Lower Fort Garry

For the first time, I went to Lower Fort Garry. Suzanne and the boy went on Canada Day (for free!), but I was occupied with Orff Level II. Since it was the last weekend of the season, they had a few activities going, but they were also getting ready to shut down for the season. The pictures here are from the East Gate, facing the Red River.

The Warehouse (which later became Manitoba's first jail, first national jail, and first mental asylum).
the fur loft and trading building. The white one beside it was HBC's retail outlet until 1911.
the Big House (for the governor and his family/servants). After HBC left the Fort (except for the retail outlet), this became the officer's quarters for the RCMP.

The HBC's flag.


One of the interesting things was that from 1914 to 1964 (50 years, anyways), the fort was leased to the Manitoba Motor Club as a club house - and the buidings were altered quite a bit. When the Federal govm't got it from the club, they had to remove quite a few items and construction updates to bring it back to the period of 1851.

mediation works.....

Well, I've got the morning off, and just arrived back from Residential Tenancies Branch. We had a hearing today with our landlord about a dispute regarding the amount of money we should pay for the repairs to the house we used to rent. The Branch offered us mediation, we all agreed, and - Halleluiah! - we came to an agreement that makes more sense than the amount our landlord was originally asking for. It's an answer to prayer, but I kind of wish we had been able to do this before this spring. But at least it's done.

So I've got the rest of the morning off. (without pay). Think I'll work on some personal music stuff.

Everyone have a great day!

The rabbit and his wife....

Gotta put this up. Here's me in costume and Suzanne in her dress. Fashion show went very well..... This year it was Alice in Wonderland.


Suzanne's table looked great. The material is sari dress material she found in a small shop near our new house.

Shrove Tuesday

It's Shrove Tuesday - Pancake suppers for all....

At choir today, the directors decided to treat the boys to a pancake supper. During the break, they took the 15 members of the choir (small group) to the fellowship hall in the church they rehearse in and sat them down.

You would swear that none of the parents feed their sons - plates were piled high with pancakes, sausages, syrup and, of course, ice cream. The boys had to sing for their supper, though - they sang some of their repetoire for the people there.

Then they had the opportunity to hear the "Raging Grannies" sing. They kept the beat with thier feet, tried to sing (hard when you don't know the words to the songs that were written well before you were born), and had a great time!

Just a regular night at Boys Choir!

Dad missed it all - he had his own rehearsal..... :-(

STAR CHILD

Just returned from the concert hall. The Winnipeg Boys Choir (Nathanael is a member) sang with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra tonight. They sang StarChild, a piece written in 1977 which involves a huge number of musicians, arranged in a very interesting way. The boys were joined in the vocal parts by Prairie Voices. The choirs did a great job, the orchestra sounded great.

This was one of the concerts connected to the New Music Festival here in Winnipeg. All the music is contemporary, sometimes they get the composers to come and introduce the work as well.

Incredible choir....

Here's a choir from Winnipeg. It's our division's honour choir. They sound incredible!!

two new sites - from different angles....

I found two new sites today....

The first - a Catholic Nun. haven't read much of it, but the idea intregues me.

Second - someone in my own neighbourhood. I think our paths have crossed before here in Blog-Land, and it's good to see him again.

I've added both of these to the sidebar as well....

I live in an awesome city. Realized that this past week when we were getting the keys to the new house. The lawyer's office was on the 24th floor of the Soctia Tower on the corner of Portage and Main. They had an amazing view of the south part of the city and the Forks - here's some shots of The Forks, the Provenchier Bridge, and one of the better hotels in the city. I also went to "Garbage hill" today. For those who don't know, it's an old dump that is covered over and has been turned into an off-leash area for dogs. I tried to take some pictures at dusk - but the photos turned out blurry. I guess next time I should take my tripod.

More election stuff

Well, I tried to find out stuff about the candidates online....

First, the Counselor Candidates...

Trudy Turner's site, http://www.trudyturner.ca/ shows that she's definitely aware of what's going on in the ward. If you click on the issues link, you will see a list of issues. This isn't something she came up with on her own - most of these were in the Neighbourhoods Alive! document for St. Matthews and (darn, I've forgotten the other neighbourhood - sorry!). Of course Trudy was involved in the creation of that document, so it's not surprising to see similarities...

Don Salter has an interesting site - http://www.donsalter.com/ I found the chat area the most interesting - Don, you are much more articulate on a blog than in a debate (remember John A Steen?) Heed your wife, man - NO JOKES.

Harvey Smith (incumbant) has a site - http://www.harveysmith.com/index.htm - that had a lot of great links - except that there is no mention of the election at all. It's like it's business as usual and he expects to win. I emailed Harvey about this, as i wanted to compare his answers at the debate at John A Steen to what was in his platform. The answer came from his campaign manager:

Hi,
Sorry that we are not totally up to date in the technology department but
we have been more old school in the campaign and prefer the face to face kind of
canvass. Nevertheless, if there are any questions that you may have we would be
glad to answer them.
Harry Paine
Campaign Manager

Needless to say, I wasn't impressed. I don't want to email my questions to anybody - I want to compare platforms.

Now to school trustees...

The only website I can find for anyone is Cindy Gilroy-Price. http://www.cindygilroy-price.ca/ She impressed me at the debate I went to last week. Her site has only a few links though.

There are mentions of each of the other candidates - I can find them at work and in various other groups, but no mention of thier platforms. Unless you go and talk to them, you have NO idea what they stand for.

I toyed with posting my notes from the two forums I went to... maybe I will...

Election forums

Went to two election forums this past week - one for Councilor of Daniel McKintyre, and the other for the School Division ward (WSD1 Ward 2 - my employer!)

The first was really well attended. The community centre was packed out, which gave the room a great buzz. The reason was that Red River College had made the forum a required assignment for thier journalism students, and the students were all there to listen to the candidates, but also to get interviews from the residents who attended the forum. I got interviewed three times, and I turned 2 people down because I really didn't want to do a lot of talking about something that I was there to listen to. How do you express an opinion about three people whom you have never heard talk before?

Actually, I shouldn't say that - I had heard Harvey and Trudy at the Neighbourhoods Alive! meeting the previous week. Didn't get much of the chance to talk to them about thier election platform, though. Don Salter was a new person to me, and I didn't know much about him.

The students actually seemed to outnumber the residents - which was really too bad, as it meant not a lot of people were interested. There were some really good questions - maybe once I get my notes organized, I can make some comments about what was said.

As to the school Division forum - it was a lot less people, had NO media coverage of any type (CBC was at the counselor forum), and was, in my mind, more interesting than the counselor forum. The smaller number of people was disappointing, but also meant that a lot of our questions got answered. The format was better - the questions were vetted by the moderator, and read out by him.

Personally, I feel that the School Division race is going to be an interesting one, although a difficult one to follow. Since the forum, I've been watching the news for articles about the trustees positions - nothing. Another disappointment was that many candidates for trustee don't have an online presence - not even a blog to just chat into.

Maybe I just expect everyone to be online now. I know that's not the case, but it's easy to forget.

later.

Neighbourhoods Alive!

Well, I've had time to reflect on the meeting I went to last week Thursday about this initiative from the provincial government. The program has been extended to the area that I currently (and will in the future) live in. Nice to know that the province is considering putting some $$ into areas of the province that need some improvements. Makes you wonder where the city and feds are .....

The meeting was really informative - a powerpoint presentation that supported the talk (instead of distracting from it) and a chance to talk with and network with area residents and business owners. Of course, the biggest thing was Crime... Being in the West End has been an eyeopener for me as far as what people are like. The other items we talked about were physical environment, Parks and Recreation, Housing and Community Involvement.

The best part was watching different resident getting together, figuring out what we can do to make our neighbourhood a better place for everyone. With this being an election year for city and school trustees, it was even more important - two of the candidates for our city ward were at the meeting, and it was a chance to pick their brains too.

Well, gotta go - there's a forum tonight on the city election that I want to go to. More later.... maybe.

http://www.gov.mb.ca/ia/programs/neighbourhoods/

Link to the program site.

Bikers in Winnipeg

no not the motorized ones - at least not gas powered.

I cycle to work. Have for 3 years now, ever since I purchased a bike from a friend of mine. Over the past year, though, I have noticed a larger number of bikes on the road. More and more people, it seems, are choosing to cycle. Unfortunately, many of these new cyclists are not realizing that to cycle in the city for commuting purposes is NOT the same as riding in the park on a Sunday afternoon.

Some points to remember:
1. You are sharing the road with cars - ie. death traps. I've been hit by a car, and trust me, YOU WILL LOSE IF YOU TAKE ON A CAR! It doesn't matter if you have the right of way, or if you are crossing at a corner legally. ASSUME THEY DON'T SEE YOU!
2. You are a motorized vehicle, as far as the laws of the road are concerned. YES you have to stop at red lights and stop signs. YES, you have to signal! YES, you have to stay in your lane.
3. Helmets may clash with your fashion, but wear it anyways. I was wearing a helmet when I was hit by the car, and it was the only thing that saved my head. I wear one now all the time.
4. STAY OFF THE SIDEWALK! That's meant for pedestrians and cyclists who are on bikes of a certain size. If you are an adult, use the road!
5. YOU MUST RIDE ON THE RIGHT! Riding on the left hand side only puts you in danger of being hit by a car - see #1 above - YOU WILL LOSE!
6. If you decide to ignore these 5 simple points, don't get mad at the car that hit you because you decided to go on the sidewalk and go through a red light. Even pedestrians know better than to go in front of a car when they have a red hand facing them. What makes you think you can ignore the rules of the road?

Finally - If you decide to ride your bike, don't daydream, don't use you phone, and for God's sake don't listen to the radio. You need every sense you have to pay attention out there. You are counting on the cars making way for you - and you will be wrong.

Why am I writing this? Well, I saw a cyclist today go through a red light while on the sidewalk, and get bumped by a van. Who did he blame? the van's driver. Who was in the wrong?

In my books, the cyclist. Unfortunately, he didn't agree with me. I got a tongue lashing.

It got me thinking, though.

It's cyclists like that, who blatantly disregard the rules of the road, who put themselves at risk and then blame others, who are to blame for the drivers who give me the finger, who cut me off, and who bad-mouth cyclists when they see them.

If cyclists like him become the norm in Winnipeg, I'm not surprized at the bad press we will get.

Wading pools

We're hitting the wading pool again - this time it's the one close to Nathanael's school. The one in Vimy Ridge park is being redone - may be sometime I'll take some pics and put them up here as well. It's pretty depressing, though - it's taking the whole summer for them to be done - August will be done before they are finished working on it.
It's getting us into the heart of Wolesley, though, which we do like.