Parc Blues

Hope I didn't startle u with the music ... Didn't quite catch it? Go turn up your speakers...

I decided to put my songs on my blog for your enjoyment. It seems I can reach more people that way.

Anyway, you are listening to my latest musical creation: my new song "Parc Blues". Did you miss it, click on the song to hear it again (sometimes you have to pause the song to let it fully load).

Alright I admit the autoplay is a bit obnoxious and intruding, but I promise I will remove the autoplay somewhere by the end of this week. So you're not forced to listen to my music.

In the meantime, I invite you to give your opinion about "Parc Blues". And maybe to help build your opinion: does it sound like/remind you of other music you know? What bands?

Thanks for your feedback!

Fire at will

Ok, normally I try to have some structure in my posts. But I guess this time I just wanna blurt out some random things:

I just love the way how people in Montreal queue up for the bus. Not like in Belgium where everyone just hangs around the bus stop and when the bus arrives everybody forcing themselves through the doors. Not here Mister! People stand politely in line, even when it's freezing cold and nobody dares to think about jumping in line before someone else. Neat!

Montreal used to be a real Sin City. As a result of the Prohibition in the States, Montreal really reached its pinnacle as Vice City in the 40ies & 50ies. The reminiscent of that can still be found troughout the city. Stripclubs right downtown in the shopping district, and not in some shabby railwaystation neighbourhood. When I go to work, I have to go downtown and it takes me about 15min on the bus and 2min on the Metro. And when I get out of the Metro, I need to cross St. Catherine, the place for hardcore shopping in MTL. Usually it's very quiet, only on Thursday night (well actually it's 00:30, so technically it's Friday morning) it's rather busy. I pass this one nightclub La Boom next to a stripjoint. I heard from my colleagues that's La Boom is a place filled with grad students trying to do college girls. Usually there's some stretch limo outside (It's the idea of fun for the kids here, hire a limo and play pimp downtown). Bweuaargh! A little bit later I pass a parkinglot where ususally some guys/girls are doing some blow and then I am on Rene Levesque, a big boulevard and only a couple of blocks away from my job (it's right next to Bell Centre, the hockey stadium for Montreal's pride "Les Montreal Canadiens" ... also referred to as the Habs, short for Habitants). But you know, it all seems to slide in front of my eyes. Just like sitting in a bus and watching the scenery. I don't feel uncomfortable with it, it's just part of what Montreal is, and I kinda like it! It's probably due to the fact that I am reading this book "Kafka on the shore" (thanks PHD) by Haruki Murakami. It's quite philisophical .... It's my new 600 pages fat friend on the bus and metro. Guess I need to find a new friend next week coz I'm almost done.

The past 5 years I worked in a predominantly Frenchspeaking company in Brussels. Typical for Belgian French is Septante (70) and Nonante (90). Everywhere else in the world they say Soixante-Dix and Quatre-Vingts-Dix (except in Switzerland I believe). It's kinda hard to get used to it. It's like trying to get rid off a bad habit. And if somehow it stills slips out, people look at me like I speak a totally different language. Huh!

There was a huge maffia bust in Montreal this week. They arrested about 70 people. Including the Don of the family who's more than 80 years old. It's the Sopranos right in my own city:-) And BTW: Italian people (well they're not really Italian anymore, it's more 3d generation or so) in Montreal really speak like the ones in Sopranos, with this fat accent. Kinda funny!

We moved into an appartment that has a telly and cable. For some reason we only watch the English channels (Canadian and American). Guess we don't like to watch the Quebecois channels coz they dub everything. And that's so weird coming from a country where nearly everythingis OV. Besides the typical shows like Everybody Loves Raymond, Will & Grace, CSI Miami, Las Vegas and NYC, ER, etc. that we have in Belgium as well, there are a couple of other things that are quite good:

• Ugly Betty: about a ... well not so attractive girl from Queens working for a fashion magazine in NYC. It's kinda cheesy but it's produced by Salma Hayek and there are some nice twists.
• Smith: a gangsters series with Ray Liotta. It's kinda like the film Heat. Unfortunately the ratings turned out to be bad, so after a couple of episodes it was taken of the air. A real shame!

Informationwise I can only cofirm that we're really spoiled in Europe. CTV (the commercial channel) supposedly brings international news, but besides some stuff about OJ and Canadian soldiers being killed everyday in Afghanistan, the outside world doesn't seem to exist. Gladly there is CBC (national public TV) and they do much better. But not good enough to our European standards. But amidst your average yankee sitcom and late nite talkshow there's always a rare gem, and for me it is: The Hour with George Stroumbouloupoulos (what's in a name) on CBC. It's a nice mix of rock, politics, literature, news and a nice dram of humour packed in a ... surprise, surprise: one hour show (hence the title)! You could watch some of it online, so go check it out!

Ok and last but not least ... apparently people were worried about our cat so ... we really had to go to the vet because he was limping. So gave him some drugs and he seems fine now. I only think he misses T. a lot coz when I'm home, I sleep and eat and I am not really around a lot to give him the attention he needs/asks/deserves/normally gets. He keeps following me around the house and purring along. But I am so happy that he is with us here in Montreal.

5977A avenue du Parc

For all u cats out there planning to visit us before july 2008: 5977A avenue du Parc will be the address you have to give the taxidriver.

At first we only planned to stay at this address for 4 months because Helena, who's is subletting us this appartment, was coming back from the Great North in january 2007. But it seems she likes it up there in the wild and snow. So we can stay here for quite some time longer.

Actually I'm kinda jealous of her coz deep down inside I am attracted by that rugged remote outdoor life. Although I know I am real city slacker, the lumberjack inside me would like to know what it is like to live among bears, beavers, caribou (it's basically the North-American reindeer) and dark forests. Guess my countryboy roots have something to do with that...

Anyway, we're getting of subject here .... I admit that in the beginning we were ... well disappointed is not really the word, but something like that when we moved in here. It all looked so old, kinda scruffy, messy ... But after tiding up, cleaning and living here for some weeks we got to feel right at home here. Our refuge, haven of peace from the bustling city live.

So when Helena first mentioned that we could stay longer, we were excited about it. But then we realized that some changes need to be done. We need a bigger bed (so a bigger bedroom), the kitchen needs to be more practical, we really need to start using the study (otherwise it's just wasted space). If we do stay here, we really have to make it a place of our own. And after thinking it through, going over all the options, discussing with Helena and Anne (our downstairs neighbour who lived in this appartement 20 years ago and knows about the wires and electricity) we decided to keep it. Also the rent is damn cheap :-)
A lick of paint, new lightning and some extra shelves should do the trick of transforming our crib!

It also means we will buy everything new (or vintage of course): new furniture, new pots & pans and other kitchen stuff, a new bed, etc. All I know is that I want to go for something zen (who said Feng Shui?), minimalistic with some ethnic accents and that I want to use the color "cioccolatte". We're pretty excited about our new project. Any ideas anyone??

Besides that, the nightshift completely messes up my internal clock. Yesterday I got out of bed at 6am and today at 7am. (a whole new experience for me :-). Nyfiken had a limping leg so we went to the vet and decided to amputate. And Tinneke left me but I have Patrick Watson to keep me company.

Before you get any wrong ideas: Tinneke is coming back next week from Warsaw, Patrick Watson is my new idol and Nyfiken still has all his legs (but he won't if he continues biting my nose when I'm a sleep).

It's sunday morning, almost 9am, I am gonna go buy a perfect bagel and a nice flaky croissant, maybe do a softboiled egg and eat it with toast cut in little soldiers. Have a good one!

My new job

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Since I am no longer an unemployed lowlife, but part of hardworking Montreal, I seem to have neglected my cyberspace duties.

Anyways, here is the latest update on my job. My employer is CSC and I am supposed to give first line IT support for UTC (an more specifically for OTIS, an elevator company). In our department we provide support for Belgium, UK, The Netherlands, Italy, France and Switzerland.

Normally, as a freshman you spend 2 weeks in training and 2 weeks doing shadowcalls and testruns. And then you're ready for the job. In my case, since the account is going live pretty soon, I had to skip training and get training on the job. So during my first week they gave me some training documents and presentations I should look through. So that wasn't very exiciting. Especially when working the graveyard shift: from 1am to 9:30 am.
At 6 in the morning the slides kinda fade away and everything turns blurry. And you can only think about the time ticking away and going to bed asap.

And coz everyone is really busy, they don't really have time to actually show me stuff. So it's basically up to me and find out what needs to be done and how. They even didn't tell me friday was casual day. So I was they only guy in business outfit amidst hockeyshirt wearing Canadians. Sigh.

But yesterday one of my colleagues came in 5 hours earlier to explain things throroughly and do some testscenarios (so he was pretending to be a customer and I needed to solve his problem). And for the rest of the night I was doing shadowcalls. (So sitting in on a call and hear and see how things are done). So it's getting more interesting.

Good thing is that I get to meet new people from all over the world, I get paid (not a lot to European standards) and I am out there. Oh yeah, and seeing sunrise from the 16th floor on a clear cold day is quite something!

And it's a good thing I have something to do when T. is away to Poland.

Patrick Watson - Drifters

Right, I've said it a couple of times on this intergalactc virtual webspace ... but do check out Patrick Watson. It'll blow ur socks off!!
Here's the Drifters' video (directed by Brigitte Henry, she also did the artwork of the booklet).

I got a job!

Monday night I was browsing through jobsites and did a random search for the keyword "dutch". One result came out: technical support in a first line helpdesk team.

So I said, what the heck, let's try. So I wrote a letter stating that I had no real experience but that I knew my way around computers. And the next day they called me for an interview. So first I went to the recruitment agency where we had a quick chat and they had set up an interview with their client CSC. So I had a pretty intense interview where I had to troubleshoot computerproblems and do the ol' expectations-motivations talk. Basically they are seeking for Dutch speaking helpdesk agencies working for their European clients. So that means working nightshifts according to European business hours.
And today, I just got a call to say I have the job!! Which is good of course.

But there is also a it of a downside to it: I'm not really interested in helpdesk. And doing nightshifts means I'll be sleeping throughout the day and I won't see T. a lot.
But to the bright side: it's a job! I get a good training, so it's gonna be a brand new experience for me and going to Canada was always gonna be a bit of a leap into the dark. I can't chicken out now, it was always going to be about experiences. And I get to meet new people. And probably the best motivator of all: MONEY!
I'll be doing a probation period for 3 months. So if it's really not my cup of tea, I can always leave. And I can always look for other jobs in the meantime.

Oh, I start on monday, so I'd better enjoy my last days of freedom!