Victoria B.C. Canada - Saturday around town · Saturday June 21, 2008 by colin newell
A Saturday walk downtown. If it is a 2.5 km walk from our perch in Rockland (a chi-chi neighborhood up the hill from downtown Victoria…) I would be surprised. But since it is largely downhill, it is a breeze.
This stroll takes us down Fort Street right down Antique Row past bustling cafes, lunch spots into the heart of the city.
Today we walked directly to Paradiso de Stelle… paradise of stars… a neat Italian gelato-cafe that features a wonderful selection of panini, illy coffee, liquor and Café Correcto… oh yea and lots of fresh Gelato produced on site. Paradiso de Stelle is below Bastion Square in Victoria and it wins points on the quality of its food and drink, the professionalism and beauty of its staff (yea, I get warnings from my editor about using words like beauty) and the great people watching.
From there it is off to Habit Coffee and Culture on Pandora Avenue – the 600 block just below Government Street (Photo above). Habit Coffee and Culture is ground zero for the 3rd wave coffee scene makers in Victoria. Their espresso based beverages are always spot on – and the vibe is not unlike many of Portland and Seattle’s grooviest coffee joints like Stumptown.
If you live in Victoria B.C. Canada and think you know great coffee – unless you have been to Discovery, Cafe Fantastico and Habit… all in the same day… oh yea, and Buon Amici’s over on Tyee road on the West side… you have not experienced what truly great coffee is.
So put down that Folgers, get on your bike or put your runners on – and get going!
Gas Price Rant #15 Criminal investigations coming to Victoria B.C. · Thursday June 12, 2008 by colin newell
Sometimes there is good news.
And although the skies over Victoria B.C. Canada did not rain gold coins, virgins or 20 dollar bills today… there is some interesting activity on the ground…
close to your neighborhood Gas station… maybe.
On the other side of the country, criminal charges have been laid against 13 people and 11 companies accused of fixing the price of gasoline in Quebec.
The suspects and companies operated in Victoriaville, Thetford Mines, Magog and Sherbrooke.
And we all know that gas prices in Victoria B.C. Canada are fixed by a automated telephone system called Viper. It’s collusion. It’s price fixing… and it’s criminal. And maybe, just maybe, lower Island residents may get a wonderful dose of schadenfreude.
As Jackie Gleason use to say… “How SWEET it IS!”
And although I personally have no evidence that criminal charges are about to be laid in the Victoria area… I can hope. And you can hope with me.
Gas Price Rant #14 Trimac trucking delivers more bad gas pains · Monday June 9, 2008 by colin newell
Victoria B.C. area gas prices rise to $144.9 this morning.
I am stunned.
Repeating what a relative told me on the weekend… he is an insider in the Petroleum distribution industry…
“On lower Vancouver Island, Trimac Trucking brings in the Gas and Diesel to all the stations… they are a one source supply for fuel in the Victoria area… It is a monopoly. There is an electronic system called Viper that auto-dials all the local gas stations with a digitally synthesized voice stating what the gas price will be that day…“
Trimac is simply the trucking company that delivers the goods… no more or less.
The product distributor calls the entire shot… hence the instant message and hence the simultaneous price increases.
Yesterday I noticed that the price of a Mexican avocado doubled to $1.89
That is one of the signs that we could be in for very hard times.
Meantime, gas and oil producers, their executives and investors will be living like Kings.
The Conversation Series - Part one - food on the table · Sunday April 20, 2008 by colin newell
In a continuing series on food, at home and abroad, we talk to the food and drink celebrities of Victoria B.C. Canada.
Mark Engels, owner-partner and baker of Bubby Roses Bakery in Victoria is angry and frustrated… but in a good way.
Because when you own one of a handful of good bakeries in a city of over 200,000 hungry souls, every little thing you do can make a big difference.
Like keeping good food on your neighbors table and in their pantry…
And according to Mark… It’s challenging.
“Let’s put it this way… we are often at the mercy of a finicky and misinformed media…” Mark quips.
“Media”, I query? “What does the media have to do with this?”
Judging by Mark’s reaction, I have just tossed a cinder into the black powder box.
“I was on the radio this week…” Mark volunteers…
“And…?”, I cower behind a big bowl of Vegetarian Chili in one very crowded Bubby Rose bakery.
“CFAX… with Joe Easingwood and the gang… with a variety of the cities bakers… and we were talking about the scene, you know… prices, the challenges, inflation… and someone asks me about Butter Tarts… Butter tarts no less. Yea, we make them…” I introject.
“Butter tarts?”, you are losing me quickly Mark.
Mark continued unabated, “And one of the media types in the studio blurts out… Thrifty’s makes Butter Tarts you know!“
Ah. The penny drops. Hard. On my foot. Damn ten pound penny.
Thrifty Foods is one of the many appendages of the Sobey Food empire… and
Thrifty Foods is in many local corporate partnership – strategic alliances… the media behemoth that owns CFAX is one of them.
Hence the cheesy product placement.
What leads to our point. When you are a teeny-weeny independent baker trying to put food on tables and stay in business, the last thing you need are media dork-sticks dropping product placement bombs in the middle of, what was up to that point, a meaningful conversation on being the little guy trying to serve the community while those much bigger players on the block are trying to squash you.
As the bakery continues to hum louder, the stinging irony is not lost on either of us.
According to Mark, we shouldn’t write off the little guy yet. Without small bakeries, like Bubby Roses, Victoria residents could well be unwrapping their goodies just shipped in from Ontario, or worse… the U.S. of A
And right now and as of late, bakeries all over the place are feeling the pinch of higher prices… significantly higher prices on staples like flour, rice and vegetable oils… etc.
And the other scary point is – if we in food rich Canada are feeling the sting of inflation, Mark and I can only imagine what life is like in the developing nations.
Scary thoughts indeed.
In a continuing series on the food scene here and out there, we will talk to the little pieces in the puzzle – the players that keep the food on your table.
Head over to Part Two in this series.
All in a days work #1 · Saturday April 12, 2008 by colin newell
You might find this funny… or not.
I work at a local University in Technical-Rich Media.
I would tell you the department but we change names almost weekly.
Part of my job involves debugging anything electronic anywhere on campus… on any piece of equipment… excluding fax and photocopiers.
Anyway – I noticed a ticket in our computer based help-desk system for a task over in IMP – the Island Medical Program… in an area that I had a small part in building. But other than some visits to various lecture halls in the last year, I have not been upstairs.
One of the labs on the Upper levels had some issues with a flaky multi-media distribution matrix… and they wanted a 2nd opinion on expediting a solution.
So I exchanged a few e-mail with the lead tech over there, grabbed my doctors bag and some extra cable terminations and the appropriate tools, and away I went.
The issue in question was in G.A. Gross Anatomy…
complete with bags… and people, I mean, cadavers in them.
I should have read the fine print on the work ticket… not that it would have mattered.
So there I was… working in a lab full of bodies… one “bag”
within a few feet…
So I said… after looking in my tool-bag.
“Which one of you knows where my Red Robertson screwdriver is?”
“Anyone?”
Yea. Funny huh?
I felt a bit queasy for a minute or so… but it passed.
I asked the resident Tech there: “Why didn’t you tell me that
I would be in a room full of bodies?”
And he said…
“Because you would not come over…”
And I said.
“You have a point…”
I my entire life, I have seen about 2 bodies one with his head underneath a jacket. I will spare you the details because this is not that kind of web-blog.
But being in a room with 12 sets of human remains in body bags… a room cooled to single digits… well, it was sobering in an odd kind of way. It is one of those experiences that you never know how you will feel until you are actually there.
