The Voice Of Reason

There's more to this WiFi than meets the eye, doncha know.  The iPod would pick up what it thought were networks but nothing would work. However, i have a Starbucks card and found out i could register it and get 2 hours of WiFi at Starbucks' hotspots every day as long as i used the card at Starbucks at least once a month. Fair play. I registered and when i came in this morning, i went to the Starbucks and voila i'm in! So i guess it just depends on where you are and if you have a password to the network. Some networks must be "free" somewhere, and i know people don't always secure their home connections. I wouldn't presume to use one of those if the iPod found it but i'm just sayin. I know hotels that offer it still must give you a password to get in and that's fine, too. At least i was able to get my gmail to work and that's really the only one i need as it will pick up my home email as well. The Yahoo account still doesn't recognize my password but i'm not as bothered. The iTunes software synced my Yahoo contact book to the pod and i got rid of the contacts i won't use or need and added phone numbers and emails to the ones i might use, including LJ so i can update LJ from the road if i get the chance. Facebook lets me text a status change but the email function is spotty at best. I set up my home weather location, and i tested out the Google maps function which shows the satelite and the map and you can "pin" specific addresses which is cool for noting where a hotel is.  I think i'm good to go now.

Speaking of hotels, i changed the one we were going to use in Montreal. I belong to Travelzoo which emails you deals every week and some hotels were featured on a three day special. One in Montreal was about half the price of the one i had booked but when i was reading up on it, there were some things about it that i wasn't as keen on, plus that particularly cheap rate was not for a suite, so the room i did book after researching only ended up being a little cheaper for the sort of room i wanted but still, it's a bit of a savings. We are going to try a suite hotel. Not so we can do proper cooking but it's nice to have a fridge, microwave to heat up stuff and maybe do breakfasts or snacks. It's also nice to have the fridge to keep milk for tea rather than the UFT fake stuff. The original hotel had a more equipped kitchen i think. This one, they will bring up dishes and stuff if you ask which is fine. They also do housekeeping daily which one of the others that i had considered did not. That was a long term stay suite place and they only do the housekeeping once a week though you can request new towels at the front desk if you want them in the mean time. I think i'd like having the daily service if i'm in a hotel so that's one of the reasons i picked this new one.

This one, an Embassy Suites by Hilton has a full cooked breakfast with the room which you can take back to your room if you want, and they give you two free drinks each at a manager's reception in the bar every night. Those things alone are worth close to 30 dollars per person if you take advantage of the drinks as well as brekkie, going by standard hotel prices. The location is really good too, right down by Old Montreal, around the block from Notre Dame basilica and a block from a couple of Metro stations and Boulevard St. Laurent, the main drag through the city. Another bonus is i should get Aeroplan points for the stay as well which i wouldn't have got at the other place. Most chains belong to the Aeroplan program but the other hotel was an independent one.