323 COLBORNE Street Unit# 901 London, ON N6B 3N8

Property Site: https://tour.royallepage.ca/home/Z6FGQ5/323-COLBORNE-Street-Unit%23-901-London-ON-40398603

Welcome to your new home in the heart of London! This stunning high-rise condo boasts two spacious bedrooms and spectacular city views. Step into the open-concept living and dining area, which features large balcony door and large windows that flood the space with natural light. The wall-mounted 75-inch smart TV is included. The modern kitchen is fully equipped with stainless steel appliances, and ample storage space for all your cooking needs. Your in-suite laundry includes full-sized washer & dryer. The huge main bedroom offers a peaceful retreat with plenty of open closet space and a private 3-piece ensuite. The second bedroom is perfect for a guest room, home office, or additional living space – Murphy Bed is negotiable. Both bedrooms are located away from the living area, ensuring privacy and tranquility. Enjoy your morning coffee or a glass of wine in the evening on your private balcony, overlooking the bustling city below. The building amenities include a fitness center with a pool, sauna, hot tub, tennis courts, community BBQ, guest suite and a party room. Located in the heart of downtown, this condo is just steps away from Victoria Park, some of London's best restaurants, cafes, and shops. The building is also conveniently located near both public and ViaRail transportation, making it easy to get around our city and to the GTA with ease. Book your showing soon! (id:27)

Bedrooms: 2

Bathrooms: 2

Square feet: 1,050

Price: $375,000

For more information about this property, please contact Chris Harding at 519-672-9880 or harding@royallepage.ca. You can also text 7873252 to 67299 (Message and Data Rates May Apply, see terms and privacy policy).

See more listings at: https://chrisharding.royallepage.ca

MLS ID: 40398603

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Summertime!

Awwwww - Summertime!

Summertime is a slower time in most offices – even in the office of one! For many, it’s vacation-time (even for fundrasiers) and for those in foundation offices too.

For many it’s the fiscal year-end and preparations are underway for the next one…and that’s challenging with vacations added to the mix.

…and that means it’s time to use that slower-paced environment, to wrap my mind around the coming concert season.

Here’s what’s on my ‘Planning To Do’ List:

Project Planning! Starting the layout for next season’s concert brochure – how many ads can we sell? What do I have to write for it? What pictures do we have/need?

Website Re-design – maybe. Jamieson Roberts at Blacklight Media and I have been discussing a re-design of our website and optimizing it for mobile use for a while now. I have been watching webinars on website best practices and we’ve sketched out some ideas and concepts for a more functional and engaging site. I’ve also been gathering thoughts in a file folder for months.

Fiscal Planning! How am I ever going to make next season’s fund raising budget? This must be what Mt. Everest looks like, from the bottom! I know that if we break it into smaller chunks, it’s all manageable!

Calendar Planning too. What does the concert season look like for all eight of our choirs? How can I help each of them achieve their goals too? What are their plans?

Career Planning. This may be my last year at AFP Toronto Congress, so I want to ensure that I get the most out of the sessions offered. LRFRE have invited me to join their Board which I’m very excited about. As I’m still relatively new to both the profession and to the association, I want to ensure that I don’t take on a role that’s beyond my experience or expertise.

Personal Planning! I do have some running goals but so far am only committed to “Rock The Road 10K” in London. I may also run with daughter-in-law Christy through the streets of Oakville in September or Toronto in October” – she has to sign up first!

oh yah - Clean up my office – I know I have that file folder around here somewhere. 

A Song For Our Sisters benefit concert

This is a very cool event - I'm the only male on the organizing committee and I'm really excited about the evening. 

Amabile Choirs of London, Canada is excited to present “A Song for our Sisters,” a benefit concert to create positive change for girls in London and around the World. This moving evening of music, presented by girls, about girls, for girls will take place on Sunday November 3^rd, 2013 at The Grand Theatre, London. Curtain time is 7:00 p.m.

Both Marnie McBean and Liona Boyd will attend a special pre-concert reception. Marnie will be autographing and selling her book “The Power of More” with a percentage of the profits benefiting Because I am a Girl. Liona's long-awaited CD (her newest – just released on September 17^th)  “The Return... To Canada with Love” will also be available.

The evening's all-female line-up includes the four female Amabile choirs, with a special appearance by Liona Boyd, the “First Lady of Classical Guitar”, accompanied by Michael Savona. The evening will be hosted by three-time Olympic Gold-medalist, speaker and author Marnie McBean. 

Concert proceeds from "A Song for our Sisters" will support Plan Canada's "Because I am a Girl" initiative, educating women in the poorest regions of the world, and Brescia Girls LEAD camp bursary program, providing leadership mentoring to girls from London and Southwestern Ontario. 

At rehearsals leading up to the concert, the choirs are adding an unusual element to their music training. Amabile Singers will be "inspired" by four speakers, all unique and amazing women. The speakers range from an impoverished 19 year old Nepali girl to a philanthropic London lawyer. Each will share her own personal "girl" story as part of a program called "A Reason to Sing". 

Tickets for the evening are $50, with a limited number of Reception Access Seats available for $75. Tickets available at www.GrandTheatre.com or by calling (519) 672-8800.

Apparently radio announcers DO matter to our listeners

I went to the funeral of a long-time listener a few days ago – I had really only met her twice in 10-15 years although we spoke on the phone often. She used to call the station I worked at, asking about Kitty Wells, Dolly, George Jones and other artists of their era. As I hosted a Saturday morning “Oldies” show, the calls went to me.

My wife wondered why I would go to the service of someone I hardly knew, I couldn’t explain it – but felt that there was some kind of connection that somehow just defied words – there just was…

When the station let me go (along with many others) a year ago, her daughter tells me that she felt lost – a part of her day had disappeared. …and when she was hospitalized apparently she kept asking her daughter if they’d called me. It wasn’t until a grand-daughter recognized my voice on another station in town, did they figure out where I had gone, and I got an e-mail through the ‘contact us’ feature.

I did get up to see her in hospital before she passed away and when the nurses asked my relationship to the patient, I was momentarily stuck for an answer – “A long-time friend of the family” I mumbled and apparently satisfied, they showed me to her room. While she was heavily medicated, she apparently knew that I had been there. She acknowledged that I had left a card for her… and she passed away that night.

The family was excited that I would go to the memorial service and even the minister mentioned me by name, a number of times through the service.  I can tell you that it was a strange feeling sitting among her family, friends and distant relative, none of whom I had ever really even met – weird that she never really talked much about her family to me…and I never asked.

Speaker after speaker got up to tell little stories about the things she loved (and apparently spoke about at some length): her family, the Country stars she had met… and ‘her’ radio station. She had been one of the early petitioners, supporting the application for a “Country” station, and took a great degree of ‘pride of ownership’ ever since.

At 83 years young, she was no longer the target demo of the station and they long ago stopped programming any of the Classic Country that she liked, but she continued to listen nonetheless. While they didn’t really care, she did.

I confess that I was a little overwhelmed that the family mentioned me in their service repeatedly. Afterwards, many family members insisted on introducing me to other family members. They said that she talked about me so often, that they felt like I was ‘family’.

If you don’t think that what we do ‘on-air’ makes a difference in peoples’ lives, go to a listener’s memorial. 

Marion R.I.P.

Remembrance Day is for Remembering

Our youngest son Scott, who sang with Amabile Boys and Men’s Choirs for a decade, couldn’t be there for the annual Amabile In Remembrance concert this year. It was always his favourite concert of the season, but now as a Lieutenant, on active military duty with 414 Squadron, Ottawa, he joined thousands of others at the National War Memorial for the Remembrance Day ceremony there.  He called and asked me to “thank the guys for singing today... and for remembering.” (In full disclosure: I had the best seat in the house, as the narrator for the afternoon.) He would have been proud as the world-renowned Amabile Boys and Men’s Choirs continued its annual tribute and London, Ontario tradition to those who gave their lives in the name of Freedom...and those, like Scott who serve today. 

Each year, the choirs choose a special theme of remembrance and this year, they focused on the stories of women impacted by war. The concert opened with Caccini’s “Ave Maria,” the most well-known story of a mother who tragically lost her only son – majestic simplicity in the amazing acoustics of the cathedral. And then all four boys and men’s choirs told of those left behind in song and story: a young wife, turned aircraft mechanic to support her young son; an 18 year-old girl assigned to the records department who coordinated paperwork as soldiers departed, full of hope and pride.  

The repertoire always features a significant number of selections by Canadian composers, and oftentimes original compositions and arrangements by members of Primus, Amabile Men’s Choir. This year featured the poignant “Soldier’s Cry” arranged by Trent Worthington, “Carrickfergus” by Mark Sirett, “ and an arrangement of “In Flanders Fields.” The highlight of the concert was a signature piece commissioned specially for this concert by Primus from London composer, Jeff Christmas, entitled “Remember” for the laying of the wreathe by Grace Shewan, WWII veteran and war bride. The cathedral acoustics echoed as trumpeter, Gwyn Beynon, played the Last Post and Reveille, and the ceremony came to a close with an uplifting arrangement of Stephen Schwartz’s “Beautiful City” from Godspell -- Out of the ruins and rubble; Out of the smoke; Out of our night of struggle; Can we see a ray of hope? One pale thin ray reaching for the day. We can build a beautiful city, Yes, we can; We can build a beautiful city, Not a city of angels. But we can build a city of man, Brick by brick, heart by heart, we can start learning now.

After a rousing singalong with the audience of WWI and WWII favourites, the incredible afternoon came to a close, all too soon.  One could see, by the tears on faces and the hush in the stillness, that the messages of peace, hope and love were felt and heard. 

Scott is hopeful that he can make it for next year’s concert, to thanks the guys in person.

My New Resolve, thanks to Tim McGraw

Who knew that being unemployed was a full-time job...
...if you want to get back to work, that is!

I'm fortunate enough to work with an excellent career counseling service, and they keep me hopping with counselor calls, teleconferences, homework and the like. I have really only applied for one job since 1991, so my resume sure needed work to be brought up to 2012 standards.  ...and my Cover Letter was pretty basic - wow - lots to learn.

While this 'job search' thing is occupying a lot of my day, I have resolved to use this down time a bit more productively.

There a handful of things that I have wanted to do for a long-time, but this thing called a j-o-b always got in the way. So I've added some things to my day:

• Pick up my guitar again - I was never great, but maybe with a little extra time on my hands...
• My wife has been bugging me about a few fix-it projects that were never completed,
• My one great regret in school is that I never learned to read sheet music,
• Walk Molly - the Wonder Dog more often - we could both use it,
• I've always envied the professional athletes who got paid and all they had to do each day was 'train'.  I'm actually signed-up for the upcoming Detroit Marathon... and right now I'm still getting paid by my former employers, so I guess I'm sort-of there after all,
• Did I mention that I should maybe pay closer attention to the lyrics of Tim McGraw's song, :Live Like You Were Dying".  Be the kind of man I know I can be.

That's a lot to get done in one day.  I'd better get moving!

Don't Promise Me A Rose Garden

Great Lynn Anderson song - classic Country.

It's instantly what I thought of when yet another professional business leader failed to follow up on the simplest of courtesies: the follow-up.

As one of the newest members of "the unemployed", I am trying diligently to get back into the working world... and am now experiencing the "no shows".  The individuals who say, "I'll e-mail you Monday so we can set up a time to..."you guessed it!  No e-mail call or any kind of follow up.

Tonight a friend told me that it's a 'management ploy' to see if I really want the gig. Not if they can't even type an e-mail.

Many thanks to the employers who actually do acknowledge resumes, e-mails, calls, appointments etc - even if the answer was "no" or "sorry we've filled that vacancy".

I'm even okay with the ball back in MY court, as in: "why don't you follow-up with me next Monday?"  I never miss an appointment...

...but Don't Promise Me A Rose Garden.  I may not like those flowers anyway.