Richard in the Rockies

Week One - A room with a view
31.10.05 - 06.11.05

In his first week on the ground in Calgary, Richard gets his head around the mission at hand and moves into his very own room with a view. Although, from his detailed and glowing reviews of Calgary's local bars and restaurants, it doesn't sound like he's spending much time there. Used the kitchen yet Richard?

Finally arrived in Calgary on Monday 31 October after 17 hours of travelling. Flew from Haugesund to Calgary via Oslo and London Heathrow. SAS and Air Canada had the pleasure of carrying me on this epic journey, and whilst traveling economy class on a nine and a half hour flight is not ideal, I can say that Air Canada's service is pretty good, and the service from the air crew is genuinely friendly…oh, and for once I had not already seen the in-flight movie!

On arriving, I took a taxi to my apartment that I had found on a previous trip back in September. It is a comfortable one-bedroom place on the top floor of a four-storey building close to downtown. The apartment has an excellent view of downtown, in fact, the sunrise picture at the top of this page is taken from my living room! From my apartment it takes only 15 minutes to walk to work and more importantly it's only two minutes from 17th Avenue, which is home to the "Melrose Bar & Café", a must place to go and kick off a good night out (also shows live American Football on Mondays, which breeds quite an atmosphere).

Obviously during the week the focus is on the job. We are here to implement Pims CMS and bring our knowledge to CPC on mechanical completion to hopefully make their project a success to meet the project milestone of 1 June 2006. The project is well advances in construction, although until now no thought has been given to how the project will affect completion and start-up. This is a little late to be thinking about this, so we have set a tough target to get all things streamlined by Christmas.

Having been here a few weeks I have noticed that accommodation and clothing costs are similar in price to Norway, but where Calgary rules is when it comes to eating out and partying. Calgary is full of food courts where you can "fill your boots" on a whole range of foods from Chinese to sushi, Italian to sandwiches, for a mere 35NOK. It also hosts some excellent restaurants that are inexpensive (typically 100NOK will buy a good steak, vegetables, plus drink). My favourites are "Fuel" and "The Metropolitan Grill", where the service can only be described as "mighty fine!". Alcohol too is more reasonably priced with a much greater variety that doesn't leave you waking up the next day with a "Hansa Head".

If nightlife is what you want whilst you are here, then that is in abundance as well, and available seven days a week. Generally we only hit town at the weekends. Until Saturday night I would have recommended the club "Whiskey", but Saturday we hit "Mynt" and that was awesome!

….But, obviously, the reason for being in Calgary is the job. So far the average week consists of 10-hour days in the office, followed by sleep. Adjusting the body clock through the eight-hour time difference does not come easy. It has taken me some four days to get anywhere near normal living.
Also, should mention that I helped Kyle and James move into their apartment Saturday, so the job also seems to include some manual labour.

More to follow as things develop...

Back to Richard in the Rockies