A week away from Thanksgiving

Tags

Cavendish, curries, Food, life, mussels, PEI, thanksgiving

We are a week away from the Thanksgiving weekend. This year we have not made plans, we are thinking of going to the restaurant with 2 friends, keeping it simple because preparing a meal for a group is a lot of work and we are not in the mood for that. We have also been invited by friends in Montague on a different day and that will be fun. The weather is now much cooler and the trees are slowly changing colours.

As we enter October you realize if you live in PEI that we do live on a kind of resort Island, many restaurants and bars, hotels and motels are specifically geared to the tourist and seasonal travellers from May to early October, they are shut down at Thanksgiving time. Only to reopen in Mid-May or early June, which I have always found disappointing because of the lack of effort to cater to this province residents. Yes it is true that it is still a small population at 150K and that the majority are pinching pennies, so restaurant owners can say they do not have the volume, though the restaurants are full every night. The other excuse given by owners is no staff, but again for many years the salaries in the service industry are so poor, people cannot live on $13. per hour, even $15 will not do it anymore and some employers in the industry are offering $20. A lack of affordable housing for service industry staff, lack of parking, no benefits, compound the problem. This pandemic wave has demonstrated it is not worth working in that sector at all and in the long run this endangers the tourism industry as a whole on the Island. What will May 2022 bring? no one knows, many are hoping we will be out of the pandemic but I do not see that happening. We will simply have to learn to live with it. Unfortunately many have not and behave like spoiled children.

On Tuesday, we will have to carry proof of FULL vaccinations with us and it is required for you to show it on demand to enter businesses. Masks are mandatory inside everywhere. The good side is most people are now fully vaccinated and people do wear masks with no fuss. But it tells you that this is far from over, despite the very low numbers in PEI of 22 persons at home with Covid infections. Though in Alberta out in Western Canada, the hospital system has collapsed and at triage doctors now decides who they will treat and who they will not. Everyone else sick or not are told to stay home because the system is full, no room. Alberta has such a low rate of vaccination they are paying now for their right wing agenda. They still do not get it. Saskatchewan next door is not much better again a right wing government told them its just the flu don’t worry. How sad is that.

This fourth wave as been that of the unvaccinated, the young under 30 who did not get vaccinated thinking this was only for the old. They are now more sick and require more treatment and it is becoming alarming. Many young people are also anti-vaxxers. So baffling.

Yesterday we were invited to dinner at a friends Summer home, let’s call it a mansion on the sea. Located in the Cavendish National Park, a spectacular house in a wild natural setting. This is on the opposite side of the bay from French River where we go in the Summer to the cottage.i The kitchen alone was the height of a professional kitchen with its great U shape 10 place sitting area in marble. We had a wonderful meal of the best PEI Mussels in a yellow curry sauce, just wonderful and followed by a chicken madras and a vegetable curry. Good food and good company, lots of conversation and laughs.

This friend also has another mansion on the South shore of the Island in Keppoch with 9 fireplaces. Truly another spectacular house on 3 levels. Located on a vast expanse of land giving unto the water and spectacular views in a very natural setting. Love going there for a movie night and dinner. Always fun.

Tomorrow I am to get a delivery of my new Apple Computer, that will be nice. The weather for the week is cool 13C and sunny.

Weekend

Tags

life, lobster, mussels, Oysters

The sun is shining and the weather is quite warm, so it is time to go out. Friday afternoon we returned for the first time since February to the Club. Much improvements and changes, new paint job, new light fixtures and redecoration. Exterior work has been done and it all looks better. After drinks in the garden we walked by to our home just down the street and decided to have dinner at the Water Prince restaurant, the owner came to chat and told us that the price of lobster is $6.49 per pound, it has not been that low in 10 years, the main factor being that external markets have disappeared. Currently with the economic war China is waging against Canada over that dreadful communist official Ms Meng of G5 /Huawei, who faces extradition to the USA for espionage and fraud and the hostage diplomacy China has engaged in, China is blocking Canadian exports. There are 183 Canadians at the moment being held in Chinese jails,  one is a Canadian Diplomat and the other a tour operator, the two Michaels. We know they have been tortured and held in solitary confinement for 18 months now. Our Ambassador in the PRC has been visiting them whenever he is allowed to do so.

We had a very nice dinner, I had a pound of Mussels, the food at the Water Prince is very good and it is always nice atmosphere.

Of course we must still follow the rules on health when in public, though given that we have NO cases in PEI now for the last 2 months, many feel it is over, but it is not, we are all bracing for the second wave in the Fall.

Today was another lovely day and we drove to Victoria by the Sea which is a very small settlement going West towards the Confederation Sea Bridge at Borden. Basically 4 streets and a small harbour for fishing boats. Our doctor lives in Victoria by the Sea,  her husband is a fisherman. It is about a 25 minute drive to Charlottetown probably faster if she uses the By-Pass around Cornwall.

Victoria in the last few years has seen the constructions of many new luxury homes, luckily they all blend into the natural scenery. There is one large house going up on a cliff extending out to sea, looking at it from a distance I thought like many, who would want to live there in Winter when a sea storm is coming in with the fierce and howling winds, the owners probably think it is probably romantic. The house is very exposed on 3 sides to the sea with no trees or any natural protection, it is a promontory. How strange.

 

We had lunch in the Sunshine at Richard’s, a very famous take-out place on PEI. Everyone swears by it and there is always a crowd. The specialty is lobsters served in various forms and oysters. This restaurant is the second one, the original Richard’s is in Covehead harbour on the North shore. Both are Seasonal and only open in Mid-May and will close by Mid-September. The lobster roll is wonderful, they use the old style hotdog buns that you can toast and stuff a lobster in the bread with a mix of celery and coleslaw. It is quite a meal and we walked around the village afterwards, again this year despite the fact that all the eateries are open, some shops are not opening and the Orient Hotel which is a pension is closed. This pandemic has played havoc with tourist traffic this year. Many businesses will go under or will be sold off to competitor. Though the Maritime bubble is opening allowing us to travel to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland without the quarantine period. The Government also allows people who own a cottage to come BUT they must ask permission first and give a time and date of arrival plus prove ownership of a cottage on the Island and give a plan of how they will manage their quarantine if they come from other provinces like Ontario. Those people from Quebec can cross by car from the Quebec border with New Brunswick and are allowed to drive all the way to Souris in PEI for the ferry to les Iles de la Madeleine which is a sandbar part of Quebec, the only problem is that they cannot stop anywhere on the way and this is a 12 hour car trip. There is also a requirement that they cross into New Brunswick after 8pm meaning that it is dangerous to drive in the dark, it is moose country and already an accident happened last week when a driver hit a moose which weighs on average one ton. No death this time only serious injuries and the car is totally destroyed.

Canada Day is coming up on Wednesday 1 July, this year it will be a virtual celebration and there are no public display for health reason. The weather says rain that day.

Fields of Lupins reminds me of Monty python.