On the beer front, the BrewNosers Homebrewing and Beer Appreciation Club is now entering its 24th year of existence. I believe that in all that time, there may have been only one month in which no meeting was held, and that was due to a major storm. How many other associations and clubs can claim that sort of consistency? And all that with no officers, no dues, no formal structure, just a common interest and love of beer.
In wine, the number of locally trained Sommeliers keeps increasing, gradually insinuating a knowledge of wine, and a demand for better wine, into the local restaurant scene. And finally, the local restaurants seem to be realizing how good the corkage laws are here, and doing something about it. There are enough now offering fair corkage that I have resolved not to choose to eat in a place that does not offer this service, even if I am not bringing. I was asked to judge a couple of wine competitions this past year, including one the got my name in the media, something I normally have avoided (to allow my brother's professional career to proceed with less confusion, but he is famous enough now I don't need to hide). And I got in a great trip to Tuscany with Mark DeWolf's By The Glass touring company.
In business, I started a new engineering company, in the South Shore Village of Chester, right in the "downtown" close to the pub. This is going great guns, and allows me to have support for some of the work I get that I'd rather not do - a perk as one gets older and more experienced. I seem to be being called upon more and more for opinion type consulting, and I guess that, too, is a function of getting older.
Finally, in that vein, I was recently appointed to HRM By Design's Downtown Design Review Committee. But don't expect that to temper my opinions here. I still think that the Halifax Sewage Treatment Plant site selection, and subsequent "architecture" is one of the top ten government mistakes ever made in Nova Scotia. The whole thing, including the process, was a lemon from the start. In fact, creating that list of that Top Ten Government Blunders in NS may be a good blog post topic this year!
In the social media world, I have become very active on Twitter, and I find the immediacy of the information availability, and the spontaneity of the people who are active there, to be invigorating and somewhat addictive. (@brewnoser)
In the new year I'm off to Cayamo again, up to March in Montreal again, and, in July, taking a trip to Burgundy with Mark's group, which I expect will be totally incredible. Other than that, I'll be enjoying this place, this right-sized city.
So here's looking at another year of Drinking, Eating and Looking Around in Halifax.
