daft batty

bronchitis, coughing like old man steptoe

Steve_P

Awwwww really sorry to hear that.

Rest lots of fluids and all that. Most important don't lose your sense of humour.

Get well soon.

Oakvillian

Come now, dbd, I don't think even you could realistically claim that builders in Halifax in the 1780s - 1820s were putting up "knock-offs" of a building down the coast in Boston of about the same period (Faneuil Hall was built in the 1740s, the neoclassical Quincy Market in 1826). The Boston waterfront and Halifax's Historic Properties were both developed as harbour warehouses... you may as well say they were both knock offs of Surrey Quays or the West India Dock warehouses in London, or of the Inner Dock in Bristol. And like former wharf warehouses the world over, they've been converted into cafes, bars, restaurants, museums and shops for the new waterfront trade in tourism. Cute, yes, if that floats your boat. Knockoff, no.

dbd33

The original buildings weren't knock offs, just the redevelopments. I find all those old-buildings-rendered-as-restaurants-with-high-end-retail to be much of a muchness, is it Baltimore, is it Halifax, is it Boston? Something similar happens in Europe of course, the offerings around the Oslo harbour are similar to those in the Docklands, but I visit them less often and so the homogeneity is less obvious to me.

Calgal

LOL - you just 'might' have a point, there...


Awwww sorry to hear it, too! Take Steve's advice - take the PC to bed, rest and have a laugh on here.

Novocastrian

Nah! It's because you're from Murton Colliery.

(Hope you get better soon batty.)

Paul Wildy

Halifax has loads of pubs. Apparently more than Toronto (and Halifax has only a fraction of its population). Also we have lots of old buildings (depending on your definition of old). Okay so thay are not gothic but plenty from the 1700s and 1800s (public buildings as well as houses).

To be fair most shopping still seems to centre around malls but IMHO thats not a bad thing given that you can actually park at them. This is where the UK is going wrong - when you drive into the "town" then all the shops are in lovely old buildings (places like Bracknell and Milton Keynes excepted) but you cant drive to them. You have to park miles away in a multi-story and pay 5 pounds to park even though you just wanted to pop into the bank to pay in a cheque.

Otherwise I would say most of this thread is generally aimed at places like Calgary rather than more historical areas like NS.

Novocastrian

I'm reminded of the classic exchange between John Cleese and Malcolm Muggeridge at the time that "Life of Brian" was released.

Muggeridge was prissily outraged at the idea of satirizing such things and dismissed the concept that it had value, by pointing out that in four hundred years people would have forgotten all about the film, "Not like the great Cathedral at Chartres", he smugly announced.

At which Cleese pursed his lips and slowly shook his head, "Ah Chartres, not a very funny building".

rwin

Calgary isn't less historical. Its just that most of its history happened since 1950

Steve_P

Most of Calgary's history happened well before 1950.

Admittedly the city is very new in relation to places like Halifax and Quebec City.

But it has been around since the 1870's and really started to grow when the railroad came through in the 1890's.

Paul Wildy

so you do have an "old" building then?

Steve_P

If you're referring to Calgary, we might even have two.

rwin

But, but, but... I used the winkie guy

Steve_P

I know that's why I used this guy.

dbd33

And another thing Canada towns have in common is visible wiring. Iaink's autumnal picture of the river has a wire dangling across it, so does the view from our driveway, outside the window here is a pole with a great tangle of cables. They should get some paddies over to Canada, to introduce the spade.