Stanley Park Bicycle Tire BlowOut! Desmond Niles Mobile Bicycle Repair

My Sunday bicycle ride with my two daughters was going well - early summer morning ride, cool, beautiful scenery at Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC- its awesome bicycle path at the seawall. Then, at the totem park area, one of my daughters' front bicycle tire became flat.

Yeah, it was a bit of a downer, but we took it all in stride. This was a good opportunity to slow it down even more, and we took out the grapes, strawberries, and bottled water. We had a small picnic in this gorgeous part of Stanley Park, with the buildings in the background, and the famous greenery of Stanley Park on either side of us.

I took out my trusty Iphone 4, surfed the internet and Googled "mobile Vancouver bicycle repair". One of the top search results was a third-party directory site that listed "Desmond" with his phone number . Remember, this was a Sunday. Desmond answered, explained it would take him between 45 to 60 minutes to get here. Perfect!

What I didn't know was that Desmond's mobile bicycle repair service was really a mobile shop. He arrived with his bicycle and and pack of tools on the back of his pedal-powered bike. He had cycled from Victoria Drive near S.E Marine Drive area, which is about 14 km !!

Upon closer inspection, Desmond discovered that there was hole on the inner tube at the bottom of the valve stem. Ouch! He explained that this was not going to be an easy patch-up repair, which he would normally do. He would have to purchase an inner tube from a nearby bicycle shop. So I said sure. But then he revealed that he forgot to bring cash nor his credit card to buy this. And I also explained that I had just remembered I forget to bring cash, but yes, I did bring my debit bank card . So, my daughter and I walked with him for 20 minutes to bicycle shop, and then we returned to the totem pole area of Stanley Park.

It was a very quick repair by Desmond. I took this opportunity to learn more about Desmond and his mobile bicycle repair service in Vancouver. His history: he was a bicycle courier in London (his native city is Gloucestershire), came to Canada in 1998. He has 2 very young children. In Vancouver he was a glass/ window installer, having worked on highrise buildings in Vancouver, ie. Shangri-La. But really, as he explained, his passion was in everything bicycle, and he had wanted to get away from the corporate game and working for someone else. Desmond also explained that he feels very fulfilled in seeing that complete transformation from broken-to-fixed. As well, he enjoys being a part of the process in that he receives and appreciates the many thanks (and their referrals) from the many different people he meets.

Desmond Niles is a super friendly person, very personable and highly skilled at what he does: bicycle repairs.

Desmond's contact details: Call 604 565 6039
Email : nilesdesmond@gmail.com


Eric C
Business Solutions Specialist

Katrina Amurao, Neil Bellosillo, and " The Team ", Realtors in Vancouver, Surrey, Delta, Burnaby areas

I and my realtives have had the great pleasure of connecting with Katrina Amurao and her husband Neil Bellosillo, realtors in Greater Vancouver Lower Mainland (including Surrey, Delta and areas).

They are very informative, are patient and understanding to our house buying and selling needs.

Neil and Katrina have been providing us with professionally developed and highly researched reports about real estate activity within our area- I mean really detailed reports to view on the web, specific to our Vancouver neighbourhood in recent time periods, including average house prices, number and specific houses that sold over as well as under the asking price, number of days on the market, etc. And Neil Bellosillo's reports have been timely as he emails them to us, with the pictures and details of potential houses to buy according to our specific parameters we gave.

They have been very patient with us, understanding our personal situations and experiences when it comes to our buying and selling decisions... so no worries or "guilt" there.

As well, Katrina and Neil, twice a year, they rent out a whole movie theatre complex of 3 or 4 theatres, and they invite clients and their friends for free to watch a newly released movie. A donation in the form of non-perishable food items is requested by the movie-goers, and it all goes to the Surrey Food Bank. Katrina and the team also provide drinks, coffee and snacks!

We highly recommend them!

Here are Katrina Amurao's and Neil Bellosillo's contact information.

Iphone 4 - the Fuss, the Fun, the Funkiness

By Eric C.
Business Solutions Specialist

I've been around to the various shopping malls in Vancouver and Burnaby, observing the long line-ups at the Apple Store's as well as the crowds at the smaller wireless phone dealers that would carry the new Iphone 4.  The smaller ones like "Wireless Wave" (owned and operated by GlenTel) - I have a friend there Sophia Kong at the Brentwood Mall location (tel: 604-298-5208) - they have been constantly answering the question, "Do you have the Iphone 4" . Their answer for the last week has been, "No.... we're out of stock."  The next famous question: "What's with the antenna problem?"  The answer, "well, that can be fixed with the free bumper case, or with any case for that matter."

My question today during my visit was, "Can you tell me about the unlocked / locked situation with the IPhone 4 in Canada?"  They said that yes, all the IPhone 4's are shipped the Canadian outlets as unlocked, but once you go into a contract with one of the carriers, they become locked.  Upon my further investigation, I learned that the unlocked version, no contract, was around $700-850, and with a 3-yr contract, locked, the IPhone 4 was $175 .

Then my question, to myself was, is there a way to unlock the IPhone 4?

I found an article at http://www.livecrickett20.com/2010/08/08/the-ways-to-unlockjailbreak-the-ios4-and-the-iphone-44g/  .

So there you go. According to the author of the article at the above livecrickett20.com link, there are many ways, apparently, to unlock a IPhone 4.

If only I can now get my hands on one!


Eric C
Business Solutions Specialist