A long and massive update

I've been a bad blogger recently. I've been keeping up to date on the reading part, but the writing part has suffered. I blame sbourge's keyboard. I'm writing this entry on my laptop and it's sheer bliss to be able to blind-type again, instead of having to peck at keys on an AZERTY keyboard. Those things are just evil, but I digress. I've been keeping all my thoughts on paper so I wouldn't lose them, so now I just need to type everything up. I missed my keyboard. Good keyboard *pats the keyboard*

Our story starts on Saturday night, when Stephane convinced me to go out with him and some of his LJ friends to an 80s night at a club he knows on the Plateau. I quickly realized that I'm an old fart. Going out to clubs was never really my thing, but now, hella no. I fail to see the fun of getting shit faced for its own sake in a poorly ventilated bar where the music is so loud that you can't understand what the person that's screaming in your ear is saying. Most people in the club were not born when the music that was being played was made. I was more excited by his description of a cosy tea room that we were going to try out later in the week.

I'm old; I'm pretty good at accepting it gracefully. I sometimes wonder how it happened and how I should feel about it, but most of the time I'm glad to be where I am and how I am (though more teenage sex would have been appreciated, but hey, what can you do…).

On Sunday, I got wet. As in, soaked-jeans-clinging-to-your-legs wet. Not once, but 3 times. I think I caught a cold cause I've had a crap throat all week. I met up with eniran and ashre79 for breakfast. I was waiting in line to get in to Eggspectation at the corner of Drummond/Maisonneuve when I called them to see if they wanted to join me for brunch. Sara said that it would be easier for her to park at the old Forum, so I told them I'd meet them there. Walking there was my first soaking.

I was shocked to discover that the Forum Eggspectation is no longer an Eggspectation, but something called Burgers and Benedicts. The food was tasty but horribly from a health perspective: eggs benedict with bacon on waffles. So good, but damn! It's a good thing that my diet has generally improved in the last little while, cause this week was sometimes painful for it :)

Sara and Em wanted to go to the old port to run an errand, so I tagged along and then we went book and DVD shopping. I'd forgotten how annoying it is to have to factor sales tax to every thing you buy. I went to all my old haunts: Indigo, Chapters, Metro Video. I didn't find any DVDs that were screaming at me to buy them. In fact, the only thing that really caught my eye was some over-expensive hentai porn (but that was mostly for the giggle factor of seeing Sara and Em give the evil eye to a creepy old man who was trying to browse the porn rack without actually seeming to do so).

I headed over to Indigo, where I ran into an old co-worker that I had a bit of a crush on when I was working at the hospital (no, not the crazy german girl!) before having a good perusal of the fantasy and fiction section and finding a few interesting titles to buy for the trip back.

I walked Sara and Em back to their car and got soaked. I was supposed to go have dinner with Michel at Bishoku, but it's closed on Sundays so we went to Weinstein & Gavinos instead. Got soaked walking there. After a really nice dinner, we played count the whores along our usual post-meal walk and I actually won a round!

Monday was an expensive day. I bought 3 pairs of jeans (which isn't too bad, considering that I paid the price in canadian dollars that I would normally pay in british pounds) and bought some shiny, pretty and expensive things for Katy at the old port and Marche Bonsecours. I got lost trying to get to the Studio Tranchefile (where I took my bookbinding course) but I finally made it and spent an hour or so putting in a custom order for a wedding photo album.

People are going to think I'm a bit nuts for the amount of money I'm going to spend on that album, but I think it's going to be worth it. It's going to be hand-bound in burgundy leather and will have red marbled paper inside covers, one cream paper folio (for signatures), 12 black paper folios for pictures and a cream paper envelope (to put scrapbook stuff). It's also going to be embossed with our names in silver on the cover. I've seen their work and it's amazing.

As I was making my way back downtown, I ran into Chu, the head lab tech while I was doing my master's. He's still as nuts as ever :) I had sushi for dinner with Stephane at Mikado and Michel joined us for a spot of tea at Camellia Sinensis, the tea room that Stephane had mentioned on Sunday. It's really nice and I can't wait to bring Katy there. We had a nice evening just chatting and laughing about this, that and a few raunchy other things.

On Tuesday, I went to work with Stephane and said hello to people at Ste-Justine then went downtown to meet Shibl and Ata for lunch (Bishoku!!!!!) and then I putzed around a bit downtown before going to Michel and Isabelle's condo. I told them that I'd cook them a proper curry dinner, which was quite well received. Spent a nice evening chatting on the terrace on their roof and then had a quiet walk with Michel while heading back to the metro.

Quote of the day for Tuesday: “I'm more annoyed that you went to sushi without me than I am that you want to go to the strippers”. I love my sweetie :)

I had a lazy day for most of Wednesday, because my week was starting to catch up with me. I had a pisser of a headache for part of the day, but that was taken care of with some advil and other herbal medicines. I cooked a thank-you curry for Stephane and headed to POs place for a night with the boys. Amusingly, when I got to his apartment block, I pushed the wrong apartment buzzer and the person who answered the door was an old friend who'd moved in next door to PO and didn't know I was in town. I got an O-face, which was unexpected and really funny.

The evening was a smashing success. We played a game of Risk 2210 and a game of Knights of the Round Table, which I'd never played before. I hadn't had a night like that since before I left for England. It had all the essential ingredients for a good boys' night, including St-Hubert take-out (club sandwich, white meat, hold the tomatoes, extra cheese, with the chip gravy in a separate bag). Went to bed at 2am and got up at 7:30 with PO and Sonia and headed to the bus station to come back to Ottawa.

All in all, a very satisfying trip to Montreal. I did most of what I'd set out to do and saw all the people I wanted to see.