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I booked a flight to London last night. I now have a leaving-Montreal date, which is quite distressing. But hey, maybe I'll get to return after the summer (must remember to submit those visa application forms...)
I fly to London on the 11th of June, accompanied by Telyn, to spend the first weekend at Transfabulous, a festival in London, and then I have a few days in which I think I will meander my way northish, maybe to Liverpool (despite having a slight liverpudlian accent at the age of 9, I have never been there) maybe north Wales, maybe Manchester, I don't know. And then I meet Nathaniel on the 19th to catch a train together to Paris, where we will both descend upon Sean in his tiny flat for a few days.
After that, I'm currently unbooked until I start work in the UK on July 3rd. I have a few ideas, but suggestions and invitations are most welcome!

During Breakfast

I'm appreciating a 'normal' Saturday morning.. er... afternoon... - my first actually at home alone in weeks, it seems. 'Normal' means sleeping in a bit (ok, a lot), then getting up to do prosaic things like the washing up and other housecleaning tasks before I make breakfast (the clean dishes make breakfast much more pleasant). I also get time to do things like write random blog posts, and catch up on other online things.
And then today, I'm actually going to bake those ANZAC bikkies that I have been talking about all week. I want to take them to a potluck this afternoon, so I had better get on with it.
When I've finished my coffee...

Meltyness

Remember all that snow in my backyard a month or so back?

Well, here's what happened over just a few days last week.

Going...

Going...

Gone!

Nothing like 25 degree temperatures to melt snow. And now the grass is growing, and it's starting to look lovely and green, and I think it's time to get the backyard furniture out and invite people over to hang out in the sun!

Behind again

Way behind in blogging. Didn't blog Ottawa, but the pics are on flickr. Didn't blog last weekend, and now I've done enough since that my memories are getting hazy.
Haven't blogged this week - melty melty and over 20 degrees!
Haven't blogged today - sugar shacking, sun lazing, and then maha concerting. Flicks on pickr...
Haven't blogged tomorrow (this may not be so unreasonable though) which involves a marching band gig for my friends at the Rhizome and the second Maha concert, and then going out after, and then getting up for a 9am bus on Sunday to go to a cabin in the Laurentian mountains for a few days.
Life is good.

Maha Concert Friday and Saturday!

I should have posted this a week ago! First, admire the pretty pretty flyer...

Next, read this:

Choeur Maha presents

"Vers le Vert!"

TWO NIGHTS!!

April 18 AND 19

At 8:00 p.m.

At: The Eastern Bloc, 7240 Clark (near Jean-Talon)

$10

With special guest: Willow Rutherford

http://www.myspace.com/willowrutherford

**

MORE INFO

Choeur Maha, our much-loved Montreal women's choir, has been about

challenging musical and social conventions. It has taken us from

experimental sound installations to spontaneously spreading the singing and

dancing groove into the audience. Directed by Kathy Kennedy.

www.kathykennedy.ca

Finally, put on your best green outfit and come to the concert this weekend!

Friday

Friday was busy. On my way to work in the morning, I investigated a grocery store called "La Vieille Europe" that turned out to not have the golden syrup or treacle I was looking for. I can see that my planned ANZAC biscuits are going to end up being "Australian, New Zealand And Canadian" biscuits, as maple syrup seems my best substitute at the moment!
Then I went to work, at least for a couple of hours. Then I had some errands to run all over town which meant I spent the whole afternoon on public transport.
After that, there was a lecture by a trans activist and legal professor Dean Spade, which was interesting and educational. And then I had a gig singing (and playing clarinet and spoons) our quebecois folk song "Ziguezon" with people from my choir. It was our first performance and we outnumbered the audience (we were performing at someone else's "Cabaret Canadien" which hadn't been well publicized!) but it was an excellent practice for our concert next week.
After that I went to a friend's house to drink vodka and somehow got myself adopted by the sweetest two guys ever. I now have two more dads, it seems!
Finally, I went to a slow dance prom party and spent the early hours of the morning filling up my dance card and doing the slow-dance shuffle to such songs as "Every Breath You Take" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart".
Saturday, I didn't do anything at all. But today, Sunday, I have a brunch-ish-lunch, a champagne tea party clothing-swap, Food not Bombs, a marching band rehearsal and another choir small-group rehearsal.
Better get on with it!

Melty Days

The weather has been positive every day for about a week now, although it still gets negative at night (which, I'm told, is the perfect condition for the maple trees to produce the stuff that gets turned into syrup). So huge great piles of white snow everywhere are gradually becoming slightly smaller, ugly, dirty brown piles of snow studded with garbage and surrounded by dirty lakes.
On the upside, the permafrost that makes the path to my front door treacherous has melted enough for a few holes down to the actual concrete to appear, allowing a firm foothold for at least some of the steps.
And the sun is stronger. So much stronger that I think I'm got slightly sunburnt this weekend. I didn't think that was supposed to happen on this side of the world, dammit. But sitting in the sun feel very nice. I've even ventured out without long johns on! And my down coat is definitely too warm now, but my hoodie alone isn't quite warm enough most of the time. So one of my missions for this week is to find a spring jacket of some sort. I can feel a thrift store shopping expedition coming on! Maybe I'll get those rollerblades as well...
Oh, and I went to Ottawaaaa for the weekend (that's how they say it here) but I'll blog about it another day.

Hot Torture

So I just did my first ever Bikram Yoga class. You know the one - it's where they heat up the room to the average temperature of India on a summer's day and then expect you to spend 90 minutes tying yourself in knots in it. And you're not allowed to leave. Or speak. Or do anything other than what the teacher says (in 2, sometimes 3 different languages, so there's no excuse for not understanding.) You are allowed to die sometimes and just lie there in a puddle of your own sweat.
I survived. I even did about 90% of the postures, at least in some form or other. I also decided I'm not going to move to India anytime soon.
I have a week's introductory pass, so I feel I have to go at least 2, maybe 3, more times to get my money's worth. Maybe by then I will be a convert, but for now, I think I prefer my yoga without all the strict rules and at somewhat more sensible temperatures...

80s Prom Party

There was a party on Saturday night. An 80s Prom Party called Pretty in Kink. Telyn's friend won tickets and couldn't go, so we went - with instructions to take lots of photos.
The 80s must be long enough ago now that we've all forgotten the fashion trauma, as it was actually a lot of fun dressing up for this. Admittedly we went mostly with the prom theme, as Telyn had this lovely princess dress, and an old tux and ruffled shirt for me to wear. It was a little small and didn't quite do up, but I think I managed to turn that to my advantage!

A few rubber accessories (for the kink part of the theme), some big hair and a side pony tail later, and we were ready.

It's entirely possible we spent longer on getting the outfits together than actually at the party, but that's half the fun, right?
There are more pics on Flickr, though nightclub photos are ridiculously difficult...