A walk to remember.

Today I tried to get to a park I had heard of. I left early(ish) in the morning, and hit up the farmer's market too. I got there too late to see everything in full swing, but it really looked cool. It's in the main building of the Keith's brewery (which looks like an indoor village) and it's got so many vendors selling a multitude of different things. I definitely plan on revisiting and taking some pictures. Before I left I got some Indian cuisine and ate it on a bench by the harbour.

Then I got up and walked on towards the park. I ended up getting turned around and getting into some areas I don't think I was supposed to be. I was in some major shipping yard with tons of ships and train tracks everywhere. Eventually I hit some Gov. of Canada Defence building, and I decided that was a good time to climb the ledge seperating this 'magical' area from the rest of the city.

Turns out I ended up about 2 blocks from the park, so I kept on going. It was awsome. There were old buildings, TONS of paths, tons of people on dates and people with dogs, and TONS of crows. There were some great views, and great areas to just sit and be quite. I had a newspaper I had just purchaised with me, so I sat and read that on a bench constructed from the bits of wood collected after Huricane Juan.

I ended up walking for almost 4 hours. I'm glad I did.

Endless possibilities

The other night, my quiz team and I had big plans. We were going to call our team 'American Passport Dreams' and each of us was to make a false American passport to bring with us to the quiz. Nobody else made one, but I sure did.
We had a song written and everything was going to be awsome. That was, until Jodie slept through the whole thing and didn't call anyone! (No hard feelings really, we'll go again next week).

---

Footnote:

The passport idea was inspired by one of my co-workers who just got an American passport, and thus started singing about it at work one day. The 'Magical Land Of Butter' stamp you see in my passport, was inspired by a huge bag of butter we had at work into which a co-worker and I pretended to jump, as a doorway, into said magical land.

The next day at work, this same co-worker and I created new passports for each other. This is the one I was given.

P.S. - I forgot to bring my zines with me to the library today, or I would have scanned them too. What I DID bring to the library is a bottle of Rum and two cans of Stella which I forgot after a party and were returned to me at work just before I left.

Riddle me this . . . ditchers!

I tried something new tonight (aka. last night), after being stood up. My plans had been to attend a Quiz Night at the Rogue's Roost Brew Pub, but failing to receive the phone call of confirmation, I remained at home.

Seizing this opportunity, I immediately decided to create a profile picture of myself, composed entirely of segments of other pictures of me. My result is posted above. It ain't pretty, but them's the breaks.

Then I got to thinkin'. Perhaps other people could do the same thing, and then post their results. It could be fun! Or, due to lack of participation, it could be a floundering waste of my time and effort. I'm hoping for the prior. Thus, please make your own picture (I made mine in MS paint) and post it on your blog/website/forum/whatever, and paste a link in my response page thingy.

Or don't! You know. Whatever.

Gotta love it!

When I first came out to Halifax, I spent a lot of time on the net, just killing time. (Ahem, that was AFTER I had handed out TONS of resumes and was waiting to hear back from someone.) One day while surfing, I came across the coolest sock monkey I've ever seen. I had the whole post figured out in my head, and I was just about to post it when . . . I got a job and forgot about the whole thing.

While looking through my photo's, I came across the one I'd saved off the net. This one . . .
. . . and knew instantly, that I had to post it immediately, before I forgot to do it again. His entire life story is on Craftster, if you wanna' check it out.

Don't stop me if you've heard this one . . .

The garbage man at work told this joke the other day. I'd never heard it before, and I liked it, thus I've transcribed it here for your enjoyment.

"The three wise men were on their way to see a new baby born in a manger. Upon entering to see the child, the tallest of the wise men smoked his head off the door jam.

'Jesus Christ!' he yells

'Hey write that down!' Mary yelled to Joseph, 'That's WAY better than Dexter!' "

Frig the Frigate

Last night was the 'grad opening' of a new pub in town. I don't know what made last night either grand, or the opening of the pub, because it was dead, there was no band, and apparently the pub's been open since last year.

ANYWAY, it was a pirate themed bar. So I was expecting to see some pirates there. Alas, although there was a group that came in wearing costumes, they left around midnight, after nobody else showed up and nothing was happening.

After we ditched that popsicle stand, Rich and I grabbed a sausage on a bun, and some stranger walked up and insisted we give him some. We declined and he told us to 'F' off. We then went to the Old Triange again, had another pint, heard some great music, and called it a night.

It's a living.

Well, today was and will be interesting. I told my current employer that I was offered a full time job at East Side's, which they took very well, and hope I'll stay, but are ok with me leaving if that's what I decide to do.

I start my first training shift at East Side's tonight at 5pm. I figured it was better to know what the job was all about before I turned it outright turned it down. So, I still don't know which direction I'm going to go job wise.

Just after telling my manager at Uncommon Grounds about my shift at East Side Mario's, I received a call from the manager of Second Cup. It's in-freakin-credible how when you really want a job, it seems like nobody is calling you back, but once you get a job, everyone wants to hire you.

At least I'm out of the house. Also, as is pictured below, I was able to take home a dozen bagels, 3 oat cakes, 2 vegan breakfast bars, 2 sugar cookies, and 2 rum cakes (one chocolate, one not) from Uncommon Grounds at the end of my shift. These are the perks that I'm going to miss if I decided to work elsewhere.

Sing with me!

Today I took the Dartmouth ferry into the town. Spent my money just bumming around. Trying to find a way to tear a strip off these blues, 'till I went nowhere with . . . my roommate Rich!

To recap . . .

Today was pretty laid back, and I didn't really do very much. The weather was BEAUTIFUL though, so Rich and I decided to go for a walk. Having walked downtown Halifax A LOT since arriving here, we decided to try something new and walk around downtown Dartmouth. It was a lot smaller than Halifax, but had some gorgeous harbour front parks. After walking for a while, we nipped into a pub, had a pint, then took the Dartmouth ferry into the town. . .(for the remainder of this quotation, please see the first paragraph of this post.)

On the way home we grabbed a couple of growlers, and returned to the apartment to watch Mission Impossible III. After that we had some beer, listened to some east coast music on the computer, then went out to hear some live.

And now, at the end of it all, I'm heading to bed.

G' night!

Growlers

This is a picture of myself, taken by myself, after a pretty good house party! I drank (not entirely by myself) a 'growler' of Honey Wheat beer, from the Propeller Brewing Company (located a convenient 3 blocks from my place). The bottle costs $8, the beer costs $8, when you return the bottle, they give you back $8. Thus the total cost for aproximately 6 pints is exactly $8. What a deal!?! And it's a good beer too! And it's open on Sundays!

Disregarding the incredible deal I got on beer, and focusing more on the events that transpired this evening, Rich, Fran, and I attended a Halifax Moosheads hockey game. They ended up winning 4 to 2 against the Chicoutimi Saguenéens. It was a ton of fun, and it only ended up costing $7 per ticket (thanks to Rich's navy discount). After that we all went to a house party at one of my co-worker's place. It was fun, and I stayed 'till about 1am, but Rich and Fran had already left, so I figured I'd follow suit. Overall, it was a great night. I had a great time, met some new friends (one of whome is 'best' friends with a girl who was one year ahead of my in elementary school. That's right, she's from Caistor).

Overall a great night was had by all, yet I'm glad to be home, and am more than ready to nap well into the afternoon.

Mocca Frappé Latté au WHAT?!?!

I started my new job today at Uncommon Grounds, and it was a hoot. First of all, the weather was absolute rubbish. It rained, and blew, and was really neat to watch from behind a wall of windows, but terrible to have to walk in.

I started my day at 5:30 am when I awoke, showered, dressed, and walked to work. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to start today or tomorrow, but I figured it was better to show up today and not be on the schedule, then be on the schedule and not show up. My gamble paid off, I was in fact supposed to start today, although it was just a short shift to get me introduced to everything. I stayed for 11 hours. I figured, why not, what else have I got to do, and so I picked up a couple shifts.

It's a fun place to work, and the girls I work with seem like they're a lot of fun too. Apparently the other guy I work with is my height and has red hair. People say I look like him, but I'm going to reserve judgement.

Anyway, besides the tips, and not having to work late or on weekends, I get to drink anything I want, and as much of it as I want, I am thus wired, and worried that tomorrow morning might come a bit too soon. I also get 50% off food or anything else, whether I'm working or not. Everyone seems chilled, and I think I'm going to like it. I just need to hear back from a few other places before I know EXACTLY what I'm going to be doing for the next couple months.

Here we go again!

Well, I got a job today (I start at 6:30am tomorrow morning) at Uncommon Grounds on Water Street. It's only a part time job, about 12 hours a week, but it's a start. I also have an interview at East Side Mario's later today. I don't know how everything's going to work out, but I'm looking forward to having a job, both for the monetary and social rewards it will offer.

On the down side, I'm not going to be able to watch Lost ALL DAY LONG anymore. Good thing I'm caught up!

Peggy's Cove

Last weekend, Rich and I drove out to Peggy's cove. I didn't really know what to expect, but when I got there I was like 'Now THIS is Nova Scotia'. We saw all the sights, the lighthouse, the rock carving, the fishing boats and lobster nets, and then we were done. It was a COLD day, and we pretty much had seen everything after about an hour, so we decided not to hang about.

Preceding our visit to Peggy's Cove, we drove out to see the memorial for Swiss Air Flight 111 which crashed back in 1998. (a 2 minute drive from Peggy's) While there we happened to meet one of the volunteers who actually responded to the crash. The view of the ocean was splendid (oh yeah, we saw the ocean) and we were there just as the sun was getting ready to set.

There are pictures in the album, if anyone's curious.

Just missed it!

I left 'Pizza Corner' about 30 minuites before this went down.

Th'other night. (I don't think that's a proper contraction)

Well, last night we hit the Split Crow. We also tried to go to the Lower Deck, but there was a 9$ cover!!!! So we went back to the Crow.

It's not like there was a lot going on there, some people dressed up, and a band, but not the Hallowe'en attitude I've been spoiled by in Brantford.

While we were at the bar, I saw this guy with a really cool coat, so I asked him where he got it, and we got to talking. He was from BC and his friend had made the jacket for him. It used to be a blanket, I was understandably impressed. Thus he gave me his card so I could contact him, and by proxy commission a jacket like his for myself.

Upon visiting his site I found this, and was once again understandably impressed.

And that friends, is Hallowe'en in Halifax. There are some pictures out there somewhere, and when I get 'em, I'll post 'em.

This just in . . .

Witch ordered to refund fee for failed love spell

Associated Press

MUNICH, Germany -- A German court has ordered a self-styled witch to refund a disappointed client her hefty fee for a spell that failed to win back the woman's partner.

The Munich administrative court said Monday it ruled that the witch must pay back the $1,275 on the grounds she offered a service that was "objectively completely impossible."

After her boyfriend left her in the fall of 2003, the client consulted the witch on a spell that would bring him back.

"The defendant carried out the corresponding ritual over several months, each time under a full moon, but without success," a court statement said.

It said the witch denied the client's claim that she had guaranteed success.

However, the court ruled that was irrelevant because "a love ritual is not suited to influencing a person from a distance."

Neither woman's identity was released.

Happy Hallowe'en!