My girlfriend spoke at a conference in Toronto this weekend, about her Master’s thesis project (on using design research to give inspiration on products and business models) and it was a very proud boyfriend that watched her clearly an-nun-ci-ate her way through her work. But boy, there were presenters at this conference that make me wince just thinking back to them. Seriously, the powerpoint was so bad in one presentation I’d swear Edward Tufte would have commited suicide just so that he could turn in his grave.

But the best and oddest part of the whole trip was our bed and breakfast. I over heard someone at the conference talking about his own bizarre bed and breakfast experience: “This place makes Faulty Towers look like the Hilton”, and it made me think that he’d checked in to my little hidden gem.

The small photo set that accompanies this post shows you something of the gentile, quaint, historic setting that we stayed in. I think that the the Grannyness of the place would have made even Anne of Green Gables cringe. I mean come on; nothing says ‘we care’ more than a single stemmed fabric rose, sat in a tall vase in front of a poorly fitted window unit.

Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was the less than inspiring interaction with public transport individuals or maybe it was just the weird bed and breakfast we stayed in, but Toronto just seemed a little bit like a northern English town, like Birmingham. Nice town, just a little bit beat up in places.

Air fare to Toronto: $350
A nights stay at the Bonnevue Manor: $99
Turning on the space heater so that you don’t suffer from hypothermia: Priceless.