Gary has some great Belgium beers that have been made specifically for the Christmas season. If you prefer beer that has some real taste try a beer from this country – Enoteca has a great selection. I’ve tried a couple of the ‘Christmas Beers’ and they are superb.
It had been a long time since I had the need or desire to buy some ‘dressy’ clothes. I work at home and when when I work at trade shows I have found it more optimum for sales to dress ‘nice casual’. Well, more recently the girl of my dreams and one particular son have been wanting me to ‘upgrade’ a little. In this ‘upgrade’ I decided that I needed a blazer or some kind of dressy jacket. I’m not at the point of needing or wanting a suit yet….
While in Toronto recently I asked a friend where to go for this and he suggested Tom’s Place in Kensington Market. (Just northwest of Dundas and Spadina for those who don’t know and are interested.) I had day before I left and went for a walk downtown and wandered around Kensington so was able to manage to drop in and try a couple of jackets. The people there were incredibly helpful and intuitive:
http://www.toms-place.com/
I did not purchase one but am so glad that I tried a couple on! There were high end and fit beautifully. It has been a number of years since I had bothered to wear some nice clothes like that. No wrinkles or tightness anywhere. The jackets and suits at Tom’s were not cheap and I wanted to walk away before purchasing.
I did and came back to Calgary without purchasing. The other day I went into a store that had new but much reduced prices and I tried on several and finally found one that looked good and fit as those high end Jackets in Toronto. Turned out this one was quite a high end name brand, excellent quality jacket and I was able to get it for about 75% off. Nice deal and perfect fit. I would not have known what a perfect fit was unless I had gone into a proper clothing store. If you haven’t, try it.
…and since I’ve been back I’ve had to pick up some other nicer clothes to go with the jacket so the others are not so embarrassed going out with me:)
Here are are some pics of the area in Kensington, (Spandina/Dundas) in Toronto.
About 20 years ago we were in Charlotte, North Carolina. It must have been Thanksgiving weekend as they were doing the lighting of the tree and we went and and it was a big deal with lots of people and all. Quite fun. They had a couple of choirs for the festivities and they sang some Christmas songs. Please note that I said Christmas songs not Christmas Carols. Lots of ‘Rudolf’ and no ‘Holy Nights’.
I asked my sister-in-law about this as I thought it odd. She said that as Charlotte was becoming more multi-cultural it was deemed that singing religious type Christmas Carols may be offensive to some and so they took them out of the repertoire.
The USA and Canada as well, were built, in part, on religious tolerance. So, the way I see it is that if someone comes to one of our countries to be part thereof, they would want to subscribe to that value. And anyway the essence of most religions is tolerance.
There are numerous stories about children being punished or scolded for praying in public schools. There are actually rules/laws about this. This is a government being intolerant of religion. Actually, certain people in government pushing this type of agenda to be more specific.
Historically, governments interfering in someone’s beliefs has never been terribly successful. And that is what this is – a government trying to tell a person what they can or cannot believe.
So, please in this Christmas season, be tolerant of others and their beliefs. I don’t really care if you pray three times a day, once a week, or not at all. You have the right. But please be tolerant of others. Be kind. If you have the opportunity to help another person, do so, despite any trappings.
I recently spent a month in Ontario. I had lived in Ontario until about 20 years ago. I like beer. I don’t drink tons of it but I like the taste and like to vary the
types of beer that I drink. My heart goes out to beer drinkers in Ontario. There is a monopoly of the beer market there(more on that in a minute) and this makes it very difficult for craft and micro breweries to market their wares.
While at the Royal Winter Fair last week I had a chance to speak to a representative of McAuslan Brewing based in the GTA(Greater Toronto Area). It was a great conversation. They were serving and promoting their beer at one of the licensed areas at the Royal. To serve the customers properly she would, as any good server, ask what kind of beer they liked so that she could choose one that would suit the person’s tastes. The problem was that many of the people that came there to have a beer were only familiar with the North American swill that is called beer. The stuff that needs to be ‘ice-cold’ to be able to drink it. Most of the time she would get blank stares even when she tried to reword the question. She soon realized that many were only interested in cold and clean and not flavour.
(check out their product: McAuslan Brewing)
I’m sure if you surveyed, most Canadians would believe that The Beer Store in Ontario is owned by the Ontario government.
This taken from CBCNews Toronto(CBC News):
“‘The Beer Store’ in Ontario is owned by the U.S.-based Molson Coors Brewing Company, Sapporo of Japan and Anheuser-Busch InBev of Belgium which are all foreign based companies. “
So, if you like to try different beers with some real flavour or want beer that is brewed without additives you pretty much have to buy it in restaurants. Often smaller craft beer companies are purchased by one of the above conglomerates and they can then alter the product.
I might not have noticed this but for having lived in Alberta for the past four years. It is quite easy to purchase a much greater variety of beer and wine than in Ontario. So come visit.
I must be terribly bored sometimes. I get most of my news from news that I have ‘liked’ on Facebook. I don’t read them all but do sometimes. And then I make the mistake of reading the comments. Some of the subjects that I read about are pretty inflammatory. So, the comments can draw people from very differing backgrounds and views. If these comments are intelligent and informative, I enjoy them. When they resort to name calling I get very suspicious. I figure these people are probably paid hacks.
For example, although I do not own a gun, I’m pretty much pro gun. I figure that the USA is a gun culture and there is no getting away from that. I’ve worked at gun shows and spent time talking to people in parts of the USofA and Canada where people own a lot of guns. By and large the people I have met are intelligent and well spoken. All of them friendly and giving. So, when I see many of the comments just name calling some anti-gun person, I suspect that these people are there just to make the pro gun faction look bad. Works for both sides. Happens the other way as well. Or when the winner of the recent Miss America pageant is attacked viciously on the internet. I would be very surprised if the majority of people making these nasty comments are not paid to stir up trouble. It could very easily be a handful of people trying to create friction. Create distractions and upset. That make more sense to me than that many stupid, ignorant people.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about here…the recent winner of Miss America is of (East) Indian heritage and was attacked for be a Muslim and whatever goes with that. Really, who cares but the silly thing is that she is from India and a Hindu not a Muslim. A lot of Americans may not know the difference but I’m sure that someone started the whole name calling thing just to create conflict where there was none.
I have met a lot of people. I talk to a lot of people. I get in communication with many people. I find out about them. And most are really, really decent. They have their problems and ups and downs but all feel bad when they do something wrong and most, by far, are willing to see another point of view.