Oakville Blogger

I’m back in Canada.   After an 11-hour flight and another 45-minute flight we’re back in this chilly country.  The weather is unbelievable.  There was a light dusting of snow last night and we are only a few days away from April.  Wow! 

The flight was good.  We brought home a lot of stuff and had to pay some extra money for an overweight suitcase and my mountain bike.  When we arrived to Pearson airport and collected our luggage from the baggage claim, I noticed two items were damaged.  First, the baby stroller had an improtant clip busted off, which attaches the base to the seat. Second, the frame on my mountain bike was dented.    Oh well, the damage isn’t that bad. 

Before departing Nagoya and while checking in for our flight a Northwest airline staff saw my mountain bike and approached me.  She said that since my mountain bike was not in a bike box, I couldn’t take it with me.  My mouth dropped to the floor and I quickly directed her to the special items page at NWA.com.  It states on their website that: “Northwest accepts bicycles only if the handlebars are fixed sideways and the pedals removed or if the handlebars and pedals are wrapped with protective packing material. Northwest recommends bicycles be placed in a bike box.” I had done the bolded and met their requirements, so in the end they accepted my bicyle. 

For people who are bringing their bicycle on a flight I recommend turning your handlebars sideways, removing the pedals and placing it in a bike box.   You can go to any bicycle shop in your area and they should have old bike boxes that you can take for free.  Here is a great website that has a written description on how to box up your bike with pictures.

Now that spring has almost sprung, it is time to blow the dust of your bike, take it to your local bicycle shop and have it tuned-up.  There are many bicycle shops in Oakville, such as Cyclepath and Oakville Cycle and Sports to name a few.   I have used Oakville Cycle and Sports in the past.  Always helpful and attentative.  Their cycle shop used to be located in Trafalgar Village. Do you remember that small shopping mall?  Now it is still a part of Trafalgar village, but the place is no longer a mall.   It is more like a strip mall.  I think tune-ups run about $30.  I am going this weekend, so I’ll post how much. 

Anyone ride in Oakville?  Leave a comment and let us know the trails you like to ride on. 

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Are you selling your home? When you enter ‘Oakville real estate’ into google many many realtor websites are presented to you.  There are so many to choose from and it would be very difficult not to be indecisive.  How do you choose a real estate agent?  Who can you trust?  Who gives good customer service?  These are the kinds of questions that need answering.  In this article the term: Real Estate agent means both broker and sales representative.  If you are not sure what the difference is, please check out this wikipedia article.

Real Estate agents make big bucks selling your home and you want to make sure they have your best interest at heart.  There are lots of names floating around Oakville.  Two that come to mind easily are: Dan Cooper and Christopher Invidiata.  These names seem to pop up a lot whenever you search for homes in Oakville on mls.ca or on ‘For Sale’ signs.   That would leave one to believe that they provide top notch service and can get top dollar for your home.  Are they that good at what they do or do they know some kind of trick of the trade?  Anyway, let’s look at some other notable real estate agents in town.  There is: Ruth Anne Winter, Anell Francis, Don Goodale and Mary Cardamone.  These are the notable real estate agents in town because of their track record and longevity.  In other words, they have been around for awhile.   Many people get into the real estate game believing they can make the big bucks and take 10 coffee breaks a day and it’s just not true.  It takes a lot of hard work, patience, perseverance and knowledge.  Many fresh faces pop up in the real estate section of the Oakville Beaver or on mls.ca and a year later they’re nowhere to be found.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to create a top 10 of real estate agents in Oakville.  What is the criteria?  How about experience, customer service, salesmanship, community involvement, presence on mls.ca and reputation?  If you would like me to change the criteria please leave a comment. 

Without further ado…here is the Top 10 Real Estate agents in Oakville(Last updated March 21st, 2008):

1. Dan Cooper

2. Christopher Indiviata

3. Don Goodale

4. Ruth Anne Winter

5. Anell Francis

6. Mary Cardamone

7. Rina Dirisio

8. Colleen Pickett

9. Katharine Vanderburgh

10. Gail Bird

This top 10 list is not written in stone and is up for change anytime.  If you believe someone should be added or taken off, please leave a comment stating who and why.  The more information collected from you the better I can tweak the top 10.  Please don’t hesitate; leaving a comment is easy and painless.

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I can’t think of a better value for money Italian restaurant in Oakville.  The portions are huge.  It is literally a chore to try and finish their out-of-this-world lobster spaghetti.  At around $25 dollars for it, it’s well worth the price.  The spaghetti comes with 4 lobster tails.  It is very delicious to say the least.  I was there a few months back and they totally met my expectations once again.  They have plenty of other dishes on the menu including, grilled calamari, tomato and basil salad, stuffed Cornish hen with mushroom risotto and grilled vegetables, seafood linguine, clams and shrimp in a marinara, surf and turf,  sea bass and so on. 

The decor is splendid as well.  There are two levels with an upper and lower dining room.  There is a bar located in the lower dining room.  A beautiful staircase leads from one floor to the other.  The stair case has a nice wooden carved railing, I might add.  The upstairs color scheme is unique.  The walls are painted yellow and green-blue.  The tables have chairs and wall sofas.  The wall sofas are a tomato red.

The service is good.  Not outstanding, but good.  The wait staff are attentive and polite. 

The Oakville Rocco’s is located downtown Oakville on Trafalgar st.  It is  almost on the corner of Trafalgar and Lakeshore.  You can see it on a map here. There is plenty of parking scattered around downtown Oakville and probably the best spots are on Lakeshore Rd.  For more reviews on Rocco’s please check out Restaurantica.

Miscellaneous Information:

Hours: Open Daily

Accepted Payments: Cash, MasterCard, Visa

Attire: Casual

For reservations call: 905 844-8500

Address:  111 Trafalgar Road Oakville, ON L6J 3G3

I’ll get some pictures and post them of the restaurant once I’m back in Oakville.

 Please leave a comment and tell me about your great experience at Rocco’s in Oakville.

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The long process of packing has commenced.  Our departure from Japan takes place on March 25th and naturally there are cardboard boxes everywhere in our living room.  We are sending about 7 to 10 boxes to Canada via Nippon Express.  Their services will cost us around $750 and it will take about a month for the boxes to arrive.  It’s expensive, but we can’t bring all our stuff on the plane.  I’m happy enough that Northwest Airlines is allowing me to bring my Mountain Bike on the plane.  Although, I have to pay an extra $130.

Once all of those boxes arrive in Oakville and we empty them, I have to get rid of them.　I was checking out some waste removal info, for garbage in Oakville, over at the Halton Region Waste Management site and I noticed that all cardboard boxes must be broken down, tied up and put next to your Blue Box.  While on that site, I went through some of the other information and noticed that households are allowed to toss out a maximum of 6 bags of trash per week.  They have weight requirments too and you can check that out here.  There are many items that can’t be thrown out in the regular garbage pick-up and you can see those items under non-collectible material at the Halton Region website.  Those non-collectible materials can be taken to the Halton Waste Management site located in Milton.  Here is a map of the location.  It is about a 20-minute drive from Downtown Oakville. On their website they have all the fees. 

I know this post stinks, but I hope it was somewhat helpful.

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Yesterday was my lucky day.  I went to Golf5 and bought a new set of golf clubs.  Actually, I didn’t buy them, they were bought for me by someone close to me.  I’m a lucky guy.  Anyway, I selected TaylorMade R7 draw irons and sand wedge, TaylorMade R7 draw driver and an Odyssey white hot putter #5.  Needless to say, I am very happy with my set and I’m thanking my lucky stars.   You can see a picture of them on the left.

I guess I’m going to have to wait a little before hitting the links as Southern Ontario was hit with another snow storm.  This must be a record year for snowfall there.  Once the snow melts and I’m back in Oakville, I’m hoping to do a lot of golfing and put those new clubs to good use.  I prefer twilight golf after work.  Finish work at 5 and on the course at 5:45ish.  For twilight golf in Oakville, I like Deerfield Golf and Recreation Centre.  It is convenient, reasonably priced and not so busy during the week.  My friend and I can usually get through 11-13 holes before it is too dark to continue.   My favourite hole is the 9th.  It’s a par three and you tee off over a pond and onto the green.  Of course, I usually put the ball in the drink, but maybe with my new clubs I can put a few on the green from now on.

Below are a list of all the Golf Courses in Oakville with links.  I am going to play a round on each course and give a review on here throughout the course of this summer.  If you have anything to share or a course you particularly like to play on, in Oakville, please leave a comment. 

Golf Courses in Oakville:

1. Oakville Executive Golf Course
2. Glen Abbey Golf Club
3. Oakville Golf Club
4. Deerfield Golf and Recreation Centre
5. White Oaks Golf Limited
6. Saw Whet Golf Club

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I received a pleasant e-mail this morning.  It was an offer of employment from my new employer.  Of course, I gladly accepted with open arms.  I must report to work on April 7th, so I need to get cracking and pack things up here.  For some of you who don’t know, I have been living in Japan for the last 2 years and a bit.   My move is a far one, but I’m happy to do so.  

In this post I want to talk a little bit about the interview process I went through.  I want to focus on, in particular, the interview.  It had been quite sometime since I last went through this process and things have changed a bit.  I learned that interviewers now, like to conduct what is called a behavioural or situational interview. 

This interview style has candidates answer questions by citing examples of past experiences.  They do this as they believe past performance is a pretty good indicator of future performance.  You must give specific examples and they must not be vague, so you simply can’t use your imagination to answer these questions.  When answering these situational questions your thoughts must be organized well and you need to communicate them well too.  The best way to do this is with the STAR  approach.  STAR stands for: Situation or Task, Action and Result.  First, you layout the situation, next the action you took and finally the outcome or result.  Framing your responses in this manner will help you to clearly communicate what you want and it is how the interviewers want you to answer.   If you blab on for 10 minutes and you’re all over the map with a response, then it is a sure sign the interview is not going well.  Interviewers, who use this approach, are scoring you and you’re scored on how well you answer these questions.  I read somewhere that you need to keep each answer under 2 minutes or you’re blabbing on too much.  

Anyway, the best way to do well with this kind of interview is to prepare, prepare and prepare.  For a list of sample interview questions please go here.  You can narrow down the questions to prepare for by knowing what the job entails.  If you’re desired positions requires someone with good customer service skills, then be prepared to answer: “Tell me about a time you gave excellent customer service to a customer.” 

Actually, I’m terrible at interviewing as I tend to get really nervous, but this time was different.  I really think it was all the preparation and thanks to a good friend who gave me a mock interview with feedback.

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I’m going to be spending a lot of time over at the Oakville public library in April and May.  I am currently studying for the Canadian Securities Course(CSC), which is administered by the Canadian Securities Institute(CSI), in order to be able to sell securities, like mutual funds.  I used to hold the investment funds in Canada(IFIC) designation but that has since expired.  Actually, I found that CSI administers the IFIC too.  What is the difference between the two designations?  I think the Canadian Securities Course designation is more versatile and doesn’t limit you to only a mutual funds license, like the IFIC designation.   Anyway, I have to take the CSC examination in June.  The course involves studying from two thick textbooks.  Topics include; the Canadian economy, fixed-income securities, financial statements, equities, derivatives and so on.  The course is quite interesting and very thorough.  I have finished the first book and I’m trying to tackle the second one. 

The Oakville Public Library is actually a great place to study.  It is quiet, not so busy and conveniently located downtown Oakville.  There are two main floors; one for children and one for adults.  There is also an art gallery on the second floor.  I believe, that sometimes they put on exhibits for the public to come and check out.  Library parking is at the bottom and rear of the building(Right next to the sixteen mile creek).  If you come to the library anytime in the month of April or May, say hi to me.

 Anyone have any good study tips?  Please leave a comment, if you do.

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I am really excited for Easter.  It’s just around the corner on Sunday March 23rd.  Every year we have a big Easter egg hunt at my mom’s place for the grandchildren.  She usually has the house decked out with all sorts of Easter decorations, like Easter crafts, Easter baskets and the big Easter bunny, so it’s always festive there.  Now that my son is mobile he can actually participate in the fun this year and that’s why I’m really excited.  I am sure he will be running around in her living room causing a raucous.  Anyway, the night before Easter my sister and wife hide small chocolate covered Easter Eggs around the living.  On, under, in and next to(any other prepositions?) pillows, lamps, sofas, pictures, rugs and tables little Easter Eggs lay.   In the morning, when the grandchildren arrive grandma gives them each an Easter Basket and the kids get to the collecting.  It always turns into a competition amongst the older children  seeing who can get the most eggs.   It’s a great tradition and we always have a good time. 

Leading up to Easter we sometimes boil eggs, remove the yokes and whites and paint them all sorts of colours.   I found a great website for Easter egg painting ideas here.  For decorations and other arts and crafts stuff Michaels in Oakville Town Centre II (the town centre east of Dorval) is the place to go.  They have a wide selection and helpful staff.  For chocolate covered Easter Eggs, I like Purdy’s.  Their online store is very user friendly and convenient.  There is a Purdy’s located on the 1st floor in Oakville Place.  

Good luck getting ready for Easter and if you have any Easter traditions you would like to share pleas leave a comment.

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