Her Birthday

It's Party time!!! That's for all your comments and wishes on Twitter :) What would I do without my readers, so loyal despite sporadic posts lately!

Sometimes You Just Have to Vent

And as I re-read it. That's what my last post was. People who work in my building over are "friendly" although I do get the impression of fakeness a lot of the time. They really don't like dealing with things that are negative... or don't know how. A number of them seem flighty or just... unaware... somewhere on their cloud. It's all roses until someone brings something up. It's just hard to swallow at a place where rent is twice as high as the place where everyone seemed to genuinely love their job.

So basically... maybe this still sounds like a rant. Especially since this post is not to say that they finally did something about my closet door! Haha.

Well I do like some of the staff quite a bit but I'd never have them write a test for me, let's put it that way. And if that's a low blow, let's just say, I might need to use this blog for venting purposes for the next couple of years (or until I move)!

you understand.

Calling all GOOD apt concierges!!! PLEEEEASE

Let me start this post by stating that the first apartment i lived in on my own in Toronto was at Bretton Place at Yonge and StClair. Here, I experienced some of the best customer service from the management and concierge teams. Security recognized you and would open the door for you as you entered, the concierge team (fix-it team) was always prompt with maintenance requests and they'd really go above and beyond the call of duty. They even sent someone to help rearrange my furniture with me when I had a Nate Berkus moment. I did have a couple issues here like them leaving the lights on in my place (when I'm away on vacay and paying hydro it makes a difference) and keeping shoes on, but now that I've lived in other places, I think of Bretton Place as pure heaven.

The sad thing is, it really wasn't that expensive. I now live in a very pricey luxury building in the downtown core and am highly disappointed in the way people treat you here. Starts off nice enough but you soon discover the smiles are forced and fake for the most part and hide some seeming resentment.

I especially see in this in the people you see most often. Main management personnel (though the senior manager is quite reasonable the office team can be short and unhelpful), concierge team (i person in particular) seems to hate his job and the fact that he has to do things for people... um a career change might be in order if that's how you feel! And the daytime security man is by the book completely. No human courtesy like the security at Bretton Place. Although he's fine watching his foreign language films on a mini TV all day. UGH. Living here I just get the sense of laziness! The night security gets on shift has some kind of a list and sits on the leather couches downstairs until rounds... i mean really? couches are for us but i feel creepy sitting there with him staring into nothingness...

Here comes the real reason for this post, I haven't been here too long actually and I'm already frustrated but i can't move anymore my mom will kill me/not pay and also not help which i really need! haha. Anyway i moved in and my closet door was off it's track. I file a maintenance request, someone came to fix the wheel but when i got home, the bottom corner of the mirror door (where the wheel was originally off track)was cracked. now i realize things happen, people force things whatever. Having lived at Bretton Place I half expected them to come back later and replace the door or give me a note explaining what happened etc. Of course this is unreasonable because it requires honour and effort on the part of our lovely concierge fix it guy. So I filled out another maintenance form outlining the problem. No response. No fixed door. No talk. When I asked about it at the office i got a "did you fill out a form? It will be taken care of brush off". It's been a few weeks now lets say... nothing. I guess these doors might be expensive, fine. But they'll have to replace it when i move right? I dunno it's not a huge thing but I don't want them to ignore this all along and tell me i owe them for a new door when i move away. Judging by the vibes I get from most of the staff here... i wouldn't be surprised.

Any readers have good or bad landlord/concierge experiences?

"Meteors and deserted highways"

Well I bet you'd never thought you'd see a shot like the above in your lifetime. The 2 pictures featured in this post are from blogTOs photos of the week (http://www.blogto.com/city/2010/08/the_photos_of_the_week_august_9-15/). A huge section of the Gardiner was bare last weekend do to construction and road repairs. Another interesting picture would have been the congestion a few KMs away and caused by the angry drivers who have to take city street detours to get to where they need to go. THATS a photo of the week!

Something else that happened this week... Meteor shower! Now my rooftop closes at 11PM... it's also right downtown toronto... where the bright lights never go out. So i wasn't hoping too hard to see the show. Especially since they were estimating a 10:30 start! But my chances got even worse when i fell asleep on the couch until about 12:30AM. I tried to look out my window, thought every porter plane and flashing light was a meteor, and finally just gave up assuming no one in TO would see anything. Especially after looking at everyone's exasperated tweets. But then the picture below proves me wrong (taken at Ashbridges Bay)... so sorry i missed it!!! Did you?

Sexy Beasts

Look at this sexy bunch strutting their stuff as they protect our fair city. A police wall 3 men deep was formed around the Yonge and College area earlier today to stop protesters from moving their march southward. Looks like they've been trained pretty well. Although most of the protest was peaceful, they was at least one arrest and at one point, when the cops felt their safety was threatened they donned their protective gear and shields and even gas masks... scary.

The protesters were forced to backtrack their march and return to their point of origin to set up the tent city they seemingly had planned to set up closer to the security fence encircling the summit's hub.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring...

Where IS everyone?

Hmm G20 is approaching quickly, in fact, the delegates have landed in Toronto today. But Toronto has never been so quiet. It's creepy. In fact it kind of feels like a war zone because there actually are a lot of physical people in the core, but they are all marching with authority in uniform. The population of Toronto has turned into clustered of cocky and sometimes a little too jovial cops. No wonder everyone is running the other way!

"How the Ground was Shaking"

By now, you encountered the curious looks of people on the street, cell phones stuck to there ears (later found out they were likely trying to get through to their loved ones since many phone lines were down after the incident.

All of this began when at about 1:45PM in Toronto, I felt the building start to shake a bit. Is it weird that I was... ahem... in the bathroom at the time... Yes ok it's really weird. But I also kind of froze. First thought in my mind was not earthquake. I'm very close to all the increased protection of the G20 fence and initially thought it might be Obama's helicopters. I had seen these massive steel walled fortresses of the sky get dropped off in Toronto the day before. I imagined they'd create a lot of noise and maybe even strong winds.

Next I thought... strong wind. But I was frozen in place. And then I literally felt like my building was swaying with increased intensity back and forth. My 3rd thought was that if the building feel down or broke apart or something weird and crazy like that... it would be less than funny in the position I was in(meanwhile this is all happening in what 15 seconds... I think FAST!)

I thought for a second about it being an Earthquake but figured we didn't have those in Toronto! I wanted to get up rush to a window and see if anyone else was feeling this and also see if it was a helicopter or something. But naturally, as soon as I was decent, it was all over. Most buildings had been evacuated, and as I got downstairs I found most people there seemed panicked and many had initially thought it was some kind of a bomb (likely because of our precarious location).

Unfortunately, due to my location at the time, I did not have my phone or access to Twitter. But those who did quickly updated the masses about it having been an Earthquake that was being reported by ppl on Twitter down to Buffalo and up to Ottawa and Montreal with the epicentre closer to the Ottawa/Quebec border!

I am more and more in love with Twitter as this amazing tool grows and reaches more people. Before any kind of news outlet gives a report, people do. And they give the first hand account. News outlets will also use twitter to confirm where they are hearing ppl felt the quake, and when the full report actually comes out online (usually 5 minutes later or so) it is not uncommon for it to include various Tweets that broke the news.

YouTube has also been amazing. Minutes after the quake videos surfaces of people filming their homes quake or the buildings around them wiggle. Some videos showed the entire quake and initial reactions to it, because the user was taping something else when the quake hit.

Social media has been the wave of the future for a while now, but it's in times like these that we truly see the power of the people and how our interactions with these networks will change the way we live our lives.

Maybe this even means checking Twitter to make sure it's in fact an earthquake, before seeking shelter. But if those social media glasses ever come out/catch on (HA!) checking first might not actually delay you much!