My wife and I spotted this car while we were looking for parking at the mall today. Its not unusual to see a car that’s badly parked and taking up 2 spots. But a car so very badly parked that they take FOUR spots? Yup, its been done. I’m not blurring out the license plate either, so if you know who it is, you can make fun of them (and maybe get the Ministry of Transportation to yank their driver’s license?).

For our one year anniversary, my wife and I decided that we wanted to recreate part of our honeymoon. We achieved this by going to the Metropolitain Brasserie Restaurant, a Parisian Brasserie themed restaurant based in the heart of Ottawa.

The decor was very reminiscent of a few brasseries that we ate in during our stay in Paris. The colors of the establishment and the decor, the style of the tables and bar, the decorations can be found in many Paris neighbourhood brasseries. The only exception is the room. I didn’t encounter any brasseries in Paris that had so much room between tables and sections, but that’s not at all a bad thing.

The menu is similar to what you would find in a Paris brasserie. I started the night with a salt cod croquettes appetizer, followed by a coq au vin. My wife had a steak frites as an entree and profiteroles for dessert. The salt cod croquettes were very tasty. The fish was cooked perfectly and the bread coating showed no sign of grease even though the croquettes were fried. The coq au vin was the best that I’ve had on this side of the Atlantic, and was served with some asparagus, carrots, mashed potatoes and smoked pork belly. The chicken in the coq au vin was moist and cooked to perfection, and the accompanying red wine demi glace sauce was succulent. The steak frites comprised of an 8oz ribeye that just melted in your mouth, home made french fries that were tasty and not greasy and were accompanied by a homemade garlic mayo dipping sauce. Though I didn’t try the profiteroles, the look on my wife’s face said it all. These cream puffs were served with some vanilla ice cream, berries and a heaping of chocolate sauce.

We were not at all disappointed with our visit to the Metropolitaine Brasserie Restaurant. My wife and I have decided that we will go back to this little bit of Paris on a regular basis.

Metropolitaine Brasserie Restaurant is located at 700 Sussex (corner of Sussex and Rideau).

rapid-fire (rap′id fīr′)

adjective

done, delivered, proceeding, or carried on swiftly and sharply

Finally, a world war movie that shows the Canadian point of view. A powerful film about the sacrifice made by Canadian soldiers during World War I. Written by and starring Paul Gross (of Due South fame), who based the story on war stories shared by his grandfather who fought at Passchendaele.

It could have used a little less romance and a little more action, but regardless its still a very enjoyable film.

I rate it a 7 out of 10.

This 5th season of Lost is starting off on the right foot. The 3rd and 4th season sometimes seemed to lack direction but the ship has been steered back on course. Inhabitants of the island are now travelling back and forth through time, having an adverse effect on some of the survivors. Some members of the Oceanic Six realize that they have to find a way back to the island. That their destiny is to be on the island and not back with regular civilisation.

The best season since season 2. If you stopped watching in the last couple of years, do yourself a favor and start watching this show again. Its the best show on television.

Craig Hartsburgh was fired from the head coach position of the Ottawa Senators earlier this week after a big loss against the Washington Capitals. He was replaced by Cory Clouston, the head coach of the Sens’ farm team in Binghamton. Though I feel the problems are a lot deeper than the coaching, it was obvious that Hartsburgh could not find a way to inspire his players. He was a good coach, just not for this team at this time. His defensive minded system did not gel with the offensively-built Senators. I’m reserving judgement on Clouston until he’s had 5-6 games under his belt, but so far the team is playing with a lot more passion and heart. Lets just hope they keep it up.

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Blizzard offering me a free 10 day trial of the World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King. This offer couldn’t have come at a better time. I was already itching to try it, and having given up smoking I wanted to do something to occupy my time. It was great to catch up with people in the game that I had last spoken to over a year ago when I quit playing.

So far this expansion is more fun to play than the previous expansion Burning Crusades. There’s less grinding, more quests, more variety and just more fun.  Much to my wife’s dismay, once my free 10 day trial was over I continued to play but just as a ‘casual’. There’s no way I’m going to be a raider again, as that requires a huge timesink that I do not have or which to give.

I’m on day 14 of quitting smoking. The cravings still come and go, but less often and with less intensity. Every day I’m breaking more habits where I smoked in certain situations. It hasn’t been easy, but at this point I figure that there’s no point to have suffered for these 2 weeks and take up smoking again.

Now I’m just a little worried of what will happen when I stop taking the Champix. I’ve read some horror stories that the cravings come back bigtime once you stop the pills. I guess I’ll find out in a few weeks.

Last week the OC Transpo strike that’s paralyzed the city since early December finally came to an end. Both the city and the union agreed to go to binding arbitration. Funny how they both agree to that just as the Federal government was ready to introduce a back to work bill and just before Obama’s visit to our capital. By going to arbitration both sides save face and can state that they didn’t give in to their demands.

Buses are expected to start hitting the streets this weekend, but isn’t expected to be running at full capacity until April or May.

Lets just hope that we don’t have to go through this again in a couple of years when the new contract will be up.

What is wrong with the Ottawa Senators? That’s a question that’s asked thousands of times every day since the start of this season. A team with this much talent should not currently be 27th in the league. So what exactly is happening to our beloved Sens?

Pinpointing one problem is impossible. There’s multiple issues affecting this team, and fixing one thing won’t fix the problem.

There’s the obvious lack of a puck moving defenseman. The loss of Redden and Meszaros is being greatly felt. Forwards are having to fight their way out of their own zone and through the neutral zone without having someone in the backend to move the puck up the ice. This is also leading to turnovers in our own zone, which leads to more goals against the team. There’s very little available in the market right now that would fit under our strained salary cap.

The lack of a true number one goaltender is another problem. Both our goaltenders can ru very hot or very cold. Auld started strong in the season but has quickly shown that he truly is a backup goalie and not a number one. Gerber falls under the same category, and with his salary is not tradable . The Sens have to bite the bullet and wait for his contract to end. Elliot in Binghampton shows a lot of promise but still needs seasoning in the NHL. To bring him up at this time would be detrimental to his growth and would harm the team in the long run.

Another issue is the lack of a true 2nd line. We have a very capable 1st line in Alfie, Spezza and Heatley, and have very capable 3rd and 4th liners but no true #2 center. Fisher, Vermette, Kelly, Ruutu, and the rest of the guys are 3rd and 4th line players. Pushing them to the 2nd line isn’t doing the team or themselves any favours, and it shows in the lack of secondary scoring.

We’re now feeling Muckler’s incompetency. Trading Chara instead of Redden, dubious trades and destruction of our young talent, trading away talent and draft picks that has left our farm team severely lacking. The lack of young capable players is being felt in many ways, one of which is having little money under the salary cap. Instead of having a mix of good, young players and proven players, we have more proven players who are eating away at cap space. Luckily Murray believes in building from within and has started to bring good and great players to our farm team, unfortunately most are still 1 or 2 seasons away from being able to join the big leagues.

Murray is not blameless however. His choices in coaches are questionable at best. Paddock lost all confidence in the team last year, mostly due to how he handled the Emery situation. This year, Hartsburgh was hired for his stance on player accountability and responsibility, but has seemingly not been good on his word. He also tried to bring a defensive system whereas the Sens have been historically and have been built as an offensive team.  Buying into this system and executing it has been a big issue with the team.

The biggest problem of them all is the lack of confidence being experienced by the players. This issue appears to have started in the middle of the 2007-2008 season and continues on to this day. The trades and buyouts that happened over the summer does not appear to have resolved whatever issues are still haunting the dressing room and the players’ confidence. Once this issue is resolved a lot of the other pieces will start fitting together. It still won’t give us a team that can contend for the Stanley cup, but it will at least allow the Sens to make the playoffs and maybe even win a round or 2.

There are many other minor issues that are affecting the Senators. There’s not a magic pill that will return the team to its former glory. I’ve been a proud Sens supporter since 1992 and will continue cheering for my team, but its not as fun to watch them play when the team is playing the way they have been for the last year. I believe things can be turned around, but a lot of changes will need to happen. I don’t mean changes brought by firings or trading players like Spezza, but changes from within. Changes that start with each and every player. Players regaining their confidence, playing as a team and playing for a full 60 minutes on a constant basis. These changes can happen and will put the Sens on the road to become the great team they can be, but time is running out.

On December 10th, Local 279, the OC Transpo Alamagamated Union which includes drivers and mechanics, walked off the job and began a city-wide strike. Add the biggest snowfall of the early winter season on the same day and you get a thick soup of traffic and headaches the likes Ottawa has not seen in a very long time.

Andre Cornellier, President of the Amalgamated Transit Union states that this strike is based on ‘dignity and respect’ and isn’t about money. I call that pure BS. It is about money, and its about power and greed, nothing more.

I find it funny that he says that this is about dignity and respect, yet Cornellier shows absolutely no respect to the citizens of Ottawa. How has Cornellier and the union showed their utter lack of respect for the public that they serve?

• When schools tried to organize getting their students to school using yellow school buses, the union first threatened to picket schools. They later backtracked and said that they’d only picket school bus depots so busses couldn’t leave or enter.
• They are picketing public and private parking lots downtown so that the public who managed to use a car and/or carpool to work are even more inconvenienced. Like the 30cm of snowfall and hundred of thousands of extra cars on the road wasn’t inconvenient already.
• They chose to strike at the worst possible time of the year. Students are in the middle of exams, it’s the Christmas shopping season and the weather makes alternate modes of transportation (IE: walking, biking) an big issue.
• When interviewed by the media, Mr. Cornellier responds in grunts and one word answers, saying we the public wouldn’t understand why they are on strike.

Where is the respect for those students who can’t make it to their exams and flunk their semester? There’s also those students who can only attend school due to grants and bursaries who will lose those for failing due to missing their final exam. Lets not forget the students who work one or two jobs on top of their studies who still live below the poverty line

Where’s the respect for the elderly, young parents and those without cars who only have public transportation as an option? There are a number of these people who count on OC Transpo to go to the doctor, do their groceries and visit loved ones. Please explain to me how you’re being respectful to those who will spend the holidays alone because they don’t have any way to visit their loved ones.

Where’s the respect to those who depend on the bus to get to and from work. Those who live to far to walk or bike and cannot carpool. People who will lose their jobs because they don’t have any alternate ways of transportation to get to work.

Where’s the respect to business owners who will have to close their doors because shoppers can’t go out and do their Christmas shopping, the season where most stores go in the black. Not only are they being hit by the current economical climate, but you’re making things exponentially worse.

Where’s the respect to families? Those who now have to spend 3 hours to get to their job, spend 8 hours at work, then another 3 hours to get home. Add to that 6-8 hours of sleep and that just leaves 2-4 hours for families to spend together. Take away a few hours to do chores and cooking, and that may leave an hour for families to spend together at best. Nothing puts people into the Christmas season spirit better than being forced away from their families.

So why exactly are 2200 OC Transpo employees on strike? Is it because of the 7% raise over 3 years that was offered? Is it for the 2 additional sick days that you get to carry over year after year? Or maybe it was the added money in regards to purchasing work boots, less waiting time for maternity leave or the 2000$ signing bonus. No, the reason OC Transpo decided to go on strike is because the union does not want to give up ownership of creating the work schedule for drivers. GIVE ME A BREAK! Ottawa is the only city in North America where the scheduling is not in the hands of the owners (in this case, the city of Ottawa). Heck, you can add Europe and Australia to that list too! The city stands to save 3 to 4 million dollars a year by taking over the scheduling. They also have stated that drivers with seniority will still have the option to choose their routes/times. The real reasons are that the union does not want to expose the corruption that exists with the current system, and that they want to keep the power for themselves. Corruption you ask? These are only rumours, but I’ve heard it many times by many different people that there has to at least a grain of truth to it. There’s supposedly a loophole in the system and here’s how it works. A driver will arrange with a buddy to call in sick. He calls in sick at the last minute, still gets paid for his shift. His buddy offers to take his route and makes time and a half. Win-win situation for the driver, lose-lose situation for us taxpayers who pay these guys’ salary. Ignoring this rumour, the scheduling fiasco is about not seceding any kind of power to the city and being afraid of change. Just because something has been a certain way for decades does not mean there’s no better way of doing things. The city wants to take over the scheduling not only to save money but also to improve service to those who use the very same public transportation that we pay for through our taxes.

We are currently living in a bad economical breakdown that hasn’t been seen since the Great Depression, and the union turns down a 7% raise over 3 years? ARE YOU CRAZY! Do you know how many people would love to just keep their jobs, let alone get a raise of that magnitude? My raises over the last few years hasn’t even covered the cost of living increases. Heck, this year no one at my company got a raise, and we won’t get one next year either. I won’t even get into those who have lost their jobs due to cuts or businesses closing their doors. You should count yourselves lucky that you have a job to go to. Count yourselves even luckier that you have the nice salaries that you do for sitting on your behinds all day driving around the city.

Some drivers are complaining that the money doesn’t make up for the abuse that they take from some riders. Well guess what, as a bus driver, you’re part of the service industry. Do you think you’re alone in getting that kind of abuse? Try working as a waiter/waitress, driving a cab, working a help desk, or any service industry position that you can think of, and every single one of them have to take abuse from customers.  You chose this line of work, no one put a gun to your head to drive busses,  and you knew that this is part of the job. If you can’t put up with it, find yourself another job.

As an Ottawa taxpayer and OC Transpo rider, I am very much like the bus pictured on the right; I’m taking the shaft in the behind, and I am sick of it. You are holding the city as a hostage as a negotiation tactic. I sincerely hope that city councellors don’t give in to your demands and stick to their guns. Enough is enough. Our taxes pay your salaries and you exist to serve the public. You then turn around and hold us hostage and create havok to further your own agenda.

Respect is earned, not given. With your immoral tactics, your total lack of respect for your customers and employers, your choice of timing to strike and your total disregard for this city you have completely lost any shred of respect that I had. You only have yourselves to blame for it.