Wednesday, March 24, 2010

offline blogging

The first thing I notice about the Westin Ottawa: no Internet access. I know, right? Even the Radisson in Winnipeg had a business centre (which Westin has, but you have to pay for it... wtf). Heck, the VIA has free WiFi. I'm over it. I checked into my room, hoping for a King size bed, but get the double beds instead. A very luxurious room indeed. Possibly as big as my condo. No view of the Hill though, so bummer. I did what I always do in a hotel room: inventory. Four pillows? check. Glasses for storage? check. Bathrobe? a call to the concierge fixed that. Since I'm staying for four nights, I totally unpacked, aired out my clothes, used the wine glasses for my jewellery and a water glass for my makeup. So far: happy, save for the offline blogging.

Why am I in Ottawa, anyway? Conference, of course (when the heck else do I stay in nice hotels?). That was good too. I'm often asked my library workers feel the need for a Union anyway (I've asked that question myself). Today wasn't supposed to be about answering that question, but it became just that for me. We talked about the sexual assault that happened in Ottawa to a library worker forced to work alone at a rural library by management who refused to schedule a second person with her (staff shortages and budget cuts). She suffered a two-hour nightmare, rescued herself and then, as the officer is taking her report at a local hospital, he's stabbed (he, too, is working alone). Shudder. I know I kept thinking our management team would never allow that to happen... but with budget cuts, would they have much of a choice? Or how about the devaluing of the library profession by using volunteers, not just to do the "tedious" jobs, but also to do jobs in order to avoid hiring pages? And on the other end of the spectrum, having management do circ clerk jobs so avoid hiring those positions as well. Finally, the dreaded "San Jose Way" which blatantly states its main function: stretching existing staff. Huh. Who knew?

Anyway, with my day starting at 5am, I was ready to crash at 5pm, so I did. A long hot shower with the nicest hotel-class toiletries I can remember using. A fluffy towelling robe. A sumptuous bed. I was done. The phone rang at 7pm asking if I'd like to have dinner. It was hard to leave the bed, but my grumbling tummy reminded me that a day's worth of meals is more than Ritz crackers and flavoured water. Salmon and yam fries attended to that oversight. Now, back in aforementioned sumptuous bed with my netbook and blogging during Lost commercials, I'm thinking this could be the nicest non-vacation trip I've had in quite some time.

Today, I had to cave and pay the $14 for 24 hours of Internet access. Not because of my blatant FB addiction, but because there were things I simply had to communicate with my Chief Steward before the big meeting tomorrow. So i logged on and quoted my room number and all was good. I came upstairs to my room and I learn a really irritating fact: you have to pay EXTRA for room access (indeed, the lobby, the conference rooms and one's hotel room are all on separate networks, requiring one to log on - and pay - three different times. W. T. F. The next time a non-resident complains about paying a loonie for 24 hour access at any of our eighteen locations, it will be even harder to not roll my eyes.

I conveyed my annoyance about this fact to the concierge and, lo, excellent customer service shines through. In other words: free Internet access for a year at any Westin hotel. Awesome. Consider me connected.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, why does Canada offer such poor Internet service? Attending OLA, I neither had access in the hotel nor in the convention centre. Really, TPL can give it to you free and the convention centre can't. Get with the 20th century.

Malecasta said...

I don't know if it's a Canadian issue - this is the first time I've had to pay for Internet access in a Cdn hotel (I did have to pay in NYC and SFO, though). I blame it on the capitalists.