Canadian Lyndsay

Dear Academy,

Since moving to Osborne Village a year ago, I have enjoyed many a beer and wing on your patio.  Yes, your patio is the best of the patios in the village.

But things seem to be falling apart. Why?  Just after Canada Day, you didn’t have many beers available.  Since then, a lot of time your draught beer has been flat.  Then was the day I wanted a steak sandwich from your menu, but you were out of steak.  Then came the revamped menu that appeared to be half of what it used to be.

The days you’re open are sporadic and unpredictable. I’ll drive past any day of the week and not know whether you will be open or closed.

And now, most incredibly, in this incredible month of April, where patios across the city have been jammed full for over a week, you still do not have your patio set up.

Dear Academy, my friends and I fear for your life. Are you soon to leave us? Why would you deny us the pleasure of your patio unless… unless there’s no point because you’re shutting down soon.

Please, have some consistency and look at your business plan. I don’t want you to go.

Love,
Lyndsay

PS – Get a freaking website! Put your days and hours on it!

Update: The dates are confirmed.  Ten-digit dialing becomes mandatory on October 20, 2012 with the new area code being introduced on November 3, 2012.

I read on the Winnipeg Free Press tonight that Winnipeg will be getting a new area code in 2012 – Manitoba’s new area code: 431.

This also means that at that time, we’ll follow the leads of areas Ontario, Alberta and BC that will have to start 10-digit dialing.

Here are some tidbits about the tentative implementation plan from the Free Press Article:

• A second area code will come into place between May and October or November of 2012.
• The new area code will be 431.
• Telephone subscribers will have to dial the appropriate area code and the existing seven-digit number to make a local call.
• The first 431 numbers will likely be assigned in early 2013 to new cell phone customers.
• New landline customers will get their numbers with the 431 area code in late May 2013.

I’m currently visiting my parents in St. Catharines, Ontario. Last night as I stopped for a Tim Hortons tea, I noticed something interested at the nearby car wash.

It also had a stall for a dog wash.

Now I didn’t spend a lot of time looking at this… but questions that later came up included – do they reduce the water pressure in that stall? Certainly you wouldn’t use full water pressure as is normally seen at a car wash on a dog.

So I say, awesome idea! Very cool, never seen it before but I hope I see it again.

I’ve been making an effort to spend more time outside, so I’ve been taking a few breaks throughout the day to just stand outside and take in all the action of Winnipeg’s Exchange District.

I noticed a lot of people taking their bicycles into a building across the street (all the buildings are about 100 years old around here, so definitely no elevators) and didn’t think much of it – I figured they live in the building in the apartments above the storefronts.

Actually, turns out there’s a bicycle shop in there. In the basement.

Why on earth would a bicycle shop be in a place with a whole flight of stairs? Plus the stair going up to the main entrance. Most people don’t seem to have a problem, but I noticed a woman yesterday struggling to get up the front stoop – not sure how she managed to get it down the stairs, and then up again. Weird. But, lots of traffic going in and out so they must do well.

I sure love the people watching around here! Always something interesting.