Colin Ferguson’s Blog

Nope, not the score of the Germany-England game from last week, but rather the score of the Heavy Rain vs. Sunshine days  for my recent Mexican sojorn. Well at least that was the score the day of the Germany-England debacle.

We really enjoyed Playa Del Carmen. The direct flight to Cancun, and a 1 hour bus ride was totally fine.  The Grand Coco Bay Resort in the low season was great; there are about 250 rooms there, but only 50 were used when we arrived.   I think I like a small resort; 5 min will get you from room to buffet to sea back to the room.  With another stop in between!

The other guests were cool, the buffets were good and changed up day-by-day.  The quality of drinks were great.  The breakfast mimosa was pretty decadent.   The staff, including Ramon, Gabriella, Antonio were great.  They really seemed to care that we were happy.   The tour office had Juan Carlos and he was fantastic.  Highly recommend him.

In direct contrast the concierge was useless – worse than useless in fact.  Their job was to lie to you and tie you into a timeshare presentation. Terrible.  The worse part?   Their ignorance of  Hurricane Alex.  I mean we asked them and they said, “Oh yes, a little rain the next few days. All days the same until Tuesday.”   Hurricane never came up. I’m pretty sure I’d have figured out if they had said a word about it…or perhaps have had a newspaper I could read. Or had any news channel on TV.

We got there on a Wed.  By Saturday we were being hammered by the storm.  But we didn’t know it was coming until we had rented a car, drove an hour, checked out some ruins then set down to lunch.   We were THEN told about the storm.  I thought…ya know, you could have told us concierge.

So loved the resort, had a great time, especially the last 2 days when it was sunny (so the final “rain score” was 4-3), but man, you would figure telling folks about a Hurricane would be useful…

Brilliant.

Lego World Cup: England vs. USA

(And man, why do I want  honey after hearing this?)

I’m pretty sure that PM Harper’s pinky finger must be tied down recently.  If not, it’d be springing up Dr. Evil-style as he says “$1 Billion Dollars for security for the G8 and G20″.

A Billion Dollars?  Is he absolutely @#$##$ing loopy?  I realise it’s trendy to bash Harper if one lives in a city, but seriously, this is crazy.  What’s the benefit?  “Showcasing Toronto to the World”?  That doesn’t make a lick of sense.  None.  Nada.  Totally and absolutely none.  If you want to showcase Toronto, let members visit when it’s not LOCKED DOWN LIKE A PRISON YARD DURING RIOTS.  Oh wait, the riots will be outside as the demo area will be around Queen’s Park a good km further north than the tightest security ring.

I used to work right beside the European Parliament. We went for drinks in the square leading up to it (the sunshine reflecting off the mirrored building made for 5C warmer summer  nights).  The Parliament is surrounded by many of the Commissions’ Ministries with literally tonnes of foreign dignitaries every day.  I’ve seen demos there, even the occasional one that turns into riots.  It’s not a big deal.  Tear gas and it’s done.  I highly doubt that anyone is that interesting in blowing up some politicians.  If they are, then why book it downtown?  Why not have it up north as was planned, and do a day-trip for the many G20ers.  I’m sure they’d do it themselves if it wasn’t officially planned.  Throw in some free vouchers to non-expense account-able strip clubs and it’s a sure thing.

The City of Toronto was desperate to have the G20 at the CNE grounds as it’s 5 min from downtown, secure, has tonnes of exhibition place, and has good transit links.  I’m not an apologist for the fools on city council, but this time they had it right.   Take just $100 million to upgrade security in the Toronto Exhibition area and you could reasonably expect to have lower costs, with a long-term benefit for future events.  Oh and it’d not shut down the core of the money generation machine of the country, as well as divert the return of Roy Haliday to Toronto.

Even the most aggressive cheerleaders of the Conservative party, the National Post, wrote a scathing review of the Harper plan for the G20.  I tend not to vote for the party with the best policies, but rather the party that i think will do the least worst job.  I was on the fence of where I was going to vote federally next time, but my god the NDP and Liberals would have to start firebombing daycares before they could rival this shitshow.

I’m leaving below for a list of other idiocies regarding this — feel free to add to the comments with notes, and I’ll add ‘em here.

Downtown restaurant owners are upset they’ll have to shut down their patios for two weeks before the G20 summit begins on June 26.  Source: CTV.

No, I’m not discussing the case of Ontario’s former Attorney General and the cyclist of last year.  If you recall the cyclist hit the former AG’s car as he was making a turn.  Cyclist hits AG’s car as he’s making a turn, cyclist tries to get in car, AG drives off, tries to shake cyclist off, and cyclist falls to his death.

No I’m talking about the cyclist who decided that today was the day he wanted to die. And he wanted me and my girlfriend’s car as his weapon.

I’m not a perfect driver, but with zero driving problems in 20 years through 10 countries, I can at least say I’m not a bad driver.  Part of that is noticing things BEFORE they become problems. If a car is swerving around a bit during the day, you give that car extra space.  If a cyclist goes through a red light in one of the busiest intersections in Canada, you realise he may not have safety as his number one concern.  When I saw that happen earlier today, I did just that. And I’m glad.

If you know Toronto, you’ll know the intersection of Wellington and Blue Jays Way.  Basically a little south of Wayne Gretzky’s Resto.  If you travel westbound on Wellington (the only direction as it’s one way), you’ll come to curve that takes you around a parkette. Where that curve starts is a stop sign, which is fine.  The challenge is when a cyclist decides to go from the right side of the street to the left, in front of cars with no right of way, no warning and certainly no signals.  He made no signal to be changing lanes or even turning. Nor is turning in front an option there…it just doesn’t exist.  Now granted, at 15km or whatever I wouldn’t likely have killed you cyclist but it would have been thousands in damage that was your fault to the car, let alone your bike (likely done), and your body and mind.

I understand Mr. Cyclist that you’re in a bad moood the city streets are not made for the mix of public transit, cars, cyclists, package delivery services parking willy nilly on the streets. But still, don’t think your anger creates a forcefield.  The universe doesn’t work like that.

Also accept the fact that if I honk after I’m trying to say “Jesus Christ, you just about killed yourself.  And made me part of it!  Please for all our sakes be careful guy!”…and not “Asshoooooooooole!”…well at least mostly.  So yelling back about my dead mother and acts she’d be performing isn’t really appropriate.

If you feel the motorists are evil jerks, well some are, but most aren’t.  They are trying hard NOT to kill you, just like most of your cyclist peers are trying not to be killed.  I can be messy, and certainly stressful but in general it works. But if one side decides to let anger be their guide, then broken bikes, legs and maybe lives will come about.

So cyclists I’ll make you a deal. I’ll keep avoiding hitting you, if most of you keep avoiding trying to sneak by me as I’m making a turn.

And Angry Cyclist Guy from today?  Get off the bike or you’ll be dead in a year.

Toronto is one of the most multicultural cities in the world.  Which is amazing if you like variety in food, culture and even street life.  It does create a challenge though for newcomers who don’t quite get the double meaning of legitimate names. And oh, the typos are pretty good too.

The Healthy Chinese Option

Low Fat Chinese Food. Awesome!

Open but Locked?

It seems they are open a lot, but only unlock at certain hours.  That’s the best I’ve figured out.

(in reality it’s a phone store doing unlock)

Who said Accountants were Shy?

He's good with Endowments

Kebabs: Now we know what’s really in ‘em

Mystery Meat!

Seems like Asok has finally gone to the dark side – and is doing SEO.

So, does anyone else loathe the Olympics?  Am I the only angry man in Toronto that every form of media is owned by Atheletes I’ve never met, and products they shill?

Well seems I’m not:

http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/100217.html

http://www.pvponline.com/2010/02/17/bored-games/

Both are good, and I appreciate their intent.  But over past few days I’ve realised it’s not the Olympics per se that get my ire fired up. It’s the inescapable hype that surrounds them.  Yes I realise the Royal Bank has donated money to the Olympics, and probably the Canadian Dental Association has given free mouthguards to them all, or whatever, but why is that so relevant they need to ADVERTISE that they have given this stuff to them?  And worse, why does the donation by McDonald’s Hamburgers or Mars Bars mean their products are now implied to be part of a healthy Olympic-level athletic diet?

So, yeah, I’m loving some of the athletic competitions!  They really are awesome in all the senses of the word.  But the  hype; yuck! I’m gonna consciously boycott the ones that are just over the top.

I met up with a friend last night. A friend I hadn’t seen in a year or so. We met during my first job at Schenker of Canada. Overall a good job, and one that talk me a lot about how companies really work. (Nothing like being the newbie gopher/right hand of a branch manager to feel the knives go in. Especially as many branches were merging into one, and everyone needed to fight for jobs.) Not fun at the time, but amazing experience for understanding my clients in later jobs.

I digress. My friend was from that first job, and she asked me “Do you miss the Corporate World?” My first response was to laugh, but then I realised there are parts I do miss. The personal companionship. Going out for dinner and beers after work. Birthday party cakes and singing. Watching another professional in action doing their job very well. The job of LEAVING the office for the weekend.

Almost all of those things I have working from home, but they are all virtual. So it’s not that I miss those things; it’s that I miss doing them in person.