Five Guys – Grant Crossing
5517 Hazeldean Rd Bldg C2 Unit 6
Stittsville, ON K2S 0P5
Phone: 613-836-1800
Hours: 11am-10pm Every Day

Five Guys – Barrhaven
1181 Greenbank Road
Nepean, ON K2J 4Y6
Phone: 613-823-0093
Hours: 11am-10pm Every Day

Five Guys – Trainyard
525 Industrial Blvd.
Ottawa, ON K1G 3S2
Phone: 613-562-8119
Hours: 11am-10pm Every Day

Five Guys – Orleans
Coming Soon!
3732 Innes Road
Orleans, ON K1W 0C8
Hours: 11am-10pm Every Day

I had originally gone to the Five Guys Trainyard location on a Thursday evening around 7:00 PM and I didn’t even go inside after looking in and seeing the place was packed with no room to sit.  A few days later, on a Sunday we went to the Five Guys location on Hazeldean.  This time we went early showing up 10 minutes after opening.  Luckily we were the first ones there although by the time we had sat down people starting flowing in.  We ordered 1 regular order of Cajun style fries.  One regular hamburger fully loaded.  One little cheeseburger and one regular drink.  There is free refills on drinks!

There are no trays for eating in, everything comes packed in a paper bag, ostensibly this practice originates from when they were only a take-out place.  The grease starts soaking through the bag the almost the second they pack the food in it.  This is mostly due to the fact that they place the burgers and container of fries in the bag and then dump more fries over everything.  My advice if you’re planning on picking up take-out at Five Guys is bring a plastic bag with you to put your food in or else it could get a little messy in the car.  The Five Guys burgers come tightly wrapped in tin foil which is good.  Be prepared for some finger licking goodness but beware, it’s going to be messy!  The Cajun style fries are super tasty, no extra salt required.  I’ve never tried the regular fries but after having the Five Guys Cajun style fries I don’t think I would bother trying the regular ones.  The Five Guys regular burger has two patties whereas the little Five Guys burger only has one patty.  Our order for 2 burgers, 1 fry, 1 drink came to roughly $18 which is only slighter higher than a combo at decent fast food burger joints like A&W.  Seating is cafeteria style and thankfully the Five Guys Hazeldean location is a bit larger and doesn’t have tables crammed quite as close together as at the Trainyard.

If you’re looking to go for a burger in Ottawa that still qualifies as fast food but better and you don’t mind a bit of a messy burger than I definitely recommend Five Guys!

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I had picked up a Vox for my wife at Futureshop while they were on sale for $179.99.  The rep I dealt with forewarned me that he had sold 9 of them and all 9 were returned.  I wasn’t too surprised given what I had read online but on the other hand it seemed that there were also a good number of people out there that were using the Vox without too many issues.

So I got the Kobo Vox home and handed it over to my wife and then the fun began.  Right out of the box upon powering it on you must connect it to a (your) wireless network.  If you do not have WiFi you will not be able to even use the Vox as an eReader, it will be useless to you.  Once we had connected the Vox to our WiFi it checked for updates and advised to download.  It didn’t give any other option so we proceeded.  The download failed after about 15 minutes and we couldn’t retry as it said it had ran out of storage space.  I suspect that the image it was downloading (firmware update) had taken up that space and the device wasn’t smart enough to overwrite it on retry.

We then connected the Vox to computer to see if we could access the data partition and delete that file but could not.  We performed a factory reset on the Vox and tried again.  The second attempt also failed with an error but this time we could retry and the third attempt was successful.  Once the update was installed we had to log into Kobo.  We kept getting a connection error and there was no way to skip the login.  We waited about half an hour and finally were able to login and then start using the Vox.  From the time my wife unboxed the Kobo Vox to actually being able to use it took 2 hours.

I can only imagine why so many people wouldn’t have bothered trying to get it to work and just returned it.  We really tested it out and installed flash and app managers, browsers, games, books, movies, music etc.  It’s performance is ok for the money you pay.  The speaker is not that loud, it’s kind of laggy when you’re typing or tapping the screen and requires tapping 2 or 3 times before it responds.  The status bar at the top of the screen would just stop working and the Kobo library application would error out and not display anything but errors.  From what I read online people who were experiencing the Library app issue were saying the only way to fix it was to perform a factory reset.  I actually figured out an easier way to fix that issue.  If you go to the getjar site and download/install the Kobo app it will resolve the issue.  You’ll then have two Kobo apps installed so just pick the one you installed and uninstall it.

After all the little issues and glitches we just decided to bring it back to Futureshop and exchange the Kobo Vox for the Acer Iconia 16GB 10.1 inch tablet which is an awesome device for $349.  Mind you our upgrade was almost twice the cost of the Vox but what you get for the money is outstanding.  The Iconia performs beautifully and right out of the box it’s fully functional and usable as fast as you can turn it on.

I’m pleasantly surprised at a couple of high end tablets that are now available in the $350 price range.  I’m sure they’ll give the higher priced tablets a run for their money.  IMHO if you’re going to start dropping $600 and up on a tablet you might as well buy a laptop which for the same amount of money is way more powerful has tons more storage and can do all the things a tablet can’t.

If you’re looking for just an eReader I would advise to get just an eReader.  If you’re looking for a tablet that you can also read on I recommend you get a real tablet.  For all that it appears to be, problems abound with the Kobo Vox.

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Of the very few online stores in the United States currently carrying the Salomon RX Core, a couple don’t ship to Canada or more specifically state that Salomon products can only be shipped in the United States.  Seems odd that some stores can ship to Canada and others can’t.  One online store would ship to Canada but the best priced shipping option was $42 USD.

The last online store with the RX Core available had the best option.  First of all they had the Salomon RX Core on sale for only $87.96 while everyone else is selling them for $110.00.  Second I received free shipping within the United States to a UPS store just across the border.  The UPS store only charges a nominal fee of $5 to hold a box for a week.  Crossing back over into Canada I declared the shoes and paid $11.61 in tax.  So in total along with the gas to drive down and back to get them I ended up paying a little less then $120.00 CAD for the Salomon RX Core.  I think that’s pretty good considering if they’re selling for regular $110.00 in the States I’m sure once they’re available in Canada they’ll be at least $129.99 if not more plus taxes of course.

The RX Core is very light being only 12 oz in weight.  They’re a D width which is perfect, nice and comfortable.  Here’s the specs along with some photos:

• Four-way stretch fabric upper promotes an enhanced fit
• Breathable and lightweight soft-shell.
• DWR (durable water repellent) coating offers lasting protection from the elements.
• Quicklace system allows for a secure, customized fit.  Lace pocket to tuck away laces.
• Protective rubber toe cap.
• Heel sling for stability.
• Plush 3D mesh lining, wicks moisture away.
• Leather footbed supplies a great step-in feel.
• Injected EVA midsole and OS Muscle technology provides lightweight cushioning and stability.
• Non-marking Contragrip® offers the ideal blend of grip and extended wear over mixed terrain.

It’ll take some time to see how well the RX Core wears, hopefully they’ll last at least a year.  Just based from what I know so far and the good price point I’d recommend the Salomon RX Core.

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As the story goes the Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra GTX shoes are available in Canada but in limited colours. When I found that Salomon made them in a blue colour those were the ones I wanted. The only place I could find the Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra GTX in that colour and the size I needed was in the UK so I ordered them online. These shoes retail for $159 in Canada plus tax totalling $180.79, not exactly inexpensive footwear. The Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra GTX were so much cheaper in the UK that even after paying $50 for duty/handling I only ended up paying $6 more then if I bought them in Canada, but of course in the colour I wanted.

The Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra GTX is a great shoe while it lasts although after the 9 months a couple of design flaws became apparent. The first is that the quick-pull laces start on the edge of the shoe right around where the first knuckle of your big toe would be. It then crosses over the top of the shoe to the other side before crisscrossing normally up the tongue of the shoe. The problem with this is that for each stride you take that part of the lace where it crosses over the top of the shoe abrades into the material. Since the shoe naturally bends at that spot it’s already a stress point. Due to this my shoes are no longer waterproof. The second flaw I found is that the heel on the inside of the shoe has two seams, one running vertical and one horizontal. Once those seams start coming apart it’s a painful experience to even walk a short distance in them.

Here are some photos to show what I mean about the laces.

Salomon makes quite a few different models of shoes, ones that don’t have the same design of the quick-pull laces as on this model.  Just something to consider before you go ahead and invest in the Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra GTX.

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• Two photographers
• 8-10 hours of wedding day coverage
• Engagement Shoot – 1 hour (ours went for 2 hours)
• 11×14 30-pages personalized photobook (1)
• 12 x 18 enlargement 2
• 20 x 30 enlargement 1
• Full resolution DVD 1
• Total price: $1,825

We had our initial meeting with AliphAurMeem which was pleasant and we discussed all the details, everything was in order so we signed a contract with them.  The first order of business was the Engagement shoot which we ended up doing around the end of May 2010.  We went out for 2 hours and took tons of photos.  When that was all said and done we were looking to get the Engagement shoot photos prior to the wedding as we wanted to make use of a few photos at the reception.  When we asked AliphAurMeem about this they advised they would be able to get a few of the photos to us.  We received an email with a download link just shy of a month and a half after the Engagement shoot for 14 pictures.

Of course the next big thing was the wedding itself and correspondence leading up to that special day happened in a timely fashion.  No complaints regarding photography on the wedding day.  Lot’s of photos were taken and there were no issues in scheduling or locations etc.

After the wedding we were advised by AliphAurMeem that it could take up to 4 to 8 weeks to get our photos.  We had checked with some of our friends and relatives that were also recently wed and they had received their wedding photos within 4 to 6 weeks so that seemed fairly standard.  Time started to go by and we hadn’t heard anything back from AliphAurMeem so at 10 weeks I sent them an email requesting what the status of our photos were and when we might receive them.  I didn’t get a reply to my first email so at 11.5 weeks I sent them another email requesting the same information.  At that point I received a reply advising “We’re running a bit behind in our editing. We’ll be in touch as soon as the pictures are ready for download. “  Given that it was already 3 months since the wedding we were a bit surprised that we were going to have to wait even longer.  3 weeks later we received an email advising that our preview pictures were available for download and a link to download the photos.  We downloaded all the photos which were watermarked versions and looked at them all.  The following day I sent an email back to AliphAurMeem advising we had downloaded and viewed the photos and everything looked good.  More time passed and we never heard back from AliphAurMeem.

Now I have to admit that we’re pretty patient people and perhaps in this particular situation we were a bit too generous.  I don’t like to be the guy constantly hounding someone to get something done, unfortunately I think that’s going to change.  When someone provides you a service, one that you pay a lot of money for it should be their responsibility to follow through on that service and communicate with you, provide you updates and information etc.  After all, it only takes 30 seconds to pound out a 1 line email and hit send.

So at the beginning of January 2011, almost 24 weeks after the wedding I sent AliphAurMeem the following email:

“Happy New Year, hope you are both doing well.

In 6 days it’ll have been 6 months from the date of our wedding.  We can appreciate how much work is involved in the editing and touching up of hundreds of photos if not more however I think we’ve been fair in the amount of patience we’ve exercised while waiting for our wedding pictures! 6 months seems like an unreasonably long time to wait.  I’ll be honest in saying we’re disappointed that we haven’t yet received the final product yet.

At this point if the pictures are edited and done and on DVD’s ready to go we’re willing to take those and forget about the coffee table book, enlargements, and any other printing included in the package, those are things we can easily do on our own in no time at all.

Please let us know when we can pick up our photos.”

The same day I received the following replies:

1. “I am extremely sorry. I was under the impression that your pictures were edited and sent. Let me figure out what went on and I’ll take care of it.”
2. “From the email below it seems that you had received the preview pictures back in early November. Your contract includes 3 enlargements and one 11×14 30-page photobook. The reason we send the preview pictures is so you can make your selections and let us know which pictures you’d want. Our apologies if this wasn’t clear. For the photobook, if you will not be making any selections, we can design and send you a preview by tonight and you can then decide to proceed with it.”

I emailed them back the following:

“It’s true that you did send us the download link for our preview pictures back in early November.  We had also downloaded and reviewed them and replied to you as is noted below.  We unfortunately didn’t receive any instructions regarding selecting photos and were not aware anything had to be done on our part while we were waiting the past three months.  We would have appreciated a follow up email.  When I read over our previous email correspondence in retrospect my reply to you regarding the preview pictures must have seemed odd as I had not made any selections yet I didn’t receive a reply advising at that time what I needed to do. At any rate, confusion aside we will have to sit down tonight and take a look. We will email you back with our selected photos and what they are for.”

At any rate the emails went back and forth and within a couple more weeks we were advised that the photobook had gone to the printers and the enlargements were ready to be picked up at GPC Labworks on Bank St.  The photobook and the DVD with our photos were mailed to us.  At this point AliphAurMeem requested their final $500 payment which we promptly paid.  The enlargements I had to pick up myself and when I did go pick them up I only received 1 of the 12 x 18 enlargements and the 20 x 30 enlargement.  I didn’t even bother discussing that with AliphAurMeem, we had waited so long we just wanted it to be over and done with.  That aside I can get the same quality of prints at Costco for a few dollars.  When we received the DVD with our wedding photos on it we noticed the Engagement shoot photos weren’t included so I emailed them back advising of this and they mailed me another DVD.  We were surprised that there were only the 14 photos on the DVD that we had originally downloaded prior to the wedding.  I don’t understand how we could go on a 2 hour photo shoot and take so many photos only to end up with 14.  I sent them a polite email inquiring into what happened with all of the other photos that were taken which was my last email to them.  I never heard back from AliphAurMeem which was no surprise.

In the end my wife and I were quite disappointed having to wait over 6 months to get our wedding photos.  How AliphAurMeem could just forget about us for so long even given the fact we still owed them a final payment of $500 on delivery amazes me.  I really wonder if I had never sent followup emails to them how much more time would have passed before they figured it out on their own.  I would love to have the rest of our missing engagement shoot photos but I suppose they were deleted for whatever reason.  I’ve definitely learned from this experience and in the future when I use “professional” photography services again I will make sure of few things.  I’ll decline any printing services, I can do all that on my own much faster.  I won’t require any photo editing, I always have the latest version of Photoshop and editing photos is easy.  These days with digital cameras being used by professional photographers they’re just capturing data.  Data is easily copied and transferred to different media.  I’ll make their lives so simple, just take ALL the data you captured write it to DVD and provide it to me.  That shouldn’t take any longer than an hour!

That’s my recount of our experience with AliphAurMeem.  The photos they took that we did receive are very nice.  They seem like nice people and I think they have a good thing going for them.  They were also apologetic for the mishap.  The only recommendations I would make is much better communication, followup with clients it shouldn’t be the other way around, deliver in a timely fashion, deliver all photos.

[Update] We received a DVD in the mail with all our engagement shoot photos after this post was read. The enlargement print that was missing was done as well. [/Update]

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The iPhone 4 case that Gizmoskin has is specifically designed for use with a bumper. Even though on their website it states that you can use the case without a bumper on your iPhone I wouldn’t recommend it. First of all the magnetic flap is very stiff compared to their original iPhone case. Secondly because the case is so wide, if using it without a bumper on your iPhone it’s very awkward on removal to the point of fumbling it out of the case. Thirdly the bottom of the case is completely sealed which is a huge annoyance as you are now forced to remove the iPhone from the case every time you want to charge/sync it. Fourth, the belt clip is twice as thick as the clip on their original iPhone case with the ratchet mechanism external. Fifth the belt clip is hard plastic instead of the smooth leather covered clip on the original iPhone case.

Here’s something you should know. The original iPhone case that Gizmoskin sells fits the iPhone 4 perfectly. The belt clip is half the thickness and leather covered. The bottom of the case is open so you don’t need to remove the phone to charge/sync. The magnetic flap is not stiff and shuts on it’s own. The iPhone case is cheaper versus the iPhone 4 case. Even if you were to use an iPhone 4 case like the Zero 5 the iPhone 4 would still comfortably fit in the iPhone leather holster.

So in the end I will be returning my iPhone 4 leather holster from Gizmoskin for a full refund.

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I definitely can’t speak to all Settlement Conferences that are held but I can speak to my own experience of a Settlement Conference, the first one I ever attended. Hopefully this will help others in what to expect although outcomes will vary depending on the Judge presiding over the Settlement Conference.

I was taken to Small Claims Court by a Company here in Ottawa. Both I and them attended the Settlement Conference self represented. Their claim was that I owed them thousands after resigning for cost of training. In the employment contract there was nothing stipulated regarding remuneration for training and therefore the issue was the contract.

At the beginning of the Settlement Conference we were graced by a monologue by the Judge which went on at length. For the words that came out of their mouth it was obvious they were narcissistic in nature. The Judge went on about how many cases they had worked on and how intelligent they were ad nauseam.

Before I describe what happened next I should define what should happen in a Settlement Conference. The whole point is that the Judge will mediate and both parties or their representatives must openly and frankly discuss the issues in dispute. This way the issues of the claims can be narrowed and hopefully resolved. The Judge will encourage the settlement of the claims and assist the parties in preparation for trial if need be. There should also be full disclosure between the parties of relevant facts and evidence. Settling doesn’t mean that the Plaintiff always wins, the settlement should be in favour of whomever the law deems just, based on the issue at hand.

What actually transpired in the Settlement Conference I attended didn’t come close to meeting any of the previously mentioned points. Once the Judge concluded their wonderful monologue they began to question the Plaintiff in such a manner as to make it appear that I should settle in their favour. This went on for roughly 15 minutes. At one point the Plaintiff attempted to speak directly to me but was cut off by the Judge and advised that everything goes through them. Having said that there was no direct discussion allowed between myself and the Plaintiff. It was obvious to me that by the questions the Judge was asking the Plaintiff and by the comments that were said that they hadn’t read my defence at all. Once the Judge started asking me questions which were very few it became clear that this Settlement Conference was going to be a waste of time.

Since the entire claim hinged on the employment contract once I stated that I had issues with the contract the Judge cut me off and pushed it to trial. The Judge didn’t even let me finish and then berated me for not settling and lectured me on how unpleasant court is with all it’s niceties and expenses etc. I was advised in so many words that the issue with the contract was going nowhere and I would most certainly lose in trial and how I should heed what the Judge was saying. There was no preparation for trial whatsoever, the evidence with all the facts wasn’t even reviewed.

If you read up on various lawyers websites regarding Settlement Conferences you will assuredly come across this tidbit of information: “The opinion of the Judge should be given serious consideration in determining whether to continue or resolve the claim.” Do NOT take this statement at face value. Granted if the Judge “mediating” the Settlement Conference has advised and provided an opinion based solely on the facts and evidence presented by both parties then I would agree that their opinion should be considered. In my case the only serious consideration I gave the Judge’s opinion was whether they should even be presiding over a Settlement Conference in the first place. A Judge that doesn’t even look at the facts or read the Defendants defence…classic.

And so the Plaintiff paid the fee and requested a trial date which was set for 6 months after the Settlement Conference. I was notified via mail by the Court about a month and a half in advance. The Plaintiff had taken the Judge’s opinion seriously and this was to be their downfall. Prior to the trial I served the Plaintiff with a motion to settle, my offer was that the claim be dismissed. They never responded and therefore my offer was not accepted. On the day of the trial the Plaintiff was approached twice with an offer to settle with the claim being dismissed. They were also advised as to why legally they couldn’t win and that they should settle. They were so confidant that they were going to win they rejected any offers to dismiss the claim.

The Plaintiff didn’t know much if anything regarding contract law so I can only surmise their steadfastness was based on what the Judge said in our Settlement Conference. Sadly for the Plaintiff walking into that courtroom for trial cost them thousands more. I won the trial and the Judge didn’t even need to hear closing statements from my side. I was awarded costs and I actually made money off this whole debacle.

So this all goes back to the Settlement Conference where realistically had the Judge actually mediated the issue at hand this would have been dismissed saving the Plaintiff thousands. Instead the Judge’s advice was a disservice to both parties providing the Plaintiff with false confidence and belittling me. Thankfully I’m not a complete pushover.

Unless you have friends who are lawyers you probably won’t hear much if anything at all regarding how Settlement Conferences actually transpire. Even then a lot of lawyers might be reluctant to discuss how effective Settlement Conferences really are. However what I found out is that what happened to me is not uncommon at a Settlement Conference, especially when you’re self represented. Certain Judges will strong arm you into settling without looking at all the facts and evidence. In fact the Judge that “mediated” the Settlement Conference I attended is known in the legal community for taking a position on an issue quite quickly without all the facts.

The trick then is if you’re representing yourself how do you deal with such a Judge at a Settlement Conference. If the Judge is taking a strong position against you and you want to get them to listen to what you have to say without cutting you off you’ll need to take an indirect approach. In other words you’ll need to “lead” the Judge to what they should already be aware of. In my case if I had spoken to how I’d be happy to settle and to do so I would just need to have the Plaintiff point out a couple of items in the contract then I might have had more success at getting the claim eventually dismissed at the Settlement Conference. Obviously it shouldn’t be necessary to play games just to get the Judge to listen to you but sadly it would appear to be necessary in some cases. If you don’t at least provide the appearance of wanting to settle regardless of in who’s favour you’ll most likely get shut down by the Judge.

I could only hope that what transpired at my Settlement Conference was an isolated incident and that it’s not par for the course however I somehow doubt that. Don’t assume that the Judge at your Settlement Conference has clearly read over all the facts and evidence. Be prepared to pleasantly and politely educate the Judge about the facts and evidence. Make it clear that you want to settle, that’s what the Judge wants to hear. You don’t have to elude to the fact yet that you want to settle in your favour even if you are legally entitled. I found being directly honest and blunt will get you nowhere.

To all those who will be self representing themselves, good luck at your Settlement Conference!

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When I originally set up this modem after upgrading to the 25Mbps Extreme plus service there was no documentation included with the device stating the default IP address, user name or password to login to it.  As I figured out there are actually two accounts that you can use to log into the Rogers N Gateway – SMCD3GN.

1. Default IP address: 192.168.0.1
2. User name: cusadmin – Password: password
3. User name: rogcesadmin – Password: wra8uje

Ironically the one Rogers technician I talked to didn’t even know about the second login and took the information down for future reference.

In terms of which account you should use I recommend using only the rogcesadmin account as all device features/settings are available using this account.  For instance if you want to use the SMCD3GN as just a modem (bridge mode) you’ll need to log in as the rogcesadmin to disable all commercial gateway functions.  See screenshot below.  If you do disable all commercial gateway functions on the SMCD3GN I recommend disabling the wireless on it first. If you don’t, you’ll notice that you’ll always see the default SSID for the SMCD3GN available although it’s useless and cannot be connected to. Please note that once you disable all commerical gateway functions on the SMCD3GN it will reboot and you can no longer login to the modem and will need to perform a reset by pressing the reset button on the back of the SMCD3GN for 30 seconds.  This will of course reset it to factory defaults allowing you to login as well as enabling the router/wireless capabilities.

Disable All commercial gateway functions

What’s interesting about the SMCD3GN is that on Rogers website for this device they state: “Enhanced wireless range delivers maximum signal strength anywhere in the home.”  I can tell you right now, that is an incorrect statement.  If you live in an apartment or your residence is only 1 floor of a house you’ll be fine.  If you live in a multi-floored residence (typical house) the SMCD3GN performs poorly for signal strength and network speeds.  There’s no external antenna on the SMCD3GN so that’s one clue as to the extent of it’s wireless strength but test results posted below will show just how weak the signal strength of the SMCD3GN really is.

I performed speed tests in 4 different spots in my house.  I tested using a laptop with an Intel wireless AGN wireless card on N mode.  My SMCD3GN  device is located at the front of my house on the second floor. I performed my first set of tests using the SMCD3GN N wireless and the second test using my NTI WF-2406 N wireless router with the SMCD3GN in bridge mode.  On both tests I used the same wireless channel, encryption methods and server.  There was no other network traffic during both sets of tests.  The following screenshots tell the story.

SMCD3GN - 5 feet - Speed test

NTI WF-2406 - 5 feet - Speed test

SMCD3GN - 30 feet - Speed test - Direct line of sight (horizontal)

NTI WF-2406 - 30 feet - Speed test - Direct line of sight (horizontal)

SMCD3GN - 40 feet - Speed test - 1st floor of house (back)

NTI WF-2406 - 40 feet - Speed test - 1st floor of house (back)

SMCD3GN - 60 feet - Speed test - Basement of house (back)

NTI WF-2406 - 60 feet - Speed test - Basement of house (back)

As you can see even at 30 feet the Rogers N Gateway – SMCD3GN is really starting to struggle and that’s direct line of sight with zero interference. As far as I’m concerned the N wireless capabilities of the SMCD3GN are pretty weak at best. You can get better signal strength from a cheap wireless G router. As a modem the SMCD3GN does exactly as it’s supposed to and performs admirably. I haven’t had to reset the modem yet for any performance related issues and I’ve been using it for over a month now.

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Once we picked up our bags we went to the Sandals waiting lounge in the airport where you can relax, use the bathroom and help yourself to a beer on tap. Your choices are Red Stripe and Red Stripe Light. We didn’t wait long in the lounge before the bus was ready to go. Our bags were brought to the bus by a porter who will remind you to tip them.

The ride to Sandals in Whitehouse Jamaica took 1.5 hours through narrow, windy, hilly, bumpy roads. I didn’t realize that they drive on the left side of the road there. The first part of the drive is the most interesting going through Montego Bay, the closer you get to the resort the less scenic it becomes. There are an amazing amount of huge potholes on the roads, ones that would wreck your car if you were to hit one. The bus stops once at a rest stop sanctioned by Sandals roughly halfway. The bus company/driver isn’t directly employed by Sandals but are contracted and therefore expect a tip and they will remind you of this as well.

On arrival at the resort as you get off the bus you’re told that your bags will be taken to your room for you. You then gather in the lobby and someone will come around to gather your voucher and check you in. We found out once we got our room number that we received a free upgrade to the Dutch village. We had originally booked in the French village. After that you can leave a credit card number at the front desk for room charges. They will place a hold of $400 USD on your credit card. As we were told our bags would be brought to our room for us we headed to our room to get settled in. Our bags weren’t in the room yet so we waited a while and no one came so we headed back to the front desk in the lobby to see where our bags where. They advised they had been waiting for us but couldn’t find us which was strange as there was no bellboy waiting in the lobby or by the doors with our bags. At any rate we headed back to our room and shortly after our bags arrived.

Our room was a Grand Luxury walkout, obviously on the ground floor which was nice. There were sliding glass doors with a small patio just large enough for a little table and two chairs. We had a beachfront view and there was a hot tub right in front of our room between us and the beach which throughout the course of our stay was rarely used so we had it to ourselves most of the time. The room had a loveseat couch, coffee table, desk and chair, king size bed, and TV. Surprisingly the TV wasn’t a flat screen which was a little disappointing. The room has a large safe to store valuables and is big enough to fit a 16 inch laptop. There is also a large ceiling fan and air conditioning which worked splendidly.

There is WiFi available throughout the resort and in the rooms. WiFi does cost $38.99 for the week which is a better deal versus paying for a 24 hour period which is roughly $15. There is no bandwidth limit imposed but you’ll see that with the speeds you get there’s no chance you’ll be racking up large data downloads. Due to placement of the wireless antennas you will get best reception either outside on your patio or towards the outside edge of your room facing the beach. The Internet speeds are not very fast, in low reception areas you can expect 50 to 75 KBps or lower and in high reception areas upwards to 170 KBps. The speeds are more then adequate for email and web surfing. Anything that’s graphically intense or streaming video/radio will choke.

The Sandals in Whitehouse had a variety of restaurants to choose from. All of them except for one are grouped together located in the same section of the resort. There is Giuseppe’s which is an Italian restaurant where you can eat pizza for lunch dressed in causal attire or otherwise dinner which requires smart casual attire. The food here is pretty good but not amazing. Jasmine’s is an Asian restaurant which is only open for dinner and requires smart casual attire. The food here is delicious and we ate there twice. Eleanor’s serves Caribbean cuisine and is open for a la carte breakfast and dinner. We didn’t like a lot of the choices on the menu but what we did have was quite good. Neptune’s serves Mediterranean cuisine which was quite good. The Bayside restaurant serves international fare and is the main restaurant which serves buffet style breakfast and lunch and a seated dinner. The food there is delicious with a large variety, they change a few of the dishes everyday. Café de Paris is a Parisian-style patisserie with lots of choices and will definitely satisfy your need for sweets and caffeine. Bluefield Beach Club which is at the opposite end of the resort in the French village serves typical Jamaican food which is quite good. The Jerk chicken there is amazing. Service in all of the restaurants was exceptional, you can expect to be greeted, seated, chair pulled out for you, napkin draped across your lap. Drinks and meals are served promptly as well as dishes being cleared away. Reservations are not required at any of the restaurants and we never experienced any wait although we’ve heard that during busy season you can wait sometimes up to two hours to be seated at certain restaurants.

While we where at the Sandals resort in Whitehouse it was only at roughly 70% capacity and they would rotate closing one of the restaurants for dinner each night. They notify you which restaurant it will be in the Daily Breeze newsletter that they print and deliver to your room each evening. The Daily Breeze also notifies you of activities coming up, weather, changes etc.

At Sandals Whitehouse there are no children, just couples and adults. It’s nice and quiet and peaceful and there’s no rowdy drunken teenagers or adults for that matter running around. Most couples there are on their honeymoon or anniversary although there were a lot of older couples there just on holidays.

Sandals Whitehouse has three pools. The main pool which is the largest is located in front of the lobby. It was easy to get lounge chairs although guests who have concierge service have lounge chairs reserved for them. Again we heard that during busy season it can be difficult to get a lounge chair at the main pool as so many end up being reserved. The other pools are located in the Italian and French village and are quite smaller. The French village pool has a volleyball net across it. For some reason the French village pool deck has the most comfortable lounge chairs, they’re almost beds in fact and are quite nice.

The beach that runs the full stretch of the resort is quite narrow and the sand is hard packed. It’s interesting to note that there is not much of a tide at all. I’m not sure if that’s typical for all of Jamaica or just the part of the island where we were located. If you go for a walk on the beach once you get to the end of the resort property a guard will come out of the guardhouse immediately and notify you nicely that if you decide to continue walking on it’s at your own risk etc. The water is very shallow and quite warm, sadly almost the entire beach is full of sea grass and seaweed. They have 3 different sections buoyed off for swimming and except for the section in front of the French village you’ll want to avoid swimming in the other areas unless for some reason you love being coated in seaweed.

Basic water sports like hobie catting, wind surfing, wake boarding, water skiing etc. are free and first come first serve. You can also go on a glass bottom boat ride which is informative. You will get to see some sea life but it’s not overly impressive and the coral there is all a uniform murky brown colour.

To do anything else at the resort is quite expensive including extras in the room and any of their spa services. For instance a relaxation massage will cost $139 USD which is outrageous as you can get an hour long massage from an RMT for half that price here in Canada. People from the Spa will come around and solicit you while you’re lying around the pool. It’s constant everyday although they’re pretty good once you tell them no thank you. They do get paid commission though for Spa services which makes them quite active in their solicitation.

The weather we experienced while at Sandals Whitehouse was pretty good. They have a weird weather pattern that repeats everyday. In the morning it’s sunny and clear, towards the middle of the day clouds begin to gather and it gets very windy and may or may not rain. In the evening it may clear up or remain cloudy with lightening at night. It was quite humid, so much so that walking out of your room will result in glasses and camera lenses fogging up.

While restaurant and food service was exceptional, room service was lacking. Housekeeping would forget to leave coffee for the next morning or place garbage bags in the cans. We received curdled creamers. Calling the front desk to have bottled water sent to the room took 3 phone calls over the course of six hours before we received it. There was also an issue with the rubber weather stripping that runs around the door jamb of the front door. A section of it at the top had come unglued and was hanging off. We had called multiple times to the front desk to have someone fix it before someone actually came. When they did instead of gluing it back in place they ripped the whole strip off which resulted in no seal along that side of the door. It was never replaced during our stay.

Sandals Whitehouse has a couple of duty free resort shops which carry a variety of the usual items. I bought a few bottles of hot sauce as they had a deal for buy 3 get 1 free. Even still they were expensive at $9.00 USD per bottle. Their alcohol is over priced for a duty free shop and I would recommend purchasing alcohol at the duty free at the airport on the way down or if you want alcohol to bring home wait until you’re at the airport to buy it. A 20 oz. bottle of Appleton rum was $21 and we bought a 1.75L bottle of Appleton rum at the airport for $22.00.

Sandals Whitehouse also employs photographers, presumably professionals that will walk around all day even in the restaurants and solicit you for pictures. There’s no obligation to buy them but either way they will give you a tag with a number on it to go view your photos. If you do choose to go view your photographs they’re not cheap. They charge $16.00 USD per picture although I believe they cap it at $299 USD for all your photos on a CD.

Sandals Whitehouse does have a few resident Peacocks which are pretty but can be quite loud at times. It’s also not unsual to see Sea crabs wondering around on land at night through the first time you see one it does give you a start. We enjoyed our stay on the whole after all it was our honeymoon, having said that we don’t think we would go back a second time to Sandals Whitehouse in Jamaica.

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NTI WF-2109 product features are as follows:

1.Comply with IEEE 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n standard for 2.4GHz Wireless LAN.
2.Compliant with PCI 2.2 standard.
3.Capable of up to 128-Bit WEP, TKIP and AES.
4.Support Windows98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7.
5.Support MIMO technology with 1 transmit and 2 receive.
6.Lower power consumption.
7.Easy to install and configure

As per the manufacturer Windows 7 is supported. The NTI WF-2109 ships with a drivers CD but you’ll find that if you’re running Windows 7 attempting to install the driver via the CD will error out and advise you that the operating system is not supported. Windows 7 does not have a built in plug and play driver for the NTI WF-2109. What you’ll need to do is make sure that you have a hard wired connection or otherwise bridge a wireless connection from a laptop so that Windows can download and install the driver. The NTI WF-2109 actually shows up in the Device Manager as a Realtek RTL8190 802.11n Wireless LAN (Mini-) PCI NIC.

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