… but of course I have a few more to add.
Looks like the Toronto Police Services have been privatised recently…
Spotted at the corner of King and Peter this morning. This morning, there are more cops than real people down here.
&#$*@#&$^*@#$*&@#^
As you can gather, I must be really peeved in order to be jolted out of my blog apathy!
Roll on, G-20…right out of town, preferably.
Disgruntledly yours,
Brouhaha
Hey, I was out having a fun time with the Tenant Advocates yesterday evening…
…when I came home last evening to this dire message from my landlord:
Auggggh!!! I’m in arrears!!! Will they file to evict me?
Hmm… I’ve just spoken with my new in-house counsel, Gabriel.
He advised that it wouldn’t be worth their while to file to evict me, as it would cost them $150.00.
As prudent counsel, however, he did also advise that if they should file to evict me I should bring up the fact that I overpaid the previous month according to their ledger:
Gabriel did advise that, if the worst happens and they file to evict me, I can claim this $0.68 overpayment as part of a relief from forfeiture eviction (sorry – I happen to like the old language “relief from forfeiture” as it really brings home the feudal aspect of the whole thing… but I’m a bit old school that way) argument before the Landlord and Tenant Board.
However, I decided to do the wise thing and just rectify the situation by payment.
This is only because I don’t know that the Board would accept the “I’m maths challenged” argument, especially when landlord/tenant is my chosen field of legal practice.
However, I’m just a bit pissed off right now – I figure it cost the landlord more than than the $8.86 outstanding to have their staff person print this off and have another staff member hand-deliver it to my door fourteen days later. But this is why the landlords keep making money and fools like me keep paying them rent, I suppose.
Now, if I wanted some real drama, I’d skip Gabriel’s opinion and get my real legal team onto it:
It’s actually such a big legal team that they don’t all fit in one photo! Check it out!
(You will recognise JJ in front. He is the honourary security person. We need him around because people like this start creating commotions in the street by nearly running over a cyclist, then getting out of his car and nearly decking the cyclist, then when someone like me intervenes and says she’s calling the cops, gets out and calls the cops himself, parks his car in one lane on a major thoroughfare in the city at rush hour, then gets laughed at by the cops when they finally show up:
Need I say more, really?)
Anyway, even more members of my legal team:
…and still more again:
… and our glorious mascot, who is a(n) (in)famous actress and has actually been on TV!!!
So, who needs to fear The Landlord when you have all these people on your team?!?
Stay tuned… because if I ever face an eviction hearing for non-payment of rent for $8.68 outstanding, I will be calling in the media.
(And, by the way, it wouldn’t be the first time this has happened. I’ve seen many clients with an eviction order for non-payment where the eviction order says the landlord owes THEM several hundred dollars. Such is the beauty of the landlord/tenant law in Ontario.)
But enough shop talk!
A very happy Tuesday to you all.
Regards,
Kristina
Well, His Excellency JJ, Ruler of the Remote, has finally managed to guilt me into making him some new slippers. Admittedly, the last ones I made him, depicted above, have seen better days.
In this regard, I had bought a new pattern … um… two months ago or so. And then I went off knitting for a while (and I’m still not 100% back on my previous zealous track, I must confess). And then I started two lace shawls while ignoring forgetting about my promise to JJ to make some slippers.
That’s when the above sad looking tattered specimens made their reappearance on the otherwise pampered feet of JJ. He is nothing if not subtle. He didn’t bother to mention that he was wearing ragged slippers, but waited patiently for me to stop ignoring this notice. And then waited some more.
Finally, last evening, he stuck his feet up in the air all of a sudden while we were watching Food Safari, waving his puir wee nekkid wee heels which were sticking out of the chequerboard slippers and bellowed said in his usual dulcet tone:
Lassie, when am ah gettin mah new slipperrrrrrs?!?!?
So, today after work, I stopped in at Knitomatic and finally bought some feltable yarn:
Lamb’s Pride Worsted, in Turkish Olive and Kiwi. The colour choice, thankfully, has met with the approval of His Nibs.
And, I’m proud to announce that I was completely selfless in this mission – I did not buy any yarn for myself!!! Hard to believe, eh?
I should, however, mention that I did have to buy this mag and I suspect that there won’t be much content there for JJ:
I was taken in particular with two of the patterns I saw within, and couldn’t resist:
These Europeans know what they’re doing with design, I tell you. And – such stashbusting potential!!! I’m picturing this in either a rich blue (Madil Eden) or poppy red (Dalegarn Svale):
And as for this beauty…
…well, maybe, just maybe, I can finally start dipping into that ridiculously large Super 10 stash.
Great. Another thing to feel guilty about… cheating on my beloved Butterfly Greek Super 10 cotton because I discovered the loveliness that is laceweight silk. I’m a terrible person, really.
More evidence of this home truth: the only real reason that I didn’t buy myself more yarn was because I had already gone on a shopping binge on the lunch hour.
But hey – since I’ve been off knitting, I’ve started to run out of clothes!!
Besides, they’re just so colourful I couldn’t resist… and they’re nice and cool.
And the best part – they cost only $10 apiece! So really, I couldn’t say no, could I? Does it count as selfish when you get such a great bargain?!?
JJ: It counts as “selfish” so long as ah’ve no got mah new slippers on mah feet, ye wee bampot.
Hmph. He’s obviously getting a bit too full of oats sitting at home all day. I’ll have to hide the remote before I leave for work tomorrow just to teach him a lesson, eh?
JJ: More paw, less jaw, lassie!
OK, OK… how’s this for a start, then?
Does anyone know if they have a Bigfoot Monster in Scotland?
Happy Tuesday!
My beleaguered mother, no doubt shaking her head about my wee obsession with rubber duckies, very kindly sent me the following scan the other day… 
Although I couldn’t help but think that this image was cute cute cute, on some level I’ve since been quite perturbed about the abuse of the humble rubber duckie by the advertising industry.
I mean, the rubber duckie is not just a plaything for our use and abuse, you know. It is an extraordinarily hardy and brave species.
These are some rubber duckies and other plastic toys which crossed the Pacific Ocean from China and ended up all the way in New England, 11 years after falling off a container ship. They were apparently quite the speed demons, travelling at double the rate that the water in the North Pacific moves. They washed up back in 2003 and a reward was offered for a specific duckie which had gone completely white from its trials and tribulations at sea.
I’m not sure the reward was ever collected. But you can read about their journey here, if you’d like.
And, I mean, really – could you cross the Pacific without a raft? Think about it.
But not only is the humble rubber duckie brave, s/he is selfless and giving, working tirelessly for charity.
S/he is also athletic, by the way (far more so than I!):
Rubber duckies, as you know if you’ve read this blog for any length of time, are capable of forming strong loving relationships:
Yet they continue to be used and abused by Evil Corporations such as Adidas to sell products and make rich fat men even richer and fatter!!!
It all makes me want to weep, really. Plus, it makes me afraid. It is only a matter of time before the rubber duckies stage a revolution and take over… just last night I had a nightmare about this. Click on this link to see it in full colour.
Scary, eh?
Well, we have the power to stop this abuse of the Rubber Duckie and the ensuing rebellion, revolution and takeover which will lead to the end of life as we know it. Education, I feel, is key. To learn more about the honourable rubber duckie, you can click here.
And next time you see a cute little ad featuring a rubber duckie, please spare a thought to the abuse and degradation that led to the ad, and boycott the product… would you?
(Yippee! Another excuse not to have to shave my legs!!! Huzzah!!)
Happy Thursday!
I’m well and truly off the wagon now, folks. Yup. Yesterday, I made yet another trip to one of the local Houses of Worship – on the pretext that I needed one of these:
For some reason I keep losing these. This is probably my fourth this year. I’m sure that one of these days I’m going to bump accidentally into a secret portal in my apartment and be faced with a whole pile of single socks, good wooden coat hangers (as opposed to crap wire ones from the dry cleaners’) and knitting needle measuring ruler thingies, all pointing and laughing at me.
So, of course I decided today that I was in huge need for one of these $3 thingamabobs. But did I go back to Romni, which is just down the street from my workplace? Hell, no.
Why not? Well, I felt the need to take a 25 minute walk (each way) in 30C/150C with the humidex (don’t know what that is in Fahrenheit, but “damn hot” will about cover it), that’s why.
It certainly wasn’t because Lettuce Knit (quite a hike away from my office, in the Kensington Market) is the only yarn shop in the city that carried Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn. No sirree Bob. Nope.
OK – so now you know the truth. I am a big fat liar.
But, really, how could I resist!
Oh – and while I was there I had to pick up a lonely little skein of Bobby Blue (as in “No Sirree Bob”, I guess!) Malabrigo laceweight as well:
But I don’t feel so bad about this – because Amy told me: “Malabrigo doesn’t count”. I’m a very gullible person, and I do hope that she has not led me down the garden path toward bankruptcy….
What makes me feel a bit better about all of this is that I’m apparently not the only one who’s getting up to hijinks this week, apparently – and mine are far cheaper than some. You see, this week the Calgary Stampede is taking place. Now, I’ve never been to Calgary but if you have ever lived in Canada and watched any news programme during the month of July, you’ll know all about this WestFest, where all the oil millionaires/billionaires, politicians and other high rollers turn up to watch some rodeo and eat some high-priced beef.
Now, according to CTV News the other evening, that’s not all these guys do. They actually had a segment on the late news discussing how some of these guys also come to gamble and pick up women. They even quoted a pro female saying it was by far the most lucrative week of the year.
I think they did, anyway. You see, I cannot find this story anywhere on their website – I do remember seeing it though, if only because it really really hurts to spit Vex alcopop out your nose when you start laughing with your mouth full. JJ confirms that this was on.
But instead, all I could find on the CTV website was this: Calgary drops suits for Stetsons during Stampede.
More like “drops trou”, no?!
I mean, really – let’s face it, these prime ministers must get up to all sorts of nonsense when they’re on the road – and especially when they get to dress up in cowboy drag. Why else would Pierre Trudeau have been showing his stuff there, for example?
Now, as for Jean Chretien, I’m not so sure:
Now, I must say that I really like his wife’s cowboy boots – in fact, I want them. But what was up with those puddlejumper jeans, Jean?!? Did the Prime Minsterial budget not extend to a pair of jeans that actually fit, or did you spend it all on the 10 gallon hat?!?
And then there’s always my favourite, the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, our current fearless leader who allows Geo. Bush to address him as though they’re hanging out on a street corner somewhere (I mean, really. “Yo, Harper“??? WTF???? When he pulled this stunt a few years back with Tony Blair, the British were reportedly offended. And, to my view, the British were right.) and simply giggles and blushes smiles. I’m not so sure, however, that it’s wild women he’s after…
I mean, first he poses for this cheesecake photo back in 2005:
Is that lipstick he’s wearing?!? I mean, really. Doesn’t he look as though he just stepped off the cover of a Village People LP?
So, then he hid I was not able to find any photos of Harper at the Stampede in 2006 – but this is what he turned up in in 2007:
So, what’s up with the pink shirt?? Well, apparently he said it was to show support for fundraising efforts for breast cancer. Well, that’s heartwarming and all, Steve – but if you really cared about people who suffer from breast cancer (or cancer of any kind, for that matter), you wouldn’t be doing your bit to destroy universal health care as we know it. But I’m ranting digressing now.
Suffice it to say that, sported by an arch-convervative like Harper, the colour pink speaks volumes. But this year, his image consultants have he’s decided to go butch:
Now, I haven’t been in a women’s bar for a while now – but the last time I went to one, this was pretty much the uniform.
So, Steve, I’ll be waiting with baited breath to see what cute little outfit you come up with for next year’s Stampede! How about something like this, for example?
Fetching, isn’t it?
Happy Wednesday!
Bespoke By Brouhaha 
