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Yesterday I did a big trek to the ends of the earth and bought a winter coat!

I decided to go to a Manteaux Manteaux store in St. Michel. I went to Chinatown to get grocery money and noticed that in the Palais de Congres there was a climate change conference going on. Ironically, the street just behind it was packed full of cars either picking up or dropping off the conference attendees. I really enjoy going to Chinatown because it is nice to see grandparents with their grandkids, something one does not see in other places very often.

I went to the library to get a French songbook for Dan and a William Gibson fiction for me, then I stopped at the tea shop to get some green and maté tea. After that it was off to Jean-Talon, to take the blue line to St. Michel. Fabre metro station is funky! I thought I would walk since the store did not appear to be a long way from the St. Michel metro, although I think it was about 20-25 minutes. I passed some interesting stores along the way. There was one that had a sign which said just “Sinbad” and appeared to be stacked to the roof with electronics of some sort. There were restaurants, cafés and depanneurs and sported signs like “Halal Pizza” and “Cartes de souhaite - anglais, français, italien”. Really, there is no place in the world like Montreal!

I had a hard time finding the store at first and went to get December metro passes at a nearby Pharmaprix, then backtracked and found it. What a disappointment. The website said it had jackets from this and last year’s collection in a “large format” and I took that to mean a large store with lots of selection. Instead what it meant was “plus size jackets crammed into a super-tiny store in a mall”. I looked at a few jackets anyway, and they were really thin and cheap, not to mention 2-3 times my size. So that was over. I had noticed a Harvey’s across the street and decided it was time for my annual burger. We used to eat at Harvey’s once in a while when I was a kid becase my Mom liked how we could choose the burger toppings. She always said they didn’t give her enough pickles and would get me to ask for pickles and then I would give them to her for her burger. But the Interac machine was not working and I needed my cash for groceries, so I didn’t go.

I noticed a large store nearby called l’Aubainerie but it was also a total bust. There was a Winners beside that and I did find two nice jackets, but the problem was that one that did fit me was a fluorescent pink and black tweed and the other one I liked was too big. I remembered that I saw a Le Chateau Entrepot on the way, so I thought I would try it. There is one by my work, but it’s not very nice to shop at since there is a big, dusty, poorly-lit warehouse-like room in the back that is packed full of clothes. I was pleasantly surprised in that this one was well lit, well organized, and laid out like a regular clothing store. I looked at every jacket and found some super-long ones that were taller than me. I tried a nice grey one that had mega-shoulderpads and decided against it since it made me look like I had a permanent shoulder problem. I tried a black one, but then I saw the purple tweed one and settled on that one right away. I had seen an almost identical coat at Jacob earlier this winter but it was over $300. This one was less than half the price!

The journey was not over yet, though. I still had to get groceries. I had two bags now - my shopping bag with books and tea, and the bag from Le Chateau. I headed over to Jean-Talon, bought coffee at Café Crème, sausages at William J Walter and a big can of olive oil at the olive store at Jean-Talon (that sells weirdly super-sexy hair dye in the back corner with names like teinture de matin de Fatima with cartoony harem girls sporting their newly dyed hair). I bought some vegetables and fruit in the indoor market (I’m happy to say there are still some for sale even during the winter!). By this point I had 5 bags and tried to sling the can of olive oil over my shoulder like a purse and it kind of worked but kept falling off. I was glad to get home!

This mouse is smart. Either The Brain was her father or she went to some sort of mousie finishing school before I bought her. I put her in the mouse ball that Edith bought for me last year and the first time she had no idea what to do and made herself seasick, but she got it right on the second try. It took Gretchen and Keiko about 6 tries before they could more forward without spinning around and having to stop because they were so dizzy. Not only that, but she is already running on the mouse wheel, something the other two didn’t do until about a month or two after we got them. Keiko has kind of figured it out, but doesn’t like the new wheel as much.

We found out that Miette also means “crumb” which seems perfectly appropriate for her.

She really plays with Keiko a lot and its very fun to watch. Little mice have so much energy and they get so excited about everything. She will run around the cage, stop at the food bowl, do a little hop of excitement, eat some, jump onto the wheel, run a bit, jump onto the cage and hang there for about 15 seconds, then run over to poke Keiko, and repeat the whole thing.

Aug 19th. Today we visited my uncle Jack and aunt Barb. They drove us around to see the places where my Dad and my uncle lived in the ‘Pool. One of the houses they lived in burned down and they were bombed out of the other one. The latter was near the rail lines, and given Liverpool’s importance as a port city, the rail lines leading to and from the port were bombed on more than one occasion. This house was half a block from the train tracks. Of course all is rebuilt today. The last one we saw was out in a “new development”. I guess the city had built this neighbourhood for low income families that were bombed out, and moved many of them out there with the promise that things would be better there. Not surprisingly they were not. Apparnently there was just one little store (in a bus, if you can believe it) and a pub for the entire neighbourhood, so they were forced to go all the way to the city centre for groceries and other things they needed. It wasn’t a happy area even today, and still had a mobile “food” store parked in the middle, only this time it was a corrugated metal portable building. I’ve always known that things were tough for my Dad, his brothers and sisters and my grandmother, but phrases like “If your Dad’s family were together today, they would have their own social worker” paint a pretty good picture. Apparently my grandfather cashed some tax rebates that my uncle had recieved in the mail (they had the same first and last names) and never told him about it! “Not happy times”, as my aunt Lynn said.

On a happier note, we saw the schools where my Dad went - The Calderstones (same school as John Lennon) and the Blue Coats, a posh school for the brightest students (nice going, Dad!). We went for a nice walk in Calderstones park and went through almost the entire park in search of the 1000 year old oak tree. Nobody remembered exactly where it was, and everyone we asked kind of knew but wasn’t certain. It wasn’t on the map either, but eventually we found it. It is propped up and would have otherwise have fallen down since the middle is all rotted out, but is still alive and producing acorns! Its also not very tall, but its massive! I think that’s the oldest living thing I have ever seen. There were a variety of gardens including a “tree garden” with various types of trees, a rock garden, and a Japanese garden. The Japanese garden was very nice. We also saw some some “wood pigeons” and real English Lavendar which smelled heavenly. By this point we had “walked the legs off” my poor uncle, so it was off home for lunch. We saw John Lennon’s house (outside only) on the way to my aunt and uncle’s place.

After lunch, my uncle told us about when he was at sea. Being a boy in a port city, the desire to go to sea was irresistable. Because he was too young to get a job, his first attempted journey to sea was as stowaway, but he never made it out of the Mersey. Eventually he got a job working for he Royal Mail and went to Panama, Brazil, California, Vancouver (!) and many Carribean islands. He also worked for an oil comapny and visited the Persian Gulf (they were never allowed to go on land though, and he said that was the most boring bit). He had a lot of photos which was really neat to see. He was also the one who brought back the infamous family parrot, which if I remember correctly, swore and would yell “there’s nobody home, go away” when someone knocked on the front door.

My uncle was quite tired by now, so they sent us back to Lynn and Fred’s place, who took us out to see the two cathedrals of Liverpool. On the way we stopped at the Williamson Tunnels, which was closed. We visited the Catholic cathedral first (nicknamed the Mersey Funnel because of its roof that makes it look like an up-side down funnel). There was a wedding going on so we just peeked in the doors, but it was very striking. The “funnel” part is all stained glass and the sun shines through it and lights up the colours like crazy. Due to technical problems, Fred had to go back home and Lynn took us to the Philharmonic Pub, the former gentleman’s club across from the opera. Its open to all these days, including Canadian tourists. The interoir is oak and glass and it even has stained glass windows. And not to be forgotten are the marble urinals in the Men’s WC. Fred caught up with us and we headed off to the Anglican cathedral next.

If there is one word to describe this building, it would be big. Here are the statistics, from their website:

Liverpool Cathedral is the largest cathedral in Britain.
Length: 619 feet
Area: 104,275 sq. feet
Choir Vault: 116 feet
Nave Vault: 120 feet
Height of Tower: 331 feet
Under Tower Vault: 175 feet
Tower Arches: 107 feet
The bells have the highest and heaviest peal in the world.
There are two pipe organs in Liverpool Cathedral. The Grand Organ is the largest in the UK and probably the largest operational organ in the world.
The organ has 9765 pipes.

Like I said, big. And impressive. It took 74 years to build and my Dad says that it was always under construction when he was a kid.

They took us downtown and we visited the library but unfortunately the museum next door was closed. We ran to the central shopping area and bought a gift for Tyler in the Liverpool Football Club store as a thank you for taking care of our mice while we were gone.

After this we went home for supper. Fred asked us what we wanted to do for dinner and since he had been telling us about the “chippy” the entire time, we were curious and wanted to experience it for ourselves. The chippy, or chip shop, appears to be a neighbourhood installment in England. If you go along the main street of any town, you will see about 5 of them, and there is one in every subdivision. They are little walk-in stores that are either take-away only or mostly take-away but have a few tables for eating in. They have a menu of about 100 items, everything from the standard fish & chips to 20 kinds of kebabs, 15 kinds of curries, 50 types of chinese dishes, and so forth. Because we were going around supper time, there was a very large line - everyone who doesn’t want to eat out or cook is at the chippy buying supper! We got fish and chips and mushy peas, although Fred said that they usually buy the fish and make their own chips since the chip shop chips are quite bad. Strange, but true - they were soggy. I experienced this in Harlow too. But the fish was great and it was a very enjoyable meal.

We were taking the overnight bus to London, which left the station at 11:40 PM so we had some time to kill. They showed us videos of the Liverpool Overhead Railway which is gone now. After that, they saw us off at the bus station, but the ride to London is another story.

Before the Liverpool story ends, there is more to say. First of all, its too bad we didn’t have more time to visit. Apparently we were not that far from the Lake District, which would have been really nice to visit. Also, the story behind the Liver birds is unforgettable. I’m very glad I was able to go and visit some of my family there, and seeing the places my Dad lived in, went to school in and played in was really good. I can just imagine him getting into all sorts of trouble in Sefton Park.

Ok Montrealers, I need advice. I found out this March that winter jackets go on sale in January. I’m determined to get myself a new winter jacket this January on sale by hell or high water. So my question is - where should I look?

I know about Oscar Leopold, but I don’t fancy a leather jacket. Manteaux Manteaux was suggested and looks good. I don’t like Kanuk though. If you know of any good places to get fashionable & warm ladies jackets, please let me know.

Wow I’m tired today. I didn’t get home until 6:50 yesterday and Dan got home at 7. We at at 8 and then after the dishes it ws 8:30! I got up at 5:40 this morning. Thank goodness there is only 1 monday a week.

Tonight I made agedashi tofu. See image (above) and recipe (below). Mmm. I’m not that good at it and I’m sure it would earn a student at a Japanese cooking school an expulsion, but it tasted pretty good.

Agedashi-Dofu (Deep-fired tofu)
1/2 lb tofu (half of one of those round containers of 800 g or one of the 400 g rectangle packages)
cornstarch or flour
oil for frying
1 cup dashi-no-moto stock
1/4 cup mirin (cooking rice wine)
1/4 cup soy sauce
sugar (optional)
1/4 cup minced green onion
1 tablespoon or more bonito (katsuo-bushi) flakes
3 tablespoons daikonoroshi (grated daikon)
1 tablespoon grated ginger
lemon slices (optional)
Drain tofu on strainer for several hours or on paper towel. Cut tofu into bite-size cubes. Bring sauce ingredients to a boil in a saucepan. Coat the pieces of tofu with cornstarch or flour. Heat the oil for frying, but do not begin until ready to serve. Deep-fry the tofu just until golden brown; do not overcook. Pour the sauce in a bowl. Put tofu in the centre of the bowl and sprinkle bonito flakes and green onion over the tofu. Place a mound of grated daikon next to the tofu, and top the daikon with a grated ginger. Squeeze lemon juice over daikon if you wish.

Japanese food always turns the kitchen into a disaster zone though.

I have started reading Nanocosm by William Illsey Atkinson, who is a Canadian sci/tech jounralist. So far it has been an interesting read, although as Chris Phoenix points out in this review, there are a number of technical errors and he often makes fun of the proponents of molecular assembly (disagreeing with an idea is one thing, but making fun of the person who thought of it is another). I did agree with his argument that Drexler and Feyman seemed too enthusiastic about creating miniature gears and sockets and that at least the early research in nanoscience was more focused on engineering than chemistry or biology. A quick search through the nanodot blog reveals that current nanoscience research includes a healthy component of biology (examples: 1, 2). I am happy to see that current research includes studying biological stuctures like the flagellar motors and tubilin mictotubules and I hope we see even more ways that biologists can be involved in nanoscience.

When I checked on the mice this morning I was glad to see that Keiko hadn’t eaten Miette. In fact, they were sleeping close together which is a very good sign. Miette hasn’t squeeked too much today, although she is still doesn’t want Keiko to goom her. Its fascinating to see how patient Keiko is - she does her best to show Miette that she isn’t a threat. She leaves Miette alone do her own exploration and doesn’t always try to be close to her. She tries to groom her but if Miette gets too upset she stops and leaves her alone for a while. The grooming is a sign that a mouse cares for another mouse but also a method for showing who is dominant so it’s a very important thing for them to work out. Its interesting how they can use so many non-verbal signals to communicate and although they appear simple, they are quite effective in allowing a group of animals to co-exist peacefully.

One interesting thing about Miette is that she is surprisingly calm. Of course she is frightened of Keiko as well as Dan and I, but once I manage to catch her she stays quite still and seems more curious than frightened. Keiko and Gretchen were never like this - it was almost impossible for them to hold still and they always seemed frantic about trying to escape. I’m starting to think that the pet store where I got them did not take very good care of them, especially after seeing how well the mice were treated in the store I visited yesterday.

We decided to visit Chester, a nearby town that was a major Roman fort just before Rome pulled out of England. Fred and Lynn gave us a ride to the train station (just down the street) and we took the train into central Liverpool and then switched to the Wirral line to get there. We didn’t realise that different trains ran on the same track and a very friendly lady stopped us from getting on the wrong train and showed us the sign that told what train was coming next. Everyone we encountered was super-friendly and I just adore their accents! So, after an hour or so we arrived in Chester. We walked to the town and easily found the main shopping street. The town still has the Roman walls built around it, which were kept up and improved over the years. The really cool thing is that one can actually walk along the walls all the way around the old town, so we walked along most of it. As soon as we got onto the wall we encountered a used bookstore (with an entrance on the wall - how cool is that??) and I bought a used book and Dan found some old sheet music. He bought Y Gwanwyn, one of the most well known Welsh songs. We continued along the Northeast wall until we came in behind the Cathedral and were tempted to visit, but there was an organ recital going on so we couldn’t have looked around too much and decided to keep going. We came down to the site of the Roman Ampitheatre, which was being excavated by students from the University of Liverpool. They had erected a fence to keep people off the dig site of course. People doing archeological digs always look exhasuted and dirty and this group was no exception. I felt like I was at the zoo where with a cage full of students and a sign that said “do not feed the students”. Anyway, the ampitheatre was really interesting since it had been built and abandoned only 80 years later, and seemed to be very well preseved. Then we walked to the river Dee and relaxed there for a bit. There was a flock of pigeons trlying around the river that were flying in formation and looping around all over the place, as if they wanted to put on a show for us. It reminded me of Manfred in Accelerando. We walked back to the train station, took the train home, and had supper (Lynn prepared a stew for us).

We went to visit another one of my aunts who was married to my uncle Tom (sadly, he passed away of abdominal cancer shortly after they got married). She served us tea and snacks and we had a very nice evening chatting with her. She was a very friendly person and I am glad I finally met her!

We were quite tired from our last day in Paris because we carried all our luggage with us. We ended up sleeping in until almost 10 AM, then had breakfast and chatted with my aunt and uncle a bit. They drove us around the area and then took us to the Albert Docks. We all went on the “Ferry cross the Mersey” ride. I have to say one thing about the Mersey - that is one big river. It makes the St. Laurent (at least near Montreal) look puny, although in Gaspésie I think they are probably about the same. Anyway, this river separates Liverpool from Birkenhead. My Dad’s family lived in Liverpool but I think his oldest sister moved to Birkenhead and he told me about how he would take the ferry across the river to see her. One striking thing is that one sees no bridges across it, at least not by the docks. The reason is obvious - this was THE main port/dock for England on the west coast during the shipping era and the ships couldn’t be obstructed by bridges. So instead of building those bridges that lift up every time a ship comes in or leaves dock, they built tunnels under the river to get from one city to the other. There are ventilation towers built at each end of the two tunnels and these are quite visible in the photos we took. See the close-up (below) too. So, there we were on the Ferry. Unfortunately the ship has two sides and only one commentary, so we ended up on the wrong side of the ship. We were facing Birkenhead, but the commentary was for Liverpool! We still caught a bit of the history though and took plenty of photos.

After, Fred and Lynn left us to explore the Albert Docks. We visited the Museum of Liverpool Life first and got a taste of what this major port city was like. My grandfater used to work on the docks and I think he used to be one of the people who moved the incoming cargo around in the warehouses and docks, so I leared a bit about what that was like. Also there used to be dray horses pulling the carts of goods from the docks to the town. Fred told me about how the kids would nick the cane sugar off these carts. He had a different name for the carts too, but I have forgotten it. We saw a dry dock and then went to the Maritime Museum, which was focused on the ships themselves and the goods traded (including, unfortunately, slaves). There was a room dedicated to the Titanic and other large transatlantic passenger ships. There was also a very interesting display on insurance - the insurance industry was big business in the ‘Pool - imagine importing 1000 tonnes of cane sugar and losing it all in a fire! After this we walked around the docks and got a bit lost. We stopped in a small store and had a D&B and some crisps. We were supposed to meet Lynn and Fred at the “Beatles experience” but got quite lost trying to find it. We never did see any Beatles stuff, but that came later anyway.

We went for supper at “The Carverey” that specializes in roasts. Supper consisted of a choice of any (or all) of roast beef, ham and turkey, Yorkshire pudding, vegetables, and potatoes with lots of gravy. Given that we had been eating quite light in Paris and had not had lunch, we both tucked in with gusto. We both had a pint of a local Bitter and Fred was very surprised that I was able to finish a) all my food and b) an entire pint of bitter. We attempted dessert - a trifle which we both ate since it was too sweet and too much for one person.

We went for a walk in Sefton Park. One of the first things we saw was “Fairy Glen” where children used to claim to find faries. Fred joked that the faries were all downtown liverpool and not in the glen anymore. We saw the Palm house but unfortunately it was closed so we could not go in. We walked along the very large pond and saw some swans and their cygnets and some squeeky ducks things that were totally foreign to us. Then it was home and off to sleep.

Since Gretchen died this week Keiko has been a bit glum. Well its hard to tell with certainty since mice seem to only have three emotions - excited, frightened and sleepy and she was more sleepy than normal. Its probably the first time she has ever been alone and although she wasn’t super-sad, I thought I would get her a companion. So today I went on quite a long journey to get another mouse. I had to go to the Korean store and get tofu and rice vinegar and while I was there I got some fancy rice wine and then I caught the bus to the metro and went to the Animalerie by Snowdon. The guy was really nice but unfortunately when we checked the mice in his cage, all 6 of them were male! Since I didn’t want baby mice to deal with, that wouldn’t have worked. So, I walked along the Decarie to Van Horne and caught the 161 to Cavendish mall. When I got there, I found the pet store I had visited before was permanently closed (honestly, that mall is completely useless). So I headed home, had some soup with Dan, then called the pet store by my work. I have often gone there for food and bedding for the mice but wasn’t certain if they had any. The person I spoke to on the phone said they had a lot, so I went there and they were right. Not only did they have a lot, but they had super-cute satin mice. The guy who helped me pick one said he was happy to sell a mouse that was for a pet (rather than snake food) and so he let me have one of the fancy mice for the price of a regular mouse ($2.69). I also got them a new mouse wheel (at a discount) since the one that came with the cage is super annoyingly loud.

I cleaned the cage and put the new mouse in a bowl, then introduced Keiko. Being the super-curious mouse she is, she was very excited but was nice to the new mouse and started grooming her right away. The new mouse was a bit freaked out by Keiko since Keiko is twice her size, hyperactive and a total stranger. She squeeked a lot but they didn’t fight and the squeeking is supposedly normal for the first few days. I moved them both to the cage and they seem fine. Every time Keiko comes near her, the new one squeeks like a banshee and runs away but Keiko hasn’t gotten angry so I think they will be ok together. We are going to call her Miette, which means “small thing” in French.

Keiko hasn’t figured out the new weel at all and the new mouse is too light to work it!