All week I’ve been adjusting my watch forward and backwards, culminating in last night’s rollback. (You did remember to set your clock back, right?)

Saturday saw me set it forward an hour when I arrived in Halifax for a few days, combining business and pleasure.  I had a great time visiting Peggy’s Cove on Sunday where the weather was absolutely amazing with sunshine and 18C.

Saltwater must run in my veins because I lost track of time sitting on the rocks watching the waves crash onto shore. Feeling the salt spray on my face was incredibly relaxing.

I also visited one of the memorials to Swissair flight 111, which crashed into the ocean about 10km offshore of Peggy’s Cove in 1998. Two monuments were built, one near Peggy’s Cove and the other in Bayswater. There are sightlines at both monuments which triangulate on the actual location of the crash.  Very impressive.

On Monday I met up with my co-worker and we spent the next couple of days working in our regional office. Wednesday morning we headed to the airport and caught a flight to Ottawa. I parted company with her and met up with my boss at the gate for the flight to Winnipeg, where I spent the next couple of days.

Arriving in Winnipeg meant setting my watch back 2 hours compared to Halifax, which I had adjusted to during the four days I was there.

The weather in Winnipeg basically grey and wet almost the whole time we were there. The forecast kept warning of impending snow, but I’m happy to report that we didn’t see any snow while we were there.

The time change caught up with me, so it always felt like it was about two hours later than it really was. And since we were working weird shifts in the regional office, it only got worse. By the time we left Friday morning, I had no idea what time it really was.

Arriving home Friday afternoon meant setting the clock forward an hour. I dragged my suitcases upstairs and promptly fell asleep on the couch for a couple of hours.

It’s now sometime on Sunday and I’ve dutifully adjusted my clocks again, this time to switch over to Eastern Standard Time. Consequently, everything feels out of sync again.

At least it’s sunny out.

If you’ve taken a VIA Rail train during the last few years, you’re probably familiar with the 2+2 seating arrangement found on many VIA LRC trains.  Two seats on the left and two seats on the right. While quite comfortable, the train stock has been in service for quite some time.

Enter VIA’s Renaissance trains.

VIA’s Renaissance equipment was originally built by Alstom for use in the UK. VIA Rail acquired the train sets and has been running them on routes east of Montreal for a few years. About three weeks ago, they reallocated some of the Renaissance stock to serve routes west of Montreal and I’m fortunate to be writing this on the Montreal-Toronto run today that has it.

Rather than the traditional 2+2, the Renaissance cars, at least in VIA1 class, have a 2+1 seat configuration. Each row has individual overhead bins, compared to the bins on their older cars that run the length of the car. Under seat storage is much different that the older stock.

On older trains, you shove your stuff under the seat in front of you. On the Renaissance stock, you have a space under your seat that can easily hold a computer backpack, pair of boots and a 35mm camera bag comfortably. There’s a fold down footrest if you want to put your feet up.

The seats themselves are raised up above the level of the aisle and are quite comfortable and roomy. Fold down trays are located on the back of the seat in front of you and unfold to a full-size tray if needed. Otherwise, you have a tray about 6 or 8 inches wide. Very slick.

Sound-wise, they seem quieter than the older grey stock and the ride seems smoother, too. (That could be due to the fact that I’m on the Montreal-Toronto corridor which sees a lot of traffic rather than the Ottawa-Montreal corridor which doesn’t.)

There’s also a club car available to VIA1 passengers with comfortable seats, a tall table thing to stand at and a wide-screen TV on one wall.

According to one of the on-board staff, the crews working the routes where the Renaissance trains were taken from aren’t happy about the loss of their trains and want them back. She also told me that they do one run a day each way between Ottawa and Montreal, so if you’re able to book your travel on train 634 or 635 go for it because you won’t be disappointed.

2008 was a year of highs and lows (though I guess that can be said about most years) – fortunately there weren’t many lows.

It included my Granddad’s 100th birthday party, curling, a ridiculous amount of snow, a trip to San Antonio, a trip to Greece, dealing with water damage in my apartment caused by a leaky air conditioner, dragonboating, playing Ultimate, going climbing in the Gatineau Hills for the first time after years of climbing in rock gyms, a trip to Quebec City, meeting some of the Harlem Globetrotters (Curly and Buckets) while playing bells at the A-Channel and some geocaching (though not as much as I’d have liked).

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I was finally able to do some geocaching here in Quebec City.  Since arriving, I’ve scoped out some caches, but wasn’t able to actually find any of them because there were too many people around.  I remedied that by doing some late night geocaching.  One I found was near the fountain in front of the Quebec legislature building (GC154TJ).  Naturally, the geocoin I’ve been carrying around for a while was too big to fit in the container.

The other one I logged was a virtual geocache.  There’s a tree in the Old City that has grown around a cannon ball and to log the cache you have to take your picture with it. (GCHKWJ)

This bumper sticker was stuck to a number of things in the Old City, so I thought I’d take a picture of it for Trashy.

Pictures of it and some other pictures I took since the last update are in my gallery.

I drove down to Quebec City to attend the week-long 16th General Assembly and International Scientific Symposium of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) on Saturday.  Yesterday evening, I wandered around Old Quebec with one of the other people from Ottawa and took some pictures.  It was raining, so everything was shiny and the clouds glowed in the lights giving the buildings a kind of spooky aura.

You can see the pictures in my gallery.

A few months ago, I wrote about looking forward to WordCamp Toronto 2008.  I ended the entry with the following:

Hopefully, my schedule won’t change between now and then. 🙂

Well, it appears I was tempting Fate.

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The new header picture is a section of a larger picture I took my first evening in Athens from the Aeropagus, a small rocky hill part way up the Acropolis.