Author Archives: mathan

MINI: It arrived, it’s ours, it’s awesome!

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And this morning we woke up, got the Quora, the Prius all packed up with Scott, Ben and Nico and we headed… to the Danish Pastry House.  This was our first stop because we needed breakfast in the form of super amazing Danish pastries.  No, not the horrible sweet excuse for sugared bread with dried lemon in the middle.  No, the real thing made by real Danes!  The flaky pastry just melts in your mouth.

And so off my diet.  I digress. LOL

I highly recommend the coffee.

After buying for us and the crew at MINI Oakville, who supplies the Danish Pastry House with their MINIs, we went, signed for and picked up our new wheels.

And such glorious wheels they are.  Spending about 3 to 4 hours tonight driving the car on some twisty roads, getting a feel for how the car handles.  Just amazing.

I’ve always preferred small cars, and despite this one possibly being a bit too small for people in the back seat, it will do very nicely for years to come, and certainly how I feel right now, I really want to keep this baby!  It’s definitely a dream car come true.

And this from my friend, Ben who is a car fanatic and wasn’t sure about the 3-cylinder engine from BMW:

So much choo too
So many smiles
The mini she sings
A happy song.

So communicative she tells you what she wants and how to drive
Oh she’ll have Iain driving like a bad ass in no time
Even sitting in the passenger seat she tells you everything you need to know
What a beautiful piece of engineering
BMW did a great job with it
The 3 cylinder sounds aggressive the turbo spools fast

He really likes the Turbo, hence the choo choo.

After driving the car getting definitely less fuel consumption than the Prius, yet somehow getting the same or more on a tank of gas.  Now a 40L tank in the Prius versus a 45L in the MINI, I have yet to confirm how much petrol really does go into the tank.  If in Green mode, I can get the same or better mileage then AWESOME!

I think the one feature I’m quite amazed by are the lights.  We went with the LED Adaptive Headlight package because, admittedly, I’m tired of halogen bulbs that are not bright and really wanted to makes the lights were bright.  I can definitely say without a doubt, go with the LED headlight package.  And if you can get the Adaptive Headlight package, do.  What the Adaptive Headlights do is light up the corner to the left or right as you turn, or when you turn on your indicators.  It surprisingly helps I think.

Funniest feature – the ultimate in redundancy: You can have a split screen map with the map.  It’s like the software developers said, “Hey bro we heard you liked maps so we put a map next to your map”

It’s really nice getting back into a manual car, and quite honestly, I’m feeling really spoiled right now.

The fish is named Blinky. 🙂  The dog, not quite sure yet.

MINI: Kumakart arrives at the dealer

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Wow, now that’s more like it!  The car arrived at the dealer about an hour ago!

*fingers crossed for a Saturday delivery* However, I was given the heads up that it would be at the latest, Tuesday.  Maybe Monday?

 

Tracking Panel
ORDER ID: STATUS: Delivered
CONSIGNMENT DATE: 2015-11-17 10:25 SCHEDULED PICKUP DATE: 11/17/2015
DELIVERED: 11/17/2015 14:56 ETA: 11/17/2015
CURRENT LOCATION: OAKVILLE, ON Map
CREDITSTONE STORAGE FACILITY
CONCORD, ON		 BUDDS BMW
OAKVILLE, ON
Order Details
ETA Locations Event Date Times Scheduled Date Times      Mode
Pick Up: CREDITSTONE STORAGE FACILITY
CONCORD, ON		 11/17/2015 12:57 Actual Pick Up Date Truck
11/17/2015 Deliver: BUDDS BMW
OAKVILLE, ON		 11/17/2015 14:56 Delivered Date 11/19/2015 23:59 Due Date

 

MINI: Kumakart arrives in Ontario

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We have arrival of the Kumakart in Ontario!  Based on the details, I am really hoping the truck delivers the car today or tomorrow and not on the 19th.  A 45 minute drive shouldn’t take two days and Budds’ BMW/MINI Oakville.  If It gets dropped off late today, that means the car could be ready for a Saturday pick up.  And if not, then Monday evening/Tuesday morning.

Tracking Panel
STATUS: Enroute
CONSIGNMENT DATE: 2015-11-17 10:25 SCHEDULED PICKUP DATE: 11/17/2015
DUE DATE: 11/19/2015 23:59 ETA: 11/17/2015
CURRENT LOCATION: CONCORD, ON @ 2015-11-17 12:57 Map
CREDITSTONE STORAGE FACILITY
CONCORD, ON		 BUDDS BMW
OAKVILLE, ON
Order Details
ETA Locations Event Date Times Scheduled Date Times      Mode
Pick Up: CREDITSTONE STORAGE FACILITY
CONCORD, ON		 11/17/2015 12:57 Actual Pick Up Date Truck
11/17/2015 Deliver: BUDDS BMW
OAKVILLE, ON		 11/19/2015 23:59 Due Date

grey = completed, yellow = active

Rocking the Holidays

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As I’ve said many a time before, ever since Scott and I went on our Honeymoon, I’ve committed that we’ll do some form of holiday together each year.

I fully admit, I try to be frugal when it comes to holidays, but I’m also practical in that when I can, I like to kick things up.

In 2016, we’re actually doing two holidays.  Here’s why – I’ve been saving up my vacation time and I’ve been on a pretty tough work project for the past two years, and going almost a year between holidays has been pretty gruelling.  In short, I forgot or didn’t feel I was able to take any vacation time in 2015 other than the two weeks (ended up being close to 15 days of work time) off.  I still have 88 hours (11 days) of vacation time.

I’m taking a week off at Christmas – Something I wasn’t planning on doing originally as it’s a stay in Toronto year.

That still leaves me with 40 hours (5 days) of vacation time I need to take in Q1.  On top of that, I get 5 weeks (25 days) of vacation time so that means 6 weeks of vacation I need to use up.

February

For February, I decided that we needed to go to a sun destination.  Scott doesn’t always do well with the dark of winter, and admittedly neither do I.  I have wanted to get us on to a winter vacation routine to help and I’ve finally been able to do it!

We’re taking a cruise on Royal Caribbean from Port Canaveral to the Bahamas – Specifically RCI’s private island, CocoCay, which is really Little Stirrup Cay.  We then go on to Nassau, a day at sea and then back to Port Canaveral.  We’re also going to stay on either weekend days and soak up the Florida sun, possibly hitting Universal Studios and I am not sure what else.

Rocking the Points for February

We’re not going to stay at any of the Disney properties preferring to use my Starwood points!  We found an AWESOME deal at the Sheraton Lake Buena Vista Resort where I got us rooms for 3,000 to 3,333 Starwood Points per night at the beginning and end of our trip.

To put it into perspective, that is an insanely cheap rate for that area.  Here are some comparisons

  • We were getting hotels in Japan for between 10,000 to 12,000 points in Tokyo and 7,500 points outside.  The value per point is insane, and I typically get 2,000 to 3,000 points for a single stay at when I travel for work.  The hotel is a very short walk to Disney Springs and Walt Disney World.  Universal Studios is just a bit farther away.
  • Hilton HHonours is asking for 30,000 points for a room that’s $119/night and I’d say that earning points on HHonours is at the same rate as SPG.  It’s not worth being an HHonours member.
  • Marriott is not that great a value either.

So that saved us about US$750.

On top of that, I’ve been working on the Hertz Gold Plus points and membership.  I’ve rented from Hertz so many times that I’m now Hertz Gold Plus Five Star.  I was able to rent a car:

  • One way from Orlando to Port Canaveral for 3 days, so we can drive around to our hearts content and see more of Orlando, maybe drive around Celebration, FL (the community that Disney created)
  • After our cruise, after we do the tour of the Kennedy Space Centre.  We can spend a few days driving around Orlando.

That alone saved us about US$500.

Sweet!  This means we are pretty much out of hotel points and car rental points until I go on more business trips.

Excursions

One excursion we are already booked for, which for us is a no-brainer – Kennedy Space Centre.

For Nassau we have several options such as a tour of Nassau, or going to Atlantis.  Checking out the prices for Atlantis, seriously, while it’s such a neat place, it is ungodly expensive for very little value.  And when I say value, I admit, I’m looking for food and non-alcoholic drinks to be included in the $125-$350 price to visit the water park and the aquarium.  Nope!  So I’m not sure what we’ll do.

For CocoCay, we have so many options for things to do there such as learning about Stingrays, parasailing, a nature walk…  We’ll see.  I’d love to try parasailing admittedly.

September

We saved our DVC points from the 2014 Use Year (ending December 2015), used our 2015 Use Year points (ending December 2016), and borrowed from our 2016 use year ((ending December 2017) to book a cruise on Disney Cruise Line.

We were originally hoping to use the points for the 2016 Member Cruise, however the itinerary was not something we were interested in, for so many points (New York City to Halifax and back).  Yes it will probably be a fantastic trip from the special entertainment that will be on board and the unique gifts (it’s the 25th Anniversary), but not worth it.

Scott and I need something a bit more relaxing and, well, bigger.

If we were not going to do the Member Cruise, then I had through we would go to Alaska. Then looking at the options of what we could use our points for, the lengths of the various trips, and we had two other options also come up – Denmark & Norway, or a Transatlantic.

All three options are amazing.  I felt like we wanted to go somewhere different, so Alaska fell off the list – leaving Denmark & Norway or the Transatlantic.  I started researching Denmark & Norway, and beyond all the Frozen festivities on board the ship, it would be a fantastic trip with some neat cultural points – Trolls, food, etc…

I was surprised when Scott actually suggested the westbound Transatlantic from Barcelona to New York City stopping in the Azores; Sydney, NS; and Halifax, NS.  The romanticism of doing a Transatlantic caught his eye.  11 days total, with 7 or 8 of those being sea days.  Honestly, I can’t think of a more relaxing time rather than jumping on and off the ship all the time at ports, and having to get up early, as we experienced with our Princess Cruise.

I’ll be honest, I always thought we’d do a Transatlantic on something like the QE2.  That said, I’m not a huge formal kind of guy, so that’s kind of lost on me.  I have to admit, I’m a bit apprehensive about Disney Cruise Line from the standpoint of, will it be too much Disney?  For 11 days?  I know there are a lot of areas strictly for adults on the ship.  Comparing to what Royal Caribbean is offering, I’m almost wondering if there will be more to do on an RCI ship for me versus Disney.  We shall see.

And admittedly, I do want to try the Quantum Class ships on Royal Caribbean.

The stops will be interesting.  The routing loosely follows the route our new MINI took from Southampton, through the Azores and over to Halifax, and then the ship went on to New York City.

This cruise will start in Barcelona, sail by Gibraltar and on to the Azores, then on to Cape Breton which will be the furthest east Scott will have been in Canada, Halifax which is a great city and to New York City which Scott has not been to.

Japan and Hong Kong was awesome and I wouldn’t change this for anything.  It was a pretty hectic trip, and I know I need sometime to just sit back and enjoy myself and not rush around places.  I think Scott could use the time too.

Rocking the Points for September

I’ll save points by using them to fly us to Barcelona and from NYC.  In fact, I could use my companion fare to get Scott a free ticket from NYC.  Booking Barcelona one way is going to be interestingly tricky.  Airfares were ungodly expensive, although we’ll see if Disney can come up with an alternative.  To put it into perspective, I’m not paying Air Canada, $3000 one way in Economy on Rouge when it’s ~$895 return.  They can kiss my Elite 50K butt for that.

For the hotel in Barcelona, I’m going to try and save up points for that.  Alternatively, to help me keep my elite status with Starwood, we have several options for that.

Same with New York City which has the cheapest hotel at $328 a night.

Alternatively, if I don’t have the points, I can always revert to using Hotels.com which is not a bad service. 🙂

Eulogy for Gavin

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Last night, November 8th, 2015, our cat Gavin went to the great kitty home in the sky after a period of slowing down and losing weight.  I had noticed that on the last few trips that Gavin was getting lighter, and more frail though his energy for life and the love he gave never diminished.

Gavin was adopted at the PetSmart during a time when the Toronto Human Society was visiting during a time where there were many cats needing homes in the city.  As soon as you picked him up, he started licking your nose.  I was hooked.  He had such a nice disposition, and it stuck with him for all 15-16 years of his life with us.

Gavin only hissed at me a handful of times, and the first day he lived with us, he hissed at is as he was out of his element.  I let him be and he soon came around to jump up on our futon, sit on my alp and even my laptop, sit in front of the keyboard at my desk.  He became our cat, and I was his Daddy. Scott in many respects was the Mummy.  Or was it the other way around with me being so nurturing and Scott sometimes having to be the tough one?  Who knows.

He wasn’t a fastidious cleaner, but his coat was usually immaculate other than usually regular brushings which he didn’t mind, and when he was much bigger he needed some help scratching behind his ears.

Gavin, I always said was like a dog that we never had.  He would always greet us at the door, be waiting at the door for us to come home, meow and pawa at us for attention.  I think he disliked the fact we’d spend more time with our laptops than fussing him, always wanting attention.  He was playful and jovial

Shadow, our other cat, came into our lives 4 months after we picked up Gavin.  We wanted Gavin to have a brother or sister, so that he wouldn’t be alone and they seemed to enjoy their company together at the start, sleeping close to each other.  I’m not sure what changed but some time later during the 15 years together, they seemed to only just tolerated each other, although they never got into big fights like some cats do.  They never got into big spats, but Shadow certainly asserted herself, Gavin was mostly a pacifist.  They definitely had a brother/sister bond that we’re very glad they formed.

Gavin always had Shadow’s back, no matter what.  If we were brushing Shadow, which she really hates, he would always keep an eye on her to make sure we were treating her well, which we always do.

I was hoping that towards the end of Gavin’s life, Shadow may realize what was going on and be re-conciliatory but even this weekend, she raised her paw to Gavin.  Sadly, she realized what was going on when she saw Gavin for the last time, last night and she did have a bit of a shocked reaction.

When Scott and I lived for two years in Campbellville, it was a joy seeing Gavin walking outside, going down the stairs of the balcony, basing in the sun and grass, and hunting.  He even brought back a few mice for us.  He seemed fearless in his quests for new adventures and took the three moves (Thorncliffe Park, Campbellville and the current condo in Etobicoke) in stride making each home his own.

Nothing meant more than his nose licks anytime I wanted them, and they were never taken for granted.  I loved scritching his head in appreciation, hearing his loud purr.  Even before his passing yesterday – he’d pop his head up, lick my finger or nose, and purr loudly as I stroked his coat.  This is what I will miss most.  Him wishing me off on my day at work, and then greeting me at home.

When at home, it never really felt like just the two of us – Scott and I.  It was the four of us – Scott, Gavin, Shadow and me.  Even when our condo corporation tried to tell us we couldn’t have our cats, we fought back to keep them because they ARE a part of our household, they are part of our family unit.  They’re the kids that Scott and I will never have, in many respects.

Scott and I both feel very blessed to have had Gavin in our lives.  I don’t know what we did to deserve such a great cat in our lives.  I’m not sure there will ever be another cat like Gavin in our lives, especially given the condo corporation won’t allow us to have cats.  Just birds and fish.

Gavin you will be missed and that really does not describe how any of us feel.

Gavin comes from a long line of cats in our lives.  Growing up in Newfoundland, Mum and Dad had siamese cats, Aussie and Tilley.  When we moved to Campbellville, we had Morris (Robyn’s) and Timbit (mine) who were both children of my Aunt and Uncle’s cat Beaudica.  Both Morris and TImbit were such nice and wonderfully affectionate cats, like Gavin.   Robyn had Mythrandir, Pirate Jenny which was my Aunt’s cat, and my cousins Kirsten & Barry currently have a cat named Gracie.  Of course, we still have Shadow as well.

MINI: Delivered From

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TorresnDeliveredJp

Well it looks like the MINI has passed customs! 2W has said the car is now in the delivered from status and now it’s with the PDC and onto a train. I figure 5 to 7 days to Toronto. This is going a bit faster than expected! And the last status update I’ll get until the car lands in Toronto.

Next up, tracking with Hansens, who I think is used to transfer the car from Concord to Oakville.

MINI: Landed in Canada

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Discharged

The Torrens arrived in Halifax on November 4th and departed today, November 5th, and is on it’s way to New York City.  As you can see above, the car was off loaded this morning at 9:43am and almost 12 hours later at 8:38pm, it was released into the hands of the Halifax Autoport where it will go through customs processing, probably starting tomorrow. We should see a “Delivered From” status once that happens.

Then it’s the way to go from Halifax to Toronto.  That trip only takes about 36 hours according to CN from Port to Toronto – Trailer or Container.  By railcar, it can take 5 to 8 days.

So the expectation I’m setting with myself is that we’ll have the car in two weeks.  I’m assuming two days for the paperwork, a week to ship to Toronto, and then 2 days for processing with the dealer.  That brings us to November 20th. 🙂

Interestingly, the Port of Halifax suggests that a Discharge Terminal Dwell of 2 days, Rail Terminal Dray of 0 (doubt that), Inland Rail of 1.9 days (36 hours).  So the car could be here next week, but I doubt that.  Rumour has it that CN is slow to process cars in Halifax.  On top of that, there is PDI and putting on the winter tires.

Here is a video about the Halifax Autoport – Imaging driving those cars onto the trains!

Here’s a neat video about what happens at the autoport between CN and Toyota with shipments of the Yaris from Europe.

MINI: It’s almost here!

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TorrensRoute

The MV Torrens is only a few hours out from Halifax right now. By the time I get up in the morning, the ship should be docked or just docked and within a few hours, the Kumakart will be off the ship!

Next up, being shipped by train from Halifax to Concord just north of Toronto and then released to MINI Oakville where we pick it up.  This will probably be two weeks!  This is the part I can’t track, but I did hear that we’ll have it by November 25th!

TorrensLastLeg

MINI: Vacation in the Azores

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After a brief swing through The Azores, the Torrens carrying the KUMAKART is finally pointed towards Halifax!  So far six nights at sea with 5 to 6 more to go!

 

MINI: Tracking the Ship

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I admit, I’ve become a bit obsessed with tracking our the ship our car is on. Checking the logs, I have noticed a few times it’s slowed down to a crawl over the three days since it left Southampton. Comparing to earlier logs from Panama to Germany, I suspect the ship is having some engine troubles. Arrival in Halifax has already been delayed by two days already according to 2W.  It is what it is!  We are still getting the car way earlier than expected.

Here is the map so far: