Not ever seeing Alex during visits had made these people curious - was Alex real or was he the scape goat fasination of the tenants at 44 1/2 Ladouceur Ave? Although the humour in this idea made us laugh and long for the day when we could say that truthfully, we kept insisting he existed.

During one weekend, Andrew's sister was up for the weekend. For the entire Friday and Saturday she was at the house, she had never caught a glimse of Alex, and needless to say, he did the same for her. Although she probably would have been more at peace with the world if she left the house without the Alex Factor, Alex revealed himself on the Sunday morning. It was only until she had finished her shower and was walking through the kitchen (don't ask, the house layout is fubar), Alex greeted her. As he did, he performed a double take, asking, "Do I know you?"

For those who were there to witness the incident, it was priceless. I happened to be there. The expression on his face was too much to handle and everyone cracked up, including the man himself.

C

able Was Included

Mr. James Ng, our fabulous landlord (ahem!), had indicated to all residents that cable was included with our apartment. When we arrived at the house, indeed, we had cable. Although it was basic cable, it was better than nothing, especially with the cruddy reception we got without it!

Anyhow, about two or so weeks into the work term, our cable had been cut. Someone called James and he had NOTIFIED ALL tenants that cable would NOT be included. After a house meeting, we decided that we really couldn't do much about the situation. What could / would we do? Taking the prick to court was out of the question.

One day, Chris had investigated the situation and took the liberty of removing an obtrusive device which was affixed to our cable feed on the outside of the house. To our surprise, a blether of cable channels filled our television set! Wow. Hey, that's what we said too!.

To avoid any accidental release of this pirating, the four normal tenants (of this, I mean everyone except Alex) agreed to keep the information confidential among ourselves. We didn't want any unexpected surprises, thus Alex was kept in the dark about the situation.

Everything was fine and dandy. UNTIL... Alex had a great idea - why not get the pay channels? Well, since we were not legally entitled to cable in the first place, the normal guys stated that we didn't want that. We would not be willing to pay. But Alex was very adamant - he wanted it and was willing to pay. Shit. Hey, that's what we said too!

Once we found out when Alex was planning to go through with his plans, we disconnected the cable and let the cable company do their thing. Alex reclaimed his clear, 14" TV and hibernated in his room. He was happy, and we were happy he was away from us.

I went to Canadian Tire and picked up a cable splitter, attached it to Alex's legal cable, and ran it to the fuzzy, 20" TV in the living room. We got cable. Alex eventually got suspicious when he saw the cable TV Guide on our TV, but we eluded the situation quite well. He suspected something, but claiming ignorance can get you far in a lie with Alex!

Addendum: Andrew pointed out a great point. One day, Alex actually confronted us about the situation. Why was it that the television reception was so clear (well, clear as defined by the television's limits) when we couldn't get anything before with just the antenna? Well, I don't recall who was the quick witted one, but we told Alex that we hooked up the cable to the back of the TV and the cable running through the house acted as an arial. Think about it; it does SEEM logical, doesn't it? If you've got a wire running through the house, the better chances of getting reception. Since it was plausible, Alex accepted the excuse.

H

ockey Babble

I'm still wondering why those Americans need a little blue tail on their TV screen to see a black puck on white ice. But with the TV supplied with the house, I hate to say it, but that annoying tail may have come in handy watching the NHL playoffs. It was bad enough that we had a fork helping with our reception at one point in time, but having a 20" TV and watching an image that was probably stretched from a 14" resolution, I can definitely say it was not fun. One can go blind because of it!