Category Archives: Work travel

YOW to YYZ (Ottawa to Toronto)

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I woke up this morning a little sad that I was going to be leaving Ottawa and Canada. I’ve enjoyed the weather and the meeting I came here for. I always enjoy meeting with Canadians and colleagues from similar countries. I also had a feeling of happiness that I’d be returning to Australia and I’d see Bron again soon. I’ve missed her ❤ I really am not that happy to return to the cold and dry weather of Canberra.

When I woke up I knew that I would be flying in the reverse order of the flight to Ottawa, i.e., Ottawa (YOW) to Chicago (ORD) to Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) and then finally early Sunday morning I’d fly on to Canberra (CBR). My flight with United Airlines to ORD was due to depart at 1241 local time. I left the hotel at 1000 to give myself time for an international connection and in case anything when wrong.

In an unexpected twist I am now flying via Toronto (YYZ).

My flight to Chicago (ORD) was cancelled yet I wasn’t told (they have my mobile telephone and hotel number). When I arrived at the airport (YOW) I was told the Chicago flight was full and I was bumped to the Newark (EWR) flight which left at 1650. That would be a six hour wait at Ottawa airport.  When I asked if that gave me enough time in Los Angeles I was told I had an hour which doesn’t seem long enough for there. I was told to then go on-line to check-in because they couldn’t do it at the check-in counter. I proceeded to check-in on-line and discovered a discrepancy. I went back to the counter and asked them to change this. This is when I was told my Chicago flight had been cancelled and I was then told the Newark flight was now delayed. I was then told to go to the Air Canada desk to get a flight to Toronto and then to Los Angeles. They didn’t give me a boarding pass for my flight from Los Angeles to Sydney (SYD). I should point out the entire conversation/interaction lasted fifteen minutes and was very cordial. It seemed the United Airlines computer system is very slow.

I went to the Air Canada desk and they laughed because United Airlines does this regularly. They were also concerned that it looked like my flight from LAX to SYD was now cancelled (it had also been cancelled the night before). They printed me a UA boarding pass on AC card so I’ll see if I get back to Australia (I’m currently writing this in the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge in Toronto).

Security at the Ottawa airport was very thorough. Even though I emptied all my pockets they had to run a handheld metal detector over me. My belt was off yet it pinged over my crotch. The bloke then patted and prodded my crotch and actually felt my penis. I then had to go through the full body scanner. It was totally bizarre.

When I got through security I discovered my flight to Toronto was delayed by 30 minutes. Such is life.

AC451 YOW to YYZ. I have my US visas in my old passport and I need to carry my new passport as well (iPhone)

I also found the Toronto airport very confusing in terms of passing through customs to get checked in for a transit through the USA. I wish I could read French because the French language signage seems to be more comprehensive than the English signs.

The YYZ Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge is very comfortable but there isn’t a view to speak of.

AC795 YYZ to LAX The BlackBerry is still delivering me lots of work e-mails to respond to :-) (iPhone)

I’m sorry if it sounds like all I do is complain. I suppose blogging about the experience is my way of ventilating and feeling like I’ve shared a lesson identified and hopefully a lesson I’ll learn from.

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Crispy Canadian bacon and maple syrup should always be part of breakfast #JustSaying

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From Grill Forty One G41 at the Lord Elgin Hotel

 

Crispy Canadian bacon and maple syrup (iPhone) Lord Elgin Hotel

Crispy Canadian bacon and maple syrup (iPhone) Lord Elgin Hotel

 

I’m close to leaving Ottawa :-(

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My meeting has now come to an end. I have one last night here and then I fly back to CBR via YOW, ORD and LAX. This trip has been enjoyable although there have been moments. I wrote a few days ago about part of the saga in getting here. What I haven’t had time to write about is that my bag got lost and didn’t arrive until late Tuesday evening. This meant I attended the first day of a meeting in my travel jeans and a shirt. Not quite the professional image I try to portray.

Lost bag (iPhone)

The United Airlines bag trace page was less than helpful. Each time I checked it simply indicated they were still looking for my bag. On the Monday afternoon I went to Sears in the Rideau Centre and purchased a new business shirt, socks and jocks. The last thing I wanted to do was wash and wear underwear. On the Monday afternoon I also managed to top up my Canadian Virgin Mobile micro sim for 1 GB of data. Can I just say, Virgin Mobile 3G is amazingly fast. I have a Telstra 3G sim in Australia and it is no where near as fast. Telstra is known for its better coverage in Australia and until last week I thought 3G was good. I didn’t realise it could be so much better.

The days have been quite long. The meeting I’m participating in has been very good albeit intense mentally and the postprandial somnolence has been exacerbated by a lack of sleep. Normally I don’t suffer jet lag because of chronic insomnia, however on this trip I have been a little like a zombie from time to time. I didn’t arrive until 0100 on the Monday morning of the meeting and last night I had a teleconference from 2330 to 0030 this morning.

Despite the lack of sleep I’ve been making an effort to walk in the afternoons. I’ve walked around the Houses of Parliament and the Byward Market. On the Monday afternoon I managed to buy some Canadian ice wine tea for a good friend (P) and some Liquorice root tea from the Tea Store for a work friend. The ladies in the store were very lovely and helpful. Like all Canadians, so friendly cheery and helpful.

The Tea Store (iPhone)

Liquorice root [sic] (iPhone)

My diet while on this trip has been a bit up and down. I really haven’t been feeling that hungry and as opposed to previous trips I haven’t been overwhelmed with Tim Horton’s coffeeand doughnuts.

Tim Hortons coffee shop. I had never seen a cask of coffee until I visited Canada (iPhone)

On the flights over to Ottawa the United Airways food has been fine.

While waiting for my SYD to LAX flight I ate a little sausage (iPhone)

On the SYD to LAX flight I started with Salmon (iPhone)

This salad was quite nice (iPhone)

The Fillet Mignon was a little tough (iPhone)

I did not resist the Sundae with everything (iPhone)

For breakfast I had poached eggs which were rubbery like tennis balls (iPhone)

On the flight from LAX to ORD I had Tomato and capsicum soup (iPhone)

Chicken calzone after the soup (iPhone)

For lunch one day I bought an Egg plant lasanga (iPhone)

I also had a Lavender mousse (iPhone)

I also had a beaver tail (iPhone)

I’ve already written about my beaver tail experience.

I think I’ve had more coffee this week than in a long long time (iPhone)

I’ve also eaten a few of these custard filled pastry things (iPhone)

Amuse-Bouche scallop from dinner last night at the Lord Elgin Hotel (new iPad)

Hummus (New iPad)

Lord Elgin’s seafood chowder. This is the best chowder I’ve eaten (New iPad) The bowl is deceiving. It is quite deep.

This Caesar salad was served with tilapia. It was very disappointing. (New iPad)

Some of the nice things I’ve seen while walking around have been the memorials, buildings and the Rideau Canal.

Rideau Canal (iPhone)

Rideau Canal (iPhone)

WW1 Memorial (iPhone)

Fairmont Chatteau (iPhone)

Houses of Parliament (iPhone)

Centennial Flame (iPhone)

Rideau Canal (iPhone)

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Mmm…chocolate covered beaver tail. YUMMY

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My first visit to Ottawa was in February 2007. I remember being asked by a very attractive young lady from Québec if I had eaten beaver tail while in Ottawa. For an Australian, I was quite taken aback. At that stage I had not visited Byward Market because of the amount of snow and without warm clothes (thanks to Air Canada) I wasn’t venturing out. As far as I knew only cunning linguists ate beaver tails.

This is now my third visit to Ottawa and for three out of three my bags have been lost. That said, the Summer in Ottawa is brilliant. It is warm and humid, just how I love life, i.e., warm and moist. The days have been >30 °C and the evenings warm enough to keep the air conditioning off so I can enjoy sleeping naturally.

With the advent of foursquare, I am today at least the Mayor of Beaver Tails.

I’m the mayor of Beaver Tails on Foursquare (iPhone)

You can get beaver tails in many flavours both sweet and savoury. I was interested to see cinnamon and sugar, cinnamon and apple, cinnamon, sugar and apple, there was one with vanilla sugar and cheesecake as well. The savoury ones looked pretty good but I could not go past the hazelnut chocolate beaver tail. After Hannah of wayfaringchocolate.com commented that she keen to read about some of my trip, I knew I had to choose chocolate. More importantly I know that Bron loves hazelnut chocolate and eating this chocolate coated beaver tail made me think of her.

Hazelnut chocolate beaver tail (Panasonic DMC-TZ10)

 

 

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On my way to Ottawa

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Wow that was just too tight. We departed SYD 90 minutes late. We got into LAX at 1115 local time. The bag carousel took 45 minutes to start up. There were so many angry passengers because they missed their flights. Some were going on to international legs. What I don’t get is why anyone would fly from Australia to the west coast of the USA and then on to Japan. At least my bag came out okay this time. I was due to board my flight to ORD at 1215. My bag came out at 1225. At the transit desk the United guy took my bag and said I may make it but I’d have to run to terminal 7 and get to gate 76 (as per my boarding pass). He couldn’t guarantee my bag would make it to ORD or YOW. So I ran. I got to security and that took 20 minutes which got me to 1250 which was the departure time. Of course gate 76 is at the end of the concourse (following the Law of Lum that all hotel rooms and gates are the furthest away from lift wells and entrances). I get to gate 76 and it’s boarding to Shanghai. I ask a friendly United official and she tells me about the last minute gate change to gate 72 which is at the beginning of
the concourse. I sprint down the end and they are ready to close the doors.
After security I did not bother putting my belt back on so after I wander around the cabin looking for somewhere to put my bags I pull up my trousers and put my belt on. Everybody is giving me their stink eye look.
At least the attendant is lovely and tells me to take my time and catch my breath.
I’m writing this in ORD (Chicago) and then I hope to get to YOW (Ottawa) before midnight.

I’ll post images and other stuff later in the week.

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I am home :-)

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I am in Darwin. Darwin is where a good part of my spirit or soul or whatever lives. It’s a place I long for.

I’m here for a night for meetings earlier this afternoon and tomorrow morning.

Tonight I’m staying at SKYCITY hotel. I don’t normally stay here but it’s the only accommodation I could get. We have V8 Supercars here this weekend and there is no other accommodation. This is not a bad place. My only disappointment is that it doesn’t have Channel 10 reception so I missed the Jamie Oliver appearance on MasterChefAU tonight.

The good thing about this hotel is complimentary wireless internet and air conditioning that doesn’t work which means I stay happily warm and moist.

Outside the hotel are a couple of V8 Supercars. One is a Ford and the other is, well you know, the crapolden.

The only good thing about returning to Canberra tomorrow night is that I’ll get in just as the second State of Origin match starts.

SKYCITY Casino and a FORD V8 SUPERCAR (iPhone)

SKYCITY Casino and a FORD V8 SUPERCAR (iPhone)

SKYCITY Bathroom hand basin. This is a good way to store stuff (iPhone)

SKYCITY Beef burger (iPhone)

The beef burger was pretty good. It was a little too salty. I didn’t have the time to go to the wharf tonight like I usually do.

 

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Travelling to Frederick, MD

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Last week I spent five days in Frederick, MD. I was there for work and knew I wouldn’t be able to spent much time looking around. Fortunately the people I was meeting with knew places to go to dinner.

The flight over and back was with United Airlines. I’ve flown with them before and it was an enjoyable experience. Over the Pacific Ocean I flew in a Boeing 747 and over the continent it was a Boeing 737. The flight attendants were friendly and cheerful and the food better than average. The flight from LAX (Los Angeles) to IAD (Dulles) was great with a really good main flight attendant who was incredibly friendly and helpful. I managed to sleep reasonably well on all the Pacific Ocean legs.

On the first night I stayed in the Washington Dulles Airport Marriott. It is very close to IAD and very convenient. It was very good value for a one night stop over. On the Monday morning I took a shuttle bus transfer for the 70 km drive from Dulles to Frederick. The countryside was beautiful. The architecture was really interesting.

On the first night in Frederick I ate at Brewer’s Alley. The memorable thing about that night was sitting at a table with a jug for beer that had a core that could be filled with ice to keep the beer cold.

Beer jug with a core for ice to keep the beer cold (iPhone)

While in Frederick I stayed in the Hampton Inn Frederick. The hotel does a free breakfast and one of my colleagues told me he thought it was great because you could make your own waffles. Having tried a waffle, I’m not so sure.

Fresh made waffle with pork sausage pattie and pork sauce (I don’t know what pork sauce is) (iPhone)

The waffle was also served with breakfast syrup and I’m assuming it contains a lot of corm sugar. For the rest of my time there I ate a banana for breakfast and read the paper.

Banana and paper (iPhone)

On the second evening in Frederick I went to the local Cracker Barrel store and restaurant in Frederick. The menu is great and I chose from the fancy fixin’s area. I asked for the chicken fried steak with hash brown casserole, corn, breaded okra and sawmill gravy. For dessert because it was my birthday I had the house special coconut cream custard pie.

Chicken fried steak with fancy fixin’s (iPhone)

Coconut cream custard birthday pie (iPhone)

The following night I tried the crab cakes in the hotel’s restaurant. They tasted okay but the next morning I was feeling quite ill.

Crab cakes with asparagus and chips (iPhone)

The following night I went to the Black Hog. This place is known for its barbecue and its ribs. I asked for ribs, brisket and collared greens.

Ribs, brisket, collared greens and corn bread (iPhone)

After five days of meetings I took a shuttle back to Washington and stayed at the Melrose Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. I would highly recommend this hotel. It was small cosy and relatively inexpensive. On the Friday evening I went to Macy’s to buy a new bag because my bag was damaged on the flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. I ate dinner at a place called One Fish, Two Fish on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. I enjoyed a small wonton soup and twice cooked pork.

Short (Wonton) soup (iPhone)

Twice cooked pork (spicy) (iPhone)

The next morning I enjoyed my best breakfast while in the USA. Crab cake eggs Benedict.

Crab cakes Eggs Benedict (iPhone)

After breakfast I went for a walk and visited the Lincoln and Albert Einstein memorials.

Abraham Lincoln memorial (Panasonic DMC-TZ10)

Me and Albert Einstein (Panasonic DMC-TZ10)

The flight back to Canberra was via San Francisco (SFO) and was uneventful.

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Trying crab cakes again

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After my last experience I was wary. I’m in a nice hotel in Washington DC, viz., The Melrose on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. I had crab cake Benedict this morning with a latte. The latte was awful. The crab cake Benedict was very good. I would recommend them and this hotel.

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Quick hamburger meal after a long week

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It’s been a long week with some significant travel. I got back to my apartment with a bag of wet clothes that needed to be washed. I also had two blown light bulbs in my bedroom that needed replacing. I wanted something quick and easy to cook and eat.

Normally a hamburger should have lettuce, beetroot, pineapple, a fried egg, tomato and cucumber.

This one just had meat and cheese with some barbecue sauce.

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My happy place

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Today I spent most of the day in work related meetings. I also spent some of the day out doors with work mates looking at things. That meant I was exposed to the best parts of Darwin. Warm but not hot. Moist, and by moist I mean soaking warm rain going in all directions including horizontal and wind gusts up to 100 kilometres per hour.

After work this afternoon I ambled up to Stokes Hill Wharf for dinner. Ever since learning I was coming to Darwin for these meetings I have been craving a solo walk to the wharf and sitting down to a plate of battered barramundi and chips. For those not familiar with the barramundi, it is a premier fighting fish which also happens to be a very fine eating fish. Firm white flaky flesh. It is only better when you catch it, kill it, fillet it and cook it in a pan with butter and some lemon. You can then throw the skins in the air for the eagles or into the water for the crocodiles.

On the Stokes Hill Wharf there is an eatery and an open seating area with tables and chairs. Tonight Darwin was in a post Tropical Cyclone waring phase and with a tropical low we had heavy rain and wind gusts up to 100 kilometres per hour. I didn’t want to get my iPhone wet so the images are fairly timid.

Tonight’s chips were so crispy and the barramundi so good. I was in a very happy place. My skin was warm and moist. My tongue, mouth and belly were happy. I’d had a great day and I was happy. I wish Bron had been here too.

I love the sound of heavy rain on a metal roof. Most houses in Darwin do not have roof gutters. There is no point. Listen to the power.

Normally you can see the land across the harbour. This isn’t even heavy. Later in the evening it got stronger in terms of wind and rain.

It looked ominous across the harbour.

An ominous looking scene across the water

Battered barramundi and chips

After finishing the fish and chips I sat around and tweeted and watched the weather. I knew I had to come back and do some work so I decided to walk briskly back to the hotel. It’s just under a one kilometre walk so I knew it wouldn’t be too bad. The wind was strong and the rain heavy. It. Was. So. Much. FUN.

Before I forget, did you see those chips? They were so crispy. They were the best. THE BEST!!!

When I got back to the hotel I knew I wanted dessert. I rang room service and asked for Coconut panna cotta with kaffir lime fruit salad.

Coconut panna cotta with kaffir lime fruit salad

And before I forget we had lunch at one of the best restaurants in Darwin. The Hanuman Thai.

Fish and lamb curries at The Hanuman Thai

All in all it’s been a happy day.

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