Let’s Play Spot The Difference

Gentlemen, start your banjos…

ure and begorrah, in the words of our good Lady Joni of Mitchell, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone…

It’s a truism brought home to GG when we stumbled upon the holiday video of one Joemon Plavunkal.

Taken during the man’s 2008 sojourn in our sunny town, witnessing the town from just 18 years ago makes you realise that subtle – and not-so-subtle – changes are going on around us all the time.

Burnaby Park looks like a field with a strip of tarmac running through it. Buoys Kitchen is selling flowers, that new French restaurant down by the harbour is still just a crépe dream, Greystones Travel have taken a hike from Mill Road, and you could legally park right up at the train station entrance.

Naturally, it’s heartening to see that much of the town hasn’t changed one hardy perennial. The Greystones Business Bureau looks just as dull and grey today as it did in 2008.

He may have gone to The Homer Simpson School of Star-Swipe Video Editing, but, young Joemon, thanking you, my son, for visiting our humble little town, and for making a very mediocre video of your holiday snaps displayed under an instantly-forgettable but pumpin’ Euro-pop tune. Class.

This article was first published back in 2018. Just to add another layer of distance between the here and then. More archive raiding here.