les pictures

Here's the pictures from the trip.

Enjoy... only 272 266 (I deleted some of the really junky ones) of them.

Nova Scotia - June 2007

not dead

We're back in Halifax. For now. Leaving tomorrow at 12:30 on the train, getting back to KW at 7 something Sunday evening.

Whee!

Pictures and stories to come.

we're not in kansas anymore

Yesterday we took it easy. Slept in, watched some TV, surfed the 1nternet, and then went for a walk down the harbour to the Ferry terminal and went to Dartmouth for $2.00 each direction. After spending about an hour across the harbour and realizing that there wasn't much in the area we were looking, we came back, had a beaver tail (yummy), then some pizza, and then came back to the hostel for a few hours.

We ended up going for a walk around 9:30 last night up to Shoppers and saw a nice guy who wished us happy Father's day and said good morning to us. There's a lot of really nice people out here... not really rude like in other cities.

Today we're off to Cape Breton for a few days. I'm assuming we'll be without Internet access for the majority of it, or at least I hope we are. Cell phone signals probably won't be too strong either. I think it's just going to be a lot of time of doing nothing, which is what vacation's all about, isn't it?

We're back to Halifax on Friday and then back on the train for 12:35 on Saturday afternoon until 7 something Sunday evening. Whoo!

Anyone want to go from Toronto to Vancouver next summer on the train? I'm thinking it could be fun.

Out.

T.

not dead

Hi.

We're not dead yet.

Since the last update, we've seen the Citadel, Public Gardens, watched Pirates 3, visited the Maritime Museum, Pier 21, and walked along the waterfront. It doesn't seem like much, but that's ok. It's vacation. We leave Monday morning for Cape Breton via rental car.

Here's some pictures:

The sunrise in South-eastern Quebec.


Isn't he cute?



A view from Citadel Hill on Friday.


Gord's lucky the cannon wasn't armed.


Down in the ditch.


At the Public Gardens


I don't know the person on the bench, but it looked too good to pass up a picture.


A fountain in the gardens.


A sailing ship in Halifax Harbour


Pier 21 where most of the immigrants to Canada came through between the 20's and the early 70's.


Another day... til later.

au l'est

Or something like that. Correct me if I'm wrong, all those who speak French. I know you're out there.

We've arrived in Halifax after something like 29 hours on a train within a 34 hour period. 6:41 was when we got on the first train, arrived at 8:30 and transferred in Toronto (3 hour wait), checked our bags without thinking through to Montreal (11:30) (we later realized that we should have grabbed the food out first), got to Montreal (5:15), grabbed our bags and quickly got in line for the next train and grabbed some food from the food court at the Montreal Train Station (not too bad, greasy pizza though), Thought we could carry our big bags on the train with us, but we were forced to check them last minute (toiletries remained behind this time, but we got the food), hopped on the train (6:30), and was on it until 4:30 (3:30 Eastern) this afternoon. It was a lot of sitting, but a lot of amazing scenery to be seen along the way.

And we met some nice ladies sitting across from us on the Montreal - Moncton leg. They were two cousins who travelled to Ottawa to visit some family. The one was enjoying herself quite readily, but the other was having some difficulty enjoying the train ride and all that trying to sleep in a Via comfort class cabin offered (or the lack thereof). I hope she can find it in her heart to put some faith in the train for the future. Canada's system isn't set up all that great in comparison to Europe's. Go there, and experience what train travel should be like. We had lots of fun talking with them, especially after a guy got on in Mirimachi, who we suspected to be freshly released from the maximum security prison there (who would have thunk it). Oh well.

We're just getting settled in the hostel now and soon we'll be out to find some place to grab a bite to eat. (Train food and snack food = not satisfying).

Now we're out.

Ciao.

vacation

So I'm on vacation. This is something I really haven't experienced since probably Grade 12 - the last time I didn't work during a summer. I'm excited...

Except for the fact that it's 1:00 AM, and I have to be up in 4 hours to catch a train. A train to where, you might ask? Well, first train takes us (Gord, Vanessa, and I) to Toronto from KW. Second train goes to Montreal. Third train goes to Halifax. Total time in transit: 36 hours.

We're spending 4 days in Halifax at a Hostelling International Hostel close to the Citadel and only a few blocks from MEC (www.mec.ca). Then after a few days of hanging around Halifax, we're off to Ingonish to stay in a cottage for 4 nights. We plan on hanging around Cape Breton with the rental car. Then back to Halifax, for a one-night stay at a hotel and then back on the train for another 36 hour trip home. Whole trip: 12 days, 11 nights.

Should be fun.

And I'm supposed to bring a lobster trap complete with lobster back for someone. That should be a doozy getting onto the train. We'll see what happens.

And now I'm out. Hopefully to sleep, but it figures that i can't sleep when I have to be up at an early hour.

pictures

I just uploaded a bunch of pictures to my picasa account on Google... I'm a chump, I know. Oh well.

Click Here to See them

but calgary does...

Here's my album of pics from the trip to Calgary.

CACSD Conference and Zoo

smoke detector continued

On Saturday morning, I tried turning the smoke detectors back on. But they started beeping. I was still very much ticked at them (though aren't they supposed to be your friend?) so I shut the breaker off once again. A few hours later, we realized that the hot water was no more in our apartment. So, upon further investigation, we found out that the genius of the electric smoke detectors is that they're tied into another circuit that's of great value so you don't shut them off.

So, off to Canadian Tire we went to get an extension cord to run from the hallway to the furnace room. We ended up staying out for hours on end and came back with one of my housemate's friends in the early evening to test out the system.

We flip the breaker, they start beeping. Off. Unplug one detector. Beep. Unplug the next one. All the way through and they still keep beeping. Stupid Detectors, I think... but then we have a brainwave. Flip the breaker, beep for 5 seconds, no more beep.

So, we're hoping it doesn't happen again, but now we know a bit more about the system and how to fix the problem if it starts again.

Stupid smoke detectors.

stupid smoke detectors

Firstly, we live on the top floor of a 3 storey apartment building. This building is about 7 years old, and reasonably well-built. The only downside for living here in the summer is that there is no air conditioner.

So, because of our lack of AC and poverty-stricken status (or that's our theory why we don't have a dehumidifier), it is very humid in the heat that has been here for the past few weeks.

Last night, it was a normal night. I went to bed with my fan blowing at me, and settled in for the night.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP... etc. Eyes wide open, straight out of bed, look at the clock: 3:04 AM and the smoke detector in my room is going off, as well as the one in the other 4 bedrooms and the one outside the furnace room. Because they are all electrically connected, none of them specify a fault, and all of them pierce the ears. I open the door and turn on the light and there stand my 3 house-mates wondering the same thing I was. What the heck is going on? So, in my dazed state, I grab my sheet and start waving it at the nearest detector. But then, out of the wonderfulness of electric detectors, the detectors in the public areas of the building started going off too, which include inside each door to each apartment, and the laundry room.

I go to the fusebox and flip the breaker on ours, to turn them off (no battery backup = no sign of which one is at fault, which is a stupid way to make smoke detectors. The support for them say "Note: The device will not operate during a power failure" - smart... really), and then hold the reset button on the public one, only to have it turn off for 5 seconds and then start going again.

By this time, the person who was staying over in the apartment below us was up and wondering what was happening. We didn't know, seeing as there was no smoke, no fire in our apartment at the time. The public area one finally turned off around 3:14, and we searched the rest of the building to make sure there was actually no fire and our alarms were just stupid.

3:25, I send an e-mail off to the landlord to let them know what's happened to us, and then I try to get to bed, for which I can't get to sleep because I'm shaken and still was hearing the ringing in my ears.

I think sleep finally came around 4:00, and then I still heard the ringing this morning when I awoke.

I went to turn the breaker back on this morning so we wouldn't be breaking any laws, and wouldn't you know it, but they started going again. I said heck with that and flipped the breaker one more time.

Stupid smoke detectors.