Day 7: We leave the cabot trail and to go Whycocomagh provincial park

Broadcove, where sea meets river.

This blog was first written in a steno pad I had with me in the tent. Well when I woke up this morning, I found it wet with tea. The plastic bag I had been keeping it in had been compromised and apparently I spilled tea.

Broadcove

Last night I had put my sony battery in a battery charger and left it to charge in the women's bathroom around 9pm. THere was also two mobiles left to charge as well as a Nikon battery in a charger.  I come back 2 hours later, all that is left charging is the Nikon. Mine is gone. My gut told me that someone had picked up the wrong battery charger. I went back around 5am, and still my charger was missing. By 9am it had re-appeared but I had to keep it there till 10am, for the battery to be fully charged. So I was correct that someone had made mistake and at least I had my charger and battery.

Bras d'or Lake seen from Whycocomagh provincial park

We went back to black brook and spent maybe 45minutes there in hopes of seeing an eagle but no such luck. So I started driving towards the Ingonish entry to pay my last night in the park . Just before we got to the chalet to pay, we saw a bald eagle swooping by very close to the car.

We then drove from Ingonish to Whycocomagh, making a pit stop for a lunch in a restaurant at the Lobster Galley Restaurant and Gift shop.  Their Aspy Bay mussels were delicious.

We got a campsite at Whycocomagh provincial park that did not have a view on beautiful Bras d'Or lake but rather that was surrounded by trees for shelter against the wind for our tent. THe bugs here were ferocious. THere was mosquitoes, black flies and noseeums.

Day 6: We drive along the Cabot Trail towards Ingonish

So after spending the evening ignoring a too-friendly neighbour at night at Cheticamp campground, we woke up at 9am.  The tent survived the night and it actually didn't rain. We packed up and drove first to Benji's lake where we saw a female moose eating along the side of the trail.

 We also stopped at most lookouts to check out the various views, we also walked to Macintosh falls. Despite the warnings we didn't see Moose, bears or coyotes. Of course it probably helped we had bear bells and made a lot of noise. We did near 1 dragonfly near the Macintosh falls.

Next to Macintosh falls

We had lunch at Pleasant Bay, and I spotted a hummingbird at a feeder in the restaurant window.

View of Pleasant Bay

We also stopped in Cape North to check out a few gift shops. We stopped at one lookout near black brook, and after talking a bunch of photos, I went to the bathroom. Right after  I left, my companion saw a bald eagle that swooped inches from his face. Pity I wasn't there.

We then continued to drive up until we got to Broadcove Campground. By the time we got there it was raining. We waited for the rain to slow down and put up our tent, then we put up a small tarp to cover the back door of the tent and most of the sleeping area of the tent. We used our large tarp folded over a rope on one end to cover over the picnic table as we only had 2 tarps. At least it gave us a dry area to be able to cook with. 

Macintosh falls

It was weird, when we got to the camping area, there was a weird older creepy guy driving a gray/blue Eldorado pick up truck with red plates that kept going around the parking lot over and over and over. Like he was stalking someone. Then after he finally left, the RCMP went around the campsite as well. This is found strange as I've never seen police in any provincial or federal park I've ever been to camp in. Made me wonder if someone else found him creepy and complained.

I've got 2 swelled up black fly bites, and tons of mosquito bites that haven't swelled.

 

Where river meets sea!

Day 5: We drive around Cape Breton Highlands National Park

Don't think I've ever been this annoyed and scared in a while. It rain and it was so windy that the mother of all tarps, the big tarp to cover our big tent, is destroyed. Also our tent has 3 broken frame posts. Rather all 3 poles have at least 1 broken piece that I taped together with some duck tape so that I could finish the trip with this tent.

Our tent was in the location of the white camper when it was destroyed

Because I'm highly paranoid I spent half the night worried the wind would lift our tent and ditch us in the middle of the gulf of St Lawrence. In the end we survived if not a bit traumatized with the experience.  Note to self , when camping somewhere really windy, use a low tent and lots and lots of pickets.

We went to the information center at the park at Cheticamp and the lady allowed us to change campsites, to one in the woods, far from the Ocean and the gale force winds for no extrsa fee. Pity though. The view at Corney brooke was spectacular, but with the force of the wind today our tent would just keep on breaking, it just didn't make sense to stay there. Now we are stuck inside a forest where there will be lots of bugs.

Neither one of us slept so we were pretty crabby. Typical maritime weather of storms. Everything that could go wrong did go did last night. So at least we had a bit of luck today. We were able to change campsites for no extra fee. Showers are free here and it was nice and hot. That was good since I was so fried and frazzle, from not sleeping and fearing hte tent would become airborn. At least it was warm in my sleeping bag!

Carnivorous flower Purple pitcher plant.

But I'm used to it raining whenever I camp. I always try to bring sufficient rain gear. Including my rain boots, raincoat, rainpants and jacket. Between all that I managed to say somewhat warm and dry.

I messaged my eldest daughter but did not get an answer. I do not get any reception in the Park except at the information centers where there is wifi.  She messaged me back later to say that while she could get leave she was still duty ready so could not leave Halifax.

We went to visit the bog and saw a Moose on the way back.

Day 5: Oh look a ...

Its either a moose or an elk seen on the Cabot trail

There's a moose to the left next to the tree if you look closely

Day 4 & 5 Cape Breton Highlands National park

We spent our first night at  Corney brook praying our tent didn't fly away with us in it. So our 2nd night is at Cheticamp campsite. The tent frame had to be duck taped so let's hope we can finish this trip with this tent.

Tent poles are holding together with tape.

Day 4: We drive to cape Breton Highlands National Park!

The canso causeway bridge where you enter Cape Breton

We were on the road by 9am to drive to Cheticamp in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. We got to the border of Nova Scotia by 10am and stopped at the visitors information. We were in Port Hawksbury Cape Breton by 1:30pm.

At that point I decided to stop at Canadian Tire. I found myself a butt cushion. It appears I have lost some weight since Christmas, and the lack of padding makes driving for hours very uncomfortable. So now I have a gel seat and can handle 8 hours on my rear! We also picked up a 3pack of propane.

We then stopped at Fleur de Lis cafe and restaurant for a late lunch. He had the haddock burger, and chowder and I had the acadian chower, which was excellent.

We drove along the Acadian side towards Cheticamp going by the 19 until we got to the cabot trail. By the time we got to Cheticamp it was 6:30pm and we stopped for gas. I remembered last time I was in the park almost running out of gas, so I made sure I went into the park with a full tank.







Of course the office for the park entrance had closed at 5pm, so we went into the park up to Corney brooke Campsite, where I did self-registration for 2 nights. THe view was spectacular on the site we chose. We had a chance to put the tent up before the rain and the wind got really bad. We should have chosen a site that was better covered against the elements and I should have brought the smaller tent, but this is neither here or there. We put the big tent in a location where the gale force winds pretty much broke the tent posts.

Our tent before it got destroyed

Despite the heavy rain, I actually managed to capture sunset

Day 3: We leave Oromocto for Murray Beach Provincial Park

Love the effect of the sea/sky here.

 We left Oromocto around 2pm, and drove to Murray Beach Provincial park. It pissed the who way there practically but by the time we got there and set up our campsite, it was not raining. The mosquitoes were voracious. It didn't help that they had just cut the grass. But on the beach there were no mosquitoes so we hung out on the beach until it started to rain. We saw a pair of foxes, lots of birds, ravens, and sparrows flying by 2's by 3's and by 4's.

Fox likes hanging on in cemetery

Oh look a fox!

It was interesting at some point I thought I heard a bee so I stopped walking around with my camera and stood still. It was a hummingbird who stopped for about 10 seconds in front of me as if to say hello and then he zoomed off. I'm guessing it was a Ruby throated hummingbird because  the colour I noticed was red. Even though I was holding camera with telephoto lens, I was so stunned to see him looking at me, I didn't even react.

Day 3 : Murray beach provincial park

The view from our campsite.

Day 2: Oromocto and the 4rth covered bridge of Sunbury County New Brunswick

We left around lunch time to visit the 4rth and last of the Sunbury County Covered bridges. We also wandered by Blissville on our way to Fred for some shopping. At least it was mostly sunny and 24. Probably one of the nicer days of the entire vacation weather wise.

Day 2 Oromocto

A few photos as I blog from my phone the first time

The bridge is the one at Hoyt Station. The one Sunbury covered bridge we never saw last June The sunset and the tank were taken in Oromocto

Day 1: We drive to Oromocto

Today I drove from Montreal to Oromocto. I was on the road at 7:15AM and was in Oromocto by 6pm New Brunswick time. We made 2 stops at Haltes routieres, and one at a gas Station. We also stopped in the French Fry Capital of the world, the Town of Florenceville.

 Although you get offered a large choice of types of potatoes for your fries, they were not double cooked and just didn't taste that great. For $3.50 for a fry, it really was nothing special.  In fact I'd give it a 2 out of 5.

Northern Flicker in a lawn in Oromocto.

Was supposed to leave today early morning on Vacation trip....

  I didn't feel well enough yesterday to finish packing. Or to shop for pre-made indian food, which is vegetarian and keeps well regardless the temp. But yeah it turns me off eating Indian food for a few weeks after that. . One of the brands of Indian food I got was Tasty Bite.

Most of my packing is done. I've brought with me warm clothes, and lots of it, so no matter what happens I still have clothes to wear. I have clothes to layer all sorts of ways.

So the idea is to leave early tomorrow morning, somewhere between 8-9am for Oromocto.

Why bother having a CO-OP program - RANT

I've been hiring interns I think for the past 18 years.  I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly. Usually though it was the students, not with the support staff in the universities that deals with the students.

I've had issues with one particular University with one of their stage coordinators and until this summer, I had not hired anyone from that University, in probably close to 10 years.  Because of the way I was treated by their coordinator.  So finally I chose to interview a few students from there. For starters we had all sorts of issues with Skype. It was extremely painful to interview that way because the voice kept cutting in and out, if the student on the other end even moved a hair while sitting   You would think that they would have tested their Skype setup before the interview day. 

I've interviewed a student once through MSN messenger video chat who was in  Jbeil Lebanon, and although he could not receive video, I had an easier time with that interview despite Lebanon's piss poor internet service of the time. The audio and video I received from him was sufficient and he understood me. 

In the end after the lousy skype interviews, I had chosen one student. I chose to make her an offer, but not to the other two that I interviewed because I did not think they were a good fit for me.   What they were expecting me to do is to send them a message that said

Student a  - 1
Student b - 2
student c - 3

What I did was the equivalent of this. Which I have every right to do.

Student a - 1
student b - 0
student c - 0

My HR person just basically sent them the name of student a, as being the only student we were making an offer to.  On a day where she was out of the office, the coordinator decided to call her.  He called her backup who said "This isn't anything that can't wait till tomorrow, wait till she's in". So he called my colleague who interviews with me, but got his voice mail. Next he called me. That's when he started saying "It's obvious you don't understand our ranking system, so I'm calling to explain it to you". That's when I said to the guy, that I was making one offer. He says "What if she refuses, you get no one". I answered "I have students from other universities I'd rather make an offer to". He tried again to explain to me the ranking system. I told him that I've been dealing with ranking systems for coop programs for 15 years, besides if he has a beef with HR, he should talk to HR.

Student A did accept my offer and she's working with me. She was a good fit in the team, and is doing an awesome job.  Normally during the internship, the  coordinator is supposed to come for a visit. That has to be scheduled through our HR department. But no, the coordinator sent me and the student an email saying he'd be at my office on a particular day at 2:30.  Well that's nice, but 1) what if I was meeting another coordinator from another university that day 2) I was on vacation 3) there were no free conference rooms to reserve for that day and time, because it's not like I can take him to my desk, I work in a restricted area.  So I forwarded the email to HR, who called him to tell him that he has to coordinate with HR to schedule appointments with my student and I.  It's still up in the air as to when this will happen because the coordinator managed to really piss off the HR lady.

Now let's think this through. The internship program is to benefit the students. So they get some experience in the field they are hoping to work in. The support staff in the universities that help make this possible, should not be pissing off employers. They should be working hand in hand with the HR department of the companies they deal with.  We almost always have one HR person dedicated to handling everything that goes with the internship programs. I've worked with every single one of them and they were all competent organized people.  Rarely did it happen in the past that a coordinator would phone or email me directly. It all went through the HR department.  Now all of them do it. So I get phone calls and emails from 6 different schools. From various coordinators and their support staff. I get spammed by all sorts of emails from the various universities for all sorts of things I should never be emailed for.  Like each time the school has an award presentation I'm invited.  Let's be honest here. Who goes to award ceremonies other then those receiving awards and their close family and friends?

Despite the fact HR asked all of them to contact HR only, they all try me. And I have one broken record CALL OR EMAIL HR!  Apparently I was the first who had that attitude and forwarded to HR all the emails I get, and send emails to advise HR when I get phone calls. Now all the other managers who hire students do the same.

I mean the 3 main universities with COOP programs are Sherbrooke, Concordia and ETS [Ecole de Technologie Superieure ].   I have beefs with all 3. One of them tends to send me candidates from first year bachelors to masters students.  I now know why. The staff tell the students "apply to all jobs that you like and ignore the pre-requesites".    One of them spams me constantly with junk mail, despite asking over and over and over to be removed from their mailing lists.  Their website to get resumes is woefully painful. I had 15 applicants for my fall 2013 position and it took me over 2 hours to print the resumes of those that had adequate GPA. 

IT's a great idea to put everything electronically. Sadly when I interview either at their campus or when I interview in a room at work, I don't have access to even a laptop to view the resume. So I need to print them regardless. So having their whole system electronically has not improved things  but has made it more difficult. For instance it's very nice that I can do the evaluation online but it's a pain to print it so that we can keep a copy for our files for instance. Doesn't print very well. PRobably done on purpose by some environmental nazi. to discourage printing.

Same university again, about a year ago, I chose a whole bunch of candidates to interview and then never got given an interview schedule for the day I was supposed to interview at their campus.   And then the last university is the one I've been bitching about with the coordinators from hell.  I had issues with them and Skype  4 months ago. Apparently the Skype interviews that were supposed to happen today,  got completely messed up by the university . HR person sent all her instructions for how to connect to Skype via email.  When she called to ask why no one has connected by Skype to the manager, she was told that she hadn't provided the right information.  They blatantly lied to her twice today.  I'm so looking forward to meeting that coordinator. When he asks how come we rarely hire students from their university I am prepared to give him an earful, more then he cared to know that's for sure.

Then there's McGill, Polytechnique and UQAM who also sends us interns. One of them I can't really complain about. I don't get many candidates but the ones I've hired have been exceptional.  Another one for some reason now for the 3rd time in a row sends me resumes of students who are registered full time for the period for which they are applying for an internship. HR assures me that it says these are full time positions. How do those students expect to do 5-6 classes during the day and work full time? Or when I'm looking for winter positions they  are applying for summer positions. So CV's go into reject pile.   The last university, rarely sends me students at any other time then for the summer positions. But then I have so much more choice in the summer that their students don't get a fair chance sometimes.

UGH

Microsoft things I'm unimpressed with.

I'm on Outlook Webmail using Firefox, and it spams me to upgrade my IE!

It's obvious I don't give a rats ass about IE, I'm using Firefox.

Don't get me started on the Windows 8 'Store'.  Compared to the Sony store, the Microsoft store is a piece of junk. I mean other then the fact that there is no way to configure it for a proxy.

Mmm tea

I love my tea. Even though I haven't had real tea in probably 20 years, I drink Tetley Earl Grey decaf, and I love it. Of course I boil my water on a kettle on the stove.  I makes good tea. I had realized probably 30 years ago with my first microwave oven that while it can boil water, it makes for horrible tea. This article explains why.

Dubai a clear winner in the Arab Spring

Almost 2 years ago now I had mused that Dubai specifically and the UAE in general would benefit from the Arab spring.  I wasn't wrong in the least. Not only are they benefiting from the instabilities in the Arab world but also from the war in Afghanistan.

The rate of growth isn't the same as before the 2006 crash but it is one of the few places in the world where construction and crazy projects are booming again. 

This isn't new. Dubai is a prime vacation destination for anyone with money in the region. It's one of the few places that benefit from stability even though it's system is really crappy. The way workers are treated like slaves and yet if you are a Westerner from the US, Canada or Europe you can benefit and live really comfortably so long as you have a contract and employer.

I still think Dubai can be called the Las Vegas of the Arab world. It's still very much a place where everything isn't what it appears to be. 

Which reminds me I interviewed 2 students from Dubai this spring.  One was from an ex-pat family, probably from India, and while it was obvious he grew up somewhat privileged in Dubai, he seemed to have a good grasp of life outside Dubai. The 2nd one was visibly the son of a well-off Emirati family with no sense of how to behave.  My colleague asked him how he found Montreal and in front of a female interviewer went on to make vulgar signs and comments about the lusciousness of Montreal women.  The comment actually disturbed my male colleague who used to be a player before he settled down!!!! It was obvious that kid had never had to interview for a job in his life and had no idea how to behave because he's never had to care!   I wonder how a female from Dubai would interview?!?

Jethro is such a cute Maine Coon

 

Huh?

Jethro's mutant left foot.

Jethro's mutant right foot.

Jehtro's big mutant feet

Jethro looking incredibly unimpressed

Kitty cat with Mutant feet!

Ziva and her mutant feet!

Lookie at my cute mutant feet!

I'm a pretty girl with mutant feet!

Left front mutant paw!

Right front mutant paw!