by Doreen Gee

photo & graphic design by Doreen Gee

The mad puzzle maker is back to pour water on your summer. I see you lying on your beach towel sipping a Pina Colada as you wait for your special spa session at the Sidney Pier Hotel & Spa. Gently sit up please, get out your pencil and see if you can outsmart your neighbours. It is time for Dr. Doreen to totally interrupt your fun and make you use those brain cells that were happily frying under a Sidney heat wave.

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 by Doreen Gee

photo & graphic design by Doreen Gee

Just off the coast of our peaceful seaside community, unquiet ghosts rage against the gods in the morning mist. Our wild West Coast beauty harbours a very ugly piece of human history. D’Arcy Island was a leper colony from 1891 to 1924. It housed society’s untouchables: the soiled and diseased ones – shoved away into an alien landscape far from any human contact. The lepers were tossed into isolation, forgotten and abandoned and left to rot and die under an unforgiving sky. This was racism at its poisonous peak. We have come a long way from those dark days of social malfeasance. Or have we?

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 by Doreen Gee

Photo & graphic design by Doreen Gee

Tye-dye shirt for $20: Great deals at summer markets!

In these lean mean times, a little bit of wizardry comes in handy. The lifelong quest for ancient alchemists was turning lead into gold. In 2012, we can survive downsized incomes and jobs and belt-tightening recessions by learning how to turn a little bit of money into a lot. We can invoke magic in our own lives by being creative, inventive and knowledgeable about where to get the best buys and deals and how to access programs that save us money. It is still possible to enjoy a good quality of life as our bottom line shrinks. I will be writing a series of blogs on how to do more with less on the Peninsula and in Greater Victoria. With a little bit of ingenuity and modern alchemy, your dollars will be worth their weight in gold. And you will be truly surprised to find out how a taste of the “beautiful life” can be affordable and even free!

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