Thanks!

Lots of people to thank here so I'll do it in a list.

- Everyone who nominated me and rooted for me to go!

- All the event co-ordinators who made it such a memorable experience for everyone, couldn't have made it any better

- The senior management for taking time to come out and hang out with us "non cool" senior management people ;)

- All the other guest speakers who shared their presentations with us!

- All the friendly staff at Le Chateau Fairmont, the transportation and event operators, all the restaurant staff, everybody else involved in taking care of us

- The bear

- All the SEC candidates! Keep rocking the excellence! It was great to meet such awesome like minded people

- To everybody reading this!  I didn't just make all this so I could remember what I did... You all helped me get this far!

- Mom/Dad for giving me my stupid humor and satisfactory drawing skills

- Whoever else I missed and want's to be thanked for whatever reason! 

See ya later blog, it's been fun.

Until next time!

Catch up time

Well... now that I'm back home and have some time to actually write in here, I figured I should go back and pretend I was writing my blog daily once I got to Whistler.

In reality they kept us so busy we pretty much woke up, ate and played all day, then came back to sleep!  So for those of you still visiting, I will play catch up and see what I can remember!


(I can make posts apear to be from specific dates and times so dig back to see what you missed)

Plane number 2

Well heading back home now...as much fun as these 2 weeks were it will be nice to go home and do nothing for a while. 

So here comes plane ride #2, should be fun.  We get to stop off in Calgary, which apparenly has been snowed on already.  I love flying in an iced up plane!

Final to do's

Well last day to see BC...

Got out and ended up renting one of those cool bikes that 2 people ride with Mary... Rode up to Stanley park and went to check out the Aquarium.

There are some pretty cool animals in there... dolphins, whales, frogs, fish, fishsticks and children.. lots of them.

So we checked that place out for a while, we watched a 4D (YES 4D!!!) movie while we were there... apparently one of the only of it's kind on the west coast.  So what made this movie 4D was nothing spectacular like wormholes, time travelling deloreans or stephen hawking. 

Basically it was a 2D film + 1 extra D for the 3D effect (had to wear polorized glasses)  The crazy extra D came in during the film and wasn't really a dimension, but more of an experience.  Every seat had stuff on it to make you feel part of the film...things like
- The chair infront squirting mists of water in your face when things would splash
- Giant fans blowing air in the room to simulate wind
- Rubling chairs to simulate... rumbling... chairs?
- And these little hose things that would fly around by your feet like something was crawling around you...
Oh and at one point all these soap bubbles would fall from the ceiling to feel like underwater.

So as interesting as that was, I was a little dissapointed since I didn't go back to the 80s.

After that whole Aquarium experience we rode the rest of the park... a nice ride.

Later on we had to check out Grandville island, a cool market that is cool and also a market.

Oh and on the way there we found a store that sold nothing but cream puffs, it was insane... we tried some of those.

Now it's back to this hotel that is nothing like Le Chateau Fairmont in Whistler... but something a little better from the motel in Psycho.

Tomorrow = Plane ride home!

Hello again Vancouver!

Did you miss me?

Probably not.... I was only away for a week.

Now that I'm back I see you made your weather nicer.

Mary and I probably spent a good 10 hours today walking non stop, walked a ton of the city, went out to that mega mall again... now it's time to let my feet return to their normal shape.

I think tomorrow will involve less walking and more non walking.

I'm sure we burned off all the calories from last week's SEC.. which is hard to believe since most of the week we just ate.

See ya Later Whistler!

It was nice knowing you... but you haven't seen the last of me! I'm debating whether or not to visit you again when you are in summer mode so I can bike, or in winter mode so I can skii.

Since it will take me a while to save up that kind of dough, I have some time to decide.

Heading back down to Vancouver to stay a couple of more days before the trip is done!

Hole in 1 Dinner

Ended up the conference at the Jack Nicklaus (not Jack Nicholson, I always get the 2 mixed up) golf course in Whistler. 

Now we didn't get to play golf, or meet Jack, but we did get to walk on the green made of solid gold (green gold) and then eat all his food... SUCKER! This was our final dinner and SEC ceremony closing and it was a good one.  Not only did we all dress up and look awesome, but we dressed up and looked awesome.   It was a good night for all, with that hint of it all being over so soon.  Got to meet a great bunch of people, have some great times, and see some great scenery.

We also were told where SEC will be next year, but I'm not going to tell you HA!  (unless you pay me 10 bucks!)

Whistler/ Vancouver is a wonderful part of Canada and I highly encourage  any of you who have not been to take the next flight out.

Free Day!

Free in the fact that we can do whatever we wish, not that we had to pay for any of the other days (expensive?)

Seems like the most popular thing planned for today is the Ziptrek eco tour... everybody's doing it these days.. so if you didn't do it then YOU AREN"T COOL!

Nah i'm just kidding, you Golfers, ATVers, Jeepers, Shoppers, Sleepers and whatever else you guys did are cool too!

So the Ziptrek tour is kind of what it sounds like... a trek on ziplines.  Unfortunatly we didn't get to set any phasers to stun, but we did get to set them to ZIP! (lame)

This tour offers 2 treks, the bear run and the eagle (EXTREEEEEEMEEE!) run.  Anybody that was EXTREEEEEEEMEEEEEE did the eagle, which really wasn't all that EXXTREEEEEMEEEEE.... but probably more so than the bear run.  So anyway they take a group of 10 people on this trek into the forrest... first they get you in your cool zippy harness thing, then stuff you in a van to go up the mountain a bit.  At the beginning of the course we got some cool facts and trivia about the surroundings and what not... I doubt anybody listened since they were thinking about zipping around, or plumetting to their death.

We started on zip 1 of 5 (obviously) and it wasn't too bad... got you use to the whole thing.  From there they got bigger, longer, higher and faster.  In between each zip the guides talked about more things like how the trees were bazillion years old and how us stupid humans are destroying the earth.  It's actually really informative from a sustainibility standpoint.

Line 4 of 5 was 2200 feet long and got up to like 70kmph or something crazy.  Line 5 they encouraged us to do a backflip and zip, which we all did because we are EXTREEEEEEEEEEMEEEEEEEEEE (and cool)

So for all of you visiting Whistler I reccomend you check this out if you like being outside, like depressing facts about how we kill our planet, like hanging 100s of feet in the air by a cable while you speed across to another tree and like spending 100 bucks.  (It was worth it, seriously)

The rest of this day was spent wandering the town of Whistler and buying lots of stuff!.

SEC Finale dinner and presentations coming soon... :(

Gondola, Restaurant, Bear, Cream puffs

This afternoon we began our journey up Whistler mountain in a 30 minute gondola ride.  Elevation went up, temperature went down, air pressure went crazy, snow appeared, typical mountain stuff.

At the top was probably the best scenery you could imagine, top that off with a sunset, and a giant inukshuk and you got yourself a fine evening.

But wait, there's more.

At the top there was a fine restaurant at which we had dinner.  A fine dinner.  Fine dessert too! During our fine dinner, desert and alcholic beverages we had an unexpected visitor.

Buckle up bear's cousions nephew's brother showed up.... except this guy didn't care about buckling up.  He tried to crash our party by somehow getting into the building and wandering around.  Luckily people noticed this and somehow got him out of the building before he turned us into his fine dinner (or dessert).  Not all of us managed to catch this event, but those who did can tell you about it.

"He had a nice butt" - Beth Murison

"I wanted to ride him around but he didn't wan't to co-operate" - Greg Laidman

(Note: Not actual quotes)

So after the he left we all had a sigh of relied that this years SEC reps didn't end up being bear dinner. That may have ruined the event for next year.

The ride down our gondola crew talked about cream puffs for 30 minutes.  You mess with the cream puffs and you mess with us.  I highly reccomend you don't do either.

Until next time!

Quick Update

Tonight it sounds like we are going up to the top of one of the mountains in a 30min gondola ride and dining at a fancy restaurant up there.  Should be fun!
Tomorrow brings Ziplining which most people seem to have signed up for, walking around in the tree tops and zipping around up to 80km/h!

Well I better go!

Dinner at Dusty's

So tonight we went to dinner at this place called Dusty's.
I brought a swiffer with me to be safe, but it turned out there was no dust in sight!

Ate some good food, listened to a live band that played music and stuff...

Somebody got the idea that dancing was fun (were they drunk!?) and decided to go up.  Thanks to the efforts of our beloved CEO, the lazy not wanting to dance people (me) ended up being pushed out onto the floor with everybody else.

Some of us decided to try our Elaine Benice dance impressions... others weren't impressions and actually dance like her (me again)

SEC Survivor

Do you like reality TV?

Didn't think so... I mean it was kind of cool when it first came out, but now it's just been over done... Jumped the shark a long time ago. I'm not even going to begin trying to list all the shows that polute the airwaves, cablewaves and satellitewaves... so I'll let an internet site do it for me!

Regardless of all that, we took it to the next level and made SEC SURVIVOR! We had to survive being together outside in the nice sun, by the lake and mountains, playing fun games. I bet if we taped it, it would have been the next biggest show on TV.

After being put in to teams of 8 we competed to see who would win bragging rights to surviving, while the rest of us... uh.. didn't survive?  Or I guess they say voted off the island (Whistler?)  Well... even though most of us lost we still got to stay the rest of the week! How nice of the event planners

So we got to play games such as

- Balance on some logs while answering weird questions

- Build a McGuver like personel resucing device so we could combine our powers to solve great puzzles

- Walk blindfolded doing tasks insructed by a person that... instructs... from instructions.

- Find some letters in a bush... (HARD!)

- Make a team name, flag, cheer, and get some facepaint

- Memorize a bunch of things and do stuff with the thingymajiggers (ALSO HARD!)

After all that it came to a face off to eat stuff.  Not stuff like cow brains and goat intestines... but normal stuff like gummi worms and sausages.  It wasn't all easy stuff though.  The lucky ones got snails, shots of hot sauce and TRICKERY OREOS WITH WASABI INSIDE!

Normal Oreo...

TRICKERY WASABI OREO!

I got 3 crackers with a nice topping of hot sauce... Wasn't so bad.  The best part was I BEAT YOU DAN GREENE HAH! TAKE THAT!

(Dan ate all of the challenges for his team... nobody knows how he is still alive, but there is a myth that his stomach is lined with golden tapeworms)

Good morning Viet-whistler

The beds in this place are insane, not only that, the pillows are some kind of magical pillows.  Definitely makes for a good nights sleep.

Well, time to go to breakfast, some presentations, and then FUN! (That's right, it deserves capitals)

Do you have any Grey Poupon?

Well... Do you?

No?

Well find somebody who does!

Arrival at Mega Castle!

Road up to whistler was quite the journey, took lots of pics, saw lots of nice mountains and stuff... you know.

Here is a pic of where we are staying for the week :)

Going to be eating a fancy dinner soon as well as meeting all the cool folks that are excellent at service...giving?

Yawn

Woke up early this morning to take off to Vancouver Airport... or as some like to call it YVR.

Kinda makes me wonder how they come up with these short 3 letter names... What does YVR stand for?  Could it be, Your Vancouver Rocks?  Or how about Yellow Violet Red?  Surely there has to be some reason.  I know I could look it up online in a second but this is more fun.  Why don't they just name it like VAN or something, seems a lot easier to understand.

YVR Acronyms

Once I get there I get to wait 3 hours till other fellow Guelphites arrive...

Then when they arrive I get to spend another 3 hours taking a nice scenic bus route to Whistler!

No donuts here...

I've seen 1 Tim Hortons out here in the entire city... not that I really care since I'm not a die hard fan of their stuff...

Here is an accurate representation of the preferred choice of coffee shop

(Real picture taken with the cartoon setting on my camera)

Balcony Panorama

So this is the view from Spencer's Balcony

Wait did you notice anything in there that didn't look right

See it yet?!?!

 

Lotus Hotel!?!

I guess IBM has realized that their horrible attempt at making a local mail client failed so miserably, they would take a shot at starting a local hotel chain.

Well sorry IBM, I have used enough versions of your product to not want to stay in your hotel for the following reasons.

1. 
   
   I don't want to try and open the door only to find the whole building collapse on my face
   
   
   
2. 
   
   I don't need to sign in using a signature masked by a bunch X's
   
   
   
3. 
   
   I don't want your bell boy's taking my luggage to archive it where I will never get it back... REPLICATE MY LUGGAGE!! AHRGH!
   
   
   
4. 
   
   I could do without the insanely slow check in times and general service
   
   
   
5. 
   
   I would constantly be afraid that the building would simply vanish causing me to fall 5 stories to the ground while looking at an error message that extends into the sky like some ladder into heaven
   
   
   
6. 
   
   I dont need you telling people I am unavailable 10 days after their initial request
   
   
   
7. 
   
   Update the fricking interior! It looks like the 80s in there
   
   
   

Well thats enough Lotus bashing for today!

Skytrain to Metrotown Centre

So I took the Skytrain to Metrotown today... for those of you not familiar with either, here's a brief summary.

The skytrain is not a train in the sky (like the picture I made a few posts below), but more of a computer controlled train that cruises around.  The cool thing is that it shows up every minute or so, so you don't have to wait long to get a ride.

I'm assuming that these trains run on something other than a microsoft based product as they don't run slowly and eventually crash.

That took me out to Burnaby where the second largest shopping mall in Canada is... the Metropolis at Metrotown.  Picture your regular mall joining copies of itself 3 more times, then stacking that ontop of itself 4 or so times.  It took a while to wander around the whole thing but it was pretty neat. You would like this mall if you like to shop... and if you can think of any store you like, well it's probably in here!  I was pretty confused on where I was going, wasn't there for any reason other than the weather wasn't so great and needed something to do. The only thing I was really there for was the court of food.

Once I found the food court it became my kind of mall, a mall of food. I came across this place called U-Grill.  Not sure why they call it that since U don't grill your food, but U do get to pick what THEY grill. So U get a little tray thing and get to pick from a huge assortment of meats, veggies and noodles.  Once U get what U like they weigh the dish and you pay something like 2 bucks per 100g. 

So after a drink mine came to a bagillion dollars but it was worth it.  While you pay one of the chef guys takes UR plate and grills it up for U.  A few minutes later U get to choose from 8, yes you read that right 8 different sauces to put on top.  I picked soy sauce (or red cap sauce as we like to call it in our daily work lunch crew) to go on top.  After that they throw it on (or scoop it up on) a bed of rice. 

After grabbin the plate I took a seat, took this pic and chowed down.

Not knowing what else to do I scrammed from the mall and wandered around the city taking more pics.  Eventually made my way into Stanley Park before I had to turn around and get back to meet up with Spencer.  So that was about it for today.  Stay tuned for another exciting day in the life of me in Vancouver!

Food

I`m not sure what I am eating but it`s delicious.

Vancouver Weather

Well... I probably don't need to say much else other than

Makes me wonder why they even bother having meteorologists out here

(Don't ever complain to me about the trackpoint until you draw with it)

First Flight

So I had never been on a plane before so I wasn't sure what I was in for.  Well it was interesting to say the least... Sitting right next to the engine in a window seat made it a little more exiting.  Watching the wings bend and flex all over was very reassuring.  On the way I managed to grab a ton of pics which you can see in an album on the left side of the page. 

Royal Highness's Matched Luggage

So I got some luggage since I didn't have any... It seems as if every luggage store in town has luggage up to 60% off.  Kinda makes me wonder, if it is all on sale then why do they keep making it?  I think the supply/demand of the luggage market has become a little saturated.

There are all kinds of sales going on, buy one get 1 at a discount, get a set and save x % etc.  The mall alone has like 4 or 5 places to get this stuff.  I think I even saw a promotion that if you buy the one set that contains a banana inside you get a bonus monkey to carry your bags for you.

So the flavour I found at a good deal with the mobility and attraction comes from our favourite cross country rail service provider, Via Rail. You know the economy is rough when you need to add to your suffering profits by introducing a line of baggage that will sell for 60% off 100% of the time

Also makes me wonder why Via Rail never got into the airline business...

New Canon

So I got a Canon but unfortunatly this one doesnt fire giant balls of iron at pirates.  What it does however is take pictures of the future adventures of me in BC.  

Post 1.0

Good News Everyone! I now have a blog to keep track of my adventures in BC land!  Stay tuned.