Safeway's Struggling in Calgary

It was in the news that one of a big Safeway supermarkets in northeast part of the city will be closed soon. I'm sot surprised. With the prices that this supermarket offers, not to mention the kind of food, in that part of the city which is mostly the resident of refugees of Afghan, Arab, African, Sikh, Pakistani and so forth, they should have been closed long time ago! I remember that I shopped at that location maybe once back in 2005 when I shared a townhouse with The Microbe, not far away from there. There's a huge supermarket adjacent to that Safeway which imports foreign food, suitable for some of the nationalities I just named them. Barely anyone but a few Caucasian families who live nearby, shops at that Safeway. 

This is the second Safeway supermarket that is closing in the area. There was another one on 33 St. SE, not too far from this location, that I used to go for shopping almost 10 years ago. It was a small store but had all the merchandise. It's a Rexall pharmacy now. There's a Co-Op supermarket right across the street but I don't remember going to that even once.

The regional managers have to study the neighbourhood and see what the people's eating habit is in there. As well they have to see what the average income of the neighbourhood is. You can't just go and open a supermarket and expect to make money. I'm sure more locations will be closed unless Safeway think of a way to stay competitive. If I can pay less for what I'm buying, why would I pay more?! There are many locations of Safeway close to other supermarkets which when you step in, you realize that not even 0.1 of customers in that supermarket are shopping here! Canada is becoming more like a shithole with a majority of poor refugees or low-income people who prefer to do their shopping either in Wal-Nasty-Mart or The real Canadian Super-Asshole(!) because when you're poor, you basically are looking for something to fill up your stomach. You don't look at the label and whether it is healthy or not. You just look at the price! The cheaper, the better! Unless you're an East Indian! In that case because you're born cheap, you'll die cheap! So if there's an item for $2.25 in one store and a similar one for $2.15 in the other store, they will definitely go for the second one! 

The said two so-called supermarkets have both the disgusting, disgraceful and inhumane customer service you can imagine but they have cheap items and that's what people need today. Here is the list of struggling supermarkets around the city:

1- Safeway in Westbrook Mall. There's a Wal-Nasty-Mart Supercenter adjacent to it. Every time I go in there, there's barely any customer.

2- Safeway in Westhills. There's a Real Canadian Super-Asshole across the street. There's not a time of the day that you go in there and it's not crowded. The said Safeway barely has any customer but old retired Caucasians!

3- Safeway in 36 St. NE. There's a big Wal-Nasty-Mart just across the street. I don't know what Safeway wad thinking when they opened this location in Ghetto!

Safeway however has been successful in inner city locations because these big supermarkets don't have locations there. Examples are 8th Street SW and 10th St. NW locations. These are mainly the residents of young Caucasians who don't know their asses from their elbow! They are already all broke and have no clue of how to spend the little they have. Besides there's no other nearby store. So business is booming. I really don't know what these guys who call themselves marketing manager or whatever similar title, do on their daily routine! Why in the hell would you open and operate a supermarket or a restaurant in a neighbourhood where most of the population is refugees and asylum seekers! These people had never seen half of the stuff that are sold in a today's supermarket in North America before escaping their devastated homeland! They didn't know what a restaurant or for example Pizza is! Another good examples are the Pizza Hut in Falconridge Dr. in northeast where the majority of the population is from Indian sub-continent. They shut it down several years ago and now it's an East Indian or better to say Punjabi-Sikh restaurant. Or The Cheesecake Cafe in on 36 St. in northeast again which is Applebee's now. This one as well was turned to East Indian restaurant as well but didn't last long because there are too many of them in that part of the city now and we'll see how Applebee's is going to do.
(Photo; Safeway at times mails coupons which provides the shopper with Air miles. I regularly check them but rarely use them. However this week I got their egg, lettuce and cheese, all because the prices were reasonable! It's not always like this but they are considering different solutions)

Navy Days

I usually tune in to the news while I'm driving and last week I heard of a display in The Military Museum, called Navy Days. I guess it was a sort of anniversary or something that they displayed Navy items in the museum. I called The Chef and he agreed to accompany me although I later regretted inviting him! The Chef is a nice guy but a pure idiot but that's not the subject of this post!

We were there around 14:00 I guess and as soon as we parked and walked toward the building I saw a gentleman in uniform and asked him about the display. We were looking at a T-72 on the grounds of the museum and he encouraged us to go inside and see the displays. He was very talkative and nice. He asked us were we were from and I said that he said he know a lot of history about Persian Empire. After a few minutes of talking when I told him that I had an application with the Navy he went silent! I think he didn't like the fact that a foreigner and a non-Caucasian might become a member of the Royal Canadian Navy! I wonder how he would have felt, had I told him I would enroll into as an officer! 

I learnt during this display that Canada once had an aircraft career. It was decommissioned in 1970. This airplane, an F2H was part of that career fleet and now on display in the Military Museums. It's called the Last Punch!

Anyways we went our tour by looking around different items. The place was not crowded just a few people. The rest were veterans and a few seemed to be the current crew. The place although small but had so many small items to display, many of them which I had never seen before. There were also very nice items for silent auction including a set of 3-piece German Nazi porcelain from 1939 and 1945. Unfortunately being out of work for more than a year didn't allow me to bid for any and The Chef is clueless of anything. He was looking at everything with lots of shock(!) and would whistle as a sign of wonder! I had to tell him to be quiet, quite often! 

We spent around one hour in there and it was good. As the guy said it in the beginning you would need longer hours and maybe even more than a day to see and read everything in detail. 

(Photo, top: This Churchill's quote sounded very interesting to me! Although Germans efforts to cut the line of supply to Britain was eventually unsuccessful, as seen partially in Das Boot, but caused indisputable  harms to the Allies fleet. This mannequin portraits a German submarine or as they call it themselves Das Boot captain which again reminds me of the wonderful movie of Das Boot)

A Little Gathering in Murrieta

The manager of one of the volunteer works I do, e-mailed me a few weeks ago and indicated that there would be a dinner meeting with the other members of the group. Good! I had no idea where or what Murrieta was when I received the information. It's such a luxury restaurant in downtown Calgary, of course! Where else? 

It's a very nice place and expensive but it's kind of hidden although it has its big sign. As a custom in Canada they serve Red Wine during and after the dinner but I can't drink it because of my problem Gout! So one of the guys asked me what I wanted instead and I ordered a shot of Vodka. It's just a small glass of Vodka and a few ice cubes and a wedge of Lime but costs some $7.5! You get a bottle of 200 ml for $8 probably! 

Anyways there were as many as probably 11 people, if I remember clearly. Not that it's very important!. All working! I was the only pathetic one but I revealed that to one person only, I guess! 

The appetizers were not bad. Then we ordered the main. I ordered a Steak with Salad instead of Asparagus which is in the list of my diet and Mashed Potato which is nothing but starch and a little bit of Butter, probably. The Steak size was so small but for someone who has Gout was enough! red meat, Red Wine, Asparagus and few other items are in the list of diet for the people who have Gout and that day I stayed away from two and had one of them only but a small portion. The Steak was cooked very well. I like my Steak well-done, the type most of people don't eat here but It had come out nicely and I enjoyed that. The side Salad was good good portion too. 

There was no dessert after the meal but people ordered hot drink. I didn't. I was good. When the drinks came over they all not only look very good but smelled good as well. Not that I regretted why I had not ordered! If I get a chance to go there again, I will order one hot beverage instead of an alcoholic one. 

Generally Murrieta is a very nice restaurant with good service, good food and good environment. If you're not worried about your bill, it is highly recommended. I tried not to order expensive food because I'm not a fucking cheap bastard who has never eaten good food. I probably ordered the smallest and lest expensive Steak but if I get a chance to go again, and that would be if I get a good job, I will order whatever I like despite the price. 5 out of 5.
(Photo: This is a type of advertisement on the entrance to the building where Murrieta is located. I don't have any photo from inside. It would have been seen as a very odd act, had I taken photo during our gathering!)

Garbage Makers

One of the biggest issues that the world has been facing for a few decades now is the problem with garbage! And how did this become a major issue for human being? When Westerners introduced the nasty and disgusting products such a plastic bags, the things that hardly can be recycled! I guess I read it somewhere that it takes a million year or an astronomical number of years like that to have a plastic bag to be going back to nature! It's nothing! It's similar to saying that I have a chance to leave for Nepal tomorrow and summit Mt. Everest by the end of next week!! I remember when I was a little kid in the old country, probably Grade 1, garbage collectors had a big cart that they pushed and we collected all sorts of trash in  a bin, with no plastic bag and when he would show up, he would dump our bin in his big cart and would go the next door neighbour! This of course was very hard for the man. Then plastic bag was introduced and of course they sold their machines all around the world because those machines, which make plastic bag and similar products require raw material. So they can have you attached to themselves or vise versa for years! This is what that Western countries have been doing for decades now! Then there was a time that they taught you how to make the raw material but then you needed other equipment to make them. So basically you are depended on them forever!

It was in the news a few months ago that fishermen in the Pacific near Canadian coast caught more plastic bag than they caught different fish in 2015! Careless people have been destroying the earth and still haven't learnt from their mistakes! I don't even know why we have Environment Canada, Green Party and all other shit like that!! Every time I go to a supermarket I hate these assholes more and more. Every fucking idiot walks around with a big cart and puts every fucking single piece of fruit or vegetable in a plastic bag that these motherfucker disgusting thieves of Wal-Naty-Mart, The Real Canadian Super-asshole or other motherfucker cartels provide! These piece of nasty, stinking craps don't care about the environment or how big the landfill becomes every month. They just care about the money they make. As long as the nasty disgusting, ugly creature fills his or stomach with mostly the garbage they sell, they don't care how many rolls of plastic bag is used in their supermarket.

The only retailer that refrains from giving you these fucking plastic bags are Community Natural Foods and MEC. Community Natural Foods is in fact a joke mostly! They have so many product s that you can buy them everywhere else and they're just more expensive in there! The other thing is the nasty disgusting, Cancer-causing products they sell in their store and call it natural! Every fucking idiot knows that processed meat of any kind is the biggest cause of Cancer and that's because of the nasty chemicals and preservatives they add to them. I'm getting derailed from the main subject. 

In a nutshell in the society that money has the utmost priority why would they care about plastic and its nasty affect on the environment!

(Photo: Plastic bags containing Brussels Sprouts has recently appeared in Co-Op!! I have a little doubt that no preservative has been added. We all know that many of vegetables and fruits are genetically modified to have a longer shelf life but they must have added chemicals to these Sprouts as well. What the hell is wrong with you disgusting careless greedy people that have to stuff bags with every damn thing you intend to sell to people?!?!)

Early Start of Winter

Winter started early this year. At least so far. I always mild and dry winters such as last year's. The first snow was seen on Fri. and a little the day after and then the next two days including today. I haven't still adopted myself to the weather(!) but I made a bad decision and bought a pair of waterproof Timberland from Camper Village for $125.98 today. I didn't want to do that especially with this disappointing situation in the economy that the city has by 9.5% unemployment which is the highest among the 30 main cities of Canada but before that I went to a local Wal-Nasty-Mart and tried two pairs of theirs and felt not really good! 

I know this is stupid but in the past 5 years I always needed a pair of shoe for winder and never bought because I don't like boots and was always concerned about the price but this year is no joke because this pair of Adidas I have and wear on daily basis is very easily broken and provides no protection against cold and rain. I do have a pair of Dakota work boots(!) which the damn company paid for it back in 2012 when I was sent to the site but those are heavy and not comfortable at all. I guess they cost some $350 but pour the ones who have to wear them in 12 hours shifts! I guess if I can pass the Basic Officer Training Qualification and other training and become an officer have to wear this kind of shit every day for hours. 

Anyways it's -2 C at the moment and the forecast says the next week will be dry. I hope the dryness won't last long. At the same time I need my exercises and perhaps a few good winter hikes.

(Photo: This is a popular hedge that you see almost on every street in Calgary with small Blueberry-like fruit and they are beautiful. In Autumn they turn red and yellow such as these one that I took near The Chef's house where they have frozen frost on them)

The Disturbing Anniversary

This is not probably someone would want to remember but one year ago the motherfuckers threw me out of the company! One year passed so fast. Just these past 14 years and so which seemed went by fast! I met K. M. A. today after a while. In fact she met with me because I asked him to be my reference for Firearms Licence and he accepted. He seems alright and was a bit nicer than usual but went through the form line by line! I wouldn't probably do that but it's OK. I mailed the form after The Chef acted as the other reference for the from. Of course not with the same attention! K. M. A. is also the guarantor for the form. He told me something, very calmly, that left me in a shock, a little bit, at the end. He said that his little girl was autistic! D. H., my first landlord has an autistic boy and I know that he hears well but cannot talk. If that's the illness of the little girl that's devastating. Good that he seemed calm and relaxed. At the same time what can he do? He has to deal with the problem forever. Then in the afternoon we went to Red Deer Lake Meat with The Chef again but he complained about the high price and how broke he is and he got nothing but a few packs of Beef Stew. I got a small pack of Pork Chop. The place had good customer for Thanksgiving being on the way but although I'm thankful every fucking day(!) we are not going to buy a Turkey this year. They had fresh ones! 

Why did Canadians Condemn the Anti-Muslim Poster in U of C?

It was in the news a few day ago that a number of anti-Muslim posters were seen in University of Calgary. This is quite similar to the anti-Sikh posters which were seen in University of Alberta a few weeks ago. I'm not surprised at all. Obviously there are people in this country who don't like the immigration policies of Trudeau. The problem is that they have to have other ways to have their voices heard. If you call this democracy then you will have to either go to your MLA or MP or simply have a rally but I guess you're too busy with your drinking, your pot smoking, your iPhones and your girl or boyfriend! Putting a few posters up won't take much time. Going to the MP and have a through talk with him or her or organizing a rally requires lots of energy, planing and effort! 

However the question is why the university and some Caucasian people condemn this. The answer is very simple: In this economy if Muslim students boycotted an university, the result would be catastrophic! The university and in general the province and the country would be deprived from a steady and reliable source of income and no school wants that! 

Did you know the majority of Master's and Doctorate students are foreigners and many of them from Muslim countries? That's because they can't get a job so they think by simply getting more education they can increase their chance of being hired which is not the case! Canadians know that. Universities know that too. So the idiots keep going to the university and make money for them! It's separate from the business they bring to the city. Who wants that to go away!? No one! 

It's not that Canadians like Muslims or in general foreigners. It's their business that they like. One the cartoons of Islam's prophet was the center of attention a few years ago, many Muslim countries boycotted Danish dairy products and those guys were in real trouble. I don't know the detail but I guess an apology was made and the market went back to normal. This is the world that the Westerners create themselves. These days Westerners need other nations more than any other time! They are basically dependent on them: Cheap labour comes to Canada and the US from Latin America and Asia, They need silly countries such as Saudi Arabia and UAE to sell their weapons to and many other complex relationships which cannot be ignored!

(Photo: The only picture I found in Internet of the posters in U of C. This is quite nice but not working!) 

The Neighbourhood was not the Issue!

I don't follow Football. Not that I dislike it or anything! In fact I don't follow any professional sport these days but follow the news for sure. One of the players of Calgary Stampeders, a very young Black guy, originally from Detroit, was shot dead last week. He was killed by a Black guy who later denied. He still has to appear in the court and they will determine his fate. He will most likely go to jail for a few years and will be freed. He is charged with Second Degree Murder. He still have to be convicted. 

His mother or sister said that they were happy about him moving to Calgary because they considered the city and generally the country a much safer place compare to the US! 

Yes. Calgary is safer but when the trouble appears you still could be shot and dead and the trouble was the culture of Black people (or some like to call them African-American) which is all (maybe most) about violence, swearing, street fight, you name it. I have no issue with Black people and certainly condemn the excessive violence that the police has shown in ports of the US toward these people but isn't it the time that Black people review their own behaviours and try to stay away from things such as drugs, street fights, prostitution and all other sorts of unlawful act? 

Louis Farrakhan, the leader of Nation of Islam has mentioned that in one of his speeches. I don't agree with all of Nation of Islam ideology, particularly after listening to a few of his speeches and watching Malcolm X but I 100% agree with what he says about the filth that some Black people are drawing themselves in. 

When they start behaving normally, when they stop swearing continuously in their songs, when they stop dressing abnormally, when they stop fighting for tiny problems in NBA and when ..., then they gain full respect of others and I'm sure tragedies such as Hicks' murder will significantly decrees. I am looking forward to see that day in near future. There are many good examples in today's US society that Black people look at. Why would they chose maniacs such as Tupac as their idols!! That's what I don't understand! Someone who chooses these kind of people as whom he or she want to be similar to when he grows up, he or she should expect other consequences such as being dead.
(Photo: Louis Farrakhan, the leader of group Nation of Islam is a controversial figure that has said things that if he had said them somewhere else, he would have been dead by now! I do not agree with the majority of his ideas but he warns people from joining gangs, consuming alcohol and drug, engaging in prostitution and in general immoral things that many find them OK and normal in today's North American society. He once traveled to Iran to but I don't know what the purpose of his trip was and whether he achieved that or not. His speeches remind me of early Khomeini's speeches and some of Adolf Hitler's! Same excitement, same propaganda and maybe the same false promises as well! I have to do a little more study on him.)

Wyndham-Carseland Provincial Park

The Chef called me last weekend and we got together after nearly a month for a nice home-made meal. I had not called him for a while because the last time I was at his place he got drunk and acted very weirdly! So then when I was leaving his place he said that we should go outside the city for a barbecue and little walk. I accepted. When I called him on Fri. he said he was sick and he had to come home early from work to rest. I said we would do the short trip one another weekend. He then called me in the afternoon and he said he was fine(!) and wanted me to plan for the trip.

I had a bag of Shrimp in the freezer and got another one based on his requested and marinated them both. In the morning we headed south on southeast side of the city and followed Highway # 22X to Carseland, a small rural community with grain fields and cattle farms around. It was a cloudy day and the closer we got to the town, the thicker the fog got. At spots where the speed limit was 100 Km/h, I had to slow down to 60 Km/h in order to avoid from going in to the ditch or having a head-on collision! Our destination was Wyndham-Carseland Provincial Park beside Bow River.

It's a fact that every park in Canada I have been to has been near either a river, a lake, an ocean or a range of mountains. How else would you have a park, if there's no water!? Maybe Grassland National Park of Canada that we wanted to go this past Sep. and the asshole, The Hope canceled the trip, is the one without a major water source but there must be ponds or steams.

Anyways we missed the entrance to the park and went toward Mossleigh, of course in Vulcan County! I realized that we had not paid enough attention to the park's sign and turned around. Being a cloudy, foggy and rainy day, the park didn't have many visitors. Of course in its Campground section there were a few motor homes. We went to the Day Use Area and parked and then went for a short walk. The Chef wanted to eat. So we went back and started preparing the pit for our traditional barbecue. He had a half of bag of charcoal left from the previous trip and dumped all in the pit! I thought it was too much but at the end of the day I saw that nothing was left but a handful of ash! He had marinated chicken drum-sticks and other pieces the night before and tried to get fire going on the pit but it was not easy. It was damp and rain was coming down.

He eventually managed to get the fire started and put three big skewers of Chicken. The Day Use Area of the park was decorated with a few signs including one prohibiting consumption of alcoholic beverages but The Chef cannot pass one day without booze! He even drinks with his breakfast! He had brought a bottle of Gin, half full and a few beers. There were only one of two vehicles around. So when we were waiting for the Kebab to be prepared he finally found a moment and poured himself a cup of Gin and mixed it with the Coke we had bought on our way.

The first try of the chicken showed that the marinate mixture is very good but they were not still cooked completely. We waiting another half and hour or so and while the rain continued The Chef boozed himself with the Gin until we had the chicken ready. I enjoyed the pieces while standing in the rain because I didn't want to sit on the wet bench. The Chef was drunk and seemed not too happy about the food! He then used the thin Skewers and made four Shrimp Kebabs but putting them on what was left from Charcoal! 

What was a surprise to me is how effective alcohol was on him. He has been drinking heavily for years and even got Ulcer because of that and still gets drunk buy drinking a little. He was then acting weirdly again and asked me to pour him the remaining of the bottle and join him! No one was around. I poured him a big cup and finished the bottle and then opened a can of Beer just to shut him up! The fact is I had too much chicken and needed something to get them all down. One Beer was good and enough. he recently has started this 8% but cheap Beer called Black Label. One Beer has no affect on me obviously after eating that much Chicken and bread but he was out! He asked me to give him a piece of bread and when I gave him he said he would like some butter on it! I told him we didn't have butter there! He asked me why! And he then added that he would like some jam as well. I told him we should get going and eventually made him follow my orders! He was completely disoriented and I knew I had to be very careful not to trigger him! We divided what had been left of the Chickens and Shrimps and gathered our stuff and got the hell out of there. On the way back I realized that he was slurring and had difficulty speaking! This was a difficult moment but that The Chef! When he drinks he at times becomes out of control!

Fortunately nothing happened on the way back to the city and we managed to get ourselves to a McDonald's for a coffee. I had hoped that drinking coffee cuts his drunkenness. Not very effective, I found it was! I finally dropped him at where he had parked and directed him to the road to his home. I hope that he had no problem on the way and reached home safely! He told me he had slept between the hours of 03:00 and 05:30 on that day because he was busy with marinate mixture and Chickens! I believed that because he fell sleep a few times when I was driving back to the city. I hope he didn't fall sleep at the wheel when driving home. 

As per Wyndham-Careseland P. P., it is a nice place but like all of the parks it should be visited in summer although it has it's beauties in Autumn too but not when it's foggy and rainy! We didn't walked around to discover everything except for a while at the beginning of our visit when we saw those beautiful White Pelicans which you see their photos here. The park offers some front-country hiking too and of course had campground which I barely am a fan of!

(Photo: A group of White Pelicans were peddling in Bow River. Lucky us that our trip had more than just Kebab and rain! Unfortunately the photos are not very good due to the weather condition in that day)

Firearms Safety Course (Restricted)

The firearm safety course for Restricted firearms which are the handguns, are quite similar to the previous course, the course for Non-restricted firearms. It's a shorter course because most of the topics are already covered. The main difference is the type of cartridges. There are others as well which if you wanted to know, you would have to take the course!

Today's handguns are mostly semi-automatic. Revolvers are no longer used by law enforcement agencies. Muzzleloader is of course for target shooting and collection but is an interesting handgun to have and work with if you follow all of the safety concerns.

The other thing that you learn is that handguns are either Single-Action or Double-Action. Single-Action is the one which by squeezing the trigger it does only one thing. You need to cock the gun yourself every time you want to shoot. Double-Action fires and cocks at the same time and of course is faster.

This course was thought by the same gentleman whom I had a conversation with last time. Nice person and knowledgeable too but as usual there were jerks who could not shut up with their nonsense stories! This group was also less friendlier which I didn't care. At least in the previous course there were a few guys that I spent a few times with and we talked about different things. 

I did better on this course and got higher scores both on the written test and practical. Now I have to send my documents to RCMP to get my card and then hopefully use this for a job application. If can't use it maybe one day I can practice target shooting. 

(Photo: A deactivated single-action handgun is seen here. This was used by us for practicing. It was a good practical experience)