My rant for the week: handheld debit and credit card readers.
We keep hearing that there’s less selection available in stores now because manufacturers have to make money and can’t afford to keep making things for just a few buyers.
Well, tell me how on earth the makers of those handy little readers stay in business. They seem to manufacture a different one for every single store!
One device has you using number buttons, another wants you to find function buttons (sometimes helpfully marked by the store owner with a bit of masking tape on the side of the device), others are part digital where you press some of the stuff on a screen. And finally others are wholly digital (which by this time is something like Holy Mackerel to me).
Enough already. We’re being told constantly to simplify our lives. Physician, heal thyself, I say.
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Jennifer Lawson reminded us this week that you should pencil in Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 4 and 5 as the days to see the Cowichan Artisans on their open studio tour.
She herself is urging everyone to drop by her studio on Khenipsen Road, “have a chat, enjoy some appies, check out my new original paintings and giclee prints. For this weekend only, everything in the studio will be 25 per cent off, and any commissions or house portraits you order will be 15 per cent off.”
Cowichan Artisans
Get out, enjoy the last of the fall colour and get your Christmas shopping started early at the same time. It’s a win-win.
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Barely North Entertainment is bringing five-piece indie-pop group Bridal Party from Victoria for a show in the chapel at Providence Farm on Saturday, Nov. 4. Doors open at 8 p.m. with the show at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 each (available at Duncan Music, Providence Farm Store, and www.eventbrite.ca) and is for all ages.
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Genre-bending jazz pianist/composer David Braid teams up with fellow Juno Award-winning saxophonist Mike Murley on a national tour to release their quartet’s latest CD, The North, on Saturday, Nov. 4 at Sylvan United Church.
They’re joined by Finnish bassist Johnny Aman and Danish drummer Anders Mogensen, and it’s all part of the Sylvan Jazz Series.
Saturday’s concert begins at 7 p.m. Admission is $20 at the door. The church is at 985 Shawnigan/Mill Bay Rd. For more information or to reserve tickets, call 250-324-1900.
