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We both worked hard in the garden to make it a bit more presentable. Alison planted a lot of plants which is really hard because our garden only has 15 cm of topsoil on a bed of rock and gravel. So you really have to dig hard to make (oversize) holes to put the plants in. We actually should dig out the whole garden but that is too much work and will destroy all existing plants and trees.

I myself worked hard on a new fence between us and our neighbours. The new neighbour removed the big hedge dividing our garden and for the past year there was only a bare metal fence. Not exactly a very intimate situation. And now with the lovely weather (26 ?C yesterday) and we’re both sitting and dining outside it’s nice to have a bit of privacy and not see every move they make. And vice versa.

A reason to finish it, is that tomorrow we have a webloggers meeting in our house, and being it such nice weather we probably want to spend some time in the garden. Deadline, I love deadlines!

We had a water heater tank break down a couple of weeks ago, I had to clean up the basement to make room for the repair people of Hydro-Solution, the company that rents water heaters. Since I had put everything away anyway, it was a good time to lay a new, level, wood floor over the ondulating concrete. So I added 30 square meters of floor to my basement workshop. That’ll give me a lot of extra room to work and build nice things, because the old situation was kinda crowded. I need to make some extra racks for tools and material storage, and then I’m all set.

Now we only need to get rid of the heating vents because they’re very low and I already bumped my head twice. But that requires major changes in our heating system and we haven’t decided yet what we’re going to do about that.

Lie in the grass. Enjoy the blue sky. Relax.

I didn’t lock up the dogs in the kitchen when I was working in the basement. Apparently Pepe took a tour around the house looking for me, with his blanket still attached to him. So he basically swept the house.

Don’t you love dogs that like to do the spring cleaning?

Colander art.

Today three new Metro stations, connecting Montréal to Laval, opened. For the occasion riding the Metro was free so we defied the huge crowds and went to Laval. There we saw the new stations have a new feature: elevators. What a novel idea. Of course there are only two other stations that have elevators (the neighbouring ones in Laval) so their use is fairly limited. It is apparently too expensive to retrofit the other 60 stations with elevators but I read somewhere that 3 of them get them in the coming years. So if you’re in a wheelchair, you can travel with the metro soon.
I myself. try to avoid getting into a wheelchair for a while. And if I do, I might go back to the Netherlands.

But first we go to Laval. But what does one do in Laval? One goes to a shopping mall. The shopping mall that has an Apple Store in them, so I could ask Alison what Mac she would like as a replacement for her ancient Powerbook that gave up the ghost two days ago. Not that we have the money to actually buy one, but we had to have a goal, in Laval.

We skipped the free shuttle busses so went by foot. Walking in the suburbs is an eye-opening experience. Firstly, all the distances are far greater than they look on the map (that might be related to the scale of the map). Secondly, there are no sidewalks, so you have to either walk on the road and be prepared to get into that wheelchair after all, or walk in the muddy strip between the road and… and what? Well lots of, eh, lots that aren’t developed yet. Lots that are waiting to be transformed in yet another shopping mall or shiny new office building. Unfortunately a lot of developers thought they would strike pure gold when they bought these lots so most are still barren. Maybe in a couple of decades they will be built upon.

When we, after more than an hour, finally arrived in the Carrefour Laval, the biggest and shiniest shopping mall of Québec ó not to be confused with the neighbouring shopping malls Centre Laval, Marché Laval and (original name) Centropolis Lavaló we had just enough time to have an overpriced lunch on a terrace inside the Carrefour. Bad choice but Alison was low on blood sugar and had to eat. Immediately.
After that we went to the Apple Store (we decided what Mac we’ll buy, eventually), windowshopped, and we even bought some clothes for Alison. Man, do I hate shopping malls. Everything is fake (well, the plants were actually real) and there are way too many people. I just don’t feel well in them, they make me queasy. But it was 5 o’clock before we knew it so we could go home again.

This time we took the bus back to the Metro station.

Dear Maestro,

My wife has a new job and travels a lot and she’s in Toronto right now and I felt too lazy to prepare a fresh meal myself. So I bought one of your Wood-fired pizzas that come in a giant box with a saliva-inducing picture.

I don’t know why I keep buying you pizzas because they never look and taste as good as on your packaging. I know you say “suggested serving” on the packaging, but I thought that only meant that I don’t have the wood-fired oven with its licking flames in the background. I should have known better, it means that instead of spreading the topping on the whole pizza, you just put a tiny drop of onions, cheese and dried tomatoes in the middle, and expect that gravity and the heat of the oven does the rest. Well, gravitational forces are strong in my house, but they can’t make up for a lack of matter.

I basically grew up on those pre-made pizzas, like every student in the Netherlands that lives alone does. So I can call myself an expert in the field. But not only are the store-bought pizzas much cheaper in my home country, they also are of much better quality. And don’t tell me that is because it’s closer to Italy and you can’t find the same quality ingredients here, maestro, because I don’t buy that argument.

So maestro, yet again I’m very disappointed in your offerings. I’m even tempted to call the toll-free number on the back of the box and tell you I’m not 100% satisfied. Not 100% satisfied? I’m not even 50% satisfied.

Yes, the mix of dough and cheese you put in your box, in no way bearing any resemblance to the glorious picture, filled me, but it didn’t taste very good and certainly didn’t live up to my expectations.

Maestro, I bet you aren’t even a real Italian, because I’m sure every real Italian would be seriously ashamed of this item you dare to call “pizza”. I almost would suggest that you crawl into that wood-fired oven of you (that probably consists of an electrically heated conveyor belt with a sprinkling of charcoal) and check out if your own fat melts as well as the cheese on this cardboard semicircle. But I won’t, because it would be too cruel for your underpaid factory workers to endure that sight.

So I’ll do what I should have done in the first place, and never again will buy one of your products. That’ll teach you.

Sincerely.

mare

(I’m hungry again)

This picture makes me very happy.

This is the first time Alison went cycling with me. Actually it is the first time Alison cycled in almost 20 years. And, much to her and my surprise it went really, really well.

Alison was very anxious beforehand because she still had bad memories of the last time she had cycled. She wasn’t totally comfortable on my old bike that, albeit it’s a teenager bike, has a higher crossbar than she would have preferred. She also needed a bit of help, in the form of a bench or a rock, to provide a starting point. But she managed quite well and she actually liked it.

We went to the national provincial park Œles-de-Boucherville, a couple of flat islands in the St. Lawrence river were cars aren’t allowed so they are a haven for cyclists. What we didn’t know was that only one island was accessible because the ferry that links the islands wasn’t in service yet. But nevertheless we had a good time, and we did two rounds around Sainte-Marguerite island. Not bad for a bike novice.

And yes, she had a sore butt the next day.

It’s spring weather and we have our first picknick in the park. Last week it snowed, but this weekend they predict more than 20 degrees and sunny weather.

[yes, that’s Alison’s new haircut.]

For the first time in my life I cut somebody’s hair. That somebody was of course Alison, who had a lot of it so it’s not so bad.

Don’t worry, she still has lots of it, I just cut it a bit. And a bit more, and a bit more.

I decided to cut her after she had tried to cut my hair and eh… failed a bit. Just a little bit, but it’s on the back of my head so it’s not so bad because I don’t see it anyway. But I had to take revenge. Her colleagues think that my revenge suits her very well. So I failed as well.