Reading Harry Plotter 7, no blog entry today.

This weekend is the release date for the last Harry Plotter novel. Everyone over the world is crazy over the hype. People lining up in front of book store to get the book like it is given out for free. Many not so crazy but still enthusiastic Harry’s fans pre-order the book, so they will receive it on the first day of release. I also ordered the book, but foolishly I use the company address as the mail address. Since the company is close on Saturday, I have to wait until Monday to get my copy of Harry Plotter. Well, even if I got it on the first day, I may not want to read it right away. Reading a book is not a race, you don’t have to finish it faster than others. I rather relax and take my time to finish the book.

I just start my banquet shopping, trying to find a right restaurant for my wedding banquet.  Making banquet reservation is not a simple task, there are lots of details I have to pay attention to.  My cousin who married gave me lots of useful tips.  Thanks Lu!  I would like share it with everyone who is planning a wedding.

1. Book early.  Good days are popular.  In order to secure the day of your choice, better start 1 year earlier.

2. Fix the menu and lock the price.  Restaurants tend to increase their price every year, fix the menu earlier can save you a few bucks.  You can always upgrade the packaged menu.  People tends to pick something between the two most expensive package.  Regardless of which package, the default desert usually sucks.  Sometimes you can change it for something better without extra charge.

3. Watch out for hidden charge.  Some restaurants may charge extra fee for AV equipment rental, cake cutting, opening wine, sauces, chair cover etc.  Usually you can bargain hard to waive all those fee.  One good option to have is bottomless soft drink﹐ It will only cost you a few bucks per table.  Regular price for the soft drink is $1 a glass, your guest can drink you broke.

4.  Write everything down in the contract.  If you don’t have enough table to reserve the whole restaurant, write down which corner you will get in the contact.  So you wedding banquet won’t suddenly placed next to the toilet.  If you order fish, write down it is one big fish in the contact, so you won’t end up with two small fishes.  Write down the when will banquet start, when will it end, how much time you have for clean up in the contract, so you won’t charge over time.  If you want your banquet be more classy, you can ask the waiters to serve individual dish to each guest.  If not specified in contact, the waiter may just put the dish in middle of the table and let everyone fight for the food.  It is less work for the waiters.

5.  Pay wisely.  When you make the reservation, usually you have to put down $1000 deposit.  If something changes, (touch wood) and you have to cancel the wedding, the deposit is non refundable.  The bill is usually paid in 3 installments.  1-2 weeks before the wedding, 3 days before the wedding and on the wedding day.  Always pay in cash, so you can save on tax.  You also have to pay 12-15% tips.  Pay part of the tips to each waiter or waitress in red pocket before the banquet start, so they are more willing to give you a better service.

Telus is making cold call to attract new customers.  They have a promotion deal , 3 months free trail on internet service and TV.  I always want to compare the download speed of DSL vs cable, so I figure that it is no harm to give it a try.  The telephone guy came over to my place and hook up the wire, since I don’t have a phone line install.  He then drop off a DSL modem and let me to setup it up myself.  Somehow the line is not activated, no signal at all, obviously the internet won’t be working.  I am too lazy to call Telus to setup my account, thus the modem is just sitting there.  Today I receive a call from Telus, saying they have technical difficulty to hook up the TV in my apartment building. I have the option to just cancel the service order.  That should me all the troubles on calling their customer service.  Now I am still using my occasionally very slow cable modem, but I end up with an extra brand new DSL modem.  I tried to sell the DSL modem on ebay, but turns out that it virtually worth not even a dime.  The question is what should I do with the extra DSL modem?

Since I moved downstairs to the new department, I have acquired a new habit of drinking afternoon tea.  One of my colleague is a big fan of tea.  She has a full set of tea pot, different kinds of tea leafs, herbs, flowers stocked at work.  It used to have a group of tea lovers hang around her cubicle every day for a cup of freshly made tea.  They joked that she is the chairman of the tea lovers’ club.  I was sitting in the different floor back then, I was too lazy to walk downstairs just to have some tea.  As the old gangs left the company, the old tea lover’s club seize to function.  It is too much to brew a big pot of tea just for yourself.  Now, I am just a few cubicles away from her, I took the trouble to boil water, then bug her to prepare the tea every day.  She decided to give the tea lover’s club a new name, and coined “PMC Tea Pub”, which she think is cool.  Membership for the PMC Tea Pub is free, but it is self service, members have to boil the water and pour the tea themselves.  There is a list of ingredient in stocked sticked on the cubicle wall.  Member can specify their taste or just enjoy the daily special made by the owner.  The tea pub is small but growing.  It has 3 members including the owner at the moment.  Drinking nicely brew tea at work is always better than buying generic coffee from Starbucks in the cafe.