When life gives you lemons... start baking · Sunday February 18, 2007 by colin newell
True confession. I have been lusting after this one kitchen item for years, for over a decade in fact. My first real kitchen appliance was a Champion Juicer that I bought in 1988 or 1989. It is still running like a top. Just not in my kitchen. In my Mom’s kitchen – she pinched it from me just before I got married and never gave it back. Of course, she says, I can have it back whenever I want it.
Right.
Anyway. I digress.
The KitchenAid Artisan mixer is going to make life a little easier for me. I do 100% of the baking around the house and 50% of the chef work. I am the Chef’s assistant in fact. More of a sous chef. A great stir-person. A dicer. A whisker. That’s me.
Anyway. I make all my own muffins, bars, cookies, biscotti, cakes and (lastly) breads. The breads are most definitely at the end of the list because they are the most labor intensive.
Not anymore. Now that I have the KitchenAid Arnold SchwarzenMixer life is going to be that much easier. The 7 watt hand blender will be relegated to omelette duty and my uber-cool Paderno hand-blender will just keep on doing what its doing.
Anyway. I have my mixer. Yipee. Stay tuned for recipes.
Who wants dinner?
Tickets to Police 2007 Tour in Vancouver? Dream on! · Saturday February 17, 2007 by colin newell
Ok. So it is no big deal… but come on!
Quite a few of us have been sucked into the 2007 Police reunion tour
hype.
And I was one.
For starters, I heard that by signing up for a free newsletter on BestBuy.CA that I would have access to pre-sale tickets.
Yea. Right. Those tickets were long gone within minutes of this promotion first being offered.
Yet they kept the hype up getting thousands to sign up to their retail shill with virtually zero hope of getting tickets for any Police concert anywhere.
So now I have to take the 3 seconds to sign off of the stupid BestBuy newsletter.
Then there is TicketMaster. How I have learned to loathe TicketMaster. Many acts and performers avoid them too.
My story.
Like a good consumer I showed up at the TicketMaster website with plenty of time to queue up for the 10AM sale of Police 2007 tickets.
Right on the money, I clicked in. I requested any ticket at any price… at 10:00:05 AM today. Within about 1 and one/half minutes of waiting the TicketMaster web site spat back there all tickets were gone.
Ok. Fine. So they sold X number of thousands of tickets in 1.5 minutes.
But did they? Did they really?
No. They did not. Let’s count the number of online ticket sales scams that are under way here.
Yesterday (Friday) I could have taken advantage of a Police Fan Club pre-sale for a paltry 120 dollars… 120 bones just to join the fan club and that is prior to actually getting a ticket.
That and all the other pre-sales, corporate sales, and coupons that (I imagine) the uber-wealthy get. And what’s left for the rest of us?
Nothing? Nope. Not quite.
Within minutes of todays TicketMaster sale being complete, a ticket-auction appeared on the TicketMaster website!
Yup. I could bid upwards of 600$+ on a ticket to see the concert.
But I thought there were no tickets left? What is ticketmaster now? Ebay? Well maybe.
I guess it is free enterprise – but for the love of pete, make it a little bit fair and a little more honest.
Thankfully, I only lost about 5 minutes of my life.
I will certainly listen to The Police in a slightly different way in the future.
this just in… a second show has just been added for Vancouver. Tickets go on sale on Feb 27 at 10AM. Of course they do… sign me up…
Comments? [5]
Let's do lunch... · Thursday February 15, 2007 by colin newell
One of my favorite places for a meal on Vancouver Island is the Crow & Gate Pub at Cedar south of Nanaimo.
I know. I know. This is one of the best kept secrets of many Islanders (and mainlanders for that matter…) and I know full well I am going to be paying dearly for letting this cat out of the bag!
Ok. So it is a pub you say. So what?
Well (more secrets about to be let out of the bag…)
The Crow & Gate is the most authentic English pub you will find in North America (I know – hyperbole)
It is as if it was transported lock, stock and barrel from England.
Except for a couple of small details.
The food is way better than the average English pub…
and way cheaper too!
I dare say I have had virtually everything on the menu; Steak Pie, Oyster Pub plate (My god! Yum!), Ploughmans Lunch… and on and on and on.
All menu items (made at the time you request them) are under 10 dollars (average price being about $7.50 Canadian)
Did I mention the food is really, really, really good?
Secrets out.
Oh yea. Why the Heli photo above?
Well. Short story. A small group of us were at the C&G a year or so ago when we heard the familiar Whop-Whop of a Bell Jet Ranger coming in for a landing… a landing in the middle of nowhere.
Picture this: Chopper cools down. Pilot jumps out and sprints to the pub back entrance. Pilot whispers a question in a waitresses ear. She nods no. Pilot returns to helicopter. Helicopter powers up and flys away.
I could not resist. I went over and asked the gal what the pilot wanted.
“Steak and Kidney Pie” she said.
“We were out…” she concluded.
It seems they get regular high-rollers from Vancouver flying in for a quick lunch.
Geeze – at 500 to 1000$/hour for a Bell Jet Ranger and pilot you would think they would call ahead.
Sun to set on post 9/11 police powers. · Saturday February 10, 2007 by colin newell
Canada is set to roll-back some of the police powers the Canadian government and courts granted post 9/11.
The Canadian Liberal party, currently in partnership with the NDP and Conservatives in a minority government, have withdrawn support for the controversial laws set to expire at the end of next week.
The former Liberal majority government, under then prime minister Jean Chretien, rushed the sweeping changes in the stressful weeks following 9/11, arguing law-enforcement needed better tools for dealing with the palpable threat of terror.
In response to concerns the new laws would trample civil liberties, the government of the day placed a sunset clause on the far-reaching legislation. Well, the day is almost upon us.
The current Conservative government (in minority) have tabled a motion to extend the provisions of the law for three years. Lacking Liberal, NDP and Bloc(French) support the bill will die on the vine.
This shift of thinking from the Liberal left has shocked many in the security industry, not surprisngly.
This claw-back of police powers puts Canada on a substantially more moderate track than World security partners, the U.S., Britain and Australia.
Canada’s security laws function thusly: A preventive arrest clause allows police to arrest suspects without warrant and detain them for upwards of 48 hours or more, without charge — if they (the police) suspect that the subjects of interest may do something or are thinking of doing something unlawful.
In the 5 years since the act has come into force, it has never been used. Yes neighbor, we Canadian’s are that law abiding. Although I have to admit, there have been times where I have had unlawful thoughts. You know: Will I pass the car ahead of me over a double-solid line?
Anyway, I think we are on the right track – but I can only speak for Canadians… not meaning to set any examples for anyone else, begging your pardon and all `eh.
