Tag musing
Silly British (Columbian) Design: B.C. Speculation and Vacancy Tax
I’ve yet to start a Canadian equivalent to my “Silly British Designs” blog series. But there is no time like the present, especially since British Columbia just sent out the B.C. speculation and vacancy tax declaration…to everyone. No I’m serious, to every single property owner in the taxable region - 1.6 million people. This opt-out pattern is so absurdly ill-conceived that the declaration itself couldn’t hide the stupidity. I’ll just go ahead and quote two sentences that are nearly adjacent in the declaration form.
Turns out my kids listen, just not to me
I learned last week that my four-year old can listen and follow instruction. This is reassuring as a parent since she starts kindergarten this coming school year and we’ve already had a bit of a disaster experience putting her into ballet. That isn’t to say that my four-year-old is a disobedient child, on the contrary, as four-year-olds go she does an average job of being attentive. But we were pleasantly surprised when we sent her to Whistler Kids adventure ski camp last week and on the last day she came down the mountain in full control of her skis as if she’d had a full winter’s worth of practice.
Tropical Milkshake IPA
There is a trend in the North American beer scene toward low-bitterness, hazy pale ales and IPAs, no doubt propelled forward by the success of the New England IPA. I can’t tell if people here in BC genuinely like these tropical fruit milkshakes masquerading as beer, or whether the style has somehow become a differentiator between craft beer and big beer. As for me, I’d prefer not drinking it. The problem is that it cannot be avoided: it is literally impossible to tell off a menu if the beer will be bright and crisp, or resemble milky orange juice.
AHA beer rankings - Obliterating Taste Buds since at least 2010
In 2011 I began ignoring the AHA beer rankings after it became apparent my walk in beer, and those of my AHA brothers, are following very different paths. After the better part of a decade I am confident that we will never find ourselves hand-in-hand through the flowery meads. I am sure of this fact as I sit here reading the 2018 AHA beer rankings, 7 years after the last time I looked, in pessimistically dulled expectation of little change.
Things I will miss about England
The time is fast approaching: in less than three weeks, I’ll be picking up my life in Oxford and moving back to the New World. After all my agony and misery and kvetching about life in England at the outset, I’ve quietly come to love it. People often ask me what I’ll miss about England, with that special wry English undertone that seems to smirkingly say, ‘if anything.’ Well England, there are a lot of things I’ll miss and none of them particularly more than others.
Fighting Modern Aristocracies or What Occupy Wall Street is Probably Trying to Communicate
The Occupy movement has had a couple of months to organize and communicate its desires, thoughts, and solutions. While I still don’t think there is a coherent set of goals or grievances, and certainly no solutions, there is definitely a passion and belief that something isn’t right alongside general feelings of discontent with the proverbial Bogie Man. Because of poorly defined arguments and largely reactionary (read left wing) ways of communicating ideas, more conservatively minded folks, myself included, tend to roll their eyes when such a spectacle of complaining is set before them.
Silly British Design: The Magic Roundabout
They can be found all over Europe and Europeans generally approve of them. To an American, roundabouts rarely make any sense, but in some specific circumstances, it is possible to see the cleverness of them. While weaving through vineyards in Southern France for example, the roundabouts keep you moving as traffic is generally sparse. This is not to say I approve of a road system that requires traffic circles, but for the zig and zag roads that span most of Europe, roundabouts often make sense.
Tradition: We're Doing it Wrong
Every year AHA members vote on their favorite beers, and every year is just as predictable as the next. See if you are able to spot the patterns of the 10 most desired beers as rated by AHA members. Pliny the Elder. (8% ABV) American Double/Imperial IPA. Bell’s Two Hearted Ale. (7% ABV) American IPA. Dogfishhead 90 Minute IPA. (9% ABV) American Imperial IPA. Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout. (11.2% ABV) American Double/Imperial Stout.
Criminal insanity as a defence to wounds inflicted during rental process.
We’re in the process of renting a new flat. I’m also in the process of studying for two straggling exams, one of which happens to be on Criminal Law. We received our new Tenancy Agreement and were surprised to discover that it includes what effectively amounts to a £500 move-in fee. At the same time, I happen to be on the “Criminal Insanity” section of my revision. This prompted some timely considerations.
Roma: Great Food, Fantastic Wine and... Terrific Beer?
Our expectations of Rome were those of most people before they go: old buildings, great food, bold wines, long lines, crowded piazzas, and trains full of thieves. What I wasn’t expecting was to be able to find craft beers from all over the world served in the tiniest little beer cave surrounded by Italians watching football pretty much all day long. Ma Che Siete Venuti a Fa was rated best beer bar in the world in 2010 on ratebeer.