Ricky Martin’s Blog

The summer vacation season is in full swing in the northern hemisphere, and here in Montreal it is no different. We are now starting the beginning of the “Construction Holidays” here in Quebec, which is usually a quiet time for most companies in the area usually shut down or scale back operations. all this talk about vacations and taking time off got me thinking about how vacation is given out all over the world.

I have had the great opportunity to work, in several places around the world, with that in mind here is a quick breakdown of the standard vacation allowance (not counting standard holidays Federal/Provincial/State) in each Country I have worked in:

Canada: standard is 10 days, usually goes up to 15 days after about 5 years of service, depends on industry and company.

United States of America: Standard is 10 days, usually as with Canada after a certain number of years of service and/or experience this goes up to 15 days.

United Kingdom: Standard is 20 days. and it can go up with experience and years of service.

So with all that time, does everyone get to use it, can you use it?

from my own experience, with my current employer they encourage people to use their time off, and actually can penalize you if you have too much time accumulated without taking it, which is a great incentive to use it.

Previously it was a struggle with some of the roles I had, as in one role I could not take a real “vacation” as there was no one with the skill set to cover for my role available, so I had to be available in case something happened that they needed my support. I guess it comes with the territory in specialized IT skills.

While in the UK it was actually nice to have so much Vacation time. The problem I had was figuring out how to use it all. which I never really did.

So what are you doing for Vacation?

As Many North American’s it can be hard to travel and not bring along your cell phone, or Mobile phone, regardless of what you call it most people have become attached to their cell phones and it is a center for all their communication needs.

And as a result if you bring it with you anywhere outside of your home country it may end of being very expensive to use it. We have all heard the stories of the poor tourist who brought along his/her phone only to find out when they got home they had a huge bill with roaming charges and long distance fees, that sometimes can easily get into the hundreds and/or thousands of  dollars if you are not careful.

• Now the first thing you need to do is get a GSM phone that has at least 3 bands but preferably 4 bands that would be labeled as a “world phone”, this is key as most of the rest of the world works with the GSM standard and only now is North America starting to move over more to it. In Canada GSM providers would be mainly Rogers, Fido, and Telus, Bell is starting to switch over and there are some other local carriers, and in the US it is mainly AT&T and T-Mobile that offer you GSM.
• The next thing is to get it unlocked, depending on your phone and carrier you can either do this for free or very cheap, but depending on the Brand and Model some can’t be unlocked. It also depends on what you will be doing with your phone, if your just making calls, you don’t need anything fancy, but if you are a die hard techie with a smart phone things can get more difficult. \
• Now This is the most important thing, unless you absolutely need a number active before you arrive in your destination, Buy your SIM Card when you get there, usually you can find a shop in the airport as soon as you walk out or they might even have a vending machine, if not most providers have shops in most towns and in Europe many of the grocery stores even have their own brand of pay as you go SIM cards. And Whatever you do don’t buy the one’s offered in the travel Magazines or on the plane’s duty free in flight catalog, usually they are overpriced and bad service quality.

From my experience usually you can get the SIM card for free when you purchase airtime at the same time from the provider in the country your visiting, otherwise you can get it very cheap. the alternative is you can usually find a package on e-bay where you can get a SIM card in advance sometimes with airtime but usually without, you still need to call to set up an account once you are in the destination country. So save yourself the time, money and hassle as if you buy it once you arrive you still have to provide some information but usually minimal and they usually charge you on e-bay for a card you could get for free.

I have done this myself in Italy, UK, as well as Canada and the USA, and works like a charm every time.

amazon wireless

As I mentioned many times one of the things we (my wife and I) enjoy is traveling. So this is a little late going up but our latest trip was to San Francisco, this was our first trip to the city. we had been to San Diego which is a little further south in California but never to San Francisco. the trip came at a great time as the weather in Montreal has been cold and snowy for a good part of the winter, and this being our first Canadian winter back since being in the UK and Arizona we were looking forward to a break from sub-zero temperatures.

we had a late flight out of Montreal into San Francisco with a connection in Toronto with Air Canada. the flight was surprisingly full considering it was a Friday afternoon/evening Flight.

We arrived into San Francisco around 10:30 PM local time, by the time we got our bags and got to the hotel it was almost 11:30PM. We checked in with the family to let them know we arrived safe and sound and then we decided we better get to bed.

The hotel I found from hotels.com as it was one of the cheapest in the area and offered a kitchenette which we like as it gives us options instead of having to eat out for every meal. here are some pictures from the hotel room to give you an idea what it looks like.

As you can see nicely laid out place, my only complaint was you hear a lot of noise from the street below especially if you have the windows open, which we did as at night it was a little warm, and there is no A/C but realistically we didn’t mind as we were getting away from the winter back in Montreal. Other than that it is convenient we walked several times down to the pier from the hotel, navigating the steep streets but it was a great exercise.

We also took advantage of the CityPass booklet which we found for the price was a great value. it gave you Access to 5 attractions in the city as well as a 7 day MUNI and Cable Car Pass, the Aquarium of the Bay, a one hour cruise with Blue and Gold Cruise of the bay, The California Academy of Sciences, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Exploratorium or the De Young Museum which is what we chose as they had the king Tut exhibit there.

We tried to do about one attraction per day, we did the Aquarium and the cruise on the same day as it was raining when we got to the pier so we did the aquarium which was very nice.

As you can see from The shots above it is a great opportunity to see some interesting animals up close. then when we finished the weather was a bit nicer and the sun was starting to come out so we decided to take a chance and do the cruise.

With the cruise you get right up close to Alcatraz, I found for me that was good enough, I couldn’t justify paying almost $40 per person to do a tour of Alcatraz.

It also Brings you right under the Golden Gate Bridge and you get a great view from both sides of the bridge as well you get to see San Francisco from a nice distance. The only thing we found was after sitting outside on the boat with the wind we were frozen after about 30 minutes, and the water can be a bit rough.

As you can see you get pretty close, for an up close view of the Bridge I recommend walking it. We were brave and walked from our hotel all the way to the pier, along it and across the bridge and then back to the pier where we decide to take a Cable car back to the hotel. Total of the trip was about 10 Miles, which we did in about 4 hours at a normal pace while stopping along to take pictures, grab a bite to eat, etc…

you cant miss Pier 39, there are all kinds of souvenir shops and other great little spots there as well, lots of restaurants as well, with an emphasis on seafood as you can imagine.

Another great attraction at Pier 39 is the sea Lions and the Aquarium, and boat tours are right there as well.

This really was a fun trip and I can’t wait for our next adventure.

Well the Olympics have started. And I am proud to say they are in Canada and more specifically Vancouver. Both Karen and I liked Vancouver a lot when we were there. Just happened that the situation at the time was not great which is why we left.

I really enjoyed watching the opening ceremonies on Friday. One of the things l liked the most was the poet. His poem really hit home and really captured a lot of what makes Canada Canada.

Looking forward to seeing the men’s hockey. As for the women’s hockey don’t think there will be much competition except maybe from the USA but after the first game that they had an 18-0 win and set an Olympic record for most goals in a game, I think it is a safe bet they will get a medal.

Here is The medal Standings (This should update as it changes):

And to keep up on the Ice Hockey action here is the Schedule and the results:

Well we took a trip over the holiday to Denmark, we managed to get the tickets using my airmiles, and British Airways was having a sale at the time if you used your air miles during the sale the price was half the amount of air miles needed for any location. So the beauty of that was it cost only the amount of air miles it would normally cost for one person for the two of us to travel. Since we were flying from Heathrow we got to go out of Terminal 5. The terminal itself is nice, we try to travel light as much as possible so we did not need to check any bags, we checked in online and printed off our boarding passes ahead of time. We also took the opportunity to sign up for the iris program, you can check out the info from the link IRIS System. This is an IRIS recognition system that when available allows you to use the system instead of waiting in line to be seen by a customs officer. Given the type of industry I work in, I have been traveling a lot since I have been in the UK, so this made sense to allow more options when arriving and be able to speed up the process in the airport. We Actually got lucky as when we got to the gate we found out we had been upgraded to business class, only problem was it was the first row bulkhead seats, so no storage room in front of us. The flight was smooth and for a short flight we were served a meal. we arrived in Copenhagen just around 2 hours later. We Met up with my aunt and uncle who were waiting for us. And quickly went into town to see Tivoli as it was the last day it was open when we arrived. it was nice to see, unfortunately on the way to the park, my aunt tripped on a pot hole and fell, we did not know it at the time but she broke her shoulder, we found that out the next day when she went to the hospital. During the rest of our visit we managed to see a few castles and walk around Copenhagen a bit, as well we went to see the little mermaid and the viking ship museum. but the highlight for me was really to get to see my family, I have not seen my cousins for about 12-14 years, one of my cousins already has 3 kids with another on the way, and my other cousin has been with his fiance for almost as long as since the last time I saw him. His fiance works in photography and her website is http://www.visioneye.dk/. Hopefully we get a chance to see more of them in the future given we are now in Europe, and it is a lot cheaper and easier to get together from here than from North America.

Starting to get a little more serious about photography, it is something both my wife and I enjoy, and we have been lucky enough to get some great pictures at family events or outings we go on. as Such we have traded up from our point and shoot camera to a DSLR. We had the Kodak V610, which is an awesome camera for the size and give great quality shots, I loved the zoom on it given its size it had a 10X optical zoom which when you combine with the 6.1 megapixel gives you great options.

We have now upgraded just in time for the holidays to a Nikon D40X it has a massive 10.1 megapixels, and the kit came with a 15-55MM lens. I found it myself on e-bay but you can find it on Amazon.

or you can Also go for the D40 which is basically the same camera with a 6.0 megapixel.

We are still getting used to the DSLR, one thing I have noticed so far is that it is great in low light without the flash, the true colors really come out.

Well as I mentioned in one of my other posts, we are in process of getting our permanent residency in the USA and have been working on getting myself Italian Citizenship for almost a year now, the process is lengthy and there is a different direction depending on who you speak to and where. Also the Language barrier can be a factor, Luckily my Father in law and my wife’s uncles have come in to the rescue. The First step we had to do was actually register my wife with the Consulate in the USA since that is where we started the whole process. After registering with the consulate, we had to get a copy of our act of marriage, now here is where it gets tricky, we got married in Montreal, so we had to request a copy of the act from the government of Quebec. So we had to request that, and they charge about 30$ Canadian for that. So we had to have them mail that to us, in the US to then turn around and send it to the Italian Consulate in Montreal to get certified so they could then send it on to the town in Italy where my wife is Registered. Well After about 5 months, we had not heard or seen anything, we asked my father in-law to go to the consulate in Montreal, which is close to the house so not such a big deal and then confirmed that the papers were sent out and received about 3 months prior, so my father in law called the town office and they told him they couldn’t find it. so we Then had my Wife’s Uncle pay them a visit, he finally spoke to the person in charge of processing the paperwork and found that it was in a pile on his desk, so he got him to process it right away and give him the document, which we then finally got. Now we are at the next steps in the process where we have to get my birth certificate translated and Certified by the consulate in Montreal. We are now waiting on that, then we also have to get a certificate of no Criminal Record for the country of origin and every other country I have resided in, so for that we had to get fingerprints taken from the local police bureau here in the UK, the first set was 60GBP and each additional set was 30GBP. so we had to take 2 sets so far, one for Canada and one for the US. And we have sent those off and now have to wait for them to get processed, for Canada according to the website it is taking about 120 days for them to process manual fingerprints the US is a little quicker about 3-4 weeks. And then I will need to get a certificate for the UK as well. Luckily that does not need to be translated or anything. I will include the links to the websites to give you some additional information.

FBI Fingerprint Criminal Justice Information division

RCMP Canadian Real Time Identification Service

Italian consulate Los Angeles

Italian Consulate in Montreal

Well We got back from Disney Paris 2 days ago. I have to say it was a very nice time, even though the weather was less than perfect we had a good time. Saturday was rather cold with a strong wind and rain. Sunday was warmer still a bit of rain but not as cold, or windy. We went between the 2 parks The MGM Studios and the Disneyland park we had 2 day park hopper passes. It was good as we managed to go back and forth as things got busy and we were able to use the fastpass to get reserved times for some of the rides. the wait time were rather long later in the day. One ride that we both enjoyed was the tower of terror, which shoots you up in an elevator and opens the doors at different levels and then drops, the best part of the ride is going up to the top and you look out and see the whole park, which when we did it was after dark so you manage to see it all lit up. As soon as I get a chance to put up the pictures I will.

So now it is back to work for the rest of the week, and then a short week next week before the Christmas holidays….

Well after a long trip back to the UK from Tulsa, OK USA we finally made it back home. Was a very long trip, not quite as long as going there from the Uk. We had a small layover (3.5 hours) in Chicago and we had a bit of a delay landing at Terminal 5. We had about 20 minute delay in the air and then another 15minute delay when we landed waiting for a gate. After the usual fun of waiting to get off the plane we finally got to UK immigration. Which is quite interesting, we finally get up to the agent and they just glance at my wife’s passport (She has an EU Passport), and they proceed to ask me many questions, I guess it’s because I have a Canadian Passport with Work Visa’s for both the US and the UK. Well we Finally get through and get down to baggage claim and have to wait another 20 minutes for all our bags to come out. We then made our way to the bus stop for the long term car parking. Finally we get to the car, and are on our way back to the flat getting in around 9 AM Uk time after leaving our hotel at 9:30 AM Tulsa time the day before.  As I said not quite as long as getting to Tulsa but still a long trip back especially since I managed to only sleep about 20 minutes the whole trip back. Well next trip for work is going to be to Munich as far as I know. as far as personal trip’s planning to go to Disney in Paris in about a week….should be fun…

Well what can I say. I have been here for a week, and can honestly say there is not much in Tulsa, even the people here say nothing exciting happens here. I had been here for a week about 6 years ago for training as well. And we did not do much that time as we were here with Management of the division I was working for at that time, turns out there was quite a bit of animosity between the dvisions and there still is.  I have had a very different experience this time given I am now working for a much closer linked division and the sharing of knowledge is much more free. There is really no major attractions here, unless you are into the extreme religious thing you could check out Oral Roberts University, but I can say I am not one of those people. The basic break down is there is no major league sports team, they do have minor league hockey, but coming from Canada I would be weary of calling it good hockey, no offense to Tulsa but I was blessed enough to grow up in Hockey heaven, Montreal. But on to other things about Tulsa, as far as I can tell the biggest attraction here is College Football, and there are 3 big teams here, you have Oklahoma University, Oklahoma State University, and Third would be Tulsa University. Other than that there is not much else going on in Tulsa, Except if you like to eat, there is probably about 20 restaurants on each corner as far as I have seen. But if you are coming from any other major city in the USA they will all be familiar as most of them are the same chains of restaurants that are spread out across the US. One thing they are proud of here is there steaks, and there is probably more steakhouses than you would see in some other cities. As far as the people go one thing I do have to say is they are very friendly which may be a shock to some people, especially coming from larger cities such as Montreal, London, New York, etc… Where people usually are not that friendly, here people will strike up a conversation with you while waiting in line, on an elevator, etc…

But given the facts I would probably not want to live here personally. but that is just my personal preference you can make your own decisions.