Last year, Mark, his brother David and I biked the Tour de l'Ile, a 50km bike ride with about 30 000 people, for the first time and we couldn't have picked a worse year to do it. The weather was awful! WET WET WET. The first hour was grey, but cool enough that the ride was enjoyable, but then it started raining and didn't stop. It was miserable, but we biked the whole thing and I got to see parts of Montreal that I'd never seen before. I also got more wet than I ever have before.

This year the Tour de l'Ile is celebrating its 25th year and we plan to bike it again! I'm especially excited to see that the route is a different one than last year. This year's route is one familiar to me as big parts of it run West along the canal and then back East along the river. Can't wait!

Something I have been keeping track of in a paper journal, but not in this blog are Mark and my "10 Great Dates". Now, listen here:

Mark's very generous and thoughtful mother put together a huge box of individually wrapped gifts, each relating to a great date from the book "10 Great Dates Before You Say I Do"*. The idea is to read each date's chapter, do the exercises as homework, open the accompanying gift and discuss the chapter's theme during a date. 

I would never have thought I would take part in something like this, but when someone is thoughtful enough to put such a wonderful package together just for us, I can't resist.

And so, on to Date #1:

On Easter Sunday Eve, we cracked open the book and read the first chapter: Sharing Hopes, Dreams and Expectations. The exercise was to rate from 1 to 5, eight important areas to a couple: commitment and security, companionship and friendship, sexuality and sensuality, affection and tenderness, encouragement, intellectual closeness, mutual activity and building a family. The next day,  we went to the Eggspectation** in the Old Port for breakfast and discussed. 

After having been together for a little over 6 years and having lived together for about 4, we have already shared our hopes and dreams many, many times. However, we've never explicitly (ok, maybe during a few fights over the years) discussed our expectations of each other and it was insightful to focus on this part of the date. The gift Mark's mother chose for Date #1 was a journal and pen, both of which we decided to use to keep track of each date, i.e. write a few notes, attach the homework and where the date took place. I think it'll be funny to look back on this journal in 15 or 20 years and see what we thought of our relationship just 6 years in.

Stay tuned for Date #2!

*For the record, Mark and I are not about to  say I do. 

** Man oh  man has Eggspectation ever gone downhill! That's my last visit for sure!

After everything that I've been doing since I last posted (Freaky Friday, March Break, Easter, The Class, Miroir Noir screening that I barely attended, 9 weeks left in the school year! + M. Ward show to look forward to!) two really funny things stick out.

1. HAPPY EASTER GUS! What a hat! Apparently this is normal in Australia. Email me, I'll show you the videos.

2. I got a parcel notice addressed to Willow Paquette! The lady at the post office had a laugh about that. She didn't even question me when I told her Willow is my cat, even though I had to show her picture I.D. to get the parcel that was addressed to me (an Etsy treat). Willow's enjoying her Feline Greenies Dental Treats as I type.

There's a party in my house and it's only 6:30 Wednesday night. Sheesh. Someone's making salad, someone's playing upright bass, someone's waiting for pizza, a few other people are loitering and Willow's sticking close to me.

This past weekend I had two great friends visit me from far away. With one, I did the ultimate Montreal bagel taste test and had a Fairmount bagel, walked a few blocks and had a St Viateur bagel. I'll say that Fairmount had a line out the door, but St Viateur sold individual-sized cream cheeses. Guess which bagel won (in both my and my friend's opinion)?

Then we had drinks at Dieu du Ciel where we monopolized Bruno the bartender: he is 31, is in police school, used to be a chef and spends all his time studying. 

Then we all went to Gibby's in the old port where I dined on shrimp cocktail! lobster tail! veal! wine! cosmopolitans! and had our picture taken by Mona, our waitress.

Then we all went back to the W Hotel which is OVERRATED! I'd never been inside and was excited to see what all the hype was about. While the outside looks like a mental hospital, the inside looks like someone wondered, "How many totally awesome neon light and water installations can I fit in one mental hospital?" and then fit as many awful neon light and water installations in it. 

Then I went home.

About my last post, Margaret commented, "okay, not to be the voice of doom and gloom here, but I heard the other day that historically, Montreal gets 23% of its annual snowfall in March, and March is only half over. I'm just saying...enjoy the moment." BUT I DON'T BELIEVE IT! 

Do you do an annual spring cleaning? I love spring cleaning but haven't felt the tug of the garbage bags strongly enough yet. I love throwing stuff out (or donating or recycling, etc).

Some more M. Ward...

The weather is GORGEOUS! I pulled the plastic off one of my living room windows and opened the window wide to let in some much-needed fresh air!

What a beautiful day today! I didn't find myself at the Expo Manger Santé this weekend like I thought I would, but rather waiting for Mark to come home and then off to dinner at my brother's house where we had a delicious dinner made exquisite with homemade coconut ice cream topped with spiced rum fresh off my sister-in-law's cruise in the Caribbean. Delicious!

Today we took advantage of the sun and walked to one our favourite breakfast places, and I just dined on some of Mark's best pizza yet.

I have just discovered TED and I think I'm one of the last to do so. Everyone keeps posting links to TED talks on Facebook and I finally clicked on one to see what it was all about. If you have 20 minutes to spare, go to TED and learn something!

...and how can a man like me remain in the light...

The second love of my life is coming to Montreal! Oh M Ward! I can't wait!

I need to get back on the blogging bandwagon here! After finding out that my cousin reads (how nice!) I feel I should be more diligent!

I just polished off a piece of toast with peanut butter and it was sadly disappointing. Why? Because I'm back to the same old-same old PC Just Peanuts stuff instead of the delicious (DELICIOUS) Trader Joe's peanut butter my parents brought back from the U.S. Man oh man, if you get a chance to buy Trader Joe's peanut butter, do it. It'll change you.

Yes, my parents are back from Australia and can't stop talking about how wonderfully warm and beautiful it is. They are in LOVE with Sydney and I'm in love with the macadamia nuts, Cadbury's milk chocolate and, although not from Australia, the above mentioned Trader Joe's peanut butter - all of which are gone, gone, gone.

This weekend, the Expo Manger Santé is happening in Montreal - maybe I'll find some nice peanut butter there. Until then, I hope you enjoy your glass of scotch after work tonight as much as I will!

Lately, I've been lamenting the lack of variety in food available in Canada. Maybe it's because I shop at Loblaws too much. But one does get tired of having a choice between Liberte and Sugar-and-Chemical-Laden yogurt. Until I found the brand Damafro at Segals.

Ah, there was a time I lived in Plateau and could walk to Segals - that bastion of CHEAP groceries and weird brands. I went there the other day at Mark's insistence, and he's never even lived in the Plateau. I found 3 individually sized Damafro (never even heard of Damafro, perfect!) yogurts with real sugar, real fruit and real yogurt for 1$.

My public service announcement to you is: buy your yogurt at Akhavan's. They have this kind of deli counter with too many kinds of fresh yogurt, it's to die for. Damafro's consistency is like something so disgusting, I won't even type it here because my mother reads this blog and I don't want to offend.

I am feeling more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning than many a morning before. I have the popular children's song "Sally the Camel" in my head and timed my morning shower to the length of the song.

Mark made almond milk last night and I added some to my coffee - delish! I should have taken pictures, he was pretty chuffed!

Have you ever had an Irish Moss? It's the best drink ever and make of the weirdest stuff ever, including at least a half a pound of Irish Moss, a seaweed from the Atlantic Ocean.

Not only is Irish Moss (the drink) deliciously sweet and creamy, it's a popular aphrodisiac!

Check out your local Jamaican grocery and buy some now!

Or make your own. I'm pretty sure they do at Bon Appetit Des Caraibes and they're right on Notre Dame at Atwater, go!!

Happy Candlemas!

According to a book I have here at home, Candlemas (February 2nd) is the day to take stock of your candle inventory and add more if you feel you're missing some to take you through the rest of the dark winter. I can't find anything online to support this however. I did manage, sadly, to find one candlestick holder with a rather pathetic green stub of a candle and a single tea light. If there's to be any romance in this house on Valentine's Day, I'll definitely have to stock up.

(Ignore the ugly window trim, it's Mark's paint-stripping project.)

I also found this little poem:

If Candlemas day be fair and bright,

Winter will have another fight.

If Candlemas day brings cloud and rain,

Winter won't come again.

Unfortunately, today is BEAUTIFUL: sunny and mild.

I also found out that in France, Candlemas is celebrated with crêpes, eaten only after 8pm. If you can flip a crêpe while holding a coin in the other hand, you're assured prosperity throughout the coming year. I'm giving that a try tonight.

Today is also Groundhog Day and I guess North America's groundhogs all saw their shadows and so we'll have a "long" winter; 6 more weeks. But aren't we going to have at least 8 more anyway?

I'm watching Bill Murray in Groundhog Day to commemorate today and realize it's a lot more heartbreaking and warming than I remember. Well worth a watch if it's been a while since you've seen it.

Happy Candlemas!

Truth be told, there are quite a few blog posts awaiting posting. I write many posts and save them, without ever posting them. Not *that* many people read this blog, so I guess I shouldn't care *so* much, but I often wonder why I even have a blog and what direction it should take. Should it be merely about my personal life? Should I write about current events that peak my interest? Should I blog about pop culture? Music? Clothes? All of the above? Do I even *need* a direction?

Buoyed and inspired by Kath's Tribute to Oatmeal (have you ever seen anything like that?), I've decided to take a photo of my breakfast every single morning. Stay tuned!

Blue Imelda

Have I already posted this? Is not, it's time I did and if so, well it's worth posting again.

Final Fantasy's Blue Imelda

An SNL digital short

I wasn't Doogie Howser's biggest fan by a long shot, but the theme song is so great. When I saw this on SNL last weekend, I knew I had to post it here to share with all of you. I especially love the MPC and synth guys at 1:16. Beware: if you watch this video, you'll have the song in your head all day.

An Italian Playlist

Are there songs that when you hear them can only ever take you back in time to when you first heard them or when you listened to them a lot? For me, listening to Ratatat's Classics album takes me back to the beginning of 2007 and the 1km walk from the bus stop at St Jean and Autoroute 20 to Ecole Primaire Pointe-Claire during an internship I did there. I listened to that album over and over during that walk and I can't listen to it now without feeling the same emotions I felt walking to that school every day: excitement, stress, impatience.

I recently uploaded hundreds of songs to my iTunes including Andre 3000's Speakerboxxx and when I listen to it I'm taken back to my daily walk along the beach in Scalea, Italy 2003 - 2004. It's a funny feeling to not be able to listen to it without feeling the pebbly sand under my feet and the salty scent of the Mediterranean. So, here is your very own 2003-04 Italian Playlist:

Andre 3000 - Speakerboxxx
My Morning Jacket - At Dawn
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?
Bonnie 'Prince' Billie - Bonnie 'Prince' Billie sings Greatest Palace Music
The Beatles - The White Album
Belle and Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Vincent Gallo - Recordings of Music for Film
Smog - Red Apple Falls
Mirah - Advisory Committee (produced in part by Phil Elvrum - awesome album!!!)
Dntel - Life is Full of Possibilities

Here is a video edesade made for Bonnie 'Prince' Billie's New Partner which also happens to be one of the first songs Mark ever sang to me:

The other day Mark spent some time with his friend who told him of his dream to move to Killaloe, near Algonquin Park, with his wife to live among the hippies and run a second-hand store of sorts. This got us talking about dreams and while Mark's are pretty vague yet lofty, mine are very specific and perfectly achievable. I keep them specific and achievable so that I can be assured of continually being appreciative and satisfied with the work I put into achieving them.

For example, I recently came upon an a journal I had forgotten I started where I wrote of two dreams: to have a sofa comfortable enough to take a nap on and to live somewhere with a nice view of a body of water. Now, if you'd spent as many years in your 20s being a student as I had, you'd understand the unattainability of having a nice sofa. While Salvation Army has many many affordable sofas, I can assure you, those that I've bought have been far from the kind I'd want to spend a couple of hours on on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Now, though, I have a lovely sofa that I spend many hours on reading, listening to music, watching movies and napping. This sofa that I thought was so far out of my reach is finally in my living room! Dream attained!

It was timely that Mark was just talking about dreams to his friend, because a blog I find so interesting for many reasons I might get into another time, mentioned Randy Pausch and two of his lectures, one about achieving childhood dreams and another about time management. If you shed a couple of tears watching this, you'll almost definitely shed a few watching the lecture about childhood dreams. It's not that it's a tear-jerker, but Randy had cancer and died just months later. The lecture is not about his death or cancer though, and I think it's an important lecture to listen to and watch if only to light a fire under your own dreams. Each lecture is over an hour long, but worth watching because as he says, if you're not spending time reaching your dreams, what are you spending your time doing?

Today is November 23rd and it's also Saint-Catherine's Day! I don't know about children who grew up in Quebec, but growing up in Northern Ontario (at least those in French and French Immersion schools) meant November 23rd was dedicated to making "tire" and wrapping up little pieces of it wax paper to take home, forget on the "rad" and then scrape off the next day. Sure, it's delicious, but what kid doesn't leave sticky sugary on hot surfaces because naturally they already ate a ton of it at school?


The maple stuff we dip a popsicle stick in and roll through the snow at a cabane a sucre is called "tire" in French and the stuff we made out of sugar and molasses on Saint-Catherine's day was also called "tire" even though it's referred to as "toffee" in English. It's not really toffee at all - it's really molasses and sugar. We were told that Catherine was a teacher who made the "tire" in order to lure little First Nations kids into her school so she could teach them.


Maison Saint-Gabriel, which happens to be just around the corner from my house, is the farmhouse/cottage where some of the first young single women from France lived and learned to housekeep, take care of animals and grow vegetables under the guidance of Sainte Marguerite Bourgeoys.


While Maison Saint-Gabriel's website mentions "tire", it doesn't say how it's connected to Catherine, rather it explains how she is the patron saint of young girls and unmarried young women. The Maison Saint-Gabriel is inviting all Catherinettes (women over 25 who are not yet married) to take part in the Sainte-Catherine day festivities today - sounds like personal invitation to me!




edit: St Catherine's Day is not on November 23rd, it's on November 25th! Thanks to Anonymous.

What the world needs now

Wow! Friday night I found myself with two great friends at Eglise Saint-Jean Baptiste...

...watching Burt Bacharach! I can't say enough great things about this show. The sound was incredible, the church is beautiful. He came on stage and started playing the piano for about 15 seconds, it was just him and the piano, and then he and the whole band launched into the chorus of "What the World Needs Now" - the sound was so huge and so perfect! What an experience! The rest of the show was great, great, great. Burt and the band played lots of medleys of his hits, he talked to the crowd a bit about studying at McGill and working with lots of great singers. His encore was really long - it seemed like neither he nor the crowd wanted him to leave the stage.