"D Day"

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Day 1 - "D Day"

Grande Prairie Airport, Sheraton Gateway Hotel In Toronto International Airport

Friday, 6 April, 2012

So we spent just the night in Toronto as we make our way to Jamaica. Plan is to have breakfast with Emily, Tory and Gail....

Staying at the Sheraton Gateway at terminal 3 at the airport.

Nice hotel, Well deserved.

OK, check in at the Grande Prairie airport was a little stressful. The lady checking us in got a look that you do not like to see. She asked if we had had a change on our itinerary, which we had as Expedia had called in February and switched our connection from Winnipeg to Toronto. She then said they had not completed this, so we got a little worried. She went on to say that she had to call someone as she could not fix it. Lucky for us, all was fixed and off we wandered to security, right behind the IT Manager from the county along with his family, they were off to Mexico.

Boarded the plane and off we went to Edmonton, Westjet is so much nicer than Air Canada, I just do not know how Air Canada stay in business using the crappy planes they use to fly between Grande Prairie a d Edmonton.

Anyhow, we arrived in Toronto at around midnight and off to bed we went.

	Bags packed waiting for the cab [Map]		Passed through security at GP airport [Map]
	Westjet... Awesome [Map]		...and off we go [Map]
	Edmonton bound [Map]		They did have a lot of snow [Map]
	Excited!!! [Map]		Hungry [Map]
	Plane to Toronto [Map]

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Sent from my iPad by My Vacation HD app (www.myvacationapp.com)

iPad

Yes, few weeks with the iPad now and I love it.

I use it at work at a note taker as well as keeping my tasks inline, it really is a very useful tool.

A few things of note;

You can go though a large number of apps trying to find the right one that works for you.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Spam Spam Spam…

Sounds like a Monty Python skit, but it’s not.

We have had a very reliable Spam filter in place since around 2005, Barracuda has served us well, but is its days numbered?

There is an offering from Microsoft now, we already use their Anti-Virus and it works well, so is it time to make the leap into another Microsoft Product? The price is right, we have so many other MS products that it seems to make sense. It would tie into the Anti Virus, would be the new Gateway, it would server the servers as well as the desktops.

The is past day or so our Barracuda has been acting out a little, I think there is anything wrong with it, I just think it is overloaded. All is fine until there is a glitch, such as one of our Domain Controllers going a-wall and causing Spam to build up causing a rather dramatic slow up as it works though processing all the backlogged emails.

So over the next little while we will do some reading on the new “Forefront” offering and see if it will work for us.

Stay tuned.

Post Chicago Era…

Chicago is in the bag, and what a success it was. Over $100,000 gross, over 4,200 people saw the show, not that’s impressive, wonder what kind of record that is?

So what does one do when you have been going for months on a single project? Well I know I can get back on the treadmill, not an excuse, but I used the show as the excuse.

Photography, yep getting back into the swing of things. Promised myself that I would start to do a daily post, maybe that was a little brave, so I am going to try a weekly post and choose 5 pictures which you will be able to see here, or on Facebook…maybe both.

Next is a little of things to do around he house, from getting the garage door programmed to the Homelink in the car, hey what you now I did that yesterday.

Work kicks up a notch this week as I have to get Powerschool up and running by the end of March. I did plan on building a test environment, but have decided against it due to time restraints.

Looking forward to a week off at he end of March, weekend in Edmonton then a few days rest during school Spring break.

Well that’s all folks, wish me luck.

The Process

Well the auditions are done, the cast is cast, well almost, and the process of taking words on page to full stage production has started.

I always love the process, I will always take a audition snapshot and hold it in my head, then sometime on the opening weekend think back, it’s an amazing process.

I am going to try and give a on going blog update on this process, an insight to what goes on in my head.

So first off, auditions, what was I looking for? Did I see what I wanted? How to decide? Well for Deathtrap there was a not bad turnout as, as small shows go, had to do a pre audition audition due to commitments by small people, not always the easiest thing to do, but had to be done.

So you have a few people for read well, fit the role, overall pretty darn good, what to do. Start to look at things like looks, voice, small reactions to words. Still tough call, but a call has to be made and I know I made the right one, but still makes the phone calls tough, if it was not for their voice it could have been them.

So now we wait to fill the one last role, how long to wait, who will I get? Hopefully will be fully cast before the first read through. We shall see.

Is the UK pricing itself out of the tourism market?

15 pounds to enter Westminster Abbey, 17 pounds to ride the London Eye, 20 pence to use the toilet and that’s all just before the 22 pound sandwich lunch.

We have all heard of hour expensive it is to visit the UK, but to me it really is starting to get out of control and I wonder if people will start to not visit, or it will only be a place to visit for the rich and famous. We just got back from a week trip and I was, for some reason, even more surprised than usual at the cost.

So going back to my opening, we came up the stairs from Westminster Tube Station to the grandeur of the Westminster Tower, yes the tower the houses the bell called Big Ben. Snapped a few epicures just as the rain started, and boy did it rain. We need some shelter and where better to heard for shelter when in a storm than into a church – ding 60 pounds or in good old Canadian dollars $53.95, but oh well the rain was heavy and Westminster Abbey in an iconic building both in size, age, and shrouded in history. So now we try to wander around, not an easy feat, there are so many people in there it was almost claustrophobic, seems that really did not care how many people where in the building as long as they got their 15 pounds per person, unlike the natural history museum a few days later that did a count in/count out so that the building was not so full as to be a a waste of a visit.  - plus it was free!!! Yes all the museums in England, not sure about the other 3 countries, are free. The government feels that these places of history should be a available to all, yes even foreign tourists and for that I can only commend the government and maybe Canada could take note… cough cough… entry free into our national parks!!!

It is really heard to estimate how many people were in the building but if I had to low guess I would say 2,000 and there was a constant line up outside of people entering all paying their 15 pounds I would say  one very couple of minutes - Now that’s a chunk of change in any currency.

Now I totally understand that a place such as this costs money to upkeep, but if this place is part of a nations history surely it would fall under of funding just like the museums in the UK, seems logical to me. So time after time we found ourselves converting back to Canadian dollars, something you should not really do, but we did, from just a snack, to a meal, to a entry fee.

So with all these costs, the UK is really starting to make it unaffordable to the average person, it really makes places like Poland, Cuba and even the US the place to spend your tourism dollars. I wonder if place like Westminster Abbey really think it through when they charge these crazy fees.

So my advice if you want to go to the UK. Save up, start saving now for the trip in 5 years, then when you get there don’t even bother trying to convert back to your home currency, just enjoy the place.

Spending cuts follow Alberta premier's no-tax pledge

 Spending cuts follow Alberta premier's no-tax pledge

Oh my… to all of you who voted Tory at the last election, when are you going to get your head out of the sand and see that this government does not have a clue when it comes to the finances of this province.

One day they are spouting how we will not increase taxes, another day they cut the liquor tax, costing millions in revenue, the next day they are giving money way to the gas companies, then they tell us there will be cuts. Then in the same week MRI units are told to do less MRIs, hello!!!!!

Please explain to me how this kind of confusing talk is good for us as citizens and investors alike.

Klein of course says he would cut government spending across the board like he did in the nineties, something that still hurts today. Funny how the government can make a mess that everyone is part of then use government workers, who had no choice, to fix the mess. I think if the government tries that again you will see people leaving this province in droves never to return and I am talking teachers, doctors and other professionals.

To be honest despite no having much of a opposition, I would rather give them a chance, heck they could not do any worse. We go from a province with billions coming in to what we are quickly becoming, as great big mess.

Did you know every year residents of Alaska get a rebate from the oil revenues, and in Norway all higher education is free, even for international students. How do they both do that? Well they treat the resources' of the country, oil, properly and make the oil companies pay for it. This attitude of the Tory government letting oil companies push them around has to stop. Tell the oil companies these are the royalties, take it or leave it, they will not go far for long, the may short term make try and make a point, but they will be back, and the oil and has is not going anywhere.

Well that’s my rant for the day. Just remember when it comes time to vote again, think about it.