Please Arrest Me!

This photo was taken at the end of a very long night on Saturday - at the culmination of the Montreal annual Festival of the Lights. It is a week long festival where there many many free or cheap things to do. Astrid found a 5 star hotel which was opening up its restaurant and kitchen for free tasting; unfortunately we never made it. We did go down to Ste-Cath's to see a free concert that was being held inside a shopping centre. There must have been over 10,000 people there. The concert was staged in the middle with people all in front. But since the centre had 6-7 storeys, people were packed on all the balconies too. After a bit, we headed down to the Planetarium. We saw the most amazing sky show, with all of the stars in the northern hemisphere being opened up to us. Fantastic! Of course, it was in French which was slightly problematic! After that, we stopped off at BK for a late night dinner since Astrid had buy-1-get-1-free vouchers (thanks Astrid!!!), then Mazzy, Nabil and I headed over to the Old Port to see Anuj dancing. Along the way we practically froze to death but the architecture was absolutely gorgeous. Very old, European. There were cobblestones on the roads. We got to the town hall and joined in some free Romanian dancing lessons which was definitely different, and quite fun too. After a long time there we sat in the lobby of the town hall where they had free drinks and we sat and talked - great stuff! Finally it was getting on so we decided to head back home. About 3.30am Nabil, Mazzy and I could hack it any more because it was so cold. I was actually unable to speak properly because the muscles in my face had frozen up. That's not a good thing! Thankfully a Tim Horton's was near by (the one a block away from my work as it happens), so we dived into there to warm up. Hot chocolate never tasted so good! We must have been in there for half an hour to an hour chatting, when a couple of police officers came in for their stereotypical donuts. We (read: I) thought it would be great to take a photo with them; as Mazzy pointed out, we could then get some later with the cops in NY too. So here is Mazzy and me with a couple (well, at least one) of Quebec's finest... ;)

Bush on the Kyoto Protocol

Road Trippin' Haiku

Planning the road trip
Amtrak? Greyhound? Hitchiking?
Just get me there, please!

Lock Out

I was just locked out of my apartment by my flatmate, who had deadbolted the door (there aren't keys though) so I couldn't get in. Spend $$$ on ringing to no avail. Man, she must sleep like a log... Eventually she wakes up, and the first thing I do, naturally, is to blog about it :-P

Super 12 Kicks Off

The Super 12 is kicking off in only a few hours time, and I think this will be the first time since it started (back in 1996) that I have not seen the first round. For the non-Kiwis, Australians and South Africans, Super 12 is a fast-paced game of rugby (the thing that American Football developed from). And unlike the NFL, when a game lasts 80 minutes, it actually does! (Unlike the 60 minute American Football which lasts 4 hours). Anyway, go the Hurricances! If anyone even remotely follows this, you should check out the Virtual Super 12 competition - loads of fun. Hurricanes, Hurricaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanes :)

Blogging v2

I have just rediscovered the fun you can have messing around with coding working on your "baby". In my case tonight it's been my blog. Frustrating at times when things don't quite work out but now it's done :)

A thank you and public mention must go out to Tee, since her new blog gave me a whole bunch of ideas (notice any similarities?). I have to say I'm pretty pleased with how the Fleur-de-lis turned out, I think it looks very very smart.

Symphonic...

A couple of days ago, my supervisor, Benoit, asked me if I wanted to go to see the Montreal Symphony Orchestra playing at Place des Arts. Apparently they are one of the top 10 Symphony Orchestras in the world. The person he had been going to go with pulled out at the last minute. Of course I took him up on it as part of my cultural learning curve while in Montreal.

We grabbed a bit to eat on the way at a place called St Hubert's - famous for its chicken. We each had some ribs and a chicken leg, it was delicious. About time I had some proper meat here in Montreal! We were waiting for the waiter who took ages. When he got back he was slightly panting and my supervisor asked him what happend in French. Apparently someone had done a runner without paying and so the waiter ran after him/her and eventually caught up with the person on St Laurent. By my reckoning, that was probably at least 5-6 blocks away from where we were so it was clearly a mega foot race. Hahaha. We left and headed over to the show.

And what a show it was. It was very very good, and I was really impressed. It was split into three sections - the first composed by Jeffrey Ryan, a composer from Vancouver. The second was a Chopin piece - brilliant - and the last was a series by Dvorak. (As in the Dvorak keyboard). It's once I start getting into these sort of things that I begin to realise how shallow today's so called entertainment is - action movies, pop music, bands - seeing this stuff has really opened up a whole new world for me... :)

A big thanks to Benoit for a fantastic night!

Farewell, Maja

050220 - Maja's Farewell Dinner 047 (Small)
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Maja, my most favourite Polish girl ever. Left for Poland, home, on Monday. May our paths cross again soon :)

Sleeping at a Party?

050220 - Maja's Farewell Dinner 049 (Small)
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

What kind of person falls asleep at a party?!?

:-P

The Barbarian Invasions

050220 - Maja's Farewell Dinner 045 (Small)
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

The most beautiful movie I have ever seen. Go get it out already!

Maja and the Boys

050220 - Maja's Farewell Dinner 041 (Small)
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Well, we couldn't have a farewell dinner without a photo of Maja and the boys, could we?

Maja's Farewell Dinner

050220 - Maja's Farewell Dinner 019 (Small)
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Eating dinner with Mazzy and Jean-Nic, photo taken by Maja (and very nicely too, I should add).

Maja Making Perogies

050220 - Maja's Farewell Dinner 003 (Small)
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Maja, a culinary whiz with perogies. They were delicious!

Club Tokyo

050219 - Maja's Italian Farewell 054 (Small)
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Apparently one of the more famous clubs in Montreal. Note the poor shot selection. That's what happens when you get an Australian (called Mazzy) to take photos for you... ;)

Eating Italian

050219 - Maja's Italian Farewell 052 (Small)
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Claire, Rob, me, Mazzy, Maja and Astrid eating Italian out in St-Denis. You choose the pasta (about 20 choices) and you choose the sauce (about 40 choices). Makes for lots of combinations! I chose the garlic linguini and mediterrean sauce, which was shrimps, clams and scallops in a tomato based paste with wine. Delicious!

Festival of the Lights

050219 - Maja's Italian Farewell 025 (Small)
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Montreal has an annual festival of the lights which runs for a week. This here is an ice rink set up especially for it, complete with lighting frames and red lights.

Ice Sculptures

050213 - Quebec City 2 135 (Small)
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

This is one of the many ice sculptures that was on display around Quebec. Suprisingly enough, this was everyone's favourite...

Taboganning

Taboganning
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

I stuck my hand out over the rail and managed quite flukily to take a picture when racers were going by.

The Teddy Bear Store

The Teddy Bear Store
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

This store sold teddy bears, and that was all. It was pretty cool, even more so if you were about 3 :)

The St Lawrence river

The St Lawrence river
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

This is the famous St Lawrence, over which the French and British fought for so long.

Breakfast at the Beaudoin house

Breakfast at the Beaudoin house
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Me, Mazzy (Australia), Maja (Poland), Esther (Quebec), Astrid (Belgium), Patricia (Peru), Jean-Nicolas (Quebec), Pierre (France). A real international mix, and I think all of them except me are involved with AIESEC.

Mazzy stuck in the car door

Mazzy stuck in the car door
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Some Australian gets herself stuck in the car door.

Quebecois Poutine

050213 - Quebec City 2 001 (Small)
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

This is what poutine looks like. French fries with cheese and gravy poured on top. This one had sausages on top as well. This was where poutine was invented, so we had to have it.

Maja and Mazzy

050213 - Quebec City 2 006 (Small)
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Going for the homeless look with the bottle in the brown paper bag.

An Ice Bar in Quebec

050213 - Quebec City 1 032 (Small)
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

This was one of the first things we saw in Quebec, an ice bar. Completely solid ice.

Live at CDN, IV

Well, this is the final installment for tonight. Just walked in the door from an amazing night out with such fantastic friends. After the last installment, we horsed around a bit telling jokes, stories, drinking more. We finally settled down to watch the most beautiful movie I have ever seen. The worst thing is that I don't know what it was called. So if anyone reading my blog knows what it is, please please post and tell me. I'll help by giving clues.

* It has the name Barbarian in it
* It won Oscar award/s
* It is set in Quebec, Canada
* The cast made a kind of prequel about 20 years earlier
* It is a beautiful movie
* It's in French, but had English subtitles

Actually, just as of this very instant, Tee has told me that it is called Barbarian Invasions. Actually, Les Invasions Barbares. Thanks Tee!

We watched the movie and slowly people fell asleep. Then it was time to go, and it was a final farewell to Maja, my Polish friend. May our paths cross again soon.

Live from CDN III

So we have just been doing shots - Mexican blue cactus tequila which is supposed to be the best tequila ever. Each time we did it we had to tell a story of our memories with Maja. Lots of tears and smiles too. Goodbyes are the hardest things to do. Dinner was great, I have been eating lots of vegies, salads that sort of thing. Maja's perogies were gooooood. Music has been turned down, mood more melancholic. Party has moved from the living room to the kitchen to one of the rooms for photo showing and more tears and photos. Maja photo with the boys to be posted as well. Big mention of thanks to Tee for posting up feedback and being part of our live blogging tonight!

People are startin drift off now; Audrey and her bf Mario (who didn't have a red hat if you were wondering), as well as Astrid also had to go. There is talk of watching a French movie soon, one which won Oscars and is a remake of one made 20 years ago. Subtitled. About friendship. Sad, but appropriate. Mazzy wants to just talk. She has a point. I would much rather talk to people I will not see for a really long time, than watching a movie. It's her time though, and every last moment with friends is precious. Digs was talking about this on his blog I think - how you get conditioned to losing good friends every few years. Thank goodness for email, msn, cell phones. The world is a much smaller place, and a much better place.

I am being pulled for dishes duty; perhaps there will be more blogging a little later. If you want to be part of this live blogging exercise leave a comment :)

Live from CDN II

We are still live at CDN right now. We have a dance house party with people dancing the floor off. I think that the neighbours are very much likely to throw a tantrum soon. The drink is flowing, the food is looking great. Maja's perogies, Mim's family salad and lots more. I'm famished; I can't wait. Looks like it's going to be a long night :) Life is great, and so are all the great people in it :)

Oh, and I have managed to upskill and learn a sentence in French. Je ne parle pas francois. Well, I'm just guessing on the spelling there (especially the francois) but it means "I can't speak French". What an ironic sentence! Ha!

More live blogging to come :)

Live from Cote de Neges

Right we are live blogging from Cote de Neges (CDN). Maja is having a farewell dinner at her place and we're all here. Me, Mazzy, Maja, Mims, Anuj, Nabil, Jean-Nic, Audrey. Well me and Anuj met up earlier tonight and managed to get here needing to stop off at the supermarket on the way. We ended up queuing for around half an hour; there was honestly half of Montreal out getting their weekly groceries. We went in needing to get only a few things; Maja kept ringing for us to bring even more things. We eventually ended up bringing almost all of the fruit and vegetable section with us as well as the dairy section too. Anuj and I eventually got here after getting lost; we were walking into the lobby with another girl who lived in the building. Maz and Jean-Nic jumped out thinking the poor girl was us waving guns and stuff pretending they were some sort of SWAT team. Well the girl got a fright, and Anuj and me had a great laugh about it. We're at the apartment now, drinking, talkin and hanging out in the kitchen. Maja is making her famous perogies, the music is good (Franz Ferdinand) and we're all set for a great night...

More to come on this live blog...

Free at Last!

My diss is done and I am free! I need to leave the apartment for the first time in a long time :) I've entitled my diss "Knowledge Gatekeepers: Kingmakers and Kingbreakers - An Exploratory Study of Knowledge Management and Knowledge Sharing in Law Firms". If you've got any better suggestions, let me know...

Photos from Quebec City to be posted soon.
Update on Boston/New Haven/NYC/Washington DC (henceforth to be referred to as "The Road Trip" or simply "RT") also forthcoming.
Photos from dancing the Argentinian tango (oooo, sounds fancy, doesn't it?) to be posted soon.
Photos from Maja's farewell dinner to be posted soon (since the dinner is tonight).
And other such ramblings to follow.

Stay tuned :)

Tango of Death

Last night the gang met up for free tango lessons, about the only time I have really stepped out of the house this week since my diss is locking me down. We got there and almost immediately were paired up...and since I was in the middle of nowhere when they did the "find a partner" thing, I got stuck with the most psychotic woman in the world. It also didn't help that Mazzy and Anuj (who were off pretending they were the best tango dancers in the world) keep sniggering and making unhelpful comments as they clumsily :-P worked their way around the room. Anyway, I was like "hi, my name is Chris" to this woman, and she just never said anything back! Crazy. Then for the whole night she was like a crazy python who just kept looking at me and I was like a chicken who was paralysed and couldn't move. See Mazzy's version of this. Still, it was good fun and learning the basics was good :) Nonetheless, there are always the singles who invariably turn up to these sort of things and you could pick 'em from a mile away. Like there was the nutcase guy, the kind-of-geeky-type-who-dresses-up- particularly-for-dance-class-but-goes-OTT-and-is-the-really-scary-intense- guy-who-just-wouldn't-understand-if-a-girl-said-no type, or the guy-who-talks-about-Valentine's-Day-to-Mazzy-and-only-wears-black- clothes-and-tries-to-hit-on-her-blatantly guy, and so on. You know the types.

Afterwards we went off for coffee and a good chat to work out the Road Trip ("RT") and have a good catch up. Wound up getting back to the office to work, did work and chatted, and ended up getting home and to bed around 4am.

More stuff to do...

Apart from presently being dealt to by a couple of pieces of research I have, I am going tango dancing tomorrow night. Free "intense" classes, with Maz, Astrid, and a bunch of others. Should be great! Also really convenient timing, since I was thinking about finding out more once I got back home...I guess now I'll see what it's like :)
Then Thursday will be improv night again (hopefully), Friday is Maja's Farewell Drinks, Saturday is DVD night, Sunday is Maja's Farewell Dinner. My goodness, the social calendar thing starts again... It's really great fun but right now I'm feeling a bit mentally exhausted. Well, I have been for the last few months, now that I think about it :-P I think now that I'm here, I'm either really busy researching/working, or really busy being out. I just need some down time I think! Oh well, plenty of time for that when I get home...

More photos from Quebec to be posted soon :)

Breakfast - Canadian Style!

Breakfast - Canadian Style!
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Fresh, homemade pancakes, with Canadian maple syrup, jam, and fresh fruit... Just yum, thanks to the Beaudoin family :)

Chez son Pere

Chez son Pere
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

This was the name of the pub we spent most of the night at. Earlier, we had met up with AIESEC Laval people, and then we all went on to Chez son Pere right in the heart of old Quebec. There were a couple of bands playing all night, but it was a shame that they mostly played French songs - although it was a great experience. They did play a song by the Beatles, and "Stand By Me" which was good though. Met loads of people, had heaps of fun. I even had a couple of drinks ;)

Old Quebec

Old Quebec
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

This would have to be one of the most beautiful cities I have seen in a long time. Everything looks like Europe (from I've been told, since I haven't actually been!). We spent a good part of Sunday wandering around having a look, snapping photos and basically being amazed by Quebec, the oldest city in North America.

Quebec, Quebec

I have just come back from the most amazing weekend. 36 hours ago, I was being picked up from my apartment by Mims, Maja, Mazzy and Xavier to head up north to Quebec (the city) for the last weekend of the Quebec Winter Carnival. And what a fantastic time we had! I took over 200 photos, so now I'll have to sort through them all and post a selection of the best. Right now I have just arrived home, so a more detailed blog will follow. But here's a brief summary of things that happened:

- Road tripping with a bunch of cool people from around the world, and meeting up with more cool people from around the world in Quebec
- Having genuine Quebec poutine, complete with sausages on top
- Finding an ice bar, with ice sculptures
- Meeting the AIESEC crew from University of Laval, who showed us a brilliant time and were so much fun
- Watching the traditional parade, getting from Oreos, and getting completely snowed on
- Experiencing Quebecois traditional dancing in the snow
- Going from a group of around 20 people to 3 people from point A to point B
- Regrouping at a real Quebecois pub, and drinking (yes, I know!) and dancing til almost-dawn
- Learning matchbook tricks
- Crashing at Esther's parents' place...bed never felt so good!
- Waking up to John-Nicholas and the (legendary, almost fictional) Astrid jumping on our beds
- Having THE most wonderful breakfast in the world: homemade Canadian pancakes with Canadian maple syrup, Canadian strawberry jam, fresh fruit (bananas, pineapple and mangos) and coffee (you will see a photo of this!!!)
- Roadtripping back into Quebec City, and losing and regathering Pierre and Astrid along the way
- Exploring and getting lost in the streets of Old Quebec, seeing the most wonderful buildings and architecture
- (Finally) getting my tuque
- Taboganning (or however you spell it)
- Dinner, more drinking, sad farewells, and a massive roadtrip home again!

Stuffed? Absolutely! Worth it? ABSOLUTELY!!! :)

Snow Angels and Quebec City Carnival

050210 - Improv Night 011
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Last night was supposed to be the great Improv night. In fact, only Anuj and Mazzy were there - and Anuj probably because it was at his house. After loads of laughs, planning our trip down to Boston, NYC and DC, we ended up heading back home. Along the way I spotted some fresh snow (it was actually a whole field of it up by McGill), I thought - I will try to make a snow angel. It was freezing cold but I ran out onto the field and jumped on to it. As you can see, I managed to get the arm thing (I guess they're supposed to be wings, right?) and the head thing right...but the legs got really mangled (as you can see). I'm not actually sure how you're supposed to get up off the ground once you've actually done the angel, without leaving a big mess of footprints (like I obviously did). And as soon as I got up, I slipped over for the first time since I've arrived here. Actually, I slipped over twice - once staight away, and the second time as I was half way to standing up again. Sore wrist and bruised butt. Ow.

Quebec City tomorrow - it is apparently only a 2 hours drive so Mims (Mazzy and Maja's flatmate) is organising a whole bunch of people to head on up for the weekend. There is supposed to be a huge carnival up there which goes for weeks on end - and we're arriving just in time to catch the very end. I'm told that there are ice hotels, with ice bars, which serve drinks in ice shotglasses. Stay tuned for more pics and blogging...

Draft Roadmap

[Taken from Mazzy's blog, more to follow, with my comments in the square brackets...]

So last night, the MAGIC, Roadtrip and Improv theatre crew of Chris, Anuj and Mazzy, mapped out a draft agenda for the March US Roadtrip. It is as follows:

Wednesday 9th - Hitting the Road [Chris: Jack :) ]

Leave Montreal on Wednesday afternoon to arrive in Boston in the night time.

Thursday 10th - Harvard & Boston [Chris: Don't forget MIT!!!]

Spend the day in Boston and at Harvard.
Travel in the night to Connecticut and Yale :) Hopefully catch up with the cool Yale AIESEC gang, and maybe a Frat party to complete the North American University scene ... [Chris: that would be cool, but I'm sure that only happens in the movies...]

Friday 11th - Travelling to New York

In the afternoon travelling to the Big Apple.
Partying on Friday night in NY - Super Fun.

Saturday 12th - Mega New York Time

Spend the whole day in NY, doing all the cool and groovy things.
Definately seeing a Broadway musical in the afternoon/night. [Chris: Phantom, Les Mis...man, I can't wait!]

Sunday 13th - Bye bye Big Apple, Hello Washington DC

Leave NYC in the afternoon, head to DC
Hopefully catch up with a few AIESECers for dinner and chillout

Monday 14th - Hanging in Washington DC

Spend the day in Washington, head back to Montreal in the night.
[Chris: Let's face it, the only reason we are going to DC is because Mazzy wants to go inside the White House :-P Last time I was here, I thought it was great - even though we weren't there for long enough. Hopefully this time we can check out Smithsonians, the Capitol, Abe Lincoln again, that pool of water with the obelisk at the end that Forrest Gump run through]

Tuesday 15th - Home Time

Arrive in Montreal at lunchtime :-)

Should be AWESOME!!!
[Chris: Oh, that is the biggest understatement of the year :) ]

Gmail Giveaway

I've just found that Google has given me a whole bunch of Gmail invitations to give away. And I don't need any since I have more email addresses than you can shake a stick at (I really need to migrate down to less). If you'd like a Gmail account, just let me know by posting a comment under this entry with your name and email address so I can send it to you. Say hi, it's always great to meet new people :) If you have a blog as well, let me know and I can add it to my list of people on the sidebar.

Boston - New York City - Washington DC

Who wants to come? We have free spaces :)

Anuj, Mazzy and I are heading east for Boston, NYC and DC, at this stage on 10-15 March. We are planning on renting an SUV, so there are still some free seats! Since Mazzy has a whole bunch of friends at each of those places where we can crash, it's going to be super cheap and super fun! If anyone wants to come join us, please let us know :) At this stage it is a Commonwealth roadtrip with representation from NZ, Australia and Canada...

More to follow soon :)

CNN.com - HP boss Fiorina ousted by board

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina, one of the most powerful women in corporate America, has been ousted by the company's board of directors.

'While I regret the board and I have differences about how to execute HP's strategy, I respect their decision,' Fiorina, 50, said in a statement released Wednesday by HP, the Palo Alto, California-based computer and printer maker.

'HP is a great company and I wish all the people of HP much success in the future.'

In a conference call with reporters, HP executives said Fiorina was not terminated for cause. A company spokesman told CNN she'll get a payout of $21.1 million, not including stock options."


Hold on, a payout of US$21.1 million, PLUS stock options? What's going on here? I must be in the wrong job...

Simon Cowell mistaken for a beggar

Simon Cowell has been mistaken for a beggar while outside a restaurant having a cigarette.

He was outside the Ivy restaurant in Los Angeles when a passing couple spotted him sheltering from the rain in an old coat and gave him two dollars.

He said: 'Maybe I should buy a new coat.'

Superbowl XXXIX

New England Patriots
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Go the Patriots! Not likely to see much of the game since I'm trying to finish up on my dissertation... but I think I might have to pop my head every so often to check the score :) I also bet that Owens is really injured; if he was fine, I think Philly would have said so a long time ago for the psychological effect...

Improv Night at McGill

So today has been a bit of a hectic day. Meeting with my supervisor Benoit earlier today which was really helpful as usual...each time I feel I need some ideas, a 5 minute chat with him always clears things just like that. All I can say is that I'm pretty thankful for his tips :)

My 4th hard drive also arrived today for my laptop - now it seems to be working without making that stupid clicking noise the others did. Best of all, it's an 80GB up from a 60GB. Hoorah :) Reinstalled everything and was working between my (not so good today) baking attempts.

It was all capped off when Wendy (from Kristin's farewell dinner last weekend) invited me and Mazzy around for dinner which was really lovely of her. And dinner was really really good - honey dijon pork and vegies. Super yum. After that we trotted down to McGill, about 3-4 blocks away to watch a 24 hour improv show (kind of like "Who's Line Is It Anyway?"). It started at 9 this morning and will be going until 9am Saturday morning. We went along and were there for a few hours - each hour, the crew would rotate over with another. Melanie, Wendy's flatmate (and also at the dinner) was acting in it so it was cool that we saw her up there a couple of times. There were some absolutely brilliant one liners, and some that needed a little more work. For a bunch of amateurs, though, they did a really good job. With entry tickets of $3 being donated to cancer patients, it was a great cause. Mazzy was so excited I think she plans on having our own improv night...oh dear... :)

Pavlova Trouble

So after last week's success of baking a pavlova for Mimi's birthday, I decided to try again for tonight's dinner before the 24 hour improv session at McGill. Only trouble is that I think I somehow stuffed it up. I pulled several recipes off the net for baking it. I bought all the ingredients the other day, so that wasn't a problem. However, the mixture just isn't sitting right! It is more like a batter than a fluffy mixture, so I don't know if that means I beat it for too long or not enough! As it is, the first batch I ended up having the whisk on for probably half an hour all up. I started again and tried beating it for maybe 10 minutes. Each time the mixture looked exactly the same. So if anyone out there has a tip for beating pavlovas, I would really appreciate it (and so would my guests :) ).

Casino Royale is next Bond movie

Now this is a good piece of news today... I thought Goldeneye was the best Bond movie yet, and so if Campbell is returning then this should be a cracker. I have to say that I really can't see Dougray Scott as the new 007. I quite like Clive Owen myself, but time will tell :)

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Casino Royale is next Bond movie

What Type of Social Entity are You?

Category I - The Hub

You're a 'people person'. Networking runs in your
blood. Consequently, you can move through most
social circles with ease.


What Type of Social Entity are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Google Local Search

Check this out: it looks like Google now has a local search option. So you can search for particular products or services in a particular location. It even whips up a map for you to look at on the side in the search results. This requires further investigation...

Google Local

Wired News: Hide Your iPod, Here Comes Bill

Apparently the iPod is a big hit with Microsoft employees:

"About 80 percent of Microsoft employees who have a portable music player have an iPod," said one source, a high-level manager who asked to remain anonymous. "It's pretty staggering."

The source estimated 80 percent of Microsoft employees have a music player -- that translates to 16,000 iPod users among the 25,000 who work at or near Microsoft's corporate campus. "This irks the management team no end," said the source.

Full article here: Wired News: Hide Your IPod, Here Comes Bill

World Class

Q: How many Torontians (ie, people from Toronto) does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: 2.5 million. 1 to change it and the other 2,499,999 to talk about what a world class event that was.

Saved By Urine...

A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it.

Rescue teams found Richard Kral drunk and staggering along a mountain path four days after his Audi car was buried in the Slovak Tatra mountains.

He told them that after the avalanche, he had opened his car window and tried to dig his way out.

But as he dug with his hands, he realised the snow would fill his car before he managed to break through.

He had 60 half-litre bottles of beer in his car as he was going on holiday, and after cracking one open to think about the problem he realised he could urinate on the snow to melt it, local media reported.

He said: "I was scooping the snow from above me and packing it down below the window, and then I peed on it to melt it. It was hard and now my kidneys and liver hurt. But I'm glad the beer I took on holiday turned out to be useful and I managed to get out of there."

Parts of Europe have this week been hit by the heaviest snowfalls since 1941, with some places registering more than ten feet of snow in 24 hours.

Lock Down

I am locked down over the next couple of days to get my dissertation done and dusted... I'm quite looking forward to it; I guess that is the advantage of choosing a topic that you really really really like! (Knowledge Management in Law Firms).

For those of you who have followed my laptop sage, another few chapters have been added. The first replacement hard drive didn't have a cover for me to actually attach to my laptop. The second replacement was making constant ticking noises. The third replacement (which arrived yesterday) was making even more noises! So I have ordered a fourth, this time specifying that it is not a Hitachi (which is what the problem seems to be). Toshiba I'm told make good drives so I asked for one of them. Time will show whether that's true or not. And all the time in between, I've had to reinstall my software and data. I think I must have done at least 10 formattings of hard drives and reinstallations of software over the last 4 weeks - definitely not cool. Hopefully I can get this going so I can do some proper work without all these hassles :)

Irony

Binoculars
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Shoaib Akhtar

...has the same birthday as me.
That will be all :)

Bye Bye Kristin

20050131 - Canada - January 123
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Saying a final farewell to Kristin at the McGill metro after the farewell dinner.

Farewell to Kristin

20050131 - Canada - January 105
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Sunday was Kristin's farewell dinner; this is a photo of Kristin, Maja and me. It was a wonderful night, full of quotable quotes, hilarious stories and loads of laughs. We thought it would be cool to have a reunion there one day :)

The waitstaff were brilliant, we got them to put sparklers on Kristin's dessert. They sang and danced to "Leaving on a Jetplane" for her (this should be the official song of all nomads). They let us keep the menus as souvenirs, we signed and exchanged napkins. The dinners were delicious, the desserts were superb. Wonderful people and a great night; if not for the farewell it would have been a perfect night. Bye bye Kristin, we'll all miss you terribly ({)

Friday/Saturday

Friday I got msn'd by Mazzy to head down to Concordia University for an AIESEC introduction session (that's how all these people know each other, and how I met Mazzy, through my good friend Tee). We also met Dan from Canberra, off to Colombia for a year on a traineeship with PwC. After the session, we headed off to grab food from Mike's and saw Coach Carter...a movie which kept going and going and going. It was a great night though.

Saturday was Mimi's birthday party at the pub she works at in Cote de Neges (Mimi is Mazzy and Maja's flatmate). I decided to bake a pavlova (which is a New Zealand dessert) for her birthday, complete with the cream and kiwifruit! As I didn't have all of the correct cooking tools (eg a spatula), it was a bit of a challenge but it turned out well in the end :)

The pub was very very small and was absolutely packed...it was also smoky in there which was a bit gross. Still, there was a live band playing and a great atmosphere. Mims did a salsa dance which looked absolutely amazing; I think I ought to add "learn to properly dance" on my ever-growing list of things to do. We all snuck out because we were getting really hungry so we crossed the street to get 99c pizzas. Brilliant! There's this phrase which means "everything on it" in French, but I can't say it. I can say that they are great pieces of pizza though :) We headed back to the flat and proceeded to start watching Love Actually... Then people slowly began to drop off after such a long week - Nabil went home, Maz and Maja went to sleep, I fell asleep and Kristin and Dan were both pretty out of it. Eventually we staggered out and managed to catch a taxi home.

Desperate for chocolate

20050131 - Canada - January 118
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Last night we went to a restaurant called Guido Angelina in downtown Montreal. It was our farewell dinner for Kristin, our German friend. Amazingly, I had only met her last Saturday at the Engineer party - although she is a really good friend of Mazzy. It's funny how time can sometimes stretch out or accelerate... For me, this week was definitely stretched out and that was a good thing. The last week has been full of meeting new people and having fun; what life is all about. After the Engineer party, Anuj, Mazzy, Kristin and me went to a French opera on the Monday (Maja slipped off the bus and injured her hip). Wednesday was the Australia Day celebrations at Grumpy's. Thursday was Kristin's farewell drinks at McKibbin's. With the drinks flowing, the karaoke soon got cranking. S Club 7's Reach for the Stars was belted out by Anuj and Mazzy to kick things off. The saddest was when Anuj, Mazzy, me, Esther and Kristin all sang "Leaving on a Jetplane". Hugs and tears and booze all flowing :(

Bowl of "Tomato Sauce"

20050131 - Canada - January 089
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Mazzy thought this red bowl contained tomato sauce (it was just an empty bowl). Unfortunately there was no sauce for her sausage roll. Mitch, the Belgium guy, had a great fingerfood recipe - getting wraps, spreading with cream cheese, adding smoked salmon, baby spinach and a little bit of dill. Yummy!

Engineer Party

20050131 - Canada - January 100
Originally uploaded by Chris C.

Me, Mazzy and Kristin from last Saturday coming home from the Engineer party. It was somewhere far far away and we had to catch metros and walk for miles. Because the metro stops working around 1am, we had to leave just as the drinking games were starting to heat up - with Anuj well and truly in charge. Nabil (Morocco) took this photo of us waiting for the metro - the fuzziness of the photo probably reflects how we were feeling that night. It had been a bunch of fun meeting a whole lot of new people and having a good time :)