Sunday, June 29, 2014

Week in T.O.: Morning Brunch and Lil Nephew Potty Training Day

After a morning brunch and watching Holland come from behind to beat Mexico, we went over to visit Hermie and family.

Lil Nephew was running around, peeing and pooing everywhere… this was his potty training week.  Gets a sticker each time he half succeeds making it to his toilet - which is placed in the living room.  He wasn't doing too well though as he has only accumulated 5 stickers in the last 3 days.  Makes me wonder how I got potty trained.


Saturday, June 28, 2014

Week in T.O.: Brooke's Wedding

Today was the 1st of 2 weddings for this trip out to T.O.  The venue was at Casa Loma - a place that in all my years in Toronto I have never been.  So I was pretty excited.  Getting there, I immediately realized one thing.  Casa Loma is not air conditioned… so it was pretty hot.  You'd think that for someone who built a castle from the ground up, that they'd put in AC.  But nope, it was hot hot hot.  Luckily, the ceremony area was air conditioned.

After a quick walk around the various floors, I returned home to watch the first of many World Cup games in the next week :).  What a great time to take a few days off!

Arriving at the dinner, I was at the Waterloo table.  The girl next to me was pretty cool.  Very nice person, friendly, kind and we had a very good conversation.  Gave me lots to think about.  The other trait that caught my eye as I think about it was she had that 'sparkle' in her eyes - the kind that only those who are able to believe in their own dreams, and convert this hope into a reality that makes them capable to take on the world.  These people who can inspire and push others forward, it's been awhile since I saw that in people I have been interacting with -  it was very refreshing.  It also reminded me how I no longer have these eyes, and have forgotten in the last couple years that I was aspiring to have eyes like those I had before.

It has been awhile since I met someone new on a trip back to Toronto.  It was really thought provoking to meet someone new and just randomly end up chatting about non fluffy stuff.  I am glad that this happened today (as much as I seemed to be more silent the more we talked - as it got me thinking about a bunch of stuff)

Congrats Brooke and Clay! Oh, and the shark's fin soup was delicious.

Oh, I also ran into someone from 10+ years ago.  Ahh, brings back memories - the fun and carefree days during co-op in Cali.  Perhaps as the girl next to me said, everything happens for a reason - perhaps there was a reason that both these chance encounters happened on the same day...

Friday, June 27, 2014

Week in T.O.: Trek back Fail…

Main purpose of this post: Vent on the pretty crappy service and logistics planning of US Airways…

With a 50 minute layover, I knew it would be tight to get to the next flight.  It didn't help that the flight was all the way on the other side of the airport.  But this being my 7th trip this year (amounting to almost 20+ flight segments), I figure I am pretty used to this airport stuff and this was plenty of time.  In most days, this would be enough time for me to grab a quick snack along the way even (which was what I did just last month…).

You'd think that US Airways would work out something with the airport to put their flights very close to one another, or at least try a little bit more to get their passengers onto their flights…. They didn't do either, and so I ended up missing dim sum, and spending an extra $80…

The first sign of trouble was when the flight didn't take off on time (by a couple minutes).  Then it flew slow and landed late, then sat on the taxi way for 15 minutes.  By the time I got off the plane, I had 10 minutes before the other plane took off.  The staff did nothing to try to hold the other plane or let the passengers who had a connecting off first…. Signnnn…

I did the best that I can, even jogging a little bit through the airport with my busted ankle and non running shoes - even losing one of my shoes and had to go back to put it on (yes, that was embarrassing…).  I arrived at the gate seeing the bridge just disconnecting from the plane.  Which means I probably just missed.  So as I waved bye to the plane , I was rebooked on the next flight, which leaves 3 hours later… .. . 

Eating down an overpriced breakfast at the Philadelphia airport, I looked at the guidelines for what happens when an airline who made the passenger miss their connecting flight.  Here I thought I would at last get compensated in some way for my lost of time, so I sent them a complaint.  (update: I got a response 3 business days later -> only to get the standard it's not in our control BS blah blah, and that they are sorry.  But does a sorry really make the 5 hours of wasted time feel any better?  In some ways, this kind of apology is worse than not saying anything...)

To add salt to the wound, the plane that I was scheduled on, well, it was delayed by an hour.  So I sat inside that plane this time, for 30 minutes listening to a baby cry while they were fixing something or what not. 

This has not happened in …. EVER.  I am never a big hater of airplane companies (since I take enough flights to know things are pretty much the same).  But this US Airways trip - with their total lack of coordination between their own planes, and subpar responses and old planes and commitment to hitting things on time, makes me wary of booking my next flight off Kayak that has them as the carrier.

Because I have been up since midnight, and after 11.5 hours of airport fun (14.5 if I count the time traveling), I took a cab home which costs an arm and a leg.  Good thing though is because of various accidents along various key spots on the freeways that day, there was minimal traffic on the route I was taking, and I got home in a reasonable time.

US Airways… bigggg minus 10 here.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Reflection: Need to start making better use of my time

Starting today - going to

- Cut down on drinking
- Actually finish writing an app
- Start writing on blog more
- Adding more food related things on blog - it's becoming hard to keep track of where I have eaten that was good

Thursday, June 19, 2014

2 years!

Went to Golden Beetle - not that great a restaurant.   Pretty expensive, service wasn't that great.   Costs the same as Mashiko.