My very first business trip, day 1
Sep. 18th, 2011 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eveglassThe short version: I could definitely get used to business travel.
So. My day did not start off in a particularly business-class-like fashion. I was up and out of the house around 9:00 am. My boss suggested that I taxi to the train station and get the office to reimburse me, and I was seriously considering it, but the taxi stand closest to my house didn't have any taxis at it. Besides, it's not that long a walk to the metro, and I'm young, healthy, and the sort who enjoys walking in beautiful weather (which it was).
In any event, I took the metro down to the train station, arrived just in time to spend a few minutes in the Panorama (business-class) Lounge, where I felt a little out of place because there was no one at the door checking tickets right at the time I walked in. I opted not to get any complementary drinks and instead checked my facebook until my train's number was called for boarding.
I'll say this much: not waiting in line for boarding rocks. Just sit in comfy chairs, hear your train called, walk right on. Awesome.
Before we were even at Dorval, I'd already been served a packet of shortbread cookies and a cup of tea, which made the morning lovely. I sat looking out the window a while, doing sudoku, and soon enough the steward (a hilarious guy, by the way) came around taking drink orders, which I passed on.
Around noon, the steward came by with hot towels, then lunch. Tasty lunch! Appetizer was a timbale of crab meat wrapped in smoked salmon, probably my favorite part of the meal. Then was a main course of breaded tilapia and paella rice and a dessert of apple crumble. There was complementary wine, and I even had a glass. (Yes, don't all cry out in shock at once. I actually had a glass of wine.) And then little chocolates! Which were probably my other favorite part of the meal! So cute! So tasty!
Anyway, during lunch we were stopped for about an hour as the signal lights that direct the trains had an outage all along the Montreal-Toronto corridor. Frankly, I didn't care: I had tasty food, tasty drink, and free internet. And it's not like I was making a connecting train or anything. If I'm going to be on a delayed train anyway, it might as well be in business class.
About 15 minutes before our train pulled into Toronto, I got a call from my Edmontonian aunt. Apparently, she had just checked into the very same hotel I'm staying at, and because she was using her maiden name (Golick), they'd given her my hotel reservation. Too funny! It all got worked out in the end, which is good, and I had the pleasant and extremely unexpected news that my aunt will be staying in my hotel for five days overlapping my stay. Hopefully we'll have a chance to grab a coffee or dinner or something sometime.
We arrived in Union Station around 5:00, checked in, and put our stuff in our rooms. My room is... a hotel room. It's got a bed, a comfy chair, a desk, a TV... all those things you expect from a hotel room. Yes, the furnishings are very nice and the amenities list are in leather-bound folders, but it's a hotel room. My boss and my coworker were complaining that their bathrooms are small, and I suppose mine is too, but... it's a hotel. On the other hand, I've got three (count'em, three) complementary bathrobes in my room and a number of other nice freebies in the bathroom. There are also $5.50 water bottles "for your convenience," which I will not be drinking.
Then my boss took my coworker and I out to dinner at a place called Biff's Bistro. It's a fancier place than I'm used to with prices to match. The meal (seared arctic char) was tasty, but by far the standout was dessert: sorbets from Soma. Oh, my God! Amazing! It's not that far from the hotel, either. Maybe I'll go there later this week if I have a chance to try some again. SO GOOD! Torontonians, why did you never tell me about this place before?!
Back to the hotel. My boss was freaking out a little bit because our big shipment of 58 boxes (containing such useful things as programs, signage, and award trophies) had somehow gone missing. My coworker tried to assure her that they'll turn up and we'll find them tomorrow, but my boss was still worrying. (Not to self: meditate tonight and build up your mental barriers, or this is gonna be a *long* week.)
I decided to go walkabout in the hotel. Given that I'm working registration for our meeting, I know people are going to ask me where things are, and I figured it would be a good idea to have an answer for them. I'll say this: the hotel is absolutely beautiful. It's an historic building, built in the 1920s, and there are still all sorts of lovely original architecture and furnishings. Really beautiful. I wish I had more time to take it all in. Instead, I just wandered around, got the lay of the land, and came back to my room.
I'm still not sure what time I'm needed tomorrow. If the boxes are discovered, I'll probably be on the clock around 8:00. If not, we've got a pre-conference meeting at 10:00, wherein we have to discuss logistics and suchlike. After that we're getting stuff ready. We don't actually have access to our office until Tuesday, but we've got to do things like put together delegate bags and prepare all our paperwork. Not sure what time we'll finish, but hopefully early enough that I can Skype into my D&D game and maybe hit the hot tub first.
Tomorrow morning I eat room service for breakfast. This will be a new and exciting experience for me. I don't think I've ever had hotel room service before, at least not that I can recall. But the company's paying for it, so I'm gonna take advantage.
One thing I *won't* be taking advantage of is the laundry service. Turns out it's super-expensive. Maybe I'll just head over to the Bay sometime and pick up 3-4 pairs of underwear to tide me over until I can do laundry when I get home. I've been needing some anyway.
Anyway, that's it for me tonight. Now to figure out what to do with the next 3 hours of my life...
Edited to add: New plan! Instead of room-service breakfast, I will be having breakfast with my aunt! Somewhere! My room-service cherry will have to be popped at some later date. (Supper tomorrow? How awesome would it be to video-Skype my D&D game while eating room service!)
So. My day did not start off in a particularly business-class-like fashion. I was up and out of the house around 9:00 am. My boss suggested that I taxi to the train station and get the office to reimburse me, and I was seriously considering it, but the taxi stand closest to my house didn't have any taxis at it. Besides, it's not that long a walk to the metro, and I'm young, healthy, and the sort who enjoys walking in beautiful weather (which it was).
In any event, I took the metro down to the train station, arrived just in time to spend a few minutes in the Panorama (business-class) Lounge, where I felt a little out of place because there was no one at the door checking tickets right at the time I walked in. I opted not to get any complementary drinks and instead checked my facebook until my train's number was called for boarding.
I'll say this much: not waiting in line for boarding rocks. Just sit in comfy chairs, hear your train called, walk right on. Awesome.
Before we were even at Dorval, I'd already been served a packet of shortbread cookies and a cup of tea, which made the morning lovely. I sat looking out the window a while, doing sudoku, and soon enough the steward (a hilarious guy, by the way) came around taking drink orders, which I passed on.
Around noon, the steward came by with hot towels, then lunch. Tasty lunch! Appetizer was a timbale of crab meat wrapped in smoked salmon, probably my favorite part of the meal. Then was a main course of breaded tilapia and paella rice and a dessert of apple crumble. There was complementary wine, and I even had a glass. (Yes, don't all cry out in shock at once. I actually had a glass of wine.) And then little chocolates! Which were probably my other favorite part of the meal! So cute! So tasty!
Anyway, during lunch we were stopped for about an hour as the signal lights that direct the trains had an outage all along the Montreal-Toronto corridor. Frankly, I didn't care: I had tasty food, tasty drink, and free internet. And it's not like I was making a connecting train or anything. If I'm going to be on a delayed train anyway, it might as well be in business class.
About 15 minutes before our train pulled into Toronto, I got a call from my Edmontonian aunt. Apparently, she had just checked into the very same hotel I'm staying at, and because she was using her maiden name (Golick), they'd given her my hotel reservation. Too funny! It all got worked out in the end, which is good, and I had the pleasant and extremely unexpected news that my aunt will be staying in my hotel for five days overlapping my stay. Hopefully we'll have a chance to grab a coffee or dinner or something sometime.
We arrived in Union Station around 5:00, checked in, and put our stuff in our rooms. My room is... a hotel room. It's got a bed, a comfy chair, a desk, a TV... all those things you expect from a hotel room. Yes, the furnishings are very nice and the amenities list are in leather-bound folders, but it's a hotel room. My boss and my coworker were complaining that their bathrooms are small, and I suppose mine is too, but... it's a hotel. On the other hand, I've got three (count'em, three) complementary bathrobes in my room and a number of other nice freebies in the bathroom. There are also $5.50 water bottles "for your convenience," which I will not be drinking.
Then my boss took my coworker and I out to dinner at a place called Biff's Bistro. It's a fancier place than I'm used to with prices to match. The meal (seared arctic char) was tasty, but by far the standout was dessert: sorbets from Soma. Oh, my God! Amazing! It's not that far from the hotel, either. Maybe I'll go there later this week if I have a chance to try some again. SO GOOD! Torontonians, why did you never tell me about this place before?!
Back to the hotel. My boss was freaking out a little bit because our big shipment of 58 boxes (containing such useful things as programs, signage, and award trophies) had somehow gone missing. My coworker tried to assure her that they'll turn up and we'll find them tomorrow, but my boss was still worrying. (Not to self: meditate tonight and build up your mental barriers, or this is gonna be a *long* week.)
I decided to go walkabout in the hotel. Given that I'm working registration for our meeting, I know people are going to ask me where things are, and I figured it would be a good idea to have an answer for them. I'll say this: the hotel is absolutely beautiful. It's an historic building, built in the 1920s, and there are still all sorts of lovely original architecture and furnishings. Really beautiful. I wish I had more time to take it all in. Instead, I just wandered around, got the lay of the land, and came back to my room.
I'm still not sure what time I'm needed tomorrow. If the boxes are discovered, I'll probably be on the clock around 8:00. If not, we've got a pre-conference meeting at 10:00, wherein we have to discuss logistics and suchlike. After that we're getting stuff ready. We don't actually have access to our office until Tuesday, but we've got to do things like put together delegate bags and prepare all our paperwork. Not sure what time we'll finish, but hopefully early enough that I can Skype into my D&D game and maybe hit the hot tub first.
Tomorrow morning I eat room service for breakfast. This will be a new and exciting experience for me. I don't think I've ever had hotel room service before, at least not that I can recall. But the company's paying for it, so I'm gonna take advantage.
One thing I *won't* be taking advantage of is the laundry service. Turns out it's super-expensive. Maybe I'll just head over to the Bay sometime and pick up 3-4 pairs of underwear to tide me over until I can do laundry when I get home. I've been needing some anyway.
Anyway, that's it for me tonight. Now to figure out what to do with the next 3 hours of my life...
Edited to add: New plan! Instead of room-service breakfast, I will be having breakfast with my aunt! Somewhere! My room-service cherry will have to be popped at some later date. (Supper tomorrow? How awesome would it be to video-Skype my D&D game while eating room service!)
