Un flamand à Montréal

Newfoundland

2010-06-29T12:41:00.003-04:00

It seems like an eternity since I posted an update ... I guess in times of Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare, blogging seems too tedious to share my thoughts and rants. But in short:

We're leaving in a couple of days to the Rock aka Newfoundland. This is the most the eastern province of Canada, notorious for it's fishing villages, whales and icebergs. Most newfies are direct descendants from Scotsmen and Irishmen and this is illustrated in their particular culture of drinking, music and dialect. We'll be visiting colourful St. John's, Gros Morne National Park and L'Anse-Aux-Meadows where vikings first discovered the Americas (long long before Columbus).

The rest of the summer is booked solid with a BBQ b-day party, a weekend to the Laurentians with friends, a Lebanese dinner night, and a music festival with acts like Arcade Fire, Pavement, Sonic Youth, etc .

The last 2 weeks of August we will spend in Belgium. Hope to see you all!

Ps: Going to see Jef Neve & Jose James tomorrow at the Jazz Fest too.

Boston

2010-02-28T14:17:00.001-05:00

Pics from our trip to Boston (for those without a facebook account).

BOSTON

Moving

2009-11-18T11:29:00.002-05:00

Again! For the 3d time ...

We love our place on Clark, unfortunately it's up for sale and we can't stay. Our landlords graciously offered another apartment in the same neighbourhood. The good news: it's bigger ... a lot bigger ... probably twice the size. The bad news, it's on the 2nd floor (ground flour is first floor). So no more garden (but a nice balcony, good enough for the BBQm some herbs and dinner outside. It's not as renovated as Clark but it has a lot of charm, revarnished hardwood floors, original moldings etc. Also we get to move our stainless steel applicances with us. And for the same price.

So before we get to do Xmas shopping for our little trip to Europe for the holidays, we have to pack up our stuff again. It's going to be a couple of busy weeks ...

Movember

2009-11-02T23:52:00.002-05:00

OK, here's the story ... I haven't done a close shave in 10 years. I just wanted to get a fresh start on a new winter beard project. But instead a colleague (cheers Karen!) reminded me about a cause that's worth growing some facial hair for.

So here we are, a shaven haven face ready for some upper lip action! I will be growing a moustache throughout November and raise money for prostate cancer. If you are a bearded rebel without a cause, join the Mo movement and grow that 'stash. If your girlfriend/wife threathens to divorce and take the kids (and that awful Guns'n Roses CD) if you dare to go seventies porn star on her ass, well here's the safe solution: donate money for the good cause http://ca.movember.com/mospace/312304/.

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SFW info:

I have decided to join a global movement that is bringing much needed attention to prostate cancer. I’m doing this by growing a Moustache this Movember, the month formerly known as November. My commitment is to grow a moustache all November and I am hoping that you will support my efforts by making a donation. The funds raised go directly to Prostate Cancer Canada.

What many people don’t know is that 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer to afflict Canadian men with 25,500 diagnosed and 4,400 dying from the disease each year.

Facts like these have convinced me I should get involved.

To make a donation, you can either:

• Click this link http://ca.movember.com/mospace/312304/ and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account , or
• Write a cheque payable to ‘Prostate Cancer Canada’, referencing my Registration Number 312304 and mailing it to: Prostate Cancer Canada, 145 Front Street East, Ste. 306, Toronto, ON M5A 1E3, Canada.

All donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Prostate Cancer Canada will use the money raised by Movember for the development of programs related to awareness, public education, advocacy, support of those affected, and research into the prevention, detection, treatment and cure of prostate cancer.

For more details on how the funds raised from previous campaigns have been used and the impact Movember is having please click HERE

Thank you!

Oh, I will be posting pics regularly about my whiskers progress! Here's the first one ....

Pics of Obama!

2009-10-19T19:14:00.004-04:00

Well not exactly, but his house and some other places in and around Washington, District of Columbia are featured. Oh BTW, never say Washington, just DC like all the the locals. A couple of months ago we flew down to visit Paul & Daniella, our former neighbours from Belgium. They say DC is a crime ridden place, but we noticed none of that in the swanky neighbourhood where they have a condo.

Some White House

I don't think he was home...

Smithsonian on the Mall

Another Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of the American Indian (all Smithsonian Museums are free!)

There's something creepy about a closed merry-go-round

And sad too ...

Aw. That musta hurt!

Capitol Hill

I find it looks like a palace from a Banana Republic dictator (it must be the palm trees)

Obelisk (Free Masons anyone)

More Mall ...

Toothpick

Kabob!

WW II Memorial Monument

Skewered!

Jump

Everywhere you go, the needle is always there.

The spike is inspiring actually!

Abe

Looks like a Greek temple

Renaissance

Cute Georgetown

Colourful houses

Actually most of these places were occupied by students.

The Exorcist was shot in Georgetown.

And the sky was all yellow!

Now that's a real loft (including chimney).

Guess you could throw a hell of a pizza party with that chimney.

Daniella enjoying a brewski in the local watering hole.

The Potomac River on from George Washington's Estate in Mt. Vernon, Virginia

Foremost G. Washington was a farmer.

Cantaloupes on the fence.

Picture perfect sky.

Mr. Steer

The barnyard.

The Estate (actually made from wood, but painted white with sand thrown on so they look like stone)

Nouvelle France -> New England

2009-10-08T10:43:00.003-04:00

After a couple of weeks of denial, I finally accepted that Summer was not coming back. All the leafs have turned colour, it's windy and rainy and we had to put the heating on already. Also repotted all our plants and herbs and hope they will survive inside. *sigh*

Instead of figting off the Fall Blues by going to California (as we did last year). We're making a little trip to Boston with a stop in lovely Vermont (as we did 2 years ago). While other Canadians will be enjoying their Thanksgiving turkey dinner and pumpkin pie this weekend, we will be going to an NBA Boston Celtics game, exploring Cambridge and of course sampling some great food (I have a visit to a farmer's market planned to buy some local goodies for our breakfast in the Beacon Hill apartment that we rented). And of course CLAM CHOWDA!

Pictures will follow (with the usual 4 months delay) ...

NYC pics

2009-09-06T16:32:00.004-04:00

Some pics of our trip to NYC last June. Less touristy stuff this time, dinner twice in Brooklyn. This time we stayed in a hotel in Queens, room with a view on Manhattan. We're off to Washington DC in a couple of days.

View on the Manhattan bridge from DUMBO.

Brooklyn Bridge

Ice Cream Van

Brownstone in Brooklyn Heights

T. in Cubana Café, BKNY

Slurping that mojito

Our view

The High Line Park (Chelsea/Meatpacking)

High Line Park (next to Chelsea Market, a foodie mecca)

Who said that New Yawkers weren't hospitable?

As city gardeners ourselves we had to visit the community gardens in Greenwich

Downing a caipirinha in Relish, Billyburg (Williamsburg), BKNY. Kelis' 'Milk' vid was shot here.

MOMA. Impressive! So was the gift shop. Bought a Konstantin Slawinski Baking Form

Gay Pride Parade

Stretching before the parade.

Gay Pride Parade

Not Indian Summer

2009-09-05T10:00:00.003-04:00

We're enjoying some nice September weather. After our crappy Summer (especially July), I think we've deserved this.
Only recently a Belgian film journalist reporting on the Festival des Films du Monde here in Montreal mentioned the nice Indian Summer. NEWSFLASH: This isn't an Indian Summer, this is STILL Summer.

There is a common misconception (in Europe) about what exactly the Indian Summer is. First of all: it has to be after September 21st (technically Fall), a ground frost must have occurred and you need a couple of days of +21C weather. You never know when the Indian Summer will happen, until it hits you. Sometimes it doesn't come at all.

My first real Indian Summer was 10y ago in Saskatchewan. I was visiting T. around the end of October. One day we were enjoying a nice stroll in the park in tees, the next day we were hit by a blizzard.

So for now we'll continue to enjoy our REAL summer with some homemade Moules-Frites!

Ps: check out the latest issue of Pas Uit Magazine!

Belgium Pics

2009-09-01T14:37:00.003-04:00

I am working through a picture back log of 4 months. These pics were taken in April. More to come: another trip to NYC, Summer in Quebec. Next week we're going to Washington DC (I hope Barack is home) and in the Fall we're driving to Boston.

Yawning Bar Kitty

A work of beauty (the Cathedral)

Shop Sinner or Saint?

My mojo spot (1)

Mojo spot (2)

Bloom!

Flowering Cherry Tree

Family

In Bruges (after a visit to The Chocolate Line)

There was a lot of these ...

Belfry ... belle

Il est temps ... pour l'été!

2009-07-16T17:17:00.005-04:00

I don't like to complain ... and certainly not about something so trivial like the weather. I mean, I was the one who moved to Montreal with it's -40C winters ...However summers are supposed to be nice here: +25 degrees and all that. Short thundershowers after a couple of hot sweaty days. Well not this summer! Everyone has declared this the worst summer ever. You think it rains a lot in Belgium?? Well maybe you should come here! In fact: I've eaten al fresco every weekend in June and not one single time in July.

Summer in the city

2009-06-25T13:27:00.003-04:00

It's 30 degrees outside and I still have winter pics on my blog. What's wrong with me?? I am still filtering (and photoshopping) the pics I took in Belgium last April...

Anyways, we're off to NYC again this weekend. We plan to do less touristy stuff this time and go off the beaten path (this time we're concentrating more on Brooklyn and East Village).
Next week former MTL'ers and currently BXL'ers are visiting, the Jazz Fest kicks off (we'll go see some free gigs by Stevie Wonder, Alice Russell, Federico Aubele, Patrick Watson, Ben Harper) and then our godchildren will be visiting la Belle Province. August will be about Osheaga, playing music at a wedding, a trip to Bic and our (hopefully) renewed work/study permits.
In September the inlaws will be paying a visit and before we know it starts snowing again :-(

BUT... in the meantime, I am thoroughly enjoying summer by cooking outside as much as possible. Basically we're going around the world on the BBQ. So far I've thrown on the barbie:

Indian (chicken tandoori and lamd kebabs)
Lebanese (shish taouk and kefta)
Thai (marinated steak, chicken satays, brined shrimps and ribs)
North-American (real hamburgers!)
Brazilian (picanha, sausasges, pork loin, chicken wrapped in bacon)
Mexican stuff (steak and chicken marinated in chipotle to make fajitas)

Will post some recipes soon on my new food blog: http://i-cook-therefore-i-am.blogspot.com/ (never mind the lay-out).
I will be reposting some recipes that were featured on this blog. Hopefully I will have more stamina this time to keep it going on a weekly basis (damn my ADHD).

Some winter pics

2009-05-16T17:37:00.005-04:00

Yes, I know I haven't posted in a while. I am not worthy of the name blogger anymore. I guess one of the reasons is that this blog came to exist because I wanted to write about our new experiences and adventures here. But after 2,5 years of living here, most things don't seem that new anymore. We've settled in, we're part of the gang, we're part of Montreal's urban landscape now. It's kinda life as usual ... and I guess I think it's boring to write about the little things (read: I lack the editorial skills to turn those insignificant things into a real story). Another reason is my recent twitter addiction (forget about fb, that's so last year ... find me on http://twitter.com/estilker). But I guess the real reason is that I'm just good ol' lazy, I read the slacker's bible.

Maybe winter had something to do with it and while Tinneke was in Belgium I kept myself busy with everything except blogging. With Summer around the corner (we kinda jump from Winter straight to Summer, Spring is like Le Trou Normand, something in between to cleanse the palate) we are allowed one peek back at the past. And I won't feel any guilt about gloating over my next BBQ (next week I am making tandoori chicken on the barbie for my 30th B-day Bollywood party) because we survived another -40C Winter (our 3d already!)

The week before Tinneke left, we went to Mont St. Laurier in Les Hautes Laurentides. Most people don't get past Mont-Tremblant but we went on for another hour north for some crosscountry skiing, locally produced food and a relaxing sauna and a 'swim' in an ice cold river.

Tinneke giving skiing another try (last time I think)

Me demonstrating an experimental new technique

The view from our chalet upon the frozen Devil river (La rivière du Diable)

There was a husky dog kennel behind our chalet (kinda smelly and loud)

Horsies too!

Giddyup!

Covered bridges over the river.

Walking over the frozen river to snap shots. You hear cracking noises all the time, scary!

Deer on our way home.

Spa Cholorphylle: what a great view, ice cold river and deer coming up to the sauna!

Smoking Not!

2009-03-11T11:49:00.002-04:00

I'm always apalled and shocked when I see Belgian party pics on FB. I tend to forget that smoking is still not prohibited in bars and "light meal" serving restaurants. It must be a sign of integration (assimilation?) that I label this as "typical liberal European behavior". Each province in Canada has its own set of smoking rules, but in general smoking is not allowed in public places (including all bars, restaurants, venues, official govermental buildings, etc). Also recently in Ontario a law was passed that bans smoking in all vehicles if anyone under the age of 16 is present.

When first smoking regulations were introduced in Europe, they were often regarded by smokers as belittling and an attack on individual freedom. Well, you ain't seen nothing yet! BTW: I don't believe in this pseudo moral/personal rights populi rhetoric because I was always taught that your rights end where mine begin.

Of course I agree that sometimes the line is blurry. It is not always clear when the state is acting in the best interest of their citizens or just trying to lay down ridiculous laws.

Take raw milk as an example. I want to consume raw milk. I did when I was a kid visiting my grandparents on their farm. I am not hurting/bothering anyone by doing so and it's a simple matter of informed choices and trusted sources. But Canada is cracking down on raw milk. They're afraid of salmonella, listeria and what not. They are even putting a farmer on trial because he found a loophole in the law: it's illegal to sell unpasteurized milk, but you can drink raw milk from a cow if you own it. So he simply started a co-op where everyone owns a cow. Genius, no? Anyways, a recent Swiss study showed that children growing up on raw milk are less prone to have asthma or allergies.

I am waiting for a colleague to go to the countryside and bring back some pure raw real milky creamyness. I can't wait to make icecream with it. I was even thinking of having a go at making my own mozzarella.

From smoking bans to rawmilk. How about that?!

Rideau Canal

2009-02-15T14:52:00.003-05:00

Last weekend we went to Ottawa, Canada's capital. And one can't visit Ottawa in winter without skating on the Rideau Canal (except for Tinneke of course who didn't want to put her infamous clumsiness to the test).

Skating is like riding a bike. You never forget.

Petra teaching me how to skate backwards.

Even the police was having fun!

We met up with our friends Craig & Nath and kids for an afternoon of skating and beaver tail eating (think a doughnut slapped and shaped into a .... eh, well you get it). Nathalie made a great curry afterwards that got the last morsels of cold out of our system.). On Sunday we took a trip to the LCBO, Ontario's state-owned liquor store (and counterpart of Quebec's SAQ). In general wine is much cheaper in Ontario than in Quebec (up to $3 difference per bottle), beer on the other hand is more expensive. Also, their range of products is different favouring Canadian, USA and New World wines instead of SAQ's preference for la douce France. Also certain types of alcohol are much more common to find.

So we left the LCBO with an empty wallet, but 10 bottles of Cline Zinfandel and Cline Zinfandel Ancient Vines (I've grown very fond of the Zin's during our little trip to California last fall), Soju (think Korean vodka), Singha Beer (impossible to find this dry smooth Thai beer here) and 3 new bottles of Single Malt to add to my (very empty) collection: the classic Oban 14y, Scapa 14y (from the Orkey Islands) and a very special WMD II The Yellow Submarine Bruichladdich 14y (Islay).

Living room concert

2009-02-12T10:44:00.003-05:00

A friend of ours is raising funds for cancer research by training for a marathon. Besides being an exceptional individual, he is also a gifted musician, so we decided to throw a living room concert fundraiser event to encourage him. And because he felt the spotlights are too big for him alone, it was the perfect excuse to put a band together. The more the merrier so the saying goes.

We invited a bunch of friends (of friends) and the Montreal Flemish Expat Community and cramped them all on our living room. It was great evening, great music and most importantly for a very good cause.

Me personally, I rediscovered the joy of playing music with others. The organic chemistry of the band was just right. I think we all felt the same way, so I hope to continue doing the odd gig together.

And since it's the 21st century ... we filmed the event.

BAPTiSTE solo

The band, still looking for a catchy name.

Tinseltown

2009-02-10T16:56:00.003-05:00

Only after living in Montreal for some time I started noticing that this city is often used as a backdrop for many movies. In fact more movies are shot here than in any other Canadian city. The bilingual staff, cheaper labour, proximity to the USA (only 5 hours to LA, 1h to NYC by plane) and especially its Old World architecture transform this city regularly into Tinseltown.
Recently I started recognising Montreal in the Curious case of Benjamin Button (Moscow and Paris scenes), I'm not there (London scenes), Death Race, Get Smart and many more. From our office building I was even witnessing a new John Cusack flick.

However lateley things have cooled a bit. Other provinces have lured the big hollywood producers to their cities with far more interesting tax benefits on labour costs.
As usual, politicians were slow to respond and have now finally increased the tax credit. This is not only good news for the big studios but for everyone working in the film industry. The local film industry more than benefits from the know-how and experience of working on big blockbusters. It also ensures that the local filmmakers community will stay vibrant for years to come. Some of my favourite local QC films are: Le guide de la petite vengeance, La turbulence des fluides (with the gorgeous Pascale Bussières), Les 3 p'tit cochons, Horloge Biologique and Québec-Montréal.

C-c-cold

2009-01-17T12:24:00.003-05:00

I don't want to kick in open doors (heck it's winter and we're living in Canada, the country of igloos according to the Americans), but this week we're experiencing some REAL cold. When the weather man says it's going to be cold, he means business!

Almost 3 days in a row the temperature dipped below the -30 mark during the day. Factor in the wind chill and you're dealing with -40 to -45. That means you'll get frost bite on exposed skin within 12 minutes. Ice cream anyone?

The wind chill factor is more important than the actual temperature, because it's a calculation of the apparent temperature on exposed skin based on air temperature and wind speed. In summer it's the humidex that is more important than the actual temperature (it's a temperature calculation of the combined effect of heat and humidity).

With the temperature around a comfortable -20 now, we'll be getting some warm weather next week of -10 ... Yihaa, time to roll out the BBQ!

Tsjevenstreek, het zelfbouwpakket

2008-12-19T10:08:00.008-05:00

TSJEVENSTREEK, het zelfbouwpakket.

*** S P E C I A L E P R O M O T I E ***
nu in aanbieding voor de feestdagen
*******************************

Te verkrijgen in de betere doe-het-zelfzaak in de afdeling 'Huichelarij'.

*** S P E C I A L E A A N B I E D I N G ***
Bel nu naar +32 (0) 2 501 02 11 en krijg er
GRATIS de informatieve DVD 'Goed Bestuur' bij.

Exceptionally a post in Dutch. It's a comment on petty Belgian politics. YES WE CAN!

First snowstorm

2008-12-10T21:57:00.005-05:00

Of this winter season that is. After -27C during the day a snowstorm headed our way. It took me 2hours to get home from work. 2 hours sitting on the bus that was stuck in traffic.

And in case you're wondering what a snowstorm looks like:

So don't come complaining to me about that eetsie beetsie tiny bit of snow you had in Belgium :-)
Pictures were taken at night in our street.

Slip'n slide

2008-11-28T09:57:00.002-05:00

Belgium had snow before Montreal. So multiply that snow by five and add 20 degrees below zero and you have a Quebec winter. We started having snow only this week, followed by rain, followed by powder snow followed by slush. Guess it's safe to say that this year's winter will be nothing like last year's. Last year we were already digging ourselves out. Although I am still hoping for a white X-mas.

Something I can't let slide (as a blogger, as a web marketing specialist and as someone with a strong political opinion) is the whole Crem Blog incident. OK, first of all I am not a big fan of CD&V. Teaming up with separatists is unforgivable in my eyes, but more importantly this a conservative party. And per definition they are against change. And my core philosophy is that CHANGE is GOOD.
Regardless if he was drunk or not, making a fool of himself and wasting tax payers money, this whole incident clearly shows that this governing political party (in particular the Minister of Defense) is completely out of touch with the reality of the 21st century. Whether you like it or not your brand, your service, your reputation, your political party will be out there, in the clouds and people will be talking about you. It will define for you. It is the new word of mouth. Accepting this is a step forward, denying obviously backward. Participating is a leap forward. Wouldn't it have been more graceful if Mr. De Crem blogged about this, explaining why he was in NYC, that politicians are also humans and allowed to have fun and why he wasn't wasting valuable tax payers' money? Sadly, he doesn't even seem to have a blog.
Lesson: if you try to shut out the digital natives, they will shut you out. (see MarcPrensky.com).

Addendum: When I was in NYC last September, I saw Steve Stevaert in the Guggenheim. Ok, not as news worthy because he wasn't drunk, he wasn't chanting folkloric song and seemed to be there on his own time admiring art. Should I be afraid of losing my job now?

Lotsa California Pics

2008-11-16T17:59:00.003-05:00

Golden Gate Bridge

GG Bridge

SF from the GGB

La Isla de los Alcatraces

Vintage ...

Vintage #2

T on stairs @ Lombard St.

Where are we?

Mine mine mine ...

Eating clam chowder out of sourdough bread bowl

Pier 39

Coit Tower

Parakeets of Telegraph Hill

Sentinel Building (Café Niebaum - Coppola)

Mission Dolores

Famous Fat Lady's

Yosemite Valley

Striking a pose

Californicated Fall

Pano shot of Yosemite

T in front of Half Dome

Me in front of Half Dome

Sunset

Sequoia

T & tree

T. & tree (again)

Pano shot Yosemite #2

I saw my first snow of the season in California!

C-c-c-cold!

Rock, pebble, rock, pebble ...

T @ Porter Creek vinyard (amazing Viognier)

Russian River Valley

Enjoying wine & pizza at F.F. Coppola's winery

Our apartment

2008-11-10T14:32:00.004-05:00

Everybody keeps on asking for pictures of our not-so new apartment (we moved 6 months ago). So here you go ...

Belgium Pics

2008-11-10T12:07:00.007-05:00

It's almost winter (at least here with the flurries announced tonight), so let's go way back to late spring when went back to the motherland.

It's this rascal's birthday today.

Making pizza.

Cooking with sharp knifes is sheer fun!

Les mamans.

Herr Grillmeister Tom

Aint they cute?

Surrounded by paparazzi.

Gigging with Mr. Van Dessel.

Mr. Van Dessel gigging with Mr. Stilker.

Corn syrup ... yummie!

Food coloring ... yummie!

Post 100: Quote

2008-10-24T11:45:00.002-04:00

When passing a homeless guy in downtown Montreal last night that was holding a sign saying "Beer Fund", he held out his hand and said to me: "I could be Jesus, think about it!".

... be sure to wear flowers in your hair

2008-10-20T14:55:00.002-04:00

Not. Well, at least we didn't. Got back last night from warm California ... took like a gazillion pictures ... have to make a selection first ...it really was a lot of fun ... it was also one of our most expensive trips (I think). The exchange rate between beaver $$ and yankee $$ isn't so favorable anymore ... but it was money well spent! Pictures. Soon. HERE!

Now I'l try to enjoy some of that fine autumn weather. Maybe snap some shots of the foliage (although most of it is already gone now) From the sky QC was really red last week, quite a sight! 't is the season for hot toddies and biscuits. And Glögg (Swedish mulled wine with extra shots of Vodka) and Scandinavian Cinnamon Buns. Red cabbage and sausage. Endives ham rolls. What's your favourite Autumn/Fall dish?

Next blog post will #100!

If you're going to San Francisco ...

2008-10-10T10:11:00.001-04:00

... beware of the Death Star!

This was too good not to post. May the force be with you!

I ♥ NY

2008-09-29T23:44:00.002-04:00

And for a special NYC series, go to my photo blog: snapshot-montreal.blogspot.com

Viva La Velorucion

2008-09-29T15:11:00.009-04:00

In my relentless efforts to keep this blog going (what a lousy job I've done this summer), I thought I'd quickly post something before September ends (so I don't feel too guilty about not posting at all).

Tomorrow will be my last day as a biker (well, for this year). Mid-July I first started biking to work. Despite Pieter's advice to get the bike checked first (which I of course neglected to do), despite my colleagues advice to wear a helmet (I’m European, helmets are NOT sexy) I courageously started my trip down the mountain one warm summer morning.

Going to work was pretty laidback. I kept going down my street, down the steep descent of Sherbrooke until I hit the downtown core. There I took De Maisoneuve bike path and got to work in 15min. (not bad for 5km and all those traffic lights). I quickly changed at work (shorts and tees for business slacks), freshened up, a whiff of perfume and I was ready to go. And as fast as taking the bus. I was more alert in the morning, got more work done, I really loved it. The real challenge was going back home. Changing clothes again (stinky damp musky shorts and T-shirt by now) and 5km up the hill this time. Then I had to deal with mad T. (if anger turns into disappointment, you know it's BAD :-) coz instead of neatly folding up my dress pants and shirts, I always managed to artistically wrap everything together so she could iron all over again (before I get feminist comments, note that I ironed my work outfits when T. was in Barça. I do plenty of stuff around the house and a stellar cooking service doesn't come cheap either, ha!).
2 flat tires, a new tire, lost front brakes (scary going down the mountain), new brakes, new gears (not easy going up the mountain without those) later it was more than worth it. But things are turning fall (USA/CAN)/autumn (UK) now, frost warnings and too much rain force me to take the overcrowded bus again. *SIGH*. When I was a kid I drove 15km to school year round (well except in summer, because no school of course). But winter is not quite the same here. Since I like this biking thing and it gets me good exercise, I am seriously considering a career change as a bike messenger in NYC. Oh well, we’ll see about that.

PS: I am sorting out my pictures so I might post some before getting Californicated.

BIG APPLE!

2008-08-28T21:19:00.006-04:00

Right ... mea culpa ... chastize me ... I know it's worthless keeping promises I can't keep. Summer has been wet, crazy but most of all SUPER busy.

So you might think we'll take it easy in September? Well, think again. This weekend we're (finally) going to the big apple, NYC, New York New York! Next weekend my sis' Suzy is coming (I don't think she likes me calling her Suzy, but heck, it sounds SEXY) and we're going to the Eastern Townships, weekend after salmon smoking and end-of summer-BBQ with our ex-neighbour Anne (and her dog, a Tervuurse shepherd *FOR REAL* called Saskia *AGAIN FOR REAL*), weekend after that it's my belated b-day party for the MTL peeps/belated housewarmin' fest/belated summer party.

So, cross my heart, swear to die, I will update this blog in October with summer pics and answers to all things you wanted to know but were afraid to ask.

Darn, forgot we're going to San Francisco as well ... so if it's all the same for you, end of October OK for you??

Cheers!

Styrofoam & Zita Swoon & Fleet Foxes

2008-07-20T14:19:00.008-04:00

As Tinneke is off too Spain, I am sole master of the domain (for now) so I should have more time for bLoGginG. So let's talk about the concerts we've seen lately.

Let's start with the band from hometown A'pen (kinda, coz I was born in B'hout and spend the first year or so from my life there): ZITA SWOON. I was already into them in the heydays when they were still called Moondog Jr. and the lead singer was still "that bloke from dEUS". Didn't really digg the whole disco thing later on and they kinda got off my radar. But as they were giving a free concert at the Jazz Fest, it was too good of an oppurtunity to miss. Their new "sound" is more soul/funk/jazz mainly because of the voluptous gorgeous backings and their great rhodes/piano/organ player Joris (who turned out to be a very nice guy as well).

As we are on the subject: we've become quite the star fuckers when it comes to the few Belgian bands playing in MTL. The band is often surprised to hear Dutch (I refuse to say Flemish) and always up for some small talk. We usually end up talking to the roadie or something. Same for Styrofoam. The sound guy and drummer from Styrofoam were very easygoing as well. Styrofoam played in Casa del Popolo which is an indie vegetarian restaurant/pub. Weird thing is that Casa del Popolo doesn't have an alcohol license; meaning they can't serve alcohol if you don't "eat". But then again a portion of "olives" is considered food. Since Casa only serves veggie fare, samosas was the staple here. But they were being awfully difficult about how many portions of food you order and how many drinks you get. Friends that joined us after the concert couldn't get a drink without food (it was 1am for crying out loud), so when I ordered drinks for 5 there wasn't any problem because 4 hours before I had soggy cold samosas ... really stupid! And as I am going on my rant, one thing I hate about Montreal concerts is the whole 2 or 3 support acts thing. The support acts never start on time, are usually crap and the only reason why people are there is to reserve their spot for the main act. So the main act starts at midnight (if you're lucky), so going to a concert during the week usually messes you up for the rest of week. But we're getting of subject here ... back to Styrofoam. I was expecting a more lo-fi cuts'n bleeps sound but as their new album is very poppy, we got a great rock'n roll show. Catchy songs, good musicians, good mix between live instruments and lap tops: great entertainment.

And last but not least Fleet Foxes (thanks blitzkriegnoise for the tip). This close harmony group, country side hippies, Beach Boys meets Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young have taken over my iTunes. And live they really lived up to the expectation. I was really blown away. Listen for yourself.

Enjoy the weekend (I have a Miami Vice themed BBQ ... scares the shit out of me since the only good thing of the 80ies was that there were 90ies).

Busy with wedding preparations

2008-07-15T15:22:00.004-04:00

Quite the eye catcher, no? Actually I should be busy with my wedding preparations because at my colleague's wedding I was the (un)lucky one who caught the wedding garter. The bride throws her bouquet, the groom the wedding garter. All other present men expressed their deepest sympathies. According to tradition I am the one to get married next. Which kinda puts me on the spot.All joking aside, things have been summer ... so meaning I'd rather spend my time outside with a cold one than in front of my computer. But in the coming weeks I will brief you on what we've been up to so far.

BEST F*CKING CITY IN THE WORLD

2008-05-16T11:34:00.003-04:00

While I am almost boarding the plane, I would like the share the following website with you: http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/ (A little taste of Montréal for those coming this Summer.)

The video introduction really made me think: "Isn't Montréal the best f*cking city in the world?!"

Off to Belgium now, cya soon!

So much to say ...

2008-04-13T22:43:00.003-04:00

... and so little time

Because we're moving! In 2 weeks! Yaiks!

So no time to talk about the Montréal playoffs (we have tickets for the 2nd round, so they better win against the Boston Bruins), our cowboy BBQ in WW: Belgian cattle country (if you didn't get the invitation, come anyways), Tinneke's B-day (festività italiana), how it's still snowing (sigh, yeah I know), Nic Balthazar and "Ben X"on the front page of Montreal's Metro (2 Flemish Belgians in 1 newspaper, Jaques Rogge being the other one trying to save the IOC's face by "baisser ses culottes et se faire taper sur les fesses"). No time for all that.

We saw a great place, decided to take it and we're moving in 2 weeks. Life is like a box of Belgian Chocolates :-)
The summer '08 visitors will be able to experience a Montreal backyard (! oh yessss) BBQ first hand. For those not coming: book your plane ticket now (before winter starts again) or you will have to wait until June for the first pics.

Cheers!

St. Patrick's Day

2008-03-23T16:23:00.002-04:00

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

2008-03-07T20:29:00.005-05:00

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

2008-03-02T23:56:00.002-05:00

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

2008-03-02T17:10:00.002-05:00

"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

2008-03-02T15:29:00.002-05:00

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

2008-03-02T14:50:00.007-05:00

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.

It's a raquette!

2008-02-03T16:57:00.000-05:00

So finally, Internet is sorted out ... funny enough, the day after the Internet was fixed, the phone lines went dead ... so we spent a week without phone. Sigh ... I think it's time to switch providers.
We're really in hibernation mode now (and so are most Montréalers). Although, we're very glad we don't live in Edmonton ... they reached a record high (or should I say record low) of -50C! So, I'm quite happy with our -20C.

Anyways, since we can't always stay indoors watching DVD's (we have all Seinfeld episodes, and watching Heroes season II as well), it was time to get out of Montréal for some snowshoeing action in OKA. A beautiful but very cold day on the frozen St. Laurent river.

Heck, I look like Dixie Dansercoer!

To boldly go where no man has gone before :-)

Take a kayak!

Calvaire! (great Belgian movie as well)

OKA village

a world without internet

2008-01-14T14:38:00.000-05:00

PRIMUS, my isp, is messing things up .... messing things up badly! No Internet Thursday (but it sometimes goes away), Friday still the same. Called the support center, spent 1,5h (!) on hold, finally to reset my password. Piece of cake. Saturday morning again no Internet. Back on the phone, again on hold for 1,5h. Then I get some moron who doesn't know anything at all and is just reading from his scripts. Ok, it's not the guy's fault, but I have no Internet. I am the client. I pay his salary. Anyway, the guy knows nothing, he's just following his script, finally he's not able to fix the problem, and is sending it off to second line help. Meaning, no Internet Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday .... until they call me they've found the solution? Or that they have NOT found the solution and need to make a housecall. Anyways, realistic me, I know I am not having Internet this week ... maybe even next week.
And I have to say, it's very weird living without the WWW. I feel lost, vulnerable, lost my window unto the world. Don't have emails at home, online radio, I feel ignorant, illiterate, dumb ... How the hell did I ever live without Internet? And then I realize: not everyone in the world has Internet, or a MAC, or a house, or a job, or warm in Winter, health, or doesn't get killed in the streets. So, maybe this a good resourcing exercise. Bring back some humbleness and respect in my life for the little things.
Luckily there's Internet at work. So I guess someone still likes me up there :-)

Funny thing I heard my neighbor (very big dEUS fan) say about the weather: "It's rather warm outside." Tinneke: "What is rather warm?" He: "Not minus 20". But it's true, we had some plus double digit temperatures last week, but this morning it was back into a freezing cold snow storm.

't is the season ...

2007-12-28T10:54:00.000-05:00

It's been an awful long time since my last post ... heck 't is the season to be jolly!

So, where to start... let's bullet!

Went too see José González (Mr. Yukimi Nagano nowadays , lead singer of Little Dragon, KOOP and other jazzy Swedish projects) and support act Cass McCombs. Live Cass sounded more like Simon & Garfunkel, José was his introvert self, but what an amazing guitar technique and what a sound!
Went to see another Habs game. Our Montreal Canadien took on the Toronto Maple Leafs who haven't won a Stanley Cup since '67. The tricolore have been going through a dark period lately, but they were up for the game, and unfortunate for my colleague Penny (who is a real Torontonian, jersey and all that) Montreal had a smashing 4-1 victory. There's a big rivalry between Montreal and Toronto (who has the best bagels, best restaurants, best music and of course hockey is part of the rivalry.)
Even before winter officially started (December 21st), we were hit by 2 snowstorms. Each time a lot of snow fell down. Until X-mas they were still cleaning the snow. So did we, even Nyfiken did his share.

We had a little X-mas party with university friends from Tinneke. I made my "world famous" paella. The w-end before Christmas we went to Ottawa and met up with the Ginthers.
Tinneke stayed with the Ginther family her first time in Canada (9 years ago) in Saskatoon. It was our first introduction to this great country. We returned to Canada 2 times before moving here, so one could say it started all with them.
We will spend New Year's in Ottawa as well.

We spend Christmas just the 2 of us. Of course I was cooking all day. On the menu: bruschette with grilled eggplant with mint and garlic, grilled zucchini with cumin and lemon and grilled mushrooms with white wine and truffles. Starter was grilled lemon with mozzarella, anchovy, tomato, basil. Soup was a strong Sicilian fresh lobster broth. And main course was homemade pasta with a pancetta-arrabiata sauce with grilled swordfish. Dolce was a home baked fig almond pie. Drinks were Prosecco Santi Nello, an organic Nero D'avola and fine grappa. An Italian X-mas so to speak. (Thanks to the great cookbook Jamie's Italy)
And to throw in a quickie: buy a Pandoro (very light Italian X-mas cake), and make french toast (pain perdu in French, soggy bread for people from the UK) with it. You can add a little bit of Amaretto or cinnamon to the eggs. Serve with caramelized apples and some ice cream. Delish!

I am enjoying a couple of days off in between Christmas and New Year's. I could work on my new cooking blog, my marketing blog, my music, my guitar skills, my taxes, my whatever, but I've decided to be a couch potato. Lately I've been seeing: Once (to be frank, the movie is kinda worthless, but the music is excellent), Eastern Promises (the new Cronenberg, pretty graphic and pretty violent with a great Viggo Mortensen), This Is England (about growing up in the UK in the 80ies), Reprise (I guess 80ies as well, but then in Norway), After the wedding (a great Danish/Swedish movie with Mads Mikkelsen), the last 2 Seinfeld seasons I bought. Oh yeah, I am totally hooked on Heroes now as well.

Bon Iver

2007-12-05T10:04:00.000-05:00

Last week we went to see Elvis Perkins (a Dylanesque folkie) with Bon Iver as support act. Soon releasing his debut album on Jajaguwar (label of the Besnard Lakes). Bon Iver (like in French bon hiver without the "h") is a great name, because it truly is my winter soundtrack). Recorded in a wooden cabin during a harsh Wisconsin winter, you can feel the cold and darkness creeping its way into the songs.

Speaking of winter, all of Canada (and that's quite a chunk of land) was hit by a snowstorm. Here in Monteal, we had 50cm of snow, of course it created the expected traffic mayhem and snowplough drivers are working around the clock. The weather guy said this might be one of the fiercest winters .... so we better brace ourselves!
Of course winter brings the necessary cold and flu symptoms, so here's my cure: make a juice cocktail from all the kinds of citrus fruits you can find around the house (oranges, blood oranges, grape fruits, limes, lemons, clementines) and take 2/3 juice 1/3 vodka. The juice will give you the extra needed vitamins and the vodka will kill all the germs :-) If you don't feel better after one, just drink a couple more, I promise you will feel a hell of a lot better!

The Swell Season

2007-11-23T11:49:00.000-05:00

It is a swell season, 15cm of snow, -7 outside. We welcome slush and melancholic music, so we went to see The Swell Season (it's Glen Hansard, lead singer from the Irish band The Frames and his girlfriend Markéta Irglová) at Le National with my (musical) friends Etienne (aka Julian Carax) and Jean (aka Baptiste). Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová wrote music for the film Once and ended up playing the protagonists in that flick.

Great gig, heartfelt music and funny intermezzos! (especially when ranting on American Thanksgiving that is this weekend while Canada has the same tradition only a month earlier)

Mont-Royal

2007-11-18T17:55:00.000-05:00

Last week our friends Craig & Nat and kids Petra & Anna from Ottawa payed us a little visit. After an extensive brunch (mimosas, croissants, rolls, baguette, QC cheeses and home made banana muffins) we climbed up the Mont-Royal.

Now it's freezing outside and cocooning time has started. Comfort food (Mac'n cheese), movies, hot chocolate and pancakes!

My two new friends

2007-10-29T12:03:00.000-04:00

This w-end I welcomed 2 new friends: the Stanton T.60 twins!

After a year of not being able to play my extensive vinyl collection. After a year of just standing around and taking up precious space, it was time to dust'em off and start spinning!

Boy, I love my 2 new friends!

Habs + M pour/for Montréal

2007-10-24T20:43:00.000-04:00

Getting tickets to our hometown hockey team The Montréal Canadiens aka The Habs (from les habitants) is not an easy thing especially because this City is hockey (in Montreal this is not a hollow marketing slogan). Luckily our friend Eric was up for the ask and after spending a day on the phone and the Internet, he managed to get his hands on a couple of season tickets. Divided among some friends, we get to see 5 home games.

And the first one was last weekend against the Buffalo Sabres. The tricolore beat the shit out of the Sabres, with a smashing 4-2 victory. It's quite the adventure, a roaring 20,000 heads strong crowd, lots of hotdogs and crappy Molson Ex for 10 bucks a pop. Still it didn't spoil the fun we had.

Last year we went to M for Montreal. And they introduced us to bands such as The Besnard Lakes and Patrick Watson (Oct 29 in Depot Leuven, check it out). Eager to find out what was on our musical plate this time, we first gobbled down our dinner in Pho Bang New York (best noodlesoup place in town, and fast and cheap). But we're drifting away (from Mr. Watson as well). Let's not waste precious html codes on 'back-to-rehearsal'-bands.

Krief
Solo thing of singer and guitarist of The Dears. Reminescent of John Lennon, Led Zep, some Hendrix. Maybe not heartbreaking original, but getting better each time I see them (first time was on Osheaga).

Karkwa
I guess French post-rock would be the right label. Very tight, very impressive. Too bad they sing in French, because the Shakespearian language would open a lot more doors for them in Europe. But then again, it's what differentiates them as well.

The Stills
Another "The" band. This one is on the Torontonian Arts & Crafts label (Broken Social Scene, Feist). Live very rock 'n roll, more indie of some sort on record. Listen for yourselves.

Vermont

2007-10-13T15:20:00.001-04:00

Last year we went to Mont-Orford, QC to enjoy the foliage, but since we've never been in the YOU-ESS of AA, we went to Vermont, only 1.5h drive from Montreal. We stayed in an early 19th century farmhouse in Fairfax in the middle of pastures and woods. We visited a brewery, a cider mill, skipped the Ben & Jerry's factory (too busy), did scenic tours, hiked in the woods and made new Bostonian friends. And New England is definitely a culinary paradise. We had outstanding meals at the Main St. Bar & Grill in Montpelier (pronounce mount-peel-yer) and the re-opened Smokejacks in Burlington.

Apple picking in OKA

2007-10-13T15:14:00.000-04:00

Last month was really warm and beautiful ... and what better way to spend those indian summerdays with apple picking in Oka, 45-minute drive from MTL. It's actually very smart ... people pay to pick apples but of course they get to keep them. We picked Judoka, Jonamac (crossover between Jonagold & Mc Intosh), Liberté and Lobo for juice, compote and apple crumble.

Update

2007-10-13T14:53:00.000-04:00

Having a full time job in marketing again means almost no time to blog ... But that doesn't mean less stuff is happening to us:

Our good friends P & M left MTL. Official farewell party is in a couple of weeks after they come back from their trip out West, after that they will cross the Atlantic for good. Sniff sniff ... we're gonna miss'em!
Wilco seems to be the official music provider for all the VW commercials on TV ... when o when are they comin' to the city of cities??
I am addicted to Seinfeld
I am addicted to Rome
My hair is back to crew cut. I lost the battle against baldness, I surrender!
Had an official work 5 à 7. Gave me some idea what I can expect @ the X-mas party ... not for publication I fear ... but fun nevertheless ... I had a blast!
Hockey season started and we have a couple of much desired tickets to go see our home team Les Canadiens de Montréal!

BEST SALAD EVER!

2007-09-12T00:04:00.000-04:00

OK, cats ... start purring coz this is my fave salad! A couple of balls of the best mozzarella you can find (please try to use the authentic Mozzarella Di Bufala ... it's really different from the chemical crap you buy in supermarkets), a couple of handfulls of argula/roquette salad (rucola), fresh ripe figs, fresh ripe tomatoes (no water culture greenhouse suckaz), some A.O.C. prosciutto (Italian cured ham), organic runny honey, good grassy olive oil (only extra virgin cold pressed, anything else is shite!) a couple of basil leaves (red, green, whatever). Basically, you toss everything together on a serving plate ... peppery crunchy rucola, chunks of mozzarella, slices of ham, crossed figs, tomatoes, drizzle with honey and a nice swig of olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Usually I drink Prosecco with this. Njoy!

It's such a simple recipe, so it comes down to using the best ingredients you can get. A guaranteed killer for your next dinner party!

INDIAN SUMMER

2007-09-11T22:52:00.000-04:00

Summer seems to be over, but it's not winter yet! No Sir. First we get to enjoy the Indian Summer. Going apple picking, walks in the colorful forests. As tribute to the great summer we had, a couple of pics.

Our lovely neighbour Anne and her dog Moebius

Tinneke & Brigitte

A man and his BBQ

Whiskey-Coke

Cheers!

Last weekend we went to OSHEAGA, and ran into Bent Van Looy (Das Pop), which was nice!
OSHEAGA is Montreal's own Pukkelpop if you like, in Parc Jean-Drapeau. Parc Jean-Drapeau was the site of the '67 World Expo and lies on Ile-St-Hélène in the middle of the St. Lawrence river. The park offers a great haven of peace and quiet far away from the bustling city life, but then again only 1 metro stop away from where it's really at!

A couple of differences with Belgian festivals I used to go to (Werchter, Pukkelpop, Marktrock, Lokerse Feesten, Gentse Feesten): less crowded so more relaxed, less beer stands and less people working in beer stands, so less drunk people, less grass (to sit on), less grass (to smoke), no fries (?!), no pizza, not allowed to bring your own drinks except water so they can sell more of their own overpriced stuff, less security, more crowd surfing, no bracelets and so on.

Highlights for me were Feist, Damien Rice, Editors, Gotan Project and Arctic Monkeys. New discoveries: Peter Von Poehl (with Bent Van Looy on drums), Au Revoir Simone and still not quite sure about Blonde Redhead.

LABOUR DAY

2007-09-11T22:39:00.000-04:00

First Monday of September was Labour Day ... and for that long weekend we went to see our friends Craig & Nath and their kids Petra & Anna at Nathalie's parents place in Amherstview, close to Kingston on Lake Ontario, about 3hours drive of Montreal direction Toronto.

Except for my little canoe adventure facing the elements of nature (strong headwind and 50cm waves) and actually winning that battle, it was a pretty lazy couple of days mostly spent drinking and eating. Gin & Tonic, Kick ass Garnacha wine, beer, Prosecco, you name it, we had it.

Here's some pics of the sunset on Lake Ontario.

CHURROS - SPARE RIBS

2007-08-27T21:10:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, Tinneke suddenly had a craving for Churros ... It's a South-American or Spanish long fried doughnut (something like it anyways). Luckily MTL is one of the world's food capitals (only NY has more restaurants per inhabitant), so we went to Churros Montreal for empanadas and chocolate and dulce de leche filled churros. Que bueno!

But one cannot live on sweets alone, and with summer still going on (haha Belgian suckaz), what better way to celebrate summer, the weekend, friends with a BBQ party. And I have the perfect BBQ recipe for you: marinated spareribs.

For 2 -4 racks of spareribs (I prefer babybacks). For the marinade: in a bowl, mix a can of coke (real coke, no pepsi), 100ml of soy sauce, 100ml Jack Daniels and 100ml Maple Syrup, a good squirt of ketchup, a couple of cloves of chopped garlic, some crushed bayleafs, a couple of turns of freshly ground black pepper and some hot sauce for that kick. Mix and throw together with the spareribs in a ziploc bag, marinate for 24hrs in the fridge. Get your barbie smokin' hot, and grill those ribs, occasionally turning and moistening with the marinade. It's a guaranteed killer!

MARBLE SOUNDS

2007-08-27T20:48:00.000-04:00

We needed some time to recover from all the guiding around. Why not recover and listen to the great music of our Belgian friend Pieter.

He gigged in the charming little town of Val David in the Laurentians, about an hour drive from Montréal. Marble Sounds deserves your full attention ... maybe he'll play in a venue near you soon! If not, buy that EP, trust me, you won't regret it!

Travelling in la belle province

2007-08-27T20:21:00.000-04:00

Only a couple of days after our weekend, my inlaws arrived. So the first week T. showed them around MTL, we left to Magog in the Eastern Townships for the weekend, then they went to Quebec City whilst I was working (freedom, yihaa) and the next week I had some holidays as well, so we all went for the full tour on the Gaspé peninsula.

It's about the size of Belgium, has some of the highest peaks of QC (around 1200m) surrounded by water and its population is about 160,000 humans, a great number of moose (most Canadians don't know the plural of moose ... maybe coz you never see more than one at the time), some black bears, lots of birdies and whales, seals, dolphins and other mammals on sea and land. After La Gaspésie they came back to Montréal before finally taking the Iron Air Transat Bird home.

Some indigenous tribes believe that their soul is taken away when someone takes a picture of them ... Luckily Belgians are less superstitious ...

MTL, tall building on the right, 39th floor, that's where I work

Don't have 2 go to Madison County to see these covered bridges ... (Estrie)

Chateau Frontenac in QC City

Jardin des Métis (Métis-sur-mer)

On top of Mt. Jacques Cartier. (Parc de la Gaspésie - secteur ChicChoc)

No bears ... no moose ... (Parc de la Gaspésie)

But ssssssssssssnakes! (Parc de la Gaspésie)

Baby humpback whale doing acrobatics. (Parc National Forillon)

Not one but 2 whales! (Parc National Forillon)

Where are those whales? (Parc National Forillon)

Gannets ('Jan Van Gent') -> very smelly animals (Ile-Bonaventure)

The magical Parc du Bic.

Rivière-du-Loup falls.

Riviere St-Anne

2007-08-19T19:57:00.000-04:00

Let's boldly go where no Flemish has gone before (er .... at least that's what I think): Rivière St-Anne.

Little more than a 2h drive (who cares about speed limits, not the Québecois apparently) from the royal mountain city, we joined S & S for a weekend of canoeing and what not. Here's the pics.

Our cabin in the woods

Our own little private lake

Marhsmallow on a stick

Mister S. Red

Miss S. Green

Miss T. Brown

"Spring in't veld"

Love is in the canola air

Jazz Fest

2007-08-16T23:10:00.000-04:00

I still don't seem to catch up with my posting ... Bu tryin' very hard.

So the day after the party, S & S arrived. So we showed them around MTL and the finer spots of Mile End, they did some discoveries on their own (where are those pics Mama'h??) and then they left to QC city to be joined by us a couple of days later in Rivière-St-Anne for a weekend of canoeing, BBQing and marshmallowing on a stick in a logcabin on a lake.

But the couple of days without them were not to be wasted, coz the Jazz Fest was in town.

So we went to see Montréal's music prodigy Patrick Watson (yeah, him again) and The Besnard Lakes as support. For those of you going to Pukkelpop (and have time to read this blog), you can catch TBL 2morrow and Mr. Watson & band on Saturday.
Needless to say TBL were excellent (although the m'as-tu vu crowd was more interested in the main act - so-called hipcats know what's cool in MTL) and Patrick Watson was his quirky witty talented self. And this would not be a proper blog without stereophonic mulitcolour evidence:

Clip The Besnard Lakes: For Agent 13

Crowd going wild for Mr. Watson at the Jazz Fest Metropolis gig

Even before S & S arrived (yeah I am mixing up the chronology here, forgive me dear reader) we went to see the amazing Spaghetti Western Orchestra. This musical ensemble from down under plays the songs of Il Maestro with a nice dollop of theater (a bit like De Nieuwe Snaar).

A part of the MTL Jazz Fest show

Another part of the MTL Jazz Fest show

PARTYTIME

2007-08-05T17:07:00.000-04:00

And the day before S & S arrived, we decided to throw a belated B-day party with lots of Belgian beer, cocktails, bison burgers and happy faces!

The thunderstorms were almost party pooping on us, coz the power went down for about an hour. But we got lucky: not everyone was sleeping @ Hydro Quebec, so the power was restored and the DJ could go back to work.

Fernanda + me (wearing a Brazilian "tuque")

Trip to Belgium - PICS

2007-08-05T16:47:00.000-04:00

Sorry folks ... I am way behind on my postings, but July has been pretty busy (work, travels, visitors, parties, summer). But first things first, a couple of pics from our trip to "le plat pays qui est le mien".

Leuven (by night)

Our trip was mainly about food ...

... and booze

... and family (our godchildren almost fell in a creek, sheer fun!)

... and friends (I'm never gonna be good at Jungle Speed)

... and more food (I decided to throw a party for myself and make my famous Enrique Paella)

St. Jean Baptiste

2007-06-24T12:45:00.000-04:00

Today, it's St. Jean Baptiste. Its origins lie in the pagan midsummer nigh fest, later brought here by French colonists (day of St. John the Baptist), given a patriotic tone after seeing what the Irish do on St. Patrick, pope Pius X helped a little bit by declaring St John the patron saint of all the French Canadians (so the church had a better grip on those people in far away La Nouvelle France), later religious aspect was dropped and declared a statutory holiday in the province of Québec, or should I say nation of Québec, coz it's called "La fête nationale" here. And now a cultural celebration of the achievements and diversity of Quebecers. (Yihaa, see what Céline Dion does for the nation of Québec!!) For history geeks among you, go wiki wild!

Patriotism is a bit strange to me ... maybe coz I don't particularly feel Flemish. I think first and foremost I feel European. I really feel different from Americans, Asians, Africans, etc. Second place it's Belgian ... I still feel I have more in common with my Walloon brothers than with those cheeseheads in the north, bratwürsters in the east and those frogs with a baguette in their arse in the south. I am not even talking about those football hooligans in the west, coz it's a hell lot of a swim over there! And only on the third place it's Flemish. I never had a day off on the 11th of July and frankly, I don't give a sh*t about what happened in 1302 in some lower field without drainage. (For those who don't know what I'm whining on about, go see "bataille des éperons d'or", heck it sounds better in French!)

But aren't all those differences between different cultures brilliant? We should be grateful for the diversity our own country (either Canada or Belgium) has to offer and not overindulge in the glorification of our own "nation". The world is my backyard.

But on the other hand, I don't care what the excuse is, I am always in for a party AND I got the day off tomorrow, so not too much complaining on this side either.
Speaking of "la job", I really enjoyed my first week ... of course I had to get used getting up early in the morning (if you call 7:45am early) but I am actually pretty excited about it. There is a great atmosphere at work, cool young colleagues (they all more or less started a couple of weeks ago) and a well balanced English/French mix.

This weekend I had to go shopping, coz I don't have enough business casual slacks ... no jeans, no sneakers, no T's permitted ... but T. says the business looks suits .... Ouhhhh suits you sir!

Next friday we're throwing a belated birthday party and on Sunday Sarah and Sven are arriving in Montréal when the Jazz Fest is kickin' off.

Listening a lot to WILCO, Rufus Wainwright (Canadian, ex-Montréaler) and local produce Miracle Fortress.

BTW: find the "Fast Show" puns.

Back in MTL

2007-06-08T13:39:00.000-04:00

After a couple of weeks of worshiping Bacchus in Belgium, we're back in Montréal.

Some things never change, especially back home. It was great seeing y'all again, I really ate and drank too much, sometimes a bit of a social overload and then again it wasn't always so easy to say "hullo-goodbye" every day over and over again. Next year we might do things slightly different, who knows ...
But after a while, I kinda started missing Montréal. But now it's back home sweet home.

And what a pleasant homecoming it was: a new job was awaiting me! My new professional challenge starts 18th of June at LASIK MD as web marketing specialist.

This week we're digesting our jet lag and entertaining Aunt Magd and Uncle Dick. I'll keep you posted on what happens next week (nothing much probably except enjoying the summer).

Oh, there's always worse

2007-05-12T11:46:00.000-04:00

As Montréal is heating up, and preparing for vibrant summer activities such as Festival de Jazz de Montréal, Just for laughs/Juste pour rire, Osheaga, etc., temperatures are plunging down in Belgium and Mr. Rain is back in the country ... And since Belgians like to complain about the weather (it's too warm, there's no rain, there's too much rain ...), I'd like to remind you that there's always worse ...

I stumbled across this nifty little footage, shot exactly a month ago. I think the guy lives across the street, coz he films the Jewish bakery where we sometimes go, the dépanneur where I buy my beer, the busstop where we take the 80 downtown, etc.

(Oh, make sure you got the sound of the video on, it makes it soooooo much worthwhile)

Countdown

2007-05-07T21:54:00.000-04:00

Last week before coming back to B-land. As the weather turns rather wet in Belgium, Montréal finally gets to enjoy +20. Sigh!

Friday went to a cheese and wine evening. Drank 2 much wine, and didn't eat enough cheese. So next morning, Tylenol was my only true friend. Hangovers and not enough Bedlehem are gettin' harder to digest, especially when getting older. So no real energy for doing something useful on saturday. So take-away chinese and rental movies. We saw "Last king of Scotland", although I thought the story was pretty lame (I am not doubting the so-called historic facts about Idi Amin but how he got acquainted with this doctor is highly unlikely), but I was baffled by the acting of Forest Whitaker. Last time I saw him perform was in ER, portraying a patient seeking revenge for Dr. Kovac's (yeah the pretty Croatian doc) medical error causing him to be paralyzed. Oops, this might have been a spoiler, 'coz maybe this episode didn't air yet in your part of the world. Consider it a sneak preview!

And on sunday our downstairs neighbour Anne took me to IKEA to buy some folding chairs and table for the terrace. Only to find they we're all sold out. This Montréal IKEA is the worst I've ever been to ... they're always out of something ...
In the afternoon I started cooking, but no minced lamb, so I headed to the store. (Stores are ALWAYS open here, kinda always). But first helped a man with a map of downtown Montréal desperately trying to find his way to Toronto(!). I enjoyed the saxophone player on the corner of Parc and Bernard and finally ended up in Fruiterie Mile End for that lamb where I had this funny conversation with the butcher:

Me: Can I have some minced lamb.
Him: Shouldn't be a problem. What do you need minced lamb for?
Me: For Moussaka?
Him: Moussaka? What is a Moussaka?
Me: It's Greek
Him: Are you Greek?
Me: No.
Him: Why are you making Moussaka then?

Anyway I quickly made the Moussaka, some fresh tzatziki and a great feta salad. And then I had to run to get a few drinks with P. before he's leaving on tour with Plastic Operator and to get a copy of their newly released CD "Different Places". The song 'parasols' is gonna be my summer anthem this year!

Oh I am quickly gonna share my tzatziki recipe with you. You take a couple of tablespoons of full fat yoghurt (take greek yoghurt if you can find it, I use 6% Balkan style yoghurt), grate a bit of cucumber coarsely and put it in a towel so it isn't all that moist. Then you chop a clove of garlic very finely. You put some salt on the garlic and mash it with the side of your knife so it becomes pulp. You mix the yoghurt, garlic and cucumber, pinch of black pepper and a few drops of lemon juice. Serve with pita bread or whatever you wanna dip into it.

And the feta salad, is easy peasy. Chop half an onion in fine rings, 2 tomatoes in chunks, a couple of slices of cucumber, crumble some feta cheese, a generous pinch of dried oregano, a good turn of black pepper, some freshly squeezed lemon juice (little less than half a lemon) a nice glug of extra virgin olive oil and that's it. I like to put it an hour in the fridge before serving so all the flavours have combined.

Anyway, lock up your sons, daughters, pets, coz Erik the Viking is back. Looking forward seeing you all back again and looking forward to all the fine dining at your places.

Cheers!

Gourmand

2007-04-30T19:45:00.000-04:00

Looking back on it, this weekend seemed to be all about wine & dine.

It started of Friday when just going for a drink with amigos in our neighbourhood. We ended up in BOA, a new local hot spot. Music, interior, all great ... the crowd a bit too young. But with every song, the music was turned up a notch and well past our threshhold for a normal conversation, so time to change scenery.
A couple of blocks further, we found Dieu du Ciel. A nice dark brewpub with great ale. I had a "Charbonnière", a smoked ale, and was totally diggin' it! We went home, it poured down us, so next time we should bring a canoe.

Saturday we met up with Tinneke's university friends in Portugalia. If you're awake, you might've guessed it's a Portuguese restaurant ... bull's eye! Well, restaurant is maybe giving it too much credit. It's more like a hole-in-the-wall kind of place with limited seating. Only a few items on the menu that come with fries and a salad. The great thing about this place is that they marinate their chicken for on our on site when ordered, so you gotta wait a bit before the chicken charcoal broiled to perfection can find its way to your tastebuds. But it's well worth it! Gotta love places like this. And the bill does not leave a sour aftertaste: 12$ for half a grilled chicken, that's quite a bargain. And what better way to end the evening with some Latin grooves at Les Bobards in the old Spanish/Portuguese Quartier on Main (St. Laurent). And they had Coup de Grisou, a fragrant beer made with buckwheat, great for summer.

And because P. is gonna turn page 29 pretty soon, but will be touring in Europe with his band Plastic Operator on his actual birthday, we had a surprise B-day brunch on sunday at M sur Masson. This more upscale kind of place, has great bruch/lunch and dinner options and is situated in the much overlooked Rosemont area (east of Mile End). The delicious mimosa with sweet fresh orange juice and Moët & Chandon made my hangover fade away and the Eggs Benedict (poached egg with old fashioned ham, hollandaise sauce, sauteed mushroom on toasted baguette) and a side order of patates salardaises (chunks of ye old spud fried in duck fat) left me with a satisfied mind and stomach.

I failed to mention I made fresh cheesecake on Friday, and so by Sunday all its flavours where blended superbly and made it an ideal tea-time companion. And since mussels are becoming readily available (at least here in Canada), we had moules-frites. I like my mollusk friends with lots of veggies (celery, leeks, onions, carrots, parsely and tomatoes), a nice glug of white wine and garlic. Oh yeah, the fries came from Frite Alors, a real Belgian friture.

Only 2 weeks before touchdown on the European mainland ... be prepared!

Cabane à Sucre

2007-04-23T11:25:00.000-04:00

This weekend we visited a "Cabane à Sucre" or Sugar Shack with Eric and his parents. These are the places that make the world famous "Sirop d'érable" or Maple Syrup (Ahornsiroop). I guess maple syrup is one of the quintessential Canadian things. Even the leaf of the maple tree is on the Canadian flag!

Most of the maple syrup is made in Québec (some in Ontario and some in the bordering US states e.g. Vermont). It's a Québec tradition to visit a sugar shack in late winter, early spring when syrup is being produced. When the sap of the maple trees start flowing again, after the winter, it is tapped of and brought to the boil to become syrup. It is an all natural product, no additional colourings or flavourings.

And at the "cabane a suc" (this is how the Québecois pronounce it), the liquid gold is poured over a rustic meal with potatoes, beans, ham, bacon, sausages. The typical meal starts with pea soup, you have some "marinades" as a side dish (pickled beetroot and pickled cucumbers) and let's not forget "oreilles de crisse". It literally means Christ's Ears, but it's basically crispy deep fried smoked pork. Crisse is also a typical Québecois profanity.

You end the meal with "crêpes", that are more like yeast-risen doughnuts (think 'Smoutebollen without the beer') but oh so yummie!

And as a final treat you get to do "tire sur neige". Hot thick maple syrup is poured onto snow so it hardens, and you roll it onto a stick and lick that lollypop!

Needless to say all that sugar and fat has us on a diet now ...

Dig in!

Erik, Eric & ses parents.

Wood fired boiling maple syrup.

Tire sur neige.

WATCH OUT WHERE THE HUSKIES GO
AN' DON'T YOU EAT THAT YELLOW SNOW

Ottawa

2007-04-23T11:08:00.000-04:00

2 weeks ago Tinneke had a double bill presentation at Udem (together with her old Belgian colleague) and then they took the show on the road to Ottawa for another presentation. She's becoming quite the rockstars, 2 gigs in 1 week!

So we ended up visiting Ottawa, met other Belgians there (you'd be surprised how many are stranded there) and spend the evenings drinking, eating, discussing music, politics and whatnot with our friends Craig & Nathalie.

Also, T. mom (at least when she was living in Sask. for 4 months) happened to be Ottawa. Unfortunately she had the flu, so we only caught a glimpse of her.

Although Ottawa is Canada's capital, she merely has the administrative features of a capital. So apart from a couple of nice spots (Byward Market, Bank St.) and some great museums, Ottawa has not much to offer (especially when coming from bustlin' MTL). Except for the Bluesfest with Bwab Dylan this year (!).

But anyway, here are some pics:

Chacun son gout.

The Postal Service

The Rideau Canal goes all the way to Lake Ontario.

José, Anne, Francois & T. on Parliament Hill.

At least someone likes the snow!

2007-04-12T18:20:00.000-04:00

Definitely spring!

2007-04-12T16:11:00.000-04:00

couple of hours later ...

This is spring??!

2007-04-12T14:50:00.000-04:00

Parc Avenue, Thursday, 12th of April, 2:50pm

Shortcuts are so overrated

2007-04-09T17:31:00.000-04:00

Great copy on this Ford Edge commercial. And a great song too!

A bit of a googlechase (it's kinda like a steeplechase :-), learned me that this song is by Ane Brun, a Norwegian songstress, currently living in Stockholm, the city that feels like "home" to me.

The song is called "Song no. 6" and it features Ron Sexsmith. Arguably one of Canada's greatest singersongwriters, and to me he has already earned his place in Canada's songwriter hall of fame with fellow countrymen/women such as Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. BTW: Ron is hardly a posterboy, but what a talent!

This is the full song, performed live, on Sveriges Television (Swedish TV).

Banks

2007-04-05T10:50:00.000-04:00

Probably one of the things I'm still struggling to get used to: banking in Canada.

As I already explained: they charge money for the number of debit transactions on your account unless you maintain a certain balance. But now I discovered what happens if you take out money on an ATM that's not a branch office of your bank. Well, no matter what amount you take out, the ATM charges an extra $1,50 CAN. And at the end of the month, your bank charges you another $1,50 CAN as a service fee coz they had to transfer your money to a different bank. That's complete madness! I mean, once you put money in a bank, you actually have to pay to take it out!

Oh and another thing, I received an invoice from the hospital for my knee (still not OK by the way). And since you can't do a wire transfer to a person or company that doesn't have an account at your bank, you have to pay by cheque. A draft cheque costs $6,50 CAN! Once again you pay to have money taken out of your account, where it's YOUR MONEY in the first place!

The Che-Guevara-inside-me says that we should all cancel our accounts and retake possesion of our money, keep it in the ol' sock, coz frankly what are banks for .... not to serve you but to serve them. Think mortgages, insurances, etc. They're hardly win-win situations .... No no, they win, YOU LOSE!! ALWAYS! But without them you're even more screwed, it's about chosing the lesser evil.
My marketing teacher used to say: "Money is the only real god". I guess he was right after all...

Anyway, it's not that bad yet in Belgium, but I have a couple of sources in the financial world and you'll be getting to that point sooner or later, so buckle up!

Went to see 300 again with some friends in iMAX version ..... it's still AWESOME!

It started snowing and there's a couple of inches of snow all over again ... grrrrrr ...
(BTW: although Canada is officially on the metric system, most people still use inches, pound, feet, etc). But I guess that's a good thing coz on monday we'll be visiting a Sugar Shack (Cabane à sucre). I'll tell you all about it.

We're having a visitor from Belgium over next week, so I'd better start cleaning the house! T. admits I'm way more better than her cleaning the house. Well, I think, WE MEN, are better in anything coz we take pride in whatever we do. Failure is not an option, the winner takes it all, that kinda crap. We just wanna excel. That's why we don't multi-task. Doing 2 things at a time results in a poor overall perfomance.
But then again, I think she was playing reverse psychology on me. So I get to do all the nasty chores.

Sigh! Being unemployed sucks!

Other Mile End Photographers

2007-04-03T22:35:00.000-04:00

I discovered these great Mile End pictures on FLICKR.

Or on his blog: http://www.urbanphoto.net/

T. B-DAY W-END

2007-04-03T17:37:00.000-04:00

This weekend it was T's birthday! So instead of playing friday night couch potato we went to have a drink @ HELM around the corner. It more or less becoming our favorite hang out.

And on her actual B-dag, saturday, I tried to have her wait for her presents, but since she knew where I had hidden them, there was no way of keeping them from her. And because spring was really in the air this time (the weather is ALWAYS nice on T's birthday), we did some rockin' strolling around town, lined up with 30 people at Café Olimpico for that perfect cappucino and sipped our caffeine fix on the sun terrace outside desperately trying to get that first sun tan, walked down Main (Boul. St Laurent) and ended up having a drink in Le Saint-Ciboire in Quartier Latin. And we were back just in time for dinner at Oishii Sushi. Well I'm normally not a big sushi aficionado (I think fire was invented to cook food, not to have it raw), but we had a succulent meal! We started of with a Tokyotini, think dry martini with a splash of sake and ginger. I'd go all night on these babies! Then a platter with some sashimi (your regular tuna, shrimp, salmon and squid), some great sushi rolls with tempura, cucumber, tuna and toasted sesame seeds inside) and great tempura shrimps. I had superdry Asahi beer and T. some japanese green tea. And as dessert we shared a wonderful green tea cheese cake and hot sake!

And what better way to top a perfect evening with some fine scotch at the Whisky Café. A dram of Bunnahabain and The Macallan on the other side of the table quite did the trick.

On sunday, I roasted a whole leg of lamb. Since I needed to stuff it with zingy herbs, I deboned it partly (took out the H bone and thigh bone). And basted it every 15mins with red wine (Sangiovese/Merlot). Add some veg, and you have a great meal! Oh, and the meat we didn't eat: with feta salad and tzatiki in soft warm pita breads!

Midnight Poutine

2007-03-27T13:03:00.000-04:00

Because of the anti-inflammatory drugs I take for my knee (that still hurts BTW), I can't drink. And most of you know I like my ale/vino/scotch/mojito. The world is quite different sober :-))
But this weekend, I made an exception coz our friend Eric from Trois-Rivières (or from Joliette, coz he's from Joliette but lives in Trois-Rivières now .... and actually there is only one river in TR ... anyway ... slip sliding away from the topic) came over.

T. needed to interview someone for one of her courses, and Eric volunteered (well, he was promised dinner and so gladly to oblige). Anyway, since we wanted to go out afterwards, I tried not to make a big fuzz about dinner (and that's hard for me). So I went down to Chinatown to buy Peking duck and the works. And since I know Eric is quite the beer lover, I found a couple of good Belgian beers in the SAQ downtown.
So after the interview we sampled some Orval, Maredsous and Chimay Bleu, we had spring rolls, Peking duck in pancakes with spring onions and hoi sin sauce (with a great recipe a nice chinese chef gave me), and some sauteed vegetables (cut with my cool wavy knife from Dollarama).
In the meantime it started snowing again outside .... aaaargh ... so we needed something to comfort ourselves so we headed down to HELM, the brewpub around the corner. Feeling quite better after a pint we went to a bar called Les Passages where our friend Fernanda was having her birthday party. And after a lot of pitchers of Boréale we called it a night.
But not before a midnight poutine (well it was more around 3am) @ La Banquise. This grease spoon is open 24/7 and wacks up the best poutines of Montréal (or so I've heard). Besides the basics: fries, gravy and cheese curds, poutines come in different ways, topped with peppers and mushrooms, chicken and peas, bacon and sausages and I've even heard of poutine with foie-gras! I think poutine is the religion of Québec.
So we finally hit the sack around 4am, and next day .... hangover! (although the poutine sucked up most of it). And what better way to end the hangover day with some retro comfort food: macaroni with cheese & ham!

And before I forget, be sure to visit my brand new myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/29yearsincommunicado

New pics on Snapshot!

2007-03-20T14:21:00.000-04:00

Check out the new pics on A SNAPSHOT OF MONTRÉAL.

300

2007-03-20T10:39:00.000-04:00

A couple of days ago we went to see 300. Unfortunately the IMAX version was already sold out so we settled for the 'regular' one. 300 is based on Frank Miller's comic books (remember Sin City) and also a bit on that other small book 'Homerus' ;-)). Just like Sin City, 300 uses the same cinematographic technique: real acting in front of blue and green screens and all the other content is added later on by computer. What's a bit special about this film is (and bet you didn't know this) is that this film is kinda a Québec film. The film was entirely shot in some old warehouse in Montréal (as a soundstage) and all the CGI were developed and added in Québec (so not on Skywalker Ranch or something).
The film is just COOL! It's visually stunning, got liters of virtual blood splashing of the screen, lots of action and adrenaline going and some nudity (hurray for that)! Ok, it's not always grand acting, the story is a tidbit over the edge, the actors look like they're on steroids (T. thought it was a gay movie) and Gerard Butler (the lead actor, playing the part of Leonidas, remember the chocolates?) has a slight lisp ... but most importantly: the flick is ÜBERCOOL!
I already wanna go back for the IMAX version!

Besides that, my knee kept on aching and to put an end to my doubts and to bore my readers no longer with complaints about my knee, I decided to go see a doctor. But since we do not have a family physician yet, and most of them don't take new patients and the ones that do give you an appointment only a month later, I went to the Emergency of the Sir Mortimer B Davis Jewish General Hospital. (what's in a name, right?). A bit of an old hospital with no clear signs or indications what to do (unlike Gasthuisberg ) but also a teaching hospital (so just like Gasthuisberg). I soon figured out I had to go to triage first were a nurse determines the urgency of your problem. In my case: I could sit there all day. I also was kinda apologetic about it. I mean, I didn't wanna claim my priority if you have other people around you with respiratory problems or or elderly folks that come in with chest pains. Anyway, you're given a number and when your number is called, you have to go to the registration desk to take all you personal details down.
Since I have no provincial health insurance, but a private one, the hospital might send me and invoice and then I have to claim it back. But they might send it to my insurance as well since it's Canadian insurance. Anyway, unlike the US, you need to have health insurance in Canada and all Canadian residents have a provincial or state medical insurance and usually employers offer, as perks, extra health insurance benefits. But since I got a private insurance, I am completely covered, also hospital. Of course, these things don't come cheap, but when I saw a visit to the E.R. costs about 500 $ CAN and the 24hours rate (in case you need to stay) is about 2000 $ CAN, I was really glad my ass (and every other body part) was covered!
Anyway, after registration, I waited for 2,5 hours (not too bad considering HUMO was keeping me company), and then was finally called for.
One of the residents checked my knee (I wished I was wearing a more sexy boxershort), called in another doctor and he taught her something more about my knee, where the bones fit into eachother, how you can feel it, etc. So turned out to be: my miniscus was bruised or teared. If it's on the outside, it will heal properly, if it's more on the inside, I might experience knee problems again when doing sports (yeah, that one time a year!). Worst case scenario: surgery and removing my miniscus.
But for now: ice it 6 times a day (snow and ice are still abundant in Montréal) and take inflammatory drugs and afterwards some stretching exercises.
So my first encounter with the Canadian Health system wasn't so bad after all. And I helped teaching a resident (indirectly) to become a successful doctor saving millions of lifes. (If she doesn't go into plastic surgery that is).

My other plans for this week: have a beer with some of my old CSC buddies and get my Québec driver's license on friday (well, merely exchanging my Belgian one for a Québecois).

Oh yeah, I rediscovered Elliot Smith, a very good friend of mine that took me through a lot of exams. And he still sounds great. Still miss you E!

Spring is in the air ... pause ... pause ... NOT!

2007-03-18T16:39:00.000-04:00

Past week we have been enjoying "warm" weather .... er ... meaning temperatures ABOVE zero (Celsius that is, of course). Until friday, Mr. Freeze was back and snow befall upon us once more!

We were supposed to go on a snowshoeing weekend with some friends, but bailed out coz my knee is still hurting and T. had a sudden outburst of her eczema. And none of her wondercreams seemed to work anywore. So called a doctor to get an appointment .... first date possible was 17th of April!! So, ok, our Belgian health system might be expensive and there are many physicians out of work, at least you don't have to wait a friggin' month for an appointment!
Luckily we discovered that there's a clinic for students of the UDeM, but they're closed fridays and over the weekend. So Tinneke will go on Monday first thing. And pharmacies carry a lot of stuff that would be prescription drugs in Belgium, so we were able to buy 0,5% hydrocortisone ointment. A temporarily relief.
But if my knee keeps on hurting, I figure go see a doctor as well (well in a month time that is ;-)

So we had a weekend laying low, watching some movies ... BORAT is funny, but nothing new. Avid fans of Da Ali G. Show are familiar with the character already, and I felt the best jokes were in the trailer. THE PRESTIGE with Christian Bale (yummy according to T.) and Hugh Jackman (aka Wolverine) by one of my favourite directors Christopher Nolan (remember Memento?) was much better. And also much darker than that other magician movie THE ILLUSIONIST with Edward Norton. Finally, CASINO ROYALE. You know kinda what to expect wit a bondflick, but this one had some nice twists and clin-d'oeils. (origins of the Bond Martini, BOND coming out of the water (wink wink nudge nudge Ursula Andress) and lots more.) And gotta admit, besides the pecks and sixpacks of Daniel Craig (T. drooling all over the couch), he brings back the old fashioned sway a real Bond needs to have. Furthermore, I watched AFTER LIFE again, a movie I saw 9 years ago in Cartoons in A'pen. A great Japanese movie about having to pick the happiest memory of your live as your only memory when you're actually dead.

Have a great week ... I hope I will (I'm actually getting bored already)! Though I like doing all the chores around the house (washing, cleaning and cooking is very exciting!!), I still feel some kind of anxiety. Coz when I work, I long for MORE TIME to play around with my website, music and whatever more, and when I do get all THAT TIME, I actually don't feel like doing it anymore ... SIGH. I'm probably just overcomplicating things.

TBL - BEL

2007-03-11T16:19:00.001-04:00

With some analog delay ..... last week we went to the CD launch of The Besnard Lakes, the latest Montréal music prodigy. This was their second gig we saw. (Remember "M for Montreal").

Maybe our expectations were a bit of the charts coz, the whole thing could be generally described as: disappointing. No more tight perfect harmonic vocals, too much BS between the songs and a PA that sucked bigtime. Our fellow FM (for Flemish Montrealer, a particular species on its own) agreed. Fortunately the new CD "The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse" really makes up for it. So we haven't given up hope just yet. And some people in Belgium seem to agree, so make up your own mind on May 27th in AB Club.

I know I'll be there, coz we'll be enjoying the grey rainy delights of a Belgian early summer from 15th of May until 3d of June. T. will be coming a few days earlier coz she'll be attending a seminar in Brussels. So get your agendas out and let us know when ur available!

For now, spring seems to be near, coz the thermometre goes above the zero mark during the day. And my career as LWT (Langharig Werkschuw Tuig) is very promising indeed! Cherio ...

Weekend Val Morin

2007-03-06T16:01:00.000-05:00

After my last night at work (celebrated by my colleagues with Duvel, McChouffe, Duvel, Orval, Delirium Tremens & Floreffe), my supervisor was kind enough to let me go home earlier. And so the plan was to get a couple of hours of good sleep, then go to the bank, video rental store, supermarket .... Instead, we failed to hear the alarm clock and only got up at 11:30am, discovering there was already a shitload of snow outside (there was a snowstorm warning, but we weren't expecting it until late afternoon).
So we quickly got our stuff together, called the free shuttle service of the rental agency (coz our rental car would be ready at 1pm). 1:10pm, still no shuttle bus, so I called them again and they were gonna send someone over. Only 20minutes later they showed up. And u gotta know they're only 500m from our place. (We didn't walk there, remember all the snow). So finally they picked us up, did all the paperwork and got the car .... COMPLETELY snowed in.
So instead of having the car ready to go, I spend half an hour clearing the snow and getting the car out of his parkingspot. The friggin' car didn't even have wintertires, so no grip at all. Talking 'bout the worst service ever!!

Finally managed to get the car out (2pm) and we had to make a stop at the vide rental store to get some DVD's for the weekend. (We booked a room at a cosy B & B with TV/DVD). After one of our briefest visits ever (coz we wanted to leave ASAP, considering the snowstorm and that Montreal has the worst traffic ever, especially during rush hour), we still needed to buy ski pants.

Luckily our neighbour advised us a good store: Mountain Equipment Co-op. And not that far from our place either. So we managed to get an excellent deal (31 bucks) for a pair of waterproof all activity pants). And for a small 5$ you receive a lifetime membership of the Co-op so you can get the best deals on first quality outdoor equipment (Yeah, we're happy campers all right!).

But suddenly I found something chewing on my leg. It was T. She hadn't had breakfast nor lunch and getting very very grumpy without her caffeine fix. Luckily salvation was near:

They have the best doughnuts ever! And the cool thing is that you can actully see how they're made in the store! Very cool indeed!

So with a large coffee and some yummie tummie stuff, we finally hit the road at 4pm. After an 1,5h bobsleigh ride, we arrived at destination. Some freshing up and ready for dinner at "Le chat noir" in St. Adèle. Turned out to be, because of the bad weather, all tables were cancelled and the restaurant was only open for the 2 of us. Which was nice of course.

Next day, it was time for some action, so a after a very healthy breakfast we went to the Belle Neige mountain for a fresh dive into the snow. We got a personal instructor that explained the basic techniques of snowboarding. And after that introduction that only took an hour, we were on our own. Even T. managed to stay on the board.
After a couple of hours of falling and retrying, T. called it a day (it is a high energy demanding sports, especially for couch athletes as we) but I decided it was time to tackle the big mountain. So I bravely took the ski lift and that's where it all went wrong. When getting of, instead of jumping of the chairs and sliding away from the skilift, my board was horizontally and I fell down. My knee got so twisted that even professional yoga people would hold their breath. CALICE DE TABARNAC D'OSTIE!! (--> that's Quebecois swearing for ya)

Somehow I managed to get down the mountain, high on adrenalin from the pain, I guess. Coz then the pain really started kicking in. The first aid people put some snow on it (wich comes very cheap here in winter), and advised me to go to hospital. Although it hurt, the pain wasn't inbearable, and I was still able to stand on my knee, bend it. And because of the ice, my knee wasn't swelling up that much and didn't look bruised or anything. So we decided to wait and see.
The rest of the day was going to be lazy .... The very kind host of our B & B gave us hot chocolate with marshmellow flavour and a bag of frozen peas for my knee. Though only able to walk up the stairs as a 100-year old, I knew that hearty food would bring some relief. The cold ale, mussels and fries of Spago really made up for it. But at 9 o'clock I was as dead as a rock (I think the nightshifts were still playing tricks on me).

Next morning, we wanted to go cross-country skiing or snowshoeing. Since my knee was still aching, we did an easy snowshoe trail. And it turned out to be real fun. To conclude our great outdoors weekend, we went to have dinner in a very good local restaurant "Le Matou" that serves local produce. Great thing about most restaurants here, is that they are BYOW (bring your own wine or apportez votre vin). So you can enjoy an exquisite meal with a very fine bottle of wine without fear for bankruptcy!

Here are the piccy's, for more, see my photoblog "A snapshot of Montréal".

Surfer girl, you look so fi-i-i-ine!

Trying to keep that balance!

You snowshoe me and I snowshoe you?

Standing on top of the world ...

Ice cave woman

Page5 boy!

Arf!

Beware of the spikes!

The jobhunt is open (again)

2007-02-28T01:05:00.000-05:00

Ok, some of you may have heard already: I am leaving CSC (my current job). Not that I really have a new job (yet), but I was just so sick and tired of this job, the company, the nightshifts. I mean, it's kinda difficult to keep motivated for something you hate doing. Especially if your bank account can back you up for a while, so I quit! The exact reasons for me disliking the company can't be published on my blog (since I signed this big secrecy contract and since it's an American company they'll probably sue the shirt of my back for breach of contract), but I'll be happy to explain all the details in a tete-a-tete.

Actually the story is a bit more complicated. I did a couple of good interviews at a cool webdesign agency and they wanna hire me, but not just right now. I think they're waiting for some big contract-deal going down. Unfortunately, I got a mail yesterday that the whole thing is on hold for an undetermined amount of time. So carefully reading between lines: I gotta get myself a new job! Which is a shame really, coz I would've loved working for them, but I guess I shouldn't wait for things happening on their side. (But why do interviews if there is no real job opening?)

Anyway, that means I'll be unemployed *again* and I can start worrying about finding a job all over again. In fact, I did another interview last week, that I miraculously screwed up coz I was too sleepy, not alert enough and wasn't able to show my enthousiasm for the beautiful metier of advertising and my passion for the business and how I'd love to work for their boite. But the blame is on CSC, because if it wouldn't have been for their "Night of the living dead"-shifts, I would've been my normal, bright, stunning me ... Ah well .... we'll see, maybe it wasn't all that bad after all. Carpe diem and some other freaky positive new age shit (did I hear Bond Zonder Naam??)

Good thing about me being home again, is that I can take care of more things around the house. Tinneke seems to be getting in a very stressy final months of work/study at university where she needs to finish a lot of papers, presentations and projects. So she really feels relieved as well that I can take some of the physical duties upon me and give her full moral support instead of hanging in the couch like an ol' grumpy Bigfoot.

So these are my last couple of days at the company, and Tinneke and I will be celebrating this fresh start by an unwinding weekend in Les Laurentides with fine dining, winter fun and lying around the fireplace with a nice glass of Single Malt. So this will recharge our batteries for all the stuff to come.

And 2,5 months from now, we'll be visiting the mothercountry. EE phone home! So I guess we should get our agenda's out and start planning who to see when, coz it'll most likely be a very busy 2 weeks stay. We'll be in Belgium from May 15 until June 3. Tinneke is probably flying down a couple of days earlier for a seminar in Brussels.

And so since, it was my last couple of days, I thought: let's do the utmost Canadian thing for breakfast: let's go to Tim Hortons. (founded by a Canadian hockey star) So I went for a large coffee double-double (that's coffee lingo for double sugar, double milk), a Timatin (a breakfast sandwich with egg, cheese and a sausage) and a maple syrup glazed donut filled with cream. Their coffee was crap and only lukewarm, the "sandwich" was kinda like an applejack without the apple, very buttery. It kinda looks like a hamburger, coz the so-called "sausage" is actually a burger that tastes like a sausage, or should taste like one, coz the omelette, the processed orange chemical cheese and the sausage where kinda fighting for the Blandness Award, coz I couldn't distinguish if I was eating the cheese now or the egg or the sausage. So after I gobbed the whole thing down, without mustard or ketchup to mask the taste, I thought the donut would bring some highlights to the very disappointing start. But after the wasteland the Timatin left because of the nuclear warfare with my tastebuds, the donut just sought its way to my intestins, not leaving a very lasting impression. Soon after that nausea, upset stomach, and indigestion started kicking in. Time for Pepto Bismol!!

And the Oscar goes to ...

2007-02-26T01:48:00.000-05:00

One of the good things about living on this side of the ocean is that I don't need to get out of my bed in the middle of the night to watch the Oscars ...

But then again, I never ever did. As a matter of fact, I used to be a real movie buff, but with all these transatlantic moves, nightjobs and what else I can use as a poor excuse not too move my lazy butt to the nearest movie theatre, I haven't seen any of the nominated films. Good thing is, most of them are already released on DVD here, so I guess I am gonna do an Oscar Night of my own.

Best film: The Departed by Martin Scorcese??? Gimme a break, a film that's a remake?? I mean, the original Hong-Kong "Infernal Affairs" really kicked ass, and ... Heck, what am I talking about? I haven't seen it, so I am in no position to pass judgement.

To be continued ... (for sure)

For now: counting the days to our snowfun weekend in Les Laurentides! To all: please send an e-mail to Tinneke minimizing the risk of snowboarding! And don't gimme that cr*p that it's lethal. You have far more chance of dying by crossing a street.

W.E.E.K.E.N.D. it's weekend!

2007-02-24T17:13:00.000-05:00

This is how we party in Montréal!

Our old new flat

2007-02-22T02:54:00.000-05:00

So the whole painting/renovating things is done .... lookin' gooooooooooooood!!! (as Cat of Red Dwarf would say ... don't know Red Dwarf .... it's a cult Britisch sci-fi comedy of the late 80ies) Here are the piccies!

Before: me, working my ass off.

Before: me again, busting my balls

Before: our new IKEA furniture safely tucked away

After: behold ye mortal the dining area

After: for da bedroom (action)

After: our pimped living room (notice the guitar rack)

After: la cuisine, the most sacred place of the house

Where does all the snow go?

2007-02-19T21:44:00.000-05:00

Long time since my last post, it seems ...

Well, I'm back on night shifts and that sucks my energy away ... But not for a very long time anymore...

Anyway, Montreal (to be precise other parts of the USA and Canada) was hit by some serious snowstorms last week, and we had 40cm of snow and -30 degrees. Fun fun!

So if a little bit of salt don't keep the roads clean, especially at -30 (it turns it into an ice capade), snow plows can. Some of the snow of it is piled up at the sidewalk, so there is a small walking area and then some 50cm high snow barrier that separates the sidewalk from the road. On parking lots, the snow is piled up into meters high heaps of snow. But on the roads ... well, it just has to get scooped up and taken of. But I was wondering of course, where do those truckloads of snow go to?? Tinneke said it was probably dumped in the St Lawrence River, but I know that's not true coz that snow is heavily polluted and salted from defrosting and it would damage the river's eco-system. So I went on a little quest on the internet and I've learned that the snow is taken to a water treating plant where it is first filtered and eventually released into the river.
if you wanna know more about snow removal in Montreal, check this out. Actually, I could have a very promising future her in snow plowing ;-). No lumberjacking for me, Snowplowing is the real deal!

And to give you some idea how distorted my head is: have you ever wondered why Bananas and Ananas are only different by one letter but still so different fruit wise? I just can't wrap my head around it. Any ideas? There has to be some ethymological explanation...

BREAKING NEWS

2007-02-07T11:19:00.000-05:00

Avenue du Parc will stay Avenue du Parc. Mayor Tremblay of Montreal has abandonned the plan to rename after Robert Bourassa.

More information

This to parody all the breaking news that isn't so breaking at all. But this is of course to some interest to us, coz we live on Parc Avenue, and the name chane was completely ridiculous and not very democratic. No public hearing was ever held to consult the locals. And for Parc Avenue, the locals were the first Greek immigrants seeking a better life. As soon as opposition rose against the name change, the mayor persevered his madness, despite members of his own party not fully supporting the motion. Finally he backed of ... or at least that is the official story.

Ok, if you're still reading this, you might wonder who the heck is this Robert Bourassa fella? Why try to explain if we have a good knowledgable friend WIKI P. !.

Reading between the lines of the whole story, it's of course just politics. The mayor tried to push something through to make a point that would make him more appreciated. And so when the never expected fierce opposition rose, he could not give in to it, coz a leader showing weakness is not worth being a leader. In the meantime, his decision needed to be approved by the Provincial Toponymy Commission. And while they kept on stalling their verdict, it stirred even more uproar. The Bourrassa family were very sad about the whole controversy and disapproved the unilateral decision of the mayor. And I guess after some provincial pressure, pressure from his own party, Bourrassa's family not supporting the idea and a recent outburst of critics of the president of Tourisme Montreal saying that MTL is filthy and the city is not doing enough, add the local elections in a couple of months, I guess Tremblay decided he was not willing to take that heat anymore and to drop the renaming. Because isn't a true leader, someone who listens to the public and not afraid of admitting he was wrong? Irony, oh irony, where shall I be without sweet irony!

You see politics, wherever you go, it's all the same bollocks. Whether it's some mayor looking for re-election or Flemish politicians wanting a francophone prime minister so they have something to trade for more regional responsibilities.

Toconclude: why do I care so much? And why should you, dear reader, take the smallest amount of interest in petty local Quebecois politics? Coz I was interviewed by CTV on the issue, and finally the first step is taken of my way to Canadian Stardom!! ;-p

READ THIS FIRST: for those out there not very interested in local politics, just a small note. When the president of Tourism Montreal said that MTL was a filthty place and thus the reason why tourists are staying away, I can guarantee that BXL and A'pen are worse. But gotta admit, a city without wildpissing, isn't a real city. (Trust me, I've done my share already!)

WARM <-> COLD

2007-02-04T18:17:00.000-05:00

Some people think -2 Celsius is cold .... well the past couple of days instead of the regular -18 degrees outside we were treated with a couple of sunny, mild and snowy days of just below zero. It kinda feels like summer. People are not wearing their gloves and hat anymore, walking around straight up, instead of tucked deeply away in their coats, coats are open, etc. I even saw a woman brave enough wearing a skirt showing some real naked legflesh!! So warm or cold, it's how you look at it.

A couple of funny things I saw this weekend: a bulldog wearing special dogshoes for walking in the snow and a stripper in fuck-me-boots and a fur coat shoveling snow in front of the stripclub! That girl's gotta work for a living ...

Still working in the flat, next week it'll all be over, my nightshifts start again after that (not looking forward to it :-( and this month I'm gonna buy turntables, JBL-speakers, an LCD-television (if I can convince Tinneke .... wait a sec .... right, I am the one bringing in all the dough, so I guess I CAN DECIDE WHATEVER I WANT ;-p ), a new bottle of Single Malt (If ya get a chance, sample Highland Park!!), go eat @ HELM ( a brewpub/resto around the corner), buy our iron bird tickets for our "holidays" in good ol' Belgique and book a cosy little B & B somewhere in Les Laurentides for some hardcore wintersport!

Oh yeah, we went to see Baptiste and Ian Kelly on friday on Théatre Corona, a beautiful 19th century theatre. Unfortunately we were too late for the full set of Baptiste. Guess I've gotten so used to bands starting too late ... but though luck, this one didn't ... oh well, that's life .... There will be no next time!

LMOTP

2007-02-04T18:04:00.000-05:00

'Little Mosque on the Prairie' episodio très aquí!!

Cafe Olympico

2007-01-25T07:00:00.000-05:00

Remember one of my earlier posts in october about ads on the telly? If not, check --> here <--

Well, yesterday we met with other fellow Flemish Montrealers and one of them sometimes plays in the band of this Jean Beaudin (of the Greiche & Scaff song) aka Baptiste.

So we'll probably check out their gig on 2nd of Feb. (BTW: HP b-day then Jannes Pepijn), coz inside info learns they might be playing that Greiche & Scaff song. I think Baptiste sounds a bit like Tom McRae, Damien Rice (that might be the cello), Ben Christophers (especially the more intimate songs) - all happy fellas. But check out for urselves.

Besides that, I am painting, plastering and generally messing about in our flat. Hope to get everything done by the end of next week. Brigitte is gonna come and give us a hand with painting this weekend. Tinneke is working her ass off for Univ but at least she gets straight A's (even A+).

Oh and today it is REALLY COLD. Now 7am, it's -19 but count the windchill and you'll get to -27! I was cold in my bed and couldn't sleep because of it. But then again it might be my overdose of caffeine from the xcellent cappucino's and espresso's from Cafe Olympico on St Viateur.

Little Mosque On The Prairie - Episode 2

2007-01-20T20:19:00.001-05:00


I guess you're all too lazy to google or youtube it down. (Is "to google" already a verb in the English language). Anyway here is the second episode of "Little Mosque on the Prairie".

Cold in Montreal

2007-01-18T10:08:00.000-05:00

Well, I can definitely say it's cold in MTL! (Heck, I'm not complaining, if I wanted a subtropic winter, I could've stayed in Belgium ;-). The last couple of days we had 30cm of snow and highs of -15 degrees Celsius.
But I have a couple of items to explain/show how cold it really is:

First of all this Calvin & Hobbes cartoon.

My boogers are really freezing when I walk outside now.

Check out this song (and video) from the Montreal based band Malajube. U probably won't get the lyrics coz it's in Quebecois. But the title of the song is "-40degres a Montreal". Says it all, no?

And finally: I buy my beer from a Depanneur. When I come from outside, walking through the beer fridge, it feels like tropical paradise.**

** Ok, you might not fully understand this, so a bit more explanation about depanneurs and the concept of walkthrough fridges is needed here: Depanneur in QC means mostly independently run convience stores, kinda like nightshops. Everywhere else it means a towing service when your car breaks down. Since in early provincial law only the SAQ and small grocery stores like depanneurs where permitted to sell alcohol. So that means that they have a long tradion of selling booze, meaning you have a vast array of beer in every small depanneur. (Nowadays supermarkets can sell beer and wine too.) They usually have big walkthrough fridges (a couple of square metres). So you can buy cartons of beer, that is always chilled. Which is nice, of course.

Besides that: we started painting, redecorating and sometimes it's just basically renovating. We found almost everything at IKEA, besides the fact that they forgot to count our bed. So we have to go back for that. The paint, dust and cold don't do Tinneke's allergies very good.

And I am still looking into different jobs and unfortunately didn't get the job at Flanders Investment and Trade. But I think the whole thing was fixed coz they didn't check my French skills, which is a bit unusal especially for working in Quebec. Well, anyway ...

Little Mosque on the Prairie

2007-01-12T18:02:00.001-05:00

'ello! This week the first episode of "Little Mosque on the Prairie" was aired on CBC. This new sitcom is about a muslim community living in rural Canada. Worldwide this new show got a lot of attention (even in De Standaard) because it's comedy written by and about muslims in the post-9/11 era.

For me this is how comedy should be: a royal kick in the butt of society, funny and most important of all: holding a mirror to all ignorant, selfcentered and prejudiced people out there.

Tolerance towards muslims isn't about eating Tajine, but it's about realizing that they're also just ordinary folk trying to get around in this crazy, mixed up piece of junk we call planet Earth.

Just sit back and relax! Enjoy this first episode of "Little Mosque on the Prairie".

Rodney Graham @ MACM * Poutine @ Patati Patata

2007-01-06T06:04:00.000-05:00

Hope you all spent a nice New Year's Eve? We spent it quietly, just the 2 of us with a vast smorgasbord of tapas, cava, vino tinto and Single Malt ;-))
We already uncorked our first bottle of bubbles to celebrate with our parents at 6pm (so midnight in Belgium). And the sky is the limit with modern technology, so we had front row seats for the Wuustwezel Fireworks through webcam and surround sound.
Next day, our 2 godchildren Senne & Robbe, commonly referred to as "The Rascals", read out their New Year's Letters through Skype.

And then it was back 2 work. On wednesdaynight we went to the Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal for our first cultural injection of the year. Between 6 and 9pm on wednesday's there is no entrance fee. There was an excellent temporary exhibition of Rodney Graham. This BC (as in British Columbia) artist displays multidisciplinary conceptual work influenced by films, music and contemporary culture. But sometimes contemporary art is a bit "out there". But then again, maybe we need not take it so seriously.
I was especially intruiged by "Lobbing potatoes at a gong". A wall-wide projecton with loud stereo-sound shows the artist in front of an audience (that does not give a blink as such) sitting in a chair and throwing potatoes at a huge Chinese gong. Later on, all the potatoes were distilled into vodka and are part of the artwork. LOL

After this, it was time to fill the ol' stomach, so went to "Patati Patata" one of the best places in Montreal to have burgers and poutine.

Poutine like the Russian president? No, it's a Quebec signature dish: fries topped with melting cheese curds drenched in brown gravy. I got quite to like, although "Frut Special" will stay my all time favourite.

And now we need to start planning our next visit to IKEA, buying paint, coz Helena is moving out all her stuff somewhere around the 15th of Jan. So after the poutine, that will be the next big thing to tackle.

Have a good one!

Green X-mas, white boxing day

2006-12-28T19:43:00.000-05:00

Bugger, bugger, bugger .... we had a green X-mas. For the first time in 4 years, again a green X-mas in MTL.

So I spent the weekend before X-mas cooking and on X-mas eve our friend Eric from Trois-Rivières came over to take us to IKEA for a first shopping spree (we bought lots of nice kitchen stuff, especially my pots .... they proudly wear the name "Favorit") and at night Brigitte came to have dinner all together. The menu: gravad lax (Swedish cured salmon), marinated herring and fish roe with sour cream, chives and dill. A savoury Finnish fish broth with star anice. Main course: red deer with potato cake, wild mushrooms and cranberry sauce. And finally creme brulee made with my brandnew mini torch. A nice Highland Park whiskey topped a perfect evening.

But next day ..... SNOW SNOW SNOW!!! 15cm of cold, fluffy delight .... too bad it turns to sludge so quickly ... we had to jump over a lot of puddles when buying a new winter coat for Tinneke on Boxing Day's Sales.

So here's the snowy pics ....

Ice stars on our window

Avenue du snow!

Black cat <-> white snow

Parc Mont-Royal

Jump! Tiedatateudie-dateuteudaaaaah! (VAN HALEN)

Who said white men can't jump?

Snowballfight!

And now one more day at work and then .... WEEKEND!! Still figuring out what to cook for New Year's Eve ... since I am a bit of a wild swine myself maybe "Boar Asterixstyle"??

Oh and my New Year's resolution for 2007? (Or at least one of them) Take more pictures!
And to make this happen ...
My new photoblog: A Snapshot of Montreal!!

The End

2006-12-18T05:47:00.000-05:00

The end is drawing near .... at least the end of this year. And what a year it has been for us. This year was the year of the big move, the big chance, the big everything! Looking back, I can only say and feel that we've worked very hard to get to this point and that all is well.
I dunno what the future might bring ... (ok, that's a huge cliche, but I mean, I don't even know what I'll be doing in 3 months ... usually people have some idea ... but I really don't.) It will depend on what's happening the next couple of 4 weeks. It'll determine what I'll be doing jobwise, when we'll be visiting Belgium and when our visitors are coming.
For now it seems that 3 couple of visitors are more or less confirmed (a part for the set dates). That will be Aunt Magd & Uncle Dick, Tinneke's parents and Sarah & Sven. And it seems they'll all be coming early summer. But we'll work something out ...

So what news??? Read the soundbites below.

I am mentally preparing myself for Christmas dinner and finding caribou (at a reasonable price). Before dinner we might go to IKEA and buy new kitchen equipment. Buy everything all over again.
Heard on Gilles Peterson Worldwide (BBC radio 1): the new Cinematic Orchestra single of the upcoming album "Ma Fleur". And no one less than fellow Montrealer Patrick Watson (yeah I know, I keep on mentioning him) on vocals and piano. I you haven't checked out Patrick Watson: SHAME ON YOU!!
I am confronted again by bureaucracy ... it was a long time since my last encounter, but it's back! I went down to the Provincial Quebec Insurance office to change my Belgian License to a Quebec one (for the car sharing thing). When I got there and didn't have an appointment (why do you need an appointment?), I had to pick up a phone, wait for an operator and make one. The first possible date was 29th of January!! And then the funny part, I need to have my Belgian License translated into French. Even though I have an international license as well, I need it officially translated and approved. And every year I will have to renew my license and pay about 100 dollars for it.
And then something else: before you're admitted to the car sharing, they do a credit check. But the way it works here, we have no history yet . Kenny, my bank guy, called me once to say we could have a VISA card with 500 dollars maximum amount (ghee, what a load of money, can't even go out on a CD shopping spree with that!) and he advised me to do payments with it and pay the invoice rightaway (VISA always is revolving credit, meaning you can postpone your VISA payments), so we can build a credit history and get confidence and so get higher amounts on the VISA. But without the VISA, no credit history and without the credit history no car sharing. So I guess we need to think it through once more.
Tinneke and I went X-mas shopping. And we decided to buy gifts for ourselves. I bought CDs I wanted for a very longtime. And Tinneke bought naughty undergarments (don't you like that word, it has an old-fashioned retro sway to it, much better than lingerie, unless said with a very French accent :-). But in fact, Tinneke listens to my CDs as well and of course the undergarments are eye-candy to me. So they really are gifts for the both of us. True Christmas spirit that is.
And since I am higher up the payscale now (going from no income to a real salary), we went down to China Town to buy some nice, sometimes kitschy stuff for the house. And we went to buy peking duck as well and togheter with plum sauce rolled with some chopped spring onions in mini-pancakes they make a true savoury delight. I serve boiled jasmin rice with them and sauteed bok-choi with garlic and soy sauce and sesame seeds. And ice cold beer of course!
Tried eggnog for the first time this weekend. The readymade stuff you buy in supermarkets is kinda like liquid ice cream to which you add a dram of brandy (Canadian Club Grand Reserve in my case) and some ground nutmeg sprinkled on top.For Tinneke it was a mini-revelation as well coz she never had it with booze. And it's supposed to be a spiked drink :-)) But the home-made eggnog is supposed to be kinda fluffy. It really is like a kind of creme anglaise with booze.

Go Sens, go!

2006-12-12T02:49:00.000-05:00

In case you were wondering why there was no post this weekend: we were in Ottawa!! (Canadian anglophones pronouce this as "Oddewa").

We took the Greyhound bus friday afternoon (next time we should book online coz the 75% discount for the 2nd companion could only be granted online, much to my astonishment. Despite my complaining at the bus station I had to pay full price). 120 dollars and 2,5h later we arrived in Ottawa, where Craig picked us up at the busstop. We went to Craig's & Nathalie's place and got first row entertainment by their kids Petra & Anna. When the kid's went to bed, we had a lovely mushroom lasagna and enough wine and Scotch (check out Highland Park single malt, it has the nice smokey peaty flavour that you can expect from an Islay Whiskey, no wonder coz it's from the Corkney Islands, but it surprisingly has this warm, velvety, vanilla and bourbonish taste ) to keep us warm. We went to bed past midnight and that was not bad considering I was awake without sleep for 30hours non-stop.

Next day, Corey picked us up to meet up with his wife Bonny and his 2 kids Carson & Jordana and their dog Denver. After a hearty lunch we (Corey, Bonny, Craig, Tinneke and I) went to the Scotia Bank Place, the home of the Ottawa Senators to watch the Sens' hockey battle against the Rangers (from New York). Corey is a sportsjournalist for CTV and as many Canadians very much into hockey. First, he showed us the luxurious CTV lounge in the stadium and then we went to our seats, high up. People who know me, know that I'm not really fond of sports, but I do like hockey now. 20.000 outrageous fans, boy what a feeling!
Unfortunately the game was pretty lame, the Sens lost 3-1, and no real fighting (usually they let the players fight a little before breaking them up). After the game we ordered some take-away pizza (and chicken wings and hot sauce :-) and when everybody went home and the kids went to bed, we were challenged to a game of Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture, and sorry Corey & Bonny but we kicked your ass!!

After sleeping late, we hung out a little bit longer with the kids before finally taking the Greyhound back to Montreal. Since we had been pampered and taken care of during a whole weekend, we just continued our little holiday by having some take-out Sechewan Chinese and a DVD (BTW: Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" is really good).

So what's up for this week? Besides me still doing nightshifts and being grumpy because lack of sleep? (Got my first salary and it feels good knowing that we're back to the same amount of money we first had when we arrived):

I gotta get our driving licenses converted to Quebec licenses so we can subscribe to Communauto, a car sharing program in Montreal so we can have access to a car when we need one.
X-mas shopping (this year Tinneke and I are going together and buying gifts for ourselves but we will try and restrain ourselves from opening them up before Christmas) and buying a X-mas tree for the first time in our life. Maybe it's because being far away from friends and families, maybe because of the snow, but I am getting in a real Christmas mood and nothing better than an authentic pine fragrant Christmas tree to give in to the spirit. I still have to figure out what to eat at Christmas and New Year's Eve, but Caribou will be on somemmenu for sure. Eric will be joining us for Christmas. And hopefully Brigitte will be joining us for New Year's.
And Tinneke will try to see all Christmas films on CBC. I was amazed to hear she saw "The Sound of Music" only once! But as "Metal Molly" sings: doesn't everybody love Julie Andrews?!

Santa Claus = Sinterklaas

2006-12-05T08:37:00.000-05:00

Ok, it's not really Santa Claus, but it is in Belgium. And of course Santa Claus is based on "Sinterklaas". But did you know that Santa Claus as we know him (fat fellow, white beard, red costume) was in fact invented by Coca Cola? If you wanna know all about it, check out this site: www.stnicholascenter.org.

I hope u've been all good kids this year and that you will get a lot of loot down your chimney. I know I've been good coz Sinterklaas from A'pen brought met lots of yummie stuff. For which I am very grateful for.

So this one goes out to the peeps of the A-crew
Respect, we appreciate it, you know how we do!!

16h without heating & electricity

2006-12-03T23:53:00.000-05:00

As if Mr. Season knew it was first of December. Winter suddenly came and showed us what it can do. Friday morning when I went home from work I was facing some ice rain. But soon enough I was in the warm metro and the bus. I went grocery shopping right away and since I didn't feel like carrying my shopping bags through ice rain I had them home delivered (it only costs a dollar more). Later that day the ice rain was replaced by regular rain, but the temperature outside dropped below zero causing freezing rain, black ice (ijzel). This phenomenom is known in Canada as an ice storm. In the warmth of indoors it quite magical to see ... everything is transformed to ice sculptures. (see the picture of the tree in our back alley).

But then it happened, suddenly the electricity was gone. So we got some candles out and looked across the street and they still seemed to have power. So we decided to go to a new pub just around corner and wait until the electricity problem was being sorted out. Since only half the block was out of power, I was convinced that in 1-2 hours the problem would be fixed. The pub Helm was warm and cozy, and all power was still running. They have a wide selection of beers, an organic interior and they server chique tapas (like mushrooms stuffed with foi gras, stew of elk, etc). Helm likes to call itself a "Brasseur Gourmand" and it rather fits that description. After 5min sipping my red ale and T. enjoying her cider, the power went out as well. so we finished our drinks and went home. But once outside we discovered that many more blocks were out of power. So then we started to realise that it might take a little bit longer.

Without electricity we had no heating as well (because the central heating is hooked up to an electrical thermostate). So I managed to make some croques (luckily we have a gas cooking stoves), we had candlelight dinner and an early rather frisky nigt in. Power was only restored, 16 hours later the next morning around 10am. Later on we learned that 200.000 families in the Montreal area were cut of.

We've been seeing ads on TV of getting prepared for major outages and floods, but we always kinda laughed at them. After this experience, I guess now we start making our emergency kit.

Early sunday morning it started snowing ... small snowflakes they were ... but snowing it did, so there's about 4-5cm snow outside. So finally winter is really kicking of. Maybe after 4 months of winter we'll get tired of it, but for the time being: it's GREAT!!

Parc Blues

2006-11-27T01:47:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-24T05:08:00.000-05:00

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.