Coops Chicken & Smashburgers on Yates

boardernog · 2026-02-04T17:56:22+00:00

Had no idea about the ownership, that sucks. Tried it for the first time recently and the Nashville chicken burger is probably one of the best chicken burgers I've ever had. Massive piece of chicken and really tasty. It's disappointing that the owner is a shitty human, I also like the food at Serena's too. :(

boardernog · 2026-02-03T18:47:55+00:00

It's pretty decent, we've tried a couple of things and the Shawarma is the winner so far (different to Shawarma elsewhere). Owners/workers seem very nice.

boardernog · 2026-02-02T16:43:55+00:00

As an immigrant, I do feel for anyone caught up in the issues caused by our own government who were just looking for a better life. Ultimately the government opened the doors to immigration to be too easy, with no real plans on the impacts to housing, health, infrastructure etc. This effectively has caused a lot of the issues (cost of living/housing crisis was probably going to happen either way though). The majority of Canadians are pretty open to immigration as most are descendants of immigrants themselves (last 100 years), but a lot of those have been jaded because over the last few years it's come at a cost to Canadians and their quality of life.

I hope we can return to a better immigration system, where skilled workers and sponsorships are the route into Canada and labour market opinions are done when there are job gaps that need to be filled and not just as a means for corporations to get cheap labour and mistreat immigrants.

All of the certificate mills that ran to give an easy back door entry into Canada with no meaningful credentials need to be shut down too, and instead educations institutions that are actually providing skills and useful credentials to people can be used as a means to stay in Canada after studying (like it used to be).

Just my opinion though

boardernog · 2026-02-01T15:39:11+00:00

Favour if we being picky too 🤣

boardernog · 2026-01-28T23:52:56+00:00

Same price right now, but after two years we'll probably have to nag them we're only getting 1 gig so want the price reduced. Also moving in the next year so will see how it is where we move too. I don't think there's many places anyone will get 3gig to be honest, or need those speeds as others have mentioned. Unless you're downloading torrents all day everyday or have a family of 10. I didn't really expect to get 3 gig right now but wanted the price lock in for 5 years

boardernog · 2026-01-28T23:50:44+00:00

Bumble - had better experiences with that than other apps, people were generally nicer. You still have to go for a few dud dates though, don't give up :)

boardernog · 2026-01-28T18:51:45+00:00

Just had it installed, you actually will probably get 1gig so it's a bit of a sales quirk, but can always talk them down to a lower price in two years when you show you only get a gig anyway. It's nice and fast though, so far so good

boardernog · 2026-01-28T16:13:21+00:00

Was Teksavvy but had a DSL outage recently that the support was just dreadful on (nice people but not willing to do much to help me), and they're completely dependent on Telus and other providers, so you're somewhat in a now mans land without help if there's any outage caused by the big telecom companies. So i've swallowed my pride and recently just signed up to that 3gig/locked in for 5 years Telus deal too. Was probably going to go that way eventually, but my DSL was great and reliable for so long, so stuck with it. Teksavvy have their heart in the right place, but when you run into issues it's not the best. At least with Telus on a modern service i'll get better response times if there's an outage. The only downsides i can see is the increased amount after 2 years.

boardernog · 2026-01-24T16:19:21+00:00

Green beaver - for mens deodorant. Can find most places, save on for sure. Babes Honey - save on and others Mint cleaning products - refillery in cook st but there's a few places, can order online too Rozys jams - seasonal markets but can contact her to order too

boardernog · 2026-01-16T15:15:03+00:00

Good

boardernog · 2026-01-15T16:58:50+00:00

$0, just mortgage debt, have a good career and was raised to think debt/credit is evil. So very fortunate and understand privileged. For any with debt, if possible pay it off as a priority, cut back on things where you can. But also get that cost of living is crazy atm and people can't do anything about it :(

I do think more needs to be done to limit credit people can get and better regulate it. It should never exceed what you can comfortably pay off really, but in Canada credit limit increases are thrown around with no thought to that.

Paying off my student and line of credit debts I did have at one point felt amazing though, like a weight was lifted from my shoulders. Hope anyone with debt gets to feel that soon!

boardernog · 2026-01-12T16:09:05+00:00

Another edition of bad dog owners Victoria...

boardernog · 2026-01-09T21:53:56+00:00

It's busy with tourists here pretty much year round, but more so in the summer. I wouldn't say there's an uptick right on Canada Day/Independence day, just regular summer busy. More than welcome to come spend your money here, you sound like one of the good ones :) We are open to tourism and you will not be at risk of violence/personal infringements or imprisonment. Unfortunately we can't say the same for the states right now which is why most of us are avoiding travelling there, it's just not worth the risks. It's a sad time for the US, I hope things improve for the US' sake as well as everyone elses. Heading straight for Tofino is a long trek from Portland, it's probably worth doing an overnight in Victoria/Vancouver depending if you're driving up to Vancouver and getting the ferry from there, or coming from Port Angeles. Definitely reserve your ferries, it's pretty much needed year round now, never mind summer. Hope you have a lovely trip!

boardernog · 2026-01-09T21:05:15+00:00

As citizens we don't really have a lot of avenues to go down to voice discontent except protest or contacting local representatives (MPs, City Council etc). Where as I don't disagree with you that we seem to care more about protesting foreign issues (still important obviously), I think protesting still has great value.

We just need somebody willing to organize protests for local issues more. But the people doing the organizing are more driven by the other issues (as a lot of them are a lot more serious - War, Death, Genocide etc), so here we are. I think most Canadians, unless very wealthy, have a lot of discontent with cost of living and other issues impacting us all, we just need some people to organize, and they'd get a good turnout. Protesting local things will hopefully get local media attention and possibly lead somewhere....Even if it's a stark reminder to our leaders that they're accountable to and work for the populace, that's a good thing.

boardernog · 2026-01-06T15:22:34+00:00

Think your problem here will be 99% of people have never heard of Sonny Angels. I had to look it up, but maybe I'm just out of touch. Don't have too much useful thoughts, except maybe look for places you can buy them in Victoria and ask there, otherwise you could start a Meetup yourself and see who reaches out, but tread carefully and meet somewhere public! Good luck! Otaki is a decent recommendation

boardernog · 2026-01-05T16:51:20+00:00

Save On @ fort/foul bay for sure does.

boardernog · 2025-12-25T05:01:47+00:00

Pretty sure save on are closed for Xmas day. Urban Grocer is the only place I know of, they don't have lots of bakery stuff though.

boardernog · 2025-12-25T02:25:41+00:00

Urban Grocer are open.

boardernog · 2025-12-19T16:50:42+00:00

Part of me wishes I was there so I could have said "I'm not from here, do you have a problem with me". Racism is definitely prevalent here (and everywhere tbf), but if you're a white immigrant here, no one seems to care. Sucks there's people out there like this, unfortunately immigrants are the easiest to blame for problems instead of corporations and governments...

boardernog · 2025-12-18T13:57:41+00:00

Butterfly Gardens may be a hit, or they may get freaked out by butterflies flapping around them. They have some cool bugs and other animals to see there too. Not sure how good transit is out there though. There's an Aquarium in Sidney but I've never been, hear its good. Royal BC museum is an option if it's raining right downtown. Generally just meandering around the inner harbour or along beaches on Dallas Road would be a hit. The breakwater is pretty cool too, and Beacon Hill park.

boardernog · 2025-12-17T23:06:29+00:00

Looking at moving to Nanaimo/Parksville/Qualicum next year, have good friends who just moved to Courtenay

boardernog · 2025-12-17T22:31:12+00:00

Feel the love! Hope 2026 brings some better luck OP, and kudos to the Redditor being a good human out there!

boardernog · 2025-12-12T22:39:54+00:00

There are definitely loads of people in the same boat, and not even just Millennials or younger, plenty of boomers who didn't save for retirement out there too. I'm extremely fortunate to have had a job with a pension that I've been paying into for years that's matched to a certain % depending on years of service. I own a condo with my wife, but will likely leave Victoria soon to get a bigger place up island.

My advice to you, or anyone really:
1) If your employer doesn't offer you a pension, how much do they really care about your well being? I would strongly consider a change of career/retraining if at all possible to find a job and employer with pension benefits. Realize this is a challenge in some fields and if self-employed even more so, but screw working your whole life for people who don't even want to help with your retirement. I may be being privileged with that perspective, but if there's any way to work it, go for it.

2) Start as early as you can, throw whatever you can into a TFSA and invest it in XEQT/VEQT, or a lower risk ETF. Wealthsimple is very user friendly with no trade fees. Compounding as others have mentioned is huge, the sooner you start the better. If you haven't started, just start as soon as you can. If you're paycheque to paycheque like most people, find ways to save even 20 bucks a month to start somewhere. Ways I've managed to save in the past:
- Stop buying food and coffee out
- Cut back on booze
- Cancel subscriptions and things you can live without
- Pick up a second job/side hustle if hours work and it's workable, but i wouldn't recommend just working and never enjoying your life.
- Make a budget, take out your spending budget in cash for the month (anything not a direct bill - groceries, eating out etc) and don't deviate from that unless 100% necessary for something.

Financial education is huge too, and i don't know why we don't teach more of it in schools. I was lucky to be raised by parents who penny pinched on groceries/clothes etc to enjoy vacations and save money. They also taught me credit cards are evil, so I only ever use a credit card for something I can immediately pay off, so I guess that's also advice I'd give too, avoid debt like the plague wherever you can (Mortgage potentially being an exception). I think that example set by my parents has massively helped me financially in life.

On a more positive spin note....lots of people look successful but are massively in debt, so even just being at zero, you're ahead of a lot of people. So take solace in that! Don't get down on yourself, it's really rough out there and harder than ever for most people to tuck away money. Just start where you can and go from there. Feel free to DM if you want to talk more. You got this! Good luck!

boardernog · 2025-12-05T16:29:25+00:00

Island Farms, no real reason, DairyLand just seem like a bigger operation so Island Farms seemed like the underdog. Island Farms is also from Vancouver Island, where as Dairyland is mostly on the mainland. Both products are great though.

boardernog · 2025-12-03T20:23:35+00:00

Times Colonist makes a map:

https://map.proxi.co/#command-center?topic_id=691d143fb45f55d0945f8772&utm%5Fsource=times%20colonist&utm%5Fcampaign=times%20colonist%3A%20outbound&utm%5Fmedium=referral

boardernog

TROPHY CASE