Quiet Weekend

This is a long weekend in Ontario, August 1 is Ontario Day. The weather has been very pleasant and there are a few tourists about. We continue to prepare for the coming week which will be very busy with two moving days on Tuesday and Friday and a visit to Customs in between. Setting up house is serious work, however so far it has gone well. We will have to continue to downsize and get rid of things we no longer want nor need. Walk around a bit today, had a very nice lunch at the Parliament Pub in front of Parliament on Wellington street, the menu is written to reflect current politicians in office and dishes they might like, it is quite funny to read. Then later this afternoon I went to buy some wine at a shop on Elgin Street only to be told by the store owner that he had just been robbed, I turned around to see about 6 police cruisers converge on the shop. This is something that is not much talked about in Ottawa, but the level of poverty and despair, drug abuse, homelessness, economic disparity is just below the surface, there are a lot more beggars here or at least they are far more visible than what I saw in Europe, it is something you notice right away.

We often complained in Rome of poor client service, it is not much better here, unless you deal with a family owned business or a small independent business where the owner and staff have a stake in cultivating local clients, you will find the big box shop or business to be very indifferent to clients, borderline rude, Starbucks, Bridgehead, Loblaws, staff is surly and indifferent. It pays to go to smaller businesses. We have had on average one meal a day in a restaurant, noticed that a sandwich is about $12. dollars, a beer $6.50, a glass of wine about $10. a coffee $3.65, desserts $5.00, no bargains here.
Dinner for 3 persons around $160 dollars + 13% tax and 15% tip, no wonder tourism is way down to the levels of 1974.  Ottawa has become a very expensive city and I do not find that quality is present in the price paid.

We will certainly have to get use to a lot. Making our own coffee, bringing lunch to the office, etc...

On the other hand, there are lots of summer festivals in Ottawa, one is ChamberFest, another is the Buskers, another is dedicated to the Rideau Canal as a UNESCO World Heritage site with bands playing and entertainment around the parks and street in the city centre, most of it free to be enjoyed.

Travel to Ottawa

So I flew back to the Capital of the Dominion on Friday with Lufthansa via Frankfurt am Main. I like Lufthansa despite the delay in departing, about 20 minutes, the plane was clean, having just arrived from Frankfurt, the delay was due to morning frost in Germany. I do not know how the pilot did it but in Rome at Fiumicino, he was able to basically taxi directly to the departing position ahead of other flights also leaving in that time slot. Frankfurt airport is huge and walking from one terminal to the other takes time, also because I was leaving the Shengen zone (exiting the European Union) we had to go through immigration and passport inspection, having little time, I lined up in the EU Citizen line, when I got to the examining officer he looked at my photo in my passport and then looked at me, he looked surprised, I do not know why, maybe I look different, though my passport photo is no more than 2 years old.

The flight to Ottawa was quiet, I did notice on board Air Canada, that the food served is heavy on the bread and sauce and heavily salted and sugared. In Ottawa I notice the same thing on menus in restaurants, lots of breading, dips, sauces, cheese and cream, people love their foods to be heavy. So I have to read menus and order what is less heavy and healthier, difficult to do in this culture. Canadians are not as obese as Americans but they are not far behind.

Again Air Canada has much older on board personnel than other airlines, on average I would say that most cabin crew is over 55 years of age and testy and not necessarily happy.

Ottawa has changed in 7 years, the airport has expanded and is a lot bigger though the international arrival still has only one luggage carousel, we also now have a Hilton hotel at the airport, a first.
Other changes, new congress centre, lots of new big towers, condos, hotels, many condos now sell in the 2 to 7 million Canadian dollar range, again another first for this city.

Though there is still no decent public transport system and this weekend the mayoral race will probably see a new mayor elected. The city is still very quiet, little traffic after hours and fewer people, it is also very clean and tidy and Sunday is still a day of rest and everything is closed.

There is also a lot of cultural differences with Europe, you notice how people in Ottawa are low key, polite and courteous in a small town kind of way, people do dress down, very casual. Even on the flight I notice lots of jeans and T-shirts, you can easily overdress in Canada. There is an overwhelming concern with protecting children, the hotel has prominent displays about parental supervision and blocking internet and TV channels to protect children, to give parents peace of mind. Against what exactly? It seems that there is a huge concern with inappropriate influences on children, the attitude is the world is an evil place, a puritanical, Calvinist, the nanny approach to life. On Air Canada, every film shown came with an advisory about bad language, nudity and violence, the movies on the programe had none of it, the movie's contents were all quite inoffensive. Same with television, always the advisory message, a little too anal for my taste.

I do not find Ottawa to be a very affordable city, many food prices and other items are more expensive than Rome, I have been doing conversion from dollar to euros and am surprised to see, contrary to popular belief, that Canada is more expensive than Italy at least, items like a restaurant meal, parking, public transport, groceries, a simple coffee are all more expensive. As for real estate it has now reached to my surprise the same level of any European Capital in terms of prices.

I have a lot of people to see in Ottawa, I am going to make a big effort to see as many friends as possible.

Tomorrow the training starts, will we have to return to Ottawa in 2011, will see what HR says.