I had never heard of Perth, Ontario until earlier this week when, during a lively discussion (is there any other type?) at our Monthly Vancouver Bookcrossing meeting one of the ladies mentioned a kilt run. Kilt run? I had to check this out.
To celebrate their namesake, the city of Perth hosts an annual 5 mile run. But this isn’t your regular type of run. Oh no. You see in Perth, to participate in the run, you have to wear a kilt. Their goal is to set the world record for most runners wearing a kilt. This year's Perth’s World Record Kilt Run took place on June 26th and saw 1,210 runners turn up in kilts, a count which I’m assuming has been submitted to Guinness.
If you’re trying to imagine what 1,200 runners in kilts looks like, you don’t have to stretch your imagination too far. Pictures from the event are up and available for viewing at Zoom Photo.
I went to see Anvil! The Story of Anvil yesterday and it absolutely rocked. Seriously entertaining and touching too (something I didn't expect). I've posted my review but I also wanted to share this little video from a song titled "Metal on Metal". I only heard a few rifs of this in the movie but it instantly became lodged in my head. It's a great tune:
The action in the UK. Fitting to have the Ambulance up front and center.
Picture care of Nicolas Masse on Flickr.
One of the oddest of competitions is coming to BC this weekend.
The cheese rolling seems to have started in Gloucestershire, UK and it's now making it's way across the ocean and North America to end up at Whistler.
It's an interesting concept: a cheese comes rolling down a hill and the crowd comes tumbling after it in an effort to get to it before everyone else. As you can possibly imagine, it makes for some hysterical entertainment. All the fun starts Saturday, August 16th at noon. The actual rolling starts at 1PM at the base of Blackcomb Mountain. There's apparently a number of heats (for men and women) and the winners will take home some lift passes along with the 11lb cheese they chased down the hill.
If I was in town this weekend, I'd certainly be moaning to make a trip to Whistler. If you're looking for more info on where to watch or how to join in the fun by participating, be sure to check out the official website. I hope this is a huge success and that they keep it up for more than a year. I'm still getting over the disappointment that Flugtag never came back. And here we'd designed our entry and everything...
And what better way to get excited than by seeing the event in action. Check out this video from this year's event in, where else, Gloucestershire:
As if the Canadian iPhone Scandal isn't bad enough it doesn't affect all of the Rogers customers, just those in line for a fancy new gadget. Now Telus and Bell, the other two cell phone carriers, are getting ready to skin their customers for huge dollars.
According to an article in the Vancouver Sun, Bell (starting on August 8th) and Telus (starting August 24th), will start charging their customers 15 cents for each incoming text message. You read right: incoming message. Apparently text messaging usage has ballooned to a whopping 45.4 million messages a day and the carriers simply can't "afford" to continue offering the service for free. You can read the article below:
Personally, I just see this as another opportunity for cell phone providers to increase their revenue and shame on them. Actually, forget them for a moment. Shame on the Federal Government for not taking care of the consumer. Canada is ranked near the bottom of developed nations when it comes to cell phone packages and while other countries are moving towards empowering the consumer, allowing them to purchase "unlocked" phones, and lower or no contract signing, Canada is going the other way. Not only do you have to pay a bundle for the phone you want up front, you also have to pay a through-the-nose premium to get out of your contract but, in the case of Telus and Bell, you're also in a position where you're likely stuck with a useless phone at the end of it.
Rogers isn't any better. They, apparently, have no plans on jumping on the text messaging bandwagon, but their plans are a huge joke, and I'm not just talking about the iPhone either. I was keen on getting my hands on one of these fancy new phones but I've decided against it. I refuse to sign another contract. Your options aren't great if you decide to purchase a phone without a contract. Rogers doesn't exactly make it an easy sell if you decide to simply purchase the handset.
Hubby and I are scoping out the Nokia N95 8GB. Rogers offers the phone on a 3 year contract for $399.99 (2 yrs - $549.99, 1 yrs - $619.99) or for no contract at $689.99. We've been scoping out other options and have found the same phone for less than $400. Even Tiger Direct, one of the largest computer retailers, carries the phone for less, their price is $639.99 and as a bonus, the phone is already unlocked.
Our options are not many and frankly, I'm starting to get a little angry about the entire thing. If I could go without a cell phone, I'd certainly try it but with no home phone, it's the way I keep connected and frankly, I've grown accustomed to the convenience but when I read trash like this, I can't help but get angry. What we need now is government intervention and since we're not going to get that, I'm pining for more competition, and I don't mean competition that will fold up or be sucked into one of the big carriers in a few years' time.
For the time being, I'll be picking up a new handset in the next few months, wading through the 2 years left on my current contract and then re-evaluating the situation. Who knows, if competition does make its way up here, it may be worth it for me to jump ship and pay the cancellation fee.
What's going on you wonder? The better question is what would happen if...?
The CBC is putting to the test what would happen if women weren't around to look after the home and what better way to see what would happen but by running an experiment? Talk about social studies on a grand scale. Sounds really interesting.
They've put together a show based on the experiment which I'll have to check into but in the meantime, you can read all about the experiment and what some of the participants had to say, here.
