Malcolm Johnston, Trenton Real Estate

The annual Santa Claus Parade in Trenton will be taking place this upcoming Sunday.

It's one of those events that are especially important in smaller communities. There is usually a fabulous turn out in Trenton every year no matter what the weather is like. It's not just kids who look forward to this event, adults are quite happy to attend as well. It gives us an opportunity to see people who we don't see all the time and to say hello.

It's fun to see the town transformed for a couple of hours and to see people milling about in a good mood. There's always lots of hot chocolate and candies for the kids. If you are particular about getting a good spot, then it's advisable to show up a little early to secure your place. The parade route does get a little crowded.

Century 21 has a float in the parade, and hopefully I can weasel out of my earlier vague affirmation that I might be able to participate in the parade. I don't think my waving arm is up to the task in 2011. I'm pretty sure that my candy-handing-out arm as also not at its best. I'm not spending as much time at the office as I usually do in the hopes that I'm not cornered and forced to be on the float. I'm a viewer, not a participator. That's my credo.

Canada Post will be participating this year, so if your kids have letters that have to go to Santa, you can bring them down and they will be collected and thrown out delivered to Santa Claus himself.

This year we will also be treated to the Tim Hortons School Band Challenge where local schools will compete against one another in an effort to win money for their school music programs. I know I'm looking forward to that particular part of the parade.

Also, if you could be so kind, please bring down an unwrapped toy or a non perishable food item. These items will be collected and will go towards making someone else's Christmas a little more bearable.

See you there.

I don't know for sure, but you probably get a lot of emails. I know I do. Most of them I just delete without reading.

When I fire up the old laptop every morning I dread logging into my email simply because of the sheer volume of correspondence I get. It seems that I'm subscribed to the newsletters of every real estate organization on the continent. I also get the usual solicitations to buy viagra, bid on cheap Chinese manufactured goods, purchase real estate related trinkets, join linking networks and buy domains and build websites. God forbid I should have posted anything witty on Twitter the previous day. Some days I just feel inundated with things to read. Some days I will have more than 200 emails in my in box.

The emails I despise the most are the ones that are simply entitled "Read All About It".

I will admit that the first person who came up with this was rather clever. The image of a newspaper boy standing on a street corner shouting out "Read All About It" is iconic. We associate the phrase with the delivery of important news, perhaps the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, the bombing of Pearl Harbour, or details about Jeniffer Anniston's love life. The first couple of times I recieved an email entitled "Read All About It", I was induced to open the email and read all about it. When I discovered that I wasn't reading anything important, just your garden variety every day crap, I was rather irritated.

My irritation has increased one-hundred fold in the ensuing years because this hackneyed phrase seems to have worked its way back into common every day usage. I will get five or six emails every single day urging me to "Read All about It". There is nothing that will guarantee an "unread delete" more than an email with this heading. The utter lack of effort and imagination when coming up with a heading just seems to rub me the wrong way.

Anyhow, if you are one of these people who use the phrase "Read all About It" as a heading for your blog post or email headlines, it's time to start being a little more creative.

It's that time of the year again when most of us are reluctantly starting to think about Christmas, or more accurately, Christmas shopping.

I'm sure that everybody has people who are difficult to shop for on their Christmas list. There are also people who we feel that we are obliged to buy presents for even though they probably don't need whatever it is we are going to end up buying for them.

Personally, I don't need all the booze that gets given to me during the Christmas season. I couldn't possibly drink it all. I also am the proud owner of two nose hair trimmers. I suppose that I'm set for life in that department as well.

One Christmas idea that I have really made use of over the last few years is the World Vision Gift Catalogue. I really like the idea because these gifts are valued well beyond anything I could imagine on my own.

The idea is pretty simple and I'm pretty sure that most of you are already familiar with the idea.

You simply select a gift from the catalogue and a family in need will be given the actual gift in honour of the person you are buying it for. You can simply inform the intended recipient that this gift has been given on their behalf through an e-card or a gretting card that is provided. (Go with the greeting card, it is Christmas after all).

The thought behind the gift will count for a lot, so there are different categories and price ranges that you can select for. You can tailor your gift to the person you are buying in honour of. I have several teachers who are acquaintances of mine, so I would select gifts from the "education" category for them.

The categories are;

Agriculture
Animals
Business
Child Sponsorship
Education
Health Care
Shelter
Water

Perhaps a business person might enjoy something from the business category, or someone in the medical field would enjoy something from the health care category. You get the idea, no need to beat you over the head with it.

The link to the gift catalogue in this blog post is for Canadians. World Vision U.S.A. has its own website, so any Americans interested in this concept can go to the World Vision U.S.A. website.

I know it's a little early to start blabbering about Christmas, however, this sort of thing requires a bit of thought and planning, so I thought I'd get this out there a little earlier than usual.

World Vision is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organization dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. As followers of Jesus, we are motivated by God’s love to serve all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender.

It's almost the middle of November and these silly geese have decided not to go south this year.

I have noticed that more and more geese decide to stick around for the winter each passing year.

This may come as a relief to many people south of the border who feel that Canada Geese are a huge nuisance. I can sympathize. They are a noisy crew, they can get a little belligerent and they leave their droppings all over the place. On the positive side though, they are strangely graceful animals and I admit to having a soft spot for them.

Perhaps this is a sign of global warming or perhaps it's easier for them to find food up here than it used to be in the winter. I really didn't notice as many geese flying south this year as I usually do. Hopefully they know something that we don't and that we could be in for a relatively mild winter. One can always hope.

I had the pleasure of eating at Captain George's Fish and Chips in Trenton the other day. It just opened its doors a month or so ago, so I was anxious to go in and see what it was like for myself.

I knew there was a Captain George's Fish and Chips in Brighton, and I had assumed that it was the only one and that it was now expanding into Trenton, but I was wrong. Apparently there are over 20 locations all over southern Ontario. You can check the map to see if there's one near you. They seem to be a growing chain.

If the restaurant in the picture looks vaguely like a Tim Hortons, it's because they moved into the old Tim Hortons building right across from Fraser Park Marina. Great location, right next to the water - perfect for a fish and chips restaurant. I hope they have the patio open in the summer, it would be nice to sit there.

The service was very good. Despite being fairly busy, I was tended to and seated right away. The menu was simple to read and easy to order from, and the prices all seemed very reasonable.

The picture on the right is the meal I had for about $12.00 (I forget the exact amount). The single piece of haddock was large, and the batter was very crispy and delicious. there was a generous helping of cole slaw, and the fries were of the most excellent fish and chip variety, perfect with a drop or two of malt vinegar. The coke was every bit as good as the can of coke I bought at the Royal York hotel for about three times as much.

It seems to me that restaurants that specialise in fish and chips tend to serve up better plates of fish and chips than restaurants that just have it as a side item on their menu. This is definitely the case with Captain George's Fish and Chips, the meal was very good. It was served very quickly too, which to me, is always a bonus.

So, if you ever have a hankering for fish and chips, and are in the Quinte area, stop at Captain George's in Trenton to take care of that craving. You could tell them that Malcolm sent you, but they don't know who I am, so it wouldn't do you any good anyway.