5 Months today

Time flies when you having fun, and so much has changed for me since June. I've had my first summer here, and now we are entering into winter, I have been warned about how cold it's going to get. With people telling me that eventually I will look FORWARD to -5. Happy Days!!!

5 months since my I moved to Montreal and having a whale of a time so far. Here are a few things I've learnt along the way, that you might find interesting:

Get a credit check before you come out (easier to get a credit card once your here)

The accent will only get you so far.

Montreal is a place of extremes, when it’s hot it damn hot, when it’s cold… well I’ve heard it get pretty darn cold.

Converting Pounds to Canadian Dollars makes you feel rich.

Long distance phone cards are you friend.

Don’t phone home to England or Toronto for that matter from your hotel room (see above)

Air conditioning is a god send.

Jaffacakes are awesome, bring some over if you come to visit, I'll love you forever.

I love breakfast over here, so many choices not enough hours in the morning.

Make a wish....

Birthday Celebrations:

Didn't know what I was going to do this year, as I've always had close friends or family around me at this time of year, but for my 28th and first birthday out of the country I wanted to make this one memorable.... Well it was, if nothing else.

Felicity invited me over to Toronto to spend it with her, and with her being one of my oldest friends (ignore the 4/5 year break in the middle) I thought, why not? So I booked my regular VIA rail ticket, and took the day off to travel over. So you'd think that with my train leaving at 11.40am that should of been plenty of time for me to get there... You'd think.

Well long story short, being a complete gimp, I missed the train!!! Awesome... 3 hours to kill in train station, I can't think of any better way to spend my birthday, (Not sure sarcasm comes across too well in type?) Congratulations to the trains in Canada though, the most efficent I've ever experienced, it left bang on 11.40 without even a minutes delay.

So lesson learnt I get the next train to T.O. so I should get there at around 8pm, but then after talking to family I realised that by missing the train I might not only be effecting me, what if Felicity had planned something for me as I was supposed to arrive at 4!!! I just didn't think, and to top it all off, my later train ended up getting trapped behind a cargo train for over an hour.

I crawl into Toronto at 9.30pm and still haven't eaten, and hoping that I haven't spoiled any plans made, so I turn up with apologetic 6 pack of beer and try to salvage what I have left of my night. Fortunately for me it turns out that Felicity had planned dinner but not booked anything, so I thank my lucky stars and enjoy a nice cold beer.

We ended up in a little resturant down the road called "Hair of the Dog", irronic as when ever I used to go to Southport that's what would end up in my food (joke).

I've been here a couple of times now, and every time the food and the atmosphere is great, and to top it off, Miss Rathbone had a word, and had a piece of birthday cake sent over, complete with candle. I could tell you what the wish was then it wouldn't come true, would it? But thanks to Felicity for salvaging the mess I had made of my birthday, hey you live and learn... believe me I intend to be early catching transport from now on!!!

Ubisoft Launch Party 2005

Now being in the industry for a few years, I've seen a couple of random parties throw, for the release of a game. They usually mean an open bar, and some embarrassing stories told around the office the next day. Sometimes they will even be pictorial evidence.

Well my first Launch party at Ubisoft wasn't going to be any different, if anything, it would just be on a much larger scale. I starting to learn that Ubisoft Montreal don't do things by halves. Throwing a launch party, for games the size of King Kong, Prince of Persia 3, means a big knees up for all. Cue the drunken pictures...