Every once in awhile, I encounter a business that blows my socks off. Let me introduce Melgor Trophies in Brampton. These guys are total professionals. Total! I just got my jerseys back for my 9 yr olds rec-league hockey team. These guys rocks. Don't go otherwhere if you can go out of your way and see these guys first. WOW!!!

I'm amazed just how many restaurants in my circle of the woods are turning to crap. The latest is Jack Astors on Queen St near the 410 in Brampton. Service has hit bottom. They only put one bartender to serve the entire bar area, which is quite large. It took 5-10 minutes before he realized he had a new customer and found the time to serve me. He gave me two expired WiFi passwords and a 7 dollar beer. I left 20 minutes later having been served only one beer and expired passwords. It wasn't always this way, they use to provide good service, but I assume they cut back on staff to maximize profits short-term and lose customers long-term. Good plan.

Last night, I stopped by Moxies in Brampton for a couple beers. This restaurant opened in the last few days near the corner of Queen and Dixie, at the Bramalea City Centre. It was more like a club than a restaurant. They had way more staff than necessary working that night and stepping on each others shoes. The staff was all young hotties, mostly female, but some males.

The beer was expensive. I had their house amber. They did have the football game on numerous widescreen TVs in the bar area. I didn't try the food. No WiFi sealed the deal for me. I won't be going much.

I prefer the Walkers Brew pub across the street. Even with the new restaurant opening, Walkers was absolutely packed on Sunday for football.

Today, I went to Boston Pizza for lunch. The one near Queen and Torbram in Brampton. Even though they have free WiFi, I usually don't go because their WiFi is unreliable and their beer is expensive. It was 6.29 plus tax today. But, I had a discount card that gave 10% off plus 10% to my son's hockey team. That's 20% off; caveat, before tax. This makes Boston Pizza a lot more viable as a lunch time option for me.

I did have some problems. They told me the card was misprinted, but that I'd get the discount anyway. They also took y card and wrote up the total before they took my credit card. I was gonna have another beer, but I decided to avoid the hassle. Then, when I got the bill, it didn't include the discount and we had to void and re-charge my card. Sloppy, but the lower price might get me there more often.

Thursday night, slightly before 8PM, I stopped by the Wild Wing restaurant on the north end of Brampton. I sat at the bar and started working on my smartphone. The bartender walked by a half dozen times ignoring me. I tried to flag her down and she somehow didn't see me. Two waitresses talked in the corner and another was in deep conversation with a patron. There was slightly more customers than staff. After ten minutes, the bartender walked by again and I raised my hand to get her attention and she walked by ignoring me again. I stood up and walked out. Pathetic service. The entire staff should've been fired on the spot.

http://www.bestchickenwings.com/

Video from the dashboard of me driving on Queen Street near Dixie in Brampton.

The closest sports bar to my house in Brampton is Clancy's Sports Bar. I go there beacuse it's a short walk from my house. It's owned my Bill Reed, an x-hockey player who played for the Johnstown Jets. The Jets were the team who were captured on film as the Charleston Chiefs in the movie Slap Shot. Bill played with the Hanson (really Carlson) brothers and possily Paul Holmgren and Bruce Boudreau.

When I first went there it was a pretty good sports bar, but it's gone completely downhill in the last year. They have five taps; Canadian, Coors Light, Alexander Keiths, Budweiser an 50. Only Canadian and Coors Light have worked for the last ew months. They use to have Rickards Red, but it wouldn't pour properly from their taps and they discontinued it. Now I get Canadian and that tap doesn't pour properly either anymore. They have to discard 6 inches of head per beer and it taste like flat crap.

Further, they use to have a bunch of sports pics lining the wall. A half year ago, they renovated and never returned the memorabilia to the walls. I use to go there weekly in the summer. Now it's monthly. This place sucks. If they had competition in the area, then they would go bankrupt.

Last night we went to the 5 Drive-In in Oakville. We wanted to see Ice Age and Transformers, but they were sold out. We arrived more than half-hour early. We watched Harry Potter and The Hangover instead. We started going to the 5 Drive-In a few years back. Then, it was a hole with disgusting washrooms and sparsely attended movies. Each year I've an improvement in the cleanliness and attendance. Yesterday, it was full. There were cars parked a dozen spots from the front row. The concession stands had lineups weaving thru the parking lot. In previous years, there was empty spots in the front row and not all the concessions were open. The drive-in is back. It might be the economy. It's only $15 for a car load on Thursday and $5 per person on Tuesday ($2 for kids).

http://www.5drivein.com/

I golfed at Castlemore in Brampton this morning. This use to be one of the best golf courses in Brampton. They've resigned down from 27 holes to 18 and likely lost most of their best holes. The land was redeveloped as housing.

The course is still nice, but it's evidently falling into disrepair. Some sandpits are growing weeds between the harpan dirt. The sprinklers were running even while we golfed thru. The ground crew renched a green just before we played it. The back nine has a lot of 300 yard par-4 holes.

On the positive, it was 40 dollars with cart and he greens are very challenging/fast.

Canadian Tire customer service is awful and getting worse. Today, I wanted to buy their zero-G folding chair. I went to the location at Airport an Queen in Brampton an they only had the floor model. The clerk was uninterested in helping me. I had to beg her to look up her inventory on the old AS400 style terminal. The terminal was frozen. Common CT, upgrade your software.

I then went to the Trinity Commons CT and they didn't have any on display. I aske a clerk and they didn't know what I was talking about. I told them it was on the website, so it had to be at the store. She looked it up and with a lot of help from me, she found it. There was 20+ of them in storage and none on display or on shelves. Ten minutes later, she brought two out for me to pick from.

Ask yourself how many customers would have driven to two Canadian Tires and pushed their clerks to get this. One. Just me. It's for my wife. Our 15th anniversary is this week.

Today, I visited one of the most ridiculous sports bar EVAR! The bar is located near the intersection of Derry and Hwy 10. I entered the bar just after 1PM today and it was completely empty. The bar itself is gorgeous with big flatscreen TVs located on every wall. I asked the bartender for a Rickards Red and she needed help pouring the beer from the manager. When I paid, the bartender asked if I needed exact change, because they didn't have pennies. I asked the manager and bartender if they had WiFi. I could see a signal, but it was password protected. They thought they did, but they didn't know anything about it.

Then a group entered. The bartender and manager didn't know how to make a Caesar or pretty much any other mixed drink, nor did they know where to find the ingredients. One of the customers took the initiative and started making the drinks himself. He had to search thru the 10+ fridges for Clamato juice as the bartender and manager watched him do their job.

Three month ago, this use to be a St Louis Bar and Grill. It was a fantastic looking bar back then as well, but I remember the service was just as ridiculous. I also remember that nobody was their when I visited either. I'm amazed they are still in business. I have to assume they have a great staff at the dinner hour.

Boston Pizza (I'm there right now) has likely the most unpredictable WiFi of any restaurant we go to. It works about 50% of the time. And I'm not just talking one franchise. I've been to several that don't work. I usually ask the waitress or bartender and they often confirm that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Overall, we love the restaurant, but I just wish they had more reliable WiFi.

Found out today that my favorite pub has WiFi. It's just around the corner from my house at the intersection of Queen and Dixie, south west corner. WOOT! Great food prices.

http://www.walkersbrew.com/

Today, I had lunch at the Montreal Deli near Hwy 7 and the 404 with some old friends. Awesome sandwich for an awesome price. I could get the free WiFi from the Fox and Fiddle next door. I stoppedat the Fox and Fiddle afterwards for a beer. Beer was a little pricy but affordable.

I'm at the Jack Astors on Queen near the 410 in Brampton. Beer is watered down and expensive. They have password protected WiFi and they provide a one day password free of charge. Wings were OK. If the beer wasn't watered down, then I'd consider returning. I jogged here (about a mile from my house). I'm still looking for a bar within jogging distance that serves both WiFi and good beer. I live in Bramalea Woods.

I bought coaching plaques from Dynamic Trophies and Awards. They were awesome. Major recommend.

http://www.canpages.ca/page/ON/brampton/dynamic-trophies-and-awards/2714144.html

Mississauga SportZone is an awesome facility. They even have a bar with big scrren TVs. They also have WiFi. The password changes monthly. This month it's 911127771 and easter.

Today, I'm Richtree Square One Mississauga. Wifi sucks. Expensive. I'm leaving.

Update: Forgot to mention the password is their phone number. 9052721010

T&A's on Queen Street in Brampton is a guy's sports bar. They have WiFi, Beer and TVs with sports on. It doesn't hurt that the waitresses wear short skirts. It's a little expensive, but not enough to scare me away. On Monday they had all you can eat Mussels, which I use to enjoy weekly. They have Rickards Red on tap, that's all I need.

Today I'm at TJs in North Brampton. I ordered their wings, but they had a great burger and beer special. WiFi? Yes! The passphrase is their phone number (9054951126). I'm adding these guys to my lunch rotation. Lots of TVs on sport channels. It use to be called Chicagos. I went here several years ago when my kids had Tae Kwon Do down the street.

Yes we have WiFi, but I don't know the code to unlock it. Arggg! That's what I got today when I visited the Wild Wing restaurant in North Brampton. Looks like a great place otherwise, but no WiFI makes it unlikely I'll return. Beer was expensive (6 dollar pint). I didn't try their Wings, but if they are anything like the othe Wild Wing in Brampton, then they are awesome. Lots of TVs and playing various sport channels.

On Valentines Day, our family went to East Side Marios at Trinity Commons in Brampton. They had WiFi, although they didn't know the passcode. I was able guess it was 2468101214 as one waiter knew it started with 246. Good luck to anybody else trying to use their WiFI. They might as well not even have it. I had a Caesar salad as I wasn't feeling well. My wife had a Firecracker Bowtie that was awesome. I'll have that next time. The beer was excessively expensive (7 dollar pint). Service was good and the kids really enjoyed themselves.

The first five years of sending my kids to school, we sent them to Montessori school to give them a head start. But we planned to put our kids back into the public system when they started grade four.

That happened two years ago and my eldest did her grade four in Catholic school, which in Canada is part of the publicly funded school systems. I noticed at first that the kids spent very few hours in school. There was no extra-culicular school activities. None. Then after a few months, I noticed my 9 year old was learning the same material as my 7 year old who was in private school. I wasn't worried, as my daughter had lots of friends at school and that was most important to me. Then in the second half of the year, my eldest informed us that she preferred private as public was too easy for her and she missed the extra activities only available in the private school system.

This year we returned her to private school. Now she's really struggling. She is doing review of grade four work, but for her it's all new, since the public system was two years behind. I have to teach her fundamental math concepts that she skipped because of that one year in the public system.

Are you sending your kid to public school? If you are then they are two years behind by grade four. I wonder how far they are behind in grade twelve? The public system is a failure. They have failed your kids. They have failed you. We are looking at a two tier system, one for the rich and one for the poor. The rich kids will be smarter and it'll be difficult for people to exceed the class of their parents.

Saturday night, I stopped by 5 Rivers Pub on the way home. It's located at Bovaird and Airport in Brampton in the heart of the middle eastern district (Bramladesh). The conventional thinking would be that such a pub wouldn't work in the middle of a far eastern district and it is the only pub, I know of, in that area. The pub was full. Completely full. They were standing outside in the Canadian cold. I didn't bother checking it out. I'll check it out off-hours.

http://www.5riverspubandgrill.com/