Musings of a Canadian

Wow. Never again will that happen.

At time of writing, I am in Quebec City, PQ, and I’ve just gotten back to my hotel room from seeing Apocalyptica and Rammstein.

As you read what I have to say, please keep in mind that I also just spent time out in Alberta. Calgary to be exact. I decided to head out to Banff from where I was staying, and check it out. I felt more at peace… more at home, than I do in my own home in Oshawa. I was invited to join a friend here in Quebec for this concert that I thought would be interesting. I was so incredibly wrong. I guess though that this is because of my country music up bringing.

To me, both bands were nothing but noise. Apocalyptica was worse. To me, it sounded like people screwing around with chellos, trying to sound metal. But no. They just made noise. Rammstein sounded like some dude grunting into a microphone, with absolutly nothing sounding intelegable.

Last night I flew from Toronto Pearson Int’l Airport, to Calgary. This is part of the summer vacation that I have planned, in hopes to get away from it all for a while.

The plan is to be out here for the week, until 15 July, then fly back to Toronto to start a road trip to Quebec City and back.

I decided to take this trip when I got my statement from my Employee Share Accumulation Plan (ESAP) from work. Said I had like $1000. I contacted friends out here in Calgary with this awesome plan of coming out here for a week, then we all jump the same flight back to Toronto to do whatever. The opposite order was also a possibilty.

The flight in was pretty uneventful. Airline coffee is kinda blah. But its free. Take off was a rush. There was no line up and wait. We stopped just briefly at the edge of the runway, most likely to get permission to take off. We then started moving slowly, made the 90 degree turn on to Runway 06L for the east bound departure, only to turn north, and eventually west. It is a weird feeling being on the inside of that 20 degree banked turn. It almost feels like the pilots have stood the plane up on its wings for the turn.

Flying out of Toronto, I never realized how beautiful the city was. I was disappointed though that I didn’t get to see the Northern Lights from above, or at level with them. Maybe I’ll have to take this trip in the winter and see what happens.

Landing was quite the experiance. I never really felt the deceleration of the plane until we planted on the runway. Oh boy do those Boeing 737-800s ever shudder when the breaks are applied and reverse thrust is applied. Scarriest thing I’ve felt in a long long long while.

For those that care, I will be posting occasional updates on twitter. I can be found there at www.twitter.com/tony_imboden. Here is looking to a good time.