Yesterday was my birthday and it was a very good day. I got a card from friends, it said;
Birthdays are a great opportunity to pause, look around for all the good in your life.
This is true, I can honestly say I have had a very good life and have seen and done much, more than the average person. I am in a long term relationship, 43 years, a good home, two old but fun puppies. Live by the Sea and eat very good quality food. I also have good health with not health issues, except for what comes with being now a senior but that is minor. So yes I am grateful for it all and this is what birthdays should be about.
I remember that in Muslim countries, people do not necessarily celebrate birthdays, in some countries dates of birth are unimportant and not observed, an approximate date is good enough. In Asia, conception is considered as important or more so than the day of delivery, so when you are born you would be already 9 months old. So a birth date can be many things to various cultures.
So I had 2 cakes this year done by my friend Valerie R. who does this on order as a hobby. Her cakes are high pastry, wonderful and creative. Very good quality.
One is an orange flavour cake with white butter icing and caramelized orange slices.
The other is an Espresso Mocha cake. Both delicious.
The first one is Canada’s High Commission to the UK in Trafalgar Square. This building was built as the Residence of our Canadian High Commissioner, today it is the Chancery of our mission to the UK. We do not call it an Embassy because the Queen is our Queen so like all Commonwealth Countries we call it a High Commission, quaint name that dates back to Imperial times when Canada was the first Dominion of the Empire.
The second photo is a favourite of mine, Sans Souci the private palace of Frederick II the Great of Prussia. It is more a mansion than a palace and the interior are high german baroque with lots of gold leaf. It was decorate to reflect the personal taste of Frederick and it can surprise visitors. It sits at the top of 6 terraces use as a vineyard. Frederick so loved this place that he asked to be buried with his whippet dogs in the garden on the top terrace. He was finally buried there in 1991.
Sans Souci in the great royal park in PotsdamA lovely tradition, a crown of Laurel for a University Graduate in Italy. Very festive, worn by all those who graduate, flower shops will make them for you. Families to out to restaurant to celebrate.
From the Italian word Laureato, crown with laurels. This is far nicer than the silly mortar boards we wear in North America.
Yesterday I decided to watch for a short while the hearing in the American Senate of Judge Kentaji Brown Jackson for the position of Supreme Court nominee. The American process is very different from the Canadian one for Supreme Court Justices.
In Canada there is no confirmation process, Justices are selected from a list prepared for the Prime Minister by various bodies like the Law Society of Canada and consultative committees who will recommend a list of people and one will be chosen after vetting by the Privy Consul of Her Majesty. A name will then be given to the Prime Minister who will announce who is being nominated. That is it, no partisan nonsense. Judges in Canada are all politically neutral and if they want to keep their jobs better keep to that. The only time you hear from them is when they render a judgement. The Supreme Court in Canada is the Third pillar of our Constitutional Order, independent of any political interference or pressure. A few years ago Conservative PM Harper was unhappy with some judgement of the Supreme Court and made a point of criticizing openly the Chief Justice of the time Beverly MacLachlin, Harper said that the Judges where activists and rewriting laws, etc…
Not only is this totally inappropriate for a PM to do that as head of Government but it creates sort of an American atmosphere of trying to pressure the Court. The Chief Justice never replied to him, kept silent which only reinforced her hand and he looked foolish. PM Harper lost 16 cases at the Supreme Court because the Laws being contested were unconstitutional and poorly written. He was not happy about that, thus his criticism of the Court. He also lost despite trying to name people who he thought conservative and would see matters his way, that backfired and he realized too late that you cannot control the Supreme Court.
In this case I watched Judge Brown being questioned by Senator Cruz, Cotton, Graham, what fools. Cotton implied that she was rewriting laws, his questions were poor, confusing, he did not seem to understand that Laws are written and directions is given by Congress and Judges must abide by the Congress wishes, this is what Judge Brown reminded him time and again. Nope, Cotton did not get that at all. Cruz apparently went to the same Law school as Judge Brown and he raised the whole Race Theory agenda and the Child pornography laws, trying to give the impression that Judge Brown was an activist and soft on crime. As for Graham, what a clown, in an underhanded way, he called her a skunk, saying he had heard that from another senator, he asked her about her religion and if she went to Church, often, how many times in a year, was she some kind of religious freak. He also attacked Biden and his past record and without saying it implied that Biden was not a good choice for President. The abuse the poor woman had to put up with was unbelievable and had nothing to do with her record as a judge. It was a partisan attack to smear her. For someone watching from a foreign country it really does not show the USA in a good light. The Republican are also fascinated with pedophilia, this topic came back time and again. Graham went on and on about it. To the credit of Judge Brown she kept her composure, she spoke very clearly and well, level headed, not taking the bait, not getting angry at the terrible comments and the abuse. She has a superior intellect and that is clear. I stopped watching it, it is simply a disgrace to watch.
More important things are happening at NATO HQ in Brussels this week and our collective fate is in the balance. NATO is a 30 member States, it was revealed today by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, that battleships from various nations including Canada are gathering in the Baltic and Black Sea, NATO nations have readied their Air Force, Canada has sent our F-18 to Poland and armies are being massed in Eastern Europe, the USA has 100,000 troops, all on high alert. Tomorrow Thursday a Special Meeting of NATO is taking place and we will know what measures will be taken to stop Russia. From listening to various European experts and from our own Canadian Ambassadors, something is going to happen Thursday.
China has also been implicated now as complicit with Russia in this war and may face severe economic sanctions.
We are now at a very dangerous moment in the history of the World. We can only hope that Putin can step back, can save face and make a compromise. Putin has refused despite repeated demands by NATO that he not use Nuclear Weapons or chemical or biological weapons, if he does, well the response will be very strong from NATO.
On the map below not shown is Canada and the USA as NATO members.
This morning in the news some unexpected developments in Parliament in Ottawa, the NDP and the Liberals have reached an agreement which would allow the current government of Justin Trudeau to stay in power until 2025 for the next election. The NDP would support them on supply votes (Budget) which is very important on the condition that the Liberals would push for implementation with the Provinces of a Pharmacare and Dental Care for all. This is how we got the medicare system for all in 1964. At the time Prime Minister Pearson supported Tommy Douglas the leader of the NDP. The opposition you guess it was the Conservatives who preferred the American system fend for yourself approach, they still do 57 years later.
This agreement is leading to announced progressive policies which will be beneficial to so many people, this includes the national daycare for kids at $10 a day. Now many of these policies will not benefit me but the point is that it will benefit society as a whole and make life more affordable for all including seniors in the case of pharmacare reducing to a minimal amount or $0 the cost of medication. Same with dental care, meaning better health care for all. The NDP and the Liberals have all the votes they need now in Parliament to push all those policies through. Also in this agreement there will be no more run around the bush committee meetings the Conservatives love to attack none stop the Government inventing scandals that do not exist and waisting parliamentary time and money.
Immediately the leader of the Conservative Candice Bergen jumped denouncing this agreement and saying this was illegal and a power grab, you cannot trust Trudeau and Singh, two dangerous socialists. It’s the end of the world, lost jobs, debts, etc… She also called it a coalition, which it is not. The PM did not offer any Cabinet seats to the NDP, it is an agreement to work together in the House. Of course this agreement throws a monkey wrench into the Conservative’s narrative and now they have to come up with a better plan or argument. PM Trudeau has a minority government and such arrangements are feasible in our Parliamentary system. It showed Ms Bergen as disingenuous in her criticism. The Conservatives for years now have always fallen back on how Trudeau is a crook and cannot be trusted, blah, blah, blah. It works with their base, remember the truckers occupying Ottawa, yes that bunch, the white supremacists and the Trump supporters.
So it is all good and will ensure stability in Government for the next few years, allowing for the progressive agenda to move forward including the Green Agenda to deal with climate change.
Jagmeet Singh, Leader of the NDP and PM Trudeau in his Office in Parliament today.
The Federal Government Fiscal Year in Canada is March 31. We arrived in PEI in and around that time 6 years ago. So now it is time for updating insurance etc. and last year I had a nasty surprised from my broker who increased my car insurance without warning or explanation. So I enquired and was told that the Government had authorized the increase, I smelled a rat and thought it is not so. This is not how insurance companies operate or set premiums. I also had problems with them in the past with getting answers to questions or just a call back. Even if you went in person, no one could see you, we will get someone to call you which never happened. So I decided this year to find another insurance company and CAA sent me a letter about insurance. I have been a member for decades and always got good service from them.
Papers are ready for income tax which is due also at this time, this is Spring Season in Canada. The first cruise ship arrives on 22 April, a first in 24 months, tourist operators are all excited and this comes on the heels of a piece of investigative journalism exposing the exploitative nature of restaurants, bars in general with low pay, no benefits and very long hours, 14 hour days is common. lots of abuse from owners and patrons alike. The tables are turned now, the shortage of staff is a very real problem and the same owners are crying in their soup. Given the obscene profits during the short but lucrative tourist season, I wonder how many will pay attention and reform their business to attract staff and train them properly. Not all restaurant and bar owners are crooks but there is a sizeable group. The tourists in town don’t know but the locals do and we avoid such places.
Birthday week for me, two cakes ordered from my favourite cake maker. One is an orange flavoured cake and the other is a Moka (coffee) style. More activities are planned of course, stay tuned for details.
This morning I noticed that Nicky has an irregular heartbeat, he has always had a heart murmur but this seems different and I am worried. So I will give the Vet a call, maybe she can help. He is 13 years old and he sleeps a lot, though he also has energy when required. He is definitely an old dog.
I learned yesterday that 50 years ago the movie the Godfather premiere, is that possible, I was 16 yrs old and remember seeing the movie and thinking how horribly violent it was. Not like the Hitchcock movies where the violence was always implied like the music or lighting or blood in water.
Today FB reminded me that this week in 2009 we went to Capena to pick-up Nick and Nora who were 9 weeks old to come and live with us. They were and still are the cutest and funniest puppies, it is said that dogs are clowns and make our life enjoyable.
We are already past the halfway point in March, time is going supersonic it seems. I left a message with our accountant today so she can do our income tax. I never learned how to do it myself, it is not complicated but I am lazy and prefer have someone do it for me. She can also file automatically with Revenue Canada.
At the Club one of the member is a retired Commodore of the Royal Canadian Navy, who commanded his own war ship. Today HMCS Halifax left for the Baltic Sea to join our NATO mission in support of the Baltic States. Jim told me on Friday night that if he was 20 years younger and in good health he would be back in service in a flash. He really misses going out to sea.
HMCS Halifax
I went to the Farmer’s Market today and now that most restrictions are lifted it was the first normal market day in 2 years. There was lots of people and business was brisk. I stopped at the Cheese counter, they have the most beautiful selection of fresh cheeses. They bring them in from Quebec where there is a well established cheese making culture. They also import from France and UK. Strangely their prices are better than the grocery store where all the cheeses are manufactured from large companies and wrapped in plastic. When she sells her cheese, she wraps them in wax paper to keep them moist and fresh, which is the way to do it. All the cheeses are sliced in front of you, I got a slice 200gr of Brie, I also got 200gr of Morbier which is a cheese that has a trace of wood ashes in the middle and a slice of Emmental. I think next time I will get some of her high quality Burrata and some Raclette which is a wonderful cheese you melt and serve with boiled potatoes as they do in Switzerland. I also got deep purple tulips, grown here on the Island by VANCO a Dutch company, they are now in season and the variety of colours is amazing. I also got at the Butcher some veal schnitzels and some Bratwurst made by the butcher. I then went to the fishmonger and bought 2 pieces of Atlantic Salmon for dinner. I also bought some bread at the Bakery which is made daily at 3am and ready for sale by 9am it is still hot to touch and smells wonderful.
Today was a beautiful sunny day and the last day of Winter. Tomorrow is the first day of Spring and it feels and smells like it.
Vanco Tulip Farm in Stratford just minutes East of Charlottetown PEI.
This week the weather has taken a decidedly Spring like look. It is actually warm and even hot in the sunshine. There are traces of snow but overall it is mostly green. This is all good, but it is also a period of the year when you do not know exactly how to dress, warm in the day time and cool at night. Everyone on PEI is anticipating a big return of the tourists and the huge issue is a lack of staff, I have heard plenty about that from friends who own coffee shops, restaurants and bars. There is a need for Chef, short order cooks, dishwashers, wait staff, etc… So much so that many will not expand their business because they cannot find the staff. This problem is the low minimum wage, no benefits, little time off, and the cost of living which on PEI is the highest in Canada. Rents are impossible so if you are working on minimum wage then you starve. I remember years ago wait staff from restaurants in the old market in Ottawa would come to the local soup kitchen where I volunteered for lunch or dinner. That should not happen and then they go to work to get abuse from customers. Business groups have not been able to tackle this problem and governments do not appear interested despite the good words.
On Wednesday I drove to Kensington which is 45 minutes West of Charlottetown on Highway 2. At one time when we had a railway on PEI it was an important junction. It is a small rural community about 10 minutes from Summerside. I was going with Nicky and Nora for their grooming, a highly stressful affair for both of them. A beautiful day, the drive was quiet, it usually is. After dropping them off, much drama, I drove to Summerside for lunch at Samuel’s on Water street, the food is very good. Then to the little second hand book store, a block away. The selection is always changing and very good, I got 3 books for $12. One book is by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, it pass my test, if I read one page and want to read the next page then I will buy the book.
The second book is by the Artist Marc Chagall simply called My Life, he wrote his autobiography, a small book but I thought it would be nice to read about him in his own words. The last book is by John LeCarré, Smiley’s People, when it came out in 1980 it was a sensation. I never read it but heard lots of praise about it.
I bought 3 months ago another LeCarré book The Constant Gardener, after reading 3/4 of the book I simply lost interest, I could not finish it. I did not care for the characters or the story line.
When I returned to pick-up the pups at the groomer, well they could not get out of there quickly enough, they made a run for the car, like a getaway car. Get in quick let’s get out of here, come on!!! They slept the whole way back to town, had a short walk, then dinner and then went to bed immediately, they were exhausted. Though they look very nice now.
It was nice to drive out and see the countryside after the Winter, not much snow left in the fields.
We are still waiting for our T4 slips, it’s income tax time in Canada, I got one slip on my pension but not the other one on my CPP, OAS. The Canada Revenue Agency announced that they were late this year and it should arrive next week. You absolutely need your T4 to pay your income tax since all the vital detailed info is contained on them. In our case, we pay like a lot of people at the source, so reporting/filing means simply to confirm that yes this is correct. Will I owe some this year, I think so. Will see.
Kensington from the sky. The top right corner of the photo is where we spend part of our Summer in French River.
The Ides of March was the 74th day in the Roman calendar, determined by the full moon, and corresponded to 15 March.
It was traditionally marked by several religious observances and festivals and was also used by Romans as a landmark deadline for settling debts.
The Ides of March 1939 was the day Nazi Germany Marched into Prague. Today Russian troops are at the doors of Kyiv.
Immensely popular with the people in Rome, Caesar was a successful military leader who expanded the republic to include parts of what are now Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium.
Caesar, who had seized power from the Roman Republic and declared himself a dictator for life, was killed by a group of 60 conspirators led by his senator friends, Brutus and Cassius
The assassination took place during a meeting of the senate in the Curia Pompeia, within the larger Pompey’s Theatre complex in Rome’s Torre Argentina archaeological area.
According to legend, a soothsayer had warned Caesar of his impending murder, immortalised by William Shakespeare with the ominous phrase “Beware the Ides of March” from his play Julius Caesar.
Caesar was said to have been stabbed 23 times, his body was cremated in the Roman Forum. The site is marked by the remains of the Temple of the Divine Julius, an altar located to the eastern side of the central Forum area, where people to this day leave flowers in his memory.
Caesar’s assassination would result in a long series of civil wars that ended in the demise of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Roman Empire.
Eventually it led to the rise of his nephew and adopted heir Octavian, later known as Augustus, who became the first emperor of Rome in 27 BC. It also saw the deification of Caesar 14 months after his murder.
The Death of Julius Caesar (1806) by Vincenzo Camuccini.
Old truisms about the liberal world order, and the nature of war itself are challenged as McDonald’s stops operations in Moscow.
Jen Gerson is a Canadian journalist who has contributed to the CBC, the National Post, Maclean’s, Walrus, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.
If you happen to be seeking a slice of optimistic post-Cold War nostalgia, may I recommend the following clip from the CBC’s archives. Dated 1990, and featuring a young-ish Peter Mansbridge, it features the opening of the first McDonald’s in Moscow, a cultural milestone, and the beginning of the end of the Soviet era and its Communist dystopia.
In an era in which having McDonalds come to your small town was a big deal, it’s hard to describe how monumental this event was. The opening of the franchise was covered by most major news outlets at the time. The Iron Curtain was thinning and for many at the time, this is what peace would look like — a line of thousands of hungry Muscovites paying half-a-day’s wages for a Big Mac and fries.
Anyone nursing nostalgia for the Soviet system ought to listen to these broadcasts twice; McDonald’s had to overcome logistics hurdles to create a functioning restaurant that now seem entirely alien. It took the president of McDonald’s Canada 14 years to negotiate a legitimate restaurant in Russia. The supply of beef was so unreliable that the restaurant had to run its own cattle farm; Russian potatoes were so small that McDonald’s had to operate a potato farm with Russets large enough to meet its regimented french fry standards. McDonald’s even established its own food processing plant in order to supply its restaurant, which it expected to feed 15,000 customers per day. For 600 coveted jobs, more than 28,000 applicants applied, and the successful servers had to be trained to smile and be polite. Even though the young McDonald’s fry cooks and counter girls earned the equivalent of only $.50 per hour, they made more than Russian doctors, according to the reports.
Reviews on opening day were mixed. Some enjoyed this Western delicacy; others found it unusual. Some were simply hungry, and several were genuinely astonished by the prospect of a restaurant that would never run out of beef and bread.
But by all accounts, Russians went wild for McDonald’s — as did much of the world — and hundreds have since opened, including one within walking distance of the Red Square. Nothing could better symbolize the end of the bad, old Soviet era than this. A Russia that is peaceful, prosperous and at least a little open to the West was one in which a worker from the Kremlin could grab an American hamburger at lunch.
At least, they once could.
McDonald’s this week was one of several Western companies to announce that it was temporarily halting operations in Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. Coca-Cola, Starbucks, KFC, Pizza Hut, Ikea, Shell, BP, Exxon, credit card companies, accounting firms, even airline companies are cutting Russia off, to greater or lesser extents.
I pick on McDonald’s because that chain became so ubiquitous that it has served as a kind of foreign policy truism: For a generation, it was said that no two countries that possessed a McDonald’s had ever gone to war. And so, it was assumed, this would likely remain the case. We’re not talking about skirmishes or civil wars, or local incursions or proxy wars, mind you. But the general theory largely held: as economies globalized and became more interdependent, the costs of one country truly going to war with another would grow so insurmountable that it would soon be unthinkable. Shared prosperity would reduce the need for wars of resources; meanwhile, the more economically interdependent nations became, the more self-defeating and even suicidal the prospect would grow. Economic liberalization and globalization would therefore undoubtedly bolster the long peace. For a generation this has, mostly, held true.
It is this same logic that has underpinned Europe’s growing dependence on Russia’s oil market, for example. After all, no one would risk — well — what Russia is now risking. It is certainly not in that country’s best interest to retreat into a hermit kingdom, to suffer incredible privations, and to revert to a quality of life akin to what its people knew in the ’50s. And for what? Glory? Honour? Territorial expansion? What, does Russia need more land?
This is why the war in Ukraine has caught Westerners off guard, and shook countries that once existed in the Soviet sphere of influence.
History was supposed to be over, when the Western democracies reached their ideal end-state of civilizational evolution. War — true, grand, civilizational war — was far too costly to seriously contemplate. So we allowed our military capacity to atrophy and our strategic dependencies on hostile nations grew.
With hindsight we can see the glaring flaw in the logic adopted by some of the world’s most powerful people. Those wingnuts and lunatics who warned about the danger of making ourselves more dependent on Putin proved correct. Note how quickly Canada’s safe, reliable, democratic oil supply is enjoying a rebrand. Shared prosperity is no panacea to war.
We humans like our stuff, our cheap food and goods. They will placate us — to a point. But after a generation of peace and wealth, we can see in our own societies and in our individual lives the perils of over-abundance. Once our material needs are met, further acquisition fails to provide lasting contentment. Beyond a certain degree of wealth, we trap ourselves on a frustrating “hedonic treadmill” — pursuing pleasure without meaning or purpose and then wondering why we are left unsatisfied and unfulfilled.
In a secular society, moored only by consumerism and status seeking, prosperity decays into joyless decadence. As living conditions improve and homes get larger, individuals grow more atomized. As entertainment becomes more plentiful and solitary, group activities decline. As near-infinite streams of media become available to us, we sink into self-selected informational bubbles, and our trust in “official” sources and institutions declines. Social cohesion and group identity begin to fray.
With peace, prosperity and full tummies, we have more time to contemplate the apex of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and find that our material requirements have been met at the expense of the spiritual ones. Is it any wonder we’ve grown so susceptible to fads and conspiracy theories? Don’t be surprised to see a surge in new religious movements and moral panics, either. It’s just a sign of the times; people casting about in the search for purpose and tribe.
And into this toxic vacuum, we also see state actors pursue their own agendas. Russia is particularly notorious for seeding social media feeds with news and information designed to polarize and divide Western nations. What’s less studied is the underlying ideology that is motivating its actions.
It’s not Communism, but rather an imperial Tsarist revival that combines totalitarianism, military conquest and orthodox Christianity — all of it subverted to the autocratic government’s will.
This is what makes Ukraine a big deal — in contrast to conflict in Syria, or to proxy wars in other former Soviet states and the Middle East. This war undermines the West’s deepest, most fundamental assumptions about the geopolitical world order since the Cold War.
History is not over.
Our historically anomalous prosperity and interdependence has not transcended tribalism, culture or ideology. If anything, our material wealth has only increased our desire for all these old longings, discarded in this evolved and modern era like so much ancestral baggage.
Herein we find what will become the great challenge of the future; not just how to keep people fed, clothed and entertained, but also how to provide them with a sense of meaning and purpose in something more useful and transcendent than nationalism, violence and conquest.
By the way, I visited that first Moscow McDonald’s once, more than 10 years ago. I loved the country, and even dreamed of staying there and reporting for a while (a foolish and romantic notion even then.) I couldn’t help but note how little English I could see on anything; most countries that welcomed tourists provide English translations at major sites and crossings under the logic that just about everyone speaks a little. Not Russia. We had to travel in a group with a native Russian speaker, and while we were tolerated, I’m not sure we were welcomed by anyone other than those who saw us for easy marks (and showed us a good time for it).
Russia was clearly content to be itself, to welcome their own, the rest of the world be damned, in a way I had not seen before or since.
The McDonald’s was fine, I suppose, and I enjoyed the novelty and comfort of eating there. But as any North American will have to admit, the food actually isn’t very good once you get used to it. As one customer from 1990 put it in that CBC clip above, it’s just not Russian.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take a Big Mac over starvation and food shortages, sure. But I can see how and why the novelty of McDonald’s might wear off for a people with thwarted ambitions to become one of the great nations of the Earth.
In PEI each year if you own a car you have to renew your Licence plate sticker and have your car inspected for safety another sticker. It happens on your birthday so it is up to you to remember to renew, no one is going to call you about it.
The Licence plate sticker is $100. it is done online and takes about 1 minute to do. The safety inspection is done by appointment to your dealership or any accredited garage and cost $45. However often the inspection has a surprise to it. The garage or dealership may say suddenly, you need new brakes or you need 4 new tires or you need this and that fixed. There is no way out of this one, if you say no, you do not get your sticker showing you pass the safety inspection and your car insurance is cancelled. No appeal. So you do what you are told. I do not like the system in PEI because it is really useless, every year? Could it not be every 3 years. True you do not see old cars or jalopy cars on the road, but we do get the no muffler models cars, trucks and motorcycles which baffles me because it is illegal.
Have you seen on YouTube the numerous videos about abandoned mansions or palaces in Europe or abandoned cemeteries in the USA. I wonder if those places are truly abandoned or just closed up by owners over a period of years and people just break in and tell you it’s abandoned. The same for cemeteries which have big mausoleums where dozens of people are encased in wall niches, the stench alone would be enough to make me run away. One video was of a famous American family of the 19th century, very wealthy and they are all entombed in this mountain side mausoleum outside New York City. The family had to have the doors bolted shut and added steel bars to prevent anyone from entering. It is ghoulish and you have to wonder why anyone would want to film around such a place. Can’t people just rest in peace.
As for the mansions and chateaux here and there, some are in a state of advance ruin, others simply appear shut down for a few months. I did see in one video the keeper of the place come after the intruders with big guard dogs. If it says Keep Out, that is what it means. The people filming always say: would you not want to restore this place and live here? Really, do they have any idea what it would cost to renovate such places nowadays. Just the cost of maintaining large homes or chateaux is beyond most people’s budget. To do what with it, impress your friends?
It seems that on YouTube there are people making a career of developing a hobby of filming just about anything they believe could be of interest to a larger group. I would not call them influencers.
This week Prime Minister Trudeau is in Europe as is the Minister of Defense Anita Anand and the Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly. All 3 are on different missions but all of it is about Ukraine and NATO.
Here is the photo of the audience Prime Minister Trudeau at Windsor Castle meeting with Her Majesty this week. She has known him since he was 5 years old when his father Pierre Trudeau took him on his Official trips around the world. The Queen quite likes Justin and gave him a 45 minute audience. Most people get only 20 minutes.
Jerry and I get around. In 2011, we moved from the USA to Spain. We now live near Málaga. Jerry y yo nos movemos. En 2011, nos mudamos de EEUU a España. Ahora vivimos cerca de Málaga.
Telling the stories of the history of the port of Charlottetown and the marine heritage of Northumberland Strait on Canada's East Coast. Winner of the Heritage Award from the PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation and a Heritage Preservation Award from the City of Charlottetown
Larry Muffin At Home 