[et bien Montreal] Tuesday, June 7
Tuesday of course started off with...more shopping! At this point, with the wedding less than a week away, finding a suitable dress was becoming pretty imperative. Poked around Alexis Nihon then met Vincent for some lunch. Funny that some of the food I most look forward to eating in Montreal is Chinese food. Though I can practically see China from my home in Korea, it's almost impossible to find 'authentic' Chinese food. There just aren't that many Chinese people living in Korea. Anyway, I digress. After lunch Vincent magnanimously accompanied me for a little dress shopping. Mexx saved the day as they had a satisfactory dress (though I'd have to pick it up the next day in the correct colour at the St. Denis location) AND a pair of great black pants on special. Don't get me wrong, Mexx clothing at full price is a little beyond my means, but man, if you can get that stuff on sale what a deal!!! It's of great quality and really classy styles that actually fit properly. Yay for Mexx!
For dinner I headed over to the stately Place Kensington where my Grandma and Aunt Mary were waiting. Mary had made the grand trip to Montreal all the way from the interior of B.C.; it was a real pleasure to catch up after many years since the last time we'd met. Dinner was great as we sat with some of Grandma's friends. After dinner, Mary and Grandma taught me to play an interesting board game called 'Blokkus'. Pictured at dinner from left to right is Mary O'Reilly (99), Mary Donald, Grandma (86), Kay Shaughnessy (90) and Muriel Perrie (86). Combined these ladies have more than 20 children, and who knows how many grandkids!
It's love at first bite
I recently saw an amusing website called the Gallery of Regrettable Food. It catalogues old cookbooks, highlighting the photographs and artwork which tend to make the food look almost completely inedible. Particulary inspiring was a cookbook devoted to meat.
This brought to mind a commercial I'd seen on TV not long ago: it was a commercial for Spam, and I don't mean unwanted emails soliciting porn or viagra.
Spam is in fact still quite popular in Korea. If you look closely at this ad, you'll notice the price is 85,900 won, or at current exchange rates about $90 CAD. You may thinking to yourself, 'That must be some gold-plated can of Spam'. (not)Suprisingly the price pertains to quantity, not quality. This is ad is for a gift set of spam - 24 cans! You're boss will be thrilled with this timeless gift!
Mod
Saw this interesting addition to a street bike the other day...To keep the crotch fuzzy and warm? Or....? Other suggestions....? I have no idea...
[Still Montreal] Monday, June 6
Wow Monday was so hot I actually felt I was going to pass out a few times riding the bus. This is how I went to meet Robin for a deliciously greasy lunch at the LaFleurs on St. Denis next to Carre St. Louis. Here's me and Robin munching on some poutines 'n steamies (all dressed!). Afterwards we reposed on a bench in the square.
That evening I dined at the Chateau Kubba with Mrs. Kubba and all Kubba siblings. As usual, dinner was lamb-tastic with delicious, meticulous dolma (rice packets wrapped in grape leaves).
Later, M Kubba and Hamza joined Takashi and his friend for beers at Laika (pictured in reverse order).
[Montreal again] Sunday, June 5
Ok so of course that Sunday I again woke up around 5ish. That morning I watched 'Moulin Rouge'; though I care for neither musicals or 80's musical, the movie was ok. Or at least visually engaging.
Later that morning I toodled over to Kandis, Lew and Baby Olive's house. Olive is now all of 10 months old. Though she wasn't much interested in her groovy, semi-domed tot-pool, later on she did play a mean drum to accompany daddy on guitar.
While waiting on the front steps of Ian and Marg's house, this little boy passed by. I like his Superman shirt.
After an ill-fated $27 cab ride to bring my crap over to Rich's house, I met up with fellow Korean-ite Chris and his friend Dylan. We headed over to Mt.Royal park to observe a little drum-circle, tam-tam madness, but drifted off a bit in order to find the sword fighting people. After absorbing some scintillating battle moves executed with giant Nerf swords, it was time to head over to the Copacabana for some tasty jugs of beer and delicious grub from the in-house Scratch Kitchen. On the way there I snapped these shots. First is the big ol' monument in Mt. Royal park. It's not bad as far as monuments go, but the base was under construction at the time. Next is a typical Montreal alleyway. There's lots of those and are always fascinating for some reason.
Post Script
Oh yeah, that new Beck album is pretty durn good... somewhat similar to his earlier stuff ('Loser', 'Devil's Haircut') but I imagine that's why I like it.
Random Thoughts
Oops looks like I'm already getting behind with my posts on the Canada trip... I've been busy getting my cell-phone unlocked (yep I don't know the code but I pressed the lock button anyway - mornings are not a good time for me) and filling my fridge to overflowing with groceries (ummm eating good).
I was just leaving a comment on The Public Ineffectual's blog which led me to think I should post my line of thinking here as well. The other day I watched the blockbuster action smash hit 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith' starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. With lots of firearms and ass-kicking by both leads, it led us to thinking that currently Angelina Jolie is by far the premier female action hero. At which point, I began to wonder when in fact the female action hero had become a prominent feature of cinema? Having just watched 'Superman 2' on TV, it sure wasn't in the eighties. Lois Lane has about as much charisma as a soggy noodle. Ok, maybe and al dente noodle. My friend postulated that the character of Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) in 'The Matrix' may have been the first to start the trend of kick-ass females on the big screen. Any other ideas out there?
Montreal - Saturday June 4
Well folks, not much happened Friday June 3 as I was suffering from such wacky jet lag that though I'd gone to bed reasonably late the night before, I still managed to wake up around 5 am and was unable to fall back asleep. So I watched a couple of movies: 'Shaun of the Dead', a goofy British zombie movie, and the excellent 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'. The rest of the day was spent feeling tired and finally after a delicious dinner of barbecued shrimp cooked up by Ian, fell asleep at a somewhat decent hour.
Saturday came to me again at a ridiculously early hour, so I watched 'Team America', a hysterical if a tad vulgar movie starring marionettes. Then it was shopping time! I hit the groovy Renaissance second-hand shop near St.Laurent and de Castelnau, and then headed downtown to meet Rich. He needed to buy a suit and I needed to research dresses. Here's us taking a break with our space-age beverage:
Later that night, Vincent joined myself, Margaret and Ian and we headed over to Margaret and Ian's favourite restaurant in Montreal: Bombay Mahal. An unassuming place near Jean Talon and Acadie, this place serves up arguably the best Indian food ever. Though the waiter was a little surly and had to be asked about 20 times before he brought the lime pickle I'd requested, the food was indeed delicious. Here's Vincent showing off his yummy dish whereas Ian and Margaret are getting on with the business of eating:
Montreal - Night Out #1
As soom of you keen readers may have observed, there's been an absence of new posts for about the last two weeks. That's because I'd embarked on a whirlwind tour of Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver. As I know you are all so fascinated with my life, I intend to recreate for you what I did during those 2 weeks, with photos where possible.
So the first night, I got a smashing new haircut from one Janet W. We then headed out to the Sala Rosa for some tapas. During the many years I'd lived in Montreal, I'd never gotten around to trying this Spanish style of meal which consists basically of only appetizers. As you can see, we were also in for some live flamenco music and dancing (though we were sitting in the corner and couldn't actually see the dancing).
Here's Janet and I enjoying our scrumptuous dishes: you can see the pile of fennel salad, the two remaining balls of deep fried goat cheese (oh my they were delicious) and some garlicky potato salad:
After dinner, Janet returned home, and I was joined by Rich. We headed upstairs to the concert venue to hear a night of Montreal style avant-garde musics. The opening fellow played some (not so interesting) folky-acoustic stuff, but impressed all when he busted out a lyre (think of that stringed instrument angels are always depicted as playing). The main act was called Esmerine and apparently consisted of several members of the much celebrated Godspeed You Black Emperor! The instrumentation was interesting: the focal point was a woman playing cello who was mainly accompanied by a percussionist who alternatively bowed (the edges of the keys) and hammered a marimba and xylophone, and who were occaisionally joined by another percussionist, a french horn player and bass player.
After that show, Rich and I headed up St. Laurent to a bar called the 'Green Room' where Papa Extraodinaire (aka Luv) was droppin some sweet tunes.
There I sat and stared warmly at the beer tap in front of my bar seat. As you have heard me mention a million times, the micro-brews available in Montreal are one of the things I miss most.
At one point, a bearded Jeff showed up to give Lew a little lovin'.
As we were leaving, Rich found it necessary to sneak into my art-face and foosball composition:
Happy Belated Buddha's Birthday!
Just been going through my photos - looks like I'm a little behind the times! This photo series dates back to May 15 - Buddha's Birthday in Korea. Myself and a few friends partook in another one of these 'Art's and Crafts for Foreigners' activities regularly held at a small temple just outside of town. As Buddha's birthday is usually accompanied by lots of paper lanterns, that's exaclty what we made. Take a look at a few more photos here.
That's a pleased-as-punch bunch: Amy, me, Colin and Fon
