Wish I could...

As I was going through the Halifax airport this morning, I saw this sign and had to take a photo and share it. This photo goes to everyone who does customer or client services, don't you wish you could respond like this? Enjoy!

A long day...

Today was a long day, I started out by sitting in an airport waiting area, hoping I'd be able to jump on the first plane going to Halifax, even though my ticket was only for the last flight of the day. My initial flight was canceled because of the weather, nice foot of snow that fell down. Even though the weather this morning was decent and I think we could have flown. So again I took a photo of the plain with the open area cockpit. At least this time I was sitting in the back, as as you can observe, it's not that far back!





So when I got to Halifax, I rushed into a cab, which I must say costs a lot! Got to DAL and jumped on stage and joined the change management panel. It actually went well :)



I then joined the organizing committee for a nice dinner at "The Story", which I would definitely recommend to anyone wanting a nice meal in Halifax. Here's a photo of the group:




And here's a copy of the special menu the restaurant did for us and they even included the conference logo on the menu!

Big Reminders of Home

Today's photos are really big reminders of home. Some of you may not know, but I was brought up on a farm, and my dad still has cows and I even own some cows. I usually make a trip or two to the barn each time I come home. I like seeing the cows, see how they are doing, etc. They all look nice and healthy. That is something I do miss on occasion when I'm in Ottawa.

Winter line..

Somethings you just don't expect to see. Today's photo was a bit of a surprise to me. I was running an errand this afternoon and ended up stopping by a friend's place and was surprised to see clothes drying or freezing on the clothesline. The temperature was -15C (5F) and -25C (-13F) with the windchill. Not a temperature where you'd expect to be drying clothes, but then again, it might work. I guess any attempt to save energy and help the environment is not a bad thing.

Welcome home

I'm on a road trip this week. I flew home to New Brunswick. As per usual, I usually try to get my seafood intake, and this time my dad surprised me. A short while after I got home, he said "do you feel like having some lobster rolls for dinner" and I was like, YEAH! So he said, come take look at this, and he pulled out a big bag of frozen lobster. He said, let it thaw, and then you can make lobster rolls for us. This is quite the treat!

The image is smaller than normal, trying to upload with no regular internet is not an easy or fast task. I had to re-size the image 3 times to get it uploaded. I'm currently on "Edge" internet speed tethering off my IPhone.

Moving light or light movement?

Today's photo was an attempt to capture light. I am sometimes surprised of what a small point and shoot can do with very little options to control the environment. I decided to be a bit creative today and capture light while moving and see what I came up with and here are two photos that I took. There are aspects in both that I like and didn't know if I was just going to use one or the other, and decided to show both photos.

Tried to take over the world...

Tonight, I had a boys night with my Thursday night soccer teammates. We had decided to play Risk, and we knew that there would only be one victor, one person who would rule the World! Well that wasn't me! I was the first one out! I had a series of bad rolls of the dice, and I got attacked in all directions from the get go, as two guys made an agreement that they wouldn't attack each other on one border, which meant one guy had to go through me and I was trying to secure North America and got annihilated in a handful of rounds! Ah well, it was lots of fun. After our game, we decided to play a different game called Ticket to Ride, which I had never played, but basic strategy game where you need to create a long railroad visiting different town on a North American map. I ended winning that game, so I didn't get to rule to the world, but I won at the second game. Unfortunately, I was so concentrated in the second game, I forgot to take a photo of the game. However, here's my shot of Risk:

Goodbye 350 Albert...

Today was my last day in the office at 350 Albert, next week is a new office. Today's photos are partly to remember my office space, might look similar to photos a few days ago, except, I'm in one of the photos, and everything is now packed and ready to go to the new space.










I had not been there very long, but I will miss you, especially the view out the back window which has made a photo or two (the kids playing outside).

Goodbye

Packing up: 1 more day before the move

Since today is the before last day in my office as we are moving down the street, I figured I'd capture a few images of the move and of my messy office as a way to remember this space which I have occupied for more than six months.

I decided to take a few angle shots and a shot down the aisle to show the moving boxes and the working environment.

Canadian tradition: pond hockey

I wasn't sure what photo I was going to take today. I went through my normal day, and there wasn't anything in particular that caught my attention, and after my volleyball game, I figured I'd go for a little ride up the street and thought I'd go for a little walk and take a few pics of the outdoor rink on Preston St, next to the Plant. This is definitely one of Canada's biggest tradition, to see people out on the pond, playing pickup hockey, hearing the laughter the calls, the puck hitting the boards, the skates grinding the ice, it's just a comforting feeling. Something that I consider to be truly Canadian!

Robbie Burns Day ~ Rebecca Blake Day

I had already posted my photo for today, however, after meeting with some friends to celebrate a good friend's birthday, I figured I had to put up a few more photos.



My good friend Rebecca was celebrating her birthday at the Royal Oak on Bank, and since it's also Robbie Burns Day, they were having a special on scotch, where you could taste a flight of half once portions, so I decided to try three different scotch's. The three scotch's where Oban, Dalwhinnie and Lagavulin.



I decided to drink them in the order of age, going from the youngest to the oldest and a friend at the table suggested I wait to drink the Lagavulin last which made sense for me as I'd start with the 14yrs, then go to 15yrs followed by the big and bold 16yrs which as it states on the sheet: "intense".

Oban	Dalwhinnie	Lagavulin
Sweet taste, almost a bit like apple cider tasting	smooth going down, good after taste that make your taste buds come alive	strong! an experience, something I wouldn't go first, but I imagine that MAYBE with time I could like

Dedication or craziness: winter cycling

Dedication or Craziness?!?!

This morning as I was waiting for the bus, I saw someone riding down the sidewalk and thought to myself, is this just craziness? It's currently -17C (0F) and with the wind -25C (-13F) and on top of that it's snowing and slippery outside. Again is this just craziness or dedication? I had posted about a week ago regarding a bicycle that I had noticed outside a gym where I play volleyball and though, this is just ridiculous, and again this morning I see another cyclist riding down the street with his white toque. Some people just surprise me, and it just happened to be my caption for today.

Bitter COLD Monday...

Some of this week's photos will probably highlight some of the features from my office as our group is moving to another building. I hope to take some photos from my work environment as it will forever change, as I doubt I'll ever be in this office again.

Today's photo is called: empty playground. My window view as featured in a previous photo was the kids outside playing, however I doubt I'll be seeing kids out today. The weather is currently -29C (-20F) but even crazier with the windchill as it's currently -39C (-38F), which is very COLD!

Ottawa's large igloo's...

Another bitter cold day in Ottawa! Today's temperature was -29C (-20F) plus windchill which resulted in a VERY COLD -34C (-29F)! I wasn't sure what photo to take, then I passed by the big huts where skaters can put on their skates and go skating on the canal, or Dow's Lake. I didn't drive by earlier, but I imagine that there weren't that many skaters that braved the cold today. However, the large bubbles aren't like true igloos, as they are not very warm. Igloos surprisingly hold in a lot of heat as snow is a really good insulator. These are just made with some sort of tarp material and un-insulated. They are still nice as they provide a little bit of a wind break, and a place to sit down when putting on your skates. I haven't gone skating on the canal yet, but as soon as it's not -29C and the temperature becomes a bit more bearable, I imagine I'll go out for a nice little skate on the canal.