I spent the weekend in Toronto on business and things got off to an interesting start as the flight attendant came on the public address system just as we pulled up to the terminal in Toronto and announced that it was the pilot's first ever commercial flight, therefore, it was also the first time he had taken off and landed the aircraft. Give the flight attendant some credit. There would've been antsy passengers if she made the announcement on the tarmac in Regina.
My seat mate on the way to Toronto was someone from Tim Horton's corporate head office in Ontario, who had just spent most of December in Saskatchewan opening and closing restaurants. She was, especially, excited about new locations in Moosomin and White City. I suggested we may be seeing her in Yorkton shortly. She offered no clues as to whether or not my suggestion has merit. I believe it does.
On the way home on Sunday, I sat beside a gentleman who makes a living in the welding profession. He had just accepted a job in Melfort and was moving from his hometown in Saint John, New Brunswick. I suspect more will follow as he indicated several hundred people who use their hands for labour skill work had been recently laid off in that province. I knew when I left the Maritimes fifteen or so years ago that there wasn't much chance of opportunity. Apparently, from what I heard on Sunday, nothing has changed. Perhaps employers could start looking in places like New Brunswick for workers. It might be easier and faster to get people who want to work (and wanting to work is the key).
Thursday night was an evening of pleasure, taking in the American Idiot musical at the Toronto Centre For The Arts. It's, essentially, the Green Day album performed on stage by actors. On a scale of 1-to-10, I give it a 16. It was 95 minutes that felt like 20. I'm not sure if this will, eventually, make its way across Canada; but it is a must see for anyone wishing to see something a little different from the norm. My ticket cost $105 and I had an excellent seat. When comparing what I spent and the amount of fun I had to a Toronto Maple Leafs ticket that would cost me about double, there is no comparison. I'll take the musical every time. Half the price, twice the fun.
If you get a chance to ever eat at a restaurant called Baton Rouge... do it. The ribs are to die for.
The Regina Airport spent a considerable amount of money in making their signage bilingual. I, for one, am thankful. With the rapidly increasing amount of French visitors to our province, we were bound to be left behind. If you don't sense any sarcasm, you don't read my column enough. Oh well, the airport looks good and, clearly, had some extra money. May as well spend it.
I, once, had a disagreement with someone (who is French) about an inquiry to Facebook about having all status updates appear in both French and English as opposed to having to select just one language of choice. I suggested this was an unnecessary nuisance. My friend suggested bilingual people enjoy the pleasure of reading some things in English and then changing to French midstream. That's great, but my take is that there isn't enough of us in Canada to make that kind of a change. If you are going to do that, then why not just put a sports ticker with all the scores at the top of the main Facebook page? I mean there are enough sports fans out there that maybe we'd like the pleasure of seeing them on the same page as our social updates without having to add an additional gadget. Where do we draw the line? In Canada, I'm not sure the powers that be know what a line is sometimes. We just let everybody do everything.
Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. Tebow is a polarizing figure. Partly, because of the fact he's not a typical quarterback and partly because he is extremely outgoing when it comes to his Protestant religious practices. While not a devout church goer, I find it difficult to accept hearing media people, publicly, express their disapproval with Tebow's religious actions during games. I would suggest if Tebow was of a religion that isn't as mainstream, then these same media people would be in hot water for being discriminatory.
Nice person mentions to Del Lavineway, Robert Harbauer (and family), Kirk & Sheri Weinmaster, Cled DeSouza, and Sean Schofer.
