Just like BSG

Just like BSG, originally uploaded by mmilway.

Its time to sell your SBUX stock. The worldwide expansion is now
complete. Starbucks is opening its first PEI location this week.
This is literally the last place in the world where there was no
Starbucks. Those sly dogs put it within a half block of, not one, not
two but 5 other coffee shops. Ain't the free market great! On the
upside, I finally have a place to work on my screen play. Its a
slapstick comedy based on Margaret Macmillan's recounting of the Paris
Peace Conference of 1919 but I might change it to be about vampires.

A Snail's Trail

A Snail's Trail, originally uploaded by mmilway.

I saw this snail on Tea Hill Beach. There are two types of beach on
this island. White sands and lifeless or Red Sand and covered with
snails and crabs and jelly fish etc. Both are good.

Are You Calling Me Yellow?

Are You Calling me Yellow?, originally uploaded by mmilway.

I think this was a dandelion farm. The crop was in full bloom! I
don't know about you but I buy all my dandelions from local farmers.

Through Etc Etc

Joel Plaskett depicts a typical weekend for me in his latest video. Driving along the east coast just trying to see what i can see. He just rides in slightly more style than me. I'm pretty sure most of this was filmed around Lunenburg and Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia. Thanks to CBC radio 3 for the heads up via Twitter!

Also in my automotive news, my Hula Girl just arrived from Hawaii and pictures will follow shortly.

A NEW CAR!

So its not a 'new' car but it is a new to me.  I am pretty excited to have my first car!  Also, I finally understand what the Beach Boys songs are about.  I'm not sure what a Deuce Coupe is but that song perfectly describes my car.

I started my search about two weeks ago and looked at a few cars.  Went to a few lots...most of them were closed but I found a good deal in the parking lot near my work.  I called the guy up and scheduled a test drive.  Luckily my friend Jessica came with me.  It was a 2000 Hyundai Accent, with 150k KM, with four winter tires on the rims.  There is no rust on the body and it looked like in really good shape.  One of the major selling points was the sunroof.

I said it was lucky that I brought Jessica with me because the car turned out to be a standard transmission and I have never driven a  standard.  She drove it for me and gave me a sense of what she thought and she also gave me a few tips on how to drive it myself and then gave me my first lesson.  She was very helpful but at the same time she was not very helpful at all.  You know that trick car salesmen use to put pressure on you. "You see that couple over there?  well the are very interested in this car and I think they are gonna make an offer tomorrow.  So if you think you want the car you should probably move quickly".  Well Jessica was that "nice young couple".  She kept saying how great a deal it was and that she might get it for herself if I don't.  Needless to say,  I moved on it.  I took it too a mechanic and he said it looked like a good deal.

I bought the car yesterday and got myself insurance and the registration in the matter of hours.  Side Note: If you are in the market for car insurance,  you should check out the offers made through your Alumni Association.  UWO has a deal with TD and I got a really good rate.  The car sat in the parking lot over night and I went in today and spent a few hours with Jessica in the passenger seat calling out "green light" so I could work on not stalling off the line.  Then at the end of the day I drove the car home.  It was a nerve wracking drive and I'm pretty much guaranteed to get at least one ticket in the next month for a rolling stop,  but I think I am getting the hang of it.  I should be street racing in a few weeks.  I have started collecting Canadian Tire money in my dash,  I have started filling my glove compartment with maps and loose paper and I bought my first product from Amour All.  I will post more pictures as soon as the sun comes out here.

Now the big questions have to be answered.  What do I call my car?  Solo had the Millenium Falcon, Capt. Kirk had the Enterprise, Wayne and Garth had the Mirth Mobile.  Surely, my automobile requires a name of similar prestige and catchy-ness.  I figure because it is an Accent it should be a name that requires it be said with an accent like Dieter, but not so German.  I think it should be a girls name just so when I say "I took Lucy down to the beach" I won't feel like such a loser for going to the beach alone.  But I also want it to be something East Coast-y.  My front runner right now is The Boy (pronounced Baiy with a thick east coast accent) but I'm open to suggestions.

Another important question:  What are my bumper stickers going to say?  Are they printing Jindal-Palin '12 stickers yet?  Here in PEI they have no front license plate so I have the opportunity to express myself through a novelty plate.  I can tell the world what sports team I support or describe what type of conveyance my other car is.  The options are endless.

And of course the age old question:  Hula Girl vs Fuzzy Dice.  Discuss amongst yourselves.

Apparently Ringo wasn't very musical even in cartoon form.

Did the Beach Boys invent the popped collar?  I'm gonna spend the next hour on youtube watching Beach Boys videos and trying to sing the high harmony.  Living alone has its perks.

The Heart of PEI in the Heart of Toronto

If you are in Toronto and wondering what PEI is really like but don't have the time or the money, time or interest to come visit, a major part of PEI is going to be going to be in Toronto for two weeks this spring.  No, I won't be coming through town but the next best thing is.  Anne of Green Gable: The Musical will be doing a two week run in Toronto's Elgin Theatre!    It will be taking a road trip before it begins it 45th(!) season in Charlottetown.  If you are sick of the big city musicals like CATS or Phantom of The Opera or Sound of Music with their filthy felines, deformed organist, and Nazis, I think Anne of Green Gables will be right up your alley.  I have not seen the production but based on the fact that this island is loosely based on the writings of Lucy Maud Montgomery,  this musical is very family friendly and will proabably have ample parking (in the musical not the theatre's parking lot....because the lot is in Toronto).  

Anyway it is at the Elgin Theatre between May 7 - 31 and tickets start at 25$.  If you plan on coming to PEI in this summer or next may I recommend waiting and seeing it here because there won't be much else to do.  

Also of note:  big news here is that the lobster market is crashing.  The market price is at about $3/lbs so if you get a chance to buy a lobster at market price go for it.  You'll be helping the PEI economy and you'll be getting a great deal!  Don't buy from Sobey's or Loblaws....even here they are still selling it here for $8/lbs.   Once again, if you plan on coming to PEI in this summer or next may I recommend waiting and eating it here because there won't be much else to do.  

Stay Tuned for Car News!

PEInniversary

My First PEI Beach.  April 2008

This past week marked my first full year as a resident of PEI.  It seems like the year just flew by but then when I look back at the winter it seems like it really dragged.  I've been wracking my brain trying to decide if it was a good year or a bad year.  When I arrived I knew no one here, my lab was a room filled with boxes, I was stuck in tiny downtown Charlottetown because of my lack of a car and had to deal with a bigger culture shock than I was expecting. I am slowly getting used to the local customs although I still complain about the lack of Sunday shopping.  I am no longer amazed that people here know what seafood is in-season and when the actual seasons begin (Lobster season just began last week and prices are extremely low so I might be indulging a little more this summer).  The laid back lifestyle is readily apparent, (I have had to call my landlord on two different occasions to tell him that I have not paid rent and I owe him cheques.  Right now I don't even have a lease!  He doesn't seem to worried about it) On the work front I feel like the company is on the verge of turning the corner from R&D to actually being on the market.  We have expanded into a second lab,  we are moving into a bigger office (still now window) and I have 300 business cards that I am dying to get rid of.  My algae has suffered through a few contaminant issues but they are still very green.  Personally I feel a lot more comfortable here.  My co-workers are a lot of fun and great to hang out with inside and outside of work.  I am about to get a car so my mobility will increase exponentially.  I assume this will allow me to take advantage of the many beeches and golf courses.

I still miss all my family and friends back in Toronto...but i'm not sure if I miss the Big City Lifestyle.  I definitely miss the public transit, exciting night life, the live music scene and "stuff-to-do" levels.  I don't miss the congestion in general, ten-digit dialing, construction and the boring-coloured gables.

Anyway,  I hope I have a better second year.

Me hanging out (of a car) in PEI, April 2009

Slow Month

So, February is a fairly slow month in PEI and I've been having trouble relaying that to you, the faithful reader.  Well, all it took was one look at today's newspaper, The Gaurdian, and it was clear.   This was found on the FRONT PAGE. ABOVE THE FOLD

The banner headline read: Balloons take voyage from U.S. all way to Island.  

The intrigue of the headline that sucks you in soon disappears when you come to the second line

"A balloon bouquet took flight from a person’s 40th birthday party, apparently somewhere in New York, before coming to rest Sunday morning in Greenwich National Park in eastern P.E.I., some 1,500 kilometres away."

Apparently there was a business card attached which put the balloons take off point somewhere on Staten Island.  The Gaurdian went on to ask the tough questions.  “I want to know what the party was like. Was it a big party? Who let the balloons go?. . . It would be cool to know when the balloons were let go.’’

So someone in New York let go of some birthday balloons and proabably forgot about them.  Those balloons landed in rural PEI and were found by a pair of snowshoers.  Those snowshoers thought to themselves: let's call the newspaper.  The newspaper thought: let's send a reporter and a photographer.  Then they decided it was front page material. 

 In unrelated news, Transcontinental, the publisher of the Gaurdian, has announced that it will be cutting 1500 jobs.

Reason to Visit PEI #2: Slow news day

DSC_0395, originally uploaded by mmilway.

So I recently got my bike stolen while in Charlottetown. Being a Toronto kid i assumed that the bike was on some shipping container headed to the far east and i would never see it again...but i went to the cops and they told me to go take a look at the local Cash Converters. There is the front window was my bike being sold for $70 more than what I paid for it! I called the cops they came and justice was served. My bike was returned to me for no charge. The punk who stole it apparently only had to take it 5 blocks from my house and Cash Coverters gave him $50 for his hard work. All in all an interesting story of small town crime.
I'm not so sure it was interesting but its the only story I got and I seem to tell anyone who will listen. So I was shocked to see my story on the FRONT PAGE (below the fold) of the city news paper, The Guardian. Now i have heard of the game broken telephone but this reporter got the story sooo wrong. I imagine he had to puff it up get it published (ya know Senior instead of 20 something and Three wheeler instead of front and rear shocks grand kids instead of nobody) but there was no need to publish that picture of me.

Anyway...this article actually made the front page of the local paper. I lol'd when I saw it.

Reasons to visit PEI #1: How about "Prince Edward Potland"

I've been looking for things in the news that might entice people to come visit Prince Edward Island.  and every now and again this friendly little island makes the big bad scary American news.  The Boston Phoenix has uncovered a burgeoning marijuana industry on the island.  There are some interesting tid-bits in the article, by Alan Earls (two first names?  sounds like an alias.  I wonder what he is trying to hide), about the Island.  For instance PEI doctors have to go down to Baltimore to practice treating gunshot wounds because they are so rare on the Island (when will the Canadian government learn and grant us our human right to bare arms).  Also the island newspaper, The Guardian, claims to "cover Prince Edward Island like the dew".  But all in all I would say that the reason the author wrote the piece, other than to spread xenophobia, was because he wanted to show off his way with words.  He finished the article off with a truly inspired pun: PEI pot is no longer small potatoes.  Bravo Mr. Earls...if that is your real name.