Entries Tagged 'Travel' ↓

I went to Toronto and Cambridge, Ontario yesterday for a quick day trip meeting. Flight out was at nine, then drove to Cambridge, had my meeting for several hours, then back to the Pearson airport to fly home at 7. So after bumping into an old friend who I hadn’t seen in years in the airport, I trooped onto the plane as usual, the doors closed, and we pulled back from the gate. We taxied out to the runway, the engines cycled up to full power and we were on our way.

Or so we thought. In fact, just a smidge before takeoff the pilot noticed a problem with an engine and he “rejected the takeoff”. This means putting on the brakes as hard as possible, cause you’re not getting off the ground and you want to stop before the end of the runway. I, and I imagine many others, were sure that there had been some mixup and that a 747 was about to land on us or something.

In fact we simply taxied back to a gate, got off and everyone got on a new plane an hour or so later, same boarding cards and everything. So an easy jaunt turned into a never-ending day, but at least we didn’t lose an engine in mid-air and have a real problem.

I haven’t posted in ages, but luckily that’s because I’ve had a super-long Christmas-thru-New-Year vacation. I spent the first week - 20th to 27th - mostly relaxing and doing family stuff up at Mont Tremblant for Christmas, then back to Montreal where we hosted a party and then off to Quebec City for a splendid New Year’s Eve with friends at a dinner and another party later on.

Things I’ve learned over the holidays: our dog is a great tracker of large and small animals in the brush, and loves the snow though bred for the savannah; sparkling cider from the Eastern Townships of Quebec is really excellent with dessert; people from France have rarely had good California wines, and so it is easy to impress them with a half decent red; Hilton Hotels welcomes dogs, making travel quite a bit easier; and I finally learned that All-Season radial tires simply aren’t up to snuff in the Canadian winter.

Things to look forward to in 2003: following through on the plans of 2002. We’re closing the deal on the house we bought a couple weeks ago in March, getting married in April, and then moving into aforementioned house in May. I think that’s enough for a pretty complete year and that’s just the first five months!

for a conference for a couple of days. I may or may not be able to do any blogging while away. BTW, this post comes directly from BlogScript, which allows me to post from any app on my computer just by picking a script from my menu bar.

love letter to Toronto. Of course, published in a Toronto-based publication. Canadians love to publish articles telling us how much Americans love our country. Montreal is all that Iyer loves as well, only turned on its side, and far weirder - and to me, better - for the turning. [via Aaron]

to Vancouver or Calgary, if only to try out Roots Air. The new airline started scheduled flights this week. Also, check out the nice use of animation on the language switch page.

this morning (far too early) I sat down across from the magazine rack in the little waiting area. Prominently displayed, with Air Canada stickers identifying their provenance, were several copies of Mother Jones magazine. In striking counterpoint to the other mags - Forbes and Business Week.