Want say "thank you" to all my Guelph readers who took the time to email me or leave me a comment on my question on where to live as it really helped me out. Without your feedback I could have easily taken the apartment on Willow Road and while it would have been a home by the sounds of things it wouldn't have been the most suitable place to call home.
Thursday, April 19
Thanks to My Guelph ReadersExpand this Post: Thanks to My Guelph Readers |
Sunday, April 15
I Need Your Help: Downtown or Silvercreek Area?Expand this Post: I Need Your Help: Downtown or Silvercreek Area? |
These are the two locations that I have narrowed down my home search to but I need your help. Since I do not know much about either areas I could use your feedback on downtown and/or Silvercreek (across from Willow West Mall).
UPDATE: I decided on the downtown location, BIG THANKS to all those who gave me their feedback it was really helpful.
Both have pluses and minus on the side of the apartment itself but if someone can give me some feedback on the area maybe that will help me decide. I will make my choice by Wednesday so please take the time to leave me your comments.
Its good news that I have found a couple choices as I gave up on getting a house and living in some acreage, so it is going to be apartment life for me at least until I decide to buy something for myself.
Saturday, April 7
Apartment/House Hunting in GuelphExpand this Post: Apartment/House Hunting in Guelph |
This weekend I started seeing places for rent but had no luck so far. I did find a nice place was on 13 acres of land and was a very nice house. Would have loved to call it home but the strangest problem it was a little out of the city and it doesn’t get mobile phone coverage. I guess it was just a little too much into the country area and without cell phone coverage it wasn’t something I could accept.
I am also having a tough time finding a place due to the abundance of student style housing. One place I saw was very run down and I felt bad as the house itself could be such a nice place if the landlord actually kept up the place.
If anyone reading this has/knows of a place in Guelph either a detached house or nice apartment please let me know. I have a few requirements the only one worth mentioning is that it needs to have underground parking or an attached garage. Also ideally I like to have a nice apartment but if there are no executive style apartments then a nice detached house is my backup plan.
Wish me luck on finding a place as it has been a week in the hotel and I am looking forward to moving out into a real home.
Sunday, April 1
Day One in GuelphExpand this Post: Day One in Guelph |
I arrived last night and took a quick city tour and was really amazed as the city was so much prettier then I had thought. The city has so many old style buildings in brink and stone, something I haven’t seen for along time. I arrived Saturday night so there where a few people out downtown, but to my delight nothing too crazy happening downtown and the local nightlife seems really interesting.
Today I drove around the city and checked out a couple apartments and the house I was looking at renting, so many options really looking forward to getting a place here. I also got over to the Stone Road Mall, where I checked out the Sony Store, Flight Centre and I setup a local phone number with Fido. The Stone Road Mall is small but a good size that it’s a nice way to spend a couple hours shopping.
Weather wise its cold here and it rained today, but at least there isn’t snow on the ground. It is nice to be driving again, but had to fill up my tank today and wow it was $100 to fill up, so maybe I should stop driving around randomly. I figure the novelty of being able to drive will ware off in a few weeks.
My body right now doesn’t seem to have a big issue with the coldness and a funny thing is my hotel room heater only goes to 25.5 C so even at full heat its cold in my room. The biggest problem my body has right now is trying to stay awake and also trying to stay asleep. Last night woke up at 5am and couldn’t get back to sleep and now it is almost 8pm and I am fighting to keep my eyes open.
Tomorrow is my first day on the job, really looking forward to it. Scoped out the offices today and while not a high profile office/company they sure seem to be big with tons of cubicles/office space. Will do my best to post back on my first day at work and will try to figure out how to post my new phone number to my friends without the whole world knowing my number.
Saturday, March 31
Being Back Home in CanadaExpand this Post: Being Back Home in Canada |
I arrived back in Canada yesterday and it is starting to sink in that I am no longer going to be living in Asia. Everywhere I look I see something new but with a sense of familiarity, while at least in Vancouver that is the case.
Landing in Vancouver I thought was going to be stressful and full of issues, but I was pleasantly surprised by the process. Other then waiting in line for about 30 minutes to get through the initial customs screening the rest was a breeze. As after the initial screening a porter was there to grab my bags and then we got taken through a side door that bypassed the second lineup and have to give a big thanks to the customs officer who instead of making me fill out all the paper work just gave me a document and a number to call to have it all handled for me. So what I had budgeted as a 1 to 2 hour nightmare became a 30 minute wait in a line, next time I will get the Can-Am airport pass so I can also bypass the initial customs lineup.
It is really good to be back in an environment where great service is the norm as even the service at VanCity beats the private banking services with CitiBank which is known in Asia as the best. I walked into my old VanCity branch as I always kept an account there. Right away I had a couple people servicing me and while nobody offered me coffee or tea the actual service was amazing. They knew exactly what I needed and had the forms ready in a couple minutes. Really makes me feel comfortable keeping my money with a bank full of people that understand their system and customers at this level. Coming from Asia I could tell you so many horror stories from banks running two charging systems to a great story on what it took to actually get a Visa card in Thailand.
On a personal note I had a reunion of sorts with my guardian, which I haven’t seen in over 8 years. She is one of the closest people to me that can share stories of my late mother and is able to joke about my crazy family. So it was really good to touch base with her and hope now that I am within a reasonable flying distance I will be able to see her more often then every 8 years.
Also was able to meet back up with an old friend that I’ve known for over 14 years. Having that much of a history with someone is rare as traveling around the world and living in so many different places I’ve lost touch with most of my friends. But luckily my buddy Gurp is rooted in Vancouver and is always happy to take a few minutes of his day to hang out and reflect on the good old days. As with some of my best friends Gurp and I also share some great travel stories and I hope that I can get him over to Thailand in May to share in some new ones.
While I was in David’s office at VanCity I was looking at his desk and trying to figure out why there was a bunny rabbit on top of his computer monitor. Then like an old joke you just remember I smiled as it came to me that Easter must be coming. So I asked him when Easter was and it shocked me to hear that it was the following weekend. While I am Catholic I haven’t celebrated an Easter in over 5 years and really haven’t been aware of Easter for those 5 years as in Asia the only Catholic holiday that is noticeable is Christmas. So now while I am sitting on this plane headed to Toronto I am wondering if I should try to get a flight next weekend to Cuba or if I should just take the time to get to know Guelph a little better. I will decide in the next couple days as I don’t even know if we get holiday time with my new company during Easter.
Big moves and big changes in life are something sadly I am somewhat used to but I still have a little bit of that butterfly feeling in my stomach and honestly am a little nervous on what Guelph will bring into my life. I am getting older and like my guardian was saying I have done so much in the past 10 years, I hope that Guelph can be the place that I can experience the next 10 years as a member of a wonderful community.
In about 5 hours I will get my first glance at Guelph and I think tonight I will end up driving around Guelph to get a sense of the city. Can’t promise that I will blog tonight as even now I am really tired (it is 6am Singapore time) and while I been fighting to switch my body over to local time, come nighttime I will be ready for bed.
Friday, March 30
South Korea Marks #48 for MeExpand this Post: South Korea Marks #48 for Me |
Well I just finishing up a 2 day stay in Seoul, South Korea. Seoul is interesting, very costly, along the lines of Japan costs, but minus the Japanese system and cleanness. I for the most part enjoyed the city/county. I managed to get a tour of the DMZ, which was interesting. I’ve seen the boarder between Mexico and the US and while not exactly the same the DMZ shares many characteristics, like long fences, barb wire and a general sense of displaced people.
The most notable thing from this trip was in my hotel room. Now we have all seen mini bars and I had though the most advanced mini bar system was those that as soon as you take the bottle out of the fridge a computer send notice to charge you for the item. Well here in Seoul they’ve gone further, as in Seoul they have installed actual vending machines within the rooms (see the photo). These 4 and half feet by 2 and a half feet machines sit in the rooms just waiting for you to get hungry or need a bottle of wine and the get this when you turn off all the lights they come on and wish you a goodnight sleep. While not something I expect in a 5 star hotel these hotel room vending machines are effective. My only problem was I didn’t have any money small enough to buy a drink and it doesn’t give back change.
If anyone is coming to Seoul and going on the tour of the DMZ, bring along a large marble. You’ll understand when you are walking back out of the tunnel and if possible record the event and let me know how far it goes down.
Got to go, as I am just at the airport waiting to get on the plane and head to Vancouver and within 48 hours I will be in Guelph and hoping to stay put for at least a few weeks. As for why South Korea is #48 for me, well it is the 48th country that I have traveled to. I am hoping that #49 is Cuba as really interested to see that country and understand better about its culture and government. Will keep you posted as to which country becomes #49.
Thursday, March 29
Singapore Airlines New First ClassExpand this Post: Singapore Airlines New First Class |
It has probably been said before but I will say it anyways, the new first class with Singapore Airlines is like having a hotel room at 35,000 feet in the sky. Actually since there are only 8 seats/2 rows on the 777-300ER you also feel like your in some really small jet as the rest of the plane stays oblivious to you. On my flight there where only 6 people in first and with 3 dedicated staff we always had someone close by to help out.
My flight from Singapore to Seoul was 5 and a half hours, so I had a chance to get in a movie and a couple TV programs on the 24 inch LCD TV built into my seating area. While they didn’t have an actually IR remote for the TV it did have a nice controller attached to the seat, that also had a full keyboard. The keyboard is used to create/edit basically any office documents on the Singapore Airlines version of Microsoft Office. Note out to the Google guys that read the blog, should partner up with Singapore Airlines and offer up Google Apps in all their seats.
The seat which is huge, 35 inches wide and tall enough that even I can’t see over/around the side skirts also has a desk in front of you, where the TV and other things go. This monster of a seat at request also gets transformed into a bed, while at first glace I couldn’t figure out how they did it I did end up asking for turn down service to catch a nap. So what they do is the back of the seat folds down and then folds out to cover the area. Now I was told that this was 7 feet long, but I’m 6 foot 2 and my toes could brush the other end while I was sleeping.
Food and drink wise nothing really interesting, they service the typical caviar, champagne and fine meets but I have had better presentation at many restaurants, but I guess none of the staff are trained at that level of dining. Also no they didn’t let you just milk the champagne bottle, but they gladly where there to fill you up when you got low, but for me I was hitting it hard on the apple juice (champagnes little brother).
One thing amazed me the most out of all the things they had up in the first class cabin and its something I’ve never thought of or heard of before. It was that in the first class cabin on the seat belts they have an airbag safety system. This is something now that I’ve seen makes logical sense as the safety warning card with the people crunched up in weird positions for a crash could all be avoided with the installation of airbags on all the seats. We never got the chance to try out the airbags on the plane but I would rather hit an airbag then slam into the desk or TV in front of me. Probably see more Air Bag Belts if someone like Al Gore gets on a tantrum on airline safety.
Another notable item is the view as the seat takes up 4 windows and since you can see perfectly out of 2 of them you really get a sense of the sky around you. Just take a look at the photo, what a great view can be had and I am talking about out of the window. The feeling of space and freedom is always nice to have, too bad they can’t make longer/wider windows in this section as it sure would be nice to have an even wider view of the sky. Maybe in the future Airbuses this will happen as even though the view was great it felt kind of funny having so many windows to one seat.
Well overall I would say that the new Singapore Airlines first class is something really amazing but since it is so darn costly and also maybe at times not available with only 8 seats the business class is just as amazing. As the business class also has 35 inch seats and fully reclining beds, but is just not as finished and glamorous as the first class seats. Would I fly this first class again, well I will say hopefully not as I hope that in the future I can travel with colleagues and friends, which would make flying first class incredibly unfeasible, unless of course I was traveling with some of the Google boys after the vesting period.
Wednesday, March 28
Last Night in SingaporeExpand this Post: Last Night in Singapore |
Well it is all coming to an end and it feels very strange. Today the movers came and took away my boxes and I did my last few local things like closing my phone, power, Internet, and cable accounts. But part of me still thinks that I’ll be in my bed next week, but this will be the last night ever that I sleep in this bed.
Tonight went out with a bunch of my Singapore friends and had a great laugh and some serious talking on SEO, sorry Melissa next time we’ll give you time to study up on the SEO lingo. It was a good night and it will be a great memory to look back on.
I know I should be happy and moving back to Canada will be great for my personal life and family life, but it sure does feel a little strange to be leaving this all behind so quickly. As I really only started to consider this move to Guelph in February and its been only a few weeks since I confirmed that I would actually make the move, so its all a little blurry, but I do have a lot of good feelings on everything.
Have to my old SEO/PPC team in Singapore that our next lunch is on me, as sorry that I didn’t get a chance to meet up with all of you before I left. I will do my best to be back in May and you guys don’t drive Brent too crazy and remember the key to Peter’s happiness is just to add more TP pages. Oh and Liz did I mention how beautiful you look today, great you feeling good ok then can you buy the keyword “blog” for me with some of the monthly spend. Thanks Liz!
My flight leaves in 7 hours, which means I have at best 5 hours of sleep ahead of me, so I say goodbye to Singapore tonight and to all my friends and co-workers in Asia I wish you all the best in this coming year and while I am not here you are always welcome to email me.
Thursday, March 22
Singapore Freight/Cargo/Moving CompaniesExpand this Post: Singapore Freight/Cargo/Moving Companies |
Attn: Singapore Expats:
If anyone is thinking about trying to airfreight things from Singapore a general warning out to you about the local freight/cargo/moving companies as they will do almost anything to not handle a personal move.
They seem to be only interested in corporate relocation where they can charge an insane amount of money, some even simply said no we’re not interested in a personal move and hung up the phone. This is what you get when you have ultra greedy and ultra lazy individuals running companies.
I actually had my best luck and pricing dealing with a moving company out of the UK called London Baggage, which then subcontracts back into Singapore, the price was 27% to 52% less then the local companies, out of those that bothered to price the move. London Baggage is worth a check and they even provide a local toll free number for Singapore.
Wednesday, March 21
Venting on Singapore AirlinesExpand this Post: Venting on Singapore Airlines |
So my deal on an upgrade turned into a nightmare of service and I haven’t even gotten on the plane. What happen was really strange, since I booked my flight using Air Canada instead of Singapore Airlines, Singapore Airlines didn’t want to give the first class seat to Air Canada.
Add to the confusion that while Air Canada has a 24 hour reservation/support line, its based in the US (so much for national pride) and they can’t call the 24 hour reservation service at Singapore Airlines as its located here in Singapore. They “say” their phones aren’t allowed to call international. I was like I spend nearly 5 grand on a ticket and you can’t make a phone call to solve a problem for me, well the answer was a long drawn out no. So had to wait till Singapore Airlines office in the US opened and Air Canada could “discuss” this issue with them further.
So finally this evening Air Canada called me, not in Singapore, but via my US office number and confirmed that they where working with Singapore Airlines to resolve this issue and I will be able to fly as I requested and paid for. Then 15 minutes later another call back from them saying that Singapore Airlines had given them the seat and all was good. Now I haven’t been able to confirm with Singapore Airlines, but at this point I need a good sleep, if I drank I would be in a bar about now, but I don’t so I blog. I wonder what’s worse, hmmm in few years from now I will be on a 12 step program and at a “BA” meeting saying, “Hello my name is Stephen and I am a blogaholic…”.
So what’s the big deal, well I fly a lot with my job and even more as a hobby and for me I can get really ticked off with bad service. I just don’t see the reason to hire staff that isn’t personable in such a people/service based industry. Some of the nicest people work in the sky (no Helen, I have no biased opinion) and can make a 12 hour flight feel like spending 12 hours with friends. But that’s not always the case and this issue brings me back to the days when I used to own and run SingapoorAirlines.com (notice the spelling). Surprisingly it got traffic, and even type in traffic but it eventually pissed Singapore Airlines off enough that they sent their legal thugs after me.
The site was very professional as it gave my feedback from flying with Singapore Airlines as well as feedback from other not so happy travelers. I did give the name to them along with SingapoorAir.com without getting my legal counsel involved (didn’t want to spend anymore then the $17.90 which was what the domains cost) but still felt bad and used. They didn’t even apologize for the poor service that spawned the sites creation or even say thank you for me giving them the domains. Oh well that’s the corporate world for you, life goes on and I still fly with them.
UPDATE: When I checked in for this flight they still didn't want to give the seat to me, had to wait while the check in staff talked with management, what a mess...
Tuesday, March 20
Differences between Singapore & GuelphExpand this Post: Differences between Singapore & Guelph |
Some of my friends back here in Asia don’t really understand how big the difference to life in Singapore is compared to life in Guelph and to tell you the truth I don’t know how much different it will end up being either. But what I do know is some of the statistical differences, such as:
Population
Singapore 4,492,150
Guelph 127,009 (138,183 including the surrounding township)
So Guelph has the population size of around 3% of Singapore's, but this is probably higher then actual as in Singapore there are hundreds of thousands of illegal workers and tourists that are not included in the official population.
Land Size/Area
Singapore 699.4 km²
Guelph 86.66 km² (378.45 km² including the surrounding township)
Amazing that Guelph is about half the size of Singapore but with 3% of the number of people. To give you anouther aspect to land/people ratio, here is the home I am looking at getting in Guelph: http://www.virtualproperties.ca/r5007/photogallery.htm this land use would be something that only the president of Singapore would be able to acquire, but in Guelph its just another house on the block.
Weather
Current Temperature in Singapore 32 °C / 89 °F
Current Temperature in Guelph -5.6 °C / 21.9 °F
While I did find an average temperature for Guelph, it is somewhat useless as the temperature range in Guelph goes from -11.0 °C to plus 25.7 °C depending on the time of year, but anyways the average temperature in Guelph is between 1.8 °C and 11.6 °C.
Where as in Singapore there is a constant temperature year around, which ranges from 24 °C and 30 °C, even on some of Guelph’s warmest days it won’t reach the average temperature I’m used to in Singapore, oh boy…
That is why after living in Asia for nearly 6 years my biggest fear is how my body will adjust back to not only colder temperatures but also variation in temperatures. One thing I do know is that I will have a much larger wardrobe in Guelph, which will include lots of long johns and parkas.
Housing/Rental
3 Bedroom Condo in Singapore $1,450 CAD / $1,900 SGD
3 Bedroom House in Guelph $1,200 CAD / $1,550 SGD
There is no point trying to compare renting a house in Singapore to renting a house in Guelph as in Singapore you can expect to pay at least $4,000 SGD / $3,000 CAD for a house. The Singapore prices are not higher due to western style of living this is the actual average cost of a place in Singapore. If you wanted western style living you can expect to pay at least $2,500 to $4,000 a month for a condo.
Cars / Automobiles
Singapore entry level 2007 Honda Civic: $56,250 CAD / $73,000 SGD
Singapore fully loaded 2007 Honda Civic: $62,400 CAD / $81,000 SGD
Canada entry level 2007 Honda Civic: $16,980 CAD / $22,000 SGD
Canada fully loaded 2007 Honda Civic: $23,630 CAD / $30,650 SGD
In Singapore a combination of government corruption and local dealership greed has made owning a vehicle almost impossible. As the price of the same car in Singapore can buy you 3 in Canada, not to mention that in Singapore you are only allowed to own the car for 10 years. After 10 years you have to re-buy your car from the government otherwise it becomes scrap metal.
Me being a car nut this has really been one of my biggest problems living in Singapore as sadly to say I haven’t owned a car during my life in Singapore, but I can assure you I will own one (maybe even two or three) when I am in Guelph.
Food / Mc Donald’s
Big Mac in Singapore $3.00 CAD / $3.85 SGD
Big Mac in Guelph $3.76 / $4.90 SGD
Ok right now all those who know me in Asia are probably laughing and can add to that list the lady who answered the phone at the Gordon Street Mc Donald’s in Guelph, but I had to compare the cost of a Big Mac. So it looks like its going to cost me $1.05 SGD more to bite into a Big Mac, maybe I should have held out for a bigger salary or maybe I should just buy more shares in Mc Donald’s. (The price was updated as someone mentioned to me that the Tower Street Mc Donald's originally used in the quote was in Fergus)
Those are the current differences I could find, but will add more once I am in Guelph. Hope to make note on the taxi cost, bus fare, silly things like power costs as I know my friends back in Bangkok are always talking about how much power costs them, as well as anything else I come across that would make a good comparison.
Thursday, March 15
Hampton Inn & Suites GuelphExpand this Post: Hampton Inn & Suites Guelph |
The Hampton Inn & Suites Guelph (operated by the Hilton chain) is where I will call home for my first month of life in Guelph. I called several of the hotels in Guelph and ended up selecting this hotel as not only was Naushad Ismail the general manager very personable he was also very persistent. In the end I went with the two room suite as I didn’t feel like being stuck to a single room for a month.
Some of the other hotels I considered where the Travel Lodge Inn & Suites, while the rate was a lot better they seem to have less of a business theme and their location I was told by others is above a local pub, but I can’t confirm that.
Another two hotels I considered where the Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites, yup that’s right they have both in this small city and it confused me as when the don’t seem to share much information between the two. But I will say that the Holiday Inn has one thing that the Hampton Inn & Suites is missing and that would be a restaurant on site.
While all the hotels offer free breakfast and free Internet access the only one to have a restaurant on site is the Holiday Inn, but Mr. Ismail from the Hampton Inn & Suites assured me that there were plenty of great restaurants beside their hotel and some offer delivery, which I guess can be as good as room service. I often forget about delivery as in Asia it is very uncommon to have any nice actually cooked food delivered so while I travel in Asia I really rely on room service.
As for the Hampton Inn & Suites in Guelph they are located at 725 Imperial Road North, please don’t rely on the current Google Maps data for this hotel as for some reason this hotel is coming up as being located at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites address. This might be due to the fact that the same owner operates both properties and someone made a mistake or that someone has gone and spammed Google Maps, but either way I am sure I can help them correct this problem over the next month.
The Hampton Inn & Suites has both suites and normal rooms, with some of their rooms having nice whirlpool tubs, too bad my room doesn’t. Also all rooms have a fridge, microwave and sink to make longer stays easier. A nice touch of style in the rooms is the use of large LCD TVs, which gives the room more space and at the same time gives is a very fresh/new feeling.
I have attached actual photos of the rooms and once I check in I will update this post with more relevant information. If you would like more information on the Hampton Inn & Suites Guelph you can visit their official homepage here.
It is only 16 more days and I will be officially starting my life in Guelph, I really need to start packing...
Monday, March 12
Arrival Date in Guelph ConfirmedExpand this Post: Arrival Date in Guelph Confirmed |
Today I booked and paid for my ticket back to Canada and on to my life in Guelph. I will arrive in Canada March 30th in Vancouver, spend the night and then fly to Guelph (Toronto) the following morning. So I'll be checked into my hotel in Guelph probably around 8pm local time on the 31st.
I managed to get a decent rate for my flight and as an added bonus it only cost me another $250 CAD to upgrade to First Class so of course I upgraded. It will be interesting to see how Singapore Airlines handles their "New First Class" as most airlines these days either have no first class service or a downgraded/cheaper version of it.
For those of you back in Singapore you might be thinking of a certain someone when I mention flying with Singapore airlines and while yes she does work in the first class cabin on this route the likely hood of meeting her is rare as there are just so many flight attendants and so many routes she could be on.
For some people it would be great to be flying off somewhere, but for me this is my 16th flight this year and I've probably spent more time at airports and in the air then at my home. So for me what I am really looking forward to being at "home" in Guelph and getting back to a daily routing that doesn't involve me getting on a plane.
Sunday, March 11
My Gut Feelings on Guelph (and Hong Kong)Expand this Post: My Gut Feelings on Guelph (and Hong Kong) |
I remembered last year when Microsoft approached me and offered me the position of being the Team Leader and Spokesman for AdCenter International. Reason why I remembered it again was the position would see me based in Hong Kong and while being in a high profile position with Microsoft had its advantages I really didn't want to move to Hong Kong.
My gut feeling on Hong Kong was it has too much of a corporate environment and that everyone was just there to work and make money, so I politely rejected their offer and somewhat forgot about working and living in Hong Kong. Now being back in Hong Kong for a few days I see that I made the right choice and my gut feelings where correct.
Happiness, I learned along time ago doesn't come from money or the endless pursuit of what money can buy, for me I found that happiness comes from having strong relationships and a sense of belonging to and contributing to a better society.
So what about my gut feelings on Guelph, well I let you in on a little insider secret, I didn't take the position in Guelph for the money, it was one of the lower offers I had just looking at the cash, but my gut feeling on Guelph and the company I will be working for far out weighed the long term value of the other offers.
My gut feeling on Guelph is 90% really good as I think will be a city full of people that love the small town/city atmosphere and have a good sense of community. I also think that its a city with a lot of culture that is easy to experience as the size and the locals make it easy to interact with everything/everyone. Also really excited about the fact that its less then an hour to Toronto so while living in Toronto doesn't interest me at all, being able to go up for Raptors games and other events at the Air Canada Centre is really a plus.
The 10% of my gut feeling that is a little off is based on the large university crowd in Guelph, while this could be a good thing it also could be bad. I am hoping that the University of Guelph attracts more laid back/small town type people as that last thing I want to do is move into a non-stop party town with wild discos, but so far it looks like its more the cafe type crowd, which is great!
On top of the 90% positive feelings towards Guelph I have to say that I have a 99% positive gut feeling toward my new corporate environment. The company really seems to care not only about me but all its employee's, which is really important. I have been with companies where they'll pay me a good salary, treat me good with perks and benefits but then totally take advantage of the majority of the staff.
Thankfully from what I have been told and from the employee blogs I could find, I hear nothing but good things about the company, the staff and the senior management. So either they're really good at propaganda or I am in for a really nice place to call home.