Ben Skelton's Blog

Getting settled in ...

I have been in Calgary for a couple of weeks now and am finally starting to settle in and get a little more familiar with the city. Some random thoughts / highlights so far:

• It has been cold! I managed to get away with not buying a real winter coat in Vancouver, but it became very clear when I got off the plane here that not having one wouldn't fly. I am now the proud owner of a new coat (figures that the only one I really liked was a Prada one), gloves, a scarf and a toque.
• Calgary's Caffe Artigiano equivalent is called Caffe Beano on 9th Street SW. Great place to do some work and have a cup of really good coffee. I hear that the brownies are amazing as well, but so far I have managed to resist.
• The Calgary office reminds me of Habañero seven or eight years ago when the company was much smaller. There are only four people here (including myself) versus fifty in Vancouver so you get exposed to a lot of different things during the course of a day. What's really impressive is that over 20% of Habañero's revenue this year has come from Alberta! Right now we are driving revenue by keeping people in Vancouver busy, but our long-term vision is to have a strong local team here. If you are interested in working for Habañero in Calgary (or Vancouver for that matter) check out some of our career opportunities!
• I tend not to use my phone much in Vancouver as I like to walk around and chat with people face-to-face. In Calgary a nice comfortable headset is a must as you spend a lot of time talking on the phone with the team. Tracking people down can be a pain, perhaps we should install cameras all over the Vancouver office so you can see where everyone is and track 'em down :)
• If you like Vietnamese food there is a restaurant on 17th Avenue SW called Co Do that is inexpensive and delicious.

I guess that is it for now. We are going to go to a shooting range tomorrow after work which should be kind of fun :)

Why do they still give you headphones?

With all of the cost cutting Air Canada has done in the past few years I find it strange that they still give you a pair of headphones on each flight. I guess it makes sense on planes that have those old-school two-prong plugs, but for planes that have a normal headphone jack at each seat people should just bring their own headphones or pay $2 for a pair.

On my last flight to Calgary the flight attendants didn't turn on the individual TVs because the flight was a bit bumpy and they felt they didn't have time to give out headphones. My laptop battery was dead, so I ended up staring at the "Welcome aboard" screen for an hour :(