So Long PEI....

It's over.

If by some chance you're still checking this blog, you've probably noticed that I haven't posted anything for more than a year.

I created this blog as an account of my life on Prince Edward Island and for the last year I spent much more time living it than sitting around and thinking about it.

But now my Life on the Island is over and this will be the last post on this blog. I'm returning to Toronto to work for the CBC, ending my two-year adventure in the Maritimes.

I'm going to keep this blog up as long as I can as a reminder of those first few months when I first arrived and all the things I went through.

It was quite an adventure and one that will now live on in stories told over a drink with friends.

Now I must seek the next adventure...if you'd like to follow along, check out my page on MySpace...

Sharp-Dressed Man....

I clean up pretty good, eh? This is a picture of me from a recent charity event I hosted. It was a show with some musical performances and a fashion show to raise money for a local prescription drug awareness campaign.

Hosting events like that have been one of the unexpected highlights of my time here on the Island so far. I've really enjoyed doing them, not only because they're a lot of fun but because it also increases my connection and profile in the community.

Being an MC is also great practice as I continue to grow and develop as a person. It allows me the chance to show my personality and to perform in front of an audience. Certainly whatever I learn from working on the stage will benefit me in my TV career. The most obvious benefit is the confidence boost I get from knowing that I can hold the attention of a crowd and make sure they leave an event thoroughly entertained.

To date I've MCed about 5 or 6 events and each one has been a new and different experience. There's been a couple of charity events, a CD release, a music conference and a couple other events. Each one has posed unique challenges and I've learned something new from each one. It's also given me an appreciation for those who can step in front of a crowd and do a good job. The best ones are the ones who make it look easy and natural. I hope that's what people see when I get up on stage.

I'm planning to write a 2005 Year in Review entry for the blog sometime soon and I'm pretty sure that being an MC for these events will go down as one of the more unique experiences I've had in a year that's been full of challenges and surprises.

I thought about starting a draft of that Year in Review entry today, but there are still three weeks to go in December and if I've learned anything, it's that a lot can happen in a brief amount of time.

I'll be heading home for Christmas from December 23rd to Jan 3rd and I'm really looking forward to the chance to get back to T.O. and see my family and friends. It's not a lot of time to be back but I'm definitely going to make the most of it.

They call me the Natural.....

It's an odd thing that here on the Island I appear on television nearly every day of the week and I think nothing of it. Yet, there I was, last Wednesday afternoon, giddy as anything at the sight of a photo of myself in the local paper, on page 10 no less!

What would illicit such a response you ask? Well pictured that day on Page 10 and what you see above is me with my curling mates after winning my first ever Bonspiel!! Yes, it's true, it's true. Yet another accolade to add to my list of life's accomplishments, right up there with the time I ran onto the field after a soccer game in Barcelona, or when I crashed a wedding in T.O. this summer.

As you may recall, I'm a bit of a newbie to the world of curling. I dabbled in it briefly when I first arrived (check the blog's February archives). For me it was a chance to learn a sport I had always wanted to try. It also gave me the chance to meet people in the community. I curled in a number of events that required the teams to have a "new" curler. Having never thrown a rock in my life I more than qualified in that category.

To many people's surprise, I picked up the game rather quickly. Save for the momentary lapse in concentration brought on by early mornings curling hungover, I was usually pretty reliable when it came to making shots.

But was my initial success at the game just a fluke? Only my performance in season two would show if I was the real deal or not.

So that set the stage for last weekend. I stepped onto the ice on Friday for my second season of curling. I won't bore you with the details of each and every game, but we won that night. And we kept winning. We won all weekend long, until we reached the final on Sunday afternoon.

What had been, up until that point, a reasonably fun and light-hearted tournament, suddenly took on a more serious tone. Sure there were still smiles and jokes among the two teams, but there was tension in the air as everyone knew the importance of each shot.

The final game didn't even go the full 8 ends as we beat our opponents handily. Their skip didn't have his A-game that afternoon and we were firing on all cylinders. It was a great feeling at the end to win. Afterall, it's always fun to win, no matter what you're competing in. We had outlasted 23 other teams over the course of 3 days.

The prize for winning was a choice of gift certificates from various tournament sponsors. I chose one from a local restaurant valued at $30. Not exactly huge money, but still pretty decent for a first time curler like me. I was more excited about getting my picture taken for the paper.

Since that picture was been posted, I've been approached by a number of people in town surprised by my curling exploits. Including one gentleman who coached a local team here to the World Junior Curling Championships! Hmm, maybe I should enlist his help. Who knows, with a little hard work and training I could go far! Or, maybe I should just stick to my day job. Afterall, being a curling champion and a CBC reporter, it's been done.

Welcome Back....

It's hard to believe but as of this Saturday, Nov. 12th, it will be exactly one month since I returned to the Island from my lockout hiatus.

In total, I was away for six weeks, and when I returned I was surprised to see how little had changed since I had left. I'd run into people I knew and ask them "what's new?". Most just said "oh, you know, the usual", which translated meant nothing at all.

It's funny because in the three times I've been back to the city since I've been on the Island, I've always remarked how quickly things seem to change. A new condo here, a new restaurant there. If you blink, you might miss something. My friends would sometimes mock me when I pointed these out, telling me I was acting as if I'd gone away for years and years.

But upon my return to the Island, and seeing the glacial pace at which life here moves, I realized that I was in fact right. I also understood that the same slow pace of life that attracts so many people here is the same reason why, at this point in my life, I couldn't see myself settling down here.

I feel sometimes as if I'm on a different track than people here. Like I'm in the fast lane doing 20 over the speed limit, and everyone else is an old lady who can barely see over the dash doing 20 below. In fact, that analogy is the actual reality most of the time I'm driving here!

But while the things around me haven't changed all that much, I know that I myself have changed. Not just since I've returned, but in the last 10 months that I've been here.

I noticed it one afternoon. I was chatting with a friend and telling her about the blog I started when I first got here. After sending her the link I started re-reading some of the entries I had written. A few things jumped out at me as I read them.

First off, I remembered what a great writer I am :)

But seriously though, I heard in my voice unease, discomfort, a sense of loneliness. That's a good thing of course because it meant my words communicated all those things I felt when I first arrived.

Reading those entries now, I realized that I don't feel that way about this place anymore. Sure I still feel homesick and have the occasional bout of loneliness. But I've achieved a comfort level here that has replaced all of that.

With that new revelation in mind, I attended a news conference later that same day which further drove home the point. It was the usual government photo-op with politicians and businesspeople. But this time, instead of walking into a crowd of strangers, I walked into a crowd of friends, associates, and acquaintances (no conflicts of interest of course).

People said hi, like they always do. But it wasn't just the usual polite hello to the local news guy. Sure there were a few of those. But there were plenty more, "Heard you kicked ass at the curling club this week", and "Good to see you Saturday night", or "good to see you recovered from Friday night!".

Work-wise I think I've settled in well and things are going nicely. But it was always the after-work part of my life here that I had struggled with. Partly it was of my own doing. I had the opportunity to make friends, but many times I wouldn't pursue it. Now I'm cultivating friendships. I've got places to go, people to see and it's keeping me quite busy.

Part of my busy social agenda has been spent hosting local events. It actually started a couple months after I arrived. I was the MC for a local youth agency's event. Someone at the theatre saw how I did and recommended me for another event. Then a band that played at my first event asked me to host their CD release party.

Luckily the lockout ended when it did, because it allowed me to return in time to host my biggest event to date. I was the MC for a couple of showcases at Contact East. It's a music conference where industry types gather to see the latest talent. It was a blast, especially because it was more like an event I'd see in Toronto than here on the Island.

The snowball effect continued because, since that gig, I've been asked to host a couple more events and people around town are now thinking of me when they're planning an event. It's great because it gives me a chance to show my personality and practice performing in front of a live, large crowd. It also enhances my profile in the community. It makes me a part of the community, not just some guy from away who people see on TV.

I've gotten quite a number of compliments on my work and the fact that people continue to ask me to host events is a sure sign that I'm doing something right. It's quite a change from when I first arrived and no one here knew who I was.

As I take the time to reflect on my life here on the Island so far I can see that a lot has changed.

Of course, as the old saying goes, the only thing constant in life is change.

But I wonder now. If my level of comfort here is constant, does it mean it's time for a change?

Where have I been....?

It's been a while since I've posted here and for a very good reason, I haven't been on the Island! The whole point of this blog was to chronicle my time here. But, from August 26th to October 11th I was actually back home in Toronto.

I got that prolonged "vacation", thanks to the CBC lockout. Now while that was a terrible situation all around, being the positive fun-loving guy I am, I found a way to make it bearable. Not only for myself, but as it turns out, for many others as well.

I created a sort of online alter-ego to keep me entertained during the lockout. Little did I know he'd go on to become a national celebrity (within the CBC of course). As I look back now I realize it was a lot of work, but it was totally worth it.

What is this creation I speak of? To find out, click here.

And the top story is .... me!?

One of the odd things about the lockout is that many journalists like myself are no longer reporting the news, but we are the news.

Now, as we enter week 4, the CBC lockout is making news less and less and it is a struggle on both sides to make sure we maintain some sort of exposure in the public eye. However, in the initial stages of the lockout, stories about our situation were abundant, and suddenly I found myself answering questions from reporters, instead of the other way around.

It's quite interesting to be on the other side of the coin. In my case, it came on the third day of the lockout when some of my colleagues came up to picket with me in front of my office. I called the local paper and they sent their reporter down to interview us.

We were a reporter's dream. She had barely completed her first question before we started answering and the quotes came fast and furious. The reporter could barely keep up. I did find myself guarding what I was saying, making sure none of my quotes would come back to haunt me, but even still we were all quite candid.

After the interview was done, we were arranged for the customary picture to accompany the story in the paper the next day. We began with a couple staged poses in front of my office. We were told to look off into the distance and look thoughtful. Personally, I was just trying not to laugh.

Sure enough the story made the front page of the paper the next day, albeit below the fold. The top story that day was actually the reopening of a local historic property that had burned down a year ago. For a brief moment, we were also the front page of the newspaper's website. Although one of my friend's found it difficult to believe we made it there when the other headline on the page was "New Superintendent meets school Board"...talk about breaking news!

Well suffice to say, I had my 15 minutes of lockout fame and I hope that's all I ever have. In case you missed it the first time, here's that famous pic that will no doubt find a home on whatever desk I work at for the rest of my career. It will serve as a constant reminder of the lessons learned during this lockout, or at least it will teach me that I need a better "sad face".