Saturday, September 20, 2014

Whirlwind

We were back in Newfoundland last weekend. Cathy's brother, my brother-in-law, got married. That meant a ridiculously brief trip back to St. John's. We left Iqaluit on Wednesday afternoon, arrived early Thursday morning (1 am) and then caught a plane back on Monday morning at 6:30 and was back in Iqaluit by noon. So four days to see family, friends, do some Christmas shopping and have a wedding. No problem.

We're still exhausted and the colds we're both currently fighting I suspect were either caught in Newfoundland (or en route) or just because our immune systems are shot from the travel.

It was a good trip. Dan and Meg's wedding was really quite nice. They were married in Bowring Park on a miraculously beautiful day in mid-September. My mother-in-law is taking credit for that, by virtue of hanging rosary beads from the clothes line on Friday morning.

We had good weather. I'm not going to knock it.

Anyway, a nice ceremony on the Cabot 500 stage. My favourite bit was the lovely, and hilarious, reading from the journals of their grandparents. It was a nice touch. Then a gathering at the Yellowbelly pub downtown. We bailed at midnight, but apparently they shut the place down.

Cathy and I had an agreement going back to St. John's. She was going to be busy with wedding stuff, but I had to spend time with my parents or they were going to disown me. Which I did. It's been almost two years since I've been back to Newfoundland. It's just one of those things now where trips there are going to be rarer events. I only have three weeks vacation these days. They understand, I hope, that there's a limit to how much I can do in Newfoundland. Friends and family don't drop everything just because you're back for a visit. They have lives and commitments.

Plus, I want to travel. I spent most of my first 35 years in Newfoundland and saw very little of the rest of the world. I can't begin to explain how important travelling and seeing new places is to me right now. We're already planning next summer's trip.

But I hung out at Shoppers' Drug Mart with my mom and got to watch her in action. Which is always impressive. Everyone knows my mom. Or, as she said, "Even the dogs know me at this point." Which is true. I was chatting with my friend Karin about her over brunch and we agree...she could teach master classes on customer service. Or become a consultant. Everyone gets attention. She's insanely friendly and helpful. She gives honest advice at the cost of an immediate sale because it's just good customer service (and the karma probably gets her triple the sales anyway).

I always knew she was good. Watching her work for an hour or so, I have a new appreciation.

I hung out with dad at his place for a bit, and did a power walk around Quidi Vidi Lake and the Virginia Park Trail. I also got a crash course in how much my home has changed since I left. It's been nine years. Things are going to change. But the influx of money finally hit me this time. Not sure why not before. Perhaps because I've only been home at Christmas and maybe the snow and crappy weather hides the money. But man, it's gotten silly in town.

Just in my area the old Janeway Apartments are gone and a massive new retirement complex is getting ready to open. The old Virginia Park Plaza is gone and a new 5-story condo complex is being built and they've broken ground on a new elementary school to replace the one I used to go to.

I remember growing up and Quidi Vidi Village (The Gut) was a bit of a dump. It had the worst weather in town and was generally run down. Now there are gourmet restaurants, million dollar homes and floods of tourists. Pleasantville is being transformed from old military buildings into houses. I saw more Porches in town in four days than I did in Vegas in a week. It feels like every surplus bit of green space in town is being converted to condos of some kind.

It's just very...jarring. I'm glad to see St. John's have an influx of cash. I would never begrudge it. And those things I mentioned being changed? They're all necessary. The apartments were rundown. The Plaza was a dive. My old school should have been replaced 20 years or more ago. And good riddance to those military buildings in Pleasentville.

Still, it just feels like it's being...wasted. For every awesome thing I see being done with the money (Mallard Cottage in the Gut is lovely), I see a ton of condo units or just unending suburban sprawl with no character. I wish there was more creativity and cleverness with the money. Maybe I've just missed it, but I don't think so. Newfoundland won't be the first place to get stupid with its oil wealth and at least no one has taken to building 120 story tall buildings out by Cape Spear (yet. Give Danny Williams some time). It's just kind of disappointing. I wish the province was being more like Norway and less like, well, pretty much every other place that hit an oil lottery ticket.

St. John's is bigger and richer...just not sure it's better.

But maybe I'm a grumpy ex-pat who should just shut up...

Last Five
1. 99% of us is failure (live) - Matthew Good*
2. Saviour - Ron Hynes
3. Hustling - Foster the People
4. Dark days - Punch Brothers
5. Crosseyed - Brendan Benson

1 comment:

Kirsten said...

If it makes you feel any better, it's happening everywhere in the world. Developers develop purely because they can make money at it, not for the overall betterment of society.