Friday

Tags

Barbq, Canada, Canada Day, Celebration, Speedo

Another week has zipped by and the days are filled with tasks, from shopping to appointments of all kinds. The coming week on Monday the car goes in for detailing inside and out, giving it that brand new car look. Then I will have to shop for the big bar-b-q for Friday 02 July and a cake in white and red colours. Will is also getting his second shot of Moderna. We will also have to meet with the babysitter for the 2 puppies while we are away. So nothing too onerous all around.

Our Atlantic Bubble starts today with conditions for people wanting to come to PEI from other Atlantic Provinces but still have to prove they are fully vaccinated or have at least one vaccination. The Premier released a nice promotional video of PEI welcoming people back and businesses are all re-opening, though a serious shortage of people is stopping many businesses from fully re-opening, I am not sure where this shortage comes from.

This Saturday morning I was at the Farmer’s Market which is still not as busy at is once was. One thing for sure is that the cost of many if not all food items has increased greatly, which I find hard to understand. The same can be said about sales sometime for a week what was at $7. is suddently at $3. The grocery chains also encourage wastage by offering 2 items for the price of one and if you only buy one well you are paying a very high price. So why not buy two. Same with all paper products, it is completely unexplained with you are paying 90% more for an item after a year of pandemic. It seems that if an item faced a shortage a year ago the prices increased drastically then, but now there is no shortage and the price is still high.

So the coming week is about getting ready for Canada Day.

I am the Bar-B-Q guy at the Club this year, expecting about 35 people. I ordered the cake today, White and Red Icing is the rigueur.

We do this in the garden and will have live music with a couple of well known musicians. I believe the weather should be nice. If not we have the great room so it will work out.

I know some people who will Bar-B-Q in a snow blizzard, Canadians are resourceful.

Everyone has been asked to wear White and Red at the party.

Time moves on

Tags

age, Boboli, Celebration, life, pension

This week I got a letter from the Federal Government in Ottawa. The letter is standard and it is telling me that next year I will 65 and now is time to prepare for some changes in my pension and plan accordingly. I retired some years ago after 34 years of service on full pension. At 65 which is the retirement age for Canada Pension Plan (CPP), you can apply to receive CPP, it’s a top up to any other pension you receive. Since every one who works must contribute to CPP during their working life, this is a monthly payment for your golden years. It is interesting to note in the letter how precise the calculations are and what I am entitled too. This information comes from years of paying income tax, so no great mystery.

Upon reading the letter, I thought I am getting on in years, this confirms it, time is moving on, the sunset is coming. But at the same time this is life and I am not the only one at this stage of life.

In the meantime it has been confirmed in PEI, that the vaccine will be here on Wednesday next and front line workers will be the first to get it, then people in seniors home. Everyone will receive the vaccine but you can refuse to be inoculated. However it may impede your ability to travel and your employer may insist you get it, though in Law under the Charter they cannot compel you. The vaccine is FREE for all.

This to me means that 2021 will be a much better year, though we have been told that you will still be expected to wear your mask until we get the all clear from the Health Authorities.

Also today our Chief Medical Officer confirmed that no new cases for the fourth straight day. If this continues the LockDown measures can be partially lifted. Of the 3000 persons tested in the last few days all are negative, a further 1300 are waiting results. But it is looking good for PEI.

So far PEI has tested 52% of the population of 150,000 on the Island, a huge number of people. Young people have been asked to get tested and they have done so in droves.

What will we talk about once Covid 19 recedes into the background. One thing will be to re-establish friendship with people we have not seen in a year. Get the social calendar going again and ultimately travel to those place we wish to go and had to postpone. We have agreed with our friends in AZ to travel to Iceland as a celebration.

taken in Italy in 2011 on a sunny Day in the park of a beautiful palace.

Montréal 17 mai 1642

Tags

375, anniversaire, Celebration, Maisonneuve, Montreal

Today at 9am the bells of the churches in Montreal rang for the 375th Birthday of the City founded on this day in 1642. The city is spending $1 Billion dollars on the Birthday, an incredible sum of money, but hey, it is a great city, my family have lived in Montreal for 300 years. In my life time I saw the city host one of the most well attended Universal World Fair in 1967, build a modern subway system running on tires and not rail, the Olympic Games of 1976.  A city of 4 million people, the Paris of the New World, great restaurants, wonderful museums, great architecture, seat of UN Organizations and other international bodies.

Place D’Armes with the statue of its founder and the Basilica Notre-Dame, 1673.

The history of Montreal spans some 8,000 years. At the time of European contact, the area was inhabited on the South shore of the St-Lawrence valley by Iroquoians, a distinct group of Iroquoian-speaking natives. Jacques Cartier became the first European to reach the area now known as Montreal in 1535 when he entered the village of Hochelaga on the Island of Montreal. In May 1642 Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve and Jeanne Mance founded what was at the time with a handful of others a religious mission named Ville-Marie. They had a tough time of it, isolated from the Capital Quebec City and under constant threat by the Iroquois. The small settlement was almost wiped out several times by attacking natives, until the Sun King Louis XIV sent regiments of troops which resulted in 1662 in the great Peace of Montreal. In 1644  Jeanne Mance founded the first hospital l’Hôtel Dieu in North America, North of Mexico City. A hospital which is still in operation today.

Montreal ones of the great city of the world. Happy Birthday to my home town.

 

View from the Marina in the Old Port of the City

View of downtown from the Mont Royal

The flag and coat of Arms of the City of Montreal designed by Mayor Jacques Viger in 1833. The flag represents the 4 ethnic groups living in the City at the time, French, English, Scots and Irish.