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I have lots of things to update and not much time to do it in. First of all, I went for another massage yesterday. Having scoliosis and carrying around a massive tummy don’t always go so well together and it has helped tremendously with the tension in my middle and lower back. I feel that I sleep better after going for a massage, which is great since waking up with a stiff back is no fun. It’s absolutely wonderful to have someone work out the tension in your hands, feet, arms, legs, shoulders and back, especially on a heated bed with cozy blankets. I booked another apointment in 3 weeks and will probably try to get another one in before Kicky comes. Kicky is getting very large and strong, by the way, and it tickes tremendously when she moves her arms around. She stuck her foot a good 2 inches out of my tummy last weekend. Dan had taken some video of just after we moved in (when we were cleaning up the massive mess left by the other tenants) and it was strange to see myself without a massive belly!
Dans’ French class is going astonishingly well. It looks like a very well put together syllabus, focussing on the way sentences are formed rather than trying to crush the students under grammar rules when they still don’t know how to identify adverbs and adjectives. Dan bought a new blingual dictionary two weeks ago and the funny thing is that when I looked at it last night, I realised it’s a euro-centric one, which is kind of surprising to find in a Quebecois-run book store. It has definitions for Midlands, Y-fronts and Londonner, for goodness sake! And also it steers clear of any double-meaning slang words like “make out”, for which there is no reference of kissing.
I forgot to mention that poor Miette had a rough week when the apartment next to ours was being varnished. Not only did she have to deal with the smell, but had to keep warm when we had the windows open. By the end of that week she was rather snappy at us, but has since cheered up and seems to be just fine. Poor mousie. Actually she has mellowed out quite a bit in middle age and I can easily catch her now. She still has her quirks and sometimes squeeks at nothing (well to us it’s nothing, but she’s probably telling the objects in her cage a thing or two). If only they coulkd speak.
Dan has been appaled at my inability to keep abrest with current goings-on (on multiple occasions he would ask what I thought about the latest news item and I would reply with a blank look or a “Who?”). He has since coached me to adopt a regular form of information and we finally decided the Satuday paper is probably the best way to go. We tried getting daily papers for a while but it soon let to uncontrollable piles of newsprint all over our place, so at least with one paper we have a week to get through it. I’ve tried out most of the local options, none of which are perfect, but I think I have narrowed it down to the Globe and Mail. I find the Gazette inane and self-congratulatory, le Devoir way beyond me, La Presse to be far too focussed on Quebec and the French-speaking world, The National Post to be a waste of time. So unless we want to try the local paper of another city (Toronto, for example), the Globe is it. I have tried it three times so far and been quite happy with it so far. I enjoy the “Focus” section which always has a multi-page article on something highly relevant to today’s current events and also quite informative. Their articles in response to the recent climate change “awakening” (after decades of warning, we have finally started to pay attention, I guess) have been for the most part reasonable and insightful. So there you have it.
Speaking of news, ever considering a move to Herouxville, Quebec?. Don’t forget to consider that you will be expected to follow the town’s norms on meat consumption, so Jews, Muslims and vegetarians needs not apply. All this is hilighted by the recent debate on whether the residents of this province are “more racist” than the rest of the country. Obviously this is a very sensitive topic but one thing I can saw with certainty is that there is a common categorization of people from Asian backgrounds as “Chinois”, often in a derogatory way. My former co-worker, who is Korean, was racially insulted at least three times druing the past year. I also caught some astonishing comments directed towards “les Chinois” this past December in a research institute. This is not to say other places in Canada are free of racism – I just think is goes to show how we’re still struggling with it. So let’s skip the stereotype that Alberta is full of racists and the rest of the country is full of progressive, tolerant people.
We have two more prenatal classes left, one girls-only breastfeeding class this Thursday and a hospital tour on Tuesday. It will all be over by the 21st of Feb, after which we should have a bit more free time again. We still have not resolved the car seat issue, and it’s not exactly like the situation makes the choice easy either. My goal is to get something figured out next weekend.
It looks like everything is on track for the condo sale, which closes next Friday. It will be strange to think that mom’s place will belong to someone else. I remember when she first started looking into it when I was in junior high school and those first few years when I helped out while she was the caretaker – changing light bulbs, washing the glass doors and vacuuming. It is a strange thing to cut your last tie to a place you once thought of as home, especially if you’re currently renting and a bit uncertain about where you will be in the next 5 years.
We’ve been trying to minimize our ecological footprint lately by buying and using eco-friendly cleaners and recycled paper products. The city of Montreal and our nearby eco co-op have done an excelleing job in providing information and products to make the process both painless and enjoyable. So far we have tried eco dish soap and laundry detergent and have made homemade cleaners from mixes of Borax, vinegar, baking soda and “washing soda” according to the recipes in the document linked below, which have worked quite well. We have both felt it is unnecessary and potentially harmful to use household cleaners with toxic chemicals, especially with Kicky on the way. We have also bought recyled paper tissues and paper towel. The next fronteir is biodegradable garbage bags.
City of Montreal eco info – follow the third link
OR
Download the PDF directly.
Just for fun: Bacteria: unseen superheroes. Podcasts avaiable here!