Hiking on Niagara Peninsula A group of us were taken on a trip out to the Niagara Peninsula. We went for a hike through the Woodend Conservation Area. We had a picnic then visited the falls, shopped in Niagara -on-the-lake and had dinner in the Pillar & Post. Fantastic Day. [View Full Entry]

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After a quick drink in the hotel bar a few of us went to Chinatown to dinner. We ate in Pho 88 Vietnamese Restaurant. Food was good. Chinatown was buzzing. [View Full Entry]

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Serene and relaxed Most of today was taken up with travelling to Toronto. We left our hotel in Seattle at 6am and arrived at the Cosmopolitan hotel in Toronto at 5.30pm local time. The hotel room is very nice with a separate living area and kitchen. I have already sampled the spiritual music, burnt a jostick and checked out the gem stone left on my pillow. [View Full Entry]

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Tour of Microsoft Campus, Redmond For a billion dollar company our visit to Microsoft was surprising. There were several occasions during the morning that we nearly walked out. Anyway, not to dwell on the negatives we did eventually get into the technology centre that is set up with examples of how Microsoft think we will be working in the next 5-7 years. The confidentiality paper we had to sign to be allowed in means I better not describe in detail what we saw on this blog. There were some software items and ideas that would be incredibly cool if they pull [View Full Entry]

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Height of dining After a cocktail in the bar inside the Cheesecake Factory a group of us travelled by monorail from downtown Seattle to the Seattle Center and ate dinner in the revolving restaurant at the top of the Space Needle. The views over Seattle at night were truly spectacular. [View Full Entry]

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Great Architecture We had a really interesting if somewhat strange visit to the Seattle Public library. The library is an iconic building of architectural note. It is popular and attracts a lot of visitors. It is one of those buildings that demands a strong reaction and I expect there are aspects of it that some people love that others hate. Unfortunately the nature of the visit we were offered meant we learnt very little about how the service is delivered. We did not meet a single person who was involved in running the ser [View Full Entry]

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Smart hotel entrance lobby. Room is nice. Hotel is on Union st and 6th so it is just a short walk to Madison st and 4th for the Seattle Public Library. [View Full Entry]

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Last night in Vancouver Had a lovely last night in Vancouver at the Chambar Belgian Restaurant organised by UBC staff. Chambar [View Full Entry]

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Library Visit #2 Took the bus to SFU . Presentations included The information commons, open source software innovations, digitization projects. [View Full Entry]

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Went for a meal at Horizons with good food and spectacular views over the city kindly arranged by SFU Library. Horizons [View Full Entry]

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