Hi there and welcome to my blog. This is the portal page and where I will post whatever interesting is happening in my life or, anything that has piqued my interest or, what ever happens to piss me off on a given day. A kind of diary. On the bar below and on right side of the page there are some links to things that interest me as well.
Thanks for dropping by and by the way. I like your shirt.
OK I confess, I did watch some of the American election. I got sucked in by Jon Stewart and Colbert’s unique spin on election coverage and I hung in to see McCain concede.
Truth be told, I think Americans made the right choice. I was surprised by how close the popular vote was, almost neck and neck.
Obama is saying a lot of the right sorts of things and people have high expectations. It will be interesting to see how much he will be able to separate himself from the bureaucracy, the political machines and the military-industrial complex. Time will tell.
With two elections down it is a good time for Americans and Canadians to give some real thought to what we expect, who we elect and once the process is played out, how we hold their feet to the fire?
I know I was pretty critical of the Canadian election process and it glaring flaws but that process south of the border really is over the top. I know that many Canadians will be glued to the idiot box this evening but frankly, I can’t bear to watch. OK perhaps I will tune in and watch Jon Stewart for a bit but the thought of watching the results roll in, state by state, is too much for me.
The USA is another country after all. Another country whose citizens hardly know we exist. I am not sure the two candidates know much more than the fact that we are this land mass north of their border. Oh yeah, well there is that oil we have. In fact when you think about it, there are no stories of Obama or McCain spending their summers at Regina Beach, or Long Beach or for that matter at Cavendish Beach. We aren’t really on their radar.
In truth, it is an election that I found offensive. You have to ask yourself:
How can a mature nation get into serious discussions about what a giant step it is to consider electing a black man?
What kind of people considers a tax system that in a very small way redistributes wealth, socialism?
Who thinks it is ok to yell “kill him” when Republican rallies refer to Obama as a friend of terrorists because he served on a Board with a 1960’s Weatherman?
Perhaps the most disturbing is that Americans think they are electing the leader of the free world.
We figured we'd get up in time to have a coffee then grab a cab to the airport. Unfortunately we hadn't been keeping track of when the time change was. we found ourselves at the hotel desk at 6:30 in the morning and no coffee available for quite a while so we just went to the airport.
As one might expect Quebec City cabbies have their own style of driving. He blew through several stop signs, he didn't even slow down, then raced at 100 km in a 50 km zone. We breathed a sigh of relief when we reached the airport safe and sound.
Air Canada canceled our original Toronto-Regina leg so we had to wait 5 hours in the airport until our new flight was ready to go. It left about 40 minutes late as well.
So, late home last night but glad to see some warmer weather
We wandered down to the hotel bar/restaurant about 9:00, sat in a window seat and had a tall black espresso and a warm, buttery croissant. What a great way to start the day.
It was chilly though. It hovered around freezing all day and it was windy so,in the shade, it was just like winter. When the sun came out it was beautiful.
We spent about five hours walking around the old city, slipping in and out of some amazing little shops. Quebec City really is one of my favorites. I wish I could figure out how to live here for a few months and work on my French which is getting pretty shaky.
Since we have been here I noticed posters for two entertainers who played the Regina Folk Festival. Pascal Picard, a Quebecoise who sings in English and Rupa and the April Fishes, an American Band. Rupa sings in English, French and Spanish. Seeing the April Fishes poster reminds me that there is a restaurant down the block called Poisson d'Avril.
We walked out again this evening and ate in a restaurant on the Casse-Cou stairs. Probably not the best choice but it was cold walking around.
Early up again tomorrow. We fly back to Regina in the morning.
Morning really did come too early. A 7:00 train to Quebec City seemed like a great idea a couple of months ago when I booked it but...
I think we forgot it was Halloween until the skinny pirate moved in behind us in the lineup and started to talk away to us. The conductor was a Rastaman and made all the announcements in what he thought a very cool Jamaican might sound like speaking French. What do I know, perhaps he was right on. There are Halloween decorations all over Quebec City.
In our case, the train really was the way to travel from Montreal to Quebec. In Montreal, Central Station was no more than a couple of blocks from our hotel and the Gare de Palais is right in Quebec's Vieux Port, just a few blocks from out hotel.
We walked around the old city for a few hours, had lunch and wandered back to l'Hotel Belley and had a beer and a nap. I love this little hotel. It is right across from the market and a short walk to restaurants in the Lower Town in the old city. It is a climb up the hill however which may be more exercise than you planned for. You could walk along to Le Funicular and save yourself the climb.
This evening we ventured out again, keeping an eye out for ghosts and goblins along the way. There were small crowds of little kide trick or treating and lots of people in costume. We ate at Porto Fino which is a pretty dependable Italian Restaurant in Quebec. Quite boisterous and friendly.
We took the train out to Ste Anne de Bellevue and took my Mum to Twigs for lunch. It was a bit of a blustery day. Sandy and Barbara met us it Ste Anne and we drove into town together.
We dropped into the Musee de Beaus Arts mid afternoon and walked back to the hotel. It was cool with snow up the side of Mount Royal but little sign of it when you got as far down as Ste Catheribe Street.
We took the metro that evening and met Sandy and Barbera for supper at a small restaurant on Rachel Street called Les Infideles It is a bring your own wine restaurant but more upscale than you would expect. I would clearly recommend it. It has very good food but I'd suggest going on a slower night. On a busy Thursday night it was quite full and noisy.
We flew into Montreal yesterday. It was pretty uneventful which is about as good as it gets when it comes to flying. The forecast for Montreal suggested rain and were they right about that. It was pouring and obviously had been all day.
After a typical and frightening cab drive into the city we settled in to the Delta Centreville.
I have an aversion to eating in hotels so rain or not, we walked out to Old Montreal and found a small Portuguese restaurant on Place d'Youville called Porto Mar. It was very good but quiet with the weather.
I had a tradition Portuguese meal, grilled sardines. They were great.
I went to the convention this morning. Saw lots of people I hadn't seen in a while then bailed out. we walked down to Old Montreal for lunch.
The day had a bit of a funny start I had a letter published in the Leader Post today, no big deal, just a rant about ethics during the recent election. You can read it on my Maple Leaf T-Shirt blog. The LP called me back this morning saying that another Gord Hunter, this one works for the Saskatchewan Government, called all pissed off that someone with the same name as his had a letter in the paper.
Now on one level I can understand his concern, the government in power is pretty vindictive and any thought that the public servant Gord Hunter, was less that loyal and it would be just like Alice in Wonderland - OFF WITH HIS HEAD.
On the other hand I have been putting up with the fact that there is a Gord Hunter who works as a City Counselor in Ottawa, where I used to live. We don't share a political viewpoints at all. He ran as a Liberal several times. Colleagues used to steal his election signs and send them to me just as a joke.
There is a Gord Hunter who studied at the University of Saskatchewan and now teaches at the University of Lethbridge. He doesn't seem to mind that we share names.
Also when my partner and I were first dating there was a right wing coloumist in B.C. called Gorde Hunter. Some of her collegues thought she was dating him. Now that was a scary thought.
There are more than one of us out there. Take a Valium.
Every year since we lived in Montreal Chris and I decorate our yard for Halloween. Amazingly we have old Styrofoam gravestones that have traveled from Montreal, to Ottawa and on to a couple of different houses in Regina.
It was windy last night. Obviously something was blowing in and this morning here it is. It is one of those cool rainy days that seems to sneak in and steal all your energy. It makes you just want to stay inside a read a book or have a nap. A bowl of hot soup is what I need.
15. The radio would be standard equipment but you'd need to install 64 Meg of RAM, a new sound card, a game card, a new video driver, and a CD drive to get it to play.
14. The speedometer would read 70 even though you are only doing 50.
14. For some reason the engine would take 5 minutes to boot up.
12. The steering wheel would be replaced with a mouse and you'd need to memorize the keyboard short-cut for "Brake".
11. The 2009 model wouldn't be available until 2010 - instead of late 2008
10. The air bag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.
9. New seats would require everyone to have the same size read end.
8. We would all have to switch to Microsoft Gas.
7. The government would be forced to rebuild all of the roads for Microsoft cars; they will drive on the old roads, but they run very slowly.
6. The oil, alternator, gas and engine warning lights or gauges would be replaced by a single 'General Car Fault' warning light.
5. You would be constantly pressured to upgrade your car.
4. Occasionally, your car would die for NO apparent reason and you would have to restart it. Strangely, you would just accept this as normal.
3. Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre would cause your car to stop and fail to restart and you'd have to re-install the engine. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this, too.
2. Every time the lines of the road were repainted, you would have to buy a new car.
1. People would get excited about the new features of the latest Microsoft cars, forgetting that these same features had been available from other car makers for years.
Well here it is Monday again. I guess it shouldn't make any difference what day it is to us retired guys but, a weekday means everyone else is either at work or university so my routine is different.
I have spent a few hours over the weekend and this morning reworking this site to make the blogs work like a regular webpage with links to my other blogs. That way it is easier to navigate and to post recipes and pictures in a straight forward format.
I will work away at the site for a few more days, fine tuning etc but then refocus some of my efforts to other things.
