06Mar 2009 by R&O No Comments

Am I just getting old?

Life in Port Moody
I usually drive in to work with my spouse (she needs her car for work, I don't) and take the train home at the end of the day. Yesterday I took my car in and parked it in a downtown parkade directly below my office building. At the end of the work day I made my way to the train, enjoyed the usual trip home to Port Moody, walked up the hill to my home and noticed my car was missing from my driveway. Guess where it was. Right...in the parkade downtown. I turned around, took the bus to the train station (which doesn't run into town in the afternoon), walked up to St. Johns, took the bus back into town and finally retrieved my car at 8pm. For those…
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04Mar 2009 by R&O No Comments

Island bound with your help

People
Erik Rolfsen is vying for a chance to inhabit Hamilton Island, located off Australia's great barrier reef and you can help him achieve his goal. Over 34,000 people from around the world submitted video entries to an Australian travel promoter for a chance to win The Best Job In The World which includes a $124,000 contract, 3 bedroom villa, pool, spa and golf cart to meander around the island. Not bad work if you can find it. You can help Erik by voting for him on the the official web site. I've worked with Erik on a few projects and can attest that he's a good guy, intelligent, armed with a dry wit and would be an excellent candidate to represent Canada and, more importantly, Greater Vancouver in this global…
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27Feb 2009 by R&O No Comments

The Evergreen line gets closer

Life in Port Moody
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced yesterday that Ottawa would commit an extra $350 million for the Evergreen Line to Port Moody and Coquitlam. I have mixed feelings about this. Will it impact the quality of life in Port Moody and will it provide a direct line for those using our city as a shopping centre for car and household thefts? I'm not sure and I'm hoping that won't be the case but I look at other SkyTrain stations and their see their impact on local residents and businesses. Scary stuff. $410 million has been pledged by the province and $400 million is supposed to come from TransLink (which doesn't have the money available as yet). Overall it still leaves the project with a $173 million shortfall which our Transportation Minister…
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26Feb 2009 by R&O 2 Comments

Customer service and the economy

Economy
My employer is going through some tough times due to our struggling economy and some past business decisions. This has resulted in a number of departments being lost and many people taking advantage of the buyout offer. Good for them but not so good for those left behind which means less people to service our clients. Times are tough for most businesses these days but the knee-jerk reaction by many businesses feeling the pinch is to reduce the number of employees and save money in as many ways as possible. That's understandable but what does in mean for our customers? Our service levels have decreased as phone calls are now routed to a different part of the country, there's less support and sales staff to offer basic levels of service…
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