HRM Monument #27: Boer War Soldier

The Boer War in South Africa (from 1888 - 1902) marked the first time in Canada's history that it sent companies of volunteer troops to fight in a foreign war. From what I have read, it appears as though Canada sent two contingents to fight in South Africa - the first consisting of Nova Scotia's own H Company and numerous men from the 63rd Halifax Rifles and the Princess Louise Fusiliers. Later, the people of Halifax bid farewell with a huge reception at the Armouries for 1 32o more field artillery and cavalry men.

In honour of those brave volunteers who helped stabilize that region of the world, along with playing a significant role in announcing Canada's newly formed nationhood, the citizens of Halifax erected this monument next to Province House (Nova Scotia's parliament building) on October 19, 1901. The stone at the base of the monument was actually dedicated and laid by the Duke of Cornwallis and York during his Royal Visit to Halifax.

HRM Interesting Person #8: Art Moore

Art Moore is a high school English teacher in Moncton, New Brunswick. I met him in Halifax at the Atlantic Fringe Festival, where he was a performer. Art Moore is interesting because of one fantastic story he has.

The students in one of his classes decided to support a number of nearby University students from Haiti, who were waiting for word from relatives caught in the horrible earthquake there, by sending a large card on which they had all collaborated. When Art Moore went to the University to deliver the card, he was approached by a professor who was interested in leading a team to Haiti to help volunteer with the relief effort. The team needed someone with prior military experience to act as security, and that's where Mr. Moore comes in. As a former soldier with the Canadian Armed Forces, he accompanied the team and help starving, homeless Haitians over in Haiti.

I met Mr. Moore briefly, about a week apart. He was in a rush the first time I met him, because he had to head back to Moncton to teach school the next day. When he saw me again the next time though, he still remembered my name. Art Moore is an every day hero.

Atlantic Film Festival: September 16-25, 2010

The Atlantic Film Festival is an annual 10 day event held in Halifax that aims to showcase a collection of inspiring films from Canada and around the world. As well, the Festival attempts to provide much needed support and exposure to local, independent Maritime film makers. The Atlantic Film Festival is the largest film festival in Atlantic Canada, and 2010 marks its 30th season.

This year there were more than 200 films being screened, and at $12 a pop I obviously couldn't see many of them, so I decided to go for something uniquely Canadian and attended a collection of five short films, all with either an Inuit, Metis, or First Nations theme. There was even a short film illustrated and personally introduced by the world-famous (or at least I think he's world-famous) Nova Scotia artist, Alan Syliboy.

I can't comment on the festival much other than to say, that with my sweat pants and t-shirt on, I definitely stood out in the crowd of what seemed to be mostly art school film buffs and middle-aged hippie film buffs. I felt somewhat self conscious and out of place at first, but nonetheless was intrigued by the conversations going on around me.

By eavesdropping I managed to ascertain that the people in front of me were the wife and son of one of the directors, along with the director's manager (possibly? I'm not sure exactly what he was the manager of). Behind me was another director, and I was able to pick up all sorts of behind the scenes stories about shooting for the National Film Board of Canada from him and his other film making friends.

I thoroughly enjoyed the decidedly independent nature of the films, and my only regrets on the evening that I attended were that it was in fact only just one evening, and that the showing was so late getting started that I could barely stay awake (I've recently started a new job that requires me to wake up at 5:00 AM every morning, so I've been a little tired as of late). Hopefully by next year my finances will be in order to the point where I can buy a festival pass and attend more of the films. Until then, I'll shore up on my film watching skills by renting past Atlantic Film Festival movies from the award winning independent rental store, Video Difference, near my home. Don't worry though, I won't be wasting time, it's called "training."

Critical Mass: September 24, 2010

If you're going to be an Ea-pea, you've got to ride a bicycle; it's that simple. But even if you aren't an ea-pea, you should still ride a bicycle because it runs on fat and saves you money, as opposed to a car that runs on money and makes you fat.

The problem is that for many would-be-heroes, the streets can be a scary place. While I welcome the traffic whizzing by me dangerously close, because I get to thumb my nose at the drivers and look smug when they have to stop during traffic jams, and I pass on by them again, I realize that not all people are as keen as me on the idea of being a road warrior for awesomeness. Thankfully then, there is an event called Critical Mass in Halifax that runs on the last Friday of every month (and indeed in over 300 other cities around the world).

Critical Mass is essentially a semi-organized ride that celebrates being the most powerful force on the road, as it provides strength in numbers for two-wheeled obesity fighters. While the idea and concept of mass rides originated in the late seventies in Sweden (of course), it was not until 1992 in San Franscisco that the spectacle became a regular event.

While Critical Mass bicycle tours are often described as "protests" in the media, the participants themselves describe it as a "celebration of cycling," and this gets them around the sticky legal requirement of giving police advanced notice of an planned protest.

What generally happens at a Critical Mass style event is that any cyclist who wishes to join meets up at a pre-arranged meeting place and the course for the ride is determined by whoever is in front at any particular moment. When it comes to intersections, one or two riders will stop their bicycles and block or "cork" the oncoming traffic until all of the other cyclists have made it through. The rest of the cyclists ring their bells or cheer at the pitiful drivers who feel terrorized by the cyclists for a change (my words and feeling, not necessarily the official position of the organizers).

On September 24 I made my first ride in a Critical Mass event, and I must say that it was brilliant. While I didn't know anyone at first, I made a number of acquaintances along the ride and enjoyed for the first time being able to ride where I pleased without having to constantly look over my shoulder for oncoming murderers... I mean drivers.

I will make it a regular part of my routine to ride in every Critical Mass event that I can until I leave Halifax. To paraphrase Bill Nye: there's something wrong with a society that drives a car to the gym to ride a stationary bicycle. Furthermore, commuting to work in a car increases your nation's dependency on oil (mostly "foreign"), which in turn drives the demand for American "wars on terror", not to mention fuelling extremist fundamentalist terrorism. I don't have any facts for that, but I'm pretty sure it's true. In any event, it's best to be safe rather than sorry. Therefore I say to you, stop supporting terrorism; ride a bicycle.

(The unofficial organizer addresses the crowd of cyclists at Victoria Park underneath the Robbie Burns statue, before the big ride. This month's ride was in honour of a cyclist who was killed when he was hit by a transport truck attempting to pass on the highway.)

(The best scene in Halifax: dozens of cyclists blocking traffic.)

(Happy cyclist on Spring Garden Road. No, it's not me.)

(Where do you stop when you're a cyclist? If you have 60 friends, you stop wherever you want. Take that car drivers!)

Chuseok: September 22, 2010

It may not have anything to do with Canadian history, but September 22nd was the Korean holiday Chuseok (pronounced "chew-sock"). Chuseok is often described as Korean Thanksgiving since it happens more or less around the same time as our Thanksgiving. The main difference though, is that rather than celebrating the harvest (or simply a day off from school/work, which is how I think most Canadians view Thanksgiving), Chuseok in Korea is a time when families gather together to remember their deceased ancestors/relatives.

One of the many traditional activities that occurs at Chuseok is the making of songpyeon. Songpyeon is a form of pressed rice-cake (ddeok) that can be filled with an assortment of semi-sweet fillings. Traditionally in Korea, families would often get together and share their songpyeon creations with their neighbours. This practice can be traced back to around the 10th Century.

Earlier in the week my brother, EP Dan, and I had invited a Korean friend of mine - "English name" Joshua - and his wife over to our home. To return the favour, Joshua and Cristin (his wife) invited us over to their house for Chuseok (technically the day after Chuseok) to partake in a meal of delicious jabchae (among other things), and to make songpyeon.

(Left to right: Joshua, Cristin, EP Dan, EP Dave - me, sitting down for delicious Korean food.)

(EP Dan and I make songpyeon. We filled it with the delicious myung bean paste you can see in the bowl. Incidentally it's the same delicious paste found in jjinpang, which probably means nothing to many of you, but was a catalyst for many an adventure while I was in Korea.)

It was a wonderful night, and so was the afternoon spent at our house the weekend prior. While I'm having fun exploring Canada, I'm sorry to say that the most exciting part of living in Canada is hanging out with Koreans.

Nova Scotia National Historic Site #11: Fernwood

Fernwood Manor (above) is one of two houses, owned by brothers, that were the first houses along the Northwest Arm. Fernwood Manor and its sibling house are part of a Gothic revival neighbourhood near Point Pleasant Park in a southern suburb of peninsular Halifax. It's also a private, gated neighbourhood - which makes it really hard to photograph - nor is it well promoted either. I couldn't find any information about it on the Internweb, and even a local who questioned me on why I was taking pictures of private homes on private property didn't know that they were part of a neighbourhood that was a National Historic Site. Of course, after I mentioned I was a photographer for Ea-pea Dave's Terra Nova he was helpful and informed me about the brothers and bit about the Northwest Arm. But still....

(Note: if the picture seems a bit odd, it's because I was shooting directly into the sun, and tried to mend it afterwards on my computer with my limited retouching skills. Trust me, it's a lot better than it was.)

Hopscotch Urban Arts Festival: September 11, 2010

According to what I've read, Halifax once had a great hip-hop scene. Unfortunately, when many of its past up and coming artists "made it big", the rest of the hip-hop scene was left to pick up the pieces. This year "the scene" tried to do just that with the Hopscotch Urban Arts Festival.

(An unknown - to me - dancer gives a free "popping" lesson to some eager young students.)

All day long, for 9 hours from 1 to 10 PM on September 11th, there were free hip-hop workshops, free dance lessons, a 100 foot "art wall" graffiti competition, the first ever national break dancing competition in Atlantic Canada, and a free concert featuring Halifax hip-hop legends like the Juno Award winning Classified.

As expected, the Grand Parade where it was located featured what must have been the largest concentration of teenagers who look like they would steal your car in all of Halifax. (Seriously guys, your art is neat, but all joking aside Grandpa Ea-pea is here to say that you really need to pull up your pants, wear a belt, and put your caps on the right way round because you look ridiculous tripping over the crotch of your own trousers.)

Even more impressive was the announcement that the fantastic French urban art artists of Cellograff would be making their North American debut at this festival. Unlike most "graffiti" artists (I'm sure they don't like it being called graffiti, but there's only so many times I can type "urban art" in one post without hating myself), Cellograff do not paint on the side of some business owner's establishment or on one of CN's grain cars, but rather they use large sheets of cellophane plastic stretched out between two trees or street posts to create their unique masterpieces.

Quite frankly the whole thing was not really my bag, but it was impressive, and this rather well intentioned event would have been completely unknown to me had someone not thought to drop a flier in the basket of my EP Cruiser (my new bike), while I was busy volunteering for the Fringe Festival the night before. That's right, this great coming together of me and the Hopscotch festival was only possible because of this unknown canvasser. Score one for canvassing, score one for bike baskets, and more importantly score one for cycling.

Atlantic Fringe Festival: September 2-12

(The Bus Stop Theatre - next to a bus stop on Gottingen Street - is one of the five theatres hosting performances for the 2010 Atlantic Film Festival. It has no operating budget whatsoever. As The Bus Stop Theatre's technical director, Evan Brown, puts it: "it doesn't get any more... fringe than us.")

"Fringe" theatre is a term that originated in 1948 to describe the unofficial companies performing at the second Edinburgh International Fair. The term was coined by the twentieth century Scottish playwright, Robert Kemp, and since then it has been picked up by several festivals and theatres to describe a brand of alternative theatre that can best be summed up as "fun on the cheap."

Despite living in Edmonton, Alberta, home to the oldest Fringe Festival in North America and the second largest Fringe Festival in the world for a number of years, I had never actually checked out any of the performances there. I had always been to poor and/or "busy" (just a synonym for lazy, really) to go, and so it was with great anticipation that I waited all summer for this year's Atlantic Fringe Festival in Halifax - its 20th season.

Again, I found myself somewhat underfunded this year, but with 25 theatre and dance shows ranging from musicals to belly dancing to comedies and dramas, and over 230 performances in five different theatres, I was sure I could find a few shows to see. More importantly, the ticket prices were typically in the $6 to $10 range, so I could do it even on my tight budget.

I ended up settling on three shows I thought sounded interesting, and were all shown in one day in relatively close locations to each other. The first show was called Jewish Girls Don't Kayak, and was about one Jewish woman's journey to find an identity for herself outside of being Jewish, only to discover that she truly was Jewish in the end.

The next show I watched was called My Five Near Death Experiences. This was a series of stories and poems read by Arthur Moore, a teacher from Moncton, New Brunswick, about events that have happened in his life. All of them generally relate back to poems he has written or stories from his classroom.

By far the most entertaining show I saw though, was a performance called Breaking Point. Breaking Point was a play about a teenaged boy who is the youngest child in a family of professional torturers. He is named after his grandfather, who himself was a legendary torturer, and is the son of the greatest living torturer. Unfortunately he is a) not very good at torturing people, and b) has no interest in it. In the play, he must prepare for his entrance examinations to enter a prestigious torturing school soon (or else he won't get a good career), and so his older sister who hates him lends her "help." Hilarity ensues.

Had my Fringe experience stopped there I would have been quite pleased. However, I had read in The Coast that the Atlantic Fringe Festival is always looking for volunteers, and so I cycled over to the head office to see if I could be of service. I ended up signing up to volunteer to sell tickets for nine more shows on the final weekend of the Festival.

As a perk for volunteering, I was allowed to watch any show for which I sold tickets, for free. As a result, by the end of the week I had been to all five theatres, and had seen a dozen different performances. Not a bad result for my first Fringe attempt, if I do say so myself.

Italian Week!: September 10-12, 2010

We've had an ethnic festival for the Greeks and the Lebanese, so now I guess it's about time to have one for the Italians too. Like both the Greek Fest and Lebanese Festival, Italian Week (technically just a weekend) is a fundraiser. However, unlike both of the Fests, this fundraiser is for the new Italian Cultural Centre rather than a nearby Orthodox Church. Either because of this, or simply by chance, a few differences existed between Italian Week and the Greek and Lebanese festivals.

(See? I'm standing in front of a map of Italia at Italian Week. That makes me cultured.)

While Italian Week featured the obligatory fast-food quality ethnic cuisine that all cultural festivals in Halifax seem to have, thankfully the organizers decided to leave out the "talent show" (think: twelve year old girls "singing"/hurting my ears) and children's games. This made for a much quieter environment and freed up time and room for more adult-oriented activities like classic Frederico Fellini film showings, wine tasting lessons, and an Italian language class.

After leaving the "festival" (I'm not really sure yet as to what I should classify it) I noticed that a "band" of sorts had decided to protest in front of the centre. Actually, I'm also not sure if they were protesting, but you can hardly call what they were doing "playing". Furthermore, why else would they be standing right in front of the entrance, annoying everyone/blocking the way, unless they had something personal against Italy?

Surprisingly, the head organizer decided not to try to shoo them away, but instead was begging them to come inside the gate and play. After some disorganized discussion amongst the group, that was in keeping with its disorganized playing and appearance, the band members relented and started torturing their instruments inside the gate instead. It was at this point that I took my leave.

HRM Monument #26: Donald Saunders Wing

Wing Commander Donald W. Saunders was an instructor with the Halifax Flying Corps during WWI, and worked as an instructor for the Royal Canadian Air Force in WWII. From 1931 to 1987 Wing Commander Donald W. Saunders was the manager of the Halifax Municipal Airport. To commemorate Mr. Saunders' contributions to the development of aviation in Halifax, the citizens of Halifax erected this statue in Saunders Park, which was named after Donald Saunders, and is located on a section of the old Halifax Municipal Airport.

Special Announcement: 1000th View

Recently Google decided to add an incredibly thorough "Stats" feature to its Blogger engine. I am now able to view how many people have visited my blog in the past day, week, month, all time, etc. I'm also able to see from which country my viewers come and which websites they used to find my blog.

Until this feature was added my only source for readership was my Google AdSense information. Unfortunately it was a month before I thought to add this and so my "hit counter" was way off. My new, more up to date and accurate numbers, have Terra Nova's views at 1099. More impressively is the range of countries in which those views occurred.

Of course, the vast majority of my views came from Canada - 963 to be exact - but according to the latest information there have also been 88 views from the United States, 24 from South Korea, 6 from China, and even a couple of views from the United Arab Emirates (among many other nations).

I feel that it's a remarkable achievement to have obtained such a diverse "following" and I'd like to thank all of my readers, and especially the most loyal of you, for helping to motivate me to continue to pursue my goals, even when times can be discouraging, by your unwavering support of my blogs. Here's to more great adventures!

Quarterly Review #1, Part 3: August 2010

Continuing on with the EP Bike Trip trend, in mid-August I planned an 86 km round trip to Peggy's Cove to see what is perhaps the most famous lighthouse in Canada, if not the world. As regular readers will no doubt remember, things didn't quite go according to plan but that I eventually did make it. This was probably my favourite moment in August.

Speaking of cycling, I also met Jennifer Kean and Mike Cross in August. When I met Jennifer and Mike they were just finishing up their 22nd hour of non-stop continuous stationary cycling, in an attempt to raise money so that they could partake in a 12 day bicycle journey from Vancouver, British Columbia to Austin, Texas. The proposed journey was part of a larger effort by GiveToLive to raise money and awareness for cancer research.

While not as cool as cycling, the Harbour Hopper is definitely the most unique tour in Halifax. This amphibious vehicle is actually a refitted Vietnam War transport vessel, and takes customers on an hour long tour of Old Halifax and the Harbour. What makes the Harbour Hopper special is that it actually goes into the Harbour, and it even has VIP status to get within 50 metres of the Navy base. I would not have normally had the money to take this tour, but thankfully a friend from church bought a ticket for me as a treat. Let her contributions to the blog be duly noted.

My favourite festival of August was the Northern Lights Lantern Festival. It may not have been the largest festival, but it was definitely the most fun. This was not likely because of any one feature I suppose, so much as because of the people who were there. As I've mentioned before, the North End is my favourite community in Halifax because the people are just a bit more relaxed and friendly there than anywhere else in Halifax. I've always felt welcome whenever I've been there, even though I don't live there.

The most memorable moment in all of August for me though was my fantastic camping experience inKejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site. As the second instalment of the EP Road Trip series, this journey involved three days and two nights of camping, along with some great camp fire sing-along sessions and playing in the warm waters of Kejimkujik Lake. It was the first tick on an extensive list of Canadian National Parks, of which I intend to visit every single one.

Well, that concludes my look back at the last three months. Let me know in the comments section what your favourite post in that time was. Perhaps you have a suggestion for a new feature you'd like to see in the next quarter. Include that in your comment too, or send me an e-mail at davidrjmurray@gmail.com.

Now if you'll excuse me I must get back to more great adventures in history.

Quarterly Review #1, Part 2: July 2010

July started off with a bang, with my epic Canada Day adventure followed by the largest indoor show in the world, the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo. The Tattoo, in case you missed the post, contains marching bands and other performers from around the world, in a 3.5 hourperformstraveganza that is most likely better than anything you've ever seen in your life (if you've seen Cirque du Soleil you're excused from that last generalization).

As everyone will have no doubt noticed by now there are a lot of monuments and statues around Halifax. In July I started featuring them in the new HRM Monument series. My favourite monument of July, although it had a close challenger in the SS Mont-Blanc Anchor Shaftmonument, was Le Grand Derangement located on the Waterfront. While the deportations and the Halifax Explosion were both tragic events, I feel the forced removal of thousands of Acadiancitizens has had the most lasting social effects on the people of Nova Scotia today. Even as I write this there are Acadians living in Nova Scotia with the effects of that decision by the British - the America of its time - affecting their daily lives.

At the Canada Day celebrations I ran into what appears to be everyone in Halifax's favourite person, Alexa McDonough. She invited me to attend the peace conference she was organizing, and later extended an opportunity for me to get into more sessions for free by volunteering.

While attending the conference I met my favourite Interesting Person of July, LoganMacgillivray. Logan, as you probably remember, is the twelve year old boy (possibly thirteen now) who organized the transport of two 40 foot shipping containers full of sporting goods and school supplies to needy children in Sierra Leone. He is currently overseeing the construction of a community education and recreation centre in Sierra Leone, when he's not busy practising to be an NBA basketball star. Logan, I'm proud to say, is also a friend of the blog.

Of course, no review of July would be complete without mention of my first EP Bike Trip toCrystal Crescent Beach. HG Wells once said, "When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race." I could not agree more, and so it was with great pride that I completed this journey and earned, in my own mind, the honour of being able to call myself a cyclist. Incidentally, the post for this trip is by far my most popular blog post to date, with 72 page visits -more than 3 times the views of my next most popular post.

Quarterly Review #1, Part 1: June 2010

It's been three months since I moved to Halifax. Can you believe it? I can't. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was travelling across Canada on a train. That's not the case though, and so it's time then to take a look back on the summer of '010 that was and remember some of my favourite festivals, points of interest, and statues that made me glad to have moved here, and you think "dang, I wish I was in Halifax too."

June 2010:

June was the month of my favourite summer festival to date, the 400th Anniversary of the baptism of Grand Chief "Henry" (renamed after King Henry) Membertou. The Mi'kmaq people and the Acadians shared 150 years of peace and friendship after this until the British came along and messed everything up for the next 250. This festival included the largest pow-wow ever in Atlantic Canada and a free concert by Buffy St. Marie. It was deemed a huge success by everyone involved, and I felt very happy for the Mi'kmaq people who had organized such a great event.

June also played host to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's Royal Visit to Halifax. If I never travel again in my life (not likely), I will at least always be able to impress my grandchildren or nephews (who likely won't care) with the story of how I waited in the rain for two hours to see the Queen's hat.

My favourite Interesting Person of June was definitely Chang-geun Lee. Using a second hand bike he purchased from a seller on Kijiji, this Korean ESL student, who had been studying in Toronto, rode on a 59 day journey from Toronto, through Quebec, around the Maritimes, and then down through New England and back to Toronto via New York. He later went on a tour with his friends of the western US, including Yellowstone National Park. We still keep in contact, and I feel it's safe to say that Chang-geun's trip was the inspiration for my own EP Bike trip series that would appear in July.

Halifax Harbour Sea Music Festival: September 4-5, 2010

For all intents and purposes Halifax is and always has been about the sea. It was therefore not a surprise when I read that there would be a sea music festival on the Waterfront this weekend.

I was a little worried that the festival might have been cancelled because of Hurricane Earl's untimely appearance on September 4, but with the calm weather following the day afterward I walked down to the harbour to enjoy a few hours of "sea chanteys, fo'c'sle songs (a fo'c'sle is short for forecastle, which is where the crew of a merchant ship stays while on board), stories and fun", as the festival's website advertises.

One of the Festival's main sponsors is the excellent Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which is committed to preserving all things sea and ship related. I visited the Museum back in May during my cross-Canada travels and thoroughly enjoyed my experience there, so it was nice to be able to come back again. Come autumn I will attempt to make a more official Ea-pea posting on the MMA (what an unfortunate acronym, for the Museum that is), but for now I will get back to my thoughts on the Festival.

Of course if you like sea music then you would have certainly enjoyed the performances. However, the most interesting part in my opinion was not songs themselves, but rather the explanation of what the songs meant and/or how they came about or why the performer chose to perform them. The explanations made the event not only entertaining but educational as well. Here at the Ea-pea Dave series of blogs (more are coming after I move to other provinces) we're (and by "we're" I mean I'm) all about education, so I liked that.

(Costumed period re-enactors knit a shirt and a scarf/sweater [?], respectively. I wasn't aware that orange plastic balls were around in 1749 though.)

Hurricane Earl: September 4, 2010

In a previous post I had shown a picture of my preparations for the upcoming hurricane. In 1997 Hurricane Juan tore through Halifax and left most of the city without electricity or water for a week. Fortunately that was not the case for me this time.

While 200 000 residents in Nova Scotia, including me, did lose their power during the storm, the hurricane itself actually touched down 85 km south-west of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, meaning Halifax and its residents were spared the worst of the damage.

The 130 km/hr winds still broke a few branches around Halifax, and whipped around the hanging street signs near my home. Fortunately though, I did not lose my water as I had feared, and the power was returned to my neighbourhood only 9 hours later - which is fairly quick considering some of my Halifax friends have been told it will be Monday before their homes are back up and running.

(The calm after the storm. The irony is that no cars are driving through this normally busy intersection the morning after the storm, yet during the storm it was full of its normal unpleasant jerkfaces honking their horns as though somehow it is the fault of the driver in front that people who honk horns and/or yell at intersections are giant losers.)

Special Announcement: Hurricane Coming

Hurricane Earl's arrival in Nova Scotia tomorrow may possible lead to a loss of power/phone/Internet service for the next 4 days. Ea-pea Dave's Terra Nova may be out of commission until Wednesday or Thursday. I'll be back with more great adventures/history when the Internet comes back on.

Random Halifax Picture #11

Nova Scotians are bracing themselves for hurricane Earl, which is set to touch ground in the province some time tomorrow. I was told that the last time a hurricane hit Halifax the power and water were out for a week. The newspapers said this week the power/water might be out for 72 hours, and since Nova Scotia is in the midst of a stifling heat wave I prepared the above collection of 29 Litres of water (plus a few water bottles pushing the total over 30 Litres) just in case.

The best part is I did not buy a single one of these bottles; they were all found on the street or in garbage cans. I then took them home and washed them out several times with soap and water, and then refilled them. This means that I reduced waste, reused the bottles, and after the hurricane I will recycle them. I have used all three Rs at the same time with this move; I rule!

Nova Scotia National Historic Site #10: Henry House

For twenty years this ironstone and granite residence on Barrington Street was the home of William A. Henry, a Father of Confederation, and a former Attorney General of Nova Scotia and Mayor of Halifax, and an original Judge on the Supreme Court of Canada from its inception in 1875 until his death in 1888. The masonry of the gable wall and the surrounds of the windows are Scottish in character, and are representative of the style of many Halifax residences of the early 19th century.

Now Henry House is an excellent pub, with the Best Fishcakes and Best Pub Food according to the readers of The Coast in a 2009 poll. Interestingly, it is also the very first place I ever ate when I came to Halifax back in May, during my cross-Canada adventures. I had some kind of three meat meat-loaf dish, the name of which I unfortunately cannot remember, and it was excellent. It is located across from the HI Hostel, and only a block away from the VIA Rail train station for your travelling convenience.

alFresco filmFesto: July 23 - August 27, 2010

The start of the Atlantic Film Festival is fast approaching, and to drum up excitement the AFF held its fifth annual outdoor "drive in theatre" style screenings on the Halifax Waterfront. I say "drive in", but the only parking available was for bicycles (I win!).

The outdoor showings happen every Friday during the summer, and a massive screen is set up on the Waterfront (or on the side of the Nova Scotia Power building, but it was under repairs this year) and classic films are projected onto it. This year such "classics" as Dirty Dancing and The Karate Kid were on tap, along with a number of others. Each week saw a new film presented.

The scene depicted above was taken from the film "Easy Rider" which I saw on July 30th. Easy Rider stars a young Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper as two "hippie" bikers on a trip across America in search of a way to live their lives. Along the way they come across some right thinking individuals, and some rednecks. I won't give away the ending, but I will say that I hate rednecks.

Life Of An Ea-Pea, Episode 3: Leave No Waste

Regular readers may have noticed that I did not make my usual daily post on August 31st. I apologize, but I was rather busy moving apartments and was too busy/tired to make an entry.

Speaking of moving, this change in apartment was brought about because my brother, EP Dan, came to Halifax for university. For convenience, we decided to move in together and so I had booked a two bedroom, even before I moved in to my original one bedroom apartment, in the same building.

I moved in to my first apartment on June 15th and moved out on August 31st. That makes two and a half months living on my own, and with the recent move I decided to finally take out my trash.

There I am in the above picture taken today, making my first ever trip to the garbage bins outside my home since moving to Halifax, looking like I just came out of the army (I swear it's just the sunlight reflecting off my face). More importantly though, I'd like everyone to do their best to zoom in on the bag and see what I'm carrying.

That's right, after two and a half months all I produced for rubbish was able to fit into one regular-sized Superstore shopping bag. Everything else I used I either reduced (e.g., specifically buying products that use less packaging or buying a product second hand that contain no packaging), recycled (e.g., recycled), or reused (e.g., using plastic produce bags from the supermarket to store organic wastes in an old 2 Litre ice cream bucket I received from someone else until I am ready to send the contents to a compost heap).

Be a good person and a good citizen - follow the 3Rs. Don't pretend that you're too old or too busy; everyone knows that's just not true.