I got a bit melancholy the other day as I was reading the travel section in the Washington Post. For some reason, the article I was reading made me think about Canada and places I had been to there repeatedly due to work. One place is St. Georges de Beauce in Quebec, another is old Quebec City, and the other is Toronto in Ontario. St. Georges and Quebec City were places I went to for business and pleasure when I worked for Canam Steel and Toronto I went to for business while I was working for DDi…that was a pleasure also.
St. Georges is a fairly small town where Canam’s IT department was headquartered. I remember fondly (not fondling) being entertained on the town by my Canadian coworkers. At the end of trip up there I would usually take a couple of personal days at my expense in old Quebec City. It is probably not much harder to find an old world, read “European,” environment than Quebec City in North America expect perhaps for Montreal.
My favorite place to stay in old Quebec City is the Hotel Le Clos Saint Louis which is comprised of two old merged townhouses with a variety of accommodations that were always reasonably priced, especially, considering the location and included a free breakfast in the basement of the place, which kind of put me on edge, being in the basement that is.
I have a vague recollection of departing the place very early in the morning one time, waiting for my cab to the airport, and realizing I had left one of my bags in the foyer and already dropped off my key. There was no one on the front desk that early and repeated attempts to roust someone via the door buzzer were futile. I had no cell phone at the time but when the cabbie showed up we used his phone to call the hotel to no avail. Meanwhile, I needed to get to the airport! Finally, as desperation was peaking, some folks came walking out the door, I ran in, grabbed my bag, jumped in the cab, and made it to the airport on time.
Toronto has supposedly the largest immigrant population of any city in the world…over 50%. That in and of itself meant good things to me. I met people from all over the world and ate their food. The remarkable friendliness and kindness of the immigrants made me question why there was so much strife and hatred in our world. Toronto’s location on Lake Ontario, thankfully, makes up for it’s unbelievable flatness. Best of all though were the friends I made at DDi Toronto. We worked hard together, we had some good times, they had a birthday cake for me in the office one day, and I went out with a few folks who treated me to dinner that night.
So I am a bit sad thinking back. I have been out of work for so long that I reflect back on the work relationships that so define our day to day existence. They really did and continue to mean a lot to me.