Travel diary part 3
So, Ottawa rules. Apart from the traffic, but I'm from tiny NZ city (ok, the biggest one, which is only 50% or so bigger than Ottawa), so what do I know about traffic.
Oh, and the weather. I thought snow was fun. I don't mind some snow, and -3 deg or so. But the doorman at the hotel told me about -20 deg days. That's a little chilly for my liking. Although I'm sure people here have ways of coping.
So, Nortel is an amazing place to visit. They have various research facilities, but this one's where (among other things) their optical research labs are. Very _very_ impressive technology. And getting to meet and talk to the people who're inventing this stuff was great.
So, restaurants/cafes to visit in Ottawa: The Black Tomato (pretty good). The Black Thorn (also, good. And yes, we appeared to have a gothic theme going on at this point). Vittoria Trattori (or something, however it was spelt) - yummy Italian food. Eighteen - OMG yes, would eat again A+++++.
Part of me wants to learn French now, because it seems like a fun language to converse in. Maybe next life. Not sure I have time right now. Well, I probably do, but... we'll see.
One more day of interesting technology demos and meetings, then I have a day of playing tourist, then a day of airplanes. Can I have a Concorde now (or better yet, my own Gulfstream 5?).
The timezone difference is somewhat annoying too. It's 11pm or so here, which means it's about 4pm in NZ. This doesn't make for an easy alignment of times to call home.
Oh, and the weather. I thought snow was fun. I don't mind some snow, and -3 deg or so. But the doorman at the hotel told me about -20 deg days. That's a little chilly for my liking. Although I'm sure people here have ways of coping.
So, Nortel is an amazing place to visit. They have various research facilities, but this one's where (among other things) their optical research labs are. Very _very_ impressive technology. And getting to meet and talk to the people who're inventing this stuff was great.
So, restaurants/cafes to visit in Ottawa: The Black Tomato (pretty good). The Black Thorn (also, good. And yes, we appeared to have a gothic theme going on at this point). Vittoria Trattori (or something, however it was spelt) - yummy Italian food. Eighteen - OMG yes, would eat again A+++++.
Part of me wants to learn French now, because it seems like a fun language to converse in. Maybe next life. Not sure I have time right now. Well, I probably do, but... we'll see.
One more day of interesting technology demos and meetings, then I have a day of playing tourist, then a day of airplanes. Can I have a Concorde now (or better yet, my own Gulfstream 5?).
The timezone difference is somewhat annoying too. It's 11pm or so here, which means it's about 4pm in NZ. This doesn't make for an easy alignment of times to call home.