Day 15 - This is hard

Half way through this daily blog posting month and in case you haven't noticed, I have run out of stuff to write about.

It's a Friday. Middle of November. Montréal, Québec. It's cold. It's dark early.

Hard to find the motivation to do much of anything:  get up for work, exercise, sort through pictures, read, write. Not much different than January and February, really.

I suppose the thing to do is to look for the good things. For me right now, I'm enjoying cooking a lot. I remember the years in Club Med when I couldn't cook a single thing, ever. Some people would love that. I didn't. It would also be safe to say that last winter in India, I found it hard not to be able to cook.  Do you know what happens when you can't cook? For me, I start to imagine the most elaborate meals. All my favourite foods. Menus with pizza for each course. Menus with cheese for each course. All kinds of ridiculous and wonderful meals.

So. What'll be on the menu for next week?

(Will try harder to find something interesting for tomorrow.)

Day 14 - TED Talks

About a month after coming home from India, I decided to cancel my cable television service. I still have internet and I still have the AppleTV box, so I have access to fun stuff like Netflix.

Thanks to not having cable, I have done two things:

1. I have been reading more.
2. I have discovered TED Talks.

FYI - According to the TED website, they have over 1500 talks! That's a lot of video to watch. Not all of it will be interesting for me but there's still all kinds of stuff that is fascinating. If you have the chance to poke around on their website, or maybe watch a few videos, I think you'll find that regardless of the the topic, most of their presenters are quite remarkable speakers. I love that.

It's been over 3 months now and I think the only show I missed watching was the fourth season of Downton Abbey.

Day 13 - New computer

The company I work for has a great program. When our office supplied laptops get replaced, we have the option of purchasing our old laptops for a very good price. This is the only way I've been able to afford a new computer at home, every three years, for the last 9 years.

Just before I left Montreal for India, last January, I was advised that it was time to replace my laptop. However, seeing as I was going to be away on a leave of absence during the order processing time, I was told I would have to wait until my return in June to place this order.

So I went to India and I came home again. (Am asking myself why an awful lot lately, mostly thanks to the hideously cold weather.) I placed the order for the new laptop and the day came that I could pick up the new laptop and use that at my desk. Yeah! - a computer that worked faster (or so I'm told.)  Naturally, the IT department had to hang on to the old one for a little while to make sure of ... whatever they make sure of. A little while turned out to be a little longer than I thought possible. At long last, I picked up my old computer yesterday. Very nearly three months (I had been expecting about 1 month) from the time I picked up the new laptop, they finally decreed I could take my old one home.

I shouldn't complain. For less than $100 I have replaced this machine I'm using right now. It will be the weekend before I'm able to transfer my files and whatever else I should do. (May need to put in a call to Brother #1. *Ahem* - Hi, Eric!)

All of this to bring me to my point:  where can I get rid of an old laptop? It's 6 years old. It works fine. It's not fancy but it's pretty reliable. What happens to this poor thing that's been with me to India and back? Anybody have suggestions? I'd love to do something useful with it.

Day 12 - Sunday Cooking

Originally drafted on Sunday, before I had iTunes problems that messed up my head and I needed to vent so this post had to wait.

Venting done. Let's get down to business ...

Recently an acquaintance told me that in her Italian community, the question of the day on a Sunday is "Have you made your sauce yet?"  I smiled and lauged at the time. It made me think that my question of the day on a Sunday is usually "What am I cooking this week?"

For my weekly cook fest, I've only got 2 items to work on. By the way, am still eating last week's leftovers - everything I made, made a lot.  That's lunch Monday and Tuesday sorted!

In pictures:

Kale, potato and rosemary tart - Not so sure about this. Don't feel the potatoes had enough time to cook. **** Update: I was wrong! Potatoes are cooked through! But crust is overcooked and tastes burnt. Gross. The rest is delicious though. Will make it again, with a few modifications.

Homemade tomato sauce, as it was simmering. It got poured on top of some store-bought manicotti pre-stuffed and frozen (shameful, I know) but at least I made my own sauce. We can't all be domestic goddesses every week.

Day 11 - Remembrance Day

Chester's grave

On this 11th day of the 11th month, I am remembering my Grandmother's brother. We never met. He died 24 years before I was born (somebody will need to check my math on this.)

Here's a picture of his grave, and below, one of the cemetery where he is buried in Germany.

While I was an au-pair for a family in Munich in 1988-1989, I was lucky enough to be the one person in my family to ever make the journey to this site. To this day, there is not a year that goes by that I don't remember this visit.

The pictures were taken for my Grandmother as she had never had the chance to visit herself. Can you imagine how hard that must be, to never see your brother's final resting place? Hurts to think about. I would like to ask Grandma just how she feels about not visiting herself. Does she feel regret? Loss? What?

I would also like her to tell me the story that she told me once, many years ago. Here's how I remember it. For the record, it's entirely possible I'm making some up this up, but it's what I think I remember:  At the end summer of 1945, she was up at the cottage (I think) and she'd gotten up in the middle of the night. As she gazed at the night sky, she saw a shooting star and thought to herself, that's Chester, he's gone now. When the news came to the family that her brother had been killed in the war, she told me it wasn't really a surprise because she'd known, the instant she'd seen that shooting star, that he'd fallen.

Grandma is not a fanciful woman. She's thrifty, practical and honest. It wouldn't be like her to make up a story like that (at least for me.) Still, whenever I think of this story, it gives me chills.

Rest in peace, Great Uncle Chester.

Durnbach British and Canadian Military Cemetery

Day 10 - Technology

This is not at all the post I thought I would be writing today. Given that it's Sunday, I thought I'd write about what I'm cooking this week. But nooooo, technology has a way of stepping in at the most inconvenient time. Today is one of those days.

Somehow, some application necessary to iTunes has been deleted from my computer (don't ask) and I am now unable to do certain actions. I have had to remove iTunes from my computer and am now in the process of re-installing the whole thing. That sighing you hear? It's me.

It seems like every week I'm having to install, update or otherwise refresh some software on my computer. Today is one of those days where it drives me nuts. I am not a patient person by nature. All this installing, updating and otherwise refreshing ... can we say impatient?!

The pictures and brief text of what I'm cooking this week will just have to wait.

Blame it on technology.

Day 9 -Toys For Tickets

Have you heard about this program? In Red Deer, Alberta, people who receive parking tickets from 1 November to 6 December can pay with toys. Toys, people!

Apparently this program was launched 7 years ago and they have received approximately 3,300 to date so that less fortunate kids wake up to a Christmas present. Doesn't that just make you feel all warm and cuddly inside?

Can we do this here, Montreal?

(Thanks to George Stroumbolopoulos for posting the link on twitter the other day.)

Day 8 - Up On The Roof

Last Sunday Brother #3 fitted new insulation around the air conditioning pipes up on the roof.  This was one of the issues addressed during the home inspection a few weeks ago.

Saturday we bought the supplies and Sunday morning we climbed up to the roof and fixed it all up. For $5 it was all done in about 20 minutes.

Here are a few pictures of the results.

Hello up there!

View from the roof

Newly insulated pipes

Day 7 - Foodie Night With A Friend

A fellow foodie friend (Coucou Thanh-Thuy!) is on her way over for dinner tonight.

On the menu:

• Grainy bread with 2 kinds of cheese and cream cheese
• Steamed clams
• Pumpkin and roasted squash soup
• Leek, potato & Gruyère quiche
• Argula salad with tomatoes, radishes and carrots
• Pumpkin and dark chocolate chip cookies

And there may be some partaking of a good bottle of wine.

Will try my hardest to remember to take a picture of each plate/bowl.

Bon appétit!


Updated several hours later ............

As promised:  pictures from dinner

Steamed clams

Grainy breads with various cheeses

Pumpkin and roasted squash soup

Leek, potato & Gruyère quiche, with argula salad

Pumpkin and dark chocolate chip cookies

Day 6 - It's beginning to feel a lot like ...

Yes, I'm about to mention Christmas. In November. In the first week of November. Yeah, yeah - I know. Me. You may be asking yourself, who is this person and what has she done with Stef? Fret not, my friends. It's really me. And I have a bone to pick with Christmas preparations.

On 2 November there were Christmas decorations strung up in the malls. The Halloween candy wasn't even on sale yet!

Over the last few days I have noticed more signs of the upcoming Silly Season. The thing that threw me tonight:  arrived home from work, went to shut the drapes in my bedroom and noticed Christmas lights on the balcony of the house across the street. I may have even shouted an "Oh, come ON!"

Why, people, why? Why do we need to do all this business now? It's no wonder people get fed up with everything. We get bombarded at every turn with a holiday that means nothing even close to what it is supposed to mean.

Just - ugh.

I'm not a "Scrooge" even though it sounds like I am. I love to bake a lot of fun treats for my friends and family. I love to give gifts to my niece and nephew. I even kind of like buying a $10 gift for the Titcombe Family Annual Pit Game (played after Christmas dinner). It's all this other nonsense that drives me crazy. Songs and lights and decorations and craziness.

It's official: Scrooge has arrived.

Day 5 - Sold!

In all the excitement a few weeks ago, somehow I forgot to mention that my condo is SOLD!

It took 23 days and buyers are paying just over 98% of the asking price. Not too shabby. I will need to move by 1 March. This is good as it will give me lots of time to find something good for me.

Selling my condo this time was a whole lot easier than 4 years ago. Feeling good about my agent, the sale price and pretty much everything right now.

You should've seen me do my happy dance when I found out. I hadn't quite expected the deal to go through, and was resigned to having it on the market for a little longer. But no, the deal came through in the end and I couldn't be happier.

There are a few little things to take care:  fix 2 windows so they open AND close, and replace the insulation on some pipes on the roof.  Wanna see something cool?  Brother #3 was able to fix one of the windows (and was very quick and thorough installing the insulation on the a/c pipes on the roof). Here's a video to prove it can close without any funny business.

Day 4 - Tell me why I don't like Mondays

If ever there was a day that was hard to get through, Monday would be it. Unless of course, it's a Tuesday after a long weekend.

Mondays are hard work. I've been doing some online reading (read: wasting time) to see if there's a reason for this, and all I can tell you is that it's basically a reminder that we work, so we can live, so we can take the occasional holiday. Sigh. Not the most motivating of results.

But at least we have music (you knew this would come up) - and you can thank Mr. Geldof and the rest of The Boomtown Rats for the ever popular, especially on a Monday, Tell Me Why I Don't Like Mondays, to help you through the end of it.

Granted, the history surrounding the song isn't uplifting but Geldof reasoned it was the perfect senseless song to illustrate a senseless act (shooting spree at an elementary school in California.)  Strangely enough, this is another way to remember people who have passed away.

Dia de los muertos
Diwali
Tell Me Why I Don't Like Mondays
Remembrance Day (Canada)

I'm starting to think November is Remembrance Month. Huh

Day 3 - Diwali

Today is the start of Diwali, or the Festival of Lights, in India (and a number of other Asian countries).  After my little sojourn there earlier this year, this is one of those festivals I do wish I had been there to see and experience for myself.

If you don't know anything about Diwali, maybe a few pictures will entice you to learn a bit about it.  You can check out some beautiful photographs here, and also here.

Ah well, one day, right? Right!

Day 2 - Coffee

2 November - An ode to coffee

If I was a poet, I really would write an ode to coffee.

Weekdays, I don't drink coffee at home. There's just no time in the morning before leaving for work. The coffee at work isn't so much coffee as industrial machine clogged with gunk to provide you with, some days more than others, a coffee inspired beverage. On average, I would guess I end up buying coffee from a shop once a week.

Weekends I drink coffee at home. It's the first thing that happens after I get up. Before a shower, before turning on the computer, before de-arming the alarm system. The kettle is filled and plugged in for coffee.

I must admit to spending a little more for coffee beans than I would normally budget for food, but it does make a difference. I figure it lasts a long time and it's only for weekends, so why not, right?

After pouring the hot water over the ground coffee, I let it steep for exactly 4 minutes before pressing the plunger on the French press. Then I pour the coffee over warm milk (yes, I am just like my Grandmaman) and, as they say, Bob's your uncle!  He actually really is, in this case, no joke.

That first sip is what wakes me up. No more morning breath. Now it's full on coffee breath. Taste buds are alive with the heat of the coffee, that mix of bitter coffee with creamy (fine - skim ...) milk. Soooo tasty going down. And a few minutes after that, I can almost feel my brain waking up. No more is it a question of time - generally a few hours - before I feel fully awake, now it's just minutes.

Wakey, wakey!

Day 1 - NaBloPoMo

I'm not selling drugs. I'm going to try and blog every day this month - National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo)

1 November - Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. Ever since I started learning Spanish (1987?) and more so since I lived in Mexico (1995 - 1997), Dia de los Muertos has intrigued me far more than Halloween:  "honoring the deceased using sugar skulls,marigolds, and the favourite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts." (Thank you Wikipedia)

In the same way that spirituality is different for everyone, for me the Day of the Dead is about remembering. I remember friends who died as teens. The friends' parents who died far too young. Family members who died unexpectedly. And lately, my grandparents dying - except for my incredible 99 year old Grandma.

The weather was all over the place here in Montreal today. Cloudy, stormy, sunny and windy. As usual, I took the metro home from work, and on my walk from the metro to home, the wind pushed up and around me. I watched the tree branches get tossed this way and that. Noticed the heaviness, and layers, of the clouds. It was the force of the wind against me though, that had me thinking:  maybe this wind is all the people in my life who have died and they are here, now, today, reminding me. Speaking to me from beyond the grave. Speaking to me, in their own way.  It wasn't a scary or sad feeling. It was warm. It was comforting.  I liked it. 

Remember the dead. And remember to live.

Peace.

My Pen-Friend's Parents

A million years ago, Jilly and I became pen friends. We were 10 years old. Thanks to Jilly's great-aunt Lil, who was a member of my parents' church congregation, she hooked up two young girls who have been writing to each other for the last 34 years.

We haven't only written though. We've managed a few visits as well. Jilly came to Canada for a summer holiday when she was 15. The friendship we had on paper only grew as our visits became more frequent over the next 20+ years.  I was fortunate enough to be part of Jilly's wedding, and even have the great honour of being god-mother to one of her three amazing daughters. But you know, life happens, and the visits have become quite rare now (9 years since our last). Thanks to technology though, we do still write, though not as often as we did when we were teenagers.

Last night, by some amazing circumstance or something ... I don't know what to call it, but thrilled it happened - Jilly's parents were in Montreal on a tour (Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, Québec City) and I was able to meet up with them and spend a few hours catching up on all the family news. What a total pleasure!

Seeing Pat & Brian has made me realise how much I have missed seeing Jilly and her family, and all the fun and laughs we've had over the years. Clearly a visit is long overdue and you know me, I love to travel! But it's also high time Jilly and John (her husband), make the trek over from England to spend a little holiday in Montréal.

Here's a little picture of the three of us from last night.

With Brian &  Pat

Change

How many more times will I have the chance to sit at my desk and look out this window?

Even the tennis ball that I constantly roll under my foot :)

When has change often occurred in your life? Is it the spring, summer, fall or winter?  For me spring doesn't usually bring a lot of change (that I can think of) but rather fall. Fall is the time that I have mostly, but not always, moved to other countries, other homes, other jobs, other relationships.

This fall I hope to be moving. I signed the papers with my real estate agent last week, and today a photographer stopped by to take the pictures that will help sell the place.  I won't be moving far. No more lengthy trips to India (this year). I'll stay in Montreal but hope to find a nicer, quieter neighbourhood. No more drunken fools outside my bedroom window every night of the week, no more lifetime supply of earplugs.

Tempting to write about Montreal's delicate political climate but I'm not nearly articulate enough to present an argument properly. Suffice it to say, I'm staying - for now.

44 (?)

Today's my 44th birthday. How did that happen?!

Today I can honestly say I don't feel my age. Granted, 2 glasses of rosé might have something to do with that but whatever.  Yesterday was an entirely different story. And who knows what tomorrow will feel like.

I have big plans for the next year. More yoga, more triathlons, more books, more photos. But first, the thing I need most right now, is a little more laughter.  Work in progress.

Peace and may all your lives be filled with some really big belly laughs.

Miss Representation

I have just finished watching Miss Representation and have pledged to take action to immediately make a difference:

1. Tell 5 people (hopefully more than 5 people will read this but I have also posted on twitter, so that must count for at least 5 people combined) about the film and share the trailer: http://bit.ly/MissRepTrailer

2. Parents- watch TV and films with your children.  Raise questions like “What if that character had been a girl instead?” (I don't have kids, but would encourage my friends and family with children, to pose the question.)

3. Remember your actions influence others. Mothers, aunts and loved ones- don’t downgrade or judge yourself by your looks. Fathers, uncles and loved ones—treat women around you with respect.  Remember children in your life are watching and learning from you.

4. Use your consumer power. Stop buying tabloid magazines and watching shows that degrade women. Go see movies that are written and directed by women (especially on opening weekend to boost the box office ratings). Avoid products that resort to sexism in their advertising.

5. Mentor others! It’s as easy as taking a young woman to lunch. Start by having open and honest conversations with a young person in your life.

You are now dialed into a national movement to stand up to sexism and challenge the media's limiting portrayals of gender. Together we will make a huge impact on contemporary society.

Don't forget to visit missrepresentation.org for frequent updates and other ways of getting involved.

Back in the kitchen

Finally started cooking again.  Look at these tasty little treats!