Whirlwind Part 3 of 4
welcome to sunny and humid Orlando, Florida! the weather was too hot, thanks to Hurricane Katrina.
so here's what happened on my business trip to Orlando. don't fall asleep now!
Day One
August 29, 2005
so, yeah, i got home at around 12.30am from MCBCSL Banquet, and then, quickly packed everything that i had laid out on my bed in to the suitcase. i didn't get to sleep until 1.30am.
i only got 2hrs of sleep, since i had to wake up at 3.30am to get ready to leave at 4.15am for the airport. my colleague actually arrived about 10mins early, so i was rushing. luckily i didn't forget anything. so yeah, off to the airport i go.
we get there at about 4.45am-5am, and yeah, got our confirmations for rental car down in Orlando, and then we went to pick up our plane tickets. we were flying with SkyService down to Orlando. so yeah, checked out bags, through all the security stuff. the only thing i found annoying was the fact that i had to take out my laptop at every security checkpoint. haha..oh well, it has to be done for security reasons.
by the time we got to our gate, which was right infront of the security check, it was 5.30am. we aren't set to board until 6am. we didn't board the plane until about 6.45am. i was a little tired, deeing that i only slept for about 2hrs, but i was still awake and stuff in the airport and all that.
so yeah, flight took off from Pearson International Airport at 7am, give or take, and off to Orlando we go. it was about a 2.5hr flight. they played Monster-In-Law with Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda on the plane. i tried to watch it, but i eventually fell asleep for most of the flight (even though i had a Coke on the plane haha..in the morning).
so arrived in Orlando at around 9.30am, and went through customs and stuff. i had to keep on taking out my laptop and stuff. i only got
searched once and that was in Canada at Pearson. but everything went without a problem. the custom officers didn't ask me too many questions, so that was good. haha, i don't think the guy asked me a lot of questions 'cuz my colleague went through first and he pretty much answered all the questions. the officer asked what i was doing in Orlando, and i just said business, and he was like oh are you with that guy? and i was like yeah. got the stamp in my passport and off we go. haha..God answered my prayers. :P i didn't want to deal with the customs stuff.
after we got all our luggage and stuff, we went to get our car from Alamo. we got to choose any compact car we wanted from the parking lot at the airport, so i chose a blue Chevrolet Cavalier. i didn't want a white car 'cuz all the cars in Florida are white. ok not all off them, but most of them are!
from there we drove directly to the Orlando Store. yups, we went straight to work as soon as we landed. the store itself was small, and we just looked around for a couple minutes and met a salesperson down here. he's really nice and was pretty helpful when we were stuck. but before we did any inventory count, we went to get lunch first. the salesperson recommended an eatery at the Orlando Fashion Square Mall, which was just a block down. the eatery was called Panera Bread. it's a neat place, and they served mostly sandwiches. i didn't really have a real lunch, 'cuz i don't like sandwiches. so instead, i had a muffie (which is like only the top part of a muffin!) and a chocolate croissant with chocolate sprinkles! mmm good. washed that down with a Pepsi! ;P
after that we headed back to the Orlando Store and did the inventory count. that took us a couple hours, but it was done by about 3-4pm. we pretty much had the rest of the day to ourselves, to do whatever we wanted. so we went and checked into our hotel at Best Western. it's about 15-20mins away from the Orlando Store. i chatted a bit on MSN 'cuz we were able to get Internet access in our room, which was pretty cool. i emailed some ppl too and all that. my colleague passed out on his bed and took a nap for a couple hours. i can't remember if i took a nap too or not.
before we headed down to Orlando, we already had a dilemma. we didn't know if we could get everything done down in Orlando 'cuz the computers that i worked on back in Mississauga the week before we flew down haven't made it down 'cuz they got stopped by the FDA in Louisville, Kentucky. we had no idea when they'd be released and we weren't really optimistic either. so if the computers couldn't make it down by the time we leave, my colleague would have to come back down to train everyone next week.
so at about 7.30-8pm, we went out to look for a place to eat. so we just drove around and then we finally found a place, Uno's Chicago Grill. it was delicious! i had the sirlion tips in a bourbon bbq style sauce. it was so damn good! haha..i had rice as my side and it came with sauteed mushrooms. *drool*
after dinner, we just chilled in our hotel room. it was amazingly hot and humid down in Orlando. i saw that the humidity was up to about 59%. that's suffocating. so yeah, we spent most of our time indoors. slept at about 12am.
Day Two
August 30, 2005
woke up at around 7am, i think got ready and had breakfast. there's not much to say about day two. it was mostly uneventful.
we went to DeLand which is north of Orlando. it took about an hr or so to get there, so we got there at around 9am i think. i can't remember anymore. i don't remember much of the trip since i was passed out for most of the ride. but i do remember that we almost got into an accident twice. one guy almost changed lanes right into us, so that was their fault. the other was my colleague's fault 'cuz he was trying to pass a car that was turning right, but a pick-up truck almost rear-ended us..but there was enough room in the left lane for the pick-up to manoever out of the way..:S i don't want to put that travel insurance into use man! :P
so yeah, we got to the DeLand Store, and met the two salespersons there. one was really helpful, whereas the other one, i already didn't have a good impression of him 'cuz of my sister and my co-workers. they say he's short-tempered. when i met him, he looked like the type that would get short-tempered, and looked like a jerk too. i wouldn't trust him (doesn't matter now 'cuz the day we got back, he quit!)
so we started off in the DeLand Warehouse first, and counted the stuff in there. man, there was NO air conditioning in there, so it was SO hot and humid. there was only one giant fan circulating the air in there. it was disgusting. we were able to do the count in about an hr. then we moved over to the store and also did that in about an hr. it was much cooler in there 'cuz there was air conditioning.
after DeLand, we headed back towards Orlando, and we stopped by a McDonald's for lunch. haha my colleague isn't the best driver as he ran a left-turn red light. it clearly had a sign right beside the light saying "No Left when Red". haha..he didn't even see it, and didn't realize what he did wrong until i told him. after lunch we just headed back to our hotel to rest up for the rest of the afternoon. it was really hot, so it was making us pretty tired. too much sun, too much heat.
we planned on going to the Orlando Premium Outlet Mall, but we found that it was too far away for us to go, so we just chilled and then went out to eat for dinner at around 8pm-ish. we were gonna go to this place called Sam Snead's down by Lake Eola because it was recommended by the Orlando salesman. but we took a wrong turn and ended up at Lake Highland, which is north of where we wanted to go. so instead, we went to this restaurant called Smokey Bones. it's a steakhouse. i had the 8oz striploin steak i think, all i know is that it was a pretty good meal. :)
back to the hotel and chilled some more. yeah we should've went and did something, but it was too hot, and it was too late to go look for something to do. my colleague did some work on the laptop, and then afterwards, i went on for a bit. slept at around 12am again.
Day Three
August 31, 2005
so we woke up this morning at like 8am. nice to "sleep-in" for once. we had breakfast at the hotel like we did the first two days, and during breakfast one of our bosses back in Toronto called my colleague and told us that the computers wouldn't be arriving today. so our task for the day was to make photocopies of the inventory count and give it to the salesperson. after that, we were free to do whatever we wanted to for the duration of our stay. so with that we then headed over to the Orlando Fashion Square Mall so my colleague could exchange shoes that he bought for his wife. i was also gonna get those photocopies done at the mall, but the shop i went to couldn't photocopy for me 'cuz their machine was broken. so we just decided to make the copies at the store in Orlando, but it was much slower.
we left for the Orlando Store at around 9.30am. when we got to the Orlando Store, we saw a UPS sticker on the door. we were puzzled. the computers had arrived and were dropped off next door! so we went to get them, but we found out that only 4 of the 7 packages were sent. :S we got two towers, one printer, and the keyboard/mouse box. we're missing the 2 monitors and another printer. so without the monitors we couldn't really do anything. then we went out to buy a monitor cable to try and make the laptop a monitor, but we couldn't get it working after like 2hrs. so we just gave up. and yeah, the other 3 packages never arrived (they arrived the day after we left).
we left the Orlando Store at around 2pm. so, i asked my colleague if we could go back to the hotel so i could change into something more light and comfortable before we headed to the Orlando Premium Outlet Mall. it's actually located near SeaWorld and Disneyland. we found out that it was only 30mins away from where we were staying! anyway, the ride to the mall was quite interesting because of the weather. it fluctuated like crazy while we were just driving there. first it would be POURING like mad, so bad that we could barely see outside, then it would stop and be sunny again, then it'd be pouring like mad again..and then spitting..and then no rain. ALL in half an hour. isn't that just crazy?! so random!
so anyway, we get to the mall at around 2.30pm (it's hot too 'cuz it's outdoors), and we just walked around and shopped for a couple hours, going into and out of stores. i saw some things that i liked, but put off buying it 'cuz i wanted to see what the other stores had to offer. by the end of the day, i bought 4 items. 2 Nike long sleeve dri-fit shirts, 1 Nike shorts, and 1 Reebok track suit pants. my colleague also bought a bunch of stuff for himself and his family. i feel bad 'cuz i didn't buy anything for anyone else. haha.. i'm selfish.
when we were finished shopping it was around 6pm. so yeah, after the outlet mall, we drove down International Drive, this street has so much stuff to do! if you're ever in Orlando, International Drive is definately a street you should explore. it's packed full of stuff to do. we went to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum. haha it's so interesting! lol, and funny. i think the most interesting thing i saw was a Rolls Royce made out of matchsticks. it was unbelieveable!
after the museum, it was around 7pm, we went to Red Lobster for dinner. i ordered the usual Admiral's Feast and i was sooooo full, i didn't even finish my serving! the portions here are so much bigger than in Canada. no wonder Americans are so obese!
we finished dinner at around 8pm and decided to go play some mini-golf at a place we saw on the way to the museum. it was called Pirate's Cove. i challenged my colleague to mini-golf. i beat him by 9 strokes. haha :P it was a fun course, and very interesting.
headed back to the hotel after golfing at around 8.45pm, but took a detour to where we wanted to have dinner on day two, the Sam Snead's place. we confirmed the directions today from the salesperson that recommended it to us. haha, so now we know where it is. :P
so that was day three in Orlando. hit the sack at around 1-2am.
Day Four
September 1, 2005
we were suppose to wake up at 7.30am, but i didn't wake up until 8-8.30am. my colleague was still passed out. so we quickly got ready and skipped breakfast at the hotel. so we actually didn't head out to Orlando International Airport until about 9.15-9.30am. our flight wasn't until 10.55am, so we still had some time. we returned the car to the parking lot, we got our boarding passes, and luckily for us, the lineup for the security check wasn't too long. we were able to get to our gate with about 30mins to spare.
so the flight home was pretty good. we saw Madagascar on the plane, which was pretty funny, although i probably want to watch it one more time since i couldn't hear most of the movie.
so we arrived at Pearson International Airport at around 2pm. right on time. my colleague had to go through the customs check 'cuz he had to declare some things he bought for his wife. i simply lied and said that i had nothing to declare. :P
so that was my trip to Orlando. kinda had a relaxing time there, even though it was a business trip. it was mostly pleasure since the computers didn't arrive. stupid FDA! oh well. i can't complain! well, probably more of these trips to come! :D friends should come with me sometime though. :P
Whirlwind Part 4 comin' right up!
so here's what happened on my business trip to Orlando. don't fall asleep now!
Day One
August 29, 2005
so, yeah, i got home at around 12.30am from MCBCSL Banquet, and then, quickly packed everything that i had laid out on my bed in to the suitcase. i didn't get to sleep until 1.30am.
i only got 2hrs of sleep, since i had to wake up at 3.30am to get ready to leave at 4.15am for the airport. my colleague actually arrived about 10mins early, so i was rushing. luckily i didn't forget anything. so yeah, off to the airport i go.
we get there at about 4.45am-5am, and yeah, got our confirmations for rental car down in Orlando, and then we went to pick up our plane tickets. we were flying with SkyService down to Orlando. so yeah, checked out bags, through all the security stuff. the only thing i found annoying was the fact that i had to take out my laptop at every security checkpoint. haha..oh well, it has to be done for security reasons.
by the time we got to our gate, which was right infront of the security check, it was 5.30am. we aren't set to board until 6am. we didn't board the plane until about 6.45am. i was a little tired, deeing that i only slept for about 2hrs, but i was still awake and stuff in the airport and all that.
so yeah, flight took off from Pearson International Airport at 7am, give or take, and off to Orlando we go. it was about a 2.5hr flight. they played Monster-In-Law with Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda on the plane. i tried to watch it, but i eventually fell asleep for most of the flight (even though i had a Coke on the plane haha..in the morning).
so arrived in Orlando at around 9.30am, and went through customs and stuff. i had to keep on taking out my laptop and stuff. i only got
searched once and that was in Canada at Pearson. but everything went without a problem. the custom officers didn't ask me too many questions, so that was good. haha, i don't think the guy asked me a lot of questions 'cuz my colleague went through first and he pretty much answered all the questions. the officer asked what i was doing in Orlando, and i just said business, and he was like oh are you with that guy? and i was like yeah. got the stamp in my passport and off we go. haha..God answered my prayers. :P i didn't want to deal with the customs stuff.
after we got all our luggage and stuff, we went to get our car from Alamo. we got to choose any compact car we wanted from the parking lot at the airport, so i chose a blue Chevrolet Cavalier. i didn't want a white car 'cuz all the cars in Florida are white. ok not all off them, but most of them are!
from there we drove directly to the Orlando Store. yups, we went straight to work as soon as we landed. the store itself was small, and we just looked around for a couple minutes and met a salesperson down here. he's really nice and was pretty helpful when we were stuck. but before we did any inventory count, we went to get lunch first. the salesperson recommended an eatery at the Orlando Fashion Square Mall, which was just a block down. the eatery was called Panera Bread. it's a neat place, and they served mostly sandwiches. i didn't really have a real lunch, 'cuz i don't like sandwiches. so instead, i had a muffie (which is like only the top part of a muffin!) and a chocolate croissant with chocolate sprinkles! mmm good. washed that down with a Pepsi! ;P
after that we headed back to the Orlando Store and did the inventory count. that took us a couple hours, but it was done by about 3-4pm. we pretty much had the rest of the day to ourselves, to do whatever we wanted. so we went and checked into our hotel at Best Western. it's about 15-20mins away from the Orlando Store. i chatted a bit on MSN 'cuz we were able to get Internet access in our room, which was pretty cool. i emailed some ppl too and all that. my colleague passed out on his bed and took a nap for a couple hours. i can't remember if i took a nap too or not.
before we headed down to Orlando, we already had a dilemma. we didn't know if we could get everything done down in Orlando 'cuz the computers that i worked on back in Mississauga the week before we flew down haven't made it down 'cuz they got stopped by the FDA in Louisville, Kentucky. we had no idea when they'd be released and we weren't really optimistic either. so if the computers couldn't make it down by the time we leave, my colleague would have to come back down to train everyone next week.
so at about 7.30-8pm, we went out to look for a place to eat. so we just drove around and then we finally found a place, Uno's Chicago Grill. it was delicious! i had the sirlion tips in a bourbon bbq style sauce. it was so damn good! haha..i had rice as my side and it came with sauteed mushrooms. *drool*
after dinner, we just chilled in our hotel room. it was amazingly hot and humid down in Orlando. i saw that the humidity was up to about 59%. that's suffocating. so yeah, we spent most of our time indoors. slept at about 12am.
Day Two
August 30, 2005
woke up at around 7am, i think got ready and had breakfast. there's not much to say about day two. it was mostly uneventful.
we went to DeLand which is north of Orlando. it took about an hr or so to get there, so we got there at around 9am i think. i can't remember anymore. i don't remember much of the trip since i was passed out for most of the ride. but i do remember that we almost got into an accident twice. one guy almost changed lanes right into us, so that was their fault. the other was my colleague's fault 'cuz he was trying to pass a car that was turning right, but a pick-up truck almost rear-ended us..but there was enough room in the left lane for the pick-up to manoever out of the way..:S i don't want to put that travel insurance into use man! :P
so yeah, we got to the DeLand Store, and met the two salespersons there. one was really helpful, whereas the other one, i already didn't have a good impression of him 'cuz of my sister and my co-workers. they say he's short-tempered. when i met him, he looked like the type that would get short-tempered, and looked like a jerk too. i wouldn't trust him (doesn't matter now 'cuz the day we got back, he quit!)
so we started off in the DeLand Warehouse first, and counted the stuff in there. man, there was NO air conditioning in there, so it was SO hot and humid. there was only one giant fan circulating the air in there. it was disgusting. we were able to do the count in about an hr. then we moved over to the store and also did that in about an hr. it was much cooler in there 'cuz there was air conditioning.
after DeLand, we headed back towards Orlando, and we stopped by a McDonald's for lunch. haha my colleague isn't the best driver as he ran a left-turn red light. it clearly had a sign right beside the light saying "No Left when Red". haha..he didn't even see it, and didn't realize what he did wrong until i told him. after lunch we just headed back to our hotel to rest up for the rest of the afternoon. it was really hot, so it was making us pretty tired. too much sun, too much heat.
we planned on going to the Orlando Premium Outlet Mall, but we found that it was too far away for us to go, so we just chilled and then went out to eat for dinner at around 8pm-ish. we were gonna go to this place called Sam Snead's down by Lake Eola because it was recommended by the Orlando salesman. but we took a wrong turn and ended up at Lake Highland, which is north of where we wanted to go. so instead, we went to this restaurant called Smokey Bones. it's a steakhouse. i had the 8oz striploin steak i think, all i know is that it was a pretty good meal. :)
back to the hotel and chilled some more. yeah we should've went and did something, but it was too hot, and it was too late to go look for something to do. my colleague did some work on the laptop, and then afterwards, i went on for a bit. slept at around 12am again.
Day Three
August 31, 2005
so we woke up this morning at like 8am. nice to "sleep-in" for once. we had breakfast at the hotel like we did the first two days, and during breakfast one of our bosses back in Toronto called my colleague and told us that the computers wouldn't be arriving today. so our task for the day was to make photocopies of the inventory count and give it to the salesperson. after that, we were free to do whatever we wanted to for the duration of our stay. so with that we then headed over to the Orlando Fashion Square Mall so my colleague could exchange shoes that he bought for his wife. i was also gonna get those photocopies done at the mall, but the shop i went to couldn't photocopy for me 'cuz their machine was broken. so we just decided to make the copies at the store in Orlando, but it was much slower.
we left for the Orlando Store at around 9.30am. when we got to the Orlando Store, we saw a UPS sticker on the door. we were puzzled. the computers had arrived and were dropped off next door! so we went to get them, but we found out that only 4 of the 7 packages were sent. :S we got two towers, one printer, and the keyboard/mouse box. we're missing the 2 monitors and another printer. so without the monitors we couldn't really do anything. then we went out to buy a monitor cable to try and make the laptop a monitor, but we couldn't get it working after like 2hrs. so we just gave up. and yeah, the other 3 packages never arrived (they arrived the day after we left).
we left the Orlando Store at around 2pm. so, i asked my colleague if we could go back to the hotel so i could change into something more light and comfortable before we headed to the Orlando Premium Outlet Mall. it's actually located near SeaWorld and Disneyland. we found out that it was only 30mins away from where we were staying! anyway, the ride to the mall was quite interesting because of the weather. it fluctuated like crazy while we were just driving there. first it would be POURING like mad, so bad that we could barely see outside, then it would stop and be sunny again, then it'd be pouring like mad again..and then spitting..and then no rain. ALL in half an hour. isn't that just crazy?! so random!
so anyway, we get to the mall at around 2.30pm (it's hot too 'cuz it's outdoors), and we just walked around and shopped for a couple hours, going into and out of stores. i saw some things that i liked, but put off buying it 'cuz i wanted to see what the other stores had to offer. by the end of the day, i bought 4 items. 2 Nike long sleeve dri-fit shirts, 1 Nike shorts, and 1 Reebok track suit pants. my colleague also bought a bunch of stuff for himself and his family. i feel bad 'cuz i didn't buy anything for anyone else. haha.. i'm selfish.
when we were finished shopping it was around 6pm. so yeah, after the outlet mall, we drove down International Drive, this street has so much stuff to do! if you're ever in Orlando, International Drive is definately a street you should explore. it's packed full of stuff to do. we went to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum. haha it's so interesting! lol, and funny. i think the most interesting thing i saw was a Rolls Royce made out of matchsticks. it was unbelieveable!
after the museum, it was around 7pm, we went to Red Lobster for dinner. i ordered the usual Admiral's Feast and i was sooooo full, i didn't even finish my serving! the portions here are so much bigger than in Canada. no wonder Americans are so obese!
we finished dinner at around 8pm and decided to go play some mini-golf at a place we saw on the way to the museum. it was called Pirate's Cove. i challenged my colleague to mini-golf. i beat him by 9 strokes. haha :P it was a fun course, and very interesting.
headed back to the hotel after golfing at around 8.45pm, but took a detour to where we wanted to have dinner on day two, the Sam Snead's place. we confirmed the directions today from the salesperson that recommended it to us. haha, so now we know where it is. :P
so that was day three in Orlando. hit the sack at around 1-2am.
Day Four
September 1, 2005
we were suppose to wake up at 7.30am, but i didn't wake up until 8-8.30am. my colleague was still passed out. so we quickly got ready and skipped breakfast at the hotel. so we actually didn't head out to Orlando International Airport until about 9.15-9.30am. our flight wasn't until 10.55am, so we still had some time. we returned the car to the parking lot, we got our boarding passes, and luckily for us, the lineup for the security check wasn't too long. we were able to get to our gate with about 30mins to spare.
so the flight home was pretty good. we saw Madagascar on the plane, which was pretty funny, although i probably want to watch it one more time since i couldn't hear most of the movie.
so we arrived at Pearson International Airport at around 2pm. right on time. my colleague had to go through the customs check 'cuz he had to declare some things he bought for his wife. i simply lied and said that i had nothing to declare. :P
so that was my trip to Orlando. kinda had a relaxing time there, even though it was a business trip. it was mostly pleasure since the computers didn't arrive. stupid FDA! oh well. i can't complain! well, probably more of these trips to come! :D friends should come with me sometime though. :P
Whirlwind Part 4 comin' right up!
spun by b at 11:43 p.m.
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