St. Patrick's Day

Last weekend was St. Patrick's Day. Time to eat some good ol' Fish 'n Chips. I don't need a deep-fryer, because I make my chips in the oven. Less fat (also less crunchy) but kinda more sweet caramelized taste on the edges. And the fish? Fresh cod fillet in a beer batter. You have to deep-fry the fish, so I used my wok instead. And of course an ice cold pint of Guinness!

And on Sunday we went to the St. Patrick's Day Parade. But I hear you thinking ... "wait a minute ... Montréal is a French city ... why do they celebrate an Irish holiday?". As a matter of fact, Montreal has the oldest St. Patrick's Day Parade in whole of Canada. It has been celebrated in Montreal as far back as 1759 by Irish soldiers in the Montreal Garrison following the British conquest of New France. But I have to say the parade was kinda lame.

This week we received news about the scholarship Tinneke applied for. Unfortunately she didn't get it. I was our last hope for a substantial scholarship, but fate decided otherwise. We would have loved the extra money to move to a better apartment, but we'll figure out a way to do without it. So the apartment hunt has started. So far we've seen a couple of places, but nothing that blew us away. If we are going to spend twice the amount of money on rent, it better be worth it. We're looking for a place that has an exhaust hood (our house still smells like fish 'n chips) and has a washer and dryer (or at least an outlet to install those). And it has to be in Mile End as well (or the Plateau if we really have to :-)

This weekend is Easter Weekend. Most people take Good Friday instead of Easter Monday. And so did I. Friday we were invited to an Easter dinner at our neighbor Anne's mother's house in Westmount, birthplace of Leonard Cohen, Conrad Black and residence of Jacques Villeneuve. Today I'm making a traditional Flemish Easter dinner. (Or at least this is what my mother cooked up). It is called "bird's nests" and closest English thing to it scotch eggs. Tonight we're going to see Caribou (how Canadian can you be?) and tomorrow our last Habs game of the season and burgers at M:BRGR. More about that later!

SIA

Technically, we are starting to get in a summer/spring mood. Montreal's nightlife is getting out of hibernation mode, more bands are hitting the town, and this weekend we're switching back to daylight saving time. But in reality, spring is nowhere to be seen. Early this week we faced another snow storm. Another 25-30 cm of snow on top of the 297cm that already fell down this winter (sigh)! And guess what: daylight saving time or not, another snow storm is ravaging Eastern Canada as we speak.

This "Tetes à claques" clip expresses exactly what most people here feel right now (Attention: serious Québecois Joual ahead!)


We went to see the great and very crazy SIA Furler. (You might know her voice from some of the ZERO 7 songs).

Here's her version of Britney Spears' "Gimme More"

The Boss

Just to make Roger jealous: I went to see Mr. Springsteen tonight! Although high up, we had good seats (better than those poor bastards behind the stage, shame on the organization to sell those seats!). Although the sound wasn't all that great ... drums sounding a bit muddy, but I guess that's Bell Centre for ya! To be completely honest, the first time I saw Bruce in Belgium I was way more impressed. I guess I had higher expectations now.

Last time Bruce Springsteen and his E-Street Band played in Ottawa, they were joined by Arcade Fire. This time Montreal's pride and glory was rallying Ohio in support of Barack Obama (you may or may not know that the Butler's were born in the USA (no pun intended) and that Régine Chassagne has the double nationality (her father is a Vietnam veteran)).

Anyways, here's the boss playing "Keep the car running".

Duchesnay

"Mon pays c'est l'hiver!" That's what Québecers say. Québec offers a panoply of winter activities, and we needed a break from winter in the city (slush, 2m snow banks, traffic jams, crowded metro). So we drove to Station Touristique Duchesnay, 250kms from MTL, close to Québec City.
We started very early on Saturday with dog sledding, afterwards a 4km snowshoeing tour (with those Eskimo tennis rackets on your feet) through 2m of snow (I kid you not!), downhill tube sliding, ice skating and hockey (agains 4 year olds - they still beat the shit out of me) and finally 2 hours hot/cold relaxing in a Finnish sauna and hot tub, to finally end the day with a succulent meal. Next day we slept in, visited the Ice Hotel and had a late brunch. A relaxing drive back to Montréal, a blitzbesuch to IKEA (T. keeps on breaking the wine glasses) and TV dinner. Here are the pics:

Debit card fraud

I have a love/hate relationship with banks. They're getting rich ( and I'm talking effing rich) off your money, but still you need to cough up if you want to have access to your own money! Taking money out from an ATM or paying with your debit card is not free!

And unless you use your money, it has no real value when it's just sitting on your bank account. It's meaningless. It's just numbers on a paper, digits on a computer screen. Nothing tangible. Like a whiff of perfume.

And now we experienced first hand that taking out money is not entirely without risk. We were the unfortunate victims of debit card fraud. Our debit card was copied and then used to withdraw money. We didn't even notice it, but our bank had flagged the suspicious transaction and blocked our cards.

Tracing back were it could have happened was easy but unexpected. Only 3 transactions all with respectable companies ... turns out that Jean Coutu, a well known pharmacy chain, is not so trustworthy after all. Apparently one of their employees is earning a couple of extra bucks on the side.

Luckily we will be fully reimbursed, but it will take a while. For those worried, I have a little tip: if you think something fishy is going on, use a wrong PIN number. If the transaction is approved, you know it's a scam. Call your bank ASAP!

Montréal en lumière - Montreal high lights festival

Ok, I know it's been an awful longtime since we last spoke ( well I wrote, you just read). So a couple of posts about what we've been up to this last month.
Besides the fact that winter is still here, and we are both swamped with work, we still manage to keep our lives very excited without a house, a mortgage, kids or a car.

Summer means festival time, but Montreal has a winter festival as well: Le Festival Montréal en lumière - Montreal high lights Festival. It's all about wine and dine, performing arts, underground footraces and so on.

We took our neighbour Anne to see the Spaghetti Western Orchestra. First time we saw this Aussie ensemble was at the Jazz fest, and we became big fans ever since. After a great show, we stayed outside in the freezing cold to gaze at the lunar eclipse.

A week later, our favourite Canadian Hawksley Workman was in town. He seems to be more popular in Europe than in Québec, because we've seen him 3 times in la petite Belgique and this is his one and only gig in Québec this year.

He played a lot of his old work switching between drums, piano, guitar, banjo. A true performer! And what great original live band.