What happened while we were gone

Here’s a list of things I’ve noticed that happened in while we were away for a month:

• The furniture, appliance and electronics store The Brick opened in the old Sears space.
• The New Yorker received a subtle re-design, mostly concerning the design of the restaurant, record and other mini-reviews that appear up front with the listings.
• The Formosa Tea House got a new deck.
• Shawn Murphy, MP for Charlottetown, sent out a large quantity of “here’s why the Government is great” junk mail.
• There’s a new Chinese restaurant next to Monsoon.
• The new VW Jetta was released. I can’t believe how ugly it is; they totally de-Jettaed it.
• Montreal’s Trudeau (nee Dorval) airport’s international arrivals area, under heavy renovations, reached the point of total insanity. I believe we walked 4 miles between stepping off the plane from France and stepping on the plane to Charlottetown.
• There are new banners celebrating Charlottetown’s 150th birthday hanging all over the downtown. They are surprisingly un-ugly.
• Timothy’s on Kent St. serves tea in very nice integrated “teapot-cup” units. They may have been doing this all along; today was the first time I ever ordered tea there.
• Canada’s parliamentary democracy seems to have gone to hell.
• Revenue Canada has denied my appeal of a $269 penalty for turning in my payroll remittances late for February. Apparently having the flu and being unable to get out of bed is not sufficient reason.
• Spring and summer have come and gone, and winter has returned. This is, in my memory, the shortest spring/summer period ever. Good thing we didn’t put the snow shovels away.