Monthly Archives: March 2007

During past night it has snowed heavily and when we head out in a blazing snow storm to explore the city we have problems moving around. I’m thankful my car is in the (ridiculously expensive) hotel garage, because we see cars literally up their roofs covered in snow.
After we managed to scale the big pile of snow in front of the Tourist Information the girl behind the desk is really glad that someone came to rescue her from absolute boredom. We however learn from her that, because of the snow storm almost all museums are closed. Darn. She calls around and finds one small museum that is still open so we head out to go there.

“The Fort Museum” is a very small museum next to our hotel and tells the story of Québec and the early days of Canada by means of a slide show over a diorama. It’s rather clumsy (certainly for the 8 dollar entrance fee they ask) and doesn’t have much in terms of production value but nevertheless I now understand a bit better what the meaning is of the text “Je me souviens” that is printed on all the Québec license plates.

Even though there is no snow anymore (or yet, because they predict a snow storm for tonight) there is still a lot of ice on the St. Lawrence river. It’s strange to see the ice go against the flow of the river due to the tides that are quite strong around here. Up river the river is so wide and deep that the river here is almost part of the Atlantic Ocean.

The wind is very strong and Anne is really, really cold.

Because the weather predictions weren’t very nice we last weekend decided to take Anne to Québec City. Sshe lives in Amsterdam, and previously lived in one of the narrowest 16-century houses on one of the canals, so she has seen her share of old cities, but it might be nice for her anyway. I haven’t really been in Québec myself, we just drove through it a couple of years ago.

Because Alison for her work often stays in expensive hotels they offered her a deal to stay in the prestigous hotel “Chateau Frontenac” for a reasonable amount of money.
Chateau Frontenac towers over Vieux Québec and if we had a room on the other side of the hotel we would have had a nice view over the St. Lawrence. Those rooms are too expensive though so we only have a view over Québec City. We’re on the 9th floor so at least we have a view.

In anticipation of the upcoming snowstorm we look if we can score some nice backcountry skis. Backcountry skis have metal edges so the grip better in the snow and also handle better in rougher terrain. Next week we want to do some multi-day trip with a backpack through the lesser frequented parts of Mont Trembalnt park.

We go to several stores and see if they have end-of-season deals. This picture is made in the “Poubelle de ski”, a big old warehouse filled to the rim with cheap skis. Unfortunately they don’t have what I want.

Even though the temperature is around zero, Anne and I drive to the Laurentians to see if we can do some cross country skiing. She has brought her skis and ski boots, so let’s try to get some use out of them. The coming week the weather predictions call for temperatures far above zero so it is probably our last chance.

After arriving at the ski centre I ask what type of wax they recommend.
“Klister,” they answer.
“Okay, can I buy some klister wax?”
“No, we don’t have it.”

So we leave with the softest wax I have under my skis. Anne has skis with fish scales on it and in this soft snow that certainly is an advantage. Halfway, when the snow has really warmed up and is almost melting under my skis, I have to work really hard to make progress and use my poles in order not to glide backwards. I try to re-apply some wax but it makes no difference.
Fortunately we are very close to a neighbouring ski centre and there they do sell klister wax. Klister wax is actually not a wax but a very sticky glue that doesn’t dry. It is really nasty stuff because it sticks to everything. And also to wet snow which makes it really nice in weather like today. I have never used it before, but now I can attest it works very well. It saves my day and the 6 km back to the car go flawlessly.

Anne, our guest from the Netherlands arrived yesterday and that was also the first day since November with temperatures above freezing. Rather unfortunate because one of the reasons she comes to Montréal is to go cross-country skiing with me.

So hopefully not all the snow will melt.

She doesn’t particularly likes dogs but still plays with Poupoune.

I haven’t written here in a while, and have a huge backloglog (pardon the pun) in pictures. Please forgive me, I’m terribly busy.

Anyway. I’ve been tagged again, this time by Frank, and I can’t wait a couple of weeks with my response, since he will be angry at me.

Here are the rules, they have to be included with this post:

People who get tagged must write in a blog of their own ten weird things or habits or little known facts about themselves as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you must choose six people to be tagged and list their names. No tag backs!

Here we go:

1. I almost always eat the same food for breakfast.
2. I generally don’t like small dogs.
3. I can bend my fingers very far back.
4. I don’t like crowds and don’t know many expensive words in English.
5. I often have lucid dreams.
6. For the past 3 weeks I had paint in my hair.
7. I sleep in pajamas. also in the summer.
8. I speak 5 languages badly.
9. I’m terrible with numbers.

I hereby tag Alison, Christelle, Beth, Zus and Pien.

That’s only five names, but they’re all women and I’m a contrarian. Also, I’m sure not many of them will follow up on this which is a good thing. If all five of them do, (and the 30 people they tag, and the next 180 et cetera) this meme will die very quickly by lack of blogs that haven’t been tagged. Ah well.

We’re expecting a guest from the Netherlands next week and we decided to use her as an excuse and a deadline to make the house nicer.

Because we were painting already we decided to paint the dining room as well. Not yellow, but light pink. The old colour was a drab brownish yellow, painted before Alison moved in to this apartment, so about 12 years ago. Time for a fresh layer of paint.

While we were at it I insisted on also removing the protruding rail that was installed halfway the walls and that could be used to display plates and other knick-knacks. I wanted to get rid of it because those plates, candles and various other things added a lot of clutter to an already dark and cluttered room.

The lower half of the walls, below the now removed rail, are covered with almost 80 year old pressed linoleum and the top of the walls are just plastered, so we needed something to cover the seam. We went to Home Depot and to my surprise and delight we found a wooden profile that was almost identical to the one that is used in the hallway.

It took some effort to come to an agreement with Alison on all these changes, but she’s happy with the result and so am I. And we were just in time for the arrival of our guest.