Tag: friends

Canada trip redux

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I’m back in the land of cheese and chocolate. I was in Canada for the last 2 weeks – a “workation” – as I needed to work remotely while trying to relax and visit with family and friends. The work part got done. The visiting part was mostly done, but the relaxing part was… less successful. There’s a lot of anxiety around my dad’s health concern, and there was some family drama on both sides of the ocean, which meant that there was a lot of things to still juggle. I’m happy I went and saw my family – I needed that – and I managed to do/see some of the things I had planned, but not all of them and the return home was brutal.

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Stepping 20 years into the past

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Met up with the boys tonight. Some of them still kept in touch with each other, some not as much, but all made the effort to come by and spend an evening together when they knew I was in town. Some of them I’d not seen in close to 12-15 years. I’m honestly, truly, deeply touched. These were my guys, my tribe, my friends when I was living in Montreal and tonight, it felt at times like I never left. We retold the old stories of our most stupid times together and we just laughed at and with each other. I’ll cherish this night for a long time.

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A very Swiss rock festival

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Friends had a spare ticket to the Riverside festival in Aarburg, to go see Adam and the Metal Hawks and Status Quo.

I didn’t know I’d seen AMH clips on Facebook, he’s the guy that got a shout out from Jack Black. It looked like a fun time ahead.

The venue was really cool. The festival is paired with an Oldtimers’ Route 66 festival – think rockabilly, classic cars, pinups, tophat & tails, big moustaches and epic beards.

The AMH show had a good energy. The beer, for a Swiss festival, was very reasonably priced.

After the act, we had a bit of food (goot burger, decent price) and went to walk along the river, waiting for the headline show.

This is when we realized that this was probably the most Swiss festival ever. The air was already rich with the smell of melted cheese, but then we noticed that the festival ground was right next to a dairy farm. The cows, if anything, were incredibly not bothered.

Then it was time for the Quo. This time, along with the smell of raclette, the air had a distinct tinge of cannabis. Bit surreal.

The main stage area was packed. I don’t generally mind crowds, but even my urge to kill was rising, with people always jostling you to go back and forth – being polite about it, but still annoying.

Mira and Emo went up in the ferris wheel and took a picture of the crowd. Amusingly, you can spot Gino and I.

The show was really good. I only knew a couple of songs going in (In the army now, Rocking all over the world), but Katy had commented that all the songs kind of sound the same so I should enjoy it. One or two songs didn’t quite age well and aren’t really PC anymore (The Oriental, I’m looking at you). For gray-haired old dudes, they still put on a great show. I really enjoyed it.

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More old pictures – university friends

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A bunch of pictures from university days:
– the crappy student flat I shared with Seb on Edouard-Montpetit
– the cockroach motel on Aylmer, in the McGill Ghetto
– the flat I shared with Michel on St-Marc
– a bunch of pictures from Alex’s birthday before he moved to NY
– the party flat on Willowdale… oh the memories

and some others that I don’t remember :)

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45 revolutions around the sun

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Today I celebrate my 45th birthday, surrounded by my wifey and the boy, good friends in the Jones and the Lannuttis, Not-my-dog, and lots of good food and drink. We had such a nice evening we actually forgot to Instagram that shit and instead just enjoyed the company and the experience!! Shocking, I know.

You’ll have to take my word for it that the spread included homemade sushi, chicken wings with blue cheese sauce, Swiss sausages from the bbq, Italian caprese salad, Greek tzaziki, Croatian red pepper tapenade, cheese from France, Switzerland and the Netherlands, bbq mushrooms and courgettes, booze from pretty much everywhere and cake made specially by Katy. A truly eclectic but oh so satisfying buffet. Table was full!

I had a great evening. Thank you friends and family for your company!

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Bonne fête, la Suisse ??

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Yesterday was Swiss national day. The eve of which all shops close early and mess up your berry pavlova making plans. A day where everything should be shut (but nobody told the vendors in the weekly farmer’s market, thereby reviving your berry pavlova plans).

Clan Jones and clan Grogan-Cote met up at clan Lannutti for a great evening of friends, food (!!, including the berry pavlova and the boozy pineapple), wine, laughter and lots of doggy kisses.

Lily was a major center of attention and she loves every minute of it. She loved walking home in the middle of a downpour at 1am a lot less, but she got a good towelling off and she’s going to have a quiet day today, probably like a lot of people.

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Swissmas, with friends

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It was loud, chaotic, funny, foodie, boozy. It was lovely. We were 30 people and a dog, which is probably about the maximum amount that will fit in the flat.

Our friends and neighbours:
Paul and Lam
Colin, Karen, Meg and Davey
Jennifer, Jonathan, Milla and James
Mary-Jane
Mira, Emmanuel and Eliza

My co-workers:
Damian and Gillian
Roko, Rudger and Suttipong

Katy’s clients:
Ewalina
Melody
Christina, Mark and Zoe
Guillaume, Françoise, Raphael and Lily

It kind of went by in a blur! You try and see and talk to everyone. You hope everyone has a good time, and enough to eat and drink. On that last note, I think it was a frank success, as we were actively pushing people to take food with them because there was no way we’d be able to eat everything.

What’s really cool is that people knew each other without us knowing. Emmanuel goes to the same school as Davey. Eliza does ballet with Milla. Paul and Colin both teach at the EPFL. Melody and Mira both work for PMI. What’s also very comforting is the fact that we feel… integrated. We have a community of friends, colleagues, parents, clients that we’re happy to share food, drink and time with – to invite into our home and to invite to get to know each other. It’s a good feeling.

And there was a dog. And the cats were actually around (and being social and not hiding).

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