Lannion, France, June 10, 2008

The standardization meeting was held in Lannion, a small town close to the picturesque Breton coast line. We had the opportunity to travel out to the coast and following here are a few pictures from Lannion as well as the coastal line near Perros-Guirec. We were also fortunate with the weather, which helped to make the trip a memory for life.

Paris in France, June 8, 2008

A 3GPP ETSI standardization work group meeting was held in Lannion, France in June. I did have some spare time to see also some major tourist sights in Paris, here are some pictures from the gorgeous town of Paris. As always in the major cities, walking the city streets I stumble upon the local Aston Martin shop... I was also fortunate to be able to meet some old friends in Paris; including a Swedish friend from my former University as well as a friend from my Spanish studies in Granada, Spain. I also spent one day touristing with a guy from Teheran, who lives and works in New Brunswick, Canada. Quite a coincidence!
Following this post will be some pictures from the smaller town of Lannion, France.

Kitchener (ON), April 19, 2008

Spring has been filled with activities, both at work and in the personal sphere. The most recent activities that took a lot of time was the move from Waterloo to Kitchener. Here are some pictures to show from the new home, just before moving in. The new apartment is better equipped to receive friends who might be visiting...

Boston (MA), US, January 23rd

We had the opportunity to work for a few days in the US, my trip went to Boston in Massachusetts. Known mostly for its Seafood Cuisine, the 2 major Universities MIT and (US) Harvard, the town boasts a nice city core where walking is possible and recommended (imagine that in the US!!!) and a beautiful harbour. We found a nice restaurant called Legal Sea Food for lunch, we visited a Kansas Steakhouse and we also dropped by the bar from Cheers, the old time comedy series from the 1980-1990 television. We dropped by Newbury Street, we visited the Faneuil Hall and the Boston Market but we never did have time to visit the site for the Boston Tea Party. We also drove by Harvard and MIT and looked at the old buildings and the large areas at least surrounding Harvard. The roads in Boston were easy to drive on, there was surprisingly little traffic (we were driving around downtown and on the Interstates I-90 and I-93 between 9 and 4 on Thursday) and the only small snag we experienced was the Magellan 4-/N/everlost GPS who kept saying we should drive onto road exits that did not exist on the roads we were driving on. Street signs in Boston are for US standards fairly clear and easily read and not as confusing as in many other places/states in the US, so we had little use of the GPS here. But we had 2 lovely days and recommend the town to anyone who has the chance to drop by, so far my best experience of a US city.

Christmas, Dec 24th

Somewhat late, here is a Christmas photo to remind about the highlight of the year for all children, young and old. As a colleague pointed out, it is interesting that Santa every year remembers to bring his (clean) garden and garage working gloves out on his journey to visit all children throughout the world... :-) The Macintosh does not rotate the pictures as ordered, my apologies as I am new to the Mac and should most likely use a more professional tool than the default Mac picture viewing program Preview.

San Francisco, US, October 29th

Late in 2007, we performed an Audio Quality Trip to the westcoast of the US; San Francisco was the designated city to visit. This was my first visit to the west coast of the US, we were lucky with the weather and found apart from work some nice restaurants as well. One to recommend for their excellent food, good service and simple yet elegant layout is the Zuni Café. There are plenty of blogs and reviews on the web so I wont write more about it here. A few pictures from San Fran has been added to show Alcatraz, the bridges in the area, the sculptures in one of the small green spaces and the famous downhill drop at the end of the Lombard Street. Enjoy!

Lion Safari Cambridge August 11th

Just south of Cambridge lies a Lion Safari tour, which was established in the late 1960s. The lion safari features several different parts with different types of animals, from Lions and Cheetahs to the Monkey section to the Antiloops and Giraffes. If the weather is good, this is a pleasant day out in the wild and the park also features a small water park where you can bring children to play around. There is also a small railway as well as a boat tour through a small lake with several islands laden with monkeys. All in all a day well spent. :)

Niagara Falls July 24th

An old time friend from Sweden came over to visit in July, so we took a day off and went down to Niagara Falls with him to see what people were talking about. The town itself was as expected a tourist trap, but the falls were surprisingly beautiful, wide, low but still not too expensive. The general feeling was good and the visit was a positive one, which was more than expected. We travelled out into the falls with the boat Maid in the Mist, but did not walk behind the falls as many visitors do. After a few hours and a quick lunch we travelled to Niagara on the Lake and took a walk in the small village and enjoyed the waterfront. Out in this region there are many small wineyards, but we did not stop to taste the local wine on this trip. Cant do all in one day...

Toronto Harbor July 12th

In order to get a Chinese VISA we had to go to the Chinese embassy of Toronto, and this chance could not be missed to take a stroll along the harbourside and to enjoy a sunny day. I have posted anything for some time but will try to make amends for this during the fall time.
After having eaten a pleasant lunch among the boats in the harbour, we took some pictures of both the coastal guard and a large sailing ship which was chartered by a company for a late lunch. The weather turned cloudy but eventually cleared up again without any downpour
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Moving weekends

Most of present and past weekends were used either planning or moving our furniture and belongings from one apartment to another, so internet have on my behalf been forced to a temporary standstill. Here is at least one picture we took up at RIM Park in the north-eastern part of Waterloo on one of our pauses in the work. We have had smashing weather for 2 weeks now, and that is what my imagination provides me with right now.

Waterloo Park

Waterloo Park is a decent park in downtown Waterloo. The park boasts a mini-zoo, and for small children it is nice to see the small animals present even though you run out of animals rather quickly. We had fantastic weather during the weekend and up to 25 degrees, so not at all bad. Seasons went from winter, skipped spring and went straight for summer. Some thunderstorms followed in the sunny weathers wake, but at least the thunder and rain came on Monday during working hours. Depicted is a picture of the pond in Waterloo Park which the residents insists on calling a Lake, a small pond of about 2x2 m with a bench placed in front of it and finally Tindra on a lawn mover.

Visit to Toronto

The plan was to visit Toronto already last weekend, on the 7th of April. But due to poor weather, the trip was postponed and this turned out to be an excellent choice. 2 friends of mine were visiting from London (the UK town) in the last week, and they spent 2 nights in Kitchener visiting us and some days out traveling, as most people are eager to see the Niagara Falls while over here.
Anyway, this Saturday we took the car to Toronto and walked the city streets for several hours. We visited Chinatown, we walked Bloor Street and had lunch on a Subway restaurant before walking by the University of Toronto (several of the faculties, but not all...). Among the one we saw were Geology, Art, Civil Engineering, Music, etc. We also walked by the Market Hall to check out the wares and eat a quick snack before heading over to the CN Tower on Front Street. The CN Tower is about 550 meters high with two lookout floors, we went up the lower floor as the queue to go to the top lookout was too long. The view was nice and it showed that Toronto is a mixed town, both with high-rises and skyscrapers lined up in a north-southly streak as well residential low areas to the west and east, all very close to the downtown area.

On the pictures below is a really slim building on Front Street with the CN Tower and TD Canada Skyscraper looming in the background. Second picture show the NHL Hall of Fame building, which unfortunately was closed when we walked by. Third picture show an average Canadian Hummer vehicle parked in front of a Hotel next to Union station where a wedding party were taking pictures. The fourth and last picture show the view from the CN Tower looking out to Northeast (apologies for not yet rotating the top picture).

London upon Thames April 1st

Imagine traveling from Kitchener to London and walking down to Covent Garden, or strolling across the Thames on a Sunday afternoon. This is exactly what we did today, but as you may guess there is a town called London also in Canada. The town boasts a cathedral and several churches, a really nice downtown area and a mixture of food and cuisine. After spending a few hours in the town you begin to wonder if this is not the most beautiful and most walker friendly of the two London's. We came the day after Team Surprise from Landvetter again won the World Championships in synchronized skating. Anyway, we spent the day in London and traveled back to Kitchener only in the afternoon. I highly recommend a visit to London, if only to have a coffee or a lunch and a walk in the small but comfortable town of roughly 34o 000 residents. Pictures shows the Cathedral, Covent Garden Market, Art Museum and New Courthouse and the main Church, in that order.

Kitchener Temporary Accommodation

2007-03-31: On Saturday we drove to Guelph to see the town and to find out if the town was nice to walk in and if there was anything of interest accessible for a newcomer. In short, there was little of interest in the town and although it was possible to walk in certain areas, they were not very interesting or beautiful, at least as far as the downtown area is concerned (which is the thing that matters to us).

So instead of posting pictures of roads and concrete and the arboretum in Guelph, we will show some pictures from our temporary accommodation in Kitchener. The apartment is flashy and nicely furnished, but like most building here in Canada the builders did a poor job and no fancy furniture and all-covering carpets on the floor (ick!, the static electricity is killing me ) can cover all the crevices between wall / floor and between wall / wall. You would think it would be easy to carpet a floor, but the dividing lines have been placed in the middle of the room and doorways, directly visible to the eye. Newly built walls does not line up, and when the water pours from the bathtub into the receiving drain pipe, the water overflows and goes straight through the floor and down to the neighbor below. At least that was taken care of after only 9 days of nagging at the janitor to get a plummer, during which time we could not use the bath tub. Each day we were promised the plummer would come the next day. So in abstract, the grass is not greener on this side of the pool as far as housing goes, only dyed a bit different. Luckily we are only here a limited time.

Common working day

One of the many to-dos here in Canada involves getting the Health Insurance program up and running. We visited the OHIP office this morning to hand in the papers, well prepared. Once there I was told by the screener lady that the papers I had was inadequate, but as I had prepared it by the book I did not give in but took a number and got in the line. When asked to present my case, the lady behind the counter looked at my papers, thanked me for a well prepare case and started preparing all the paper work. All went well and I could go to work with one thing less on my mind. For the application of permanent residency I needed information to proove that I had funds to support us in Canada, so I dropped by the bank office at 17.15 and got the papers I needed. I love banks who are actually there for you, I wish Swedish banks would learn even the tiniest from the Canadian TD Canada Trust. Well at home we ate before heading to the swimming pool for a swim to unwind. Peace.

Cambridge Town March -07

In the area are many small towns, most of them unknown to me. The closest one is Cambridge, and below are three pictures from Cambridge / Galt on a cloudy day. Had the weather been better it would have been more fun to document the town, but this will be left for some other day. First picture depicts the Cathedral, second picture shows the Grand River that flows through the town and divides it in two parts and the last picture shows the Post Office (pretty imposing office). Cambridge holds about 150 000 people, Kitchener about 210 000 people and Waterloo roughly 110 000 people (possibly excluding the students, as not all of them are 'residentials' in the area). In Sweden or even in Europe this would be in an area of possibly 6x10 (=60) km2, but here the area is vastly larger, roughly 9x35 (=315) km2 (numbers estimated from GoogleEarth). This can also easily be understood when you see the towns (incl. town centres) in Canada, as people live in villas in the towns while townspeople in Sweden and Europe generally live in apartments or high-rises.

View from Apartment Window

The picture is taken from the balcony of our temporary location in Kitchener, Canada. The below street is a back alley street, leading nowhere, but far away in the distance you can spot the Kitchener city center and also where Waterloo begins.

Cerdanya Februar 2007

Assorted pictures from the Valley of Cerdanya in the north of Spain/ in the south of France. The fortress and church is from Mont Lluis while the architectural detail is from Lles and the cemetary picture is from close to Prats.