I just came back from the most exciting morning.

Friday afternoon was a lot of tame fun. I had phở at Pho Hung with makemyway and springbird. Then we did some shopping, split an amazing veal sandwich from California Sandwiches, and ate a salad for dinner. That was pretty normal.

So was our trip to Lula Lounge. Makemyway and I went there to see jedward play with Samba Elegua. They're an amazing act! The crowd was dancing and laughing, well some of it, which was great for Toronto.

We left relatively early so that I could swing by Makemyway's house to pick up my camera. I had forgotten it there the night before. As I left her place, I realized that I had left my credit card at the lounge. So I tried to remember how to get back, paid my bill, and stepped outside. The band was packing up their gear, so I was able to say goodbye.

I was walking east when I noticed two people huddled in a bus shelter. I poked my head inside and asked where they were going.

You see, they were waiting at a Dundas stop for a streetcar. After hours. Which meant they would be spending a very long night in freezing weather. I surmised they weren't from Toronto.

Rodrigo and Francesca are actually visiting from Brazil. And they hadn't worn enough layers. I walked with them to College where we waited for a while, ducked into a convenience store to warm up, and caught the blue-night streetcar going east. I asked the driver to let them off at Jarvis, which is where there hotel is.

I bid them farewell as I got off at the Yonge stop. Soon, the bus came north and a group of us boarded. Most of the passengers were a bit unruly because the bars had just let out. When we got to Eglington, a whole bunch of people got on the bus. They had been kicked off the previous bus, which we saw as we drove past. I asked a girl what happened and she explained that a guy got angry at some other guy and punched out a window. There were about four police cars surrounding the abandoned bus.

Since our bus was quite crowded, I did the only thing I could think of: randomly chatting with strangers. This passed the time until my stop came up. A very drunk man said goodbye to his friends and exited with me. I walked with him for a while and we struck up a conversation. It seems that he is doing an anthropology degree at York.

This didn't explain why he had misplaced his hat in one of his friend's pockets. Or why he hit on every girl on our way north. Or why he had difficulty opening his front door, which I passed on the way back home.

Wasn't that an exciting series of adventures? So exciting, in fact, that now I'm wide awake! It's a good thing that I'm good at falling asleep.

I'm stuck in a bus, going forwards and backwards. Forwards and backwards.

There's a trailer attached to the back, and the bus driver doesn't know how to reverse with one attached. He just cannot get us out of this narrow little parking lot.

We're in the middle of nowhere, next to a truck garage. Forwards and backwards.

Oh great, now we're stuck in the dirt. Our wheels are spinning hopelessly, now that we're stuck in a rut. Look, he's walked off to try to get some help.

This isn't just a delay, it's travel hell. Hell is forwards and backwards. Forwards and backwards.

Clouds
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I was staying over at dcoombs's place on Friday night, which was very gracious of him. It also meant that I got a ride to the aeroport on Saturday morning, so that I could catch my 8:05 flight. After going through security, I waited for a bit and read a book. Then we boarded and waited on the tarmac for an oil filter change.

No kidding.

We took off and I soon fell asleep, as I was quite tired. By the time I woke up, we were flying over sunny Mexico. We landed at the aeroport, picked up my baggage, went through customs and ended up in the terminal. It was full of people with signs looking for their loved ones. I made my way past them and followed a sign that looked like it was for taxis. Along the way, I saw an HSBC and poked my head inside. I was slightly disappointed that nobody was speaking Chinese.

I bought a flat-rate taxi fare to the Terminal de autobuses in Tasqueña. The taxi driver, Bito, loaded my suitcase in the car and we were off. His English was non-existant so we spoke to each other with our hands. The rest of the time, I spent staring out the window.

Taxicab
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Mexico City is bright and colourful! Everything has vibrant splashes of colour. There are huge fleets of old Volkswagon Beatles driving around, many of them operating as green taxicabs. We drove past shops and stores and the signs were hand-painted and awesome. When we got to the poorer communities, I started seeing tags on buildings, but then we drove past these huge murals spray-painted on large walls.

He let me off at the terminal and I bought a ticket to Oaxtepec. This was done through plenty of pointing and reading off of computer teminals. Then, I went out Gate 3 and walked into a mass of people.

Now, I'm used to people queueing up, but this was not a common concept here. I tapped someone on the should and asked how I could get on my bus. Giacomo introduced himself and tried to explain the system. But he eventually just talked to the ticket collector who let me on the same coach. I discovered that he had family who lived in Hamilton and invited him to look me up if he ever visited Montréal.

When we got to Oaxtepec, I staggered off the bus and picked up my luggage. Then I got un-carsick by sitting down on something stable. I was standing outside the front gates of the Centro vacacional Oaxtepec IMSS. I considered the long hike up a big hill, and then hired a cab that took me up to the Recepcion building where I got checked in. I dragged my luggage to the room and met Blars there. I picked out a bed amongst the five still available. I had finally arrived.

Girl with mittens
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I've been terribly busy, as of late. This whole self-employment thing really keeps you on your toes. Oh yes, so does an impending release. There's barely enough time to have adventures, let alone write about them.

I really ought to. If I don't, I might forget. Plus, it's a nice excuse to show you some photographs.

Let's see. On the 16th, that's two Sundays ago, I went to Québec with gorbash_dragon. It's actually very easy to get me to travel with you. I'll even tell you how. The first thing you do is walk into a room and say, "Hey, who'd like to come with me to foreign city next weekend?" Indubitably, everyone else will make up excuses about how busy they are. I will mull it over in my brain and will likely say, "Sure, if I can afford it."

It's an exciting way to travel.

L'Auberge de la Paix
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Gorbash and I took an early bus into Québec, but by the time we got there, it had begun to drizzle. No matter, we just walked about town trying to do things. We managed to climb all over the place until we go to the citadel where we took a guided tour. I tried to look for exciting souvenirs at the gift shop, but nothing caught my eye.

There were quite few tourists that weekend, most likely because it was Easter Sunday. We walked about the old city, trying to avoid them, found a place to sit down and eat lunch. Then we meandered off to a coffee shop for caffeine. It didn't really help.

Then we headed off to the chocolate museum outside the tourist district. We managed to find a lady boiling maple sap, and indulged in some maple toffee. Then it was off for more sweets. The store had opened scant days before we arrived, and it was full of people who were stocking up on chocolate rabbits. We looked at the exhibits and decided against gorging ourselves.

I think we walked around town for hours before we found dinner. I'll have to say, it was rather good exercise. We even got to see a decrepit building. We must have looked at four or five restaurants before settling on a place to eat. I had a rather nice conversation with a man from Gaspé who was visiting family in the city. He seemed very wistful as he ate his dinner, alone, by the window.

By the time we got back to the bus terminal, dusk had settled on the city. It was a peaceful ride home.

Do you know what's brilliant? When you bump into random people on the street who wear geek paraphernalia. Well, Damian and I were walking out of the Métro a couple of days ago and noticed some distinctive looking dolls hanging from an olive backpack.

"Intel bunny men", we said to ourselves. The owner turned around and I smiled at her and told her she was awesome, as I am wont to do. She noted that she had a Tux button as well.

We got on the bus and she hung out with her boy. Damian and I kept talking about random things when kyotto noticed me. We basically only meet while riding the 80, which is awesome but leaves our friendship up to happenstance.

I got on the bus last night, the 129 in fact, going northbound up Parc. I was holding a bunch of shopping bags, because I had gone to Canadian Tire. It was a quest to get a tea kettle that wouldn't blow the fuses in my flat, which I successfully acquired.

If anyone wants a free electric kettle, feel free to ask.

Anyway, I got on this bus, and I saw the bus driver. He was grinning and smiling, like he was on top of the world. He had a little dish of "gratuit bonbons" and a yellow balloon with a smiling face was tied to the handrail.

He had a little cassette player belting out cheerful toons, and he had obviously decorated the bus with balloons before his shift started. I sat down, looked about me, and couldn't help grinning.

Too bad all the other passengers looked too tired to notice.

About six months ago, I asked musicdieu (Luke) if he wanted to go to the GCC Developers' Summit with me. At the time, he was doing a little porting work to get stuff building on a snapshot of GCC 4.0. He mentioned that he was coming back to work at NITI and would be happy to come along, so I set the wheels in motion to get us there.

And on Tuesday, we were in Ottawa. We had taken the bus, which arrived fifteen minutes late, and got out at Central Station. Note to self, the next time I take the Greyhound, I need to get off at the University of Ottawa. We had tried to do this when we saw the Westin, but were chastised for trying to get our luggage out.

We took a taxi to our hotel where we discovered that someone had already checked in for the rooms. Luke and I got our keycards and went upstairs. When we opened the door, we were pleased to discover Jeff and Jim sitting in the living room. I dropped my cargo in a bedroom and started unpacking into the closet and dressers. Once we were ready, it was off to the Pour House to meet people.

At the Pour House
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I'm afraid that it was starting to get dark by the time we got there, around 20:00 I suppose, so all the photographs I took turned out poorly. We found ourselves a table by the open window and ate some dinner. It's actually quite a nice pub, with plenty of tables and very good service. Since this was my third time at the conference, I was starting to recognise the people who were sitting at the tables, although my name resolver was very slow.

Soon, Carlos and Christine arrived and sat down at our table. We conversed with them for a while before the conversation drove them away. Then Danielle showed up, but eventually the conversation lowered itself such that she left as well. I then realised that it had suddenly become 02:00 and that we were being punted downstairs. That's when the last of us sat about at one long table. It was in this environment that Angela and Geoff arrived.

I recall that Jeff and I decided it was too late to persist in being conscious, so we made our way back to the hotel room and collapsed. I think the rest of the company decided to follow our leading example and did the same. Except for some Apple people who decided to continue talking about Objective-C. But I think they were still dealing with a time-zone change.

I'm putting on my shoes right now. Soon, I'll knock on musicdieu's door and we'll be heading towards Station Centrale. There, we'll squeeze onto a smelly coach liner and drive all the way up to Ottawa. It's only an hour or so by car, but the bus seems to take much longer.

Once we get there, we'll be checking into the hotel. I presume that Jim and Jeff will have checked in before us, so things should not be problematic. After dropping off our bags, we can head down and meet everyone else at the Pour House.

I shall try to get Internet access as soon as possible, but this is sort of dodgy for the first day or so. Ottawa friends, feel free to leave a comment here and we can try to arrange a time to get together.

Peeling paint
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Last night, I rode the bus home with kyotto. Apparently, she takes the same bus route as I do, so we had a chance to chat a bit.

As we were standing on the bus, I happened to mention that I thought today would be a sunny day. The girl sitting beside us piped up and told us that she thought it would rain. Eventually, this conversation morphed into one about sunscreen. It's a good thing I bought myself a bottle on Monday. Gotta prevent that premature aging.

The last thing I want to do is age before I'm mature.

I'm sitting in the Metro Coach Terminal, once again thanking my benevolent wireless access point angel. If only he/she could identify him/herself, I would buy a nice gift.

The reason I am sitting here, and not on a bus, is because my train arrived half-an-hour late. Which means that I have to wait until 23:30 before I can get the next bus. Which, according to the schedule, arrives at 1:25 Saturday morning. From what I remember of Greyhound, these travel times are… optimistic.

So I'll probably be there by 2:00, after a taxicab ride and all. This reminds me how much I really do hate the process of travelling. Actually, that's not true. Road tripping with friends has always been rather pleasant, although this is contingent on vehicles not breaking down.

We got up ludicrously early on Christmas morning, but not to any sort of ritual holiday celebration. Rather, we woke up at 5:00 to a bunch of luggage, which we had to lug out to the airport taxi-van. We arrived at Pearson Terminal 1 and lined up for about two hours in order to get through the rigmarole that is required for flying. After this, we sat in our seats for about two hours as the aeroplane took on fuel and got deiced.

Eventually, the plane taxied to a runway and took off. This is when I remembered that I have a horrible fear of heights. I discovered that sitting in the centre of the aeroplane vastly amortises the crippling fear I have of being far above the ground. Relieved as I was, I was completely unprepared for the crippling boredom that is a sixteen-hour non-stop flight. Intellectually, I understand that this is preferable to twenty-hour flights with layovers, the monotony was pretty bad. They served us fairly decent microwaved food, where the best part were little soy-sauce packets in the shape of fish.

Actually, f_law had no problem with boredom, since she was happily occupied with her own personal television. I think she crawled through half the video collection on-board. I watched Eat Drink Man Woman for the food scenes, which were rewarding indeed. Actually, this television system had a touch-screen that worked pretty well. It polled some on-board sensors to display information like airspeed and altitude, plus it was able to show a little Mercator projection that would show you your flight path. I also discovered that it was driven by Linux, since the flight attendant had to reboot my television after I found a bug in the software.

I was going to get some sleep, but air-sickness interfered with this plan. Sadly, I wasn't informed that we had Gravol with us until very late in the flight. Gravol was really good at putting me to sleep and solving my upset stomach, so I think I shall take it on my return trip.

Our arrival in Hong Kong was interesting. My first impression was that Hong Kong is a very humid place in winter. My next observation is that modern airports seem to have the same architectural theme—one that I think will look really silly two decades from now. The Christmas decorations in the airport were fairly conspicuous: there were pictures of snowflakes and snowmen, which are fairly impossible for 20C weather. In addition, they had a huge "tree" made of a cluster of poinsettias, instead of a more traditional evergreen. Going outside, I noticed how thick the air was, and how you can actually see and taste it. Apparently, the pollution was particularly bad today, so perhaps that's why my chest was a little constricted.

We got on a double-decker bus, apparently standard in this city, and travelled to Uncle Luk's flat. As I looked out the window, I noticed the little differences. How all the cars are a little stubbier and have smaller engines. How all the trees look ill and a little bare. After dropping off our things, we went to dinner at the Metropolitan restaurant and were amazed by a huge meal. After too many courses, we were completely stuffed, and I have been motivated to duplicate their "Two Layers Milk".

Now I'm sitting on Uncle Luk's couch, and am typing this entry. I tried in vain to get a stable wireless connexion from somewhere, but it seems like there's too much concrete and re-bar to contact any of