Kenora’s hidden gem for swimmers
By far one of my most unforgettable moments in Kenora was about two years ago when my former boss closed the office for a day in the summer and took us out on his boat. The sun was beating down mercilessly and the water was ridiculously beautiful and extremely warm. We jumped in for a while out in the middle somewhere and swam around… and then we drove the boat off to an island which I don’t think I’ll ever forget. Apparently it’s called Scotty’s Island.
If you look at the picture above you’ll get a satellite shot of the beach with what I’m almost certain is my boss’s smaller boat there ha! That shows where it is in relation to the town of Kenora. Or below is an interactive Google map with a satellite shot of the beach. Click on the picture above if you can’t see the map below.
Words can’t describe those couple of hours. I was having a real bad domestic life full of arguments, screaming and shouting every single day without a moment’s rest. This beach made all that worry and stress disappear in about ten minutes.
The beach is in a secluded cove… although when we went there there were a fair few people… it was so beautiful it was worthwhile. If you are into boating and love swimming… this beach is a MUST if you visit Kenora. Although make sure you visit on a sunny day of at least 26 celsius – just ask a local for direction to Scotty’s Island. You won’t regret it – that’s a guarantee!
Encouraging foreigners
One of the marked differences between Kenora and London… or any other major metropolis is the distinct shortage of foreign business owners. Almost everywhere you go in England you’ll find either a Chinese takeaway or an Indian corner shop. Kenora has two Chinese restuarants – my personal favourite being Hings – but there’s no Sikhs or Hindus running cornershops.
A while back when I worked at Overdrive Design Labs I was speaking to Jennifer Rasmussen who is Kenora’s economic development officer… I mentioned to her that in England hundreds of thousands of Indians migrated to England and have successfully opened corner shop businesses and many other types of businesses that have flourished. I said to her that Kenora ought to be targeting Indians from the U.K and India to come to Kenora and start a business. Kenora managed to attract two doctors to move here and set up shop… so why not business owners?
It’s due to their culture and the way many Indian parents constantly pressure their children and strive for them to be successful that’s allowed Indian business owners to flourish. For instance, the seventh and eighth richest people on the planet are Mukesh Ambani, and Lakshmi Mittal. You can further see the success of many Sikh’s by peeking at SikhTruth.com – a list of highly successful sikhs in whatever they do.
Of course I’m not expecting any billionaires to move to Kenora… but somebody needs to wake up and try and to exploit the untapped resource of foreign business owners. It could only help Kenora.
Blogging in a small town about a small town
One of the problems of living in a small town is that everyone knows your business, and you should assume if someone doesn’t know your business – they soon will. Everyone knows everyone and if you say something about somebody they’ll hear about it.
That presents a tiny dilemna for me – a dilemna, but definitely a tiny one. I know that if I blog about something… a situation… a person… a business in town they’ll hear about it sooner or later – particularly because now I’ve started a Google Adwords campaign for this site. So what am I to do? Blog to accomodate people’s feelings, or blog the truth? Well I think I’m going to be blogging here according to my conscience.
For instance… if someone tells me in confidence that there’s a paedophile living next to the green house on Blah street you can be sure I’m going to out her or him. Or if I find out that someone is insulting the United States and revealing it might incur a cross-border airstrike with a Hellfire missile I’ll probably keep my mouth shut.
The point I’m trying to make is with this blog I’m going to try and do what’s right for the greater good – but not at the expense of what’s right. Wish me luck hahaha!
New experience in Ktown
My sister Marie recently came to visit finally after six years in Kenora. We had a few disagreements but for the most part it was one of the best weeks I’ve ever had in Canada. I was a little bit shocked at how used I came to having my sister around – that never happened in England ever.
Whilst she was here we both did two things for the first time… we went on the MS Kenora, and we also went fishing on the Winnipeg River on a boat. I’d been fishing before but always from the shore. Marie spent quite a while around my children’s mother’s family and got along famously with them. Every single one of my children’s auntie’s first line upon meeting my sister was ‘you guys look like each other’. Click on the picture below and judge for yourself…
Here are some pictures my sister Marie took whilst we were fishing on the Winnipeg River, and on the MS Kenora.