Sunday musings

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So we decided to go to a small parking spot and walk down a few steps to the shoreline the other day.

OK - no one told me it was 285 steps down!

That was easy – but going up was a heck of a challenge.

Then we got to walk along the shore line and that was fun.

Yesterday we went to the harbour front to see a cruise ship that docked the night before.

After a stroll along the waterfront and ice cream cones for the two of us, we walked to a craft market and enjoyed seeing all the vendors and their goods.

We are pretty well settled in the place now, already starting to get utility bills and the like – wonderful being needed isn't it? Next week we have some more registration details to look after then we can start exploring the area around us.

We went to a shopping mall just a short drive from here and found out is was the 2^nd largest mall on the island and I have to admit it is BIG.

You could start exploring it in the early morning and still be finding new stores in the late afternoon it is so large. And yes my better half found at least three shoe stores to check into further when I am not tagging along and distracting her.

We have found the recycle depots and I have to admit that people here are much more into this than on the Prairies. They recycle everything here – plastic, Styrofoam, glass, you name it. You even get a few pennies off the groceries if you bring your own bags!

It almost makes me want to look at trading in my SUV for a hybrid vehicle – GASP!!!!!

We have planted a stalk of rhubarb here that started out 50+ years ago in Ontario then travelled to Regina and now Nanaimo – for 50 it sure is in better shape than I was at 50!

I finally got back to my project with assisting on a project (albeit in a minor way) for my friend the author in America, and am happy to say I have made progress on that front. The move was a big distraction but now full speed ahead!

So a third rate crappy film made a couple of years ago by a fifth rate director depicting the prophet Mohammed in a bad light has surfaced in a video clip on YouTube this week and spawned world wide anger and demonstrations in Muslim countries as well as the murder of a number of Americans serving in diplomatic missions.

This is the response from a “peaceful” religion?

I must be missing something in all of this.

All major religions profess peace and tolerance of other religions as part of their faith. Yet over the centuries we have seen the Christian religion mount Crusades to conquer the Holy Land and now it seems it is the turn of the Muslim religion to foster violence in the name of their religion.

The “smaller” the world becomes due to the Internet and almost instantaneous communication systems, the bigger the divide and mistrust between nations and religions becomes.

A tragedy.

Will we see a hardening of attitudes and expulsions of ethnic minorities from countries? Will Muslims be forced – whether through law or by gunpoint to leave countries such as America, Canada or any in Europe – to move back to the Middle East? And what of the children of these people that were born in those countries who identify more with the West than the Middle East, what will happen to them?

And what will happen to non Muslims in Middle East countries, what would their fate be?

The world is a little less bright these days I fear.

Oh joy there are some photos of a topless Kate Middleton now being shown in the world. I for one am so sick of the paparazzi and the sick way they hound and torment people in the public eye. They are never held accountable, no, never. And they are the ones that have given life the to talentless people that are called “reality “stars. People that have no talent and practise no craft or trade at all. One could put the Kardashians in this list but really, it is not their fault, in fact one almost has to admire them for the way they have parlayed no talent into big money – good for them I say and sad for the public for being so docile and gullible.

Apple has released the Iphone5 and of course millions are lining up to buy it as soon as it becomes available.

Really?

So the new phone is a little bigger than the old one and has a smaller connector for the charger cord. And people are shelling out big bucks for that? If Android manufacturers did that, all the Apple fanatics would howl in derision.

Oh well, it is only money – right?

The American money czar, Ben Bernake issued new money directives and that is supposed to provide leadership for business and financial markets and help stabilize the economy. It seems to have boosted the value of the Canadian dollar instead.

In the sporting world in North America, the professional hockey league – the NHL (National Hockey League) is in the middle of what could be described as insanity confrontations between bargaining billionaire owners and millionaire players with a lockout as of Saturday midnight. The owners imposed a collective agreement on the players at the last contract settlement (after a collapsed strike by the players) and now are crying poverty over the self same agreement! So they want the players to fix their screw up? And this in the midst of teams resigning players up to and including the last minute to obscene contracts?

The owners are crying poverty?

You have got to be kidding me.

And the players are not blameless, but you know, they are the ones whose bodies are the fodder for this sports and it is they that will limp into a pain filled middle age with prospects of mental ill health as a result of the contacts endured in this “sport” that pay the heaviest price – not the owners.

Out of Germany emerges the news that members of a notorious Kurdish clan in Bremen have founded a new chapter of the Mongols motorcycle club and are challenging the Hells Angels in the city. The police fear a new biker war may be just around the corner.

Another cherished illusion about Germany bites the dust sadly.

Oh yes, in breaking news, Russian head honcho Putin now admits that some of the publicized reports of his athletic prowess were manufactured – nothing like admitting the obvious right?

This week was the anniversary of the horrible terrorist attacks on the United States now termed the 9/11 attacks.

I remember that day well, do you also?

Has the world gotten better or worse since then?

I will let you be the judge of that.

Take care out there,

flatlander52