Traffic curiosity

I’ve mentioned it before, you should keep your eyes opened on the highway (talking about passengers of course, since its a prerequisite for the driver). Once again, on the ride back from Montreal I’ve witnessed a couple of entertaining sights.

First, a young man sitting shirtless on the edge of a bridge, calmly watching cars or simply enjoying the sight… Just hope he wasn’t thinking of jumping…

Later on, a man was walking on the highway opposite to traffic; a few meters later we saw his car with flasher lights probably because he ran out of gas or had a technical problem.

Then at about 250km from Toronto, a huge traffic jam starts building up. As we get closer to the jamming point, the driver noticed an emergency car on the other side of the road predicting an accident that people stop to watch, thus creating an unnecessary traffic jam on our side of the road. He was right, 2 or 3 cars and a motorcycle where involved in a traffic accident, and people slowed down so much to see what was going on that it created a traffic jam of almost 30minutes of super slow motion. On the other side of the road were the real unlucky ones as the jam went through several km and barely moving… My advice would be not to change your speed unless necessary for security reasons.

MZ 2

To follow up on a previous posting, I am glad to say that the young man who was diagnosed with cancer last year is already back on the field! From what I hear, he is still impressing everybody with his performance and speed. Medicine can do great things, I wish him a great season.

Nelly Furtado cleans my office!

Everybody hears funny names at work; sometimes names of celebrities. A couple of weeks ago, one of my board members suggested to contact Jim Morisson! It made me laugh inside, but didn’t bother saying anything.

Last week, on the other hand, another situation made me crack up. The cleaning lady who comes everyday to our office around 4pm, a short 40 something lady who is quite friendly, starts talking in Polish with my Polish friend. When I say talking, I mean she barely practiced repeating the only sentence she knows in Polish. My colleague told her she was really good, with the right pronunciation and all, and tells her to try French with me, since I’m from France. The cleaning lady says she doesn’t know anything, but I insist and she doesn’t make me ask twice and says: “je m’appelle”, I tell her that it’s good but should finish her sentence, so she continues: “je m’appelle Nelly” with a big smile on her face and giggling. As I was about to congratulate her, she continues: “Je m’appelle Nelly Furtado” and bursts in laughter! To be polite, I fake a laugh, because to be honest it wasn’t a good joke and not really laughing material. But she turns to me with a calmer laugh saying: “you think I’m being funny huh! you don’t believe me!”. At that point I don’t know what to say, and she comes closer and shows me her badge: “see, I’m Nelly Furtado”! This took me by surprise and this time I genuinely burst in laugh, and she laughed together. My Polish colleague still thinks we’re laughing at a lame joke, so the cleaning lady goes to her and shows her the badge!

What are the odds! Two Nelly Furtado’s in Toronto! I’m actually persuaded that I met the ORIGINAL!

PS: On the celebrity series, I saw Jamario Moon driving in a SUV with a lady right in front of my office.

Casio EX S600 Battery problems

I bought my digital camera in March 2007, and have been very happy about it. Only 9 months after purchase the battery didn’t want to charge! It really annoyed me, but Casio was very understanding and sent me another battery with no question asked. Last week end, I tried to charge my camera (this is roughly 6 months within the life of the new battery they had sent), and the same problem occurred! I got especially frustrated considering I was attending a wedding; so I decided to call Casio again, and once again they put an order and I should get my battery shortly by mail. Only this time I got curious, was I really unlucky or was it something to do with quality issues; I decided to search the web. As I somehow expected, there were numerous similar complaints on various blogs, and on a forum I found some advice that turned out to be amazingly useful!

Put the camera on the deck for 5 seconds (letting the red light go from continuous to blinking), and as soon as the light on the deck starts blinking red (meaning battery is dead), take off the camera and put it right back. Repeat until you get a solid red light (meaning it is charging), and you’ll be set for a battery resurrection!

I only wish my common sense flash came up earlier (when I actually needed the camera)! For some reason I’ve noticed not being as aware as I used to be… Could this be early signs of aging???

WITHOUT THE HANDS!

Once again a funny sight on the highway; scary actually. A girl was actually driving with her cell phone in one hand, and the other hand plugging her ear probably to hear better, leaving no hand for the wheel! It probably was only for a few second, but while we were driving by her (and she was doing at least 100km per hour), it looked as if it was her way of driving!

Final MVP part II

You guys must be sick of it, but in my family we just can’t get enough. My cousin Mehdi just came back victorious from Canada Cup football tournament in Sherbrooke. To top it all, he had a great game, 1 sack forcing a fumble, 1 interception, and 1 touchdown reception and 4.5 tackles.

It was only logical that he was elected defensive MVP of the finals. It was an exciting tournament, after winning their firt 2 games by only 1 point (when trailing during the final minutes of each game), they ended solidly with a 24-0 Victory. The only deception for us (and for team Quebec, and Mehdi’s college teammates) was that he wasn’t selected to the all star team (which doesn’t make sense for the defensive leader of his team and probably of the tournament). At least those from team Quebec who were selected did deserve it too. What matters is that after all he had a great time (he wasn’t convinced he would at the beginning), you canot win absolutely everything all the time; he already has so many trophies from teams and individual recognitions that we are more than happy.

Now he is off for some rest for the next month before coming back for Football camp in preparation for another amazing season at the CEGEPlevel this time.

Fuel efficiency

I should have written this a couple of weeks ago, when I actually came back from the road trip… Well, I just wanted to say heads up to the Toyota Yaris. My friend rented one two weeks ago and we drove to Montreal with it. Nothing too fancy except that we made the whole trip from Montreal back to Toronto back in one shot (no pit stop for gas or washrooms!) which is over 500km.

Vey pleasant surprise, thx Jane for being a warrior and driver for over 4h non-stop

Abre los ojos

I am the kind to sleep in the car during long car trips (if I’m not driving of course); but my advice would be to keep your eyes open, you never know what entertaining scene might cross your path. After the biker boys (by the way, I’ve seen an even bigger group of maybe 10 bikes, but not escorting a limo this time), a few other funny sights were on my way.

First, dancing teens. When I say dancing, it is more IN TRANCE! A small car full of blond teens jumping and shaking as if they were in a rave! Second, the old Indian guy driving with his eyes closed! This man barely had his eyes open, which gave the impression that he was sleeping behind the wheel.

And finally, the best of the best! The young man walking along the highway dragging his big suitcase behind him! It was in the middle of nowhere! The guy looked really pissed, and didn’t even try to get a ride, he just kept looking in front of him. My theory is that he got into a fight with his girlfriend or buddy who was driving, and got kicked out! The guy is probably still walking! KEEP WALKING JOHNNY WALKER!

Yet another recognition at the next level.

I brought my cousin to the under-17 football camp that gathers the best players from all provinces in Canada. It wasn’t surprising that he got a spot as a starter (both as Linebacker and Defensive End), and a few days into the camp got named captain of the defense. The last recognition came from journalists who visited the camp and mentioned Mehdi as the first player that got their attention as a dominant defensive player. Step by step he is making his mark in Canadian football. The next step should be a selection as best defensive player and on the All Canadian All Star team. Once again, first and foremost I hope he stays healthy, and I don’t worry about the rest; with hard work sky is the limit. If all goes well he would get the attention of NCAA teams and hopefully gets a full scholarship in a good program (hello USC, Ohio State, Oregon with it’s ridiculous locker room…).

Did I mention he graduated from high school with top grade in Chemistry (with a score of 93%), and an average above 80%? He’s promised to a great future if he stays focused and keeps on working hard.

Hiking up Mount Tremblant

Today was a good day. We had a family trip up North to Mount Tremblant, and with one of my cousins, we decided to take the hard way hiking! We managed to get almost half way through, but the rain forced us to our way down. Seing the storm that followed when we were driving back, I am glad I listened to my cousin who didn’t want to continue (when I wanted to go all the way up…).

Good healthy exercise in the mountain amongst the trees, refreshing bowl of air!