During my 5 years back in Canada, I have been faithful to one beer brand – King Pilsener. King was a microbrewery in Nobleton (next to King City, north of Toronto) that had a very simple idea: Buy the best equipment and ingredients from the Czech Republic, and make a pilsener as good as or better than Czechvar, Pilsner […]
When I moved back to Canada in 2010, I had a new commuting challenge: to regularly travel 220 return kilometres, from west Toronto to Waterloo, ON. For my wife and two kids, I needed comfortable seating and trunk space too. Since I would be parking on the street in my more urban-than-suburban neighbourhood, I didn’t want to get […]
Sports bars can save you money. Here’s the calculation: Most normal people who like sports probably really only watch about 5 full games of football / soccer / hockey a month. Those same people have a super expensive cable package to watch those games at home – between $80 and $120. Compare that to: Go […]
And reasons I love it. I actually consume it twice a week. I’m a user. It reminds me of breakfasts with my cousins in Greece. I have memories of it. When my kids have been extra good, I give them some. It gives me super-dad status. The logo hasn’t changed in 35 years; […]
Do you know the way to Tampere? (WMA, if that doesn’t work, click on the next link) Do you know the way to Tampere? MP3 (should work better for Mac) Click on the above file for the long-promised Tampere file. This is one of those songs that is hilarious to anyone that worked at a […]
Welcome to 2011. The question some Highway 401 drivers ask when they see this sign: “Why does the Ontario government, given its strict and serious highway signage rules, allow Port Hope to welcome people to their town?” Only when one actually takes the exit (or looks at a map), does one understand how Port Hope […]
How do you: 1) Work and commute a lot 2) Take business trips 3) Hang out with your wife a reasonable time 4) Hang out with your kids enough so they don’t forget you and write blog posts too? Answer: you don’t! Unless you schedule it in. So I’m scheduling my blogging time in from […]
Christmas is great / Christmas is lame. This will be my theme over the next month. I missed the Christmas crazies last year when I was living in Costa Rica. Today, Christmas is lame. This, from Crate and Barrel in a large mall next to Toronto. “Wow, I can’t wait to reach into my stocking, […]
Fast forward to a Saturday in October 2010. I drop off my son at a Birthday Party in the Beaches area of Toronto. Miraculously I have 2 hours entirely to myself! Please excuse the exclamation mark, but I was very excited. After doing a few typical dad / man errands, I had 40 minutes to […]
In my second week in Toronto, I wanted a new landline phone (to go with my new landline). Over the next few days, I’ll explain to my European and Asian readers some dysfunctional aspects to the Canadian telephone value system. Things like: (1) People think nothing of paying high monthly fees on 3-year mobile / cellphone […]