Blocking Pedestrian Paths

White Wolseley Canada truck obstructing pedestrian crossing

Recently Anna wrote on her blog, livinginaurora.ca, about drivers failing to stop at stop signs.  She inquired with readers if she should whip out her camera and start photographing the culprits who fail to adhere to the rules of the road by blowing through stop signs. 

One of my pet peeves are drivers who fail to remotely adhere to the stop line at a STOP sign or traffic light.  Just last week I was walking south on the east side of Yonge Street near the entrance to Enzo's No Frills and the South Hill Shopping Centre. Rolling out of the South Hill plaza at the traffic light was a white Wolseley Canada company truck trying to make a right hand turn to head northbound on Yonge Street.  The driver failed to stop in time for the stop line and rolled to a stop across the two painted lines delineating the pedestrian crossing.  I walked around the back of the truck and finished crossing southwards.  However, northbound in the intersection was a lady walking across while pushing a stroller.  She had to carefully manoeuvre her way around the truck while the idiot Wolseley driver nonchalently watched the steady traffic on Yonge Street pass him by.  I was incencensed that yet another driver drifted their way into the pedestrian area and failed to even acknowledge that others were there and the car was in the way. I whipped out my phone and took a photo of the offender.

Richmond Hill and Aurora are seeing significant growth in the past two decades and this growth is expected to continue at least over the next two decades.  The Region of York is encouraging intensification and transit use throughout the area which will only increase pedestrian activity.  The police need to start enforcing the stop lines and obstructing pedestrian crossings.  If the police fail to do this than why should the Region and local municipalities use significant money in painting these lines on a yearly basis?  Perhaps if enforcement were properly undertaken, then the dumb looks of the offending drivers of "what the heck is going on?" as I walk across the street in front of the car might end as these idiot drivers would have been well informed by a nice yellow ticket by authored by York Region's finest.  Pedestrians can only hope, until then, like Anna I will be using my weapon to take photos of idiot drivers blocking the duly painted right away of pedestrians.

Play Pizza & Pub is Not Playing Much at All

This afternoon my sister and myself took my father to a nice Father's Day lunch.  We visited Play Pizzeria & Pub (15420 Bayview Avenue, Aurora, Ontario). 

We were seated immediately, which isn't really a stretch considering the entire time we were there we were the only customers. 

In hindsight this should have been a red flag.  We were the ONLY customers on a Father's Day where people normally take out their Dads for lunch and we are the only people here? Really?

Anywho, we ordered our drinks and the waitress came back quickly with them and we ordered our food. 

The Order: Two Calzones and a Margerita Pizza with a Coke, Water and Tankhouse Ale.

The food, as noted in the menu, did take a little while to show up.  This is supposed to show that every dish is made with fresh ingredients caringly by their expert chef.  It took about 20 minutes for the food to prepared which is normal for most restaurants.  But considering we were the only party in restauarant this may be the reason why our food did not take that long.

I had the Margerita Pizza.  The pizza was a little cool when it arrived not like the popping hot pan pizza served at Pizza Hut I had a week earlier. Otherwise the thin crust pizza was delicious prepared and went down well.  The price of $16.00 for a dinner plate size pizza may have been a little much though.

Overall, two calzones, a Coke and a Marerita Pizza came to over fifty dollars for three people.  The food was decent quality so I may attempt a return.  The only concerning part was we were the only patrons there on a lunch Sunday around noon. 

Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church Carillon Ringers in Aurora United Church

Last night the Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church Carillon Ringers visited Aurora United Church for a combined concert with the Aurora United Church Handbell Choirs.

The great group of high school aged teens arrived from Rochester, New York by the mid-afternoon to enjoy a little rehearsal time, wandering around Aurora time and of course some dinner time.

Later they took to the Aurora United Church Sanctuary to put on a great handbell performance with tunes originating from Harry Potter (Hedgwig's Theme), The Phantom of the Opera (see video below) and Celtic Praise.  

After the performance I was able to try out bell ringing myself with the help of one of the Ladue Ringers who allowed me to hold onto, with two hands, "Charlie" the low C note bell that is sized bigger than my head alone.  You can see glimpses of "Charlie" in the Phantom of the Opera sitting on the table waiting to be used.  He is one of the larger bells. 

Overall it was a rare opportunity to see semi-professional handbell ringers perform in concert in a local setting.  During the performance there was an intermission with lemonade and cookies served by the church.  At the end of it all over 250 people took in the performance and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. 


Carillon Ringers playing The Phantom of the Opera
Carillon Ringers playing "Te Deum"

In Memory of Barb Suddard...

My mother always loved children and the antics they got up to during her time at the YMCA and at Silver Pines Public School.  She would tell stories of her little charges doing weird and wonderful things while at school, at play and not wanting to go home at the end of the day.  

Silver Pines Public School is fund raising to help build a school in Kenya in coordination with Free the Children.  They are trying to raise $8,0000 towards the goal.  For every $10.00 donated your name will be put a brick to show the donation at the front of Silver Pines Public School.  

If you would like to make donation visit: http://my.e2rm.com/personalpage.aspx?registrationid=1137386&langpref=en-ca

A Stunt the Great Gonzo would be proud of!

The only question on the below video I have is, "WHY?"  and simply, "WHY NOT?" is just not an answer.

Only The Great Gonzo (aka Gonzo the Great) would be proud of this vid



NOTE: For obvious safety reasons, this blog does not endorse or encourage pudding diving of any sort.

Attention Pizza Hut!

Last Friday my wife and I headed to Pizza Hut (9580 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill) for a little za and some soft drinks.  Nothing like an old time date night over some pizza and soft drinks. 

We arrived and our waitress, instead of a hostess, seated us quickly.

We hmmmed and hawed over what pizza we wanted for five minutes and the waitress came by twice to see if we were decided yet...then a eureka moment....AN ORDER!

The Order: Grilled Chicken Rustico Pan Pizza (pizza made with grilled chicken breast, roasted red peppers, fresh ripe tomatoes, basil pesto, and pizza mozzarella), a Pepsi and a glass of Richmond Hill's finest & wettest water.

The pizza took the full twenty minutes to cook.  But when it arrived it was piping hot and ready to be eaten!

I was a little skeptical about this choice of pizza, pizza with grilled chicken and veggies on it? Without any pepperoni? Would it be worth the money I paid?  It had better be, we were paying twenty dollars for this!

I was satisfied after taking a few bites of the first slice.  Then the next slice dissappeared.  Thank goodness we got a large pizza, otherwise my wife would not have anything to eat. The pizza was delicisious. 

One of the best part of the Richmond Hill Pizza Hut is it is one of the last remaining dining room Pizza Huts left anywhere in southern Ontario.  The Newmarket location just north of Eagle Street on Yonge Street is being renovated and is unlikely to return as it's old self. I have long memories of visiting that location with my family for pizza and spaghetti nights.  I believe I even had a birthday party or two at that location. 

So it is with excitement that I have a Pizza Hut dining location near my home.  When you just want to get out of the house and have some ZA this is the place to go!

So I Have Not Written in While....

So I have not written for a while.   The main reason was through May I started working on contract for a resume writing company and was staring at a computer screen all day.   This has now shifted to barely part time contract work, so I am on the job hunt again since leaving my previous position at the end of December. 

So if you know of any honest companies out there looking for someone in administration, feel free to send them my way via:

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelsuddard

My Guestbook: (select the privacy option so only I can see the offer): http://htmlgear.tripod.com/guest/control.guest?a=sign&u=michaelsuddard&i=1001&r=

Please note that I would post my e-mail address, but I have made that mistake before and received thousands of e-mails promising various pharameutical remedies that I really do not require as well as thousands of dollars if I reply with my banking information.