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...

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.

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

2 years!

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

Costco Day

Wuahahaha - saved sooo much today.  Me happy.

in Toronto, again...

2 weeks later, back in Toronto again!

Very chilling this weekend this time around.  Nice and quiet.

Met up with a good friend I haven't seen in years!  Fun times!  And apparently he now has a kid!

This week - weekend trip to attend Will's wedding.  It was a short time, but fun times definitely!  Congrats!

Mom's 60th Bday - Last Day in T.O.

Woke up at 11am, bummed around, had some little dragon dumplings.

Got home, took a 2.5 hour nap today :).  Dinner (that had lobster and fish.. Mmmmm..), then airport.

Nice lazy day :)

The flight wasn't booked fully as it turns out, tons of empty rows in the back row - perhaps this is why they rescheduled me to this flight… likely the morning flight that no longer appeared didn't have enough people to fly on it.

I was up in the front half of the plane, where there were more people.  Thought this would be a quiet flight (since it was a night 8:45pm take off flight, and would be a 5 hour long flight), but as it turns out, there are two old men behind me that decided to drink a bit, and was drunk after 2 rounds, and talked a bit louder than what I would expect of an evening flight.  Perhaps I should have just moved to the back.

Mom's 60th Bday - Dim Sum and Mahjong Day

Original plan - Dim Sum early, then go to Cook's Town or Vaughan Mills, then back to Hermie's place for dinner.

But last night, we decided to change this plan.  Instead: we start with 11am dim sum, followed by endless mahjong at home :).  Nice and cozy!

Originally, Lil Baby Dragon wasn't going to be able to make it, but then in the morning by the time I woke up, apparently his mind changed.  So before I even walked into the bathroom, Lil Baby Dragon had shown up!  We quickly changed the reservation, and headed to dim sum.  Lil Baby Dragon eats A TON.  He wolfed down bun after bun (and at the house, he had a whole piece of peanut butter smeared bread.  Amazing.

After lunch, we went to get some take out for dinner (ideally I would have liked to cook food - but was vetoed against), and made some home made soup, then started playing mahjong.  Squeezed a dinner in the middle, and 8 rounds after, we have logged 8 hours of mahjong… a full working day! :P

I have to say, these new rules for mahjong is definitely pretty crazy.  Very easy to win with a lot of 'fans' cause of these wildcards.  It does make it much more fun than regular mahjong.  Big ups and downs - Mom at one point was almost bankrupt, haha - but by the end, she actually ended up way above water (now of course, this was with the help of a free 700 chips for everything because of Ema mistakenly thinking she won a hand when she didn't :P).

Mom's 60th Bday - Dim Sum and Lounging at Hermie's Place

Morning was dim sum w/ Emma, then after talking with my mom, I decided to write her something to make her more efficient :).  So on I went on with this project.  Ended up spending the afternoon, and also the evening after we got back from Hermie's place on it.  I am pretty inefficient! :(

We got to Hermie's place before he got home.  So we entertained ourselves by watching Lil Baby Dragon.  Lil Baby Dragon eats a lot, but he still shared and fed me blueberries :).  Pretty cute that after he fed me the blueberry, he would smile.  Keekeekeee. 

We then ordered some takeout and had cake at Hermie's place.  Those strawberries were huge. Mmm..

Mom's 60th Bday - Airport to Home for $3.00

Since Air Canada once again decided to change my itinerary, my flight was to arrive at 3:45pm instead of 6:45pm.  Air Canada is pretty sad these days, changing flights all the time.  Because of them actually (since they also changed my return flight), I now have take an extra day off work.  One of these days I am gonna complain and see what they are going to do about it.  Pretty poor customer service if you ask me - can't honor a flight, and no coupons or perks.  The least they can do is offer something for randomly changing flights.  If I changed a flight, that would cost me $60 I think, so why aren't they giving me back $60?...

Anyhow, because of this change, I needed to arrange my own transportation.  With rush hour starting up, I wasn't fond of sitting on the 401 withering away in a cab (and paying the $55 to $65 nudging along), so I decided to take the TTC :).  After getting out of the baggage area, I proceeded to an info desk to ask what are my options to get home, and the lady pointed me to the TTC (perfect!).  The bus station was actually a 2 minute walk away, and would take me to Kipling.  From there, I would take the usual route home.

Trip time - 1 hour 45 min… Price: $3.00.   Not bad!

The trip back was pretty nostalgic, just like old days when I worked in Etobicoke.  So I had a lot of fun actually.  Hahaha.

For dinner, we went out for a sumptuous birthday dinner.  4 person meal with 3 people :).  I ended up having 2 bowls of sharks fin.

Happy Birthday!!!