eerie in a way to be in the German capital talking about the Nazi war machine (and the Holocaust Memorial - the field of grey cement blocks in photos below) after having been in Auschiwitz just a few days earlier.

Maybe one of the most interesting things for me was the Brandenburg Gate, largely because of its history and story that it tells. The gate leads from the Tiergarten (big park, zoo, etc.) into Paris Platz (Square) and has history from Napoleon to being part of the Berlin wall. Here's my photo of the Brendenburg Gate on a cold rainy morning (sort of fitting).

To start, the gate has a statue with 4 horses that was stolen by the French a few hundred years ago and then the Germans (actually the Prussians at the time I think) defeated Napolean and recaptured the statue. After taking the statue back to Berlin, they changed it to look more fortified (took away olive branch and put militaristic staff in hand) and put the statue back up on the gate leading to the newly renamed the Paris Square (kind of a screw you French, we're watching you sort of thing). Supposedly they also turned the head of the statue so it angles down looking at where the French Embassy is (more subtle German sense of humour).

In early 20th century (before WWII), the square was described as one of the nicest squares in Europe and was home to many prominent buildings including the US and French Embassies, a fancy hotel, etc. (currently home to a new the French Embassy and the US one is under construction). Then WWII and literally every building surrounding the square was leveled (apparently the Russians had some frustration to take out) and only the gate survived, albeit a little worse for the wear. Up close you can see how it looks like a patch work of plaster filled bullet holes. This is a photo of a historic sign they have that sort of shows circa 1944 vs. today.

Then, lastly, after WWII the gate became part of the Berlin Wall. Can't say I have any photos of this, but definitely a few of the Berlin Wall and one that I scavenged off the internet (pretty obvious which one is not present day).

The last night in Berlin was a DJ club type thing in the basement of an abandoned building in the outskirts of what was Eastern Berlin. This was quite an adventure ending at 6:30AM (this left 2 hours for sleep before going to the airport). Ouch! My ears were ringing for 2 days, I was blowing smokey snot out of my nose for the same amount of time, and my feet are still sore from dancing. But was definitely worth it!

Old Scottish Friends

2008-03-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

After the couple weeks working in London, I went up to Aberdeen to visit Pat, Stef and Chloe, of course! (old friends, though newly Scottish!). The time in Aberdeen was very nice and relaxing with some quality time with friends. Pat & I got many a scotch tasting (tours, local pubs and the living room). We also did a hike in on a nearby "mountain" - okay, it wasn't a mountain, more of a large hill, and it was covered in snow, and the distillery at the base (Glenlivet, which was supposed to be our reward), was closed, but still a nice hike and some much needed exercise. Stef and I also got a day adventuring to nearby castles (we avoided the snow!). And then there were the many fun days of hanging with Chloe and, I must admit, some days doing some remote work to pay the bills.

Here's a few photos from an expedition Pat & I took to the town of Elgin and the Glen Moray distillery (3 pounds for a tour and 7 scotch tastings!!).

And then Stef & I left Chloe with Pat for a day and did an outing to see a couple castles and have a really nice dinner just south of Aberdeen in Stonehaven. The photo of Stef next to a very special piece of Scottish history is quite impressive isn't it? (click on the photo and you can see a larger version of the photo and see what is underneath the box) I nearly had enough "covered" or "being repaired" photos of Scottish monuments to make an entire photo series of hidden art!! Or the other possibility is that this is a Scottish obelisk that will be the found during the beginning of A Space Odyssey: 2014?

How about Scottish mountaineering?

And some general trouble causing with my favourite girl in Aberdeen...

After two great weeks in Aberdeen (which flew by!) and with the work in London in the works but the paperwork dragging along, I made a quick decision to make a trip. After printing a map of Europe, going to the local pub, taping the aforementioned map to the dart board and having a few scotches, I threw a dart. Okay, in reality it more involved finding a cheap last minute flight to somewhere I wanted to go. As it turns out, Poland (and more specifically Krakow) was the final choice. And so I said farewell to Pat & Stef (left March 8 to be precise), but left the majority of my luggage with them ensuring another visit sometime very soon!

Aye, I've arrived in Scotland

2008-02-25T01:32:00.000-08:00

Hello from Scotland, Inverness to be precise. Just took a cab from the airport and trying to meet up with some friends who have me waiting at this very posh Inn while they finish a brewery tour. Judging by this place, I think I'm hanging out with friends that have "nice tastes" (i.e., expensive). Wasn't in the plans to come here (Inverness), but the aforementioned friends (Ali & Jason from London) were coming up here with a group of friends and have a spare room so... And they left on Thursday and left me their place in London for Thursday & Friday night... just a smallish $3500/month apartment in Islington (near King's Cross tube station). Sheeshh! Things are a tad expensive here! Tomorrow I'm off to Pat & Stef's in Aberdeen.

So far things have gone quite well. The reception in the London office was very good, though nothing 100% has materialized. There would be commitments materializing if I were ready to commit 100%, but there are lots of downsides. They don't seem all that busy here (by comparison to the US offices anyway). And committing 100% for a single project would likely mean restrictions on taking smaller jobs in interesting places. For example, the only small job that has presented itself is 3 weeks of drilling supervision in Bulgaria. It sucks thought that job just got pulled out from underneath me at 4PM on Friday (a senior up guy from Germany pulled a "we want CH2M International staff on the project" i.e., not CH2M US - which I find very penny wise, pound foolish if they're interested in having me come over and "join the team"). I was rather annoyed to hear this on Friday afternoon, but things will come...

There is also work on the London Olympics project that could come through and be an expenses/accomodation paid endeavour, which is kind of key because London is friggin expensive. There is also work in ~May in Netherlands and ~June in Northern Ireland, but both of these seem so far away we'll have to see what materializes. Both the Olympics and Dublin jobs want me to commit full time, but seem willing to take me on shorter stints as well. This still could all work out well allowing me to do some travelling, go to Ben's wedding (May 4) and still end up with enough work to not cause the bank account to drop. We'll see I guess.

I will talk with some London office folk on Monday and barring any requests to come back to London ASAP, I guess I'm off to the Netherlands next? Though I've also met a fun Australian lawyer who's coming to Scotland and we may hang out and I'm contemplating a Germany visit, which could then lead to Prauge or? So maybe I'll add a stop somewhere before the Netherlands? See, the problem is my friend Jen has very rudely scheduled her holidays when I'm planning to be in the Netherlands. So I have to either stay at her place without her or rearrange (not that some alone time in Amsterdam in a paid apartment would be too rough). I haven't started to figure this out yet because everything seems to change anyway.

I realize I've talked mostly about work in London. I guess that's what was / is on my mind. But London was lots of fun as always. Were several nights of debauchery, a pub crawl and many a Guinness. I met up with my long lost 2nd cousin (Heather) who turns out went to the same junior high and high school as myself, met up with some fun people at the hostel, and met some good people at work. I was mostly focussed on work, but London is a hard place not to have some fun!!

Got to Love It!

2008-02-19T11:23:00.001-08:00

I picked up this card at the pub the other night - so much better than collecting Subway stamps for a free 6" tuna on honey oat!! Unfortunately, the pub isn't in an area of town I frequent :(

And we're off!

2008-02-15T06:15:00.000-08:00

Hi from London! After a nearly two years of wandering about North America (okay, a few trips elsewhere), I've finally made the trip to London. Yes, this is the trip for which I largely left SF in April 2006. Better late than never!

I've been here for a few days now, working in the CH2M office in Kensington (just west of Hyde Park). Quite a nice office, small, but good people. There's also a separate office for the Olympics project (I'm going for drinks with them tonight). I'm working here till next Friday (Feb 22) doing carry-over work from the Florida and North Carolina jobs. More work than I had originally planned, but on the positive side, my time here will be positive (bank account wise), which an accomplishment of sorts given how crappy the US dollar is! I've also had a very positive reception / level of interest and have had several meetings with people about various "opportunities". Nothing in stone obviously, in large part because they keep asking the question "what is it you're doing right now?". And henceforth starts the dilemmas (sorry, it's exciting so I have to tell someone!)...

There are some longer term prospects including a relocation to Dublin (specific project is looking and I'm not sure if I'm interested). There is the Olympics project, which I will find out more about tonight, but would likely be a "need you now" situation. And there is a drilling job in Bulgaria they want me for either the beginning or end of March for 3-6 weeks (would begin to cut it close with Ben's wedding in Thailand). Then there are also job prospects in Madrid and Milan that have been mentioned but I've yet to really look into. So the dilemma, do I keep travelling? Or take the work if it comes? And where do I want to live? There was a mention that the Olympics project might pay for me stay in London for 4-6 weeks, as in all expenses paid. If that offer were to firm up, I'd be an idiot to pass it up!! But don't worry friends, your couches in Scotland, Netherlands, Ethiopia and Vietnam are still very high on my priority list!! :)

Just before coming to London I was on a very fun cruise with the family followed by a couple days of debauchery in LA. I'll get a blog for these sometime soon, but here's a foreshadow...

Scene on Cruise: My brother (Jeff), my sister in law (Alison) and I are sitting in a lounge doing some sort of twisted scavenger hunt. So happens Jeff is wearing Alison's clothes (a nice short jean miniskirt dress) and Alison is wearing Jeff's clothes (don't ask). And in walks their son Max. The funny thing is, Max doesn't even blink at his father wearing a dress and just starts on with his business. Wouldn't most 16 year olds look a little different at their father for wearing a dress? Apparently Max is quite used to this behaviour. What makes it even better, Max found us by going to guest services and asked them to find out where our charge cards were last used. Hmmmm - smart kid, eh?

And from LA: http://lightling.livejournal.com/87220.html

pretty funny in New York...

2008-02-10T11:50:00.000-08:00

cabins...

2008-02-02T11:43:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting in a log cabin in the Sierras thinking.... I've stayed in a two really nice remote (Sierras and middle of Alaska) cabins in the past year that were really more homes than cabins. Not "really nice" as in Tom Cruise is looking at buying the place, but really nice as in log cabins, large, nicely built and homely. Both cabins have been off the grid with wood heat & solar/wind systems (I think the Alaska cabin also had an oil heater stove though I didn't touch it). Having a cabin / country home is ultimately something I'd like to do (yes, I did just put a 12-volt solar system into the A-frame at the cabin, but that's quite small scale) so it's nice "try out" other peoples cabins and see what works, what you like, what you'd change, etc....

Electricity: If there is an option to hook up to electrical, do you take it? Even just as a back up for the solar / wind? Instead of running a generator if / when the solar system gets run down, you could use the municipal electricty to charge the batteries? What if it costs $5000? There are of course praticality issues (cost, electric heat option) and environmental issues. Probably more environmentally friendly to use municipal electricty to occasionaly make up power shortfalls / charge batteries rather than running a generator, but then you can't truly claim to be off the grid.

Cooking: There are 3 options as I see them. Wood, gas & electric. Wood is the most labor instensive, but can also provide heat and hot water, which is particularly useful in the winter, but not as much in the summer (still need hot water). If there is a municipal electric hook up, do you use that to run the stove / oven? Or go gas and accept that propane tanks will have to be filled at least a few times a year.

Heat: The cabin I'm in right now just has a wood stove (with water heater). Though there is lots of snow outside, I'm also in California at 3000' and there aren't many really really cold winter days (-20 C would be abnormally cold). It's a bit different in Canada where -30 C days are not uncommon. The wood stove option requires constant attention (at a bare minimum twice a day) unless the place is designed to freeze (i.e., is there full-time running water?). Which takes me to one of my future hobbies and possibly jobs at some point in the distant future: geothermal. I've read up on it a bit, but need to get more into it. But I think a small geothermal system could run off of a solar system and provide a base level of heating? Might not be the be all end all when temperatures drop much below freezing, but could be designed to keep a country place above freezing year round? If you're only going to a place on weekends in the middle of winter, there is a big difference between showing up and the place being +8C and the place being -23C. Of course if the choice above was to get a hookup to the municipal electric, then a single baseboard heater would keep the place from freezing over the unoccupied winter days for a few hundred dollars a season?

Hot Water: Again comes down to wood, gas or electric. Could have a wood option / pre-warmer regardless, but how rustic does one want to go? I know the cabin I'm in right now has wood fire heated water only and let's just say the fire didn't really keep going over night and I didn't shower this morning and the water was very luke warm when doing dishes. An on demand electric heater in the kitchen and bathroom might be a good option, but would require the municipal electrical connection. On-demand gas would similarly require the periodic delivery of propane.

I think it really comes down to is this a cabin or a home. A cabin I could deal with draining water lines in the winter and then having only wood and solar. But if this is a place you want to live and work out of for extending periods of time even in the winter months, then, personally, my requirements go up. Yes, I'm a spoiled westerner. I often chuckle to myself in an embarassed way when I'm travelling in a developing country and realize only the tourist places have hot water. Yet, here I am saying that it really is a necessity. So assuming a country place would be a place I'd want to stay for MORE than the odd weekend in the winter, my current thoughts are:

- solar / wind system (power, lights, geothermal system, groundwater pumps, laundry?, dishwasher?) w/ generator backup or municipal electrical backup depending upon availability / cost of hookup
- geothermal system for heat (a paired well configuration since I am a hydrogeologist) to heat hot-water radiators thoughout building
- large central wood stove w/ water heater and "some" cook top option (not designed as cook stove, but can still do some cooking)
- gas range (wood stove could be used for some cooking when the fire is going - i.e., probably not in August)
- gas water heaters in kitchen & bath (wood stove should provide hot enough water for showers / sink, but again, fire won't be burning at 8AM in August)

Obviously some numbers to be crunched above to make things work, but just babble...

P.S. a good Canadian govt site about geothermal - http://www.canren.gc.ca/tech_appl/index.asp?CaId=3&PgId=8

Happy 2008

2008-01-06T17:18:00.000-08:00

2007 is no longer... sigh... maybe a time to reflect as I drink a Miller Lite? The year ended with some more field work in Florida (same job as before drilling geotechnical borings for a new nuclear power plant), a couple weeks in Cuba and then home to Winnipeg for the holidays. I'm not going to do any work babble today, so I'll give some Cuba details and photos (which will lead to a later discussion about cameras - you'll see)...

Getting to Cuba was kind of funny. As I was working in Florida (only 90 miles north of Cuba), you'd think getting there would be easy. But what actually turned out to be the best and cheapest way for me to get there was to take a couple flights to get me to Winnipeg on a Thursday and then fly to Cuba via Montreal on the Saturday. Seems the Americans still aren't very accommodating when it comes to travelling to Cuba (even if you happen to be a Canadian with a US Visa). Well, at least I got my points...

The first week in Cuba was in Varadero in an all-inclusive. Not totally my thing, but nice at the same time. The 2nd week was more travelling around including a couple days & nights in Havana, a couple days up north in Vineles and Pinar del Rio, and then 3 days/nights in Trinidad. All travel was bus, and being Cuba, nothing goes too fast, so we didn't accomplish what we had initially thought about, but were happy with the final outcome none the less. Here's a few photos:

Highlight of the trip was Trinidad (which is a city in Cuba rather than the nearby country). I overheard some people talking about it at Tropicana in Havana and it fit our schedule so off we went. Turns out its a very nice town about 10 km from the beach with cobble stone streets and low key yet very interesting. There are a couple hotels, but not a tourist mecca. We stayed in essentially a bed & breakfast run by a doctor (actually his mother and sister live in the house) with a private entrance, private patio and great food. We were only going to stay 1 night, maybe 2 at most, but ended up staying three. Anyway, if anyones interested, I have the contact info.

Was a bit of a shock to get home to Winnipeg after Cuba (snow and all you know...), but is always nice to be home with the family for the holidays. Fortunately I had done most my shopping in Cuba, so I essentially managed to avoid the Christmas shopping boondoggle. Sweet! I never took my camera out of the bag during the holidays, so please just use your imagination (charlie brown christmas tree, 4 nieces and nephews, too much food).

I'm back at work now in North Carolina at the moment. Though I think this will be my last job for a while. After this I'm headed to San Francisco and LA (maybe a few days of work, but no more barring some serious begging). I should have about a week there (assuming this job finishes somewhat on schedule) before the family shows up on ~Feb 2 in Long Beach for a week-long cruise. Should be lots of fun and good family times!

After the cruise, I'm 95% decided that I'll buy a one-way ticket to London (might even just leave right away from LA). One-way doesn't necessarily mean I'm staying forever, but if I'll stay for XXX or where I'm going after (have also been pricing out round the world tickets, but don't feel like that much travelling right now). The only thing stopping me is some unresolved stuff and getting my UK Ancestry Visa in place. If I don't get real work with my company I'll need a UK Visa to work (i.e., if I decide working in a pub is more enticing than geology). I'm trying to invest or lock up all my cash over the next few weeks (cash that I had been keeping liquid in case I wanted to buy a house or something silly - but the stock market really looks too unpredictable to invest) so that I won't be tempted to sit around thinking about working while drinking beer in pubs and spending ridiculous amounts of money. I'll probably get work in a limited number of cities with my current company as long as I work things properly (I'm going to contact a few people in the next few weeks), but chances are I'll show up without too many commitments and we'll see if the work is what I want (one can't always be too picky when you just show up and say "hey, do you have anything for me to do?"). I'm really not sure what I'm doing, but I'm just going to do it.

WARNING FOR FRIENDS: I also have thoughts of visiting friends in Scotland (Pat & Stef) and the Netherlands (Darran & Jenny and Jen), Vietnam/Thailand (Ben threatening to tie the knot in Thailand), Egypt (my old friend / roommate Laurel) and maybe other places in between? So maybe I'll settle down and work in the UK or maybe I'll just travel until I feel like settling down to work or maybe a bit of both or somewhere in between? If I quit or go contract with my current company I'll have to give up the laptop, phone, healthcare, etc., so will be some decision making (I do have 6 weeks of vacation time though to help). As funny as it sounds, I've been homeless for so long (coming up 2 years in April), I'm more looking forward to getting roots somewhere rather than travelling endlessly, but time will tell...

So one last thing with a request for advice...

I'm thinking about buying a new camera. I have a Canon G5 right now and I've really enjoyed this camera. I bought it right before my trip to Europe in 2004 and it's gotten a lot of use since. It's still a great camera, but I haven't been taking it on trips lately because I've been travelling light and find it big (it's smaller than an SLR, but bigger than your standard point and shoot, and the charger is big w/ 2 cords). So they just came out with the G9, which is the more recent version of the camera in a 12 Mpixel variety, with image stabilization, with a much smaller charger, and the camera is much smaller (essentially it's a rectangle with no lens protrusion). Still not point and shoot small, but much better. Should I drop the $500 on it? The money isn't as much of an issue (it is but isn't), but I hate being a consumer when my current camera is still working fine. But for both the Peru/Boliva and Cuba trips I didn't take the G5 with me because of size and ended up missing some good shots. And I worry that I won't want to take it to Europe because I want to be light and mobile (laptop is going to be enough of a limiter as to where I can go). Anyone ever watch Suzie Orman (spelling?)? She has a section where people call up and she tells them whether they are "allowed" to buy XXXX. Did I mention the G9 also takes way better videos (XGA!), which is important as my sister tells me my videos from my camera are pretty well the only videos her family has of her family. So what's the verdict folks?

Happy 2008 everyone!

Thanksgiving airports

2007-11-24T08:42:00.001-08:00

November US Thanksgiving is strange. First of all, we (as in Californians, which I am by employment still - many other states too, but not all) get the Thursday and Friday off. So I don't usually complain about this. But it really turns the long long weekend into a zoo. It's as bad if not worse than Christmas. Freeways are ridiculous, airports worse. So obviously I decided this is the weekend to take 3 flights!!

I was planning on flying to SF or LA and then driving to Joshua Tree to go climbing. But some flakey friend hurt his shoulder (don't want to say who, but starts with an "S" and rhymes with ham). So instead I flew from Charlotte, NC (about 4 hour drive from my field site) direct to SF. And after one day in SF I flew to LA. And on Monday I'll fly to Orlando. My solution has been to make sure I get direct flights everywhere. That way if you get on the plane, you'll make it. So far, so good!

Yes, I realize this is the most boring blog post in the history of the internet... what's your point? You can only complain if you have a blog of your own. No? Then talk to the hand!!

(sorry, went to bed at 1AM, woke up at 5AM (8AM in North Carolina), cement truck showed up 650AM, cement truck left at 820AM, me finishing blog post at 850AM)

food...

2007-11-04T08:51:00.000-08:00

I know, I know... I blog once in 2 months and now 3 times in one day...

So, I'm on per diem on this job, but only $40/day for food. Which is really fine since I'd rarely ever spend more, but I look at per diem as a way to make money too (fond memories of Alaska where per diem was $75/day and there for over a month which gave a nice expense cheque bonus at the end of the job!). But the other good thing about per diem (as compared to just straight expensing meals) is that it makes me less likely to go out for big meals (which I sometimes tend to on straight expenses leading to a big gutt or at least a less healthy feeling). Per diem encourages me to make my own lunches and dinners, and for some reason, much more so than when I'm paying for my own lunches (which I do like the rest of the world when I'm not travelling for work).

I should mention that my breakfasts are free as well - hotel continental breakfast with a waffle maker, but no fresh fruit :( Next week I'll be at the Hampton Inn and breakfasts will be better.

So I went shopping the first day I was here and spent $54 on food and here's what I bought for lunches and dinners:

- mini cans of tuna & beans (have pull off lids, which are great for lunches)
- chips, salsa and cheese (I could live on this)
- pickles, salad dressing (both from the $1 section)
- peanut butter, cream cheese and humous (spreads)
- bagels and soft tortilla flat bread (spread receptacles)
- hot chocolate, chocolate milk, pomegranate juice, small cans of spicy V8
- oranges and bananas (also snag fruit with breakfast)
- one nice bowl, one nice mug, cutlery (I hate plastic)
- one travel coffee mug as I left mine in Montreal (I now have about 6 in Winnipeg and 3 in Montreal)
- ziplocs and ziploc bowls (will also use for work, so expense will be expensed)

Isn't that what all of you wanted to know? But I've been here for 7 days now ($280 worth of per diem) and have maybe spent $70 eating out (one steak dinner, one quesdeilla, one McDonalds trip (when out of town for CPR course), and a few beer here and there). I'm not short on cash in the slightest, so not sure why I'm being a cheap ass, but buy my count, I'm up by:

$280 - ($54 + $70) = $156 (

Did math in my head, hope its okay. Given I'm in North Carolina and I just get this general feeling that people are stupid (as I currently listen to some morons outside having an argument that would be considered dumb in Grade 3 - though I appreciate I'm in a small hick town and I'm very much generalizing, but I digress), I feel I must immediately go spend my $156 on something useless and short lived. Maybe they've got a casino around here? I was in Atlantic City yesterday, but the wrong Atlantic City...

so how y'all doin?

2007-11-04T07:51:00.000-08:00

Sorry, this is what happens when you get stuck in small town North Carolina (Jacksonville, NC to be precise). Observations so far:

1. The most often seen billboard is a breast enlargement add with a well endowed woman in a bikini.

2. This area must set a record for density of tattoo parlors.

3. I've been told (and have accepted the advice) that bars around here aren't advisable as marines like to fight. If I really want to go to the bar, the advice is to avoid the day of and several days after payday.

4. Point #3 is reinforced by the broken windows in the hotel room on Sunday morning and the 4 marines trying to sneak a free continental breakfast and the front desk staff calling the MPs.

5. Amazing number of for sale signs - even in the nicer beach areas there are apartments and condos and houses for sale everywhere. Not sure if this is a regional thing or part of the mortgage crisis...

6. Amazing number of trailers. They seem everywhere, not just in trailer parks. Given that North Carolina does get hit by hurricanes every now and again, this seems less than wise...

7. There were 6 people in my CPR class including 4 women (including the instructor) and 2 guys (including myself). If there was a scale present, I'm sure I would have weighed the least out of everyone. Damn are people fat here!! Day before, three of us went to Applebees and couldn't find one waitress to admire without getting into the bussers who are under 21... how sad!!

strange week at work...

2007-11-04T06:21:00.000-08:00

I've been here since Monday supposedly installing 600 foot monitoring wells. But there's two geos onsite and only one rig has shown up so far. So I've taken the weekend off (well, yesterday I did my CPR course which had expired and was causing me mucho grief from our H&S people). To sum up the week so far:

Day 1: Monday is a travel day from Montreal w/ a 2PM departure, so a nice slow day departing from Montreal; unfortunately my black jacket gets left in the black trunk of the cab and I have my glasses and maybe my watch in my jacket (not my expensive glasses, but my superstore glasses); travel includes an extra 6 hour layover in Washington Dulles (as in DC) waiting for plane to be fixed; get to hotel at 2:30 AM (I guess that actually makes for a Tuesday arrival).

Day 2: There are two drill rigs, the first one gets set up (see photo), but I'm on the other rig which is dragging it's but and the driller isn't scheduled to show up for ??? My first impressions are that things are a bit antiquated? old? slow? These drillers are used to doing things on their own and not used to having supervision. But since the 2nd rig is no where near ready to drill, I get to watch them set up the drill site - i.e., someone dump and spread a truck full of grave. This is highly exciting, even more when the operator manages to slice his finger open while operating the front end loader (i.e., he's in the cab and cuts his finger on one of the levers!). This sucks as I've just ordered the first aid kit and it's being delivered to my hotel tomorrow morning. Fortunately, I've got my camping first aid kit on me to apply some antibiotic ointment and bandaids. I get to spend an hour filling out a H&S Incident Report in the evening (which makes two for the site as another driller on an unrelated project is knocked into a mud pit when a drill rod falls from the rig - something that never happens and could easily kill someone).

Day 3: I'm going to watch someone excavate a mud pit (a 20' x 10' x 8' deep pit which is then lined and filled with water & drilling mud) except that on the very first scoop of the excavator we dig up a ~50 strand telephone bundle. Sweet! Pretty sure it's not fibre optic, which incurs fines of say ~$300,000/day, but still big problem. I scramble and hours later we find out it is dead / abandoned and not a big deal. Lucky.

Day 4: We stretch the liner on the mud pit and fill with water. I hang out mostly on the other well, which is drilling slow because driller is from 1963, has no mud kit, is trying to drill with water instead of mud, the mud pump on the rig isn't working, etc. etc. Let's just say the pace is underwhelming and I'm looking for things to do.

Day 5: The 2nd driller arrives onsite, so I should be able to get working, but the first driller's sister just went into the hospital, so we are still at 1 driller. Doesn't really matter as the mud pit at the 2nd site has collapsed (if had been filled with drilling mud instead of sitting for 2 days, probably would have been fine...). But the new driller has his act together, has a mud test kit (confirms my observation that mud is way to thin), orders a new mud pump for rig #1 and orders an external mud tank & shaker system for the 2nd drill rig (so now mud pit can be abandoned), etc. etc. Things looking up, but won't have a 2nd driller till Monday.

Day 6 & 7: Well, that takes me to this weekend, which should be Day 6 & 7 of a ten day shift, but which I've taken off except for my CPR course. Which means that I don't get paid, but... I could have sat around and billed 8 hours a day, but I don't mind a couple days off as I got almost no time off before this job and I have some chores and fun stuff I've been wanting to do (backing up laptop, programming my GPS unit I got for my birthday in 2006, making a couple CDs, new music on the MP3 player, watching TV, etc.). A 2nd driller will be onsite tomorrow, so I'll be working soon enough.

So how was your week?

Alaska - Pt. 2

2007-10-28T13:10:00.000-07:00

I haven't been in Alaska in a nearly a couple months, but I did finally get my photos and stuff together. Though I lost a memory card (sure it fell between the seats in the rental car) so I got a bit discouraged. Such is life...

The highlight of the Alaska work was not the work :) I think the last post summed up the drive there (near Mt Denali aka McKinley) and a couple small weekend roadtrips and such. And the last week of work I worked with Paul, an electrician who I did utility locates with (me on a GPS unit, him with essentially a fancy inductive metal detector). And it turns out Paul has a log cabin in the middle of nowhere, but this nowhere is exactly half way between Fairbanks and Anchorage via the southern route (via Delta Junction, nearly into the Yukon and Whitehorse), which is exactly the route I was planning.

Turns out Paul's cabin is a very nice 2000 sq. ft. log cabin above the tree line on Summit Lake. And most importantly, it has nice wood burning stoves and a solar system to make life easy.

When I first arrived, it was a dark, foggy, gloomy almost surreal afternoon / evening. The place was totally deserted with not a car or person to be seen anywhere. And because above the treeline, you could see everywhere (no such thing as privacy here)...

The next morning, everything had come to life! I don't know if you can tell just how scattered the cabins are on this treeless plateau. There's a little townish type clustering of houses around the lake (though definitely no shops and no people whatsoever when I was there) and then a scattering of cabins on the upper ridge. Just felt very strange with no trees...

After leaving the cabin, I took about a hundred photos, all on the card I lost. So here's what stuff looked like... (note, use your imagination).

Here's a couple river scenery photos for Carole (the 2nd being a river that starts at the distant glacier - the glacier used to be at the highway)...

And some random pipeline photos, since I was along two major pipelines at various times - I think both started at Prudhoe Bay (aka the North Slope) and one went into Canada (Alcan)and eventually Fort St. John and the other (Alyeska) to the port at Valdez (the infamous namesake of the Exxon Valdez).

The road trip took a rather random detour to Valdez just because (and where the fish are big, almost as big as in Kenora!)...

The road to Valdez was very impressive with glaciers and waterfalls around every corner in the road. Of course, most of these photos are goners, but here's a few...

And I was lucky, because they had just had torrential down pores the previous day and the road was nearly flooded out in a few places (it look more impressive in a few other places where the backhoes were doing there job, but I was trying not to get killed stopping in random places on the highway - this little stream going through the culverts is the runoff from the glacier I had just hiked up to in the previous photos). Apparently this happens every year and people just accept being stranded for a few days now and again. If I had been there a few weeks later you can take a ferry to Anchorage, which would have been sweet!

And lastly, just some more miscellaneous photos...

Since Alaska, I've been to Seattle for a couple days to visit Justin, then to Montreal for a week with Mel, then to Calgary for a day, Edmonton for a week of work, Winnipeg for a weekend wedding, back to Edmonton for a couple weeks, then a Jasper roadtrip with Carole, back to Edmonton for a couple more weeks of work, then to Calgary for a day and now I'm in Montreal for 3 days (in a cafe right now) and heading to North Carolina tomorrow for a month or so? Working 10 days on, 4 off and not sure how many shifts, so everything is very week to week shall we say. Anyway, with one paragraph I've covered the last month or two and now I'm up to date - sorry, don't feel like being wordy anymore :)

Alaska - Pt. 1

2007-09-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

Hey folks. Nice to know a few of you complain when I am lazy and don’t blog. I’m in Alaska finishing up my 3rd of 4 weeks of work. Currently sitting in a coffee shop on Saturday morning - I do have internet at the apartment, but my roommates girlfriend just flew in so I’m being scarce.

And yes, apartment... usually I stay in hotels for fieldwork, but the company has rented 4 apartments for the project. Which is very nice since we have a per diem and are able to eat at home. Might be the first bit of field work where I loose weight! And a good crew out that all gets along and takes turn grilling fresh salmon on the hibachi and such. Life is tough...

The work started off a little funny. Was supposed to be installing wells and doing soil gas sampling in basements, etc. But delays in approvals and such meant the first week or so ended up being mostly hand auguring soil piles. Though I’ve been doing a lot of GIS and GPS work too - mostly tracking down as-built AutoCAD drawings, compiling in GIS (ArcInfo), uploading to a GPS (Trimble unit that does real-time corrections to ~2ft accuracy) and then field locating pipelines, drill locations, etc. etc.

So Alaska and you think cold, but temperatures have been high 20s (Celcius that is), even pushing 30 a few days (mid 80s F, which if I’m doing my conversions correctly, is about 30 C?). Apparently this is quite nice weather for this time of year. If fact, I nearly got heat stroke one day while auguring a tad too fast, but I digress…

So what's up besides work? (before you fall asleep)... last Sunday morning a handful of us drove to Chena Hotsprings about an hour east of Fairbanks. Was a nice hotsprings, definitely developed, but done somewhat tastefully. Though I only took photos of somewhat interesting things in the front...

In the afternoon after the hotsprings we did a hike up Angels Peak, where we got rained and hailed on just as we reached the peak. I really wasn’t expecting much of a hike so I was wearing sandals, jeans and a cotton t-shirt (the hiking shoes, gortex jacket, etc. were in the car). Oh well, since the weather here has been warm, the hike down was muddy, but not too cold despite looking like drowned rats. Side note, And we saw a moose and a bear in the same day too.

A less exciting day was a trip to the north pole. Funnily enough, one must go south to get to the North Pole. The North Pole is actually a town with a ridiculous amount of Christmas theme stuff for everything. We had also thought about driving to the Arctic Circle (ummm… is it the 15th or 30th parallel)? It's a bit of a drive though, and not necessarily nice rounds along the Alaskan Pipeline (which I saw last week as well - not very exciting, but...). Isn't the 2nd photo of Santa strange... almost like if one were to rearrange the letters in Santa one would get Satan!! HMMMM???

Well, that’s a quick update. I’ll be finished here on Sept 9 and then taking a few days to get to Anchorage - get to drive past / through Denali Natl Park, Mt. McKinley (tallest mountain in North America), etc. etc. – Then looks like I’ll be heading to Seattle for a day or two, then Montreal for a week or so and then off to Edmonton for a repeat of some work I did last fall. I had no other plans after Edmonton (even Edmonton still hasn’t 100% confirmed) until 2 days ago and then things went crazy. I got 2 emails in the morning trying to get me on a project in Nevada and then that would conveniently start near San Francisco the following week. I was contemplating how to make these fit in with Edmonton when my OL (operations lead – sort of my boss) called asking if I wanted a 2-4 month placement in Honolulu and he needed to know ASAP. What was I to say? But just as quickly, things aren't looking as good. So looks like my surfing skills may remain poorly developed :(

geeky work babble from Florida

2007-06-22T08:25:00.000-07:00

I've just finished my first 10-day shift here in Florida. I'm drilling geotechnical borings for a proposed nuclear power plant (I should mention the drillers would probably say they do the drilling and I just watch, but...). Right now it's just swamp and forest with some interesting wildlife (at least for me). So far this week:

- three scorpions (in my empty core boxes first thing in the morning)
- one 4-foot long alligator described as "poor" by the driller who caught him and declared that he needed to be moved to better hunting grounds
- two armidillos that were squished on the access road by the drillers (I'm convinced the guy aimed for them - it is the south you know)

Did you know that this week the US just put their first nuclear power plant online in something like 20 years, and there are going to be lots coming online in the next handful of years. I digress...

I was just looking for some money from this job (12 hour days, two 10-day shifts, time and a half after 8 hours, all expenses paid = many thousand in the bank after 3 weeks of work). But this has actually turned out to be interesting work. I typically do water supply or environmental wells in unconsolidated alluvial / fluvial / glacial type sediments. If the sediments are lithified (i.e., cemented), we often call this bedrock and stop. So I rarely get to really look at interesting rock. The rock here is rock (limestone), with lots of fossils, voids and some nasty big cavities (think 10-foot caves filled with water & sediments 100 feet below the ground). These big cavities scare people because foundations for 423 billion tonne reactor buildings, cooling towers, etc. have a tendency to compact soils & rocks and cause such cavities to collapse resulting in... well, preventing such things is why were here swiss-cheesing the landscape with borings and preparing plans for foundations, grouting programs, etc. etc. I can't say life here is exciting, but interesting from a geologists point of view - life for me is mostly about sitting under a canopy, supervising the drilling and logging core. It's more usual for me to focus on well construction and hydraulic testing, so it's great experience to be here with some very experienced geologists focussing on logging rock.

And everyone has now gone home, except me. I've got 4 days off, but for me to go anywhere where I know people is either a non-direct flight into other time zones or an $1800 flight (which company would pay for, but grudigngly and does seem excessive for what would really just be 2 days once you lose the travel days). So I've decided to stick around and do a road trip on the company (I don't get paid, but expenses are covered - it's cheaper for them to have me travel about than pay for my travel time). I'm going to start heading down to the Everglades in a couple hours. I've chosen this as a general plan, though we'll see which way the car points when I get on the road. Could also go to the Keys or Miami or the beaches or ?? Though it is nearly noon, I haven't left my hotel room, am on my 3rd cup of coffee, and am very much enjoying taking it easy, doing emails, etc. etc. Perhaps I'll give an update on what happens later...

Florida tomorrow.

2007-06-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

I've been slacking on blogging I know. I have a Peru blog in progress, but...

I'm off to Florida tomorrow for a week or three in hot humid weather. Drilling wells at a future nuclear power plant in the northern Gulf region of Florida (a couple hours north of Tampa). That's really all I know. Got a few things printed I'll read on the plane tomorrow.

Right now I'm at Gabe's packing at 11PM - well, only sort of Gabe's see he moved out, but such a small technicality :) Have had a couple fun weeks in SF since Peru. Definitely miss SF every time I leave (though I seem to come back often).

Just as a foreshadow... there's some talk of me working in Alaska for July & August, which doesn't really fit in with other plans, which is why it's just talk. But spending some time in Alaska would be neat! Especially in the summer!

Peru & Bolivia Travel Blog

2007-05-15T07:42:00.000-07:00

Hola!! I'm back in San Fran reflecting on a fun trip to Peru and Bolivia. I know several people who are considering a trip to Peru, so I thought I'd give some details about what we did in 22 days, a little on how we got places, highlights, etc. But mostly, just a lot of pictures, which because the post is so long, most of you just look at the pictures :) Also, more pictures (read WAY too many) at my flickr account (flickr.com/photos/archean1/).

And here's a map to follow along:

Lima (Day 1 / April 30)
I left for Lima early Monday morning (thanks to Gabe & Rebecca for the ride to the airport!). Flew United to LAX and then LAN Peru to Lima - no points :( Got into Lima that night (actually 12:30AM the next day) and Mel arrived via Air Canada (direct from Toronto) about half an hour later. I made sure my plane got in at the same time as Mel, my personal translator, to avoid having to speak spanish :)

That night we got a mediocre hotel in central district. The hotel wasn't particularily nice, and the area wasn't great, but at 1:30 in the morning, does it really matter?

The next morning we packed our bags and toured (i.e., walked) abount central Lima (with backpacks on our back, which is a rarity). There was a festival or celebration of sorts in the Plaza de Armas (the center square, which every town and city has). Central Lima was okay, but it was hot and muggy (see photo), with backpacks, and we weren't all that impressed. The central Plaza district is nice, but not that great an area (very relative, but for most cities it is often the highlight).

In the afternoon we headed to our new hotel in the Miraflores neighbourhood, which is much more or a trendy neighbourhood (more touristy too, I guess) and also right on the ocean. We walked down to the ocean, walked on the beach, I nearly got run over by a bicycle, the usual. On our return from the beach we splurged and had a very nice meal with wine at an outdoor restaurant (reminded Mel and I of a place we ate at in the Italian District in New York).

On our 2nd day and last day in Lima we headed about 40 km south of town via local buses to visit the pre-Incan (built between 200 and 800 AD) city of Pachacamac. (And when I say local buses I mean vans called combis that I think are all privately owned - buy a van and then drive everywhere honking at and picking up people - it's really rather crazy and random, but also quite functional.) Below is a picture of Mel with one of the ruins in the background. It was very dry here - definitely a desert by any definition. Surprisingly few people here - we were almost literally the only people.

After Pachacamac, late in the afternoon we left Lima on the night bus for Cusco. It was a very nice Cruz del Sur double decker bus with 4 front turning wheels (I found this interesting, Mel less so). We had the front window seats on the 2nd level providing a nice view. There are many bus lines and Cruz del Sur is the most expensive - they video tape all passengers and have pretty top notch bag check in / luggage claim services, so that makes you feel pretty safe (read later stories for other examples of bus service). But in retrospect, we would have considered flying to Cusco as the flights aren't much more expensive and would have saved 20 hours. On the other hand, the long bus ride gives your body some time to adjust as you go from sea level at Lima to 3500 meters in Cusco (we ran into a few people who flew and were quite rough on their first day in Cusco).

Cuzco (Day 4)
We got into Cusco around 3PM and took a cab to a hostel/hotel a short walk up the hill from the Plaza de Armas (chosen from the Lonely Planet). The hotel wasn't anything special except that it had hot showers. It was almost sunset (6 PM) by the time we got out wandering. A pretty easy uneventful wander about evening with some incredible seafood soup that we talked about for days (also some pizza!!).

The next day we had breakfast and started trying to figure out what we were going to do. Cuzco is the launching point for Machu Piccu, either by train or trek. Trekking to Macchu Piccu via the Inca Trail is quite common, but needs to be booked months in advance and planning that far in advance just wasn't in the cards. But there are several other trails, some arguably nicer due to less trekkers, that can be booked one day in advance. The catch is that you really need at least 2 or 3 days in Cuzco to acclimatize to the elevation before undertaking a trek. And the treks are a minimum of 3-4 days in duration. So with travel, getting used to elevation, trekking and then a day at Machu Piccu, we could easily use up 8 or more days of our 21 day vacation. We were concurrently contemplating diverting the trip into Bolivia for either a jungle excursion and/or Salar de Uyuni. So this is what we did...

After breakfast we spent some time talking with a travel agent and decided against a trek, decided on a 4-day Pervuvian jungle trip, and then spent the rest of the day on horse back touring some of the local ruins surrounding Cusco, maybe most notably Sacsayhuamán. Was a nice change to get on horses, though of course our butts paid the price and reminded us of our decision for several days.

The following day we left for a self-guided tour of the Sacred Valley on route to Aguas Calientes (which is the base town for Machu Picchu). We left our big back packs at the Cusco hotel and just took day packs. We took local buses (i.e., no other tourists) and visited ruins along the way. See map of the region below if you want to follow along:

The first bus stop was the ruins at Pisac. We got off at downtown (i.e., where the roads cross) and rented a taxi for a handful of hours to drive us to the ruins (a two hour hike straight up from the town which would have been great, but didn't have time). Turned out to be a few ruins on a couple hills with very nice terraces between. The terraces are grass covered now, but when you get away from the ruins, the terraces are still the way farming is done on the slopes (a little different from Manitoba). They also had some pretty need irrigation systems (see photo of dumb tourist inappropriately using irrigation system to wash mud off of foot).

The other highlight was Ollyantaytambo - a "valley town" (see photo) that is where the road ends (literally) and is therefore the last place to catch the train to Machu Picchu. Turned out to be a very nice town and we wished we had spent more time there, maybe even a night (a highlight was some really great mushroom soup!). It has very nice ruins that over look the town (i.e., the photo). But alas, we had a schedule (due to jungle booking) and took the 8PM train from Olly to Aguas Calientes. This would keep us on track to get to Machu Picchu early early the next morning. Unfortunately the hotel in Aguas had a night club next door, leading a rhythmic night's sleep.

Machu Picchu (Day 7)
We were up at 5 AM to be on the first buses up to Machu Piccu (Mel decided to get up early but then I was up dragging her out of bed!). But very glad we got up early as the crowds are much much more bearable (many people do day trips from Cusco arriving via train at 10:30 AM - resulting in an onslaught of people; others hike up from Aguas Calientes or as coming in from their treks). When we first got to the ruins (the first photo) it was largely fogged in. The fog then cleared a bit and we snapped some general big picture photos (the ones you see on the postcards). We assumed that we'd take more later when the fog was gone, but turns out that later the fog was still there and there were a few thousand people in the ruins, so turns out these morning photos are as good as it gets (the fog kind of gives a nice look as well).

After a couple hours of walking about the ruins, we did a hike up Wayna Piccu (the perfect shaped peak / hill / mountain that you see in the background of many Machu Piccu photos). Was a great decision with great views and some pretty fun trails, caves, outcrops, etc. And good practice for Mel who really doesn't like heights as you may notice in some of her expressions! I was a hero as well and carried Mel's pack since she wasn't feeling well (this came to be more of the norm by the end of the trip!). Look carefully at the first photo and you can see people on the trail winding there way up (click on any photo to see it full size - or about a 1 Megapixel or so photo).

After coming down from Wayna Piccu, it was a little after noon and we found the ruins to now be overrun with people. We toured about a little bit more and contemplated life (deep looking photo).

We felt fulfilled and ran from the crowds (note photographic evidence below that Mel even tried to climb out) and took a bus back down to Aguas Calientes (photo below of switchback road that bus takes to get up). We had a couple hours in Aguas to tour about, shop, get lunch, etc. before catching the 3PM train to Cusco. And the train trip turned out to be very nice. We had maybe purchased better tickets (?) and seemed pretty high end. And there was a fashion show on the train! Quite humorous!

We got back to Cusco around 8PM and checked back into the same hotel. I think we then did some visits to the church, a museum and an art gallery around the Plaza and then a nice Mexican place for dinner. But was also a long day and returning to the same hotel with hot showers and getting our luggage was relaxing.

Jungle Excursion (Day 8)
To set the geography, Lima is in a desert region that runs along the coast (i.e., near sea level). Cusco is several hundred miles inland and in the Andies, which run north south (roughly paralleling the coast) at anywhere from 3000 to 6500 m elevation. As you go further east, you drop back down from the Andies to only a couple hundred meters elevation and the climate turns to Amazon jungle hot and wet. Cusco had a very hot sun and comfortable days, but quite cool evenings (jacket and even touques were worn on occasion).

The morning after Machu Piccu we caught an AeroCondor flight from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado. Was quite a shock to jump on a plane in Cusco and then get off the plane in Puero Maldonado with humid, high 30°C weather! Within minutes we were taken by a funky "jungle bus" to a long boat and then for about 2 hours down the Rio Madre de Dios to the lodge. Not sure what we were expecting on this jungle tour, but definitely wasn't private cabin / huts, super nice meals (e.g., fresh avocado with most meals) and a swimming pool!

That afternoon we took a short boat ride to what the call Monkey Island where we saw, ummm... yeah, you guessed it... monkeys. They were wild, but at the same time, they were tamed.

After dinner we did a night boat trip up river to see caymans along the shore. Very dark on the water and amazing view of the stars. Luckily our cabin had a ceiling fan to help cool us off and get to sleep!

Our first full day in the jungle we got up at 5AM to do a boat ride / trek in mud / canoe / trek / and finally drift in Lost Lake. Was a great morning with lots of wildlife including various birds, caymans, spiders and gigantic snails. Mel was hoping to see a jaguar, but just didn't happen this day :( The paddle was initially through a marsh / creek with monkeys heard though not seen and lots of parrots and such.

The day ended with a hike to river at about 1PM and long boat ride back to the lodge. When we got to the lodge is was 38°C and very humid. Then as we were walking up the dock, the winds picked up and nearly blew us over. Within half an hour the temperature had dropped to below 20°C. Apparently storms / weather fronts like this blow through once or twice a year and we happened to catch one. C'est la vie. Because of the strange & windy weather, boat trip were out of the question for the afternoon, so we did a short hike in botanical gardens learning about medicinal uses and such of various plants (ate some more coca leaves of course).

The 3rd day in the jungle was still very cold. We spent the morning just hanging and talking with our guide (Raphael) talking about his life, Indian life in the junble, legends, etc. (Raphael grew up in a jungle tribe until he snuck away on a boat when he was 11 and has been a tour guide for most of his life). The rest of the day included a short hike, a paddle at a nearby lake and a night time jungle walk (some of which was without lights - no one died).

Our fourth and last day in the jungle was essentially a travel day. We were back in Puerto Maldonado by noon and back in Cusco by 2PM. This left enough time for us to do some shopping (read: for Mel to shop). By this point I had bought essentially nothing while Mel had bought enough to require a 3rd bag (which I usually got to carry around, much to my annoyance!). We picked up our big bags from the hotel, had dinner, and then caught a night bus to Puno.

Lake Titticaca (Day 12)
The night bus arrived in Puno at 5:30AM. Seems brutal, but actually worked out very well. We checked into a nice hosel (with cable tv!), repacked our bags and left for day-long boat tour of the floating islands and Taquile Island by 6:30AM. The islands are in Lake Titicaca, which is the highest elevation navigable lake (3800 m) in the world.

We both found the day to be a little tourist nutso and even artificial, but the floating islands (Uros) are quite unique (a tribe that began building island out of marsh grass / plants many hundreds of years ago to avoid being conquered by the Incas and to this day several thousand people continue building and living on these islands). We were contemplating spending the night on Taquile Island, but decided we wanted to get into Bolivia sooner.

We had a lazy morning in Puno including watching tv and long hot showers and then left for Copacabana, Bolivia in the early afternoon. Copa is also on the shores of Lake Titicaca, just across the Bolivian border. Very surprised by how nice the hotels are, how good the restaurants are, just impressed in general. Hotel is $10/night and maybe the nicest dinner so far costs ~$13 (100 Bolivianos), which includes a bottle of wine!

The first day in Bolivia we jumped on a boat to Isla del Sol. There we did a hike to some ruins, and then for about 3 hours across the island. All very nice. We were waffling as to whether we were going to spend the night on the island, but because Copa was so nice, we decided to just make it a day excursion and caught a boat back.

We spent another night Copa (another great dinner) and woke up the next morning with a decision to make as wot whether we were going further into Bolivia or back into Peru. Ultimately, we decided that we didn't have enough time to really delve into Bolivia and we bought bus tickets back into Peru (to Puno) and on to Arequipa.

Arequipa & Colca Valley (Day 16 / May 15)
We got a bit shafted on our bus (wasn't a direct bus and not very turistico). Anyway, we got into Arequipa at 9:30PM.Checked into a nice hotel in Arequipa and grabbed some street / market food for dinner and settle in to watch a movie on tv. Well, actually, Mel passed out while I stayed up watching some chick flick movie (which was entirely the opposite of normal as usually I'm the one passing out).

We spent a day visiting Arequipa, Peru's 2nd largest city. There was a nice continental breakfast on a patio right outside our room and very nice weather (not to hot, not too cold). The restaurants here were quite impressive and we had many nice meals (was very reasonably priced, but the waist is still paying). There are also several museums, churches and an old convent complex (that was apparently more like a brothel that we visited. One museum had a collection of mummified girls that the Incas had offered to the Gods by throwing them into volcanoes (in the past few years they were found after they fell out of the ice - clearly the offerings satisfied the Gods as the volcanoes haven't erupted!).

On Day 2 in Arequipa we started a 2 day tour of the Colca Valley. Turns out the region is pretty interesting geologically with volcanoes, canyons they claim to be deeper than the Grand Canyon (true, but not as steep or impressive), valleys with cinder cones, etc. etc. We decided on the Colca Valley tour because we only had a couple days and couldn't do everything. Here's some volcano pictures from Arequipa and just on the way out of town (sorry for so many, but I am a geologist):

The Colca Valley and towns travelled through on the way there was all quite nice. It was a 2-day bus tour so it wasn't exactly rough going. Was some neat cultur and saw lots of stuff, not the least being some really neat condors. And everything including the towns, lakes, etc. on this venture were still at over 4,000 meters (almost 5,000 as I recall).

Nazca (Day 19)
We caught the night bus from Arequipa to Nazca and then spent exactly one morning in Nazca, which was exactly enough time t see the Nazca Lines.

Huacachina (Day 19)
Huacachina is a desert oasis town. It used to be a place for royalty where they'd come a bath in the green sliming oasis lake / pond. Now it's touristy and feels like a resort town. You don't swim in the lake, but there are massive (and I mean massive) sound dunes that surround the town like mountains and, here's the best part, you go on dune buggy rides!! Mel was quoted as saying this was her favorite part of the trip (she was likely carried away with the moment). Was some crazy shit, pardon my french. The middle three photos are of Mel sandboarding (those specs at the bottom of the dune are our dune buggies waiting for us).

Paracas (Day 20)
We worked our way out of Huacachina spending the morning lounging and the afternoonin a winery / Pisco distillery. Then we continued working our way north up the coast stopping at Pisco. We had a funny evening as there weren't any tourists here. Until the next morning that is. Pisco is the take off point for the Ballestas Islands and the Paracas National Reserve. The islands are called the poor mans Gallopagos and did not disappoint. You don't get off the boat, but rather tour around going through large rock arches, cruising by the sea lions, and trying not to get bird shit on you. Not a joke. There is so many birds and so much bird shit that they mine it. The value of the bird shit as fertilizer is one of the resources that the Spaniards valued when the colonized Peru. We toured the islands by boat during the morning, then then the park via rented taxi for the afternoon, then caught a bus to Lima in late afternoon.

Here are a couple photos from the evening we arrived in Pisco. This will be the end of the photos as the camera stopped working the next day. (Likely some sand from the sand boarding exercise)

Lima (Day 21)
Was nice to go back to Lima - almost felt like returning to somewhere familiar. We stayed in a slightly different neighbourhood (Baranco) though we walked to the neighbourhood we had been in before (Miraflores) one evening (a couple hour walk though). The hightlight of this return to Lima was the food. We had a couple very nice dinners and a very very nice ceviche lunch at a place the Lonely Planet says is the best in Peru (was getting close to North American prices to prove it). Also caught Spiderman 3 :) We got into town in the early evening and then had one night and a full day in Lima (catching planes near midnight / early hours of the morning the next day). Was just the right amount of time to unwind before heading home.

scrambling to finish & pack...

2007-04-28T16:54:00.000-07:00

I haven't been very good at communicating lately, so here's a quick update.

It's Sunday afternoon, I'm working in panic mode to get a project finished up by tonight. Still doing modelling and need to finish figures, tables and the report before I go (I've worked way too many hours this week and will hopefully sleep tonight). This project was supposed to be done in February, but...

But it's worth it because I'm headed to Peru / Bolivia tomorrow (Monday) morning (getting a ride to the airport at 6:30AM). I fly into Lima at 12:30AM the next day and Mel flies in at 12:35AM. I planned it this way because one of us speaks Spanish and the other doesn't. HINT: I live in the Mission here in SF, which is 2/3 Mexican, but the only thing I know about Spanish is how to ask for dos cerveza.

Lisette & Paul were in from LA this weekend and they just picked me up for a quick REI trip where I helped the economy by dropping $480 on stuff. Really just stuff. Nothing too exciting. A pair of $100 sandals, a pair of pants, a couple shirts, and dozen or so little things I grabbed off the shelf. And the $480 was after a $60 membership thingy. Good thing I don't go to often.

I'll be back in SF on May 22. Your guess is as good as mine as to what I'm doing then. I might be going to Florida for a few weeks of field work, but I haven't had this confirmed. And I've put my name in for some work in Mumbai, India, but have no idea about this or even when the work starts (they're looking for 6 month to 5 year placements and I don't exactly fit the bill, but who knows). If I get back and there's no great work that calls to me (there's always work) I'll either stick around SF and work or go see the family in Winnipeg or...? Or not come back from Peru :) I have a wedding near Toronto in mid July so tentative plan is to be in Montreal late June / early July.

Also giving serious thought to spending August in London / Paris (sister & kids are going to be there and I'll join up with them). I've talked with the London office about getting work in the London office and I was supposed to push on that this past week but have been too busy. So maybe it will just be a vacation.

Anyway, that's a bit of a brain dump from me while the model deletes river nodes (that's geeky computer talk for my computer is grinding away... just ignore me...).

sunny california

2007-04-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update post. I have to do this because I've gotten a couple phone calls lately from people thinking I was in Montreal (EST). And I'm in San Francisco (PST). So getting pre-8AM phone calls is brutal :) Actually, for some sad reason this Sunday morning, I was actually awake to take the call... what's up with that??

So I have a few safety courses and annual medical for work that all must be done in April. So I convinced the company to fly me down. And I figured since I was coming down, may as well stay for the month. So I got down on Wednesday and have been having fun since (Sam is responsible for taking me to an open bar private event on Thursday night and causing severe damage; the croquet picnic with kegs in Dolores Park was my own doing). Unfortunately this next week is going to be painful with work - I've got a few hours to do today (Sunday) even :(

Just to put it out there... the plan for the next few weeks... heading up to Redding tonight or tomorrow morning to finish the Kitchener office modelling work that I've been working on (and struggling with) for a couple months now. Then back to SF (a friend is out of town and I'll be making good use of his apartment). Then down to LA for a week (another friend out of town). Then back to SF and back staying at Miriam's place (they have a separate suite in the basement that is absolutely sweet!) and other friends (I nearly subletted a place for $1000, but with a couple friends out of town and some travel, I'm hoping I can be cheap and still comfortable without being too imposing on friends). And there's talk of a trip to Peru in May that may or may not happen and may or may not leave directly from SF. That's as precise as it is right now - plans as always may and likely will change.

Okay, busy day... I must go book my LA ticket (which might involve me having to go to the airport to use a voucher), get a rental car for the trip to Redding (and climbing next weekend), do a few hours work and drive to Redding (3hrs) today. So what that means is... I'm now going to a coffee shop to have a bagel, coffee and read the news paper. Why do now what you can do later? :)

Must Be Santa

2007-03-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

Santa? We'll get there... bear with me for a second...

You see... I found the original Battlestar Galactica series (1978) online at www.tv-links.co.uk and am forcing Mel to watch at least the first 3-hour premiere (watching anymore could probably be considered cruel and unusual punishment).

Note: lots of other streamed tv series there as well; also check out www.dailymotion.com, particularly if you watch Lost or the new Battlestar Galactica, or www.tv-video.net (which I'm not as familiar with, but I think is good)

I was trying to explain the series and cast to Mel and this is how it went:

David: "Lorne Green is Commander Adama in the 1978 series."

Mel: "Who is Lorne Greene?"

Me: "What? You serious? Do you remember Bonanza, with Michael Landon?"

Mel: "Bonanza? Never seen it. Who's Michael Landon?"

Me: "Sheesh."

So I got on my computer and did some quick searches and such. For a second I also thought Lorne Greene was the Friendly Giant, a favourite childhood show of mine (a few other million kids no doubt), but I was wrong . I should have known because I went to the CBC Museum in downtown Toronto last year (had a couple hours before my train) and they had a display and Friendly Giant shows being played. Anyway, I remembered good things about Lorne Greene (besides just being the Commander of the Battelstar Galactica), but I was foggy. So, here's a snippet from wikipedia and a few of the better links I found, if you're interested:

Lorne Greene

Greene was born in Ottawa, Ontario to Russian Jewish immigrants, and began acting while attending Queen's University in Kingston, where he also acquired a knack for broadcasting with the Radio Workshop of the university's Drama Guild on the campus radio station CFRC.

He gave up on a career in chemical engineering and, upon graduation, found a job as a radio broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). He was assigned as the principal newsreader on the CBC National News. The CBC gave him the nickname "The Voice of Canada"; however, his role in delivering distressing war news in sonorous tones following Canada's entry into World War II in 1939 caused many listeners to call him "The Voice of Doom". During his radio days, Greene invented a stopwatch that ran backwards. Its purpose was to help radio announcers gauge how much time they had available while speaking. He also narrated documentary films, such as the National Film Board of Canada's Fighting Norway (1943). In 1957 Greene played the role of the prosecutor in the socially controversial movie Peyton Place.

The first of his American television roles was as family patriarch Ben Cartwright on the long-running western series Bonanza (1959–1973), making Greene a household name. He garnered the role after having turned in a highly-regarded performance in a production of Nineteen Eighty-Four for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). After the cancellation of Bonanza, he was host for the CBS nature documentary series "Last of the Wild" from 1974 to 1975. During the 1977 miniseries, Roots, he played the first master of Kunta Kinte, John Reynolds.

Greene's next best-known role was Commander Adama, another patriarchal figure, in the science fiction feature film and television series Battlestar Galactica (1978–1979) and Galactica 1980 (1980).

In 1964, Greene had a #1 single on the music charts with his hit ballad, "Ringo." [[1]] He was also known as the host and narrator of the nature series, Lorne Greene's New Wilderness. He also appeared in the HBO mockumentary The Canadian Conspiracy, about the supposed subversion of the United States by Canadian-born media personalities. For nearly a decade, Greene co-hosted the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC. He is also fondly remembered as the founder of Toronto's Academy of Radio Arts which had been founded as the Lorne Greene School of Broadcasting.

Greene died of pneumonia on September 11, 1987 in Santa Monica, California at the age of 72. He was interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, Culver City, California. Only weeks before his death, he had been signed to appear in a revival of Bonanza.

A click from the Lorne Greene wikipedia site takes me to the Sci-Fi Channels Lorne Greene scipedia site, which I get the following information from the Canadian link:

Canada

Canadian refers to a person or thing from Canada.

Canada is a country in North America.

Canadians have contributed some of the most iconic Sci Fi images. William Shatner (Star Trek's Captain James T. Kirk), Dan Aykroyd (Ghostbusters, the Coneheads), and Jim Carrey (Bruce Almighty, The Mask) are all Canadians.

So seems Canada is represented by William Shatner, Dan Aykroyd, Jim Carrey, and though not as noteworthy, Lorne Greene. Interesting.

A Battlestar Galactica clip with some great acting worthy of James T. Kirk!

And a Bonanza compilation:

And lastly, with respect to Christmas... you must click on this link and scroll down to the bottom to listen to Lorne Greene sing Must Be Santa.

CBC programming

2007-03-19T08:46:00.000-07:00

I can say for the first time in a long time (years?), I actually planned a night around television. I even ate dinner in front of the tv. And it was Canadian programming even!! Got to be worth an online babble?

The Next Great Prime Minister

Very interesting concept and great potential, but TNG PM was too rushed and unorganized. It felt like a high school video production. CBC could have done a better job with this. In fact, I think this could have been a great 3 part series with 2 rounds of eliminations and the final show / round having the final 4 contestants quizzed by the former prime ministers. The early shows would have worked out the kinks giving a final show where CBC and the "contestants" more skilled and relaxed. A much better reality show than Idol (which, for the record, I've never seen for more than 1.3 minutes).

Perhaps also an interesting way to bring some politics issues to the masses, some of whom likely never come anywhere near a typical news broadcast. I haven't heard much about Canadian news audiences, but the US network news numbers have been making lots of news this past year (with Katie C. being a women and Dan R. on cable), but my take is that more people are watching The Daily Show on Comedy Central now than network news (or if not, soon). So maybe if we want to educate the public and have a electorate that doesn't elect cowboy morons who follow right wing crusaders and invade other countries to spread their religious and democratic values... Anyway, just my thought...

Test the Nation: IQ

Test the Nation was also interesting, though I was expecting more Canadiana trivia rather than purely an IQ test, and at 2-hours, was a tad on the long side (admittedly contemplated switching to CSI on CTV for the 2nd hour). For the record, I only got 42 out of 60 (IQ=111, above average, but barely, which doesn't jive with my ego). HOWEVER, I do have an excuse, for which I can only somewhat blame the CBC for. You see, I don't have cable and the antenna reception really sucks (CBC partially to blame since I don't get good non-cable reception and CBC plans to cut over-the-air distribution). So everything is fuzzy with wavy lines and there are double or ghost images of everything. For the text questions it wasn't a problem, but when it came to matching up puzzle pieces and finding the patterns and such, I sucked (for patterns, there were black dots that it turns out were just doubles / shadows of the white dots and it took me till the 3rd question to figure this out, which proves my IQ is actually lower than my test result suggests). How bad you ask? Well, I got 40/50 up till the visual questions, then 2/10 for the final 10 visual questions. So that's my excuse and I think it's a good one. If you don't thing so, then just accept that this is my blog and I don't want to hear your opinion :)

Also interesting, in ~6 months (after my birthday), the same score would have given me an IQ of 113. So does that mean I'm getting smarter with age? Or that I'm getting dumber / less capable with age and they therefore give me a handicap?

I didn't know this (maybe they said?), but they've done the same (or similar?) IQ test for other countries, so we'll have to wait and see how Canada ranks.

Funding of the CBC

The Next Great PM show had a question about whether the CBC should continue to get government funding. With shows like the Next Great PM & the IQ Test (that perhaps other stations aren't willing / interested in producing?), I would say Yes. For the National, I'd say Yes. For coverage of Canadian topics that are important to the country (be it sometime smaller groups) but don't bring in advertising dollars, I'd say Yes. To Little Mosque on the Prairie, I'd say Yes. To the hours of syndicated shows such as the Simpsons, Arrested Development, etc., I'd say No. If the CBC gets funding to further the Canadian identity, American sitcoms shouldn't be part of the programming. Not that I don't like the Simpsons, but aren't there plenty of non-government funded channels that can broadcast US syndicates? Anyway, I'd probably be qualified as pro-CBC, but... check out Friends of Canadian Broadcasting if you're interested in more (biased?) talk, or as always, wikipedia for a description of the CBC and the CRTC.

web skills

2007-03-12T10:54:00.000-07:00

I used to build websites back in my university days. Now the most basic html seems to boggle my mind. I guess I'm getting old. But haven't the last couple posts been a bit better? And the last one even with embedded table as opposed to pictures.

I changed my blog template so that it is wider and automatically stretches the text to the window size. Otherwise tables and pictures don't fit nicely. Let me know if this doesn't work. I don't particularly like the colours, but I'll change that another day.

I've also gotten the newest version of Corel lately and have been playing with PhotoPaint (similar to Photoshop) and Draw (my usual for work). I'm getting to be a professional with business cards. Well, it's pretty easy actually, but getting a good logo, fonts, layout etc. does take a bit of work.

Quebecker vs. Quebecer

2007-03-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

So is it Quebecker or Quebecer (or Quebecois). I was sending an email and wasn't sure whether to put in a "k" or not. So I hit wikipedia and found an interesting page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-speaking_Quebecer) and... Seems both are in wide use - perhaps one is more French and one more English, but I didn't care to look that much.

Then there's the Quebecker vs. Quebecois issue. I guess I usually interpret Quebecois as a person of french upbringing, though some may say ancestry, some say just living in the province. During the recent Nation-within-a-Nation issue, I saw several interviews of minorities living in Quebec (some recent immigrants, some who'd been here for more than a generation). A common theme was they felt they would never be considered Quebecois regardless of how long they lived in Quebec. Personally, I feel about as Quebecois living in Montreal as I did American living in San Francisco (granted I've only been here a handful of months).

Has the Immigrant Code of Conduct being making headlines elsewhere? Several smaller communities in Quebec have brought out these rules or conducts for immigrants (aka behaviour "expected" from newcomers or Reasonable Accommodation for Religious Groups). The code touches on everything from the tradition of Christmas trees to forbidding stoning of women, genital mutilation and women from covering their faces in schools. Of course most of us will agree that stoning women isn't really acceptable, though I personally wouldn't have thought the Charter or Human Rights already covered that stoning anyone, especially based on their race, religion, sex, etc. is unconstitutional. So it's already law that you can't stone women, unless of course you use the Not-Withstanding Clause, then it might be legal :)

Some of the quoted responses on this issue (mostly from the first CBC article I found) range from strong to "I'm not sure whether they agree with it or not given such wishy washy political responses" (i.e., the exact same response could be applied to the trade of a hockey player, the trend in Canadian currency, the warm winter, etc.).

Mario Dumont, Opposition Party Leader (Parti Action Democratique)
"Anybody who looks at the way things are evolving in the last year or so, it's obvious that things are slipping."

Gilles Duceppe, Leader of Bloc Quebecois (Federal Party)
"I think that we have to take that more seriously, and we have to take time, and discuss it with those people."

Jean Charest (somewhat indirectly), Provincial Premiere (Liberal)
"In my view, [it is] a very exaggerated phenomenon, that is linked with ignorance,"

André Veillette, Mayor of Sainte-Thècle (neighbouring town in region of Maurice)
"The real Mauricie is welcoming," he said. "It's a region where quality of life is exceptional, and we have no reservations about accepting newcomers here."

And my favourite:

Andre Drouin, Councillor in Herouxville
It's not that the community of about 1,300 doesn't want immigrants - it doesn't have any - but it just wants them to fit in.

On the wikipedia site they have the following table, which is a very appropriate summation to the Reasonable Accomodation topic (worth noting that the first Quebec Independence referendum was in 1980):

**Interprovincial Migration Between Quebec and Other Provinces and Territories by Mother Tongue** Source: Statistics Canada
Mother Tongue / Year	1971–1976	1976–1981	1981–1986	1986–1991	1991–1996	1996–2001	Total
French	-4,100	-18,000	-12,900	5,200	1,200	-8,900	-37,500
English	-52,200	-106,300	-41,600	-22,200	-24,500	-29,200	-276,000
Other	-5,700	-17,400	-8,700	-8,600	-14,100	-19,100	-73,600

federal finances

2007-03-09T12:16:00.000-08:00

I just finished blasting equalization payments and provinces, so I'll try to be more optimistic for a second and look at federal finances... :)

Federal debt is down (in real dollars, but more so in terms of per cent of GDP) and seems headed in the right direction. And Canada is the only G7 country to not be running a deficit! I hadn't really paid much attention to this stuff since I remember people saying Canada was going bankrupt back in the late 1980s or so.

I think the real thing to take from this is we should all buy more Toyota's and Valpolicella (Italian red wine) as the Japanese and Italians need some help!

More "exciting" reading and loads more graphs at:
http://www.fin.gc.ca/ec2005/ec/ecc3e.html

Quebec election & provincial finances

2007-03-09T10:43:00.000-08:00

So, I'm living in Quebec in the midst of a provincial election. Let me sum it up (in my own cynical, biased way)...

- separation talk still dominates the election

- negative comments about separation are referred to as "scare tactics" (this reminds me of the US where negative comments on the war are referred to as "unpatriotic")

- students have the lowest tuition in Canada by far ($1600/yr vs. ~$4000/yr for the rest of the provinces - don't quote me on exact figures except for the $1600 figure)

- a lot of election talk is about how much money the province can get from the feds

- debt and deficit are hardly mentioned (instead see above RE: separation talk)

- seems Quebec demographics are the worst in Canada in that it has (or soon will) have the most number of old folks relative to the number of taxpayers (read skyrocketing health costs with the fewest number of taxpayers, relatively speaking, paying for the healthcare) - none the less, see above lack of discussion about the debt / deficit

Which brings me the following tables that I came upon and which got me thinking about this in the first place:

I mentioned this to a friend in San Francisco and he essentially told me I was being American. Here's my thoughts for the topic:

- In the long term, is there a limit as to how much one part of the country subsidizes another? I support / understand (?) some of the the socialistic / federalistic reasons for equalization payments, but how long is this sustainable?

- If one part of the country really has that low productivity (logistical reasons? such as no fishery?), do transfer payments just stop people from moving to where econmics suggests they should be living?

- Why are Manitoba's per capita subsidies so high relative to Saskatchewan? Is oil & gas really helping SK out that much?

- Ignoring per capita equalization payments, it's pretty funny that Quebec gets virtually half of the equalization or 5.5 billion dollars last year. I wonder how many separtists factor this into the separation equation? I assume this is essentially money from Alberta & Ontario? I'd think this would be called a "fear tactic", but given Quebec has the 2nd largest total debt and the largest provincial debt ratio with the exception of little old Newfoundland (where they're clearing drinking too much screech).

- How come these sorts of quite simple tables don't get shown more during such things as say campaign elections? Do people not want to see them? Are they not popular topics? Or maybe the people (Quebeckers? Canadians? Americans?) too stupid to understand them? Definitely Americans must fall into this latter category (or at least about 49 million of them, if I recall that number correctly) since they elected Bush not once, but twice!!

fast...

2007-03-09T06:49:00.001-08:00

Bugatti Veyron at top speed

coffee

2007-02-18T10:47:00.000-08:00

My caffenation this week has been difficult.

Thursday I was washing out the french press (aka bodum) and the screw fell out of the screen/filter assembly and went down the drain. And it's not really a normal screw (more like an inverse screw or nut that screws in), so replacing it is going to be difficult. None the less, I did make coffee by pushing the screen down with a fork (this resulted in slightly crunchy coffee, but a drug addict is willing to put up with a few imperfections). And just to totally gross people out, I drank the microwave-reheated leftovers on Friday. But clearly this was a temporary solution.

Saturday I was at Canadian Tire (buying someone a new car battery as I had to move their car for snow plowing and it wouldn't even turn over and I don't desire to be jump starting their car all winter long) and decided to pick up a stove-top espresso maker (Moka style) for $20 (of course I had to buy new plates, windshield wipers and a shovel as well - I'm quite an impulsive consumer). I've had a camping espresso maker for years that works great, so... Does anyone have any idea how to get this stupid thing to work well? My camping one works perfect every time. I've used it a few times now with varying degrees of success. Here's my problem and questions:

Problem: The water boils, but only about 1/4 of the water actually makes it to the top chamber, the rest stays down below eventually boiling off as steam if left long enough. I'm pretty sure its supposed to boil fast and violently passing up to the upper chamber in 30 seconds or so of boiling.

Questions: I've ground the coffee quite fine and packed it quite full and firmly (following others instructions and a quick search online. I've also put the water right up to the pressure valve. I tried it a 2nd time (with the same grounds) but after removing a scoop of grounds and it seem to work better. Perhaps I just have too much and too fine off coffee and its not letting the water boil up enough?

So anyway, today's espresso only created about 2 ounces of elixir, but the consistency was very thick and the results have been equivalent to drinking a pot of coffee (after adding milk and additional water to make a full coffee cup). Zinger! If this were beer, it would put Guinness to shame.

radio3

2007-02-15T11:35:00.000-08:00

Ever listen to radio3? I'm listening to some streaming new age hip hop rap electronic shit right now (No Luck Club from Burnaby) on radio3.cbc.ca. Actually now it's the New Pornographers (The Bleeding Heart Show). The basic streaming music website focusing on Canadian indie/alternative music, but with neat multimedia stuff. You can click on what's playing and get band info and other songs and stuff. I haven't been to the site since they re-did the website, though I've been listening to the radio3 podcasts via iTunes. Anyway, I checked the site out again because I saw it won an award in the US for best online multimedia programming or something (despite being Canadian... but I guess since it's online it goes cross border).

I'd recommend the blog and the blog archives for some neat links too...

P.S. Me edited this heres post cause my mom saids there was an grammer error - thanks to me mom for catchen that there error here cause I think me fixed it and me wan'ts not to sound iliterate.

snow & sports...

2007-01-17T13:27:00.000-08:00

It mid January and it has finally snowed!! I went skiing on New Years Day (or was it the 2nd? I can't remember) and the snow was okay (though all man-made) on the green and some blue runs, but the blacks were ridiculous with either no snow or ice (I guess they've been focusing on snow making for the easy & groomable runs first). I went down a chute where I literally should have been wearing ice skates. The ice was smooth and polished as if the zamboni had just been there. I'm lucky to be here talking about it.

Of course the snow means I just had to go dig my car out because they're plowing the side of the street my car was parked on. Definitely not San Francisco. And San Francisco tires are what are on my car. Okay, they're all-season radials, but let's call them "performance-oriented" all-season radials, so it's going to be scary!!

Let's see, what else is new? Hmmm...

I'm back getting some exercise with hockey and climbing both happening weekly. Some jerk defenseman last week at hockey threatened to take me out because I was getting a jump on him and got two breakaways. Now seriously, I don't take hockey too seriously, but someone coming up to me and telling me he was going after me with the intention of taking a penalty and hurting me if I cherry picked and got behind him again ticked me off (out strategy for the game was to keep a winger at or above the blue line at all times). So a few plays later I very innocently laid my shoulder into him in front of the net - a nice solid and clean mid ice bump, not even a hit, but possibly enough to get me a penalty (I should mention we're in a non-hitting league). Of course we can all imagine the brain power of someone who was giving threats in the first place, so he came up looking for a fight and calling me a girl (though he was the one lying on the ice and going on, somehow I was being a girl - sorry for the sexisms here). Ummm... yeah, good one.

But it gets better. I had figured I was going to take a penalty, but figured he'd go with me. It turns out largely because I kept my cool and he was himself that he gets a penalty and I don't. So all is good from point of view. He doesn't like this however and starts going ballistic on the bench. And then a play later there's another minor hit on the ice (not involving me) and he starts going crazy in the penalty box because my teammate did the hit and doesn't get a penalty. So a few seconds into his 2nd tantrum he gets booted from the game. We've got a real winner here I tell you. Anyway, I was quite happy with myself :)

Since I'm going on about sports... I've been climbing with a couple new people and one of them wanted to do their lead test. I said I'd belay for him, but little did I know that they don't distinguish between lead belay and lead here, so I got stuck doing my lead test. Of course I haven't lead squat in over a year, never mind that I've barely been climbing at all! Turns out I did fine on my lead climb (clips weren't the smoothest ever), but he didn't like my lead belaying. He thinks I'm too easy going and don't pay enough attention to small details and he thinks I leave too much slack which I completely disagree with (while belaying I was thinking I was keeping him too tight). It kind of annoys me how different gyms/people are so particular yet inconsistent. Anyway, he reviewed my belaying before the other guy belayed so the other guy knew what he was looking for and had no problems. And I took a fall so the other guy could pass but the other guy passed without having to take a fall? What's up with that? So there's a bunch of lead climbers climbing who've maybe never taken a fall?

So does this make those of you who I've belayed scared or what!! But don't worry, I've caught several really good lead falls and I'm still arrogant and full of myself. Of the latter, I'm sure none of you had any doubt.

area codes

2006-12-05T14:11:00.000-08:00

Isn't it funny that I used to live in area code 415 and now I live in area code 514. Makes you think, doesn't it??

à Montréal, encore!

2006-11-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

Bonjour toute le monde!!

Okay, I admit it, I sometimes use an online french translator. You know, they're pretty damn good. Otherwise I likely would have said "Bonjour toutes la monde!" I digress...

I'm in Montreal right now. More or less living here with Mel. I'm stopping short from saying living here... let's call it an extended stay? We're a bit like an old retired couple - Mel's not working and only goes to school occasionally and I'm only working a bit. So we work on the apartment, make big batches of chicken soup, hang Christmas lights, play scrabble and contemplate the meaning of life. Actually, she's at school today, so I get to play on my own. And...

I should be working, but instead I've been shopping and bought new lights for the kitchen, a new headlight for my car, memory for Mel's laptop, and very nearly a surround sound system. Yes, I've turned into a consumer. Which is why I should be working. I divide the total cost of my purchases by my hourly rate and figure out how many hours I must work to pay off my indulgences. And then I work, but not one more hour than necessary!! Unfortunately, they gave me the wrong memory for the computer, I'm not so sure about the kitchen lights, my burnt out headlight started working when I giggled it (damn Canadian tire screwed it up when they installed my daytime running lights), and I'm even more confused about the surround sound stuff.

As for travels, they're at an end for the moment. After Thanksgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving that is) in Winnipeg and 2 weeks of fieldwork in Edmonton, I flew back to SF to find my car (it was being lovingly-used and cared for by friends in SF). Then Mel flew to SF for a handful of days of sightseeing (some of which on her own while I worked) and then over a period of about 3 weeks Mel and I drove to Seattle, Calgary, Winnipeg and Montreal with many places in between (okay, I did most of the driving). Highlights of the trip were San Fran of course (still feels like home for me, and it was Mel first time in SF), a couple days at a hotsprings (hippie resort shall we call it?) with meals prepared by a chef (not one of the cheaper nights), a hike up a volcano, a beautiful drive (and stays) up the CA & OR coast with redwoods and sand dunes, a great visit with Justin & Erin in Seattle (where I'd never been), great visit with friends & family in Calgary and Winnipeg as always (sorry, too much space on blog already spent discussing Calgary/Winnipeg family/friends), 3 days and 2 incredibly relaxing nights at the cabin with wood stove going 24 hours per day to keep us warm, lots of trees with no gas stations & freezing rain across northern Ontario, and arriving in Montreal 3,931 miles later without a single negative incident (distance provided by MapQuest, though my rough calcs show we drove more like 5,000 miles [8,050 km], probably due to all the sidetracking, etc. - and the car odometer flipped past 150,000 miles somewhere in the NE US and still hasn't broken down, knock-knock).

Here's a quick overview, not showing all the stops, but close enough:

How I Got to Where I Am At Now

You know the question that grates me? No? Well let me tell you...

"I thought you were going to London, Thailand or Africa or something"

Well, no, plans changed and I haven't made it off of the continent (well, except for SE Asia, but that was back in March). So then I feel inadequate because I haven't done anything as exotic as I had planned when departing SF. Yet, I feel like I've done a lot. So anyway, since I was playing with MapQuest (which has this new route planner feature) I started reflecting upon the places I'd been this year. But MapQuest only let's you put in 10 places, so I started with the drive south from Winnipeg in mid July, which had no exact destination in mind, and this is what I got:

Where I Thought I Was Going in Mid-July

Then I got some fieldwork in Connecticut (i.e., near Montreal) and left my car in SF. But the company provided a rental car in CT leading to more fun. So next is a map of my Connecticut roadtripping (actually occurred as several trips over a month, but let's not worry about the details):

Travels in New England in Rental Car

And then I thought to myself, this is supposed to be a travel blog and there is just no flow between all of these maps and they're all out of order!! And I also did the SE Asia trip in March, a trip with my sister and her kids to Tahoe in April, and a train trip out east in June and... it's just so damn incomplete!! But alas, not to worry, just a week ago (at the cottage in Ontario actually) I installed Corel onto my new laptop (aka the boat anchor that resembles a mid-size desktop, but who's complaining?). So being a geek and a perfectionist (some say I am, some say I'm not, but each year during my work performance evaluation they say [I paraphrase] "I should stay focussed on the end product, budget and schedule rather than getting every single detail perfect" - but clearly they don't understand the intricateness of my work), this is what I came up with:

2006 Travels In Summary

Anyone notice that Thailand looks like Florida? I haven't been to Florida in many years, but from what I recall, the food is a lot different than Thailand and the people much taller, thus debunking my theory that Florida and Thailand are one in the same. Perhaps I shall return to Florida in February to see a Nascar race (foreshadowing?). But Vietnam and the Baja Peninsula look very similar and I've never been to either, so I am therefore convinced that they are really the same place and that it's just a government conspiracy telling us that they are really two different places.

Back in Alberta?

2006-10-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

Things changed suddenly, again. I was supposed to be in Connecticut for two more weeks, but as I had said, the project was chaos and they didn't get the permits for the next phase of work. So I got a phone call in my hotel room on a Thursday morning telling me the work was done. I can't say I was disappointed. Good money, but less than enjoyable people and almost a hostile environment associated with the closing of a very unionized plant.

On the good side, I told the PM that I had already made plans to spend the weekend in New York on the client's tab. Since I had the expectation of having to be onsite the following Monday, I argued that I will fly out on Monday and continue with the New York plans. And he agreed. Sweet! So Mel drove down from Montreal and we drove to New York. Well, actually, on Friday night we drove to Danbury, Connecticut and caught up with Zach, an old friend from SF (and CH2M). Then Saturday morning we hit the Big Apple. Mel hadn't been, and I've been a few times, so I got to play tour guide all weekend. But it's such a big city, you could probably go 100 times and still see 1% of the things to see.

What we did catch included Hairspray (a musical based in Baltimore in the 60/70s during race tensions and cheesy dance tv), the WTC site, fireworks on the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, the Empire State Bldg (late at night as it was closing), loads and loads of walking. We stayed till noon on Monday and then drove back to Hartford, dropped off my rental, picked up Mel's car and headed to Montreal.

The two weeks since then have been great and nuts. After 2 days in Montreal, I flew to Winnipeg for the Thanksgiving long weekend. Some great family time (read multiple free meals) and I also got to spend my birthday at home for the first time in at least 6, if not 10, years. I got a sweet GPS unit, if you're curious. Then on the Monday morning I flew to Calgary. I managed to get lunch at Paul & Sue's and dinner at Pat & Stef's (sans Pat). So you can see, I got fed very well over the long weekend.

Monday night I drove to Edmonton to do 2 weeks of field work. Actually, the work is in Fort Saskatchewan, but we stay in Edmonton. The work is with great people, but it's dirty work. It would have been a better week had a caeser salad at Boston Pizza on Tuesday night not killed me... nearly literally? Okay, I exaggerate, but sure felt like it! How many times can a person dry heave? All night long? Yup! My stomach, back and shoulder muscles are still all aching from this endeavour. I guess what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

After this work I'm heading to SF on the ~22nd. Mel shows up in SF on the 24th and were going to do a road trip up the coast to Seatle (Justin & Erin, did I tell you I'm coming?), then to Calgary, then to Winnipeg, then to Montreal? Okay, the first part for sure, and the way things change, who knows. Anyway, hope to catch up with many of you along the way (depending on how many people read my blog, that could mean may of you, or just my mom).

And here's a few photos of the Edmonton work... kind of funny. They thought a 40,000 gallon tank was an 80,000 gallon tank and tried filling it up with dichloroethane, a very nasty compound with even nastier vapours (you can see the tank and overflow pipe on the boat photo). It's a DNAPL (dense non-aqueous phase liquid) - think oil, but it sinks, yet vapours come off it similar to gasoline. So this pond that we are surveying and sediment sampling has this nasty product along the bottom as a seperate phase and when you stir it up it gets quite toxic and hazardous to one‘s health). Hence the Level C (air purifying respirators) and Level B (supplied air respirators), moon suits and full decon procedures. Anyways, that's your Hazmat lesson for the day. Note that I've never done any of this before either (I usually do more clean water, numerical modelling, pumping wells type stuff). And did I mention I had to shave, as in fully, in order to wear the respirators :( Anyway...

time moves slowly

2006-09-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

Still in Connecticut, still working at a snails pace. Or more appropriately, a unionized pace. Here for at least another 2 weeks. No work today, though I'm onsite. Some high rad water needs to be pumped out of a nearby excavation and we're on hold since 7AM waiting for unionized laborers to do the work. 2:15PM and here we sit. Our test is a minimum 3 hour test, and we can't work past 4:30PM, never mind the mid-afternoon break, so no chance of even starting work now. Sweet!

The photo is from a couple weeks ago. They've been using an engineered (well-graded) fill onsite that has a high clay content. Unfortunately, it doesn't drain very well and our drill site was the low spot onsite. The day we were to get the drill rig onsite, a 4WD fork lift on steroids got stuck right next to our proposed drill site (note that the fork lift is carrying nearly a semi-trailer sized cargo box that probably weighs 80,000lbs). And they were wanting us to drive the drill rig through that pond!! There hasn't been too much rain lately, but over the past few days we've pumped many many thousands of gallons as part of the testing were doing, so the puddle/lake is staying about the same. The neat thing about this site is the size of everything. The rebar in the foreground is 2" diameter (compared to 0.5" rebar you see on all other constuctions sites). This rebar is from the reactor dome that was demolished a handful of months back.

This past weekend Mel & I did a road trip to the New Hampshire / Massachusetts coast (Salisbury and Hampton) and then spent Sunday afternoon in Boston. Though drizzly all weeked, was still very nice. The way it's looking now, I'll have Friday off and Mel & I (and maybe a few of her friends) are going to New York to catch a Broadway show - any suggestions?

I've been getting the trickle of emails from Burning Man folk. Makes me sad that I didn't go, but so is life. And I've been getting good money here and having great weekends, so no complaints. Toni & Ari (to whom I gave the Chariot) sent me a picture of my... ummm... their Chariot. They said they had a great time and loved the chariot, so this is very good. They put up some nice curtains and hung Thai lamps on the LEDs, and it all looks quite good. I barely got the thing built last year and decorations were at a minimum. I was really looking forward to doing the decorations and not focussing on the basics this year, but it's also really neat to see what other people's ideas/implementations were.

New England

2006-09-13T07:21:00.000-07:00

I've never really been to New England before. I drove through once on the way from Montreal to New York (I think I was 19), but this is the first time I've spent time here. I've been working just south of Hartford, Connecticut at a nuclear power facility (the facility is nearly completely decomissioned). Working 12 hour days, but hardly working. The project is a bit of a cluster fuck, the site is heavily unionized (read: breaks & lunches are religiously observed), the drillers have the worst attitude I've ever dealt with, the other people I work with have negative attitudes, and we've been shut down for multiple days for such things as a site-wide celebration attended by biggies such as the Senator & Governor, a power outage, and general lack of planning. Though work has been long and frustrating, there is one very positive note... I've been working (and getting paid) for long hours (I bill regardless of whether we do work or not) and, even better, I've had 3 or 4 day long weekends in Montreal for the the past 2 weekends (this coming weekend will be no exception). Did I mention I bill my travel time to and from Montreal... life could be worse.

So speaking of the weekends... so far all have been spent with Mel in Montreal. My brother Jeff was also in Montreal last weekend and we caught up which was great (seems Jeff & I only meet in other cities now a days). We all got to eat, drink, walk about, saw the World Press Photo exhibit, and had a merry old time. The previous weeked Mel & I went up to her parents country cabin and I got to brutalize the french language. Though it is improving a bit, I need more practice (I bought some CDs, but after waking up at 5ish each morning, my evenings in the hotel are slow times where learning a language seems impossible). Mel's parents thought I was nice, quiet & shy (i.e., unexciting). Well, it's tough to have a personality when you can't speak worth crap, you don't understand what they're saying, and you're on a 5AM - 9PM schedule. Even worse when you hear your name in the first part of the sentence and then strap-on dildo in the latter part of the sentence. Ummm... pardon moi?

Here I sit onsite. Currently 10:50 AM and I've been here since just after 6. So far have checked and wrote emails many times, organized my expenses, read the newspaper, and ummm... yup, that's it. Another busy day at the site. Did I mention how much of a cluster fuck this project is?

But I've talked and exchanged a few emails with someone from the Waterloo office who is running a project in Quebec City and things are looking promising for some work there. And I sent him an email this morning detailing my upcoming schedule (and the slow pace) and just got an email in return asking how soon I can leave. My answer to this was... say 5 minutes? Seriously, there are two of us (two geologists) supervising one drill rig that works occasionally. I'm getting paid for 8 hours and then time and a half for anything over, so I sit or watch happily for 12 hours each day, but I'm also miserable all at the same time. Does that make sense? So much so that I'm wanting to and have jumped at some other work. The guy I'm working with can easily handle the work for the next week (there hasn't been enough work for two people yet), but at the same time, he wants me to stay just in case? All very confusing. Well, we'll have to wait and see how this all unfolds. So I may keep sitting here, maybe we'll do some work this afternoon, or maybe I'll be driving to Quebec City this afternoon. Sorry, I'm sure this is all very boring, but I needed to vent.

Plans for this weekend may be A. meeting Mel in the Adirondaks for a weekend of camping or bed & breakfasts since work will be paying (this is the most likely) B. going to Montreal, or C. (this is a new one) meeting Mel in Quebec City. Or maybe a D. that I don't know of yet? One just never knows.

small details from bed on Sunday morning

2006-08-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

I've made an attempt to update my blog. I've been lazy when it comes to photos, but photos are worth a thousand words? Or maybe even more of my babbles? So let me know what you think.

I've also been playing with the blog template. I can't figure out why so many of the templates are narrow (there are predefined templates for blogs... check out some of my friend's blogs if you don't follow... but you can also get into the coding and make as many changes as you'd like). Largely because of the photos and how the text wraps around them, I've screwed around with the coding of several templates and made them wider, but several have images that don't stretch (or at least I haven't figured out how to stretch them) and then I thought "maybe the page won't fit onto somebody's 800x600 screen?" Now part of me thinks who cares because absolutely no one in this world still uses this resolution, but the sad reality is, my parents are going blind or something and I know they do! The older generation... So, if I do make some of these changes and make the blog wider, let me know if it causes a problem (probably easier just to buy them a bigger monitor).

I haven't packed a thing for the trip to Connecticut and I have to go buy another duffle bag (despite having 4 in Calgary/Winnipeg) since I wasn't planning on bringing mass amounts of gear on a plane (currently the backseat and trunk are functioning as duffle bags). So a trip down Mission St. is required. I've also got to figure out what to do with my car for the next month or so. Been waffling about leaving it with friends in Oakland who don't have street cleaning, but I'd like it to be there with wheels when I get back... I think I'll just expense the $175/month parking at a far airport lot (normally I'd do this without thinking, but it's a new project for me and...) and then if I stick around any longer, say in Montreal, then I'll have to pay the ongoing parking myself. Oh well.

Okay, I have no idea why I'm stressing aobut these little things since I do field work all the time (6 weeks is a bit longer than usual, but still). I think it might be the added stress of not being settled and the planning being all thrown off. But a big thanks to Gabe (and his absentee roommate) for letting me crash at his place all week long and setting up the wireless, which has made this week very nice! And even better, Gabe moved to Duncan St only a couple blocks from my old place, so it's almost like being home!

Speaking of friends, I've added links to several friend's blogs and some websites I often visit (to the right of the blog). (I "deleted" all my Favourites & Bookmarks from my web browsers a couple months ago (along with much of my hard drive), so send me your blog links again if I'm missing them!) I'm listening to streaming music off of CBC Radio 3 right now, which also happens to be my favourite podcast site too. I just realized, as I sit here blogging about my efforts in html coding and favourite podcast sites, I'm a geek!!

how plans change...

2006-08-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

I seem to be getting a lot of abuse lately because I haven't blogged lately and I haven't stuck to my plans... sheesh people! Don't you know that A. plans are made to be changed and B. patience is a virtue?!?! :)

I'm in SF at the moment. Since the last post, which I guess I was in Winnipeg, I HAVE followed through with SEVERAL plans including the cottage weekend, a great week-long sailing trip with my Dad up into the northern part of Lake Winnipeg (really more the middle, but it's all relative), and then the Calgary agenda. But I've posted enough on Winnipeg, so I'll just say it was a few more good weeks and give a few details on the stuff since (I actually have a sailing blog, but it'll take a bit of work to get it finished with embedded photos, but I'm working on it.)

The Calgary visit was really good with some work, some time hanging with friends (as always), a wedding, a visit by Mel and a weekend babysitting. Maybe the highlight was Mel coming out for 5 days and us going to one of my childhood bestfriend's wedding in Kananaskis. Was a perfect visit with a small road trip, a couple hikes in the mountains, an overdose of friends (whom Mel doesn't seem to hold against me), a nice night in Kananakis Lodge, etc. etc. This photo is from hiking the day after the wedding (around Lower Kananaskis Lake I think).

I'll try not to bore you all with wedding photos, which isn't too hard since I didn't take too many, but how often do I get dressed up in a suit? Actually, it was a new suit hand - me - down from my brother - in - law who claimed "it didn't have enough ball room". Ummm... yeah, what ever...

The babysitting was also good fun. Paul helped me moved down to SF in a U-Haul and then helped me move back. He moved, unpacked and then packed and moved enough boxes to win some sort of award, but instead I looked after his 4 year old son Brannan for a Saturday & Sunday to give him and Sue a weekend away. Though looking after Brannan (who has quite a bit of energy) is definitely a chore, I definitely still got the easy end of the deal. Actually, I exaggerate... it was quite easy. We spent a fair bit of time hanging out with Pat, Stef & Chloe (their 1 year old daughter), "doing" playgrounds, Afrikaday at Prince's Island Park and a walk at the Inglewood bird conservatory, etc. Oh, and then there was the school bus on Sunday morning! Brannan is going to be taking the school bus this coming year and the )Sunday morning was schoolbus training. Brannan and I and about 500 other parents and kids all watching movies and meeting bus drivers and then going for a ride on the school bus... whooaaa, hold me back!! And I got interviewed on two news channels too!! Come to think about it, the only rough part of the weekend was that somebody pooped their pants (hint: it wasn't me) and expected me to wipe their bum... ummm... do I have to? ummm...yeah? ummm... yeah, okay, I guess so :) (P.S. the photo is a year or two old, but I thought a good one of Paul & Brannan

On the Tuesday morning after babysitting, after finally getting Carole's condo cleaned and organized to my satisfaction (took many more hours than I expected suggesting that A. my standards are too high, B. my cleaning skills aren't very good, C. I'm a slow worker, D. the place was a mess, or E. all of the above) I jumped in my car and headed to SF. Somehow around the time I was packing I made the decision not to go to Burning Man. It would have required packing a lot more stuff and I guess I decided not to pack it. Some decisions get made by making very small decisions. My desire to go waned for a variety of reasons... I think I just needed a year off. Anyway, I also made the big decision not to take the interstate and instead headed through Glacier/Waterton National Park (beautiful!) and took highway 93 through Montana/Idaho/Nevada. This is, as the crow flies, a more direct route, but given the traffic, small towns, construction (I hate being stopped at one-way gravel drive through the ditch detours), etc., it ended up taking a couple extra hours when all was said and done. But I must say, the Honda v-tech with an 8100 RPM readline and a strong desire to rev is a fun engine to work with a 5-speed on two-lane highways with slow moving traffic. Much of the road in the north is hilly to mountainous and there were lots of fire trucks and such. I left one town and immediately hit five large trucks and a couple vehicles in a hilly section with 35 mph curves yet a 65 mph speed limit. I managed to pass them in two goes with one pass topping out at 95 mph as I shifted into 4th and the other pass at about 105 mph - could of gone faster, but I had already passed the 5th vehicle and there was just no need! :) Despite the speed, both passes were actually quite safe, though I'm sure a few people would disagree. Definitely safer than driving the I-5 to LA and having people doing 100 mph passes on the inside right up to slow moving traffice and then forcefully squeezing there way into traffice lined up on the left with literally inches between bumpers... crazy!! Unfortuantely, Darwin-award winners like this tend to take out a swath of cars with them when things go wrong.

The drive didn't take me straight to SF, but first stopped in Tahoe for a couple nights to meet up with Justin and do some catching up and then some climbing at Donner Summit. Though the catching up (i.e., hangover) kind of interfered with the climbing, but what can you do? Then I hit SF for one night and then headed to LA to catch up with Lisette & Jackie and helped a bit with the burning man camp I had been considering campimg with (my lack of indecision on all things burning man this year, including whether to go or not, was quite amazing). And now I've been back in SF for a week (worked all 5 days this week in the office if you can believe that!!). On Monday (today is Saturday) I'm heading off for 6 weeks of work at a decomissioned nuclear power plant in Connecticut - hopefully I won't be glowing the next time you see me! Was a very spontaneous decision to do this work - I checked my email in a Montana hotel during my drive from Calgary to SF, saw this request for staff, and I comitted to the job the following morning. It will be 12 hour days, weekends off, every expense imaginable paid for, and a 5 hour drive to Montreal (i.e., next weekend is the long weekend and Mel and I have already made plans). So though not planned, sometimes things just happen and you have to run with them! And funny how the decision to camp vs. stay in a hotel was such a small decision, but I wouldn't have found out about this work if I hadn't chosen a hotel and who knows what the long-term "consequences" of this decision will be? Anyone follow me here? Branches of the tree type decision making where take one small turn and end up following a very different branch?

On a sad note, I gave away my art car (love seat chariot) this week :( I gave it away since I couldn't bring myself to ask for money for something that was built for an event rebelling against corporate america and sticking it to (and burning) the man. I also gave away a bike, a bunch of clothes including my pink mini-skirt and purple scarf (is this yours Lisette?) in which I looked so sexy (see photo), and all other stuff that remained in my old garage. But on the corporate side, I did sell my two BM tickets, a Southwest Rewards ticket, my wetsuit and got the money from my warddrobe. So I'm up nearly a $1000 cash this week!! Not bad... you should all try liquidating your life more often! Now what to do with the stack of 20s and 100s?? Please, no one mug me!! And believe it or not, there is virtually nothing material that I want right now... what's happening to me? And even if there was something, being a person with no fixed address and living out of my car, I'd have no where to put it!

bouncing between cities

2006-07-20T06:55:00.000-07:00

The eastern portion of my travels are over for now, though a return out east, to say Montreal, is quite likely. Last time I posted my sister was about to show up. All happened as planned and they showed up during the finals of the World Cup. Timing could you been better, but what can you do?

My sister, nephew and niece (from now on referred to as "family") showed up from the airport (short a bag Jack left on the shuttle containing his Gameboy and Ipod charger) at the Fairmont Montreal (I wasn't paying for hotels obviously, and actually we were getting friends & family rates at all the Fairmonts, hence the nice hotels). That night we went out to the old port area, found some quick food (kids were ready to pass out) and did a horse carriage ride around the old town. Mel caught up with us and we cruised the streets for a bit before the family wanted to go to bed... so Mel and I went one way (to the Jazz Festival - final night) and the family went to bed. Actually we only watched a bit of music before going for a wander along St. Catherines, admiring all the strip clubs, to a bar for a couple drinks.

Next day (I remember this being a Monday) in Montreal the family went to La Ronde - a Six Flags park with a dozen roller coasters. Uncle David did pretty well on the coasters, though the Sponge Bob 3-D ride did me in (I've got one kind of bum eye which I don't use all that much and apparently forcing my brain to use it causes worse effects than roller coasters). Anyway, it was a very fun day at the park.

Okay, I'll provide some shorter details for the rest of the post...

The 3rd day in Montreal Emma and I took off to the Biodome in the morning (a large indoor aquarium, zoo, etc. etc.). We took the Metro both ways and only spoke french for much of the way. It was a quick early morning visit, but a great time. We were back at the hotel (which was attached to the train station) by noon and jumped on a train to Quebec City.

Besides me, none of the family had been on trains. Crazy! We had a fun train ride to QC with food provided by me (bread, hummus, 2 types of cheeses, some puddings, salami... a very normal Paris lunch that the family enjoyed). QC was quite the change... small, quiet and quaint compared to Montreal. And we settled into the Chateau Frontenac which is litterally the castle on the hill surrounded by everything. Highlights in QC were:

- several nice meals in terraces (patios) with seafood and wine
- several good historical tours / shows / walks detailing the Plains of Abraham, Wolfe-Montcalm, the failed attack of the Americans, etc. etc.
- just the quaint and relaxing feel of the city
- good swimming and hot tub at the hotel (always important)

After 3 nights and 4 days in QC, we again jumped on a train to Ottawa. Ottawa was definitely a slower pace in terms of less tourists. Granted we were staying in a more business oriented area during the weekend, so that was part of the impression. We did several fun things:

- light and sound show at the Parliment Buildings
- amphibus tour of Ottawa (bus goes into the river and motors around for 20 minutes)
- Museum of Civilization and the new War Museum
- IMAX show (Kilamandjaro)
- a day of white water rafting on the Ottawa River about an hour north of town
- a really really good sushi dinner that is worth mentioning

Okay, that's enough boring trip details (I'm in Winnipeg again now), but I thought I'd give the nitty gritties for those wanting to know what we did on the trip.

I'm heading off to the cabin this weekend and then on Monday going sailing with my Dad for 5 days up to the northern part of Lake Winnipeg. I'll be back in Winnipeg for a few days after that and then heading to Calgary for Aug 4. I think plans are finalized now and Mel is flying from Montreal to Calgary for that first weekend... should be fun with a wedding in Kananaskis and then rafting down the Bow on Sunday tentatively planned.

Another recent thought... chariot for Burning Man is seeming like too much effort. Thinking of scrapping it...

bonjour

2006-07-07T10:54:00.000-07:00

Hello from Montreal! Doing the same as usual it seems... sitting in a cafe on a laptop. Actually, I haven`t brought my laptop or cell phone on this trip, but am borrowing a friends. Anyway, here`s a quick update (sorry the ` s are french accent graves or something...).

The time in Winnipeg has been great with not much besides family, family and some more family affairs. Attending roller hockey games, ringette games, making lunches for my sister`s kids (house sat with them for a couple days too), sailing with my Dad, painting the cabin with my brother-in-law, ummm.... lot`s of good quality family stuff, which was priority No.1 this summer! Will be back in Winnipeg for another couple weeks after the current trip to do a cottage weekend with the whole family (parents, brother, sister, and all the associated kidlettes) and a 5-day or so sailing trip up to the north part of Lake Winnipeg with my Dad. But that`s the future...

Spent the July long weekend in Toronto hanging with John & Jocelyn (John`s a friend from SF who moved back home to Toronto, well, actually Etobikoe or something like that for those who differentiate the suburbs from the city... I personally just refer to it all as southern Ontario). We went for a sail on Lake Ontario Friday afternoon and got to see the waterfront from the water side. Then went `out on the town` and saw some live music and closed the place down. I remember once again why switching to gin & tonics half way into the night is not a good idea (or at least I remembered the next morning as John woke us up at 7 AM to go to the cabin). We spent the long weekend at John`s family`s cabin on Georgian Bay. A very nice weekend of sailing, canoeing, boating, and reading (emphasis on reading for me - I can be quite boring when I choose to be). One of the near by islands had some cheesy fireworks, so we even celebrated Canada Day. Actually, we made it back into the city and down to the waterfront for Monday night and saw the official TO fireworks too.

I spent Tuesday at a relaxed pace making it to the train station around noon, then put my bag in storage and wandered around downtown till my 3PM train to Montreal. Was very nice weather except for a crazy heavy thundershower that forced me into the CBC building. This was actually nice since if forced me into the CBC museum which has histories and sets for the Friendly Giant, Mr. Dressup, etc. etc. Trains are so nice, but I can`t understand why:

A. there aren`t more of them (you`d think there would be a train leaving every 15 minutes)
B. they aren`t cheaper (TO to MNTRL was $92... how much does an airplane cost)
C. why did my sister make me pay for this... note she`s paid for the other legs of the train trip :)

It had been a while since I`ve been on a train and it was quite nice (i.e., I found a great used book store on Queen St. in TO and bought two books and the train gave me a good 4.5 hour start on the first book - Postcards - which I just finished yesterday by the way).

Been in Montreal for a couple days now. Melanie, one of my `students` in Pinawa many years ago picked me up at the Metro stop and has set me up at her new apartment. I`ve been there for 2 nights (or is it 3 nights, I seriously can`t remember, okay, must be 3) and she`s moving in today (I could be helping, but instead I`m hiding out in a coffee shop... something to do with 2 exboyfriends helping so I`m just making myself scarce. Her and I have caught a couple nights of the Jazz Festival. First night, the night I got here, we caught a tribute to Paul Simon with performers such as Leonard Cohen, Elvis Costello, Holly Cole, Daniel Lanois (a Quebec artist who I saw in SF last year), and several others. Last night was a more small venues including a stop at a salsa place where Mel made me Salsa and ChaChaCha (it was brutal despite having lived in the mexican area in SF for several years... Mel made me be the women and she led).

Other highlights in Montreal so far... a 13 hour walking tour that started way up north (relatively speaking... Jarry for those that know Montreal) on St Laurent, proceeded downtown, saw the Portugal-France game (city went nuts when France won), checked out a hostel (decided I like my current digs), then to the old Ville & Port, then walked back home along St. Denis. Definitely got my exercise that day. The next day I took it easy and went to the Musee de Beaux Artes (Fine Art Museum). Both these days were very much like a typical European vacation day for me. I can tell I`m on holiday because I can just randomly chat with people. Of course it usually seems to be cute women that I chat to, but what can I say, I have good tastes!

Robyn ( my sister) and Jack & Emma arrive on Sunday. Sunday is going to be a crazy day. First, it`s the final of the world cup. Regardless of the outcome, this city is going to be nuts. There are nearly as many flags hanging out windows and people driving 60 mph up and down streets as there was in Calgary or Edmonton during their hockey attempts. It`s also the last day of the Jazz Fesitval and that`s bound to be a blast. So the new arrivals should be up for a fun day!

Also still planning to be in Calgary for Aug 5-15 and then to Seattle for some climbing & hanging with Erin & Justin say Aug 16-20 and then continue the road trip to SF (arriving by say Aug 25) in prep for Burning Man on Aug 28 (just keeping you alls updated with the schedule hoping that our paths will cross).

A la prochaine!! (please no correcting my french! .... I need to practice bad!)

as the summer evolves...

2006-06-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

I'm finally in Winnipeg. Was painful getting out of Calgary (i.e., packing and cleaning up Carole's apartment in case she returns before I do (unlikely, but...) - it took about 3 hours to pack my car. I'm quite disappointed in my friend Paul, who usually helps me pack up!! So I made it out of Calgary just before noon on Monday, meaning it was a long day of driving and didn't get into Winnipeg until after midnight.

One comment about the drive... Saskatchewan is now entirely 4 lane and 110 km/hr (almost, last 20 km under construction)! This makes the trip so much faster! Although I left my roof racks on and with a full load I got the worst fuel economy of my life... I was right up there with an SUV barely getting 30 mpg (Imperial gallons that is, or ~25 US mpg). Anyway...

You'd think my life would be slow and relaxing, but there are so many things to do! (truth and sarcasm, all at the same time!) Day 1 in Winnipeg I sleep in a bit, then get up and just hang with my Dad for about an hour or two (get breakfast and coffee made, you know...), then it's over to my sister's, pick my nephew up at school, lunch with the kids, then off to my grandmother's with my Dad, then back to my parents for dinner, then off to my nephew's inline hockey game, then home to bed. This is a vacation?

Day 2 was less busy, but still involved too much effort. Watching the hockey game with my nephew (Edmonton scored in overtime to stay alive... series is now 3-2 in favor of Carolina, best of 7, and now heading back to Edmonton), playing basketball during the intermissions, and beating him up regularly. Now I'm on Day 3 and I stayed at my sisters because I new it would be calmer (kids are at school and didn't come home for lunch today) and I need to get a report done for tomorrow, which I haven't started because I haven't done any work this week. However, my sister and I got talking this morning next thing I know I'm travelling around Quebec / Ontario with my sister and her kids in a few weeks. I can't complain, because I just got a return ticket bought for me (on airmiles). So, the newest plans are...

I'm flying to Toronto on June 30, spending the long weekend in John either at his cabin or sailing (yet to be decided). Then the following week (week of July 3rd) I'll travel to Montreal, meet up with a couple friends and catch a few days of the Jazz Festival (which runs till July 9th). And on July 9th, my sister (Robyn) and her 2 kids (Jack & Emma) are flying in to Montreal. We'll spend just 1 day in Montreal and then head to Quebec City. The plan is to mak this a bit of a touristy and informative trip for the kids, which isn't hard to do in Quebec City (e.g., Plains of Abraham, fort this and fort that, etc.). After a few days in Quebec City we'll jump a train to Ottawa, where none of us have ever been. Note that I'll be the pretend father throughout all this! The end of the trip will all 4 of us flying back to Winnipeg on July 17th. And all this flying on airmiles (or Aeroplan to be precise) on the exact days we wanted and on short notice... pretty sweet!

Okay, more later, must do some work and make enough money to buy beer.

P.S. I'm looking for places to stay in Montreal!!

Life in Cowtown

2006-06-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

Did we all catch the hockey game last night? How depressing!! Up 3 goals in the third and they still lost! And did their goalie in too! Life is unbearable!! Okay, I actually only slightly care, but why let reality get in the way of a good story?

Life is good, with only a few exceptions. Maybe I should start off with the bad things? Well, first of all, my car is a bit of a pain in the butt. I have to get a federal inspection done since I'm importing it into Canada. I already paid ~$350 for the inspection at the border, but there are still additional things. First there are daytime running lights ($176), child seat mounting kit (~$??), french stickers for the doors, airbags, seatbelts (~$???), and some other things I probably don't know about yet... they say stuff like your bumpers may need modifying, but it's an Acura, so it should meet Canadian standards (otherwise I should just ask what their name is so I can name my first child). And the is just for the federal inspection. The provincial inspection is next and this is where I'll get dinged for having too thin of brake pads or who knows. And on top of all this, my clutch is gone. Yes, it's been going for years, but it seems to have waited until my income is at it's lowest in years to finally start requesting action. I'm still in denial and remembering how I used to drive my MGB - double clutch and heel & toe...

Okay, only two more things to bitch about...

Sunday morning I continued the process of backing up my laptop and synchronizing files with my home desktop computer. I had already synched my music, much of my personal stuff and was working on photos. I then noticed I had a couple user profiles that weren't mine on the laptop (from when other people at work had logged onto my laptop). I've always periodically deleted these profiles and did so again. Unfortunately, after doing so, I noticed I had a large amount of free space on my laptop and no icons left on my desktop. Seems Windows also deleted my profile and all files within My Documents - essentially every file on the computer excluding programs including my Outlook PSTs, my photos, and some other miscellaneous stuff that weren't necessarily backed up. Sweet!! I spent Monday with hard disk recovery software fixing my computer. It seems the some files that had been used most recent didn't get recovered including some of the PSTs which were rather important. Oh well.

Last thing to bitch aobut... when is someone going to clean up Carole's condo and put away my stuff? I find I still have a lot of stuff, be it clothes, climbing gear, shoes, junk, computer stuff, etc. etc., yet I don't really have anywhere to put it. I need to get my clothes widdled down to just a couple suitcases instead of 3 duffle bags and 2 suitcases. Unfortunately the CD rack fell over onto and into my clothes bags about 4 days ago (one of the tall towers that I set up when I got here) and I've yet to muster the energy to clean up the mess.

So in the big picture now, not really that much to complain about. I've been doing a bit of work, but not much as the work hasn't been really coming in until yesterday and I haven't been searching it out. The computer thing came at a bad time because there is work now so tomorrow I will have to be productive for a change. I had I think my biggest paycheck ever nearly 2 weeks ago... the reward for doing 12 days straight (12 hour + days) of fieldwork netted me nearly a months pay... SWEET! That will cover my clutch, all my car problems, and still leave me enough money to live on for the next month so I can't complain too much.

Life in Calgary is good too. I've mostly been hanging with friends and just catching up. There have been more BBQs and dinners at friends houses than I can count. I went over to Stef's tonight and had dinner with her and her sister tonight (and Chloe too, she's 11 months). Her hubby Pat is out of town, so we just sat around after dinner for several hours and chatted. This is a pretty typical night. There have definitely been a few nights of partying, but for the most part just hanging with friends. I also caught up with Ted last weekend who is a bestfriend from literally from preschool who is now living in Calgary (I'll be back in Calgary in early August for his wedding).

I wish there was more deep and meaningful stuff to say right now, but the past couple weeks have been purely unwind moments with general hanging out and accentuated by a few moments of excitement. I've been climbing at the gym a couple times, played squash once (again tomorrow), walked a bunch, and sat on many a patio. Well, I must say something else besides bitching and boring details... ah yes... I've wondered about lots of stuff (yes, I have way too much time on my hands). Here are some random thoughts...

- Calgary is now the largest city in Canada that allows smoking in bars. What's up with that? What makes it even stranger is that you can't smoke on patios, but you can smoke in the bar. Ummm, excuse me, I want to have a cigarette so I'm going to go inside. The people who made up this law must have been smoking more than a cigarette!

- Calgary is booming right now in terms of money. But people here also seem infatuated with money. House prices went up 40% last year alone (which helps me feel better about paying my $1600 house tax bill this month) and show no signs of slowing down. I can't remember any time in San Fran when we went out and discussed stock options, mergers, etc. Yet it's the #1 talk here. Maybe if I had 35,000 stock options and my company was about to be bought out at $45/share I might be more apt to talk about stocks :) But to me, people in San Fran seemed pretty well grounded and happy without being as concerned about money. Granted, no one could afford a house but....

- Good friends are worth a lot. I've been lucky enough to make some really good friends in all the places I've lived. I'm more the person that makes a small handful of great loyal, long-term friends than the type of person who makes lots of acquaintances. San Fran was funny this past year in that a group of friends that hung out together for the past couple years was dissolving... Justin & Erin moving to Washington, Sam moving Colorado (?). Usually a friend comes and goes, but this kind of seemed like the entire group dissipated. Well, there are others in "the group" and I don't want to be exclusionary, but you know what I mean. Actually, San Fran is very transient and I therefore made many good friends that moved on... just the nature of the city. It's nice to come back to Calgary and find that many of my good friends from years ago are still here! But even this is not going to last. Looks like, for example, the Aussie is going to Thailand, Welshman is going to Holland, and the Frenchwoman is just never here (but I'll visit her elsewhere!). Anyway, good friends will always catch up sometime, somewhere.

Lastly, I guess I'll give a quick update on the plans for those who A. Care B. Are planning on meeting up with me somewhere or C. Want to know when and where to avoid me. My latest intent is to go to Winnipeg this weekend, be there for nearly 2 months, but fly to Montreal / Toronto for 2 weeks sometime in those 2 months. I have to be back in Calgary for an August 5 wedding (someone else's) and I'm going to babysit Branan (Paul & Sue's son) the weekend of Aug 12 in appreciation for Paul helping me move back up to Calgary. Then ~Aug 15 I'm on a roadtrip down to San Fran (maybe through Washington to catch up with Erin & Justin?) needing to be at Burning Man late August or early September? I could look at a calendar, but... After that there are several friends I'd like to catch up with in San Fran and the surrounding regions if they'll have me on their couches. Then after that I'm thinking much more seriously about Africa now. Time to strike one of the last continents off the list? Okay, I've only been to Costa Rica, so that probably doen't count as South America, or does it? Central America isn't a continent, is it? So if it isn't, where does that put Costa Rica? If CR is in SA, then Africa is my last continent (I'm just accepting the lack of desire and resources as eliminating Antarctica from the realm of likelihood). There's some possible work opportunities that have popped there head up recently for work in Ethiopia, but even mentioning this is way ahead of schedule.

Okay, essay over. Off to bed (or maybe I'll stay up for the Daily Show... which I get even without cable... sweet!!).

In the Great White North....

2006-05-25T21:24:00.000-07:00

Hello from the Great White North!! I've been up in Calgary for a couple weeks now, but somehow blogging seems like so much effort. Yes, I think the pace of my life right now can best be described as lazy? lacsidaisical? restful? Okay, let me take a step back.

Paul and I made it out of town on Sunday night (April 30). We only made it a bit past Sacramento, but it was a mental success getting out of town on the weekend and also meant no Bay Area traffice to deal with Monday morning. UHaul screwed up and it worked to my advantage. We ended up getting a truck with a trailer for the car. This meant there wasn't quite the same pressure to get rid of everything as there was lots of room in the truck. Though it was the plan to get rid of a lot of stuff because of my desire to simiply my life (i.e., make myself more mobile). Anyway, Paul and I made steady progress (well, if you call 35 mph up hills "progress") and arrived in Calgary on Tuesday night. It was all quite easy and uneventfull including quite a simple border crossing (luckily they didn't search the truck and find my 40 some bottles of California wine stashed in the UHaul - oops, did I just confess to a crime online? oh well, come arrest me!!).

I was back in Calgary for about 4 days before I picked up and went back to the US for a couple weeks of field work (a couple hours south of Vegas). Was pretty crazy with 110 degree heat, 12 days straight, and 12 to 16 hour days. It was good work with the USGS out on site and some fun times with friends in Lake Havasu and then a fun evening in Vegas for the last night (I would tell you about Vegas, but happens in Vegas....). The other good thing about this work is that I just got my pay check today and it is just shy of being twice my usual paycheque!! This is good as my clutch is on its very very very last legs :(

So, now I'm back in Calgary and homeless. Well, sort of. I'm living at Carole's condo in Calgary (she's off in Algeria working for the next month or two or three?) and what I didn't sell of my possessions at the garage sale are in her basement. Pretty sweet to just be hanging out here - being in Calgary is kind of like a vacation, kind of like couch surfing, kind of like being back home (I did live here for 6 years). The condo is sweet (you're great Carole!! though do you think you could get cable? just kidding!!!). I've got hi-speed wireless at the condo so I can continue to work, although I've only billed 2 hours this week. I guess that's where I started this blog off... life is lazy. I did some of my taxes today, wrote a couple emails, watched the first period of the Edmonton-Anaheim game (Game 4 with Edmonton losing today, but still up 3-1) and then went climbing for the first time in Calgary. Wow, one rough day!!

For the next part of the summer (which could be tomorrow? next week? or next month?) I'll be heading to Winnipeg to spend time with the family. All this while I'm still working a bit for the San Fran company - have laptop, will travel. They're happy keeping me and giving me hours where ever I am which is really sweet. If I keep working as hard as I have this week I'm either going to go broke or start dipping into the savings I'm trying to keep tucked away for overeas travelling - so I'm going to have to work on the self motivation skills!! Winnipeg is going to be all about family - spending time with the folks including some sailing with my Dad, playing computer with my Mum, and spending time at the cottage with all my nieces and nephews. Apparently I'm booked to build a tree house with Jack? And maybe some building a bathroom on the old A-frame cabin.

I'd also really like to do a road or train trip out east either this summer or this fall. I've got a few friends in Toronto & Montreal I'd live to visit and I'd like to check Montreal out a bit more (foreshadowing later years of my life maybe?). VIA Rail has a 30 day pass and I'm thinking of taking 30 days to make it to Halifax, then spend a week there (and maybe PEI?) and then fly back. Just thinking out loud here. I have to be back in Calgary for the August long weekend (for a wedding) and back in San Francisco for Labour Day (for Burning Man), so not sure when it will fit in. Also Carole and I were talking about maybe me coming to Africa (she even suggested she has the air miles to get me there - did I mention she's a damn good friend? I think we'd all agree). This is very tempting...

With this all said, where I'll be at the end of the summer/fall is an unknown. Only a few months ago I was predicting London, but then I spent some time travelling in SE Asia and now I'm hesitant on London (not saying not, but contemplative). A few other overseas jobs are also popping there heads up. My company just had a big win in Italy and there's some 3rd world stuff (groundwdater stuff, that's what I do) that might be very tempting (there's lots of work, but much of it doesn't pay - seems lots of people around the world want drinking water, but many don't want to pay $150/hr for a consultant to come find it for them... go figure). And if Ben, one of my best friends from Calgary, carries through on his move to Thailand, it might be tough for me not to join him. Or maybe I should... like I said, I have no idea. I'm open to suggestions!! And also very open to being spontaneous....

the final weeks in SF

2006-05-04T14:29:00.000-07:00

The final weeks in SF involved too much work, too much play, and not enough sleep. It's tough trying to say goodbye to everyone, wrap things up at work and plan for the move all at the same time. Needless to say this wore me down and a 3 week long cold still persists.

The 2nd to last weekend was a house party which was quite good. Paul flew down from Calgary and arrived an hour before the party so that was great (he then stuck around for the week and helped me pack and move making him either a great friend or a sucker!!!). I guess we shouldn't tell the landlord that the apartment can fit close to 100 people (including the band). Did some good damage on the bar and the remenants of the alcohol were sold for $45 during the garage sale (Paul thought no one was cheap enough to buy open booze - was he wrong or what!!). The night following the party Lisette was in town for a show at the DNA Lounge. Because I got so much sleep the previous night, I thought why not work the merchandise booth for the show (Sunday night) and stay up late again! Let's just say Monday morning wasn't exactly an early one. And surprisingly, the cold still persists. Go figure...

The last week in town was hanging out with Paul, various friends, a fun messy night at El Rio on Friday, and then packing, packing, and more packing. UHaul screwed up and never got the trailer hitch for my car. But they gave me a good deal on a truck and tow dolly for my car, so all worked out okay. But I'll save details of the move for a soon-to-be-blog.

visitors from up north

2006-05-04T13:26:00.000-07:00

There were only a few days of work after I got back from Thailand before my sister (Robyn), niece (Emma) and nephew (Jack) arrived for a week in San Fran. We were only in the city for an evening before heading up to Tahoe the next day. We were lucky and got very nice weather for the drive up and didn't have to put chains on (okay, technically the sign said we should, but unless there's someone there telling you I interpret it as a consideration only). We checked in at a lodge in Kirkwood across the street from the lifts. This is definitely the way to go - espectially with kids. Putting on your boots and walking across the road to the lifts is sweet! We did a couple days of skiing, loads of scrabble, several hot tubs and in general, a very good time.

The condo was also very nice with a fireplace and a entertainment unit with a good selection of movies. Unfortunately the movies were all R rated so the kids are now talking with foul mouths and know all about prositutes, drugs, etc. etc. What can you do? The kids also took to Scrabble playing probably a dozen games (sshhh, don't tell them it's educational!!). We had a boys versus the girls game and the boys lost by a few points because we couldn't get rid of a tile and probably becuase the girls cheated too!

On the 2nd skiing day, Robyn read in the morning while I took the kids skiing. This of course was my opportunity to take the kids to the top of the mountain and do some black diamond runs (what the mother does not know can't hurt anyone, right?). The kids did very well and we all made it up and down the black diamonds several times with no problems. Robyn joined us in the afternoon and that's when the snow started coming down. It was whiteout conditions at the top and raining at the bottom by 3 and and we called it quits (the hot tub was calling). And given that they were prediction a lot of snow, we returned the rental gear (no need to deal with white conditions in the morning). However, this was a mistake because the next morning was one of those perfect powder days with blue skies and warm temps. Oh well. As it turns out, we had another perfect drive out of the mountains with no chains (always makes me happy when I don't have to leave my seat).

On the way home we stopped off at a abandoned gold mine near Jackson and did a tour for a few hours (educational and entertainment all in one!). Also had another Mexican dinner (Robyn is an addict). And Emma got her guacamole she'd been craving. Of course not as good as CanCun on Mission St., but sometimes you have to take what you can get!!

The downside to the visit was that their flight arrived during my hockey playoff game (we lost without me) and their flight home was early early which they had to be at the airport by some ridiculous time (I forget what time as my brain does not function that early in the morning).

Photos are up!!!

2006-03-27T19:04:00.000-08:00

Thailand photos are up. For some reason they are posted in reverse order and I haven't yet figured out how to fix it. It sorts properly when you view the set or when you view the slide show... who knows...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/archean1/

IMG_2536 Originally uploaded by archean1.

Chariot Pushing

2006-03-24T16:39:00.000-08:00

pushers1_small
Originally uploaded by archean1.

Okay, not actually a blog entry here. Just me trying to figure out how to post photos. Haven't quite got my Thailand photos yet, so I'll give it a shot with a Burning Man photo. Erin is steering, Sam and I pushing (both also Thailand travel compatriots). I think Erin should of had both hands on the steering wheel!!

Also, clicking on the photo should take you to my photo website, where I think I'm going to put my Thailand photos. This could change though...

home alive

2006-03-22T13:25:00.000-08:00

I'm home alive and well. The tv's in the back of economy were broken so I had to read, sleep or watch the TV 200 feet up the aisle for the 9 hour flight from Tokyo to SF. But that's pretty well the biggest highlight of the trip home. I got in at 8 this morning (Weds, Mar 22). I left Bangkok at 6 this morning (Weds Mar 22). Go figure! I thought about going to work, but have decided other things are more important. Namely that I only had 42 pages left in my 679 page book, so I finished that up and just in case anybody wants to know, the judge was corrupt but his son burns the disk at the end and the butler was innocent.

I wanted to list a few things that I've appreciated or chuckled at this morning:

1. After a month in places such as Cambodia and Laos, known for civil unrest, mass killings, significant restrictions on personal freedoms, and police corruption, to name a few, the first time I have even heard of any sort of police action is at the San Francisco airport BART station: "All trains will be delayed 15 minutes due to a police action at the West Oakland BART station". Nice to be home.

2. I walked home from the 24th St. BART station with my rolling backpack and another bag strapped on top. I crossed all intersections at intersections with lights. All streets were paved. There were no open sewers large enough to swallow you whole. No scooters or tuk-tuks tried to run me over. I didn't hear a single horn. And every intersection had handicap ramps so my bags never had to be picked up. It was all really quite boring.

3. I very much enjoyed going home and having a glass of water from the tap without worrying about whether the result will be a forced close proximity to the toilet for the next couple days.

4. I went to the bath room and didn't have to bring my own toilet paper and wonder whether there would be a hole in the ground or an actual toilet seat. (note that I also used an excessive amount of toilet paper and disposed of it in the toilet!!)

5. It took me about 45 minutes at home before I made a break for a mid-morning veggie burrito at Cancun on 28th St. The similarities and differences between the Mexican (e.g., salsas) and Thai spices (e.g., curries) are quite interesting. I think both are great, but damn that was a good burrito!! To keep costs under control, I had a glass of water (from a pitcher on the counter with ice, again not worrying about the toilet issue), yet the meal still cost me well over my Thai daily spending allowance for food.

6. Page 3 of the SF Chronicle has a big article about the protests over the Thai Prime Minister and the upcoming elections - I wasn't sure if it was getting any coverage here. Will be interesting to see where this goes...

7. I had a Cafe Au Lait earlier and, now, having changed coffee shops for variety in life, I am having a Chai Latte. These two drinks together cost the same as any of the below:

- an hour long Thai massage
- a typical lunch and dinner in Thailand, breakfast too if alcohol is not ordered
with the meals (breakfast usually has non-alcoholic shakes)
- a good day's wage in Thailand
- a good week's wage in Cambodia
- the cost of my half hour taxi ride to the Bangkok airport yesterday morning
(which was actually this morning in a literal sense)

8. The thought of work tomorrow is quite depressing...

about to leave :(

2006-03-21T00:06:00.000-08:00

Laos was great!! I switched my flight so I could stay a day longer in Luang Prabang and less time in Bangkok. Vietiane was nice (I think my last post covered that? I guess I could have checked...) but Luang Prabang was way nice, like totally dude. It was much quieter than many other places with everything 100 percent shut down by 11:30 PM. It also had the feel of a small French town with loads of little shops and bakeries and cafes lining the streets. There are a lot of French here as it was a former French colony and they still use it as a hangout. I spent 4 nights / 5 days and had a great and relaxing time. Met a Canadian (Kelly) my first night and we hung out for the entire time (we both left the same morning, but in different directions). The 2nd day we did a day boat trip to some caves with buddhas and such in them. Also stopped off at some little villages on the river. The next day we did a day trip to some waterfalls that you can hike and swim through - there's a bunch of different levels each with pools, and rope swings and was incredibly relaxing. The next day we were tempted to do a biking and kayaking day tour, but decided to just walk and explore and take it easy. Not very ambitious but a nice way to spend my last full day in Luang Prabang...

Just got back into Bangkok last night and am flying out tonight in about 10 hours, well, actually, that's 6AM tomorrow, which means I'll just stay up late and go to the airport at 3AM... a good enough reason to party late!! After getting into Bangkok last night I went to the Shanti Lodge (a guesthouse that Justin was fond of but kind of out of it) around 7 to pick up an abandoned piece of luggage. I've been travelling with only my day pack and a shoulder bag for the past three weeks. Needless to say I haven't had an extravagant wardrobe, but it sure has made travelling easier. But after all the purchases in Laos - a quilt with matching pillows (will need filling, ummm, Mum?), several stitched silk tapestry type things, some little purse type things for, say, certain nieces, shirts, etc. etc. So the load has definitely increased. And while at the Shanti Lodge I met a Swiss girl who was meeting up with a friend-from-home's Thai friend (a blind friend date?) who ended up being two cute girls. They took us out to some live music and dance clubs, but I was worn out and went home early - what a horrible night to be tired and a lame ass!!! And tonight I'm hanging out with an Australian - it's ridiculously easy to meet people because so many people use Bangkok as a launching pad for other places in Asia that there are lots of solo travellers, such as myself at the moment.

I'm back at the same guesthouse I stayed at with Sam for simplicity and since it seemed very safe and I now have a bunch of stuff. I've yet to be robbed or molested though a couple really young (and poor looking) kids in Siem Reap gave it a go (pick pocket that is). Usually it's quite the opposite with people leaving cell phones, bags and such lying around and nobody even seems to think of taking stuff. A certain Mr. Smith (aka Justin) even left his bag containing most of his essential possesions (i.e., passport, money, camera, etc.) in a tuk-tuk at the airport and managed to get everything back an hour later - that's somewhere between amazing, lucky, and a medical miracle (the miracle being how horseshoes were surgically implanted up his butt). And I haven't had any bouts with the toilet either, so all has gone quite well. I'll just keep knocking on wood.

I'll be back in SF in two days. Then off skiing with my sister and the rotten Jack & Emma in a week, and then back in Canada a day or two after May 1 I'm a guessing. Of course, I prefer to have ideas rather than plans.... Hope to catch up with you all soon!!

in Paris??

2006-03-17T04:25:00.000-08:00

Okay, I feel like I'm in Paris at the moment, but more about that in a bit...

I'm on my own now and things are still going very well. The morning after the last post we took an early morning shuttle to the border (felt like we were being smuggled as it was almost literally the back of a pickup truck an hour before sunrise) and then a boat into Cambodia to a small town on the coast called Sihoukville. No doubt it will be an up and coming resort town, but for now it's still a town in the making. We got a nice place with a wicked wide and winding teak staircase up to the second floor and a tuk-tuk (half cab, half scooter, half ATV - ooops, that doesn't add up, does it?) driver that hung out with us for much of our stay (he no doubt gets big comissions when he brings us to restaurants, etc.). We hung out on the beaches, ate good food, rented scooters and caused troubles. Mr. McGeehan and I shared a scooter and he nearly killed me taking a high speed turn onto a gravel road (didn't know it was gravel until well into the turn) and wisely decided he was going to fast for the turn and went into a lockup and skidded to the edge of the road. He drove slower after that... Other highligts were meeting 3 Canadian girls and going out to a dance club where we were the only farangs (foreigners). The local girls would come over and dance with the girls and the local boys would come over and dance with Sam and I... very strange!! All in all, quite a poor town, though some folks from the club left in a decked out Hummer - probably 10,000 times the average annual income.

Next to Phnom Penh (via the bus) for a few days and nights... PP is the capital of Cambodia, but nothing like the neighbouring Thailand... more a slower, less affluent capital. There were some fun bars and had a good time, but only spent 2 days here as we had high expectations for the next destination.

Next and final destination in Cambodia was Siem Reap / Angkor Wat. SR is the city and Angkor Wat are a bunch of old Wats (aka temples). Each one is incredible and there are literally dozens scattered around over many kilometers of roads and trails. We rented 2 tuk-tuks for the first day and they drive you around to ruins and wait for you while you go wander through the ruins, climb the Wats, etc. The 2nd day we did similar but we rented electric bikes and toured about on our own. Siem Reap is also quite nice with a miniature Ko San Road (bar/restaraunt strip in Bangkok). We had some really good food here and were big spenders and split a bottle of wine. This was also my last night with the gang as the next day everyone left early in the AM to catch the sunrise and Angkor Wat while I jumped on a plane to Vietiane in Laos.

So now we get to the Paris thing... Vietiane is the capital of the former French colony and as such, has an Arc de Triumphe, a Chanse D'Elysee, and more bakeries selling pastries than I've seen in the past year. There are also loads of Wats and walks along the Mekong and I think I walked 20 km during the heat of the day (yes, I didn't really know where I was for much of the walk, but I also didn't try to figure it out that much). I met a Quebecois guy during the day and then an American girl from Sacramento in the evening and we went out and partied it up. Alas, I was only in Vietiane for 1 afternoon, 1 night and 1 morning as this was technically a stop-over on the flight to Luang Praubang.

So I'm just finishing up my 2nd day in LP and having a great time. Met another Canadian last night and we hung out and then did a slow boat trip today to some caves and a couple towns up the Mekong River. A nice relaxing day. I'll give more details on LP in a couple days, but right now I've exceeded my writing time, a Beerlaos is calling my name, and I must make it to the bookstore to exchange the 3 books I have read since I have no more :(

Hope all is well back home. I seem to get very few emails so either people:

A. are not reading my blog

B. find my blog completely impersonal and aren't enthused to reply or email in response

C. have forgotten about me after only 3 weeks

D. all of the above

:)