Mobile Posting #20101026

If you're reading this then I'm horribly jealous of you. This is because in order to read this post you must have the internet, something I've been without for five days now. FIVE! That's an eternity in my world. Let me regale you all with the tale of how this all came to pass:

There's a company out the called TekSavvy Solutions who offer internet and telephone services and very competitive rates. However, since Rogers controls all of the cable lines, and Bell all the telephone lines, they are really just reselling those other companies services. The other companies are obliged by anti-monopoly laws to allow this. That said, there's nothing in the law books that says they need to be helpful about it, and companies like TekSavvy are, to an extent, at their mercy.

I had arranged that last Thursday my internet service with Rogers would terminate and I would be picking up service with TekSavvy. Rogers was quite punctual in cutting off my services with them, however the setup of my TekSavvy account is also handled by Rogers, and for some reason they haven't got around to it yet. Believe me, in this household you could cut the frustration with a knife.

There you have it folks. A gripping tale of terror just before Halloween.

In other, more exciting news, Gray, Susan, and I all participated in the CN Tower stair climb on Sunday. That was great fun! We were meeting the rest of the Computershare team at 9:00 that morning, and so we made our way to the subway around 8:00. Fun Toronto Travel Tip! Don Mills Station doesn't open on Sundays until 8:45. Write that down, it could be important someday. As it was raining quite steadily we were pretty wet by the time we got back here and jumped in the truck to drive down. Fortunately that was the only hiccup in the morning's adventure. It was still early enough in the day that Toronto's traffic was slumbering and we had a smooth drive down, managing to arrive on time despite the delay.

We met up with our team, got checked in, and lined up to get to the tower all very smoothly. In the end I was very impressed with how well organized the whole event was. Pretty technically impressive too; we were all given disposable bracelets with an electronic I'd tag in them. At the start of the stairs you passed your arm through a small scanner, the twin of which was that the top, and together they recorded the time it took you to climb. I was extremely happy with my time of 19:19 given that I'd been quoted half an hour as the average. My only regret is that Gray managed to post a time of 19:16, and I'm certain that I'll never live down this embarrassing loss.

It had been many years since I'd visited the CN Tower, and it was unfortunate that the weather was so poor; with all the rain and low cloud cover the view from the top was just a swirling sea of fog. Another Toronto Travel Tip! If you'd like to visit the CN Tower, ensure that you've got a few days in your trip that free so that you can afford to wait for clear weather to go up the tower. Also, visit in the summer so that actually stand a chance of getting the aforementioned good weather. A really nice, clear winter day might be interesting too, I may have to test that theory this winter.

Well my friends, with my computer deprived of an internet connection I'm typing this out on my mobile phone and my typing speed isn't particularly great. The time has come again for me to get to work. I hope you're all doing well, and I'll talk to you again next week.