Hockey Fever

In case you haven't heard, the Canadiens have made it to the Stanley Cup play-offs this year. In fact, they were first place in the EasterN Conference this year. First time in a while that they finished in first. (I'm no sports fanatic so I won't bore you with all stats. Besides which, what am I talking about and where is the real Stef?)

Here in Montreal, locals are in the midst not of spring fever, but of Habs Hockey Fever. Many, many cars are driving around with those little flags sticking out the back car window. I didn't know how badly until yesterday when I even saw a cop car with a Habs flag in the back window!

New List Soon

The List of 100 Things Worth Doing was fun (and worth doing!). Along the same vein, I am preparing a list of 100 Things To Do Before I Go, which is proving a lot harder. I've been reading other people's lists (Mighty Girl again for inspiration) and am nearly there. As soon as I've got my 100, I'll start posting them. Until then please be patient.

100 Things Worth Doing - Part IV

Ready for it? Last 25 ...

Numbers 76-100:

76. Waiting in line overnight to buy David Bowie tickets
77. Laughing myself sick with Yvette
78. Brown sugar sandwiches
79. Flying down the dirt path in Dad’s old wagon
80. Meeting my best friend thanks to music class, a clarinet and “Good Night Ladies”
81. Mayor for a Day
82. Meeting my niece and nephew for the first time
83. Having the chance to say “adieu” to Grandmaman about 2 months before she died
84. Girls Night Out
85. Sand between my toes
86. Tasting the salty air when getting off the plane in Mexico, Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Grand Cayman
87. Reading in my chair, covered with my blanket, oblivious to the weather
88. Going to summer camp
89. Opening Christmas stockings on my bed with my brothers
90. Writing to my pen-pal for 28 years and counting
91. Discovering live opera
92. Flirting with lovely men
93. Busting a move in my living room
94. Having both sets of grandparents in my life until my 30s
95. Visiting friends all over the world
96. Getting caught in the rain
97. Revelling in being a woman
98. Knocking his socks off
99. Watching and listening to Mom sing the national anthem at an Expos game
100. Writing this list

100 Things Worth Doing - Part III

Numbers 51-75:

51. Keeping my cool and taking a picture of Thom Yorke as he walked by
52. First kiss
53. Skipping class at university to see a movie
54. Getting wet on the Maid of the Mist
55. Sitting on the top of a cliff on Aran Island, nobody else in sight
56. Brushing my teeth and being allowed to spit the toothpaste off the back porch at the cottage
57. Seeing a shooting star during the Radiohead concert, downtown Montreal as the backdrop
58. Laughing when Mom mistook “hot tub” for “hot dog”
59. Napping on my couch, in the sun
60. 1,275 Caribbean sunsets, give or take
61. Painting my own walls, changing my own light fixtures
62. Getting detention in biology class
63. Mini reunions with Anna, Lynn and Yvette
64. Decorating my brother’s car with condoms after his wedding and stealing all his underwear from his suitcase, only to find out his new mother-in-law drove the car home
65. Dressing up in my Mom’s silver shoes and jewelery, back in the days when my feet were still smaller than hers
66. Celebrating Grandmaman’s 90th Birthday with the ENTIRE Volet clan
67. Surprising my parents on their 25th wedding anniversary
68. Being licked in the face by my brother’s dog for the first time
69. Every time I’ve said no
70. Learning to ride a bike
71. Volunteering in Panama, twice
72. Burping better than many men
73. Getting my first tattoo
74. Smoking a Cuban cigar, in Cuba
75. Dancing on the bar

100 Things Worth Doing - Part II

Numbers 26-50:

26. Dropping a frog on Mom’s back
27. Being Sandy in the Club Med version of Grease
28. Signing for my condo
29. Sleeping in the train station
30. Being towed on a sled behind the snowmobile
31. Learning to fly on the trapeze
32. Jumping into the snow in my bathing suit
33. Siesta on the hammock, ocean view
34. Hair dancing
35. Jumping on the beds with my cousins before Charles-André’s wedding, in all our finery
36. Dragon boating
37. Staying in a 4 or 5-star hotel
38. Accidentally turning the lights off in a museum, in Munich, on a Sunday afternoon
39. Taking care of a pet
40. Spending days picking up beer caps after hosting a party at my parents house (Dad still finding some when they got home)
41. Having a great librarian instil in me a love of books
42. Growing my own herbs (not marijuana – honestly)
43. Hiking with Grandmaman
44. Getting my BA
45. Moving to Germany, England, Ireland, Mexico, the Bahamas
46. Reading Amelia Badelia books with Dad
47. Attending the Grand Prix
48. Pillow fight in Bonnie Prince Charlie’s house, in the Lake District
49. Using my cordless drill
50. Eating fresh croissants and strawberries on my birthday

100 Things Worth Doing - Part I

Maggie Mason over at Mighty Girl has inspired me to put together my own list of scenes I hope pop up as my life flashes before my eyes.

I enjoyed reading her list and found myself thinking about things that had happened in my life. It made me realise that I have had some pretty amazing things happen and decided to start my own list. Something about writing it all down and recalling all these events has made me very happy. Although I haven't had the experiences that a lot of people have had (getting married, kids), I have lead a pretty interesting life so far (at least to me) and I have some amazing memories. Everything you're about to read is important to me, some things more than others, but they are all good things. And for somebody like me, a realist (pessimist, cynic), it's been therapeutic to see that I have A LOT to be thankful for.

Numbers 1-25:

1. Making bread with Grandmaman
2. Picking fresh strawberries and raspberries anytime we wanted at Grandmaman & Grandpapa’s
3. Stuffing my mouth full of grapes and laughing in the mirror at the Cottage
4. Catching tadpoles at camp in the spring
5. Coming out of the metro in Barcelona, turning around and seeing La Sagrada Familia
6. Watching Yvette hang there as her shirt got stuck on a horse’s saddle as she was getting off
7. Back-packing and camping my way around Ireland
8. Lip-synching the ABBA mix to rave reviews at the local bar in Huatulco
9. Earning a Certificate in Photography (also becoming a ‘A’ student)
10. Enlarging the photo booth picture at the Zurich Hauptbahnhof
11. Having an article about me published in the paper
12. Singing “Alice the Camel” over and over again to the girls in Panama
13. Discovering the Maritimes on my own
14. Listening to Mom throw bread dough on the kitchen counter
15. Hearing the ocean from my bed
16. Aperitifs and cheese as the sun set
17. Eating fresh caught lobster on the beach
18. Staying up all night to watch the Junkanoo Parade
19. Clean sheets
20. Learning the chocolate chip cookie recipe by heart
21. The FM tapes
22. Kissing a stingray
23. Swimming with dolphins
24. Killing a scorpion
25. Dreaming in German, Spanish, French, at one time or another

Lost Power

The power went off last night at about 2:30am. I know this because my smoke alarm started beeping to let me know it was using it's battery or something. I wondered how long the power might be off and wondered if I would stay awake. About 10 minutes later the power did come back. My fridge started humming and the smoke alarm beeped to let me know it had power (it's so considerate that way). But within a few minutes, it was off again. Didn't want to take any chances, so I turned my phone on, set the alarm and instead of putting on my dresser, beside my bed, I put it back in my purse by the front door. (To be fair, it was about 2:45am when I did this.)

Did I think to check the volume or type of ring? No!

What was I thinking?

You guessed it, I missed the alarm because I didn't hear the bloody thing. Several reasons:
1) it was too far away for me to hear;
2) it was on vibrate.

Sheesh ... sometimes I am amazed I can get out of the house at all.

So I woke up late. So I ran around in a panic for 45 minutes to catch the bus but at least I made it to work on time (meaning I was there 15-20 minutes early).

Back in the Groove

Now that my course is over, I was lucky enough to have a 3-day weekend and have all the time I needed to: go to a show, meet an estate agent, rent a car, spend an afternoon with Viv, go to a bridal shower, buy more groceries than I needed, run some errands, go out to dinner, do all my laundry, clean my house properly, go out to lunch, see a movie, do all my cooking for the week and do all my ironing. Phew! It was busy but it was a good busy.

Although staying home this weekend meant not being able to see my niece and nephew (and brother and sister-in-law), it made the world of difference to me. Especially as my condo will be going on the market within the next few weeks.

Yes - that's right! I've decided to put my place up for sale. My mortgage comes up for renewal anyway in the fall, and I've decided to get a jump on things now. Met with a real estate agent on Friday morning to get things on moving for pictures, staging the place to sell and we shall see what that brings. Exciting, eh?!

TESL Certificate

You may (or may not) have been wondering where I've been and what's been going on with the TESL Certificate.

Here's what I'd started to prepare prior to the first class -

Week 1, Day 1

Started the TESL courses today. It was (good/bad/boring) to be back in the classroom again after a few years off (since the photography courses).

How were the other students? Instructor?

How do I feel about the subject matter?

Time for homework, what's expected, presentations, etc.

Monday off ...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Well, I never got around to writing all that stuff following Day 1 of class because I was busy reading and preparing for Day 2. And then Day 3 and 4. And finally Day 5 and 6. 60 hours of class time in 3 weeks, plus reading the better part of two entire text books and preparing 3 short presentations, as well as my final practicum. It was a lot of work in a short period of time. Totally worth it though.

Now it's done. I have earned a Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages / Teaching English as a Second Language.

Congratulations to Me!

Condo Shopping

A few weeks ago I started my search for a new condo. I'm hoping to sell mine and move by October/November 2008.

I started by looking at all kinds of new projects that are going up in the area but have resigned myself to the fact they are out of budget for me (this time). Not one to dwell (so untrue), I have moved on and started looking at places that aren't brand spanking new.

Tonight I'm stopping by another place on Simpson. It's about $20K over budget, but having already seen a few others in the area, I want to compare a little. It's certainly in the right location. Should be fun!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Update - March 5

The place was advertised at 750 sq. ft. Don't know where all the space was though, maybe in the bedroom and bathroom because it sure wasn't in the kitchen and living/dining room. Huh.

Back to School

Tomorrow I start my TESL course. My notebook, pen, pencil and eraser are all ready to go. Very exciting!

Grandmaman

Up at Les Pleiades, in August 2005.

Grandmaman was 94 at the time and for the first time in my life, she didn't outrun me. Even at her 90th birthday, she managed to outpace the entire family on a seemingly endless downhill hike.

Sadly those days are over now. Grandmaman died February 12, 2008, at about 11:00 a.m. (GMT +1)

She taught me how to cook, how to make bread and how to knit, even if I never really caught on to that one.

Here are a few things I will miss about Grandmaman.

I will miss her cooking. Cherry soup in winter with cherries from the trees in the front garden and homemade fried croutons. Tarte au fromage that would stink up the house with the smell from the cheese. Deep fried potato puffs eaten on the terrasse. Fresh out of the oven peach pie after a l-o-n-g hot walk up the road from town, after travelling all night. And above all - Curly Bread.

Then there was always her sheer joy on seeing me after long absences.

Her little giggle when she laughed, with her hand over her mouth.

And so many other fond memories now.

Here's a link to some pictures that have been taken over the years.

Flag Day

Check this out - two of my pictures are presently up on The Gazette's website, to celebrate Flag Day:

Canadian flag

Quebec flag

Butter Fingers

Am thinking of having my name changed. To "Butter Fingers".

Invited my parents over for dinner tonight so I could try out a couple of new recipes from one of my new cookbooks. From The Flexitarian Table, I made a phyllo pie with lemon tofu, winter greens and mushrooms, as well as roasted winter vegetable salad with red onion vinaigrette. Both were delicious. Dad even had two helpings of both dishes!

Anyway, the reason I'm going to rename myself is because as I was taking the roasted vegetables out of the oven, I thought I put the pan on the counter properly. I did not. I put it on very wrongly. It immediately fell to the floor and ALL the potatoes and carrots and olive oil spread themselves across the better part of my entire kitchen floor. Heh. Luckily Mom was there to tell me what to do. Pick the pieces up gingerly and put them in the serving bowl. And that's what I did. Didn't have much choice because it's not like I had a back up pan in the oven or something. We ate them and they were delicious.

This is not the first time I've let a dish of food drop on the floor. Most recently at Nick & Sue's I dropped an entire load of cut fruit. At least that we were able to wash off and serve. It's a bit harder to wash oily potatoes and carrots. And I think I dropped some mini pizzas on the floor last spring. Couldn't do much about those though, the sauce went all over the floor and I draw the line at scraping sauce from the floor into my mouth.

I was very happy with both recipes. Particulary the phyllo lemon tofu and veggie pie. The tofu was delicious and lemony and not "tofu" tasting at all. Dad couldn't get over the dressing on the potatoes and said about the tofu, that if I hadn't told him what it was, he would've never known.

Mom brought dessert. She made some very yummy chocolate pannacotta. Mmm ... Thanks, Mom!

Now the dishwasher is doing its job and I've just finished washing the floor. For the second time. It's tough getting oil off the floor!

At Long Last

Miracles of miracles - my phone works!

After my last call to them at 5pm yesterday, I never thought my phone would be working about two hours later. But it was! All of a sudden, it was on the table ringing and vibrating at the same time and I wasn't quite sure what it was or what to do. Obviously I answered the phone and found out that it was working. I even made several calls to test out this new thing called "a phone that works". It's quite amazing. You dial a number, press send and then somebody talks to you from the other end! And not just a recording saying "3M1 - your telephone isn't connected to the network at this time. Please contact your service provider. This was a recording." (my translation)

I'm happy that this is over. My final comment on the whole thing is that Telus needs to revise their vocabulary. Escalate and expedite don't mean the same thing to them as they do to most other people. For Telus those words mean "we'll get to it when we can, so please stop bothering us." For the rest of the world (or at least me) escalate means to increase intensity and expedite means to accelerate a process or speed up. Silly me.

Still Nothing, Seriously

It's almost comical at this point.

Yesterday, my not-so-friendly customer service rep over at Telus promised me that the phone would be up and running by 11:00 a.m. today.

Well, guess what folks? It's not.

So I called them. Again. Today the rep passed me as quick as she could over to technical support and for the first time since all this brou-ha-ha started last Saturday morning, somebody was able to tell me exactly what happened.

Here's the story -

When I bought the phone and switched plans, the transaction that should normally take about 20 minutes to go through, did not go through. This is what they call a validation error.

How do they fix that? Well, apparently their technical support staff have to manually put through these data changes. And as luck would have it, it seems there were quite a few of these problems last week, so their tech support team is overloaded with these requests.

My ticket number has been escalated twice and that's as high as it goes with them. Now I'll just have to sit and wait for them to get to it. When will that be? It could be tomorrow but she would not guarantee me anything.

On the bright side, this call only last 13 minutes and 43 seconds. The shortest one by far! Yesterday I was on with them for nearly 45 minutes.

Still Nothing

Wednesday, 10:35 a.m.

STILL NO PHONE!

Freaked Out

Maybe I've worked myself into a little bit of a state because of the whole non-phone issue but what happened last night kinda freaked me out.

Went to practice at Parc Jean-Drapeau. As I was leaving, I was walking up the little incline of the parking lot area to the main road, a car drove slowly by, stopped, backed up and waited for me to get up the hill. As I approached the road, the driver opened his window and asked if I needed a lift anywhere. I politely said no thanks and walked around the back of his car and onto the road. He drove on. But then a couple of hundred metres down the road, at the stop sign by the bridge that crosses over to where the metro station is, he stopped AGAIN. And he waited AGAIN. He waited there until I got to the stop sign and asked AGAIN if I needed a lift. So I repeated that I was fine, thanks but no thanks.

This time I crossed over to the wrong side of the road and walked s-l-o-w-l-y across the bridge and this guy drove across it and stopped at the stop sign. As I was walking my snail's pace, I noticed that he was taking an awfully long time to turn and go his merry way.

That's when I decided I would stop on the bridge and would not move an inch until he left. For the first time in a long time, I was scared and did not feel safe. I had two choices. (1) Turn back and return to the gym, even though I knew I was locked out, I might catch somebody leaving. (2) Wait as long as it took for this moron to leave and then run like hell for the metro and tell the ticket collector at the station.

In the end, after the longest minute of my life, the driver lifted his foot off the brake, turned left and drove away. As soon as I saw him go, I walked a normal pace to the end of the bridge, checked to make sure he really was gone. He was. And then I ran to the metro only to discover that there was no attendant at the booth. But I was safe, I was in a well-lit area and there were other people around and that alone made me feel miles better already.

Got home safely and even caught the bus for the last stretch home.

All this to say that in 7 years, I have never, ever had to use my cell for an emergency before. Wouldn't you know, the first time I'm alone, on a deserted road, late at night, without a phone (because I had to make sure everything was against me) - happens to be the the first time some ass decides to get his jollies by freaking me out.

The Letter

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is to report a problem following the purchase of a new phone with Telus (see copy of invoice attached).

Telus has been my sole means of telephone communication since September 2000. I do not have a landline telephone. In December 2006, I finally replaced the first Telus phone I had purchased. While I was never pleased with the reception or clarity of the calls, I figured I could last the two years of the contract. However due to the battery becoming less and less efficient, most recently lasting less than one hour, I decided it was time to replace the phone.

On February 1, 2008, I called your toll-free number and was very pleased with the service I received from two of your agents. They were able to match the discount I could have taken with my corporate plan and even upgraded several services for me as thanks for my continued loyalty with Telus. Later that afternoon I went to your flagship store in Montreal to obtain a new phone and thus complete the transfer to the new plan. Once that transaction was complete, I was informed that the phone would be up and running in approximately an hour or two. It was about 6:00 p.m. Some five hours later I turned the phone on and attempted to place a call.

This is where the problems begin. As I placed the first call, I was surprised to hear a recording informing me that the phone was not connected to the network. I hung up, turned this new phone off and decided to try placing a call using my old phone. This phone was still working, despite having been told that once the switch was complete I would not be able to use it other than to scroll through the information in the contact list, etc. I made a second call, this time to your 611 number in an attempt to find out where the problem might be, only to discover that the call centre wasn’t open 24 hours a day.

On Saturday, February 2, 2008, I attempted to make another call using the new phone. I got the same message telling me that the phone was not connected to the network. Once again, I turned on the old phone, called 611 and went through the process of reaching a customer service representative. The agent who answered the call wasn’t able to fix the problem because apparently there were some errors in the file. What type of errors these were, she was unable to explain, except that the call was being escalated to technical support. I then spoke to a support technician who assured me that the problems were being fixed and that the phone would be working in about an hour. However, she also advised that if the phone still wasn’t working by that time, I would need to call back so they could look at the problem again.

Following the instructions I was given and approximately one hour and 15 minutes later, I had my father, who was sitting beside me at the time, call me. The call went directly through to my voicemail even though I had the new phone turned on. (Yes, the old phone was off.) Luckily I was at Promenades St. Bruno shopping mall and was able to stop by your store. Your agent at the service counter was able to check my account and verified that the phone was indeed activated but she too was unable to place a call. She then contacted technical support and ended up with a “Ticket number” because they were investigating the problem. She also told me that it could be Monday (February 4, 2008) or Thursday (February 7, 2008) before the problem would be solved.

I was not pleased with this response and thought perhaps that returning to the store where I bought the phone there might be a better solution available. This was not to be. At the Downtown Montreal store, your agents simply pointed me to a phone that dialed directly to the customer service centre. The first phone I used had so much static that by the time I did get to speak to an agent, I discovered it was almost impossible to hear what the agent was saying, and then after spending nearly 30 minutes on the phone with her, the phone cut out in the middle of our conversation! The in-store agents weren’t terribly concerned with my problem and directed me over to another phone. I started the whole process over again, on an equally static telephone. Call, hold, wait, reach a new agent, explain the situation for what seemed the umpteenth time, and finally was transferred back to the person I had been speaking with originally. As much as I appreciate the agent was being as helpful as possible, there was so much static, and added to that the music playing in the store and the conversations taking place around me, it was extremely difficult to understand what the agent was trying to say about the situation. In the end, I became so frustrated and overwhelmed by the whole process that I had to apologize to your agent and hang up with no idea on how or when the problem may be resolved.

Sunday I tried repeatedly to use the phone to no avail. This morning, Monday, February 4, 2008, I called your toll-free number from my office and was told that the problem had been escalated to a second level technician and might be looked at today but probably only Wednesday or Thursday.

Being that the cell phone is my only telephone, it was unacceptable to me that I remain without a phone for nearly one week. As mentioned above, I do not have an alternate phone that I can pick up and use at will. The Telus cell phone is my only phone. It is my home phone, my emergency phone and to borrow the American Express tagline, I don’t leave home without it. Surely you understand my frustration in being told nothing but "our technicians are working on it." This was categorically the response I got from your telephone agents and your in-store sales representatives. I have been a long-standing and loyal customer for more than seven years. I have paid thousands of dollars in monthly fees during this period and do not feel this is any way to treat a client.

I have now been without a phone for more than 48-hours and have no idea when my phone will be in working order. I don’t know how anyone in my personal life will reach me in the next week. I don’t know how I will reach anyone should an emergency arise. Will a technician or customer service representative try to reach me to inform me that the phone is working? If so, where will they call?

Please understand that I want to remain a Telus customer for many more years to come but this entire process has soured my opinion of your service and your company to the extreme. It is incomprehensible that you have no other solutions to offer your clients other than "our technicians are working on it."

Should you have any questions concerning this matter ...

No Phone

If you tried to phone me this weekend and weren't able to reach me, I'm not screening my calls or ignoring you. Telus messed up the transfer from my old phone to my new phone and so I have basically been without a phone since Friday at 6:00pm. Telus is telling me that it could be fixed by today or by Thursday (nearly a full week later) but in the meantime I better not need the phone, you know, FOR AN EMERGENCY OR SOMETHING!!!

I'm a little upset. Can you tell? All this negative energy I've been harbouring all weekend is taking its toll. I'm exhausted.

Updates to come soon. Primarily in the form of a nasty letter to Telus. It needs some tweaking though because I wrote the first draft in the heat of the moment.