Posts filed under 'O Canada'
Wow, D-day is very fast approaching. Tonight I met up with my buddy Lorraine to have dinner and say our farewells. I met her at my first job in Montreal, the one that almost caused me to have a nervous breakdown. She’s amazing. She remembers all sorts of crazy things like the exact date I started, the exact date I left, the exact date of my first week when they found me almost comatose in the ladies toilets and I had to be rushed to hospital with extremely severe food poisoning. It was August 16th and that was my first Friday there so I must have started on the Tuesday or Wednesday of that week. One thing is for sure I left the job on Friday, October 22nd. I rang the agency and yelled at them that I was never going back to that place, that they couldn’t make me and that they were all crazy. AND I DO MEAN CRAZY!
Anyway, weirdly enough today Lorraine told me about all the re-shuffling that’s been happening over there. How the president and two VPs left after the company was bought by a bunch of Californians, and it took till then for this piece of information to come to light… that they had very much valued me and were very sorry that I had left and they blamed it all on Gaby. Apparently they all liked me very much. You’d never bloody tell! Weird how this stuff can pop up out of the blue nine months after you left the place, and especially out the mouth of some guy who has never even met you. Oh well, good luck to them.
I’ll tell you something, good help is VERY hard to find. I need to listen to Remi more when he reminds me of what I’m worth because it’s true, diplomas or not I am worth much more than I give myself credit for and it’s quite amusing right now being submerged in expressions of my true value in the workforce. I need to remember this in Toulouse. It’s VERY important that I remember this. France might be tough, so I need to be also.
I’m 31 in 6 days! I’m off to Boston in 12 days!
The heatwave is persisting here. It’s unrelenting. The last couple of days a 70% humidity factor have brought the temps up to 41 and our flat is like an oven.
I’m going to take a shower now and curl up in bed with Harry Potter. Remi has gone to the movies to see War of the Worlds since I deserted him for dinner with a girlfriend.
Tomorrow night it’s the fireworks festival again and maybe the Cajun music fest first, but really not sure about that last bit.
Thursday is happy hour in town with a couple of the guys and gals from work. Friday Remi gets his last 2 wisdom teeth pulled so we’ll have to wait and see how he’s feeling before we really make any plans for the weekend!
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July 20th, 2005
Yesterday we had a work summer party at my boss’ place (see house in the background of this picture). We ate quite a bit, talked quite a bit, swam in the pool, went out on the boat, some drank quite a bit and the more daring got dragged out on the Seadoo! For more photos, click here.
And I hope you do realise that since I am able to provide you with an actual link to a photo album today, it means I am quite a few steps closer to publishing the rest of my albums in the same way! so stay tuned…
After today I will have not quite two weekends left in Montreal and so it’s a mad dash to do everything and see everyone. Today we’re off to see our friend Lydia. It was supposed to be a picnic in the park, followed by “beach” volleyball for the boys and lots of chatting for the girls. Unfortunately it’s raining so we’re retreating indoors to their place for some food and frollicking in the pool once again. Yes, the Montreal heatwave persists and our best fan broke last night 
In other news, Harry Potter 6 was out yesterday so I have snapped up a copy and will try to sneak some time here and there to submerge myself in it. I have also re-started my Spanish lessons and am really loving it.
Right! I best go and get dressed! 
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July 17th, 2005
It’s a rainy day here in Montreal and I’ve done not much of anything really. I was so exhausted last night that I woke up at 11.30 this morning. I managed to sleep 12 hours straight without waking up. Usually I guess that would be oversleeping and I would feel sluggish all day, but today I reckon I needed it and now I feel pretty good. I’ve done a bit of reading; an excellent writer from Toronto, Ann-Marie Macdonald. The book is called “Fall on your knees” and I am loving it. Quite bleak in parts, but the characters are rich and invite affection.
Just before that I read Marian Key’s “The other side of the story”. Her books are always enjoyable and perfect for a good summer light read.
On July 16th it will be Harry Potter 6
And on July 25th it will be my 31st birthday. It’s creeping me out. I’ll be on the other side of the hill :/
And around the 30th we’ll be heading to Boston, Massachussets for the first leg of our most exciting adventure to Arizona (including a very small part of Utah and Nevada). The one that has been somewhat shrouded in secrecy.
It had to be so while we figured out the next steps… how, where, when, etc.
I have a total of about 4 weeks left in Montreal: 3 in July and 1 at the end of August. Next week I should be announcing this officially to certain people here (sorry, another shroud of secrecy).
I finally got a letter from Quebec immigration stating that if I was unable to supply them with a copy of a valid worker’s visa, they would not be able to continue with my file. Well, of course, they dragged their feet just enough for my worker’s visa to expire and so now I don’t have another one to supply them.
So life stumbles along its merry way in its usual fashion. Remi is wanted in Toulouse, France. He has been selected for a PhD thesis over there, so that’s where we are going to go.
He will stay in Montreal till the end of September and the Center in Toulouse will pay his airfare and put us up temporarily in a studio apartment over there, while we find ourselves somewhere to live and set ourselves up. Because my Canadian visa expires on August 27th, I will be leaving Montreal for Paris on the 26th. I guess I will then get a train to Lyon and stay with Remi’s mum while I take care of the administrative stuff and adjust to the new surroundings.
I’m a little nervous. Living in Montreal you don’t hear such positive stuff about France. Understandable, the French here have emigrated because they weren’t happy over there. Anyway, we’ll see. I’m sure it will work out and as much as I’m nervous I’m also looking forward to it.
Last night we had a slapdash picnic in the park with a bunch of friends. It was very enjoyable if you edit out the mosquitoes from the experience. They were there in droves and we got eaten alive. In fact, I’m the only one who survived to tell the tale. Just kidding.
I am trying to motivate myself right now to get some albums together online. It’s been a while since I put any pictures up.
I’ll update on the Arizona itinerary another time.
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July 9th, 2005
There are people in the world who prostitute their children and argue to the world that they have no other way to survive. Bullshit. 380 Euros to get your kicks with a poor kid in a squallid room in the arse end of town. 380 Euros is a pretty nice sum of money, especially when you come from the arse end of town in the arse end of the world. So why doesn’t the mother prostitute herself? She would make money, just not as much as her children make. So at what point does survival just become greed?
I read about a man in Australia who had been arrested for having sex with minors in Thailand. His frequent trips raised alarm bells and he was investigated. It is now against the law for an Australian citizen to go overseas and sexually exploit minors. A victory for the world, even if only a small one it’s about bloody time.
I saw a t-shirt today that said “love is not bling”.
A headline yesterday announcing that “porno kills desire”. George Bush is still stuffed on his soapbox glorifying himself in the misery that was 9/11. I could go on and on, the world might just be beyond repair.
Last night Remi and I went to see “La Marche de l’Empereur”. In English the title has been translate to “March of the Penguins”. Poor translation, absolutely fabulously life-affirming movie. See it.
Time is speeding up here, things are moving and changing very fast but still I am unable to lift the veil of secrecy. Perhaps next week or the week after I will be able to blurt it out.
Summer is a violent heatwave, just as cruel as the winter was. And yet, as a friend of mine recently said “Quebecois in the summertime are people who have lived through the winter”. And it is so true, life is suddenly filled with activity and people are outdoors every second possible. The humidity is a killer. The air just stagnates. There is no sea breeze to sweep it all away. Just a big fat city spilling its guts into the sky and churning up the heat engine. France is going through the same thing. How hot will it get?
I have had my first experience of the ‘beach’ Montreal fashion. Lakeside. Slimy rocks and sand under your feet, but the water is oh so soft against your fingers.
I was doing the dishes tonight and suddenly had a flashback triggered by god knows what. About 5 people, Friday night drinks on the balcony at work. A few too many for sure. Whose bright idea? Who knows. Perhaps a conversation about real blondes or about how your pubic hair rarely matches the colour of the hair on your head. And suddenly everyone was swearing to secrecy, beer bottle in one hand, reaching down the front of their pants with the other, and a look of deep concentration… Snatch! All people (except me of course who was stone cold sober and declined the invitation) victoriously displaying before them a solitary pubic hair, putting it to their head and passing themselves around for everyone to see. Alcohol does funny things to people.
P.S: If you scroll right down this page you will see that you can now sign up to be sent an email notification when I update my blog. I have put this in place because I realise that my good, regular blogging habits rarely last very long.
xx
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June 30th, 2005
In other news today…
We had a surprise weekend of lovely warm weather and absolutely loved it! It’s so nice just to be able to wear a t-shirt all day and not shiver once.
Summer is on our doorstep and with it, Montreal comes alive with summer festivals so hopefully this year I should be much more disciplined than last year and actually share some of the fun with you all… especially now that I can post pictures!! That will have to do until I get my act together and create my albums on my site (got sick of dotphoto). Looks like the first of the festivals we will be attending is the yearly fireworks festival. And this year I’m very excited because Australia will be first off the rank! woohoo!!
Now, you will no doubt have noticed that I am making an effort to be less lazy with my blog and I am now starting to add links AS WELL as pictures 
Will wonders never cease?
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May 30th, 2005
Today is officially one year to the day that I have been in Canada. It also means it’s the end of my [censored] and that now I have to [censored]. Tomorrow we will most probably celebrate. C wants to do some boogying and Remi had planned drinks and pool with F and S so it should be fun. Other than that, am just so excited because today Remi [censored] which means we [censored]. I can’t wait!! It’s gonna be so cool!! So now we have something extra special to look forward to before we [censored].
Gah! It’s so crap not being able to say all this stuff outright on here! But for now everything must be [censored]… you know how it goes… just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you?
In other news, it’s been a bit of a lame-o week for me. We’ve had consistently crap weather for weeks now and it’s just not on after a 6 month winter. So last (long, thanks to the Queen) weekend was frustratingly spent indoors. Sunday I started coming down with some bad tummy pains that continued into Monday and Tuesday, lucky me, I woke up puking. So I got to spend yet another day indoors, though that one didn’t bother me so much since I was too out of it to care and I just slept all day. (sidenote here, Remi worked from home so he could look after me. Stepped out on his bike in the afternoon to check out puter parts at the ecocentre and promptly fell off said bicycle, coming home with gashes all over his face and hands. Poor love). So after Tuesday, guess what happens. Yep, you guessed it. Flare-up. Thank you very mucha. Pain all week so I couldn’t go to Pilates on Wednesday and I hope that a good night’s sleep tonight will clear the remnants of it all. I constantly have to remind myself just how much better I am now though. Flare-ups discourage you but you have to find the force somehow to rise above it all and just ride the wave until it’s over. Sunshine would sure help, dammit
Ok, since my one year is up today I will post a list I made a while back of all the stuff that has happened to me in that year:
fell in love
sold all my stuff
left a job i had had for 4.5 years
lost an organ
lost a best friend
left my family, home and friends
travelled in two other countries
moved to a city on the other side of the world
moved umm… a lot of times
visited a hospital 3 times when never before
1st ride in ambulance
1st ride in helicopter
worked in french for the first time
left 2 jobs
applied for permanent residency in canada
my first real winter - 1st experience of -15 to -40
1st experience of lots of snow and ice and frozen lakes and winter that lasts for 6 months
Hmm and actually the list goes on but I think those are pretty big things already. Who would have thought!
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May 27th, 2005
Flippa came to stay with us for the weekend. She has left Vancouver to head off to London for a couple of years and on the way she took time out to do the East coast of Canada and fly out from Toronto. She flew to Toronto from Van, spent a few days there then headed to Ottawa and Quebec City, then to see here in Montreal. It was good to see her and good for Remi to experience the New-Zealand accent. It was a little odd for me though to be thrown back into a world where the main topic of conversation is celebrity gossip, clothes, shoes and all things that really have nothing to do with my life now.
She arrived in the afternoon on the Thursday and I was picked her up from the via rail station. I was actually late because my boss decided to have a last minute crisis and I ended up just having to leave him to have it alone. As it was, when I got to the station Flippa had already been to the info desk to ask about hostels in the area :/
So we found each other and came back home to dump all her stuff then went out for Japanese. Yum. Remi met us at the restaurant after his game of squash. The next day I had to work so Flip did some touring around the city by herself and I met her after work to go do some … shopping. Well we didn’t find anything for ourselves but we bought Remi a shirt and a polo neck which he looks very handsome in
We got home too tired to cook or go out for drinks as was planned so we decided to go try the Jamaican restaurant Remi had once seen not far from our place. That was quite the experience! We were the only whities in the place and the menu boasted such tasty selections as cow hoof and oxtail :/ I was scared since I don’t really like meat that has skin or bones with it, but I ended up ordering a chicken stew and it was very very delicious indeed. Served with plantain and rice cooked with beans and coconut milk and some vegetables on the side. When my dish came, these two Jamaican ladies who were sitting at a table near us said ‘good choice’ and when Remi and Flippa’s jerk chicken dishes arrived the ladies said ‘i hope you got your water ready’. hehehe
I think they were amused by the white people. The lady who owns the restaurant was very friendly and really took the time to walk us through the menu. After our meals she brought us a bowl of food to sample: dumplings of bread and saltfish and ackee which is a fruit that they eat all the time in Jamaica and they have it for breakfast instead of eggs. Everything they eat has a LOT of pepper in it. All in all it was a great experience that we waddled home from. A couple of days later we bumped into a ‘friend’ who lives near us and we mentioned we went there for dinner… he told us that a few months ago someone got shot right outside of there. Ha.
Saturday we all walked down to Atwater market, grabbed some croissants and coffee from the bakery and went and had a picnic breakfast by the edge of the canal. After eating we walked along the canal to the Old Port so that Flippa could do the touristy thing and see all the old buildings etc. Remi left us around 2 to go meet up with the guys for a game of soccer in the park. Flip and I walked around some more then went home to put on some warmer clothes before heading off again to meet up with everyone at the park. We all hung out for a few hours then we went to have some Butter chicken at our favourite butter chicken place on St-Denis.
Since one of THE things to do in Montreal is taste the yummiest bagels in the world, we couldn’t let Flippa pass that up. So, on Sunday we headed off to the Bagel Cafe on Mont-Royal and umm yum yum YUM :). We then headed off to the top of the Mont-Royal so Flippa could see the view of Montreal from above, then we trecked for a bit and ended up at the Tam-Tams which she really enjoyed. The Tam-Tams happen every Sunday of the summer months on the side of the Mont-Royal. A whole bunch of people bring their drums and various instruments and form drumming groups and everyone comes along to dance, sell jewellery, lounge on the grass, etc.
At the end of all that we were so tired and went to do some grocery shopping so Flip could cook us dinner. That was delicious too… we had chicken and spinach and cream cheese filo pastries and salad. Flippa left us on the Monday to head off to Halifax where she was joining a tour to check out Cape Breton, Bay of Fundi, Prince Edward Island etc. Lucky cow :/
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May 10th, 2005
This weekend we experienced Northern Ontario. Sudbury, Ontario to be exact. Home of the world’s biggest smokestack and also of the giant 5 cent coin.
We had to go to the wedding of a old university friend of Remi’s… Rick. I left work at 2 in the afternoon on Friday and we (Remi, me, Jeff (another friend of Rick’s who was the designated driver) and Jeff’s girlfriend Sarita) set off on the 7.5 hour drive. Actually we didn’t do the whole 7.5 hours on Friday but after stopping off for dinner and a couple of wee stops we arrived at the Travelodge in North Bay at 10.45 pm. I was completely buggered. I had had a pretty bad week painwise, a flare-up that made me forego my pilates class on the Wednesday also, so the car trip was torture to some extent. At least I could spread my legs out over Remi when it got really bad and I jumped into a hot shower as soon as we got to the hotel. Saturday I was still pretty bad but we got up at 9 for breakfast then went for a stroll across the road to the lake which was pretty nice. The thing that amazes me about Canada is that most of the beautiful lake spots are private property. After the lake it was back to the hotel to beautify ourselves and then we set off to Sudbury which was another 1.5 hours away. On the way we passed Lake Nipissing which is actually very beautiful and somewhere we talked about going back to one day - a chalet there would be just perfect!
Sudbury is a nickel mining town and honestly, it’s pretty ugly overall. Most of the trees are dead and the landscape is dominated by rocks and the giant smokestack. Every second front yard seemed to be decorated with a randomly placed delapidated old yellow school bus.
The wedding ceremony was held at the ‘Round Chapel’ at Sudbury University, which is also pretty ugly. It was interesting to note however that this part of Ontario also catered for the francophone part of the population, with all the signs in English and in French. The people we met throughout the weekend were all bilingual which I believe is pretty rare outside of Quebec.
Rick says ‘abo-oot’ instead of ‘about’. What Canadians are supposed to all speak like, but this is not true. I have narrowed it down to Albertans. With other Canadians it’s much more subtle… although, that’s somewhat of a generalisation: in Vancouver they sound American, in Alberta they sound umm… Canadian, in Sask well so far I can only judge by one person but I couldn’t stand to hear her speak. That may be because she was so loud and obnoxious though and nothing to do with coming from Sask (I’m sure maci will back me up on that one). In Ontario from what I’ve seen so far - and I’ve only been to Ottawa and Northern Ontario - well it’s hard to say. I guess it’s more of the subtler Canadian accent that has that North American sound but that is more subtle than the American. Make sense? :/
In Quebec most of them obviously have a bit of the French influence in their English but sometimes you could honestly hardly tell. Newfies have a bit of an Irish lilt to their Canadian. I hear in Moncton they speak a strange mix of Frenglish.
So anyway, back to the wedding. The ceremony was held in the Round Chapel, it was somewhat unusual. They had a girl bring a keyboard and sing “Sea of Love”. She sang a few other songs too but no wonder she’s a struggling artist (emphasis on struggling) since she sang off-key most of the time. She had however invited another singer friend of hers. A First Nation, I believe from the Mohawk people. She had a beautiful voice and presence and at the end of the ceremony she sang and drummed a Mohawk lovesong. It was really beautiful and to me it was the most touching part of the ceremony. Otherwise, it was all a bit odd.
The reception was pretty odd too. It was held at Rick’s parents’ place which is a big house on the edge of a pretty lake. Most of the guests were old(er) people for some reason, possibly long-time friends of the parents. There was no music, no dancing, everything to make me feel out of place in my citified little black dress. Lucky for me it was cold and that was a good excuse to not take my coat off all night 
So basically the night comprised of a lot of food, a lot of talking and a Japanese tea ceremony to tie in Rick’s time spent in Japan and Erika’s heritage (she is Japanese born in Brazil). We left their place around midnight and set out to find a hotel. We finally got a room looking on to the famous smokestack, the giant 5 cent coin and of course… a rundown school bus. The next morning it was back to Rick’s parents who had invited everyone back over for breakfast. I really really enjoyed the breakfast. Rick’s dad is a real character and the whole family is very friendly and welcoming so breakfast was a whole different feel. We ended up staying about 3 hours and having some very good laughs before setting off on our trip back to Montreal. I have to say it was very nice to get out of the city!!
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May 3rd, 2005
I sat here for a moment trying to decide whether or not I should write tonight. It’s been the same for a while now, I don’t know why I procrastinate so. Finally I figured what the hell and logged in. I got a kick up the butt a couple of weeks ago when I went to check maci’s blog and found the title of the post as “patiently waiting” and the post itself starting with:
“I am patiently waiting for Tash to update her blogger. I have been waiting for a real long time.”
Youch. Then the other night I get a message from her on msn saying:
“January 7th 2005. The last time you wrote in your blog”
Youch again. Then I start getting e-mails from people saying “where are you?” or “are you not talking to me? I’ve sent you 3 e-mails and not one response”. Youch youch youch.
Then Remi the other night catches me reading through my blog and says “instead of reading it, why don’t you actually write in it? Isn’t that the point?”
Well… yeah, kinda. Actually it really is the point. Why am I so crap. I always feel like I should start my posts with all the excuses why I haven’t written. But then they do say “those who want to, find a way. Those who don’t, find excuses”. Hrmph. I do want to though. So instead I start my post with a confession. I confess. I’m crap. Mea culpa.
So what? The thing is, I figure one day I’m just going to go back and reply to all the e-mails I’ve neglected or come and post the stories I haven’t told. Then what happens? Well… I get overwhelmed and then it’s the good old Aussie “she’ll be right mate”. Or as Con the Fruiterer would say: “Coupl’a days!”
I was re-reading my blog the other day because someone had said that they had read it recently, then added as a comment that it’s funny how you have an idea of someone and then you find out they’re completely different. So, I did what every girl would do, I went searching for clues.
What I found, of course, was quite disappointing. Whenever I felt like I wanted to know more, there seemed to be a promise of another post to come to complete the story, but then… nothing.
All the gaps just frustrated me! But… but… what happens next???
How infuriating am I!
And still, I cannot make any promises to write regularly. I know I have made those in the past and failed miserably. *sigh*
I know what I *SHOULD* do, now let’s see if I do it.
I think I have written about 4 posts since being in Montreal, and not that many more e-mails. The truth is then that no one really has any clear idea of what is going on with me over here. This is how secrets are born. You brush the bad bits aside, sweep ‘em under the carpet and hope they never come back to bite you on the arse. I promised myself I would never do that, but since being here I am faced with a tough moral dilemma. It is one thing to try to be as honest as possible about your own life, but what about when it affects, or is affected by, others. How much can you say about others without intruding on their weaknesses/pain/fears etc. That is, without disrespecting their human frailty, pride and dignity. I don’t know. If anyone has any thoughts on that, please feel free to post your comments. The writer’s festival was on not long ago in Montreal and that topic was one of the hot discussion points over a couple of nights… unfortunately I never made it so I still don’t know the answer.
We’re (slowly) dashing into Spring here. I saw some leaf buds on a tree yesterday; what a marvelous sight. Though it’s been raining for days, the 6-month long dreary winter is finally over and rain we can forgive by thinking of the green grass and pretty flowers that are born in its wake.
My visa expires in one month from today. Is that freaky? hell yes.
I turn 31 in just under 3 months. Is that freaky? HELL yeah :/
Oops… gotta go eat dinner. Till next time
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April 27th, 2005
Well so far I have to say, -20 is fine though I thought this would be my death threshhold
Snow is beautiful, I love it. It’s pretty and white and clean and crisp, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. One aspect of a real winter that I have been dreading all year however, is ice. I have horrid memories of London, stepping out the front door onto an ice covered path and slip sliding your way to work. Well, the dread is no more. The ice is upon us. Yesterday afternoon we had what they call freezing rain, but I believe most people call it sleet. It covered everything with a sheet of ice about 1 cm thick, and then to top it off, it rain real rain just to make it all shiny and slippery as hell. To say I was stressed is an understatement. I have this irrational fear of falling (yes, that is why I put off trying a bicycle for so long) so feeling like I have no control over my feet is very terrifying to me. I got out of the metro and took 4 steps in the direction of home and almost fell twice. I panicked. I didn’ t know what to do. I had visions of myself living at the metro forever because I couldn’t get home. I went back into the metro and called Remi to come and get me and by then I was so wound up I actually had to shed a few tears to release the stress. My poor darling had to leave the warm comfort of home to slide his way up the road and slide me back home. It was horrid.
And this morning, even though it had snowed a little overnight, it wasn’t enough to cover the ice, so I had to go through the same thing again but this time by myself. I made it! I did it!
I felt like a hero, on top of the world. Then I came back down to earth and realised I’d have to do it again at the other end. Heh.
Anyway, the day is over and I am home and I am fine. I have no idea where the fear comes from. I wonder if it’s something I have developed due to the pain in my joints or if it is something I have always had. I know I have always been terrified of climbing … well, except trees but that’s another story.
Though we had a warmer day today… temp with wind chill was a very mild -7… I am now unable to do without my mittens if there is any slight wind. I realised this tonight when waiting for the bus and almost gave myself frostbite because I couldn’t be bothered to get my mittens out of my bag before leaving work. Lazy!
Aside from that, everything is fine. My baby is so lovely and I love him so much. Today he came home from work and cleaned up the whole apartment to surprise me when I came home.
His mother arrives on Saturday so it will be nice to have some family here for Christmas. She told me today the first thing she wants to do when she arrives is go shopping for a coat.
Wise move! And bonbons, before you make any comments. I know a girl here from Sask and she said she never used to really feel the cold there but that here she can’t tolerate it, it’s brutal. So, come in the winter! Let’s see if you agree! We’ll be waiting for you in January hehehe
Ninite all Gotta go try to get to level 15 on World of Warcraft.
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December 9th, 2004
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