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Yesterday Véronique invited us for a bike trip to the south shore. Dan had found a map of cyclotourisme for the south shore region and we picked out a relatively short route to do (60 km - the longest ones were over 100 km!). Véronique came and picked us up at Vendôme metro and we were able to fit all the bikes on her rack without dificulty. We got out of the city relatively easily but got horribly lost trying to find the bike route we had chosen. I don’t know what it is about this part of the country and useless maps, but we basically gave up and found a path in Boucherville which led to the south shore of the St. Laurent instead. We all agreed that it seemed a better route in the end, so it turned out well.

It was a lovely bike ride. We went through the town of Boucherville and then along the river. On the way the path went over an old bridge and we saw a pair of blue herons in the slough. I’ve never seen a large wild bird before so it was incredible. Dan was able to take some video of one of them walking through the water. It was really an amazing experience. After that the path continued along the river and went through a lovely park where people were flying the biggest, coolest kites we’ve ever seen. It was quite a breeze coming off the river so they had just tied the kites to a post and left them there while they had a picnic. After that we went through the town of Varennes which had a tiny chapel dedicated to one of the saints, so we took a look inside for a few minutes. Not long after we turned around and headed back. We hadn’t had lunch yet but had all agreed where we were going for lunch … Monseiur Patate!

Last Sunday we headed back to Atwater market with a clear-cut goal: buy some flowers for the planter box. We walked on the way there and it was a lovely day. We brought the camera and I finally took a picture of the mighty mouse graffiti on the corner of Notre Dame and Atwater. I’m sure just about everyone with a camera has done it, but I’ve always enjoyed that painting and wanted a picture of my own. I think someone must touch it up every year since it looks as good as when I first saw it.

So anyway, we were off to the visit the greenhouses by the market. We wandered around a bit and decided on some plants that we liked. I went and asked some of the people working at the largest greenhouse (with the nicest plants) if they thought plants in a planter box that is right beside a south facing window that’s open all the time would survive. They were very unhelpful and told me to go to the houseplant store nearby. I wasn’t satisfied with this answer since 1) they were 20 year old girls who knew nothing about gardening and 2) I wanted to try anyway, darnit! So we went to another smaller one at the end and there was a older fellow there who looked like he actually got his hands dirty with soil. So I asked him and he said that yes it was possible and that he could help me put together a planter or sell me one he had already done. There was only one problem - I hated all the plants he had! Geraniums … ugh. Marigolds … no way. He really tried to give us the push and was asking “Ok, so do you like this one, and how about this one beside it?”. Eventually we got away and went back to the silly girls and bought some plants there. I can’t believe how inexpensive it was! Eash plant was $2-3 so we were able to buy enough to fill the planter for $20. So here is a picture of it …

After a week of adjusting to their new surroundings some of the flowers have died but they’re still doing quite well. I think they might actually be getting too much sun!

I wonder how he gets away with that sign!

Whenever I walk by a greenhouse / plant store / market I get this urge to have a garden. This is somewhat problematic given we don’t have a garden, yard or balcony. We might turn our herb planter box into a flower planter box and keep the herbs in pots - this will be decided tomorrow. In the meantime we’ve both discovered that (now that we have an apartment with plenty of windows facing in the right direction) that we want lots of plants in the house. We moved with two plants (one I don’t know the name for and one Oxalis) and now have 7: Marvin the mint plant, Basilik the basil, an unnamed Crown of Thorns cutting, two bamboo shoots and a cactusy/flower thing called Maria in addition to the other two. I planted some Thyme seeds in pots today and am trying to germinate the Oregano ones. They’re so small I wonder how I will know they have germinated - they’re smaller than poppy seeds!

We went to Atwater market today since we didn’t fancy a 3 hour bike ride in the rain. Compared to Jean-Talon it seems small and pricey! But I did find some jalapeno jelly there (which is very tasty). After we got back home we walked down Sherbrooke into NDG to go and get a) Kimchee, tofu and pickled vegetables at the Korean store and b) chicken at a boucherie. We have been getting some very good chicken at one near Jean-Talon and last week Lisa came with us and pointed out that it was a Halal boucherie. We hadn’t paid much attention to that before but it might explain why the chicken tastes so good - so we got today’s chicken at a Halal boucherie nearby and will see how it compares. And … I can’t believe there are so many types of pickled cucumber! We also went to D.A.D.s Bagel & discovered they had homemade naan there so we will give that a try with this week’s curry.

We also discovered Co-op La maison verte which has a wealth of envrionmentally friendly resources including eco cleaners (in bulk) and a free book on how to make your own household cleaners. Everything looks very simple except for laundry detergent, so next time we run out we will try theirs.

We’ve been having fun playing the Intellivision. So far the favourites are Burger time (of course), Lock ‘n Chase, Night Stalker and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. I remember having a lot of fun playing the latter as a kid and when I started out this time I accidentally chose the hardest setting - then after reading the manual I figured out how to choose the easiest setting and managed to win after a few tries. With Night Stalker we both managed to get to the white robot stage but he’s very hard to kill and it will be a while before we get to the invisible robot stage.

The overhead light in the living room wasn’t working and Dan discovered that the switch was loose in the wall and was able to put it back in place. Hooray for proper lighting!

I really need to get the gallery situation sorted out! So in the meantime, here’s another photo. As a funny aside, I met the girlfriend of the son of the owners of this restaurant in Toronto at the Bioinformatics course. It’s two blocks away from our place.

Ok, so I know you are really annoyed with me now but I still don’t have pictures of our place yet. There are two reasons for this : 1. I am a perfectionist and it isn’t perfect in here yet and 2. I still haven’t had a chance to get a new gallery working. In the meantime here is a photo of Miette from two weeks ago. I was looking for somewhere to put her while I cleaned her cage and the kitchen radiator/windowsill worked very well. Miette really enjoyed it and I happened to get some really nice shots.

Things are coming together well here for the apartment. No painting yet but my co-worker can lend me her brushes and rollers so we just have to try and pick the right color, borrow a ladder and get the paint mixed. We had a few things to sort out this past two weeks. The screens were ripped in the living room and bedroom so Dan took them out and the landlord fixed them. Unfortunatley they were incredibly dirty so we had to a mega-cleanup after the new screens were installed. Then the bathroom tub drain stopped working. We tried to play bricoleur/euse bu putting DRANO down it, but had no luck. Yesterday we called the landlord and she sent a plumber to clean it out. The landlord is an incredibly good building manager. She got back to us right away and even let us know that the plumber might be late. I could tell when we saw the building that it was run well and it’s something I really appreciate.

We’ve been trying to find a place to put our bikes and Dan bought a wall mounted rack at MEC last week. He moved things around a bit and the new arrangement is much nicer. With next year’s tax refund we’re thinking of getting Bromptons but in the meantime we need to keep them somewhere.

I bought some fresh herb plants at Marché Jean-Talon last week and bought a wood planter box yesterday to put them in. In a fit of insanity I also bought some seeds for oregano, thyme and rosemary so we will see how the manage. We don’t have any space outside so they will have to stay on the windowsill.

We went swimming at the nearby pool on Wednesday night. I really like the free pool concept! Last night we were supposed to go swimming too, but ended up reading in the nearby park instead. I really like this neighbourhood!

It’s the construction holiday in Montreal which means whatever public services had reduced summer hours just got reduced more. On Thursday night the bus didn’t come at work and I had to walk to the metro. It happened on Monday too, but I was lucky enough to get a ride with a co-worker. It’s strange though, as this has never happened before. I just hope it doesn’t happen again next week…

Ok so I have to say our new hood is pretty cool. We live directly above a boulangerie and we ran out of bread last week so I just went downstairs and bought some. I met the owner when I got the bread and he is really nice. It’s a cool little store because it’s also a cafe and he sells desserts, cheese, sausages, cookies, cakes and coffee to go. It’s kind of like an all-purpose gourmet convenience store stop, as I have seen people buy food for cooking, grab a coffee on the go, or have lunch there. There also appears to be a resident fluffy white chien who sits outside under one of the tables and grins at all the passers-by. Today for breakfast we tried their croissants. On the subject of food, we’ve been expolring the shops and the grocery store nearby. The Metro (not the subway station, the grocery store) seemed to have a good selection of produce but it was overpriced. The nearest fruiterie is creepy (as Lisa would say, a “dollar-store” type of fruiterie) but there’s another one about 6 minutes away on foot so we will try that next. The poissonnerie nearby has a decent selection of fruit and veg too, and I got some very nice oranges and a papaya from it last night.

It takes 5 minutes to walk to the Metro station (which is ever-so much better than the 20 minute bus ride) and getting to the Lachine canal bike path is really easy and pleasant. We took it earlier this week when I still had time off work and last weekend we rode to Marché Jean-Talon.

Everyone seems quite friendly and happy here, in great contrast to our old place where it felt like everyone had just receieved some bad medical news, a pink slip or a rejection letter.

Despite it being quite hot out, our place has been comparatively cool. We get the sun in the morning but by the hottest part of the day it isn’t shining directly in the windows, which helps a lot. We also wake up to the sunlight coming in through the curtains, which is an incredibly pleasant way to wake up. The kitchen also doesn’t get too hot when we cook - I’m guessing the kitchen windows are a big help there. We want to start growing some herbs in the kitchen window and our friend Ken said he can give us some of his to start us off. The building is clean and quiet and most of the people seem to be young couples the same age as us.

We have the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom all sorted out now. Dan spent two full days working on the office and it’s almost there. The living room is coming along but keeps getting used as emergency storage space for the other rooms so I think it will take another week before it’s really done. We may have to paint the living room walls since one half is tan and the other is a hideous mustard. Since the landlord gave us all that white paint, I am going to touch up the baseboards and covers for the radiators, which are wood. Perhaps later on we can do something about the mustard walls….

Some apartments have got what it takes and others definately do not. After reading up on Feng Shui I don’t think what I’m about to write can technically be categorized as such, but there’s definately a difference. Maybe it’s all just due to good/bad architects & contractors.

When we moved to our new apartment in January 2004 we knew there were some minor problems with it, but there are minor problems with everywhere so we were perfectly happy to deal with the ones we initially noticed. The most major feature was that the apartment was crooked. This resulted in crooked doorframes (hence most of the doors didn’t close well) and the counter & cupboards in the kitchen were bent too. Most of the cupboards didn’t close. There were metal closures for them which would have helped, but both sides were coated in so many layers of paint they wouldn’t fit together. But ok that’s not so bad. Well on the subject of the kitchen, let’s not forget to mention the kitchen sink, which was really low (perhaps due to the crooked problem) and wide. It was hard to reach the taps at the back and after doing the dishes my back always hurt. The wall behind the sink must have had some serious water damage as the drywall was patchy at best. So we put a Van Gogh poster over it. The cupboards themselves were interesting, since all the bottom ones were connected. So the area directly under the sink with the pipes (and the only spot for the garbage can) was right next to the only place I could find to put the pots. Great.

Well that’s ok, lots of kitchens are far from ideal, what can you expect from a rental apartment anyway? Well moving on to the living room, the biggest problem there was that it was one massive room with no way to easily divide it into smaller sections. So we had Dan’s music stuff right next to our couch the whole time since we had no other way to arrange it. We all remember the problem with the dining area light fixture which was undoubtedly caused by the rumbly/bumpy/super-noisy trucks outside the building. Oh and the windows faced west, which is not the best choice for Montreal summertime.

The bathroom - ah the bathroom. All that glorious pink tile which was impossible to decorate. The bathroom sink seemed to be designed to reflect water back at the unfortunate soul who was so brash as to wash their hands. The neat-o window beside the shower was a good idea to let in natural light, but the drywall wasn’t. It bubbled, bulged, and exploded in powdery residues all over the tub in regular intervals. Despite the fact that it was quite a large bathroom there was nowhere to put a storage compartment or shelf. And one of the things that annoyed me the most was that sink, which was the free-standing kind lacking a countertop. It was impossible to do the simplest things at that sink with a flat surface area of a quarter of a foot on each side.

The bedroom was actually one of the best features since it was quite large and easy to arrange. The little closet was rather strange but workable. Again, the windows faced west which made it quite toasty in July. This wouldn’t have been so bad if there was a breeze coming in through the window, but not once in 2 1/2 years did a breeze come through any of the windows. This is rather ironic since in the winter the wind whipped along parallel to the building at incredible speeds. It was so windy that it actually made the ice a flat smooth sheet which was impossible to drive and walk on, especially if you happen to be walking against or perpendicular to said wind. Inexplicably, other places nearby and other areas of town were not as bad as our street. We got a ride home once and our friend couldn’t stop the car because of the large ice patch in front of our building.

The rest of the building itself wasn’t so bad except for two things. Firstly, there was only one washer & dryer and for 2 years they were the worst washing appliances I had ever used. I tried every alternative - hand washing, laundromats, using our friend’s washer & dryer. It made what should be a modern convenience ridiculously difficult. These did get upgraded to a rather good new set just before I left. There was definately something wrong with the water, though, and we noticed our cutlery would stain unless dried instantly, our clothing felt stiff, and our skin felt awful. The other thing was the garbage. Somebody had decided the best place for the tenants to put their garbage was … are you ready? … in a little closet in the hall on each floor. No, not a garbage chute which I think it illegal in Montreal, but in a plastic bucket. So the entire time we were there, it smelled far from pleasant, and the smell came in under the front door of the apartment. Of all the things, I think this surprised me the most.

So. Let’s take a quick look at the new place, shall we? Crooked? Nope. Doors close? Check. Cupboards close? Yes! Kitchen sink ergonimic? Check. Water good? Check. Drywall damaged? Nope. Separated cupboards? Mostly. Living room easy to arrange? Yes. Windows facing south? Check. Building shakes because of traffic? Nope. Bathroom pink? Thankfully no. Bathroom sink attacks user? Nope. Countertop around sink? Check! Breeze comes in through window? Yes - and bonus, it smells like flowers! Laundry facilities? Excellent! Garbage storage? Outside where it should be. Additional bonuses: small table & chairs fit in the kitchen, high ceilings, option to install own curtains, free white paint as a move-in present from landlord, window ledges ready for potted plants, normal closets, concrete building (super-soundproof and doesn’t trap summer heat), window in kitchen and bathroom, and best of all, a really nice view.

Strange how all these little differences can add up to a very large change in end-user satisfaction! I feel like I upgraded from a K-car to an Aston Martin!

This has to have been along the lines of “fastest” or “best” or “most organized” move I have ever participated in. There were so many things that could have gone wrong, and really nothing did go wrong.

First an angry word at the insane person who came up with these July 1 lease expiration deals. What were you thinking?? It’s really cruel, you know, to make all these people stress like ths, move at 11 PM or 5 AM and pay $200 for a moving truck for 5 hours and have so many people end up with nowhere to move to!

We woke up at 5:00 and packed up the last bits of stuff we had out and prepared breakfast which consisted of the best croissants in town, nutella, raisin bread and olive bread, apples, bananas, oranges, pears and papaya and three kinds of juice including the odd but tasty pomegranite blueberry (it sounds to me like something Fred Flintstone would drink). By 5:40 Dave and Sanan arrived and I went with them to the truck rental place. I was worried there would be a long line-up but when we got there, only one person was being helped and we had the truck back to the apartment by 6:20. BTW, if anyone ever needs to rent a car or truck I highly recommend the company we used (Discount) since the truck was in very good shape, the people were nice, and they ran their company very well.

While we were gone, Dan started bringing boxes down to the main floor of the apartment building. By the time we arrived, he had moved half the boxes himself and was sweathing profusely! Sanan, Dan and I started loading the truck (Dave just had surgery so he guarded the truck) and Dan labelled our disposable glasses with zany names like “Dash Gordon” for himself and “Mr. Bus Driver” for Dave, who drove the truck. Just after 7 our army arrived. Dave and Chriszine, who I didn’t know were coming, rode their bikes over to help and then Janice picked up Claudia, Joseph, Paul, Valérie, Stefi, Julien and Andrea at the metro. Things started happening really fast and in no time we had the truck full. All our stuff fit (just) except for out two bikes and our way-past-its-due-date foam mattress. We left the mattress as a sacrifice to the moving day mojo and Joseph and Valérie kindly rode them with Dave and Chriszine to the new place and the rest of us were able to squeeze in Sanan’s car. I saw our neighbour just as I was leaving and he looked quite cross - undoubtedly we made a racket.

When we arrived at the new place, the truck was in the process of being unloaded and Ken and Joel came to help. But there was one minor problem - nobody was there to give us the keys! I phoned the landlord’s cell phone and left a panicky message and in the meantime Paul was able to get us into the building by buzzing another apartment. We started taking boxes upstairs and found there was no room in the hallway to stack them. Dan had the intelligence to try the doorhandle (something I wouldn’t have thought to try) and lo and behold, it was unlocked! The keys were on the kitchen counter and we were in!

Our army made a chain and got everything into the new apartment in 20 minutes. It was incredible! We even had time to drive to Lisa’s place and pick up her mattress (she’s selling her bed due to the cross-country move) and return the truck by just after 10. The only drawback was that we finished so soon, the pizza delivery was still 2 hours away! Paul and Ken walked around and tried to find moving day furniture being thrown out, but didn’t have any luck. They came back and we ate the pizza and chilled a bit. Everyone else elected to go, either to watch the soccer game, work or to crash.

Little did we know the work was just beginning. The previous tenants were really nice (I met one and spoke with both of them on the phone) but probably not into cleaning much. They had a lovely large black dog who left his fur everywhere and we think he may have peed on the floor too. We started by cleaning the bedroom and by cleaning I don’t mean just vacuuming, but scrubbing the baseboards, electrical outlets, radiators and lightswitches, vacuuming, mopping twice and then wiping dry with a cloth. This procedure was repeated for the kitchen (extra work there because of all the cupboards), entrance and living room. I don’t think my fingertips have hurt so much, ever. Oh and then there was the fridge. It’s an old school frost-up freezer type that had 4 inches of frost on each side. There was so much frost that the freezer door broke off (we found it in a cupboard) and there was a substantial cache of food frozen into it. We defrosted the fridge the second day and found four pizza pocket things, a bag of unidentified berries, breaded fish, and a container of spaghetti sauce! This was also a good opportunity to clean the fridge which was dirty and smelled funky. Dan found an ingenious way to fix the door. It was held in place by a spring and two hinges, one of which had broken. The hinges attached to a bracket which was screwed into the side of the fridge, so Dan took the bracket out, screwed another screw into the broken spot to replace the hinge and then put the bracket back in place. It worked great! So we went from something that looked like a horror story to something clean and functional.

We’ve managed to put up curtains in two rooms and have bought rods for the other two. We need to get some misc items still like a towel rack (what is it with Montreal apartments and having nowhere for you to hang towels?) and a little stand in the kitchen to go under the overhanging cupoard which we keep hitting our heads on.

So a big thank you to everyone who helped out. We are so grateful for everything you did!