Category: Work

Pre-Cosmo

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Just got back from another trip to Moncton. Highlights:

  • Stayed at a different hotel this time, the boutique hotel above the St. James’ Gate pub. It was just okay. Showing it’s age a bit for sure. And the cleaners in the room next to mine had no problem blasting super-loud music at 7am through the thin walls. Luckily I was already up, but if you were looking to sleep in it might not be the place for you. No amenities or anything either…just a room.
  • I managed to coordinate a fly-by hug with my mom on her way to a show at the Capitol Theatre, which was a nice little bonus for us both.
  • Coupla hammered guys outside the St. James’ Gate got pretty aggro with me as I tried to go to my room, making fun of me because — as far as I could tell — I was wearing a collared shirt. Ah, the Maritimes.
  • Wine tradition: picked up a pretty nice bottle of Oregon Pinot and drank it over the course of the week.
  • Tried a few new places: Café-bistro C’est la Vie for breakfast (fine) and Tire Shack Brewing for a couple of work social events (very nice).
  • Ate at a few old standards too: The Keg, Carrabba’s, and St. James’ Gate.

Flew home last night and joined in on the cat-sitting of the cutest boy who ever cuted, Cosmo. We love him.

“Windhouse” sounds more polite than “Pumpjammer” so let’s go with that

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I’ve just spent the week in Moncton, a more-or-less monthly occurrence now. This time it was rainy — very rainy. But at least it wasn’t snow or sleet.

I managed to try some new places this time, not just the same-old. On Monday I made a quick run to my favourite ANBL, and finally grabbed apps & beers at Pumphouse.

Tuesday I grabbed coffee at Brix, had lunch with my team at the Tide & Boar brewpub, and dinner with colleagues at Cinta Ria.

Wednesday I had drinks with more/other colleagues at Carrabba’s, and took a salad to go.

Thursday I decided to treat myself and had dinner, solo, at The Windjammer — a Moncton institution, but new to me. On the way I stopped in once again at the best ANBL, and found they were doing a little wine tasting. I just missed the Champagne, but sampled a fantastic Chablis and some excellent Beaujolais from Morgon. Good timing, I must say. Then, off to dinner.

The Windjammer wasn’t busy; I had a large booth to myself. The staff were just lovely, and matched my pace (i.e., I never waited for a course to show up, but never felt rushed) perfectly. My meal:

  • Amuse-bouche of beetroot and smoked salmon
  • Beet & goat cheese salad
    • Champagne
  • Granita (palate cleanser)
  • Bone-in ribeye w/ vegetables & Béarnaise sauce
    • Chianti
  • Chocolate truffles
    • Port

The steak was cooked perfectly, if a little over-salted. Still, I demolished it. They also very sweetly gave me a little jar of smoked salmon to take home, but I forgot it! Gutted.

Since it’s a long weekend I’ll leave Moncton this morning and drive to the farm for a couple of days. Just in time for the end of maple season!

POSTSCRIPT

It was a fun weekend at the farm. I tried to help out a bit with what turned out to be a very busy maple season, but I’m far too rusty. A bunch of family showed up Saturday and Sunday to partake of some maple, so that was an unexpected bonus. I also squeezed in a few hours up the road visiting one of my oldest friends, who I haven’t seen in…god, I don’t know how many years. But we got caught up, and fell right back into our love for music, and laughing about the days when we were kids. When I left he told me he loved me, and I told him the same. I’ve missed him, a lot. I’m excited to get more chances to see him.

“A darker grey is breaking through a lighter one”

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I spent three days this week on a quick work trip to two western provinces: Manitoba (where I’ve visited just once) and Saskatchewan (where I’ve never been before). I met up with three colleagues at Pearson airport, and boarded the first of four flights to come in the next 48 hours. It was an Air Canada Express flight, meaning the planes didn’t have screens in the seats, so I got caught up on podcasts.

First on the agenda was Saskatoon. We landed (achievement unlocked: visit all ten provinces), buttoned our coats, and hurriedly walked to the rental car. We’d been dreading the western weather for days — and it was definitely still in the -20s — but luckily arrived just after the worst of it. (The day before it had felt like -48 with the windchill). We grabbed coffee from Museo, then later had fun with colleagues at Mar’s Mini-Golf and Earl’s.

The next day we had a 6:30 flight, so we were all up stupid-early. We were flying to Winnipeg, but because flights in the prairies are non-sensical, one of us had to fly to Calgary first, while the rest of us flew via Vancouver. If you understand Canadian geography at all, you’ll know how insane that is. Anyway, it gave me a chance to watch a movie (Dumb Money) and try out the first two episodes of a new-to-me TV show (For All Mankind). It also gave me a chance to marvel at the snowy BC landscape and see the sun glint off the Rockies, which is always a thrill. However, somewhere along the way I lost my Nexus card, which is going to be a pain in the butt.

We finally arrived in Winnipeg. Same sort of schedule as the Saskatoon: coffee (Thom Bargen, which was excellent), a fun group event (go-carting at Speedworld, which was very fun), and dinner at One Great City brewpub (which had me singing the Weakerthans song of the same name in my head the whole time).

I wish I’d had more (or maybe different?) time in both cities. I have friends in Winnipeg I’d have like to have seen — in hindsight I should have just stayed for the weekend. Then again, the middle of January probably isn’t the right time to spend extra days in cities like that. The crew I was with, who’ve done these trips many times, swear Saskatoon is beautiful in the summer, so maybe someday I’ll aim for that.

Or maybe it’s time to get to work on the territories?

Taste

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A couple days ago we got back from Moncton. I’d been there nearly two weeks, Lindsay about half of that.

  • Weather was all over the place. From warm and rainy some days to full snowstorms to bitterly cold to heavy windstorms. That’s the Maritimes in almost-winter, I guess.
  • I mentioned the family & farm visits in my last post, but I also got to have a drink with a former vendor-side colleague who’s moved east, and an old university housemate who I hadn’t seen in (does quick math) 30 freakin’ years. We ended up in the same line of work, which was fun.
  • New places I tried this time: Gusto (not bad) and India King (very good), plus a bunch of delivery places because it was so g-d cold. I also got some intel on other good places, so the list has been refreshed for next time.

Detroit + donair: a fusion I didn’t know I needed

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Once again I was back in Moncton this past week. Of note:

  • I sat next to someone I used to work with on the flight there, and another ex-colleague on the flight back. Last time I saw a former member of a past board of directors. I didn’t expect Moncton flights to be this kind of reunion hub.
  • Once I arrived I set out for my usual dinner plan: buy two bottles of wine at the Experience store, and get a baseball steak at The Keg. On the walk there I was a murmuration of Starlings just outside the hotel — I didn’t get video, but someone else did.
  • New places I tried this time: Cinta Ria (very tasty Malaysian), Taj Mahal (very good, even if I forgot to order rice), and the Tide & Boar brewpub, where I drank some very good beer and ate an extremely delicious (if far too big) Detroit-style donair pizza.
  • No family visits this time — it was a bit last-minute, and I was pretty heads-down whilst there — but there’ll be plenty more chances.

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Back to NB

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Three weeks ago Moncton was so hot I was sweating as I walked around. This past week, my first return trip for my new job, started with a day so cold I needed a scarf. It moderated through the week, but still…fall came on quickly.

No visit to the farm this time, but my parents, brother #2 and my s-i-l drove over to have dinner at The Keg, my second visit there in the week, so I ate my weight in baseballs. I also picked up food twice from Red Satay, given how close it was to where I was staying. Brix was similarly close by, thus it was my coffee home base, but I did also have an exceptional cortado down the street at Epoch Chemistry. I also tried quick lunches from Fahda’s (meh) and La Vida (pretty good) during the week.

My wine plan — buy two bottles I’ve never tried before from the EXPÉRIENCE store my first day there and drink them over the course of the week — worked pretty well. I picked up a lovely Garnacha-forward blend, and a 100% Merlot from Saint-Émilion.

The new job

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My new role has me travelling to Moncton on a pretty regular basis. This past week was my first week with my new company, and it was a good one. I never say much about work here, but in keeping with the main thrust of this blog, I’ll recount the good places I visited whilst in Moncton.

There’s a Carrabba’s (!) near my office, so I ate and drank there a lot, just out of sheer convenience…a habit I hope to break in future visits. I ate meals at St. James’ Gate (decent), the Moncton Gahan House (decent), Monk10 (good), and Red Satay (excellent). I also had coffee at Brix (excellent) and picked up a bottle of wine to to bring to brother #2’s house from the new Experience by ANBL store. It’s a very nice spot with a fun selection; I reckon I’ll make a few trips there in the coming months.

Being so close to the farm, I extended my stay by a couple of days and drove there Friday evening. Brother #1 and his fam drove in Friday night, arriving shortly after I did, so just about the whole gang was here for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday — they moved it up to Saturday to accommodate my flight this afternoon. It’s a quick visit, but any time at the farm feels regenerative. I’ll get to do these more frequently now, and once we settle into a cadence Lindsay will be able to visit too.

The transition phase

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Last Thursday was my last day at Arterra. My last working day was the Friday before that, but technically, I was on the books until Aug 31.

I joined the company in July 2021, after more than two decades in and around banking, excited to get behind the scenes at the Canadian wine industry. While it had nothing to do with my day job, I was excited to meet some of the winemakers and viticulture team, the importers and exporters, the masters of wine, the purchasers and supply chain experts…it was a real education, and a chance to understand more of an industry I’ve come to love. And it was fun to be the resident wine nerd among the executives.

There’s another opportunity in the works that I’m hoping comes to pass, but in the meantime, I’m taking September off. I can’t be certain, but I’m pretty sure I haven’t had more than 2.5 consecutive weeks of vacation since I started my working life in 1997. The first couple of weeks were sheer downtime (in part because I’ve been so sick), but we have some fun plans coming up.

So, yeah…as I type this I have four more weeks of vacation, and I have to say: that sounds pretty good.

Like gross, gross clockwork

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It’s long been a pattern with me that, as soon as my body knows it can relax, it stops fighting off whatever bug or virus might be knocking at the door. And so it was that after I finished work on Thursday I began to feel the effects of whatever bug Lindsay had been fighting all week.

And when I say “after work” I mean immediately after work. As in, I couldn’t have been more than ten minutes from the office when I first felt some throat irritation. By the time I pulled into the garage I had a legit sore throat. By that night I was feeling the effects of a full-blown cold.

I wasn’t too bad Friday — I was able to wrap up what little work I had left (more on that later) but it destroyed me Saturday to the point where I spent pretty much the whole day in bed. Our tickets to the Leslieville Beer Fest went to waste too. 😦

Today’s been a bit better, but I’m still feeling pretty wonky. Two COVID rapid tests have proved negative, but it sure as heck feels like it. I’m hoping I’ll feel nearly back to normal by tomorrow, my first real day of vacation.

Cover photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

Time for a change

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I don’t talk much about work on here, but it’s not really a secret that I’ve spent my entire career — save a two-year stint in software which ended not long before the beta version of this blog was born, in 2001 — in banking. Next week, that changes.

I never really expected to work for a bank, despite having a business degree. I was recruited out of university by a very large one where I spent two years, then went to the afore-mentioned software company for a couple years, before returning to the same large bank for (*checks notes*) twelve years. In 2013 I switched to a much smaller bank, and did some cool stuff there, but about two weeks ago I gave my notice. I wasn’t looking to leave, but an opportunity came up, and when I sat back and looked at it, I decided 22 years in banking was enough. (And about 20 more than I ever thought I’d last.)

The opportunity that came up is actually in the wine world, so I’ll be excited to marry up my professional background with a personal passion. My current company didn’t even get that mad when I told them — they know how into wine I am, and how infrequently an opportunity like this would come along. I’ll have lots to learn in a new industry, but hopefully lots to offer as well. The only downside I can think of right now is that I’ll have to commute to Mississauga, which means I’ll have to own a car for the first time in my life.

So next week is my last week, and the rush is on to get everything wrapped up & squared away. I’m taking the final week of June off, to give my brain a bit of a break. I considered getting out of town, but between this final sprint and a huge deliverable that Lindsay’s working on, I think I might just spend those days lying on the couch, or sitting in the backyard, or maybe going to a patio. (Speaking of which: I went to Chez Nous on Monday, my first patio in…I literally don’t even remember how long.)

Anyway, I’m excited. It’s a little scary, but good scary. And I’m ready.

.:.

Cover photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash