There is nothing like new adventures to keep you going. This is what staying young means to me.

Right now, I am writing from my hotel room in Beijing. I arrived here on Sunday after a 20 hours journey. This is my first trip to Asia.

I am here to visit my colleagues and for now, I have only commuted from the hotel room to the office (a whooping five minutes walk).

At this point, I don’t know how much I am going to blog about this experience but I thought that I would celebrate my arrival by listing my first impressions.

I am due for a post anyway.

1. Nothing beats face to face time with colleagues on the other side of the world. You can get so much accomplished and you plan so much more effectively. Phones are really a poor substitute for real human contact.
2. The food is excellent and Chinese food has nothing to do with the stuff (I’d rather not use the word crap) that you usually find in North America or Europe. The lamb is exquisite and so is the duck. The beer is great. Of course, you also have dishes that North Americans consider more exotic such as pork lungs, pork stomach or donkey. This is not that unusual in Europe.
3. I am glad that I have started to practice using chop sticks eight months ago. It saved a lot of frustration.
4. It takes about one hour to negotiate for a new room with an Internet connection that actually work. As one of my colleague puts it, since the hotel is named E-House and is located in a Software Park north of downtown Beijing, you would expect a decent Internet connection.
5. Like anywhere else in the world, Windows Vista is frown upon.
6. The jet lag is not so bad once you realize that flying from Calgary to Beijing is similar to flying from Paris to Los Angeles.
7. It is fun to be ahead of Europe (time wise) for a change. Family, and friends don’t usually expect a phone call from me in the morning (Europe time).
8. I need to polish my Mandarin. For some reasons, I have trouble communicating.
9. Thanks the FSM for Internet.
10. Having lived in Europe and North American means that I am not as surprised as my North American colleagues with the cultural differences.
11. You are not going to escape snow by flying around the world. At least here, the temperature is above freezing

I will be doing the touristy things on week-ends — I am here for three weeks — and I will post some photos.

And now, here is for something different. The following is a short piece I wrote on Sunday, 9th February 2003 on Kuro5hin. This was six years ago.

It’s 6:30, I am half awake. The night was short. I am standing by a red truck with bright flashing lights.

I am adjusting my helmet strap, my air mask, my gloves. I take the nozzle and rush to the house on fire.

The front door is open but I can not see inside, there is black smoke from two feet above the floor up to the ceiling.

My team of three is waiting for the water to flow towards the nozzle. I can no longer see my hands which are in front of me, my flashlight is useless. It’s pitch black inside while the sun is shining outside. I am scared.

I am told that the house has been evacuated, nobody is left inside, we can perform a fast attack. I hear cracking sounds from my right. Fire is blazing and is eating the structure.

Finally, 20 seconds after kneeling at the door, I flow the water. 200 gallons (760 liters) per minutes above us, in front of us, in the dark. We know that fire is everywhere around us but we can not see it.

Two minutes later, the smoke level is down, we can see a red glow in front of us, slightly on the left. Probably the origin of the fire.

My buddies are pulling the hose with me. We are at the bedroom door. Fire inside. Good, we can see now. Fire to the left, fire above, fire to the right. I am shooting water in those directions. The beast is dying.

We enter the bedroom, my buddies are pulling the ceiling and the walls down and I am putting the wet stuff on the red stuff.

I am hot, the air from my bottle is dry. If I was unprotected, one breath of the air from that room would kill me. My knees are burning. What is left of a ceiling fan motor is red hot.

Another team enters the room, the fire is in control. 7-1 this location. No more pumpers are needed.

My mask is vibrating, sure sign that I am running low on air. Time to get out and let a replacement team continue the job for us. I need a drink of water. We were in hell for approximately fifteen minutes.

The couple who was living in this apartment lost everything but the night clothes they are wearing and the car in the drive way. I am inviting them to climb in the fire engine cab to stay warm and out of the way. I am so sad.

This was a duplex, we saved the apartment next door. We did our job.

I am a non-paid volunteer firefighter, I write software for a living, this was my Saturday morning.

Have a nice day and stay safe.

Today, a friend invited us to go cross country skiing. I had not cross country skied since the early 90s. It was in Vercors at the time.

Today, was simply extraordinary and I am so grateful for this experience. At one point, the only sound we could hear was wood pickers working hard for their pittance.

We stopped for lunch and our friend remarked that we had not seen another human beiing for at least 30 minutes. The view was simply mind blowing and the pictures only give you a glimpse of what we experienced.

Cross country skiing can really be trouble though. My biggest problem is that I have trouble controlling my speed downhill and that I have a tendency to use my downhill skiing skills which are not applicable in those circumstances. Some of the falls were spectacular and it is not fun when you hear your skull resonate on impact. But on other occasions, I stayed face flat in the snow for a good minute, laughing so hard that I believe I must have woke up a couple of bears. This is the best stress therapy known to men.

I can’t wait to go back.

What the heck is Doux Nid, you ask?

It is our new virtual child and I am proud to let you know that it came into the world late yesterday evening.  The daddy and the mommy are doing fine even though the one hundred hours labor took a toll on us.

Anyway, you can see this child at douxnid.com and I encourage you to give us some feedback in one form or another.

Please let us know if you like it or dislike it and, in any case, how do you think we can improve it. The child will grow and you can influence what it will become.

For those of you not so familiar with the language of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, “Doux Nid” means “Cozy Nest”.

Now let me go back to enjoy that Cuban cigare.

Cheers!

Grain Elevators were the link between the farmers of western Canada prairie and the railroad that carried away the grains to towns, ports, and ultimately consumers. We consume grains every day in many forms and in many products without knowing how they are grown or come into our homes. Bread is only one of such products, wheat flour is used in many other consumables from Chinese style seasoning to powder detergents.

Old and abandoned elevators are part of the landscape around Calgary and a group of volunteers, in the town of Nanton are working hard to save the elevators that sit by Highway 2 and goes through Alberta to Montana. Their goal is to create and develop a discovery center to preserve and promote the history and culture of farming, grain elevators and the associated rail roads.

I spent a full day with the board of that organization. As a humble member, I was invited to participate in a strategic planning session facilitated by a great pedagogue who enlighten me on what goes on in the board room of corporations.

I learned a lot, not only about strategic planning, but also about wildlife, rail roads, farming, snow, horses, Canadian constitution, the Crown, and many other topics too numerous to recall. This was a full fledged experience. that gave me more than an insight on the kindness, hospitality, generosity, of the people of Nanton. And of course, I ate too much…

If you are in the area, go check the town. The hotel downtown has live music most nights, the food is great and the people are fun. The antique shops are full of treasures while the landscape towards the foothills is magical…