Day 5 - Thursday

Today, my director gave my team a training course on how to set up Polycom IP phone using Asterisk. Most of you who read this probably fond it boring but I found it interesting and impressed with technology behind it. Another skill set I can put it down on my resume :-).

Well,tonight will be my last night in Toronto and will be last night of dining out at company's expense. I'm sure going to miss it... But everything has end and I'll be flying back to Vancouver tomorrow evening. It was nice to get know of my director, manager, and the rest of my team located in Toronto.

Tonight I am trying out this East Indian restaurant called 5th Element. I found this place on internet and seems it has good reviews. Ahhh... Internet, what do you not have online?

I'm looking around in the restaurant and I say a half of the customers are East Indians. I'm feeling pretty good about this place. If they come here to eat their food, this place must serve good food. I guess I'll find out soon.

Day 4 - Wednesday

I only had 5 hours of sleep a night before, so didn't do much last night. Just read Digital Fortress by Dan Brown in my room and took it easy.

Talked to my director about the phone outage issue that happened yesterday and apparently Telus technician knew what exactly is the issue and was able change the mainboard and able get phones up and running. Other than that, nothing interesting at work. Oh, I might be getting a Blackberry Pearl for work. I love free high tech toys :-).

Tonight, I am in Rain Restaurant. If any of you watch Food Network on TV, you will know which restaurant I'm talking about. Restaurant was a bit difficult to find as no big sign and entrance was kinda hidden. But once you step inside of the restaurant, it's almost night and day. Outside is semi-ghetto but inside, wow... At the entrance, there is waterfall and nicely decorated interior with modern furnitures in big open space. Uppon grancing the menu, a lot of Japnese influence. Some of the ingredients include Japanese beef, blue fin tuna, black pork, miso paste, sake, and more. I noticed the portion of food when my food arrived. Waiter explaining food was a nice touch but some of you might find it annoying if you just want to taste nicely presented food. I might have to go get a burger or something later...

Day 3 - Tuesday

Did I told you that I'm staying on 47th floor and it has a great view? This morning at 6 am, I just found a major downside of staying on a such tall building. it is called fire alarm.... The frequency of the alarm pretty much able to wake up a dead man up from sleep.

I spent long time going down 47 floors and spent 1 hour and 15 minutes waiting outside. And I was stupid enough not bringing my wallet, I couldn't do anything but to wait. And because alarm kept triggering by itself, I was not able to use the elevator. I spent even a longer time going up the stairs. By the time I reached my floor, I was drenched from my own sweat. But I was proud of myself that I didn't take any break. Felt like I was doing Grouse Grind. Thanks to the alarm, I only had 5 hours of sleep.

At work, office phones decided to give up. My director had to stay late for the technicians from Telus to come in to trouble shoot this issue. Hope him and techs from Telus can fix this issue. I guess I'll find it out tomorrow.

I had enough asian food, I decided to get real meat. Found out that there's KEG near by, I decided to get steak. Nothing like good bloody beef :-).

Day 2 - Monday

Woke up at 8 am to get ready to cross the street to get in the office at 9 am. We had team-in-office-lunch with KFC. For a whole day, I didn't do much. My manager took me to a tour around the office, RAM instal, a couple application instals, and setting up a PC.

Today, I'm eating at a restaurant called East!. Uppon checking the menu, I noticed the similarities from the restaurant I went last night, wich is called Spring Rolls. Both restaurants serve fusion/modern asian food.

I asked a waitress and yes, they're owned by the same owner and menus are identical. If any of you happened to be in downtown Toronto and want to try out both East! And Spring Rolls, just pick East! as they have better service and go try some other place next day.

after a dinner I walked around to see what's in downtown Toronto and I was walking down Yonge St. and Queen St. and memory of first trip to Toronto with Billy came back to me. But I was blown awy by the number of bums on the street...

Business Trip

Day 1 - Sunday

Time to go to Toronto and I flew with Air Canada. A day before the departure, as always I packed my luggage in last minute. A plane I took, was making weird noise and vibrating before the landing. It was probably due to the turbulence. Any how, I landed in Piason International Airpot in one piece. Man is it hot in Toronto.

Once I got outside of the airport, a limo was waiting for me to be dropped off at One King West Suite, which used to be TD Bank. I gave my last name at the reception at the hotel but they cannot find my name. I was certain that my company booked a room for me. I took out my trusted PDA and opened up my itinerary and found the confirmation number. What do you know, my last name was missplet in the system... Again... Once I'm checked in, I was assigned to a room up on 47th flloor out of 49th floor. What a view!

I checked in around 4:30 pm, so I had sometime to kill, so I went to Eaton Center shopping mall and Shoppers Drugmart to buy some hair gels I got confiscated at the airport. Stupid 100 ml liquid limitation regulation. After the shopping, I went went for a dinner at a restaurant called Spring Rolls. My company is allowing me up to $60 per day for the meal allowance so I decided to treat myself with gkod food. Spring Rolls served modern asian food. Food was good but service was just OK...