Lost and Found

A friend of mine came to visit me over the Easter long weekend. After a nice Easter Sunday brunch and some sightseeing around downtown Ottawa, we went out for drinks that evening and then decided to go dancing. And for those living in the Ottawa region, you know that there is really only one place to go out dancing on a Sunday night – Barrymore’s for the retro 80′s dance party!

So we danced the night away and had a blast. But towards the end of the night, my friend laid her purse on the stage at the front of the club for just a moment. And when she went back to retrieve it, it was nowhere to be seen. Someone had grabbed it, either by accident or intentionally, but neither scenario changed the fact that my friend was left without her ID (which she needed to board her flight to Newfoundland in two days), her credit and debit cards and her iPhone – which was her lifeline!

So once the bar cleared out we scoured the place from top to bottom, to no avail. I left my name and number with the manager in the hopes that if it turned up he’d call me – and we headed home dejected. The next morning, my friend remembered that she had installed the “Find my iPhone” app on her phone not long ago. Figuring whoever had her phone had either removed the SIM card already, or that the battery was dead at the very least – I doubted the app would be much good to us. But we logged into her Apple account on my laptop just to give it a shot, and sure enough – a few clicks later – her phone was a blip in a townhouse in the Plateau area of Gatineau!

Knowing this, we figured we’d call the police and they’d happily accompany us to the location to request the phone (and hopefully the purse it was in) be returned to us. But the Ottawa police department told us that since the phone was showing up in Gatineau, we had to call the Gatineau police. So we did, and they promptly told us that since the theft occurred in Ontario, we needed to call the Ottawa police. So after a half hour of both police departments dicking us around, I decided I’d go get it myself.

So I called my buddy Ryan, who is a big dude, and asked him to go with me just in case this turned sour. So the three of us jumped into my car and headed to the Plateau. We arrive at the location and it is a three-story building with four townhouses on each level – for a total of 12 possible doors to knock on! The iPhone app showed that the phone appeared to be on the right hand side of the house. So we started on the top story and worked our way down.  We rang the last doorbell on the bottom, and were immediately greeting with the howling of a german shepherd. It was at about this point that I realized that this was probably a stupid idea, but it was too late now. Some shirtless dude stumbles into the porch, clearly seconds awake. Ryan and I stick out our chests trying to look tough, and in my meanest voice I sternly ask this guy (in French), “Toé, t’était au Barrymore’s hier soir, non?” (Hey you, you were at Barrymore’s last night, no?) Confused, the guy says no, pauses for a second then says “OH, you’re looking for your phone! Hang on.“. He steps back inside and returns moments later with the iPhone, my friend’s ID, debit and credit cards. No purse, no cash.

Turns out this guy is a cab driver and had found the phone and cards in the back seat of his cab at the end of his shift the night before. What we suspect happened is that whoever nabbed the purse went through it and realizing she couldn’t do much with a locked iPhone, chip-enabled bank cards or  Newfoundland drivers license, dumped them out and kept the cash, makeup and purse itself. Looking back, I should have asked the guy where he dropped off his last fare and gone and gotten the rest of it back (hey, I’d gone this far – why stop now!?) but I was relieved to have recovered the phone and cards so I just thanked the guy and headed back home.

Anyway, my disappointment with the Ottawa and Gatineau police force and my own stupidity aside, the moral of this tale is that if you have an iPhone – you need this app:

It is free and it works. Get it. Now.

M.

Stuck in my brain…

It was about a year ago that I heard Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” for the first time, and the song completely haunted me for weeks. Now, a year later – Adele has conquered the world, as evidenced by the gazillion Grammys she took home this past weekend. And good on her – she has one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard and she deserves the accolades!

But another song seems to have set up shop in my brain, and unlike “Rolling in the Deep” – I don’t want it to stay there.

The song is called “Brokenhearted” by a pop duo called Karmin, whose apparent claim to fame is posting quirky videos of themselves doing covers of other people’s pop hits. I myself had never heard of them until this past Saturday night when I saw them as the music guests on SNL. They performed two original songs, but the first one (the aforementioned “Brokenhearted”) has drilled a hole into my head, set up camp and won’t leave. Here is that performance:

I normally don’t go for the pop, hip-hop crap that seems to dominate the top 40 stations these days. I am and always have been a Classic Rock/Hard Rock fan at heart. But every now and then a pop song will catch me off guard (“Moves Like Jagger” anyone?), and before I know it I am tapping my foot, bobbing my head and downloading the damn thing from iTunes.

And I shamefully admit that this is one of those songs.

But I am not sure why. It’s not the band – while she isn’t ugly, she’s not mind-blowingly sexy either. And he (the other half of Karmin is the dude on the keyboards) just sort of blends in with the rest of the studio musicians. The performance itself wasn’t spectacular – she dances kinda weird and over-emotes with the facial expressions while he (keyboard dude) awkwardly looked at the camera during the “Uh-oh”s! In fact, I think my favourite person on stage was the drummer in the background doing his thing!

So what’s left other than the song itself. The girl has pipes, no doubt and sounds pretty good live. But I think what catches me is the damn guitar riff coupled with the solid drum track. It just makes you want to… shake it! (I myself did not, in fact, shake it – although I will admit I briefly thought about it.) I wouldn’t go so far as to say I am a Karmin fan, but I will definitely pay a little more attention to them.

So there it is. My latest commentary on what’s intruguing me from the world of pop culture. Because I know you were dying to know.

M.

2012! The home stretch…

First off – Happy New Year. I haven’t posted for months, and if anyone out there still checks this blog at all – I apologize. Life has been very hectic as of late and I simply haven’t found the time to add an update. So I took advantage of today (since I was home sick anyway) to at least check in.

So here we are 2012, the year – if you believe in that sort of thing – that the world is supposed to end. I personally, don’t subscribe to it but it got me thinking… if everything did come to an end in December of this year, would I have any regrets? Would there be things that I wished I had done or done differently?

I am the first to acknowledge that I have been very blessed in my life. I have my health, I have a wonderful family and great friends that love me and whom I love. I have gotten into my share of trouble and have made a lot of memories that will always remember fondly.  I have been more or less successful in each endeavour that I have taken on in life (with the exception of that little marriage mishap;-) and I have been fortunate enough to have travelled to a number of beautiful different places in the world (not nearly as many as I would like to, but I haven’t been entirely sheltered either).

So do I feel like I am missing out on something? Well, I would love to someday have a family, and if the world DOESN’T end this year, I am sure that will eventually happen. But that aside, there is only one thing that I really have on my ‘bucket list’. One thing that I absolutely have to do before I die. And that is…

NICKELBACK LIVE BABY!

M.

(…yes, I’m kidding.)

I’m an uncle!!!

On October 21 at 5:17 am Mountain Time in Calgary, Alberta… My nephew, Justin Jeffrey Blacklock was born.

Coming in at a healthy 7lbs 3oz, both he and mommy are doing fine! The whole Whittle clan (yes, all six of us!) is now here in Calgary and for the past three days we’ve been hanging out with Justin, Jeff and Heather as they adjust to their new lives as parents!

I can’t express how cool it feels to be “Uncle Mark” or how much I am gonna spoil this little guy!

M.

All Spun Out

It’s the labour day long weekend, and the sad realization that summer is pretty much over is descending upon me. It has been a great summer, both in terms of the weather (in Ottawa) and the activities and people that filled it! I think it was around this time last year, that I wrote about the smell of “Back to School Air” and the tinge of sadness that comes along with it… well, I am feelin’ it today for sure.

But the fall is fun too. New hockey season. New TV season. I can jog outside again! Plus, my new sports leagues all kick off in the next couple of weeks. I decided not to register for a city hockey league team this year. The late night (11pm) weeknight games just aren’t worth it anymore, so I am only playing in the RCHL on Saturdays. Instead, some of my pals and I joined the RA Centre’s indoor volleyball league, and we have the best team name EVER. We are called…(wait for it)…

BEST TEAM NAME EVER!

Sadly however, our team name might wind up being the best part of our game. There were no spaces available in the recreational division, so we are playing in the intermediate div. Even though most of us on the team have lots of experience in different team sports. none of us are really experienced volleyball players (the beach stuff doesn’t count), so I suspect we will get our asses handed to us for the first few games at least. But whatever, it should be fun.

I have also signed up for the fall squash league at my gym. For only $40 I get to play every Monday night against people of my calibre (I started as a Novice)… I haven’t played since I was living back home when I would play against my buddies Geoff, Craig and Jason at the Newfoundland Hotel fitness centre, but I LOVED IT! So I am really looking forward to getting back into it!

I have also been taking advantage of the free fitness classes that come as part of my Goodlife membership, the BodyPump and RPM classes in particular. BodyPump is great because it allows me to develop better muscle endurance through high reps with low weight (as opposed to my usual workout approach of higher weights for fewer reps), but the RPM spin class is INSANE. I have only been to a couple, and on my first night I approached the instructor before class and informed her that she was about to “… take my spin class virginity.” A devilish grin quickly spread across her face and she said she’d “… be gentle with me”. So she quickly showed me how to properly set up my bike and in no time I was up and pedalling away, feeling great.

And then the f*cking class started.

The instructor (who we will call Abby, because that’s her name) began by introducing me to the rest of the group (who I assumed were mostly regulars, because she knew most of them BY NAME!) and pointed out that this was my first spin class and that they should give me extra encouragement if I needed it. Great – as if I wasn’t feeling uncomfortable enough, now I had “ROOKIE” tattooed across my forehead. 

So we get started with the first track and for the first few minutes I was feeling OK. Then Abby tells us all to up our resistance and then stand up and tackle the first “hill”.

Now apparently Abby can tell when someone doesn’t have enough resistance on just by looking at their legs. So she gives me what I assume is the universal spin class hand gesture for “Turn up the resistance you slacker!” – which I did. Still not pleased, Abby then proclaims aloud “Come on Mark, you got more than that!”.

Not one to shy away from a challenge (even if I am in a room full of spandex clad strangers smirking at me), I confidently think to myself  “Oh it’s on now Abby” , as I cranked the resistance three more full turns. This seemed to make her happy and so for the next minute I cranked to the top of that hill with the best of ‘em. Then she instructed us to leave the same resistance on, but sit down and “race” to the end of the track for the remaining 30 seconds. As soon as my ass hit the seat it was like my legs were suddenly pedalling through quicksand.

And 30 seconds later I am practically in tears, reduced to a sweaty hyperventilating mess. Then I heard the real pain hit me… as I heard Abby say, “OK you guys – good warm up! Now let’s get started!”

Actually, it turned out that the warm up was the worst part for me. Around halfway through the class I found my second wind and the right resistance for each segment and by the end of the hour I was exhausted, but felt great! So, Abby, if you ever read this I want you to know that for the first ten minutes after I met you, I hated you more than I ever thought it was possible to hate another human being. But by the end of class, you won me over. So thanks for the kick in the arse – I needed it!

I hope to write more this fall… I neglected my blog over the summer, so I plan to make up for it in the coming months – so stay tuned!

M.