Problem: Squeaky pipes.

Only your hot water pipes will squeak. The sound occurs when the pipe expands in its strap causing friction.

 Solution: a rubber cushion between the pipe and the strap.

Call PAPA for a free quote to fix the squeak: 604-437-7272 !

See the full gallery on Posterous

So my week continues in my hometown of Calgary ! Checked in today with the technicians and Big P aka Boss and everything is running smoothly. Seems to be the regular jobs: pipe bursts, furnaces breaking down and drains backing up. September should be a very busy month, and it will continue until at least Feb. Papa is ready ! We are so going to rock it !

If you know me, you will know I love social media. I tweeted our dear friend Erin Ireland that I am in Calgary and she immediately replied back that I must try Pulcinella !! So out we ventured to Kensington for lunch. The staff was so attentive and very helpful ! Our hostess explained to us that the pizza is authentically made in a 1000 degree oven for 60-90 seconds. Wow HOT !!
The Pizza: Fresh ingredients, thin crust, fresh made dough, fresh tomato sauce – priceless !! They also don’t cut the pizza and it’s supposed to be eaten authentically – just like a sandwich the hostess said.

This is surely a must in Calgary ! Pulcinella – the jewel of Kensington !

Here are some more details of Pulcinella :

Hours: Sunday 1130am – 10pm Monday to Thursday 1130am – 11pm Friday & Saturday 1130am – Midnight
Address: 1147 Kensington Crescent NW | 403.283.1166
Website: http://www.pulcinella.ca/

Thank you Erin Ireland for the excellent recommendation !

Papa’s Poll: 5 stars  !!

See the full gallery on Posterous

So my week continues in my hometown of Calgary ! Checked in today with the technicians and Big P aka Boss and everything is running smoothly. Seems to be the regular jobs: pipe bursts, furnaces breaking down and drains backing up. September should be a very busy month, and it will continue until at least Feb. Papa is ready ! We are so going to rock it !

If you know me, you will know I love social media. I tweeted our dear friend Erin Ireland that I am in Calgary and she immediately replied back that I must try Pulcinella !! So out we ventured to Kensington. I Loved the decor of the restaurant ! The staff was so attentive and very helpful ! Our hostess explained to us that the pizza is authentically made in a 1000 degree oven for 60-90 seconds. Wow HOT !!
The Pizza: Fresh ingredients, thin crust, fresh made dough, fresh tomato sauce – priceless !! They also don’t cut the pizza and it’s supposed to be eaten authentically – like a sandwich the hostess said !
This is surely a must in Calgary ! Pulcinella – a jewel of Kensington !

Here are some more details of Pulcinella :

Sunday 1130am – 10pm Monday to Thursday 1130am – 11pm Friday & Saturday 1130am – Midnight
1147 Kensington Crescent NW | 403.283.1166
http://www.pulcinella.ca/

Thank you Erin Ireland for the excellent recommendation !

Papa’s Poll is 5 stars !!

Papa Plumbing has been loyal listeners of the Kid Carson show for several years now. Kid’s show is usually on during our morning commute to various job sites. Often in the morning’s the techs are racing to get to suppliers and then to the sites. If anyone lives in the Lower Mainland, you will know that every morning is usually chaos on the roads ! I came to realize how much Kid Carson actually meant to us when a few years ago I asked all the technicians to tune into “The Beat” for this frantic commuting time.. well once a somewhat grumpy technician became a happier one ! Kid’s occasional parodies and discussions kept everyone happy and upbeat. I work many long hours, especially when The Big P is out of town. There were many times I would be up so late working on paper work or invoices but I knew in the morning I would have to get up.. have to listen to Kid & laugh .. and have a happy start to the day. From here our company goal was set: one day Papa would be sponsoring the Kid Carson show ! So out came a Papa Van:

Every morning/evening I would visualize Kid saying our name on air and people smiling ! I sometimes wonder if Kid even realizes how many smiles he puts on every listener in the morning. How many people does he make laugh when they are facing stressful days ?

One day in particular Papa Dale’s van skidded off the road during winter. While he was waiting for his tow truck, he listened to the show..it sure kept him smiling through out !

March 11,2010 I decided to work up the courage and ask Kid to give a shout out for the first ever “World Plumbing Day“.

I knew it would be a neglected day, but I know how hard all the Papa’s work.. and how hard everyone in the service industry works, I just really wanted someone to acknowledge this day for us. Out of all the media outlets I contacted.. Kid Carson was the ONLY one who wished us a HAPPY WORLD PLUMBING DAY on air !! That alone meant the world to us ! I focused on our goal again, we knew the companies who advertised were pretty big companies. I just knew one day this goal would be reached !

I have always loved tweeting the hosts of the show, and during the Canucks season, we brought almost our whole fleet to the Canucks Playoff Payoff.. as Jasmina describes it in the attached clip, we all got out and met Kid.. but what is so amazing about Kid is that he actually wants to meet you, he genuinely wants to shake your hand and meet his fans. His team is also like this as well. – . they were all very welcoming towards us.

After we put up our vision board (which is called a “painted picture” taken from Cameron Herold’s book Double Double) in the office, I also put up the Papa van with our goal on it. One day, out the blue I emailed the show right away .. I thought I got nothing to lose, let me try..of course from there the universe took over.. everything fell into place. Jasmina responded to my e-mail within the hour, and she put us in contact with our rep Devon. I would e-mail her updates and even in the evening time.. when I knew she wasn’t working, she would still take that extra time to e-mail me back. Those e-mails meant so much to me, she actually cared !! We met with Devon (who was very honest and upfront with us which we really needed) and everything was arranged.

Aug 8th was our first ad on the show. I was so nervous and excited, I kept waking up every hour.. afraid I was going to sleep in and miss it (and I never sleep in !!.. up by 4:30 am). So our ad aired..I immediately tweeted Jasmina, and she replied that “we are going to give you a shout out in a bit”.. well what came for us was a dream come true. It was better then I could have ever imagined it.. Kid actually talked about Papa .. like talked about us  – our company that we all work hard everyday in ! No words I type will give it justice so I am uploading the audio clip for you all, which Devon kindly emailed without me even asking for it! Kid talked about small businesses and that really touched our hearts. A few of us were listening in the office, – I cried.. and the techs got emotional because you could feel in Kid’s voice how much it meant to him. An amazing feeling that I will never forget ! I know the Big P will never forget as well ! I didn’t even know that anyone was ever reading the tweets I would post.. but I would just always post them because this was someone who was making our days into happy days !

THANK YOU KID & YOUR MORNING TEAM: JASMINA, MANDY, NIRA, AMY, ANDREW THE INTERN & DEVON (who made this all possible) !

Papa does have one request. When the Big P started in 1996, his first PAPA van was stolen. He was pretty choked, he had earned that van by working many nights and many hours. His 2nd Papa Van is still in the company, it is kind of a clunker.. but every Papa drives it before they are promoted to a newer van. Our request is that if Kid could put a Beat sticker on the back of this very van that has been with Papa since the beginning. We hope he accepts our request !

Very Proud Papa’s we are:

TWITTER: Hey Kid – where’s the follow? How come no follow?? where’s the love for Papa?? hehehe

That’s okay a few other’s of the team aren’t following either.. hehehe

Even Andrew The Intern – shocking !!

But we still love you all !!

Wait a second.. we have A WINNER BABY !!! Yaaayy Jasmina

We look forward to an amazing journey with the Kid Carson show and Papa is going to cherish every moment of it !!

P.S. In case you dont know: My name is Joy and I have been the operations manager of Papa Plumbing for the last 4 years.  My boss, or the Big P (P for Papa) as we call him, is Kal. Kal started Papa Plumbing in 1996. His work ethic is profound and in our company we all respect how he built this business from scratch. Thank you Kid and Team for honoring that work ethic in your show !

Took a last minute trip this weekend up to Whistler. Its different to see it with no snow on the mountain. There is snow though up on the Peak. The ski runs have transformed into biking and hiking trails. There is definitely a different vibe here too then in the Winter. Of course it’s bustling with tourists. The Kid Zone is a must for kids. It’s just great to feel that mountain air!
We had lunch at Merlin’s Grill at the foot of BlackComb Mountain. There was this band there, called Ruckus Deluxe – very talented ! I wanted to post their rendition of Billie Jean – I thought it was pretty cool and it seemed to attract quite the crowd ! Here is a video of Billie Jean and a few other tunes as well.. Also some pictures of Whistler. Enjoy !

We did have a few days of sunny skies. Looks like this week it’s back to rainy days in Vancouver again !

I really should be writing part 2 of my blog about hot water tanks, but instead I thought I would write a post about the events that happened this week in Vancouver.

It all started on Monday. Monday, I was doing paper work like usual in the evening.. and I read a tweet from our favorite CTV reporter Keri Adams on her twitter account

saying that Chef Dale MacKay WON Top Chef Canada ! She had the tweet right but Chef Dale’s twitter name is actually @ChefDaleMackay ! Thats okay Keri, one day you will follow Papa Plumbing but we understand.. we will await your follow !

Keri Adams (@Keri_Adams) 11-07-04 8:14 PM A #Vancouver Chef has won Top Chef Canada! His reaction when he won, and how his big night will help kids. @ctvbc at 11:30. @dalemackay

Well Papa loves Chef Dale (& his plumbing fixtures)

so I immediately messaged all the technicians and we were glued to the TV and google. Actually I was glued to Twitter. It was so cool watching Chef Dale’sTwitter followers sky rocket! Then the hash tag #topchefcanada started trending ! It was so amazing seeing Chef Dale go viral ! I love Social Media !

So a heartfelt CONGRATULATIONS TO CHEF DALE !

His winning dish:

Quebec Brie cheese as the amuse, salmon prepared two ways, a main dish of black cod with BBQ pork consomme accompanied by a plate of roast lamb, and a lemon custard topped with a strawberry sorbet for dessert.

Here is Chef Dale MacKay’s winning tweet:

The Papa crew will be visiting Ensemble on Wednesday for dinner.. looking forward to it,  as I am sure everyone in Canada is !

Looks like we are in for some real fine dining !

Papa Dale took this during his last visit to Ensemble:

In the next day or so I will cover the rest of the exciting PAPA week.

Hope everyone had a very Happy Canada Day ! I visited some family in Surrey and we got to see the Cloverdale fireworks ! I tried to get a “Happy Canada Day” cake from Safeway:

But they were all sold out and had no more red icing either, so we got this instead:

we also had yummy corn on the cob for our Canada Day BBQ.

Hope everyone had a chance to enjoy the festivities and see the fireworks. We are proudly Canadian and all our vans have the Canadian flag on them as well !

Happy Canada Day Everyone from your proudly Canadian plumbers : Papa Plumbing, Heating & Drainage Ltd !!