Remember I had never been to Guelph prior to moving back from Asia to take the job here and while I did research a lot about the city my gut feeling and logic told me it was going to be a good place to live. Well it did turn out to be a great place to live from my first hand accounts, but I am happy to find that a 3rd party research firm has also rated it as one of the top places to live in Canada.
Below are the top 50 places to live in Canada according to Canadian Business Online (Canoe.ca) one of the largest news agencies in Canada:
1 Ottawa - Gatineau ON
2 Halifax NS
3 Québec QC
4 Guelph ON ( Guelph's Rating )
5 Fredericton NB
6 Kingston ON
7 Moncton NB
8 London ON
9 Victoria BC
10 Gander NL
11 Collingwood ON
12 Toronto ON
13 Winnipeg MB
14 Leamington ON
15 Vancouver BC
16 Saskatoon SK
17 Cobourg ON
18 Windsor ON
19 Brandon MB
20 Orillia ON
21 Kitchener ON
22 Hamilton ON
23 Montréal QC
24 Oshawa ON
25 Thompson MB
26 Peterborough ON
27 St. John's NL
28 Calgary AB
29 Corner Brook NL
30 Yellowknife NT
31 Edmonton AB
32 Port Hope ON
33 Joliette QC
34 Stratford ON
35 Lloydminster AB
36 Lethbridge AB
37 Kenora ON
38 Tillsonburg ON
39 Regina SK
40 North Bay ON
41 Victoriaville QC
42 Sherbrooke QC
43 St. Catharines - Niagara ON
44 Yorkton SK
45 Saint John NB
46 Rimouski QC
47 Magog QC
48 Whitehorse YK
49 Saint-Georges QC
50 Brantford ON
I have been to 19 of the above cities and have lived in 4 of them. While it is too early for me to say Guelph is the best place I’ve ever lived but it certainly is a nice place to call home.
Saturday, July 21
Guelph Best Place to Live in Canada?Expand this Post: Guelph Best Place to Live in Canada? |
White Water Rafting on Ottawa RiverExpand this Post: White Water Rafting on Ottawa River |
Last weekend went camping and white water rafting on the Ottawa River. It was great to get back camping and the white water rafting added even more elements of fun. The only thing that was a damper on the weekend was the 8 hour bus ride from Guelph to the camp. Its makes spending 12 hours on a plane seem like heaven as on the bus there is no one feeding you, even less room to walk around and limited in-flight entertainment.
We arrived at the camp Friday night and started up a fire and just took in the night. It is really nice to look up in the sky and see all those stars. The following day we hit the water and had some amazing hits and rapids, we did flip once and went swimming a few times. It was my second time white water rafting and was as enjoyable as the first. The most enjoyable part was dropping down a 15 foot waterfall, we all survived and nobody flips on that one.
That night was great as we where all tired and ready for a nice relaxing time around the fire. We got some marshmallows and hotdogs and chatted about life while watching the flames dance in the fire.
The next day I took the lazy day and ended sleeping half it away as was a little sore and “someone” gave me a red bull the night before and I wasn’t able to sleep till nearly 3am. Most of the group headed back out on the water and had a great day. Then it was back on the bus and another 8 hours back to Guelph.
If you are interested in heading out to the Ottawa River for some white water rafting the company we used was HorizonX and they have a website: http://www.horizonx.ca/
Friday, July 13
The Brick GuelphExpand this Post: The Brick Guelph |
Summary: I wouldn’t recommend anyone to buy or order appliances from the Brick in Guelph.
While the sales staff is very friendly and supportive prior to a sale I have a little story to tell you about my personal experience. I ordered a fridge and stove from the Brick store in Guelph and paid for delivery and paid extra for the setup. The salesman explained to me the setup fee was extra as they would setup everything other then plugging it in. So great don’t mind paying $50 for someone to setup this for me.
So the delivery day arrived and the first thing that was off is the delivery driver called and said he would be at my house between 10:30 and 12:00 so I took a couple hours off work and headed home during that time. Well come 12:30 they hadn’t arrived and I called up the Brick to see where they where. The switch board couldn’t reach the driver and they said just for me to wait longer. So I waited and 15 minutes later they arrived, maybe my mistake to think that a delivery would be more important then their lunch.
Anyways so they came in put the fridge in its spot and right away the delivery guy said, “oh going to need to adjust the feet on the fridge” as it was sitting at about a 10 degree angle as the front feet where fully extended while the back feet where not. Not an issue I thought as that’s what the setup was for. Next the stove came in and well it had a lot of tape and other things all over the front and top it was also put in the spot for the stove.
Next thing I expect was for them to remove the packing/shipping material and adjust the fridge so that it was level, put the handle on the fridge so that it could be used. Well this didn’t happen, the next thing they did was ask me to sign approving the delivery. I said but the setup isn’t finished and I can’t even see half the stove as it is still covered in packing/shipping tape and other shipping material. They looked at me and said oh we don’t do any setup services. So we called the Brick here in Geulph and asked the sales person and while I did pay $50 for “setup” it turns out they only call removing the item from the box as a setup service. Removing packing tape, making sure that the item has no scratches, making the fridge into a useable item with door handles and doing anything else has nothing to do with setup in the Bricks eyes.
So the lady on the phone at the Guelph Brick store said that they never actually setup anything for customers that all they do is remove something from a box and no further packaging/shipping material remove. She also said that they refuse to do anything else and she would have the drivers take the items back if I didn’t want to do all the setup and the further unpacking myself.
So of course I said good idea you can have the items back and I will do what I can to ensure that other people in Guelph understand the level of after sales support you provide. Which is why I am adding this entry into my blog, using my knowledge of Google ( http://www.google.com/search?q=the+brick+guelph ), and also why I wouldn’t recommend anyone buying appliances from the Guelph Brick store, unless of course you don’t care about after sales service and if that’s the case might as well save yourself a bunch of money and buy from any of the online retailers who don’t lie about the no service aspect of the products they sell.
Here are some other options for furniture and appliance in Guelph:
Far East Clearance
http://www.fareastclearancecentres.com/
I’ve bought my sofa set from them and had really good service and after sales support as one special screw in the sofa came out and the owner’s son himself came and reinstalled one for me.
Shuh Appliance Center’s
http://www.shuhappliance.com/
While I’ve never bought something from them they do have a very large selection of appliances and will be one of the places I look at as I still need a fridge and stove.
Acker's Furniture
http://www.ackersfurniture.com/
What a homegrown store, this family run business is very personal touch. The owner of the store personally delivered my table and chairs. This place is most defiantly worth a look over as they have a little bit of everything.
Sears Guelph
http://www.sears.ca/
While not something I highly recommend they do have a selection of appliance. The only problem is you won’t be getting any nice before sales service as the sales people within the appliance department are not too friendly and come off as used car salesmen.
I’ll add in more options and if I get any news back from the Brick I’ll post an update here.
Follow up on this story:
Actually this story written above wasn’t put online till today as I wanted to get the response from salesman at the Brick. He wasn’t working till today which is why the delay. I went into the Brick this morning and funnily the manager of the store and the salesman where having a meeting about me and I joined them. The manger of the store said and I quote “nobody setups the appliances for customers” his reference to nobody was in that not only does the Brick never setup things for the customers that nobody in the industry does.
Well I didn’t mention it to him but the day before I went to Shuh Appliance Center’s with my receipt from the Brick and they sold me the same items at the same price and defiantly ensured me that they setup and have everything in working order before they leave the customers house.
The manager never apologized for this he simply went on about how customers seem to misunderstand that when they pay for a setup it only means that they will remove the box. He also made it clear to me how much they lost on this deal and how upset the driver was and at the end he added, I am sure that this was an inconvenience to you also. It sure was, but I did get an apology from the salesman he’s a good guy stuck in a bad situation. He couldn’t say anything with his boss standing in front of him and only when he left did he apologize and I could see he felt bad.
To add salt to an already open wound this next thing is so shocking it even got the fraud department at my bank calling me. Since I returned the good to the Brick they where to refund my credit card. Didn’t think much of this until I got a call from the fraud department at my bank as there was some unusual activity on my card. It turns out the Brick refunded my card and then charged me again for the stove and fridge. Add to this the charge from Shuh (which was authorized) and my personal banker flagged it and had the fraud team investigate. Sure enough the Brick did charge me again for the stove and fridge as when I went in today the lady at the counter had thought that I still had the stove and fridge at my house.
It turns out on the same day that I returned my stove and fridge another customer with the same issue with the “setup” fee/service asked for a refund. This customer got his refunded but the Brick had decided to actually give him the setup service that he request which was to actual setup his appliance. The lady got this person and me mixed up and charged my credit card again rather then the other persons. Good thing my bank watches my credit card charges as more then likely the Brick would have just kept my money.
While this is just my opinion and my experience, I think you all would understand why I give caution to anyone buying appliances from the Brick in Guelph.
Monday, July 2
Canada Day in HalifaxExpand this Post: Canada Day in Halifax |
Business took me up to Halifax on the Friday before Canada Day and I decided to stay till the Monday and celebrate Canada Day in Halifax along with some friends from Genie Knows.
I came into Halifax to talk some business with Genie Knows as well as celebrate the launch their vertical search engine for the gaming industry http://www.GenieKnowsGames.com . The business talks went great and the evening of celebrations even better.
Spending a couple days walking around and doing touristy things in Halifax was enough to get a good sense of the city. It has a lot of history and a lot of culture but is small, which is a good thing if you are ok with not much to do other then bars after 10pm.
On Canada Day I went to the home of the founders of Genie Knows and spent it with their family, it was a really amazing time. They are such nice people that you feel like your part of the family and for me it was the best Canada Day I can remember for a long long time, well it also was my first Canada Day in 7 years.
I did enjoy Halifax, recommend staying at the Westin, great location and rates, but you need to get a harbor view room. The Marriott was also nice, closer to things and the casino but the rates jumped and they actually didn’t have room for me and my colleagues. Although I did enjoy Halifax I took an earlier flight back to Toronto/Guelph as after you’ve walked the downtown/harbor area for 3 days straight there isn’t much new to see.
So I am back in Guelph, just getting ready for another blitz of a week, just looking forward to the middle of the month as will be going camping with some colleagues from work and for me camping is always an amazing time.
Saturday, June 30
Niagara Falls - Maid of the MistExpand this Post: Niagara Falls - Maid of the Mist |
Last weekend my buddy Troy and his Wife, who where on their honeymoon from Thailand stopped by Guelph and we decided to explore the region. So we headed up to Niagara Falls. This was the first time for Troy's wife and me at Niagara Fall, and while Tory had been before he was only a kid so it was a great experience for all.
We went on the Maid of the Mist, which is the boat that takes you into the water within a few feet of the falls, it was really wet and amazing. Really need a waterproof camera to properly recorded it but we did get some good photos and even better memories.
We also went to a haunted house, wasn't much fun but the Tunnel at Ripley's Believe it or Not was a lot of fun. If you've never been in one of these tunnels basically, you are in a dark room in which the walls rotate around you. Because your brain wants to interpret the walls as stationary, you feel like you are rotating the other way, and you are off balance when you walk. Its so weird as really no matter how to try to fight it your brain overpowers your logic and reality and you end up walking funny and often hit the side of the rails.
This Canada Day I am in Halifax, came up for some work and stayed for the holiday, will write about it once I am back to Guelph, but so far so good.
Sunday, June 17
Toppers Pizza GuelphExpand this Post: Toppers Pizza Guelph |
Well I’ve found a very good pizza place here in Guelph called Toppers Pizza. If you are a local you have probably well aware of this place but for me it took 2 months before I was introduced to its wonderful pizza. Toppers Pizza does pickup and of course home delivery and it cost less then $18 for a large 5 toping pizza delivered.
They have an official website http://www.toppers.ca/ but it’s a pain to use, ok not as bad as Mc Donald’s site in Singapore but bad enough that the only thing worth mentioning is the online booking option http://toppers.orderingonline.ca/. While the online ordering system is a little daunting it does mean if you really are a nerd and do nothing but use the Internet for dating, chatting with friends, playing games, you can now even order you food without any really human interaction.
As for the pizza, it is far better then their website. Nice fresh toppings with nothing overcooked and they give choice of crust. This is something that’s really cool as I love garlic bread and with the garlic crust option I no longer need to order the bread on the side. The pizza is good size and they have a wide range of toppings, even had shrimp added to my pizza.
Other then Toppers I have been eating a lot downstairs at the penny whistle and will give a review of them also in the time to come.
Saturday, June 2
Back from China & Off to SeattleExpand this Post: Back from China & Off to Seattle |
Well I got back into Guelph yesterday morning and spent the day learning more about the “restructuring” that happened at my work. While I currently have my job I lost 95% of my team due to “cutbacks” and am left wondering what the future will hold for me and the rest of the team.
Anyways on a positive note China was eventful and fun, met up with the Jianfei Zhu, who is the Yao Ming of the search world. Also had some really good meetings with Alibaba/Yahoo! China and maybe will end up sending some of my ex-team members into China to help Alibaba/Yahoo! China succeed on their SEO goals. The trip was a little long and I am glad to be back but sadly I have only 2 days here in Guelph and I have to fly off to Search Marketing Expo in Seattle.
Seattle is a city I haven’t spent much time in but will be good to go up for this event as it’s the first SMX and it should be very educational and full of interesting people. Will have a chance to meet up with Matt Cutts again at the event, it’s been a awhile since we met face to face as being in Asia all I could do was email with him.
As for Guelph it is getting warmer and prettier all the time, I am looking forward to this summer being able to walk around and enjoy some of the outdoor activities. I haven’t fully moved into my home yet, also my stuff from Singapore hasn’t arrived so won’t post any photos of my place just yet. Hopefully this month my stuff will arrive and my home will be ready to have a nice housewarming party as well as take some photos.
To all my ex-staff and to the editors and writers, I will do my best to help you find work within the industry as your knowledge is very valuable and if I had my own company setup in Canada I would be happy to take some of you in myself. The next 2 months you all will have many offers but take your time and don’t rush into the first job your offered. As while change is always difficult this might just be a really great chance to focus and find that dream job. If anyone has interest to work in China, either for copy writing, editing or SEO please drop me an email, but note that while it’s a job it is not going to pay a lot of money but will be a great personal and working experience.
Monday, May 21
Search Engine Strategies ChinaExpand this Post: Search Engine Strategies China |
I am back in China for the next 10 days, will be speaking at SES China on the Advanced SEO track, my presentation will be posted here once its finished. I am really looking forward to meeting up with some old friends at this year’s event. This will mark the 2nd year for SES in China and thanks to Inway and TimeV sure it will have many more years of great success.
Later today will be fun as I will meet up with several executives from the largest Internet company in China for some dinner and talk about the future of that company within the International marketplace. This dinner also happens to include an old friend from Singapore, she happen to leave Singapore to join this company and now landed herself a sweet directors role and an even sweet chance to meet up with me again tonight. I’ll try and post comments back from the dinner, but it should be interesting as a lot of great minds will be at the table.
Right now I am in Hangzhou but will be leaving for Xiamen on Thursday so if any other SES’ers are out there and are in HZ drop me a quick email and maybe we can grab some dinner or just say hi if we pass each other around town. I am staying at the Hyatt on the lake.
Its 6:30am here, which means its 6:30pm back in Guelph and surprisingly my body has been able to shift over to the new time zone relatively easy. Part of the easy of switching time zones came from the flight as it was non-stop from Toronto to Shanghai which meant it didn’t really feel like you where traveling. But sadly the flight was on Air Canada and boy even though I was flying “Executive First Class” it was far far from first class service.
To give you a basic idea of how old and poor the service was our leading stewardess was cerebrating her 40th year flying with Air Canada this week. Makes me almost embarrassed to say that I used to date a leading stewardess, but she was far away from doing anything for 40 years and looked far better then the staff Air Canada pulled out of the retirement home and gave a uniform to.
On a funny note related to domain/company names, the gentlemen sitting beside me on the flight was the CEO of a company which I thought was a really cool name, eSteve (ie electronic steve) or at least that is how I read his company name. Turns out it’s really Esteve and is a pharma company based in Spain. He did laugh when I told him I thought is company was eSteve and he said that it’s very often people don’t know how to pronounce the name. Got me thinking about eStephen.com, but sadly some damn domain parker has registered it so not much chance of getting that one anytime soon.
Ok its off to have some breakfast and then a quick nap so that I can make it though the day as want to make sure I am fresh and alert for tonight’s dinner.
Saturday, May 12
Thomas DVD Movie RentalExpand this Post: Thomas DVD Movie Rental |
This weekend is my first one in my new home and thanks for Thomas Movie Rental it has become a movie weekend. The location of my new home, 2 Quebec Street, not only has a lot of great restaurants it also is less then 5 minutes walk to the video store.
So today I got a membership at Thomas Entertainment CD & Movie Rentals and picked up 6 great movies to get me through the weekend.
While the video store is not easy to find things in yourself, it does have a couple great employee's that know where things are. So ask if you can't find something as movies are not organized alphabetically and there are a couple sections for each type of movie, yes it is as confusing as it sounds.
They also have a websites, while not fully working it does have some tools and information. the website is http://www.thomasvideo.ca/ and the Thomas Video Rentals phone number is (519) 822-1451 and their address is: 60 Baker St. Guelph. Open 10am to 10pm daily.
Thursday, May 3
3 Days in Fort LauderdaleExpand this Post: 3 Days in Fort Lauderdale |
Well it was really nice to be back in a humid and hot climate, even if it was just for 3 days. This was my first time in Fort Lauderdale but I had been to Florida in the past for a holiday/Disney Land themed trip. This trip was for corporate reasons and I spent most my days and nights working. It wasn’t all bad as it did allow me a chance to meet some really talented people and gives me even more hope for the future. Lets face it is sure will be nice to have the potential to do some remote office work down here in Florida during the winter months.
Fort Lauderdale is surprisingly full of canals and it has the nickname the Venice of the West, but unlike Venice there are huge 150 foot yachts. The city is really flat as there are very few large buildings and it makes it nice as even from the 10th floor of the office you can see for mile and miles around. Also the amount of money and high-end social life around downtown makes for interesting people. To give you an idea we had breakfast at a place that had Dom Perignon on the menu, while I have had some expensive meals in my time a $299 breakfast would have been a first.
The Fort Lauderdale beach was something odd as it had a very steep drop into the water, almost like they pile the sand 2 or 3 feet higher on the beach then the tide can support. But the beach was nice and Dave (my fellow co-worker) and I where able to get a little wet the first evening. The other evening was all work for me as I needed to complete a website review and training seminar for the SEO team here in Florida and now I am at the airport waiting for my flight. Hopefully next trip I will have at least a day to relax but actually at this point I am so happy to be heading home as in just a few days I will have an official place to call home.
In the next couple weeks I will be planning out my trip into China for SES, but it is looking like I will arrive in Asia on the 19th and depart around the 26th depending on the request from management in terms of looking at developing out things in Asia. So I will let you all know when that is confirmed and looking forward to seeing you all again soon.
What Does it Mean to be a Professional SEO?Expand this Post: What Does it Mean to be a Professional SEO? |
Many people, including most of my own family, have no idea what I do or how it’s of any benefit. This is common--most people think SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is just a matter of changing some magical code on the page, and that any website can get the benefits of SEO. This general misunderstanding is also why there are so many people able to offer SEO services; the average buyer has no idea what they are buying, and they end up buying the general idea of SEO than an actual SEO product.
SEO, when done properly by professionals, is very complex and involves much more than keywords with fairy dust. I would say that most website owners are not ready for true SEO. When I ran my agency I turned away over 90% of the clients that approached me for SEO services--there is no point in taking a client’s money and giving him or her something that will never work. Yes, they might be very happy to be #1 for their company name. You might be pretty tickled to have them think you are the king of SEO. But does it really drive their business forward?
Within my industry I have held true to the idea of “do it right, do it for long term, and do it for the right reasons.” I add the last one in because I have had offers from companies that have the right process the right long term goals but the methods of monetization go against my better judgment. I am very proud to say that in 10 years I have never promoted a gambling, pornography, or pill website.
Keeping this focus has given me less market share, but I have had some of the bigger companies come knocking on my door asking for my expertise: Alibaba, Dell, eBay, Expedia, Global Sources, Microsoft, Tesco--even the almighty Google has come looking for my services. But keeping a selective nature also means I don’t make the insane amounts that the "fairy dust" SEO sellers do. It’s much more profitable and easy to have a few hundred clients that you are charging $10k a month to simply change some META data once in a while (and advise them what you read on WW the night before) than it is to manage a project that involves dozens of departments and countless employees.
Being in the industry--and working with so many companies--I have seen "fairy dust" go for as high as $150,000/month. If you look around the industry you will see a lot of the SEO world more focused on creating a blog post then doing actual SEO work. This is because skill level in this industry, for some reason, has become based on the number of blog posts you make rather then your technical expertise and experience. If I was hiring a SEO professional I’d rather hire the head of class coming out of applied mathematics of Harvard then any of the SEO bloggers.
In a lot of my public talks I relate search engine optimizers to stock brokers, and search engines to stock markets. This comparison comes from search engine optimizers having millions of people that claim they can bring in returns--like stock brokers—but a lot fail and lose clients money while others simply just live off the natural flux within the markets/search engines. There are also the day traders and the DIY SEO’ers who believe they have the system beat. Then there are the elite who can not only to guarantee returns but are already making enough money themselves that the only reason they take on a client is to be able to make even more money using their personal formula for success. The formula for success in stock markets, like search engines, fundamentally never changes; and, it’s simply based on what the client wants to invest and how much they want to get back out.
The only real difference between a stock broker and an SEO is that, unlike a stock market, a search engine is a 100% mathematical puzzle--ultimately there are no unknowns in the search engines, so a true SEO professional has no reason for failure. While I don’t claim to know everything about the ranking formulas at Google I do know that there is a set formula, and with the right set of people (note to self: hire some ex-WWII code breakers) the formula can be fully understood. But for now I just live off of 10 years experience in dealing with the formula. Although you may never see my name on the Internet if you use Google you have definitely seen my work.
Tuesday, May 1
1 Month AnniversaryExpand this Post: 1 Month Anniversary |
April was the first full month for for the website Gwelf.com and the response from friends, family and people around Guelph has been great.
While I am nowhere close to a busy site or anything that is worth bragging about I did manage to get 3,859 readers last month. The interesting part of this number is where everyone came from as 3,070 came from Canada (1,464 from Guelph), 260 from Singapore, 237 from the United States (40 from Google) and the rest from various other countries, a total of 57 different countries make up my readership.
I didn’t think I would get as much local readership but it is nice as a few people within the community in Guelph have referenced me to my blog and even the founder of the company I work for has found my blog thanks to Google.
I promise to eat out more often once I am downtown and do more reviews of businesses and restaurants in Guelph as I think it is nice to share this wonderful city with others and help the community maybe even find something new.
Over the last month a few interesting stories have come from the blog:
The first one that sticks in my mind is the founder of the company I am working for emailing me and commenting on the blog and then during a meeting making a direct reference to me not living on Willow road. While I had and will keep the blog clean this gives me even more reason to do so.
The second one that was interesting was when I was looking for a place to rent I had people on the other end of the phone ask if I was “Stephen the Blogger who ran Gwelf.com” as they had been reading the blog. It was interesting that simply saying my name was Stephen and I was looking for a place to rent immediately they thought of my blog. Wonder if any other “Stephen’s” where getting the same treatment over the last month.
Third thing that referenced my blog was even stranger and actually had a nice result. Seems the Fido store that I reviewed had several bad reports back on its staff and about Paul the person that served me and was really helpful, which I mentioned in the blog. Somehow the management of Fido found my blog and read my post on Paul and Fido and used it to help them validate that Paul is a good employee and while everyone has a bad day Paul does have good days. No idea if my blog had much weight but it did manage to get back to me via 3 other people that Fido was happier with Paul thanks to my blog.
Other things that have happened thanks to the blog is that some of the staff within the company I work where able to learn more about me and have initiated friendships thanks to reading it. I have even had people from outside of Guelph that where just looking to see if they also wanted to move to Guelph read, comment and email me about my blog and Guelph.
I glad that I moved to Guelph, glad to be working with the company I am with and happy that I have taken the plunge into the Blogging world and started this blog.
Sunday, April 29
First Month in GuelphExpand this Post: First Month in Guelph |
Very happy to say that life in Guelph has been great and my gut feelings on Guelph where very correct. Sadly on the working in Guelph side of things a combination of confusion, uncertainty and the general stress of the move has made it a little rough. Not all that bad just try and think about doing the following:
- Get less then 30 days to: move to a new city/country, hire movers/pack, say goodbye to friends, manage 5 other unassociated trips, deal with office rentals, apartment rentals and related services.
- Arrive at a new job where you have 13 people reporting to you all of whom are eager to learn everything possible and are in need of that knowledge ASAP, but you also have dozens of other people asking for help. (If anyone wants a genie pig for a cloning experiment I am game.)
- Attend meeting after meeting with different people/departments all asking for the same thing but not being in a logistical position to give it to anyone of them.
- Come home night after night to a hotel room and have random eating habits.
That’s my life over the last couple months and its catching up to me but I do know that in the coming couple months I will have a better time both in Guelph and at work.
May will be an interesting month as I have to be in Florida and China for meetings and more interestingly I will be moving into my new home on the 8th of May. No house warming party planned for May as I won’t be around long enough but in June I hope that I have the place ready for guests.
Going to Florida for 3 days for a quick meeting with the corresponding SEO department within a company we just acquired. Will see what tools and knowledge they can bring back to the Guelph SEO team. I know that some of them SEO team in Guelph like the possibility of having a remote office in Florida to make use of during the winter months, but don’t know if that’s possible.
My trip to China in May will be for the Search Engine Strategies conference and I will be speaking on the Advanced SEO track. This year I will expand out my presentation on the top things a webmaster/SEO can do to rank better in Google. I will post a link within the blog to allow you to download a version for those who are interested. Post more on that later in May.
Wednesday, April 25
Atmosphere CafeExpand this Post: Atmosphere Cafe |
While I have not gotten a chance to get out for many dinners I have made it to the Atmosphere Cafe in Guelph and have to say the food was really wonderful. For an entree I ordered the Pear Salad which was my first time having a pear salad and I was presently surprised, while it is not a garden salad the pears really add a nice flavor.
For a main course I had the Pacific Salmon and I have to say that this is worth coming to eat at the Atmosphere Cafe. The piece of salmon was large and was atop of a nice array of fresh vegetables and everything was cooked just right, the vegetables where still crisps and the salmon nice and flakey.
If these items don’t interest you the Atmosphere Cafe has a great website ( http://www.atmospherecafe.ca ) that have there menus online so you can get a great idea of the other items they serve and I can say that your are going to enjoy which ever item you select. My friends who joined me for dinner had the pizza and they really enjoyed that but for me I prefer to have a meal over pizza when I am in nice restaurant like this. But the pizza still is very gourmet and just as enjoyable.
If you want some more opinions of the Atmosphere Cafe there is a great website that offers up Guelph restaurant reviews at http://www.restaurantica.com/restaurants/1094/
Swiss Chalet in GuelphExpand this Post: Swiss Chalet in Guelph |
Many of you are asking me what I am eating since I have been back in Canada and while I not getting out for dinners at restaurants I am staying away from Mc Donald’s and opting for Swiss Chalet delivery.
Swiss Chalet has some great chicken and even has porgies. I order the porgies, chicken sandwich and an apple pie for dessert. While kind of costly it is at least a really nice dinner and it defiantly is better then some fast food option.
Amazingly ordering Swiss Chalet is really easy and they have an interesting system. You can visit their website at http://www.swisschalet.com/ and order online or call their 800 number either way they guarantee that you order will arrive in less then 1 hour or its free. I don’t know if even the pizza companies offer this guarantee anymore, so it is nice to see that you can get a great meal and get it rather quickly. For me I try to call while I driving home from work which times everything nicely.
But I am really looking forward to when I am living downtown and have access to a lot of nice restaurants and can further stay away from the fast food diet.
Monday, April 23
First PaydayExpand this Post: First Payday |
I have been working in Guelph now for 3 weeks, even had my first payday and so far it has been really eventful and fun. But a lot of changes are happening considering I was hired to be an "advisor" to the team and now I have 13 people reporting into me you can get the general idea of the restructuring within the company. But for you over at GS in Singapore the grass isn’t all that greener as even here I don't get an office, guess that gives me something to work towards.
My new team is not as experienced as some but they are all really eager to learn, plus there are a couple people within the team that do have some experience and hoping they can help in my mentoring of the rest. Also in the coming months, maybe even weeks I hope that I can further grow the team even more. So if anyone reading this blog is interested in doing SEO in Guelph send an email to me and I will put you in touch with HR.
Other then work, life in Guelph is getting better along with the weather. Last weekend I went out to a Stag and Doe (my first) and it was a lot of fun to see a bunch of laid back Canadians having fun. Really looking forward to moving into my place in May and I have found myself a Sofa, dinning room table and some kitchen items just wish I could move in sooner.
As for my plans for heading to SES China I haven’t gotten clearance on things yet, but have my first meeting with the CEO on Thursday so will bring that up then to see what his thoughts are as its getting close and I really like to know when I would be back in Asia. Wish me luck with the meeting with the CEO, don’t think I will need it as he sounds like a good guy, but still thanks for the good thoughts.
Thursday, April 19
Thanks to My Guelph ReadersExpand this Post: Thanks to My Guelph Readers |
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 10
Stressing Out on Tax in CanadaExpand this Post: Stressing Out on Tax in Canada |
The other day I was in with HR and we were just going over things like getting OHIP, life insurance and taxes. She pulled up a program that showed the tax deductions from my salary and wow it was shocking.
POST UPDATED: I had to update this post as I have had a few negative comments and some not so nice emails about my comments on tax. So I will explain my logic on my issues, but please note Canada is a great country and I am happy to be back. But in a country that we strive for equality I don't see equality in the tax system, a basic idea of a equal tax system would be: take the average salary of everyone within a province and then assign a cap to the tax paid based on that. So if you make the average salary you pay the normal tax, if you make less you pay less tax but if you make more you are not further tax simply because your paid more. This also brings more money into the communities and back in the the salaries of the workers. To me this is a equal system but in Canada if you happen to make a high salary you are heavily taxed and shockingly instead of paying less tax the more you make it is the opposite the more you make the more you are taxed. Anyways I am very happy to be back in Canada and will happily pay my taxes where required, but I just think the system is a little strange.
Other then stressing on the taxes I am stressing on finding a place to live as I have now contacted about 200 people that had a place for rent and seen a number of them. But there has only been one place that is interesting and there is an offer currently on it so if it is accepted then I am out of luck. But wish me luck as it’s a beautiful 3 story house that has 7 bedrooms, 5 washrooms and even a room for a theater, my only problem will be trying to furnish 7 bedrooms (hehehe anyone want to rent a room).
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.
Tip Top Tailors, Stone Road MallExpand this Post: Tip Top Tailors, Stone Road Mall |
While tailors in Asia are common there are no branded tailor shops so it is nice to see that in Guelph they have the Tip Top Tailors stores. I went in and some great service with some amazing low prices, actually the prices of pants and shirts are cheaper then in Singapore. I think this is due to the volume aspect combined with the lack of greed as the quality is the same if not better.
Tip Top Tailors in the Stone Road Mall is a good sized store and has a lot of options. It even rents tuxes but on my visit I just picked up some new shirts and a nice heavy woven long sleeve top. Cost wise I paid only $20 a shirt and the sales lady was helpful enough that she steamed my shirts and then gave them to me in a shirt bag with hangers. I will be happy to shop there again and recommend to others check them out next time you are looking for a new shirt or pants.
Thursday, April 5
White Sandy Beaches in GuelphExpand this Post: White Sandy Beaches in Guelph |
Today I awoke to what for the last few years is normally a good thing, white substance on the round outside of my hotel room. But unlike in Asia this wasn’t nice white sand it was cold, cold snow. So much for my hopes in avoiding snow till this coming winter and they say that the snow might stay around for the next week or so, darn that trip to Florida is looking better.
For all you in Singapore you can play spot the Google with the photo of my X5 and for the rest of you spot the Google was something that my co-workers used to do with my photos as a lot of my photos seem to have a Google logo in them.
To get an idea of how cold it was in Guelph, the door to my X5 once opened didn’t want to close and when I finally did get it closed it refused to open again. This meant me climbing out the passenger side door, but luckily in the afternoon the ice melted enough that I could open and close my doors. But as I type this I can feel the coldness in my fingers, it doesn’t feel good and about now I am really missing the warm lifestyle in Asia.
Tonight I am off to a night out with people from work so should be interesting to meet more of the fellow staff. Will let you know how that all goes later on this weekend.
Wednesday, April 4
Snowing in GuelphExpand this Post: Snowing in Guelph |
It has been a long time since I have seen snow, in fact I stopped in the middle of a little meeting I was in and pointed out of the window and said look it is snowing. The others looked at me strangely and I think they then remembered that to me this is something new, but to them they’ve probably just spent the last 4 or 5 months looking at snow and where not at all impressed.
So its getting colder here in Guelph and the snow is still falling. If it lasts till morning I will take a photo of it as that would look nice as at the moment there is just little layer of snow on everything.
I have already started to call real estate agents and have a few other locations in mind to live. As that house I mentioned before it great, but it’s a little out of the city and I would like to see if I can get myself a nice condo within the core of the city. The place I am really interested in is called Riverside residence on the Park, so if anyone of my readers knows of anyone selling, leasing or renting a unit out of that building please do let me know. Otherwise if you know of any locations with a great view, underground parking and 3+ bedrooms feel free to let me know as I am defiantly interested.
Work is going good and today I was asked to fly to Florida next week for a couple days to help review some business ventures there, but in a twist of luck the people that I needed to speak with are in New York all next week. So I’ll be staying put for the week, which is good as I think 2 weeks in one location is the longest I’ve stayed still this year.
My trip back to Asia in May is looking to be around the 19th to 27th as we have a public holiday on the 21st and SES is on the 25/26 so it is great timing. So hope that I can get my buddy Gurp to come out with me to Thailand and maybe even get my English pal Mark to take some time off school and head out for a little reunion, we’ll see.
Ok I hoping tonight I get a full night sleep as not feeling overly tired and its 9:30 so it’s a good sign that I might be able to stay awake till 11 and sleep the whole night, wish me luck and hope tomorrow I can post some nice snow photos.
Monday, April 2
First Day Working in GuelphExpand this Post: First Day Working in Guelph |
Very happy to report that I had a great first day and my fellow co-workers turning out to be even more enjoyable then I had hoped. Funny thing was a couple of the staff members are readers of my blog and my cubical buddy Steve is also a blogger, he runs Angry in the Great White North.
Today along with me there where 11 new people joining the company, which even included an ex-NHL player who will be heading the Hockey.com website development. It looks like the company is growing very quickly, so much so that the parking lots can’t handle all the cars and they have to run mini-shuttle buses to the offices from larger parking lots.
I spent some of my day trying to setup my computer and desk, its fun to have a desk and co-workers again. For a computer they gave me an IBM T60, while it is really heavy it does have an amazing 15.4-inch widescreen and it makes my x60 look like a pocket pc. A nice surprise is they’ll be giving a company Blackberry phone for me to use, which is nice as I miss having Internet access on the go.
Still having a tough time with the time change and I didn’t get a good sleep last night but I hoping tonight I get a full nights sleep, wish me luck. This weekend I checked and there aren’t any Club Meds in Cuba so while it is possible to go, I will wait to go to Cuba when I have someone to go with me. So this weekend I will maybe get a chance to see a few apartments and also get some more shopping in as it will be another 6 weeks till the rest of my bags arrive and I released I forgot to pack enough shirts.
fido kiosk, Stone Road MallExpand this Post: fido kiosk, Stone Road Mall |
I was really happy to find out that Guelph has GSM service from fido as I really don’t like using CDMA technology. To find a fido I figured my best bet was to head to the Stone Road Mall and sure enough I found a fido kiosk in the mall, but before that I did go into a Rogers store and wow that was painful.
The gentleman at Rogers was very anti pre-paid service and he refused to give me details on the plans and simply said if I wanted that I could go to Wal-Mart or some other location as they only have time to deal with people that are looking for monthly contracts. So I was really glad when I found the fido kiosk as fido is known for good service along with a good pre-paid program.
So thanks to Paul the fido staff member who helped answer my questions and get my new fido phone number setup. He even took the time to ensure that I got a nice vanity type phone number, which is great as I always enjoy having a number that is somewhat unique. If you want me local number best just email me [email protected] and I’ll send you out my number.
While in Canada they do have GSM service they don’t have 3G service add to that fido doesn’t have unlimited data plans and you will understand that mobile search is really in the early days here. I really hope in the coming years they update to 3G service and get better data plans as I really like being able to access the Internet on demand.
Well if you are looking for a good cell phone provider I highly recommend fido as not only do they have good network coverage they also have great customer service.
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.
Tuesday, March 27
Interesting time for SEO in AsiaExpand this Post: Interesting time for SEO in Asia |
Well as I am about to say goodbye to the SEO industry in Asia, I’ve had a few last minute attempts to keep me here but I am really looking forward to life back home in Canada. Also have to give a big “sorry man” to my buddy Ash over at Mc Donald’s as finally after about a year of working from within he’s been able to get the management of Mc Donald’s ready for SEO, but again sorry man, I need to head back.
I have really enjoyed being part of the SEO building blocks within Asia and while I’ve seen many of those blocks falling back down I really hope that with the increasing level of professionally organized events like ad:tech and Search Engine Strategies in the region it will bring the needed professionalism for this area to succeed. If not we’ll have a new acronym referencing in the Asian Internet advertising world as they’ll end up combing SEO and SEM into one large MLM system or maybe it will just earn the nickname PPF, Pay Per Fraud.
But wait, it’s not all that bad, as I do have to give props out to Marc as even though he’s been recruited to manage SEO for a large American company he’s kept true to his routes and is staying in the Philippines to grow and support the SEO/Internet community there. I just wish other SEOs in Asia could follow in his morals and professional conduct, I won’t bad mouth anyone directly but you know who you are. To those people all I say is, think past tomorrow and realize that being able to read SEO for Dummies and blog on topics your read on other peoples websites doesn’t equal education and/or being part of an industry.
Even with this goodbye I will always be a part of the SEO industry in Asia, while no longer day-to-day, whenever possible you will still see at the events and you know I am always there to help, just drop me an email or Skype me.
Monday, March 26
Eventful time in the PhilippinesExpand this Post: Eventful time in the Philippines |
Well after a few eventful days and nights in the Philippines I am on the plane heading back to Singapore for my last couple days there. The Philippines was great and it was made even better by an incredible bunch of people.
After the night on the town I did what comes naturally, I left my hotel at like 6am to get on another plane. See there was some management of a very large (but unnameable) Internet company out from the United States and Marc scheduled at the last minute a weekend away from Manila for all of us. So my buddy and I with these two managers headed off to Boracay an amazing Island way the heck in the middle of nowhere. It was funny as one of the American managers noted that he had to take a taxicab, bus, plane, van, boat, and finally a motorbike all within 2 hours just to get to our resort. My trip had one addition to that adventure, as my route to the airport included a visit with the local police as it turns out a one way street in Manila really means a one way street.
But it was all worth it as we all had a great time, racing around in dune buggies, parasailing and generally enjoying sitting on a beach doing nothing. My personal favorite was the racing around with the dune buggies, as they let us loose on this small town/village and I more then enjoyed myself while I helped out the civil engineers by clearing some tree’s and other debris from the sides of the roads (you can sure get a dune buggy sideways at 40km/h).
Sadly it all had to come to an end, but a couple of us including myself will be feeling the effects of a little too much sun for the next several days. Its strange to think that this time next week I will be walking into the office of my new job, probably wearing 4 layers of clothes and having no idea when the next time I will be laying on a beach just watching the world go by.
Well to the Philippines and the all the great people supporting the Internet industry there I hope we all meet up again but till then keep up the good work. Ok inside joke time, to our wonderful tour guide, I hope that with our next trip we can complete the James Bond tour, minus the fitness section.
Thursday, March 22
Last Weekend in AsiaExpand this Post: Last Weekend in Asia |
After nearly 6 years of weekend fun around Asia this weekend will be my last one as a resident of Asia. So I am heading off to the Philippines to see my buddy Marc and spend some time on a beach, as something tells me the only thing white under my feet in the near future will be snow.
Have to say sorry to my Thailand friends as while it would have been great to spend a few days together again, I still haven’t finished packing and this trip to the Philippines is long overdue. I’ll see all you in Thailand in May as I will swing by on my way to SES China.
Oh some public shame being sent to Troy over in Thailand as dude for a guy that doesn’t have a “job” you work more then Marc and I combined. So while we are on the beach catching sun I hope your hard drive crashes. Ok no I don’t as that would be bad, but hope you can get that Mac project finished and looking forward to seeing you in Guelph later this year.
Philippines will be great as I need a break, for me as all I seem to be doing here in Singapore is packing, eating and sleeping. This move has really been tough as it was a little rushed but it will mean once I land life will seem a lot more stable and smoother.
Well I am off to get on my plane, blog with you later.
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.
Saturday, March 17
Blog Guelph - blogguelph.comExpand this Post: Blog Guelph - blogguelph.com |
Sue Richards over at Blog Guelph has really been busy over the last year posting hundreds of posts and photos related to Guelph. While the navigation is a little hard you will find enough great photos and content right on the homepage.
I really think Sue should start putting some of her stuff on Getty Images as some of the photos she have really give a nice showcase of Guelph. Maybe in future years she'll add a Guelph calendar in addition to her "Breasts of Canada" calendar.
One of my favorite photos from Blog Guelph is this one. It looks so peacefull and really reminds me the value of actually having seasons. When I look at this photo I can just imagine in spring the leaves budding, summer with the trees in full color and then in fall when the leafs are falling to the ground. Its going to be so nice to have seasons again.
If you are looking for some great photos from Guelph I highly recommend taking a look at Blog Guelph.
Visit Blog Guelph at http://www.blogguelph.com/
GuelphCAM - guelphcam.comExpand this Post: GuelphCAM - guelphcam.com |
This is one of the websites based in Guelph that I usually visit everyday. I find the live stream of video and the still photos really entertaining and it really gives me a good idea on the weather conditions in Guelph.
Kev the website owner really looks after his cams as they’re never down and that’s something rare in the webcam business, but his consistent uptime is probably due to his understanding of computers and system administration.
I really look forward to meeting up with Kev when I arrive in Guelph and hope that I can get myself a nice enough view and add on to his website with some more camera angles.
GuelphCam is a great if you would like to get an idea on Guelph’s weather or if you are just looking to waste a few hours watching the cars.
If anyone else has a Guelph web camera please add a comment here and I will be sure to review it and add a link to your website.
Visit GuelphCAM at http://www.guelphcam.com/
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...
Wednesday, March 14
How to Rank Better in GoogleExpand this Post: How to Rank Better in Google |
This blog wasn’t started to talk about Google/SEO/SEM but I added this category and will post relevant information periodically.
With my job the most common question I get is “How can I get my website to rank better in Google” and while I always try and help those who really have a good message, product or service I don’t have enough time to teach/help everyone.
That is why in the last few years I have been helping the masses by speaking publicly at events like Search Engine Strategies, ad:tech and one of my favorite venues eComXpo University.
This year’s eComXpo University will open March 20 and again this year I will be giving a presentation on the subject of SEO.
I really like the idea of eComXpo University as it gives the chance for a lot of webmasters and SEO’s from places outside of the main stream markets like the US and the UK to have access to experienced professionals within the industry. I hope that in the future more and more conferences offer an online/live webcast version, as the developing search markets really need this level of support.
I will be giving the presentation entitled “How to Rank Better in Google” and it explains the top things that a webmaster or Search Engine Optimizer can do to rank better in Google. Topics include IP addresses, domain names, GEO targeting, text link building, homepage links, site maps and advanced SEO content structure/navigation.
Now while general admission into eComXpo is free, to access the university section will cost you $49 and considering what you will learn from not only myself but from all the other presentations this will be the best $49 you can ever spend. But since it does cost money and since I know some of the SEO world doesn’t have access to credit cards and maybe some are just starting out and $49 is not something they can afford, for these people and these people only I offer my corporate pass to access the university presentations.
Please if you can afford the $49, please register at http://www.ecomxpo.com/ as they offer a great service and are a great part of the future of the industry.
To help ensure that this offer isn’t taken advantage of I haven’t posted the pass details publicly, but they are available if you send me an email to [email protected] with the reason why you can’t afford the $49. I read mail daily and will reply quickly and you will be sent the pass details. Also sorry, no pass details will be sent to email addresses from free/public email providers.
No email addresses and no email will be kept, used to reply to you other then to send you the pass details, no email will be sold to anyone, or given to anyone and after my reply to you your email address will be purged from my server.
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.
Saturday, March 10
Most Unique Mass Transit SystemExpand this Post: Most Unique Mass Transit System |
For those of you who haven't been to Hong Kong, this story will be of interest to you. As in Hong Kong they have come up with a very unique and useful mass transit system.
While lots of cities have implemented trains, buses, and shuttle services I think Hong Kong is the only city to install moving walkways & escalators within its downtown core to move people to and from work. Yup in Hong Kong instead of getting into a bus or a train and heading off to work you just simple stand still and let the escalators take you where you want to go. Another nice feature is there is no cost to use them, but maybe in the coming years you would have to put a 10 cent toll to enter, hehe the subway of the future.
I am enjoying my time in Hong Kong and it helps me remember that while there is a lot of money here in Asia it is really not for me. As with a little too many people and way to much variation in wealth within one place can make a lot of upset/grumpy people.
Friday, March 9
In Hong Kong for the WeekendExpand this Post: In Hong Kong for the Weekend |
Living in Asia for many years its been really easy to fly to Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, but this weekend I will make one of my last trips this year to Hong Kong and see a couple friends and see more of the city.
This move to Guelph got me thinking about how nice it was having so many cultures and countries within a 3 hour flight of Singapore. While I will miss that I am sure I will spend enough time down in the Bahamas, Mexico and hopefully Cuba that it will all make up for what I am missing here in Asia.
I will know very soon, but being in Guelph from what I understand is very convenient as Toronto's airport is so close, they even have a shuttle service from Guelph to the airport with a company called Red Car Service. I am sure that I will become a regular client of theirs.
Well I packed lite on this trip and when I get back I have to see about getting quotes from movers and start really packing my stuff as I start work in 24 days.
My Blog Was HijackedExpand this Post: My Blog Was Hijacked |
Well this being my first blog and my love to play with all the neat tools at Google lead me down a path that ended in great failure. I ended up hijacking my own blog within Google and Gwelf.com was transformed into 404 error page.
It freaked me out, had to give some engineers at Google an after hours call but within 4 hours they called me back with a working solution. Leave it to me to find a flaw within the wonderful world of Blogger, I guess they took Blogger out of BETA a little too soon.
I won’t comment on how exactly I hijacked the blog as at present Google hasn’t been able to fix this problem within its system and they’ve taken my case into a private support group. Lucky for me, Google was able to fix my problem as I was both the hacker and the blog owner, had I only been the blog owner then the engineers at Google wouldn’t have been able to help and it would have gotten even more messy involving Google account managers.
The reason for Google’s and my non-public disclosure on this is there are at present 34,361 websites that are vulnerable and generally the web is full of great people but give just a few the power to cause problems and we might just see 30,000+ more AdSense websites spring up overnight, or worse 30,000+ websites all selling “blue pills”.
So I send big thanks out to Jonathan and the rest of the engineering team at Google for helping get access back to my blog and if anyone here has had their blog hijacked and is looking for the solution please contact Google directly, you can reference my blog Gwelf.com and its case file #121996221. If there is no reply from Google, please feel free to contact me and I will send you the steps needed to regain control of your blog.
Thursday, March 8
About Gwelf.com & Stephen the BloggerExpand this Post: About Gwelf.com & Stephen the Blogger |
Welcome to Gwelf.com (Life in Guelph Ontario Canada), this is my first blog and it was created to allow my friends, family and future community members in Guelph to learn more about what it is like to live and work in Guelph Ontario Canada.
So what is with the domain Gwelf.com? Well when I decided to move to Guelph and started to research about the city I found that many websites use the term Gwelf along side Guelph to help people understand how to pronounce Guelph. So when I decided to buy the domain Gwelf.com, as it had a nice tie into the city.
A little about me, my name is Stephen and while I have lived all over the world, I originate from very humble upbringings in the Canadian prairies. Work wise I have been in the Internet advertising industry since 1997, which has allowed me the chance to travel and work all over the world, two things I really love.
But now after years of being the consultant and often times living out of a suitcase I have opted for a more stable life where I can focus on more then just work. That is what leads me to Guelph and to starting of this blog. So I am moving to Guelph, a city I've never been, to take on the role as in-house SEO counsel for a large Internet content company, wish me luck.
I have no idea what will come of this blog and I can't promise that I'll blog daily or weekly, but when something happens and I have access to blogger I'll do my best to share it with the rest of you.
