#britl

It finally happened. I got tickets to a food event in Edmonton. For months I've been watching longingly as folks attended Blink, Dishcrawl, and Hot Beats Cool Eats. But now was Brittney's turn. 

When tickets went on sale for Blink, I scooped them up - and I am SO happy I did! 

It started off by Kim Smith picking me up and whisking me down to the Shaw Conference Centre, where we entered and were met by Mack and Sharon.

Cocktail in hand, we descended the escalators to join the rest of the attendees, awaiting our group walk to the dinner location.

Once there, we mingled, met new friends, and ate delicious crostini's. To say the menu was impressive and tasty really sells it short.

My favourite crostini was the sockeye salmon, but the flank stake was a really close second.

With the crostini's came mingling, exploring, and chatting. Then, after about a half hour or so, we were all seated once again at the two long tables and served our entrees, family style.

I love family-style meals! It's a great excuse to get to know your neighbours, chat about the menu, share, swap plates, and just enjoy yourself. It's too easy with set plates to just talk to the person you came with, but we found ourselves chatting with everyone around us. We met a schoolteacher and her family, Cindy with Volunteer Alberta and her husband, chatted with Karen and her husband Dan - and that was only on our area of the table! 

We then hustled down to the River Valley Adventure Co. beneath us for some coffee/tea, and ice cream sandwich, and a chance to ride a Segway! 

Kim thought the ice cream sandwich was hard, but we both enjoyed our desserts!

I learned shortly that I wasn't very good on a Segway... which surprises no one who knows me. I'm not exactly known for my balance or grace...

Kim did a fantastic job - but the photo of the night went to Segway master Janet McNally!

Mack and Sharon have once again outdone themselves with this amazing event. It takes a lot of work to put something like this together... from talking with the City of Edmonton and negotiating permits and permission to take over a piece of the city not normally used for ticketed events - to getting the Shaw Conference Centre to help host, providing tablecloths, place settings, and the like. They also allowed Drift Food Truck to showcase the amazing work they can do... the food was so delicious, the service was great, and it was nice to finally meet Kara face-to-face! She laughed when I told her of a tweet I sent during the Open Sky Music Festival... but I wasn't joking!

Thank you Sharon and Mack for putting on an event like this. I look forward to many more! I think the best part of this, is that it's an event for every level of foodie. It spans the gap between people who don't know that an Oyster Mushroom is a mushroom, and not an Oyster and a mushroom together - and the people who use fennel and kale on a regular basis. Adult families come to the table together, friends, dates, and a whole mix of folk. I think it's wonderful, and I wish we saw more events like this in the city. (Surely you guys could just quit your jobs and make the city better full time, right? Right?)

If I had to mention one failing of the evening, it was the long walk up the stairs beside the Shaw Conference Centre at the end of the night. Because I was full, and tired, and well... actually, I needed that walk after all.

On my way to lunch today I noticed crews were taking down the old EPCOR signage on the building on Jasper Avenue and just off 101 Street.

It was an interesting and slow process, which I snapped a few shots of:

I unfortunately just missed the "P" coming down...

Why is the signage coming down? EPCOR officially moved out in December last year... you may remember the new building build on 101 Street and 104 Avenue. 

@britl @Movietrailer Yeah, we moved out in December last year. The building is owned by GE Capital, and they seem to be renovating.

— EPCOR (@EPCOR) July 24, 2012

Here's a video from Sept 21, 2011 when the new EPCOR sign lit up for the first time:

For good measure, here are some extra construction shots of the First and Jasper construction on 101 Street and Jasper Avenue.

Apparently this isn't actually a dinosaur. 

Wow. Just sitting down to write this now, I'm already getting all teary. Which, for those of you who know me, know that I don't like admitting to. Like every good story, of which, I hope this is one, let's start at the beginning.

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Brittney Le Blanc started at 630CHED in April of 2006 (we call it May, but I started in April). It all started when my instructor, Dave Albright, told me to apply and that I better damn-well get the job. I had no real interest in sports or talk radio, but had been reading a murder-mystery that took place at a talk radio station and I loved news, so I figured... why not?

Hired while still in school at NAIT, I was responsible for running the board during hockey games, shows, and the like. It wasn't the toughest of jobs, although running a hockey game is one of the toughest things you will ever have to do as a board operator. To make matters worse (or better?) I was trained by Dan Tencer, who to this day was one of the grumpiest people to work with. (I say this with love, because he is also so very good at what he does.) It was through this that I got to work with people like Simon Ostler, who taught me how to always keep an ear to the scanner and how to improve my writing. I still remember the feeling of Simon reading one of my stories on the air for the first time. It was absolutely great. 

I got the opportunity to accompany the station to Red Friday, producing a piece afterwards that Chris Hayden said made him tear up. I was able to try my hands at promotions, run (and not super well, if I do admit) Minor Hockey Roadshows for a season, I got to debate on the air with Lesley Primeau, whom shared so many amazing moments with me. Whether it's learning that T-Rex had sharp teeth to better eat coconuts, or watching her handle herself with the angriest of callers, or knowing that she would never ask anything of you that she herself wasn't willing to do. Heck, she even got me involved in a very embarrassing series on dating which saw me attend a speed-dating night and get critiqued by a matchmaker. She put a lot of trust in me right at the beginning, calling me Wonderkid, and it stuck. Our friendship has had some ups and downs in the six years that I've known her - but my life would be so much less if we had never met.

Primeau also taught me to drive... we stole the Cool880 cruiser one day... a fact our Promotions Director Tanya learnt that afternoon on the air... she wasn't happy.

When our GM Doug Rutherford announced iNews880, I knew that I wanted to be there. I immediately went and spent far too long in Syd Smith's office. The finest program director a girl could work for, Syd always let me come in and vent, discuss plans, throw ideas at him, or talk about terrible TV such as Campus PD or Ice Road Truckers. He trusted me when I told him about this crazy thing called Twitter, sent me to Slave Lake when I told him I wanted him to send me as a radio photographer, and unknowingly let me take over his office briefly last summer.

I started at iNews880 shortly after it launched. I wrote, I edited, I webbed, I blogged... I took photos. I got to cut my teeth as a reporter for the first time by heading down to Police Headquarters and scrumming Detective Bill Clark, who was announcing the arrest of Mark Twitchell. He released the photo of the mask and talked about charging a man for first degree murder despite not knowing where the body was. It was an introduction to reporting like no other. 

Over the past few years I've covered everything from Dominoes Tournaments to homicides to driving around in the dark describing destruction from a storm. I've spoken to families and friends who have just lost loved ones, and I was able to travel up to Slave Lake to document the tragedy through photos. 

I've been anchoring early mornings, working with some of the most passionate people I could ask for. Arguing with Brenton Driedger, teasing Kim Smith, getting fired up with Landon Kelly... it's been a blast. I've learnt so much from people like Morley Scott, who always knew exactly what I needed to hear. And Daryl Hooke, who always listened, even when I was a complete mess. I've worked with fantastic people, and said goodbye to so many.

And now it's my turn to say goodbye.

After the May long weekend, I'm going to be starting a job with the Edmonton Journal. (Right now, known only as the Edmonton Experiment.)

I'll be working on a project alongside Karen Unland. (She made a similar announcement on Friday.) She's a woman that I look up to greatly, have such immense respect for, and know that I will be probably butting heads with in short order. And I wouldn't have it any other way. It's still in the beginning stages, but I think it has great potential. It's a big challenge, one with a lot of potential for failure... but that's okay. I'm used to failure, to trying with all your heart and not making it work despite your best intentions... and I know to learn from that and keep going. But I think we have the ability to do great things, and it is time for me to test myself. It's time to leave the comfortable, (mostly) loving environment/home that I've made for myself over the past six years. 

I am going to miss them. Miss discussing stories with Bob, chatting with Rosemarie at the front desk, hugging Felicia, bothering Vicki from the top of the stairs, playing with the dogs in the building, sneaking a horse into the GM's office. The building is filled with great memories, but now it's time to make new ones. 

Saying goodbye is one of the toughest things for me. (Ask anyone who has tried to get me to leave an event) I hate doing it... but it's the right time, and I look forward to keeping in touch with my friends from the station as I move on to the next challenge.

Exciting news everyone!

Today is the beginning of something new... with my first ever column running in The Edmonton Sun! I don't have a link to it online just yet (but when I do, I will add that at the bottom, and probably here) Oh hey, check it out online now! It's very exciting and in page six of your paper.

I'm joining the likes of Graham Hicks, Danny Hooper, and Marty Forbes. I don't know which one of us has the best hair - probably Marty. (Sorry Danny)

My column is going to be a weekly posting of social media in Edmonton, looking at how we do it, who does it well, and other things going on in town. It's a big opportunity to get out there and introduce the rest of our city to what we're up to.

Of course, I can't do this alone - so please make sure to send me your suggestions, ideas, comments, concerns, and criticisms. See something awesome I should know about? You know how to get in contact with me - Tweet, email me (britlradio(AT@)gmail.com), or heck - even contact me through my about.me/britl page.

I'm eager for this new opportunity and hope that you are just as pumped as I am for the column.