Flying

Today is travel day, flying home for my summer vacation

Never before have I looked forward to flying this much, because I am flying towards something, or someone

As usual, I want to say all the things I want to say, just in case.

To family
Thank you for being at my side, and watching me grow up and make you guys proud.
Fate is funny, but family is destiny

To friends
It's been quiet, and somehow feels we are all getting older. That means we have known each other a bit longer and had a bit more memories, and a bit tired of each other :-)

To you
這是萬一 也是唯一
文筆再好 也寫不出我的不捨 但是我依然會 守護者你

Love always
Jerry

Fairy Tale C++

void FairyTale()
{
    CMonster* dragon = new CMonster();
    CObject* kingdom = new CObject();
    CPerson* prince = NULL;
    CPerson* princess = new CPerson(Type.Female);

    princess->home = false;

    while(!princess->home)
    {
        prince = new CPerson(Type.Male);

        if(prince->strength() >= dragon->strength())
        {
            delete(dragon);
            prince += princess + kingdom / 2;
            princess->home= true;
        }
        else
        {
            prince -= head;
            delete(prince);
        }
    }
}

Weekend Recap - Small World, Toronto Drivers, UW Logo, Blue Jays

Small World
This is a small world, and Nth post of my love with the notion of six degrees of separation.
This weekend I realized a friend of mine, G, whom I met via Viv, plays badminton with my brother's landlord, W. Imagine the surprise when I saw G's photo on the brochure, ha

More importantly, Pacific Ocean is not enough to separate destiny or fate :-)

Toronto Crazy Drivers
This weekend was shopping at Yorkdale, Pacific Mall, and some better Asian food.
Nothing fancy but a few observations

• Personally I had to honk 3 times because drivers in Toronto did not know how to drive, the craziest sample of this fact happened when a car changed from the lane 3 (so you have Left Turn Lane 0, Lane 1-4 on Highway 7 & Woodbine) to lane 0, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE INTERSECTION. He/She was lucky no accident happened. Drivers should anticipate their directions, not react!!!!
• Roots Outlet near Yorkdale sucks
• Toronto Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-1, finally, when it doesn't matter anymore. I got soaking wet walking there, because I only learned about the indoor SKYWALK on my way back to the Union Station (13 years in Canada and not knowing about it [built in 1989], shame on me)
• The new Reminton Center to be built besides Pacific Mall will be HUGE, see for yourself (the bottom horizontal grey box is the Pacific Mall)

Netbook Take 2

Bought MSI Wind U100 for $320

Sold MSI Wind U100 for $360 shipped

Bought ASUS 1000H for $270 shipped - still too small for my fingers, but it will do

Bought Canada Computers 2GB Laptop RAM $33 - $15 MIR = $18

Installed the RAM and faster XP, later on Windows 7 = priceless

New UW Logo = Ugly
http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/2009/jul/24fr.html
One more reason to not donate back to UW because they spend money on the wrong place :-)

Counting Down

Counting down to

• Taiwan
• Flying, and flying on AC 777
• Super hot and humid weather
• Seeing family and relatives, new family and relatives
• Grandma's birthday
• A new chapter   ;-)

"Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." - movie Forrest Gump

Mont-Tremblant Crazy Weekend

It was very last minute decision to visit Mont Tremblant as I originally gave up on it when cheap flights were gone. But VIA's Express Deals @ $70 roundtrip from Toronto and Dorval sealed the deal for me. Car rental costs more than the train, how odd.

Friday

On my way to Toronto, I observed a stupid lincoln town car cutting in at the Highway 85 exit ramp to Highway 8, and clipped the cement wall. As a result, there were bad damages to the left side - fuel cap popped open, side mirror fell off, and both front and rear tires were deflated. He had to pull off to the side while we drove by

Lesson:

Anticipate when you're driving, do not wait until last minute. You rather miss the exit and turn around than causing an accident or significant monetary damage in this case

Saturday

Woke up at 5:30 am and drove to Union Station for the 7 am train. Got the ticket at the Self-Serve Kiosk and boarded the VIA Train. Got free but unreliable wi-fi due to their Satellitite outage (I could use gtalk/MSN but no browsing, how odd) all the way to Dorval, QC. It was very comfortable in the newer Renassiance cars, with table and power outlet. My only complaint was there were too many stops (every stop, from Guildwood-Oshawa-Coburg-Belleville-Kingston-Brockville-Cornwall-Dorval-Montreal). No wonder there was discussion about a dedicated high speed rail track for the Toronto-Montreal corridor.

On the other hand, Brother's 10:30 flight (land at YUL at 11:35 am) was cancelled due to the bad thunderstorm and airport closure (the only one cancelled of the day). How bad was his luck? Among my recollection, he had luggage lost, delayed, and he was flying when the big blackout occurred too. Porter then merged the 10:30 and the 12 pm flight together, departed YTZ at 12:30 and landed at YUL at 1:35 pm. Who would've thought train is faster than airplane?

As a result, I was at Dorval before the plane, picked up the rental car (Nissan Versa) from Enterprise. Brother showed up at 2 pm and we left YUL at 2:30. Drove straight to Fairmont Tremblant in rainy weather and arrived at 4:30, just in time for his 5 pm training course start.

While he is off to doze off in his class, I checked out the hotel room to the conclusion that it is not 5-star IMO. The 37" LCD TV on Analog signal, 2 lamps don't work, no wireless wi-fi but wired, and there is no complimentary water at all (but a big Evian 2L bottle for $8).

After settling down in the hotel, I ventured and walked around the Village (photos photos), and we had dinner at Widigo inside the Fairmont hotel (not too bad). After the dinner the weather finally cooperated and allowed us to enjoy a wonderful walk from the Fairmont all the way to the clocktower, and some of the Blues Festival music as well.

Lunch - Bento boxes from T&T Friday night

Dinner @ Widigo inside Fairmont - Grilled Tuna ($31) and Smoked Duck ($16)

 * You'd think it's expensive, until we wondered outisde and realized everything everywhere is $30+. Cheapest menu entree was like $24 for curry

Sunday

I purchased the 3-Activity Card for $32+tax and chose the below options

• One Alpine Luge ride (limit of 1 ride per activity card) - this was a lot of fun, too bad I couldn't take video on the way down

• Access to the birds of prey show presented on the summit - I had no high expectation going in (I have seen a few Bird shows), but this was quite nice and many CLOSE encounters with the birds
• Snack-lunch trio at Le Grand Manitou on the summit (panoramic gondola not included) - very good Pork wraps ($8 retail, ouch), large salad, and fountain drink. Better than the room service at Fairmont
• Enjoy the panoramic gondola with a (1) round trip to the summit - all the way to the summit @ 875m

I did enjoy the Free BMW Bike Rental from Fairmont and took a stroll down the hill. Coming back up required some efforts and I quickly jumped into shower and tried the Fairmont's bathrobe :-)

Lunch - We decided to order Room Service and were disappointed. The 5-Combo plate was small, and the listed $25 turned to $37 after all the "fees"

Dinner - Leftover lunch trio from Manitou

Run of the Day

I departed Fairmont at 3:45 pm in my lack-of-power Nissan Versa. It was a crazy drive - starting with traffic backup on the 117, and 20 minutes to drive 5 km as people stopped to look at sewage construction on the OTHER side of the highway (DUH). And then 130 all the way to airport thinking the worst could happen (I could miss my 6:30 train, have to pay $300 for one-way flight to Toronto or stay overnight)

Dropped off the car at Enterprise car rental (didn't have time to fill up the gas, so I'll gladly pay the premium for them to fill it up), ran towards the airport to catch the shuttle to VIA station. The VIA shuttle driver (same guy as Saturday) was very helpful and he knew he couldn't make it in time in the car.
So he dropped me off on this side of the track, I then run for my life through an underground tunnel to the other side, while the train is pulling into the station. I now what "run for your life" means very much.

Long story short, 6:30 pm train, I got onboard at 6:27 pm, and arrived Toronto at 11:31 pm. Whew~

Expenses

• VIA Train Roundtrip between Toronto and Dorval, QC $70 (thanks to VIA Express deals)
• Enterprise Car Rental + Fillup Gas Tank $160
• Fairmont Tremblant $0
• Downtown Toronto Parking $31
• Dining - Smoked Duck $20
• Dining - Room Service 5-choices combo plate $37 (ripoff)
• Hotel Valet Parking - ??

Notes

• Onboard the VIA train, they gave a free coffee to a disabled person instead of charging him $2, so that was nice
• 5-star Fairmont is really not that 5-star. TV sucks, they had power outage, 2 out of 3 lamps inside the room didn't work, no free water. Gladly I did not have to pay it