The 'Hood

I like my new area. It's just off the Plateau, which seems to be the most interesting area of town and where most people I know live. My flat is also very close to the metro, which is so much more convenient than the long walks or buses I needed to get to the other places I've lived in Montreal (two months, and I've stayed in about 5 different places...). So even though is a couple of extra metro stations out of town, it's actually more convenient. And, of course, I'm teaching two days a week in Laval, which is the island north of Montreal Island, and thus I'm a couple of stops closer to that job, which is nice.
Also, it seems a lot of my musical friends live around here - both from the LadiesAux and from Choeur Maha. Which means our jam sessions and small-group rehearsals are frequently conveniently located.
In terms of facilities, there's an IGA supermarket around the corner, which is convenient, but I hope not to use it too often, as I work right near a super-cheap and interesting supermarket (they sell marmite!), and I'm also just a few blocks from Jean Talon Market, which I've only visited once so far, but which is apparently *the* place to buy fruit and veg and bread and everything, really. This evening I found the nearest swimming pool, about 5 minutes walk away, but I didn't go swimming, as I had forgotten that it was the other pool that was open tonight - the one that is about 10 minutes walk away. I plan to get the schedules for both, if ever I manage to go when they are open! I'm still loving the free, indoor swimming pools! I'm also told there are lots of interesting cafes around here, and I know I'm close to 'Little Italy' and there seems to be a healthy middle-eastern population around here too. All good things.
However. Walking to this swimming pool this evening (and then about 5 long-blocks past it, as I hadn't remembered the address correctly...) I walked down St-Hubert which, for about 4 or 5 blocks around here, is 'Plaza St Hubert'. It's a shopping street, with covered footpaths, that reminds me of something I saw in China, or somewhere. And it's filled with the least attractive shops I've seen in a while. There is nothing in any of them that remotely tempts me (except the Salvation Army store, which I found this evening). I noticed a preponderance of bridal and formal wear shops, including, for some reason, multiple children's formal wear places. And there seems to be a market for tacky formal outfits and coloured suits. The fashions remind me of things I've seen in non-western countries, where the local version of western formal wear often gets a little overdone. There are also electronic junk stores, whitegoods shops, sex stores (with open glass shop fronts, so you can see all their wares... and customers...) and discount-clothing chain stores. Not to mention the occasional plastic-tablecloth eatery with names like 'El Tropicale'.
The best part about this street is that I know I can safely walk down it on a regular basis and never be tempted to spend a cent!

EDIT: and the Nail Salons! I forgot to mention the nail salons! Which is odd, because just about every second shop is one!

Diary of a Really Crap Ice Skater, Part 2

Today, though, it was without the benefit of skates. The weather has turned warm - the temperature went and got all positive today, and the nice powdery snow melted, then refroze into ice that, in many places, very closely resembles polished glass. And it's raining, which is really not nice. So I'm not particuarly impressed. This evening my walk from the metro (about 300m or something) took ages tonight, as I was slipping on nearly every step. And on my way to the from Rhizome (where I was at their film night), the sidewalks actually slidewalks, and after a block or so I gave up and walked in the road instead, which had been salted, so wasn't icy. A car went through a puddle right next to me and sprayed me all over with puddlewater. I felt like someone in a New York movie.
This is my some of my least favourite weather. I would much prefer -20 and snow. At least the footpaths are walkable then!

This Weekend

So last night I didn't have anything on. Friday night, and no social events! This means I think I have got enough sleep for the first time in a week or three! And it's just as well, as here are my plans for this weekend:
1. Go out and buy milk to bring home to make coffee. I've been up a couple of hours, but haven't really started the day, as I seem to require milk to make anything resembling breakfast.
2. Go swimming. I've been slack in the last two weeks - I've only been once. It's the working thing. It just takes up too much time and energy, and leaves nothing for things like swimming!
3. Go to the all-girl-bluegrass-jam, which is called the LadiesAux. Today we're jamming at some sort of knitting thing, which sounds like fun. I will also be meeting Rebecca there - someone I met in Japan, who comes from Montreal, but currently lives in Spain. She's back in town just for the weekend, so I invited her to my social events.
4. Go straight from there to a big hair and moustaches party and potluck at the Laurier house where I was staying last week and where the Red Party was. Tonight is in honour of Ashton's birthday, which happens to be on Valentines Day. I've made a curry, which isn't at all Valentines-y, nor have I added any big hair or moustaches to it.

And then Sunday:
1. Food not Bombs at the Co-op sur Genereux. I will go for the beginning and help out until I have to leave for:
2. Rehearsal of a quebecois folk song that I'm doing in a small ensemble for Choeur Maha. After which I will rush off to:
3. Feminist films of some sort at the Rhizome.

And then I will have to get home at a reasonable-ish hour so that I can function successfully at work on Monday!

Today

This morning, just before I left my house at 7.45 or so this was the view out my front door:And then when I got home (and after tramping to my front door up to my knees in snow, getting the shovel, and tramping back):


Then I shovelled. It's still a novelty, so I didn't mind. Not yet, anyway.

Why I'm not blogging much

I'm working. Every day. 5 days a week. At least I have 2 different jobs, so there's variety, and in theory it isn't full time, although it sure feels like it at the moment. But it's nice to know I`m doing some good in the world, helping out people like this.
In the last week I have also attended no less than 4 musical things, by which I mean rehearsals and jam sessions, as well as a free yoga class, and about a million social events. Ok, well, a couple. Oh, and I moved into my new flat. This means I have a new address. AND this flat is ALL MINE for 3 months (and 4 days). Why, it's practically permanent! You can send things by Seamail (if you're quick). Email me if you want said address, or the phone number that accompanies it.
I will blog about my flat soon - once I've unpacked, or rather, put things away rather than just upending all my bags to find things...
In the meantime, the pictures of last weekend's fantabulous Red Party and Cultural Insurrection Convention are on flickr, and if you haven`t seen them yet, you should! And yes, I know they need editing, and I will delete the ones that aren't worth looking at sometime. Soonish. Probably.
One of my favourites from each event:

Montreal Marching Band Madness

I've just come home from an incredible evening spent listening (and dancing madly) to marching bands. Yes. Marching bands. Sousaphones and all. Who woulda thought they could be so much fun! Here's the flyer:Several people I know here are in something that is generally referred to as the Anarchist Marching Band, and officially known as the Ensemble Insurrection Chaotique, I think. I would also be in this, if I had an instrument to play. I may yet borrow something and join, as it seems like a lot of fun. I've been offered the use of a flute, but I don't know if I want to go that far!

Anyway, this evening there was the film, which I unfortunately missed most of, and then the bands individually, including a gumboot dance ensemble, and then a sort of free-for-all where all the musicians were on stage (and then on the dance floor) jamming. And then we went out on the street and played and danced there until the police decided it wasn't such a good idea (no doubt prompted by the neighbours). It was fantastic, and I took about a hundred photos or something ridiculous, and I will post them here as soon as I can! Including the one of me playing a bassoon. I had met the bassoonist a few times here, and tonight she let me play hers! It's been about 9 years since I last set lips on a bassoon - and that was only for a few minutes on Sean's bassoon one evening - it's actually more like 11 years since I played regularly. And I discovered that my lip piercing doesn't really get in the way at all, which is good to know, and also that I can only remember how to play about one octave worth of notes - enough to play a decent bassline in the key of F, which seemed to be the favourite key for the brass bands, luckily, and to play the flintstones theme, but sadly not enough for baby elephant walk. I also learnt that my lip muscles are seriously out of practice and my lips fell off after about 10 minutes. and I also also learnt about a 'bassoon day' that will be at one of the universities here in March, which might be interesting, though possibly less so without my own bassoon!

Also waiting to be uploaded are the photos of last night's Red Party at L'Appart Laurier, which is where I've been staying lately. They have new flatmates moving in now though, so I'm going to stay here at the Rhizome (a co-op) for a while - possibly until Thursday when I can move into my own new flat. This is what the kitchen of the Rhizome looked like in the morning the last time I spent a night here. This is an excellent photo of the Rhizome, and conveys much about the place! It's great!

Right. It's 4am. Better see if I can find a bed...

Mmmm

The sun's back, on my back. I've spent the morning fielding phone calls either for jobs or social events. And I have marmite. Ok, so it's not vegemite, but it's a decent substitute, and I have found a supermarket that sells it, for a reasonable price.
And just to balance all this positivity stuff that there is way too much of around here lately, here's something negative. For some reason Auld Lang Syne is playing on my ipod, and I can't be bothered getting up to change it...

I like it here.

So, if you hadn't noticed from the last few posts, I'm rather enjoying Montreal. I was walking home from interviewing another school this afternoon (that's not a typo - my serious blog explains) and it was -11 or so, but with such a clear sunny blue sky, just on dusk, with a nearly-full moon rising over the lovely Montreal architecture of Rue Laurier and the snow-covered park, in the pale blue and faintly pink-streaked sky. I had spent the early afternoon doing my cat-impression in the sun in my flat again, and was now just as warm outside in my wonderful yellow coat and winter boots, I was listening to my music, I had just had a whole job interview in French - and been offered the job on the spot, and will reject it by email this evening.
Tonight I have the all-girl bluegrass jam again, tomorrow I work a whole two hours, then plan to visit a friend and then go to choir rehearsal in the evening. Wednesday I might have people over to dinner. Sometime this week I've got an interview for a possible ESL management job. On the weekend, I become homeless for a few days, but I already have enough friends here that I can stay at a different person's place for each of the 4 nights if I want (yes, I know at least 4 people!) and then I move into a lovely flat right next to a metro stop.

My life isn't all perfect, of course. I'll still be short on cash for a month or so until my work builds up and I get paid, but I can live extraordinarily cheaply here, if I try. And there's a little matter with my previous sublet person I need to sort out. And a few other things I'm trying to ignore, but overall, I'm pretty content at the moment!

A Kat and a Cat in the Sun on a lazy Sunday

So it`s -13 degrees outside, with windchill it`s -22, but wonderfully sunny, and I`ve just spent the last 3 hours sitting stretched out decadently in the sun in the comfort of my own flat.I`m supposed to be at Food not Bombs, helping cook for a velo-rutionaires something-or-other, but the sun was too seductive.It`s beginning to disappear now, though so I might manage to go to FnB soon. Maybe I`ll make it to the serving. I`ve helped cook or serve several weeks here now. It`s a bit chilly, but fun, serving soup to the homeless outside a metro station in town (they don`t usually let us inside).
The other reason I`m being lazy is because I worked most of this last week - my first week of work since October, so I`m not allowed to complain. It was almost interesting to be back in the rat-race.But it`did serious disrupt my sleeping pattern, so I needed to catch up. The reason I didn`t catch up on sleep on Friday night was a potluck at L`Appart Laurier on Friday night. Despite being `only` a potluck, it was wilder and better-attended than the actual party I went to there last month. It was great to realise that despite being here only 6 weeks now, there were only about 5 people there that I had never seen before. And I`m beginning to be known and recognised in this cosy little community. I love it! AND the food was fantastic, as always.And the reason I didn`t catch up on sleep on Saturday morning (afternoon) is because I went to see Sweeney Todd with Rosie. The first half was much better than the second half, but overall it was a great movie. Tim Burton`s imagery is, as always, utterly brilliant, and the beach-fantasy scene was just genius. And you`ve gotta love a musical with a body count! (I could post a pic of this, but I`d just have to steal it from google images, and I think you can all do that for yourself if you want).

But yesterday evening I had nothing on (in a different sense to this morning, when I also had nothing on), and just enjoyed hanging out with Basho the Cat, absorbing internet time and listening to music on the wonderful speakers here in this warm, cosy and elegant flat. I`m only here another week, and I will be sorry to leave. But the next flat is going to be just as good!

Musical Outlets

I just spent the evening at the first jam/rehearsal of an all-girl bluegrass jam band that I seem to have joined. It was so much fun. I haven't sung with only women for years and years, and forgot how much I enjoy singing the bass line! And making it up as you go along is always good. AND I got to play a Baglama, which was also fun. Next time I might even work out how. I also tinkered on the recorder, but of course, you can't do that so well while singing, and I'm rarely willing to not-sing. For this reason, I'm wishing I had more aptitude for string instruments. But I'm such a crap string-instrument player that I tend to have to concentrate on the playing, which also means I forget to sing. Maybe I'm just incapable of doing two things at once. I will have to work on it.

I get more singing tomorrow - I've auditioned for and joined Choeur Maha, which is, by coincidence, also an all-girl choir. I didn't mean to exclude men from my singing outlets. It just happened that way!

Statcounter Stats

So I just clicked on my Statcounter link for the first time in months, and discovered that my numbers have gone up in the last few months. While a lot of my hits seem to be dedicated readers (Hi Mum!), I also have a lot of people wandering in either from google searches, or from this Digihitch website, where I seem to have got myself listed as an interesting sort of blog. It's a pity it's not really relevant now that The Beast has bitten the dust (I miss my Beastie!) and I'm a leading a slightly more sedentary life for a few months. I'm still toying with the idea of buying another van when it gets warmer and spending another month or so travelling north and west. I was very happy living in my Beast-of-a-Van. And, of course, I've made it most of the way across canada - it would be nice to make it to New Brunswick or even Nova Scotia and be able to say I went coast to coast. And after that there's all that wonderful nothingness of northern Canada to explore...
But that's months off yet, or possibly years. I do have to stop travelling sometimes. And I have to earn money sometimes. And if I never did anything but travel, this blog would be entirely inappropriately named.
And just for those people who have come from the digihitch site and are looking for the living-in-a-campervan stories, start here - a few entries down the page - and work your way through the archives! Or try the 'campervan' label.

Getting into Flickr

So I've had a flickr account for almost 6 months now. I have rather a lot of photos uploaded to it, I've made slideshows and sets and links and generally used it as a personal photo album and backup of my photos. But I hadn't explored the flickr 'community' and the possibilities it brings until this evening. And I hadn't really understood tags until now, either.
I've been thinking for a while now that some of my photos might be worth a wider audience. I have a huge collection of photos from my travels, and have quite a few really good shots among them. I've been saying for a while that I need someone to 'curate' my collection - I'm too close to it to make unbiased opinions and, as a look at my photostream attests, like photos that document my life about as much as those that have artistic value. So I think I can use the flickr community as my 'curators'. Tagging photos in detail (and tagging what's in the photo, rather than when it was or anything else) and 'geotagging' them - pinpointing on a map where they were taken, I think will attract more of the general public to see them, and hopefully either comment on them or make them a 'fave' which would tell me which pics others find are worth seeing.
I've also discovered photo pools that you can add your photos to. For example, I could join the Travel Photography Group, one of the many Montreal groups, a group just for pictures of the sky, or something more thought-provoking, like this 'Beyond Stereotypes' group. I realise it's basically all in the name of self-promotion, but it would be nice for some of my photos to have a slightly wider audience than you lot!
And ok, so I fancy myself as a bit of a photographer on occasion, and want the praise and ego-rubs!
So I've started putting more work into my flickr collection. Starting with organising the photos properly into collections and sets. And I've picked pretty thumbnails for all the sets, so even if you don't look at any other photos, have a look at my collection of set-icons here!

I have also declared 'finished' the collections on West Coast America (left) and my Trans-Canada Adventures (click on the picture mosaics to go to the photos).

Yay for for the wonders of technology in the digital age!

Diary of a Really Crap Ice Skater, Part 1

Saturday.
Hours spent on ice: about 2.5 in 2 separate sessions.
Number of falls: 1
Time spent crossing the 10m of treacherous trampled lumpy icy snow from locker room door to ice: 10 minutes (not kidding - I had a 10min podcast on that finished before I got there - my knees wouldn't stop shaking, so I had to keep stopping for them!)
Progress Made: questionable.
Phrase of the day: You see, it's all about muscles and balance, and I have neither.
New Jargon Learnt: Patinoire Decoratif' = the pond/puddle/fountain froze, so you can skate on it. Don't mind the holes, lumps, trees etc in it... Patinoire Sportif = we put a wall up around our other pond so children of all sizes can attempt to kill beginner skaters who venture onto the slightly better ice with their pucks and hockey sticks.

Took my new skates out for a spin today. Or rather, for a shuffle. I went to the park just one block from here first, and discovered the 'decorative' skate rink there should remain just that. I wasn't the only one complaining about the quality of the ice. And it really did appear to just be a largish frozen puddle, with several trees in the middle. Which at least are something to hold on to occasionally. A kind lady took pity on me and held my hand to get to the 'sportif' rink, which was at that moment only half-full of children brandishing lethal weapons. I shuffled up and down one end of the rink, soon learning to stop or turn when a puck crossed my path, as it would be very quickly followed by a child who, despite being able to literally skate rings around me, always seemed to want instead to skate through me.
Once I got a little more used to the ice, I was able to upgrade my shuffle to the next level - a technique that seems uniquely my own, and which I am calling 'skateboarding'. You see, my right leg seems to have a really difficult time believing my left leg is capable of anything beyond a support role - or rather, a non-supporting role. I think there are trust issues between them. Right leg is extremely reluctant to leave the ice, and prefers instead to stay firmly planted while Lefty pushes me along. After a while like this, the next half-step is to actually transfer at least my weight to my left leg on each 'step', even though Righty still refuses to leave the ice. I'm sure I look like I'm limping or something.
I only fell once - and was picked up by the nice lady, who also pointed out that I needed to have a tooth removed from the toe of my skate, which is what caught on the ice and caused me to fall. She was surprised to see I had 6 teeth there, where there should only be 4 or 5. I promised to get the de-burred and sharpened at the earliest opportunity.
Now, having recognised the same progression of techniques occurring as the last time I skated - on Christmas Day, I was hoping to get up to the same level I did then, which was Right leg actually able to leave the ice at least half the time, as well as beginning to get over the constant feeling that I'm .02 of a second away from having my tail bone hit the ice with extreme prejudice. Unfortunately, today my toes began to freeze before I got to this point. You see, my feet get very very tense when I skate, and break into a cold sweat. Possibly at the thought of what Right leg would actually do to Left leg if Lefty was ever given the chance to lead and failed...
So I inched back over the horrible patch of ice to the locker room (I think it only took me about 5 minutes to cross the 10m this time) and put my boots back on to come home and thaw my feet. I was so incredibly tense that I decided to go to the pool for a relaxing swim. Before I left the house again, I called my friends Romain, Leyla and Rosie who live just near the pool, and got invited to... guess what... go skating. With Romain. So I went for a half hour swim, then walked the one block from the pool to Parc La Fontaine - where we had gone at Christmas. They've opened up the rest of a lake since then, so there is a huge area for skating - a long narrow squiggle of ice that currently has small pine trees (Christmas leftovers, I think) and park benches arranged in little islands periodically down the middle. I got my skates sharpened and 'de-burred', as I was told I needed, and which did seem to help, as did the slightly better ice and the lower density of hockey sticks. It only took a few minutes to get from locker room to ice, thanks to a very helpful passer-by who offered a hand, and then I was on the ice again, and apparently back to square one. I shuffled. I wobbled. I was half way around the lake before I got up to skateboarding. And I didn't really manage to get to the next step before I got back to the stairs, and, as I hadn't found Romain ( it was really crowded, and everyone looks the same in their dark coats and winter hats) I decided I had done enough for one day, and clawed my way back to the locker room. Once inside, the first person I saw was, of course, Romain, now quite recognisable without his hat on, who had also just come off the ice. He introduced me to his friends (more comprehensible people from France!) and we all walked back to his place for hot chocolate and toast, which is a fantastic thing to do after skating.

I will continue this diary of my skating progress - and I do hope to make progress, really I do. Now that I have sharp, de-burred skates that are beginning to realise my feet aren't as narrow and pointy as they want them to be, I plan to get out on the ice whenever I work up the courage. You see, skating utterly terrifies me. It's something to do with my deep-seated fear of slipping on ice, I think, which, given my lack of balance, is not entirely unfounded. And of course, at 6 feet tall, I have a long way to fall. While I rarely do fall over, that probably has more to do with the extreme care I take (and my slowing to a snail's pace) on any slippery surface than with my balance skills. But I have all winter here to get over this, and learn to skate as well as those irritating kids with their hockey sticks. Or at least, to get from the locker room to the ice unassisted in under half an hour...

I *heart* Thrift Stores

Guess what I bought today! Ice skates! Now there is something I never thought I'd ever own in my life. But the rinks (ponds in parks) are free here, and the dirt-cheap thrift store skates I bought, plus sharpening (who knew skates needed sharpening?) cost about the same as two skate hires. And as there is a rink (a real rink! with a wall to clutch on to!) about 300m from this house, I think I should manage to go more than once...
I was also in the Salvo's shop to hunt for a coat, as my $5 one from the last Salvation Army store I went to (in Medicine Hat, Saskatchewan) has served me well, but it's not really suited to the depths of winter. And I think it makes me look like a homeless person. So I tried on about half the coats on the rack, and found a beautiful green one that would have been perfect if it were about 2 cm bigger around the middle. Once I'd ruled out every coat on all the racks, and given up, I spent another hour in the shop trying on skates and boots and hats and looking at the books and generally poking around. And then on my way back to the register, I had one last look, thinking I might have missed something. And I found this:I can't imagine I missed a yellow coat, so I can only assume that it was put on the shelves after my first look. Now, yes, it is oh-so-very yellow. And this caused some hesitation on my part. Not least cos I'm going to have to make an effort to keep it clean. But it's made of down and wonderfully soft micro-fibre type fabric, so it feels great. And it doesn't leave down on everything like my other down jacket. And it has an excellent hood. And in general, should get me through the worst of winter!

I also bought a pair of winter boots - slightly too large and rather ugly, but the brand is 'Dry Ice', which sounds promising. My wonderful Bulgarian Boots are good, and will probably do most of the time, especially now that I've dubbined them again and added some thermal innersoles that resemble car windshield shades. But the new ones should be better when I want to walk or stand about in the snow for any length of time on those -20 days. Clear days like this, which are the coldest: I also upgraded my 'toque' while I was there. My $2 black beanie that I bought in NYC a while back is fine, but nowhere near warm enough (although when I think about it, now that I have the hooded coat it will probably do! Ah well). But I got this, which should help:And finally, I bought a crappy backpack that will help me move to my new sublet on Sunday. The idea is that I use it in place of my old backpack (the landing module of my mother-ship pack) and thus prevent the latter from getting even older and crappier than it already is.

And all of these purchases I got for the princely sum of $35. Which was mostly due to the fact that I got talking to the lady, and she was really nice to me, and she's the one who decided the prices! And she may have not noticed the backpack... But anyway. Just another reason why I *heart* thrift stores!

Christmas in Montreal!

So, after having no idea what to do for Christmas as late as Friday, the offers just poured in over the weekend, and I ended up with too many options! So here's what I ended up doing:

Around 5ish, I went to a place called the Co-op sur Genereux to help cook for an orphans' christmas that I wish I could have stayed for - it was great to see the place, as I'd heard a lot about it, and to meet more interesting people.

About 7pm, I went to Leyla's new place (she the person I'm currently subletting from) to meet her flatmates at her new place: Romain, an ever-so-cute-Parisien, and Rosie, an entertaining American who hasn't been here much longer than I. An hour or so later, and we set of to the 'loser's christmas party' at Romain's old host-family's house, which turned out to be full of architects and their teenage kids. Enjoyable, but definitely different to the sort of company I've been keeping for the last few months! And the food was delicious, but entirely meat-based, which unfortunately rather disagreed with my mostly vegetarian stomach, which made me a little antisocial for the last hour I was there.

So around 11 I took my upset stomach away from that party, taking Rosie's keys with the plan of napping on their couch for a while. On my way back, I passed a church that was ringing bells, so I stopped in for the last 15 minutes of their mass (which had been going over an hour already, I gather - glad I just caught the end!). But that nicely satisfied my vague traditionalist's desire for a little bit of church at Christmas. And I had a revelation about the purpose of organs in churches. I don't know the name of the piece the organist played for the recessional, but played on that massive organ, it sure put the fear of something or other in me!

When I got back to the apartment to find Rosie already back there much earlier than planned, Leyla just arrived home from her other party thing, and everyone wondering if I had dropped dead while walking home. I really thought no one would miss me when I dropped into the church!

As I was soon feeling better, Rosie and I went upstairs to our next party - one that we could already hear most of anyway, in the form of elephants on the ceiling. Their upstairs neighbour Marco was also having a late-night orphans' christmas party, and we arrived just in time for the massive turkey, which had been planned to serve at midnight. Despite not knowing anyone there, managed to find so many interesting people to talk to, that it was 4am before we went back downstairs to bed!

So that was Christmas Eve, which is the more important day here (because of the French tradition, I think). While I enjoyed the parties very much, they were interesting parties, didn't really feel christmassy enough. Christmas day solved that:

I stayed at the apartment for the night, and this morning (by which I mean, at about 12.30pm) we opened the few little presents from under their little tree (well, they did) while listening to Christmas music (the one day a year it doesn't grate), and ate french toast (which is apparently pain-perdu, en francais) and fudge and cookies.And then we set of to got ice-skating. Outside. On a bit of frozen water! In a park! About 5 minutes walk from their house. AND I didn't fall over and break a leg. (That's me on the bench in the background - I swear I was skating for all but this 5 minutes!)

And then we came home (to their house) and had tea and more fudge and cookies, and toast with pesto and olives and cheese, and more tea, and I spent about 3 hours explaining my entire life's travels (well, they did ask!) and then we invited Marco from upstairs down for more tea and a tarte au citron that Romain had whipped up while Leyla was making the french toast earlier.Finally, I came back to my little flat, so that I could feed the cat and sleep in what is currently my own bed. Which I should do about now, as I see it is now nearly 5am!

An Archbishop's view...

Here's an interesting take on the christmas legend - at least, interesting coming from the Archbishop of Canterbury! I've always mostly liked Anglican dogma...

More on living in Montreal (so far)

Right now I'm sitting in a cafe a few blocks from my apartment. I've eaten the baguettine and cafe (must turn on french keyboard...) required to purchase my table and net access for a while. I'm sitting by the window, looking out at Avenue Mont Royal, with its christmas lights and after-work traffic and pedestrians in mittens, scarves and furry hoods, rugged up against the -12 degree temperature. Some them are dragging coloured plastic sleds with small children in them. Not to mention the snow that is now only falling lightly, making no apparent difference to the already-dusted pavements and the walls of ploughed snow that line them. It's all feeling rather european, especially as the cafe would not be out of place anywhere in France (except on no other continent would they have a range of 12 different flavoured filter coffees...), and I'm surrounded by french chatter - some of which I can understand, which makes me think there might be actual French people here, as well as Quebecois.

And as to why I'm in a cafe at all, well. I made something of a mistake when I took this apartment for the month. The flat is lovely and cosy, the cat is apparently neurotic, but will no doubt get used to me. I will learn how to navigate the buses eventually, or just learn to appreciate the 30min walk to the metro regularly. But I won't get used to *dial-up* internet. I realise it's something I should have asked, but I didn't really think dialup still existed, so it never crossed my mind that the included internet wouldn't be broadband. And for some reason the dial-up seems to disconnect itself about every 10 minutes, which gets extremely boring. So I surf between 3 rather weak unsecured wifi signals, and toy with the idea of either spending a large portion of my time and cash in wifi-equipped cafes this month, or putting a notice up for the owners of the secured networks available offering cash in exchange for their passwords. We'll see. Other than that, I'm very happy in my little nest for the month!

Meanwhile, I'm looking for flats for January, and I know what to ask this time!

Last Word on the Election

The SMH reports that Howard finally conceded Bennelong yesterday. Officially. He's like a bulldog isn't he - refusing to let go of anything until the last bit of life has been shaken out. Incredible. Anyway, I find the picture that goes with the article rather interesting as well! Well done to the photographer for capturing those expressions.

And here's some more election reading from friends' blogs that I meant to post ages ago: Nick's entertaining account of Election Night, Nathaniel's take on the new state of Australian Politics.


And finally, something completely non-election related. Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's! Argh! It's the end of the Discworld! Well, not yet, apparently, but it would seem to be the beginning of the end. And, in His words, an Embuggerance. Here I was thinking that he, his brain, and the Disc were immortal, and he would churn out books at a rate of 1.5 per annum for the rest of eternity! (Thanks to Amanda & James for the news - I think)

Montreal

So I realise I've barely posted anything about Montreal yet. The truth is, I've been too busy doing things to blog about them, and now that I have time and my own apartment for a month, I seem to prefer to spend my time sleeping. I have about 6 months to catch up on, so I'm not too surprised. I thought I'd give you a taste though:



Here I am, sitting in my tiny flat, drinking my breakfast hot cocoa (I left my coffee pot at Steph's place!) french-style from a bowl and eating fresh baguette with butter and raspberry jam and a glass of grapefruit juice with a splash of fizzy water. Outside the weather is alternating between sunny blue sky and big fluffy white snowflakes. The fluffy white cat I now live with spends his time either curled up somewhere near by, or demanding food.

And now I think I'll return to bed for a little bit and watch the snow out the window!

Life

From the beginning -
My birth. I've just discovered that I share a birthplace with Australia's new prime minister. I'm not sure if that makes it more or less embarrassing, though. I comfort myself with the fact that I never lived there. Rudd apparently did, however.

To two days ago -
On arrival in Montreal, I had an odd experience. I knew I was going to be staying with Steph, in her student residence. My rideshare dropped me off about a block from where we believed I needed to be, and pointed me in the right direction. I was carrying my ridiculous amounts of luggage and the snow was about a foot thick.
Wheeled suitcases do not like snow. But I managed to head in the right direction, found what I assumed was the street, and walked the half block to the right numbered building. The first thing I noticed was a padlock on the outside of the door. Not a good sign. Then I looked up and saw the windows were boarded up and had big black burn marks above them. This was freaky. It appeared the place had recently been on fire. I began to worry - first about the safety of the inhabitants, and then about what on earth I was going to do with too much luggage and no idea where to stay. I also had no phone number to call. I dragged my stuff the long block to the nearest metro and decided I had to find internet to find out if there was an email explaining had happened. I got to the metro, and saw a local area map, which I thought might be helpful in pointing me in the right direction for internet access. On studying it, I realised that the street I had been in was the wrong street! I had gone one block too far! I dragged all my stuff back through the snow again, fond the right place, and was very very grateful that there was someone home, AND that I was expected! It had been disconcerting to think that the place I had lined up to stay in had burnt down just before I got there. I'm very glad it hadn't!

To yesterday -
I saw two places to possibly sublet yesterday - one that would be sharing with a cool and interesting person and is cheap, but is an unfurnished room, and I'm a little sick of camping on the floor. But maybe I can stay in touch with the person living there!
The second place is about a half hour walk from the metro, which is less than good, but has a decent bus system surrounding it, is lovely and cosy, and comes with everything I want, plus a pretty white cat for company and is being let by a nice and interesting person, so it's all good.

To today -
So I finally heard back, and it seems I'm not going to Morocco. The email said that I could ask for more feedback as to why my application was rejected, so I have, but I have a feeling it will be lack of business teaching experience. And, to be honest, the fat that it was business teaching was the least-attractive part of the job.
So I've spent the afternoon trying to work out what to do with the next 6 months of my life. I've decided to just apply for a bunch of jobs, both here and abroad, and see where I end up. It's like a sort of lottery! Let fate decide! Almost as random as sticking a pin in a map with your eyes closed, but not quite. If I don't have any prospects by the end of January, I'll go live in Paris with Sean. It's nice to have a backup plan!

To tomorrow -
I've accepted the second place I saw yesterday, and get to move in tomorrow lunchtime. I'll have an address! For the first time in about 6 months...

I'M HERE!!!!

Ok, you can all start throwing those parties now...
About a year ago, I hit on this mad idea to come to Canada for Queeruption in Vancouver, then have this wild cross-country experience in a possible van, and then live in Montreal for a while. It's taken a year to get here, only about 3 months later than I had planned. Minus one van, but plus months and months of amazingly wonderful (and occasionally sucky) adventures.
Realising that I was about to achieve my goal was scaring me enough that yesterday I nearly accepted a job to drive a U-Haul truck to Vancouver. I realised it would be silly (and the woman wasn't willing to pay what I thought it would cost me). But it would be a sort of overview of my last 2 or 3 months, only in reverse, and much faster.
I'm glad I didn't agree to it, because now I'm in Montreal. I'm staying with Steph, who came to my workshop in Vancouver. She lives in a student residence - luckily an apartment style one. But tomorrow, I have no less than *2* appointments to see flats - one for a shared place with a really interesting-sounding person, and one for a place all to myself, but in a less than perfect location (i.e. more than 5 minutes walk from the metro station, although close to buses. Waiting for buses above ground is less than perfect in a Montreal winter).
And in between, I get to explore the city! Which is covered in more snow than I've ever seen in an urban environment before. And I'm told this is only the beginning. But I sort of like it, so far!

(Meanwhile, I've just uploaded my pics of Crossing Northern Ontario, Toronto and Niagara Falls, which was both more and less impressive than I expected, all at the same time, oh, and has about a hundred pictures of rushing water, so you might want to think about going to the bathroom while they're loading)

Another reason to refuse to join Facebook...

This just confirms my desire to stay far, far away...

Finally in Toronto

So i've made it to Toronto. After the Soo, we drove to Sudbury. The weather was good for the drive, mostly but there was still plenty of snow about. It was just getting dark as we pulled up to our couchsurfer hosts' house. They turned out to be lovely people, of course, and I was invited to go to a yoga with Michelle that evening. I've been missing yoga a lot in the 5 months since my last class, so I jumped at the chance, especially as she had a half-price coupon for me, and it was her first class with this school as well. It wasn't until we got there that we discovered it was the school's most advanced class. Hmm. I survived - there were a few new poses, and a few things I sat out, but overall it was great. And I felt great. And sore. And I can still feel a few of those muscles. But gee I can't wait to find a class in Montreal! And, given that it will be about -20 outside, maybe I'll try 'hot' yoga...

The next day, we sat around far too long because we knew it was 'only' 4 hours drive to toronto. By the time we left, it was pouring with snow. And when we finally thought to look up the weather it gave the visibility on the highway as 'poor to nil'. So we turned around and begged another night at Michelle and Gerald's place. But this time, I cooked dinner, which was nice, and solved my tofu cravings for another few days.

Today we left earlyish - after Gerald cooked us a wonderful pancake and bacon breakfast! I love couchsurfing :) The ride to Toronto was sunny, clear and easy. After a Whole Week of travelling together, Edmond and I finally parted company when he dropped me off at my latest couchsurfing place in downtown Toronto.

I have absolutely no idea what the next few days will bring, as I'm now in contact with about 4 toronto locals (none of whom I have ever met, but that's half the fun!). I'm hoping to see niagara falls in the next day or two, and leave for Montreal on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Yes, that's right - I'm only ONE rideshare away from ACTUALLY BEING IN MONTREAL! At which point everyone who reads this blog will probably throw a party.

The Soo

Ooh Ooh look!
The red dots on my travelpost map have finally joined up across Canada - it almost looks like I've made it all the way across!
I haven't though. I'm in Sault Ste Marie. That's a whole 270km from Wawawawa where we stayed last night. It took over 5 hours to get that far, through this afternoon's blizzard. It got even more fun when it began to get dark and we discovered the headlights weren't working. Luckily high beams were, but that just illuminated the wall of snow immediately in front of us - and blowing rather hard towards us. It was all rather fun, really, and just a *tad* hair-raising.
But 'The Soo' (as Sault Ste Marie is called) seems like a lovely little town. We're staying with a lovely couple (both teachers) and their rabbit, Tutu, whom we found on couchsurfing.com, in a beautiful little house almost within view of the Mary river - the bit of water between lakes Huron and Superior - and International Bridge, that leads to the *other* Sault Ste Marie, which is Michigan, USA. I'm not going there.
Our host Sarah took us out this evening to her favourite little bar here, which just happened to be the one mentioned in my LP guide book. We even walked there! The temperature is quite warm - only -3 or so, and it wasn't snowing, at least not much, so it was a reasonably pleasant walk, and probably further than I've walked in days! (must learn to walk in snow...). There was practically no one there, but we got talking to the owner and his father, and ended up spending a lovely hour or two in conversation - mostly travel related, of course. The owner, who is not much older than me, has travelled in Australia, and so we were swapping notes about our respective countries.
Hoping to make Sudbury tomorrow - it's only another 4 hours or so, if the weather is reasonable...

The novelty of snow

Despite 3 days and nights of driving and wading through snow (I'd say deep snow, but I have a feeling I ain't seen nothing yet) it's still being a novelty. And I'm breaking new records all the time - yesterday I believe I was outside in -23 degrees! It probably helps that I don't feel the need to traipse around and sight-see at any of the places we've stopped so far. And having a car means that you drive to see anyway, rather than walk. I can see that outdoor time will be at an absolute minimum until temperatures approach zero again (from the wrong direction, that is). It's nice to sit here watching it fall out the window though, and it does make everything pretty. And pretty eerie at night!
And of course, the other thing that makes the snow ok, is that I found dubbin for my boots here! And I thought it was just an australian thing! I also bought gloves with cut-off fingers and a mitten bit that folds over the fingers, and something called a 4 in one hood, which I still working out how to use, and which makes me look rather ninja-ish, but who cares, when you're warm!
So I'm now in Wawa. Wa! It's a great name for a town. We're hoping to be in Toronto tomorrow, if not tonight. It's about 900km away, but as it's snowing again, I doubt we'll get that far. Also, the road skips along the edge of lake superior for a while, and then along a bit of Lake Huron, I think, so there might be photo stops along the way. Yesterday it was clear and sunny, and the road were well-plowed (ploughed?), so we got from Dryden all the way here to Wawawawawa - about 800km, which is a lot better than 350km we'd managed in the previous 2 days. We managed this by driving late into the night, which meant an increased risk of hitting a moose (Moose!) but the weather and roads were clear, and the moon, although only gibbous, was so incredibly bright reflected off the snow, and the scenery that we could see was beautiful in its light, so it wasn't a bad drive! (pics that in no way do it justice will be added soon)
In Toronto I hope to stay 2 nights, so I can spend a day seeing the place. I'm also considering a day's dash to Niagara Falls, just to tick that box and save me coming back that way later. We'll see...

Election/Back on the Road/Morocco?

First: some election rejoicing: yay! And the Bennelong result (albeit as-yet-unofficial) is just utterly brilliant. We're just waiting for Howard to concede officially (again) so that McKew can claim it officially. But of course, Howard is well known for hanging on until long after he should have made a graceful exit...
Some of my favourite election opinion pieces are this one by Paul Keating, and this, slightly more vehement one.
And stay tuned

Next: I have left Winnipeg! Sadly - I was having fun there, staying with these lovely Sunday-Breakfast-Eating people:

But I have a Mission. I must get to Montreal!
I'm travelling with a guy on his way home to Toronto in a slightly dodgy dodge car. I knew it was slightly dodgy, in that he had been delayed getting to Winnipeg by a couple of days by car troubles already, but I don't mind, as I'm not in a hurry, and I much prefer the adventure to just taking the bus. Of course, we'd barely gone a hundred km (through the driving snow) when the engine started losing power and chugging a bit, intermittently.
We made it to Kenora, and decided to stop to get it fixed. There's nothing open on a Sunday afternoon, so we got a hotel room across the road from the place that will open at 7.45 in the morning, hopefully will be on the road soon after that! My current plan is to spend a day in Toronto before heading to Montreal, but I know that none of my plans are ever set in stone!

Last: Would anyone think me odd if I suddenly went to Morocco? I think I'm going to apply for that job I mentioned in a previous post. It's so very tempting. But of course, it's possible they won't give it to me, which would be one way of making me stay in Canada. I'd regret it if I didn't apply, though... The job is from January 7th to Feb 28th, and then I could either come back to Canada until June, or go live in Paris. Hmm... Decisions, decisions...

The suspense is killing me!

It's 3am, and I was supposed to go to bed hours ago. I have plans to see an art gallery and/or a museum tomorrow, but at this rate I'll be up all night listening and reading the election coverage. My mistake was reading an opinion that said it should all be settled within an hour or so of polls closing. So I thought I'd stay for that, but of course, it's not settled yet, and now I can't go until it is! At least my blog is benefiting from the extra time...

The most amazing, exciting, thrilling thing that I'm waiting on is, of course, Bennelong. I find that I'm relatively confident about an overall labour victory, but ousting Howard not only from government, but from his own seat as well, would just be too wonderful for words. Until now, I hardly dared hope, but reports like this one from SMH: "The Labor Party's Maxine McKew is ahead of Prime Minister John Howard with a swing of 6.6 per cent at this stage with 14.9% of the vote counted." leave me breathless with antici


pation.

Blog Work

So I finally succumbed and transferred this blog to the new blogger template system thingy. I've been resisting because I knew I'd lose a lot of my personalising - everything I had spent hours html-ing for.
But I've been really wanting a 3rd column for a while, and all the how-to's I could find online dealt with New Blogger, and there were various things that suggested it was hard to add another column to blogger classic. So after spending an hour or two trying to avoid it, I gave in.
And then I spent another hour or so browsing templates, figuring that if I have to redo everything, I could change the whole look. But everything I found would have just got in the way of my own personal style. So 'minima' it is.
And now I've just spent yet another hour adding my old link lists and widgets to my sidebars. And fiddling to try to get the colours more or less the same as before. With maybe a few changes. Let me know what you think: I've added a poll - one of the things that is now much easier in New Blogger. I've also improved the 'Recent Comments' widget, thanks to this guy, and added the labels links on the left, which will actually make me use them properly. Over then next few weeks (months) I'll tidy the labels I've already got. I've found lots of other interesting things to add at some point too, but not tonight.

At least it's kept me occupied while waiting for the polls to close in Aus, and Roy & HG to turn up on triple J. I'm glad I've got a decent net connection tonight!

And here's something else I found in my blog-tip-surfing today. I've been meaning to add my NYC pics, so here they are - all of them - in an Even Better Slideshow than before.

I managed to vote, just!

I dropped my postal vote in a mail box at about 4.50 this afternoon - with 10 minutes to spare before the last scheduled pickup. If it had been postmarked later than today, it wouldn't have been accepted, which would have sucked. The reason it was so late was that I spent 2 hours trudging through the snow (ok, not a lot of snow, but snow nonetheless!) trying to find someone who would witness it for me. It had to be a minister of religion (who all seem to leave early on Fridays), an officer of the military or JP (where does one find those?), an Australian Citizen (for once, I seem the only one in town!) or a doctor. So, after trying a church or two, I was directed to a medical centre, where a doctor did agree to sign it for me - as long as I paid him $15! I was outraged at this, and refused, not surprisingly. It just seems incredibly wrong.
I finally found another medical centre, at about 5.45, and a doctor who signed it without really looking or caring, but that's ok with me. Thankfully there was a mail box right outside, as well, and I'd already bought the right stamps earlier in the day, just in case this happened.
So, phew! That's done. And with only minutes to spare. By about 4.30, I was beginning to think it wouldn't happen, and that would have been a pain.

In other election related things, I've been busy opinionating all over the triple J election blog Float Your Vote. You can see my thoughts on overseas voting here, and on whether I'll bother returning to a Liberally Governed Australia here. (At least, you will be able to when the comments are approved and appear...)

(And I know 3 posts in one day is excessive, but as I'm probably going to be travelling for the next few days, who knows when I'll get another chance! And I'll break up all this dull text with some pictures soon too, I promise.)

Election Day!

It may be only Friday here, but it's Saturday morning in Australia, and the polls will soon open for the election we've been waiting 10 years for!
I sooo hope Howard loses his own seat. That would just be wonderfully fantastic.
Meanwhile, I've just heard that my own ballot papers have arrived at the house where I was staying a few days ago, so I have to go over and get them, and post them so that they are postmarked today!
I get to vote! Yay! Although it looks like it might not matter, if the massive swing predicted happens... Still, I'm very happy to be part of this election.
Better go and trudge through the snow to get the ballot papers and send them off. You see the lengths I'm willing to go to for politics!?

Wanderlust.

I've been homeless since mid-june at this point. That's 5 months. 5 months of travelling thousands of kilometers in a bunch of different countries. I'm kinda looking forward to some stability and a flat of my own (well, sublet) when I get to Montreal. So how come I lay awake last night planning the next several countries I want to live in? And being impatient to get there?
You see, last night I went to FTW Collegiate again, the DIY educational evening that they run here. I learnt so much about the Dewey Decimal System, and also about Yoda, and also about the similarities between mathematical and political radicals. It was fantastic. After that, we went to the pub that seems to be *the* place to hang out. And there I met someone who is about to start a new job in a cafe chain store. Not exciting, you might think. Until you find out which branch she will be working at. One on a military base in AFGHANISTAN. And getting paid more than I have earnt in the last 2 years for her 6 month contract slinging donuts and making coffee.
I could *so* do that.
Although I'd probably prefer to find a teaching job. But Afghanistan sounds like fun!
And then, of course, there is the fact that I would love to go spend some time (3-6 months, maybe) borrowing Sean's life in Paris. I haven't really wanted to live in Paris before, but, damnit, despite my quebec sojourn, Sean's french is so going to be better than mine - it probably already is.
And then there's the 4 months in Kiribas that Pam did this year. I want t
o do that - AND it would be a good-on-the-resume job.
But then, what about going back to Istanbul? I've wanted to that for a while now.
And Romania? I've been talking about living in Romania ever since I was there in 2005!
And then there's africa somewhere - I could do a volunteer stint...
Grrr! The world is too big, and there isn't enough time!

EDIT: And then there's this job in Morocco, for just 8 weeks, and then this one in Algeria, for 6 months... Maybe it's not the end of the world if I don't find a decent job in Montreal...

Cold much?

So right now, outside, it is apparently -11 degrees Celsius or so. -16 with wind chill...
I'm not sure what the coldest temperature I've ever experienced in my life is, but I can't remember anything negative in double figures. So it's all a new and exciting experience for me.
And tomorrow, I'm going to buy proper longjohns (I've discovered that there are longjohns and longjohns, and I need the latter, if I'm to survive).

One major benefit, however: Jack, whom I'm staying with, just brought home a huge quantity of icecream from a local dumpster. And frozen waffles. In Vancouver we joked about the possibility of dumpstering icecream. Here, it's a reality... And you don't need the freezer space - just store it in a plastic box outside!

EDIT: So we went back, with the car, and there is now over 100 litres of icecream and a similar quantity of random other frozen food stuffs sitting in the back room here. And that's even after we've all stuffed ourselves this evening. Apparently, the store had a freezer break down today, so dumped all the stuff in it before it thawed. The max temp today was -4 or something, so everything is still good!
The back room here is pretty cold, as it's a sort of add-on to the house and there is a tree sort of growing into it. Unfortunately, my dollar store thermometer is only reading 4 degrees in there. A great temperature for a fridge, not so good for icecream. There are too many animals outside, and not enough plastic boxes to put it all in. This could get interesting...

Oh Canada!

I'm back in Winnipeg! And very happy to be back in Canada. And in Winnipeg, which I enjoyed so much last time.
I'll blog more when I haven't just spent 13 hours on buses. I miss the Beast! :(

The End of the Beast

So yesterday I borrowed Brian's prius (yay for hybrid cars!) again and drove out to Avon to collect all my stuff from the beast. It was hard to do - not least because, by the time I sorted everything so I could leave, and drove the hour and half there, I only had about 50 minutes before the place closed to transfer everything I own from the Beast to the prius. This was stressful. But I managed it. I still have this feeling like there was a cupboard or something I failed to empty, but I think I got it all. By the end I was just tipping the drawers into bags to sort out later.
And now I'm sitting in the living room at the place where I've been staying, next to a large pile of everything I own, trying to decide what I can get rid of, and what I actually want to keep - and carry. I'm hoping to avoid having to post anything, but I will have to abandon a lot, I think.

To mark the passing of The Beast, here's a slideshow of ever photo tagged "The Beast" in my flickr account. You have to pretend it plays automatically and has sad and soppy music playing over it. In fact, if you want these things, click here for the pathos-enhanced version!

Ludicrous!

I need to invent a term that is even worse than ludicrous...

There is, at least, a resolution today. I'm taking the money, losing the van. The Beast Will Be No More. And they offered me a little more money for it.

Here's an excerpt from the latest email. I realise this may not be ethical, but it saves me typing the info:

the policy was sold for 3 months only to allow you (as a non resident) to get to where you were moving, 3 months is the maximum - also the territory rating on your policy should have been for out of province use, territory z, but it is listed for lower mainland use, which is incorrect if you were always intending to go outside of bc with the vehicle

So there was some doubt as to whether or not they would even cover me now! Ha! There was, of course, no mention of me not being a resident when I bought the vehicle. I had an address and was looking for a job. I was offered whatever term of insurance I wanted. I chose three months as a compromise between convenience and cost. I don't recall any question or mention of a problem if I were to to take it out of BC. And I can't believe you that taking your vehicle out of your own province makes your insurance questionable!

So, now I just have to work out how to get me and my stuff back to Canada. I'm hoping to be able to drive the hour and half to where it is today and clear out everything I can. And then bring it back here and sort through what I actually want. Which is probably not a lot of it. Maybe I should have a yard sale tomorrow - or a car boot sale, I suppose! I could advertise on Craigslist, even last minute!

So it's almost over... nearly... although I'm not planning to relax until I have the cheque in my hand, and I'm out of the US...

I should have known it wouldn't be that easy

So I was given the wrong information, and I can't renew my insurance over the phone, because I'm not a British Columbia resident. I pointed out that I have an address in BC, and I don't have an address anywhere else, and that makes me a resident, right? Wrong. The only way to prove you are a BC resident is to have a BC drivers license, which of course I don't. Legally, I only need the Australian one and the international one for the first year I'm in Canada.
More hysterics over the phone.
That was hours and hours ago, and I'm still waiting for someone - anyone - to contact me.

Second problem: my van has not yet been towed to Minneapolis. I was looking forward to getting to see it tonight! I should have known it wouldn't happen.
The american claims and repair company with which my insurance company is now working told me last night that they were waiting on some information from my adjuster (the one who is on holiday). I was able to give them the info they required. This morning, I rang again, and they told me they were still waiting on contact from my adjuster. Something about a discrepency in the ACV. I didn't know what that was, neither did the person on the phone, but she went away to find out, and was told it was the 'actual cash value'. Something about them seeing a photo of the van and questioning its value.

ARGHHHHH
The end of my tether was reached quite some time ago. I'm now way out in untethered land. Ropeable, one could say.

I wanted to blog more about NYC, but it seems a long time ago now. The photos are on flicr though, and I'll add some highlights to this blog a bit later. I have to go have hysterics on the phone again now.

Oh, and it's my birthday. Yay. I think I will move it to December 15th instead, as I don't feel like having a birthday right now!

I just agreed to have the Beast repaired...

Reasoning:

1. I just spent a weekend travelling in the old-style: Flights, airports, buses, hostels and junk food. There are definite advantages to having your own transport and taking your home everywhere with you.
2. It would be such a waste! ok, they'll sell what parts they can, but the rest is a huge, perfectly good van that would probably end up in landfill or whatever it is they do to dead car carcasses.
   
3. The insurance company will let me renew the insurance over the phone, as long as it's before midnight today (when it expires)
4. I'm not allowed to be afraid of a couple of days driving through what will probably be very cold and possibly snowy conditions. I have good 'all-season' tires, and, while they aren't winter tires, they should do on the highways.
   
5. And I'm not allowed to be afraid of freezing to death. I can always pay to stay either inside or somewhere with electricity if it's bad, although I was doing pretty well finding gas station car parks that have power outlets before...
   
6. I realised that I'm not likely to do nearly as much travelling in spring without it.
7. I'm reading John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley" about his journeys in a van (a far nicer, custom built van) with his large poodle. I've only just started it, but it has some useful ideas already, mostly about the anonymity and freedom of solo van-travel, and about eternal wanderlust.

So now I just have to hope it doesn't take two weeks more just to get it back on the road...

Thoughts thunk on a subway train

The buskers on the subways in NY address everyone as 'New York'. As in "Help us out New York!" Which got me thinking. Who is New York? Should I feel included? And then I realised: for these four days *I* am New York. I am one of the cells of this huge seething organism of a city. I may not live here, but I'm as much a part of it as those who have chosen to live here (in lofts, fancy apartments, or subway stations) and the tourists shopping on Fifth Ave.
Nowhere else have I had quite the same feeling that you can be anyone, anything, and still be a n integral part of the whole. For this is a city that welcomes everyone without exception, folding them into its rich - and occasionally stained - fabric of diversity.

Second impressions of NYC

• Central Park - Wow. (this was a first impression, and now a second, and tomorrow probably a third impression too)
• MoMa - wow again.
• The Guggenheim - my third Guggenheim, and still pretty impressive, although the current exhibition wasn't my favourite, although it made me think philosohically about photography (more about that when I have more net time)
• I look like a local. I know this, because I get asked for directions an average of 5 times a day. Even locals ask me for directions. And I thought my new beanie, with which I am cultivating my convicted felon look, would keep people away! (pic uploaded when I'm back to my own laptop!)

More musings on the fate of the Beast

While lying awake in my 12 bed NY hostel dorm last night, I was thinking about the fate of the Beast. And the fact that staying in hostels and buying food out all the time isn't nearly as luxurious as travelling with your own space, bed, and kitchen. The Beast may have some drawbacks, but it really is a good way to travel. And it would be such a waste to declare dead a perfectly good van. Think of the environment!
I'm still thinking about what to do, but I have come up with a whole lot more arguments for keeping it. I think this weekend of flights (not my favourite form of transport) and hostels (private space is a nice thing) and pizza slices, hotdogs and an apparently fibreless traveller's diet, maybe a few days of cold and the possibility of having to do some driving in snow might be worth having the use of Beastie next spring. I probably wouldn't do nearly as much travelling without her.

NYC: First Impressions

1. 6.30am flights are Not My Thing
2. I broke my 'no flights this year' resolution...
3. New Yorkers really *do* talk like that!
4. AND look like that!
5. The Statue of Liberty is small than you think.
6. The subway is about as reliable as the london tube, and twice as confusing.
7. It is a LOT cheaper though.
8. And the people on it are nicer. I've even had a conversation!

Finally!

Today didn't start well. I didn't get the promised phone call from the insurance company this morning (I was past expecting it, anyway) and then when I rang my usual person - the one who's been dealing with my claim and whose answering machine I'm on intimate terms with - her voicemail message had changed. It said not to leave a message, as she was out of the office until THE 20TH OF NOVEMBER.
Yes. Despite pretty much daily contact with this woman, she had failed to tell me she was going on holiday. And leaving no information to anyone about anything to do with my claim. Not even the name or number of the assessor whose report we were still waiting on, despite it being 10 days since he was employed!
After a few moments of hysteria, I followed the instructions to talk to someone else, who in turn put me through to someone else, whose answering machine said she was 2 days behind in returning messages, but to leave my name and number anyway. Oh, and I later discovered that Monday is a public holiday and thus 'two days' actually means Wednesday next week.
So after a little more hysteria, I rang again, and followed different menu options until I got to talk to another real person, demanded to talk to supervisors, etc etc. Eventually got someone who was as helpful as she could be given that she apparently had no information. I also got the name of someone who would be looking after my claim from now on, and a promise (yet again) of a phone call within an hour or so (which would be after 5pm local time, so too late to organise anything to be done before this long weekend! But still, it was something).
I did get to talk to someone this evening, eventually, and it was someone who was actually helpful, and apparently far enough up the chain of command to make offers and decisions. And she's given me three offers I get to think about. Oh, and apparently the assessor finally gave them his report this afternoon. The three options now are:

1. They will pay the estimated $1200 to repair my van (I have to pay the first $300 of that). This can be arranged and happen on Tuesday, more or less.
2. They will give me a $1200 cash cheque, couriered to arrive on Tuesday. The van will then be my responsibility to either repair or 'dispose of' however I wish - including auctioning for parts and I'd get the money.
3. This last one she seemed to think up on the spot while we were talking on the phone. She can do some research on Tuesday and find out what they are likely to be able to get for the van, and can then come up with a figure to offer me - possibly/probably not the $4000 it's insured for, but maybe over $3000...

So I have to make a decision. Right now, I've asked her to do the research for option #3, as the other two will still be options after that. But I still have to decide. So pros and cons:

If I repair the van:
Pros:

• I have a van to live in/use next spring
• The Beast would ride again!
• It's MY Beastie!

Cons:

• I would have to pay to renew my insurance before wedneday, when it expires.
• I would have to drive through what is now 2500km of snow covered roads and below freezing max temps to get to Montreal.
• I would have to find a place to store it for the winter, as I don't want to get expensive snow tires, and the Beast hates the cold anyway. This storage is unlikely to be free.
• I might not want to use it next spring - the 'drive down the east coast' plan is off - I don't want to come back to the USA for a long time. I might also want to head for Europe earlier than the end of June, or be so involved in my job/Montreal life that I don't want to live the Van Life again...
• I would have to spend time/effort/money selling it before I left the country, and I'm told the Montreal market is no where near as good as the Vancouver one, so I might not get my money back. A glance at craigslist.com has sort of confirmed this.
  

That doesn't seem very balanced... And the last 'pro' is a purely emotional one, and I'm long past being emotional over my poor little Beastie...
And then I have to decide whether or not to take the $1200, and the van, or the $3-4000 and no van. The latter seems easiest there. And well worth it. Still, I'll sleep on it, although I'm not sure how much time I'll have to think this weekend, as the next thing I'm going to do, right now, is buy a plane ticket for New York. For tomorrow morning. If I'm stuck in the US for the weekend, I may as well spend it somewhere interesting...

unbelievable.

So I'm waiting for my van to be repaired, right. Or rather, waiting for the insurance company to assess whether or not it's repairable. The deer incident happened on Friday night - nearly two weeks ago. It was WEDNESDAY before the insurance company realised they might have to send an assessor to make sure it was repairable. It was FRIDAY before the assessor actually saw the van. I expected a pretty quick report - it shouldn't be that hard! But it took until today - ONE WEEK LATER - to get it. And then, just to make the whole experience perfect. HE ASSESSED THE WRONG DAMN VAN! Apparently, the holding yard where it is showed him to a green Dodge Caravan (which is a type of people mover - like a tarago). They didn't even start making those until several years after my 1979 Dodge Van was made.
(I also have to say that this isn't the first time there's been confusion over the Dodge Van vs. Dodge Caravan difference. Especially when I describe my van as a 'Campervan', or to minimise confusion, a 'camperized van')
So now I have to wait until at least tomorrow to know if I will still have a van or not. I'm a little sick of the waiting game. But at least I don't have to sit by the phone today, as I know it won't happen til tomorrow. Morning, hopefully.
At this point I hope they just write the poor Beast off, so they can fax the paperwork, give me my money, and I can be out of here. After clearing everything out and arranging for all my stuff to be shipped, of course. And then resigning myself to a 2500km bus ride...
It would be sad, of course, but if they do decide it's repairable, I STILL HAVE TO WAIT AROUND WHILE IT IS *ACTUALLY* REPAIRED.
Can you sense a little frustration in my writing? Gee, I wonder why...

1000 visitors

I was just my own 1000th visitor to this blog. I rarely look at the stat counter, but the round figure in the sidebar caught my eye just now. And, then, as I went away and then came back to the blog, I was my own 1001th visitor as well. Yes, that is pronounced "one thousand and oneth", in case you're wondering.

And another thing...

It's over a week since this happened now, but I didn't have net access for a lot of that time, so I just thought of blogging it now.
I had a very disturbing experience just before I left Winnipeg. It was about 5am, and I was sleeping in my van in a friend's driveway, which was in the back alley behind the houses, when someone tried to break into my van. Now earlier that day I had noticed my back doors were hanging funny, like someone had tried to open them. They aren't the most secure back doors. Although they lock together well, the pins that should lock them into the door frame in the middle are bent or rusted, and don't stand up to anything but the lightest tug. You still can't get in, because they do lock together very well, but it means I notice if someone has given them a try. That was the first time anyone had, though, I think.
So I think it was probably the same person who came back at 5am, this time armed with a crowbar, and tried to break in again. I woke up as soon as they tugged on the doors, and pulled the curtain between my bed and the 'garage' at the back of the van aside and saw a guy in a toque (that's a beanie to australians) on the other side of the window. He was just working on applying the crowbar, I think.
So I leant over and knocked on the window before he could damage my back doors any more than they already are. It was quite amusing really. He got the fright of his life, jumped back, yelled out (he must have had a friend somewhere) that there was someone sleeping in the van, along with a few expletives, and then hightailed it out of there. And I went back to sleep.

The thing is, I was supposed to be sleeping inside the house, as there was a spare room, but I was enjoying being in my own space until late at night, and decided just to crash in my own bed. I'm more at home there, as a rule. If I hadn't been there, I probably wouldn't have lost anything of value (the important things don't get left in the van unattended overnight - they aren't insured if they are, I think), but my back doors would have been damaged, which would have been a pain. I've no idea what they thought they would find in an ancient beat up dodge van. And they couldn't steal the van - it takes a good 10 minutes to warm up so you can drive it at all - probably longer in the middle of the night when the temp is below zero. It's the best anti-theft device I've seen in a car. Silly thieves.

And I've just uploaded more pics on flickr, for your enjoyment.
And I'll go back and add a few to my previous posts, just to make this blog look pretty.

The Beast with the broken nose

So this is why I've been in Minneapolis so long. I had rather planned to be pretty much in Montreal by now, and here I am still thousands of kms away.
The Beast had an encounter with a deer. An argument, you might say. I wasn't driving at the time, and it was very late at night, and no one was hurt - except the deer, who definitely came of worst in this. And the Beast, who is suffering from a badly cracked radiator and a squashed-in nose. It's all covered on insurance, thankfully, although that has actually considerably slowed down the repair process, but it should be driveable and back on the road, though probably not very pretty, in a few days. I hope. The only catch is that I have to go back to Canada for the rest of the repairs - so I think I will go via the north side of the lakes after all - I did come south in the end, but I'm already pretty sick of the US, and will be happy to get back to Canadia. Also, I didn't get a new US visa thingy, as I already had one from last time, but now the old one is nearly finished, so I'm just going to get out of this silly country as soon as I can.
One good thing, however, is that the deer incident happened only a bit more than an hour outside of Minneapolis (although even closer would have been even better) and they guy who was driving, Jack, has a wonderful family here in Minneapolis who have very kindly adopted me until the van is fixed. Jack's back in Winnipeg already, but I'm still here hanging out with his parents, which is actually kinda fun. It's just sad when I remember that poor Beastie is sitting all alone and cold a hundred miles away in a auction & holding yard full of dead autos, while the people who work there keep threatening to auction her for parts (they really aren't used to repairable vehicles coming through their gates!).

Random thoughts

There's something wrong with my brain. I just thought 'oh, I'll blog that straight away before I forget", and then, in the time it took to open a new browser tab and get blogger up, I forgot. Damn.

So I'll blog this, instead. It's a book called 'Does God Love Michael's Two Daddies?' which some fundamentalist bigot saddled with the name Sheila K. Butt has recently released. There are two reader reviews on amazon - both well worth reading. One of the reviewers had even actually read the book!

Thanks to Slog for entertaining me with that and similar nonsense.

And now back to answering Craigslist sublet & sharehouse ads for Montreal...

Oh, that reminds me what it was I wanted to blog: I've been studying maps of Montreal to work out where I might want to live, and I've just noticed something: unlike every other city and small town I've been to on this continent so far, Montreal appears to actually use street *names* and not numbers. Not a single '24th street' have I yet found. AND a glance at a map of the city shows you that it isn't laid out in the standard North American battleships grid pattern, which, while it makes navigation a little simpler, seems to lack soul and character. I have a feeling that I am going to like Montreal. I think it will be refreshingly European, and, after 3 months on this continent, I'm kinda missing that! I wandered through the European section of the Minneapolis Institute of Art the other day, and realised that I suddenly felt more at home than I have in ages. Canada is better than the US, but I've not been entirely at ease in either place. It all just feels too American. But it seems Montreal, with its street names, language and metro system, will be quite different. And that, of course, is a major part of the reason that I chose it as my destination in the first place.

Pearls of Wisdom

So I don't often wax philosophical on this blog, but I recently met a very interesting Sikh grandfather on a bus who spoke with such sagacity and profundity in such a lovely lilting indian accent from under his turban (or rather, between his turbans - I'd never seen a beard-turban before!) that I felt I should write down some of what he had to say.

• The earth provides all things.
• Be cool with the nature. Look at the nature.
• Keep the whole world inside you, and you will be happy anywhere.
• Novels, TV, Movies - all these things are Distraction, Diversion, Deception. They are not freedom.
• Meditate everyday.
  

I'm sure it all sounded a lot more profound when he said it, but they are the major principles I remember from our conversations. And I'm not going to convert to Sikhism and run off to India. At least not yet. But I am going to make more of an effort to find yoga classes more often again. It will all be easier when I finally get to Montreal and start setting up my life again.

I must be in a particularly philosophical frame of mind lately, as I also noticed this in the PD James book I'm currently reading:

'You couldn't exorcise the past either by returning to it or by running away. You couldn't resolve to put it out of your mind and memory because it had made you what you were. It had to be remembered, thought about, accepted, perhaps even given thanks for, since it had taught her how to survive." (A Certain Justice)

I like the idea that everything that happens to you, the good and the bad, becomes a part of you, and you have to accept it as a part of you, and value everything because it is a part of you.

Anyway, I realise this is not the promised post about my recent adventures. I'll get there. Really I will. And I'll even try to upload some photos. Soon!