This has been one heck of a week. Last weekend was busy enough but I wasn’t ready to be taken down by the flu on Monday morning. My boss went to a Children’s hopsital two weeks ago, picked up the mother-of-all-flu-viruses (since the Spanish flu anyway) and was literally out for a week. He quarantined himself until the following Thursday, when we had an important visitor coming, but still spent last-last Friday and the weekend recovering. This past week he was at work and still coughing. Anyway either I caught his flu or got it from somewhere else. Once I woke up and figured out why I felt like crap I did my standard treatment – slept in for a few more hours, took two probiotic pills and had some OJ. I think it did help my immune system since all week I’ve been feeling a bit flu-ish but not that bad. So anyway I was at work for the rest of the week and it was quite a busy one too. I had to deal with estate stuff as well, and should be starting the process of selling the condo soon. Dan is still incredibly insanely busy, spending almost every waking hour dealing with school stuff. And just to top if off, we ended up going out Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights!
Wednesday one of the girls at Dan’s school had her birthday party (let’s just say she is now 9 years younger than us) so she had a party at a Mexican restaurant. Montreal is known for it’s utter lack of good and authentic Mexican/southern food (although La Louisiane, a new restaurant on Sherbrooke in NDG turned out to be a nice surpirse) so I was both hopeful and skeptical at the same time. It turned it to be quite good. Dan and I had cactus baked in cheese with sour cream and fajitas and I had a virgin strawberry daiquiri. So Montreal does have passable Mexican food, and the price was quite reasonable.
Thursday Tony and Julie invited us over and we had an incredible meal and a very good time. They have three kids, so we had a good talk about what it’s like to be a parent. Also it turns out they liked the same independent french-fry place that used to be in the Eaton Centre food court (sadly it closed down) that had 9 kinds of mayonnaise for dipping. They’re escaping back to BC in December and will be eating inexpensive sushi in light rain jackets while we slog through 3 foot snowbanks this winter.
Friday we went to the symphony. In September Dan found out that the OSM was performing Shoenberg’s Gurrelieder, which, as he said, is “thebiggestorchestratedpieceever”, comprising over 400 people in the orchestra and choir. I managed to find something fancy to wear that I could still fit and even accessorized with the cute Prada-knockoff I bought in Rome (which I found out later demagnetised my metro pass but I was able to get a replacement). We bought the most inexpensive tickets (which were only $20-ish each, very reasonable actually) and that meant we were in the highest part of the balcony. Which was fine except that I realised that I am rather acrophobic once we got there. I think what made it so bad was the way the ceiling sloped down toward the stage and it made me feel like I was going to fall over the balcony even though we were four rows back. So that combined with the fact that I was pregnant, dead tired and still feeling crappy from the flu made it a very strange evening indeed. I was ok until about halfway through the first half and then I just couldn’t get comfortable and kept (discretely) fidgeting. As a coping strategy, I would close my eyes between the subtitles (the OSM is very smart and offers them in both languages) and after a while I started having short and strange dreams in these 10-second intervals. It was pretty messed up. Nevertheless, the concert was great and I really did enjoy the piece. It was really something when the entire choir (over 200 people) sang together at the end. Also the baby was quite awake and gave me some strong kicks when the choir sang, as well as in the finale. She shouldn’t be able to actually hear yet, but I bet she still felt it! Afterward we went out for poutine and I had a hamburger with avodaco on it. It was good but strange.
So this morning I walked into the kitchen and couldn’t believe the mess that was there – having been out three nights in a row made quite a pile of ditry dishes. And somehow every surface of the kitchen seemed to be covered in crumbs and flakes of bread, which was really annoying. I put off dealing with the kitchen until later and went out Christmas shopping. I was able to get a gift for just about everyone, but I still need to get a few more things. Montreal is really a great place to find unique and interesting gifts. Dan and I also went to the eco-store on Sherbrooke and finally took the plunge, converting almost entirely to eco-friendly and non-toxic cleaning products. We were already using the eco-dish soap and today we got laundry detergent and three of the four ingredients we need to make our own cleaners at home (borax, “washing soda” and baking soda). I just have to get some cheap white vinegar now. We’ve also been enjoying the fair trade coffee beans and the do-it-yourself grinder they have makes a decent espresso grind. And I bought a bar of lavendar soap which smells divine.
So I feel like I have been run over by a steam-roller this week and I still have a ton of things to do this weekend. I can’t wait until the Christmas break, when I can actually take a day or two off. At least it wasn’t raining today AND we saw the sun for about 10 minutes before it got too cloudy.
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