Catching up

I've been away. I didn't want to announce to the world, OK the 3 people who are regular readers (hi mom!), that I was going to be leaving town for 4 days. It's a safety thing. But there I was down in the Big Smoke for 4 days, living near the 400's.

Someone was offering feedback on the conference and suggested that the number 7, as in 7am should not be on an agenda - yes we had two days that started at 7 am - and another person pipped up that the number 9 should also not be on the agenda - yes we had two days that started at 7am and went through to 9pm (time in the hotel bar not included).

I wanted to jump up and ask that the directions not include the number "4" but the sheer exhaustion of a days that started at 7am and ended at 9pm kept me routed (ha ha) to my seat. I had taken the 410 to the 401 to the 404 to get to the hotel.

I can see the challenge for the United Ways of Ontario in arranging the location of the conference. Every year there is feedback that they haven't found the right spot.

The first year I was there I complained we were in Toronto and they said that the people from northern Ontario had to fly into the airport so it made the most sense to be at the airport. If that was true why were at a hotel on Queen's Quay?

Those along the tops of the southern great lakes, well essential the towns along the 401 corridor liked the Queen's Quay location as they took VIA rail in and were downtown already at Union Station. Those that flew in were annoyed they had to take cabs downtown adding $40 so to the already large travel bill.

Naturally this year we were closer to the 401 and those who took the train were complaining about the $40 cab fare from Union Station*.

Having no efficient public transportation to take (and no taking a bus is not an efficient use of my time as there is only one to Toronto daily at any given time) I'm driving no matter what.

So I didn't like Queens Quay because I'm driving downtown Toronto and that's just scary. This weekend's hotel wasn't so bad as it was on the 400 series so not too hard to find.

Personally I'd like to bring everyone out of the big smoke and have the conference up here and put some play time into the agenda.

But I'm a little fish, so perhaps in time.

*PS of sorts: In looking for appropriate links I found out that Union Station is so named because it is a union of two or more railroad companies that set up a third independent company to run a station that all involved companies can use. Things I never knew before, full explanation is here.