Back to Life, Back to Reality
How time flies.
December was essentially a joke for me. I started the month off in Japan. Then I worked just shy of two weeks before taking 11 more days off (and venturing up to Montreal). I guess there was no point in purchasing a subway pass last month, huh?
Anyway, I can’t remember where I left off the last time I blogged – except that it was around Christmas. Since then, I got my new laptop (replacing the one that got flooded at Best Buy) and Randy hooked me up with WiFi for my apartment so now I can chat and surf on the loo (not that I would…but I could – and that’s what matters).
Randy and I also trekked up to Montreal for 4 days/3 nights after Christmas. We had a good time, but BRRRRRR – the temperature never passed 19 degrees and the HIGH one day was only 14 degrees (meaning it was much lower for the bulk of the day).
We did manage to see lots of sights (Ste Catherine Street, Viuex Montreal, the Village, Plateau Montreal, Museum of Contemporary Art) and I did loads of bargain shopping. Photos are below.
We returned back to Boston on Saturday, December 30th. Randy’s car has GPS and it directed us to drive 1.5 hours east of Montreal (thru Canada) and then go south on Route 91 to Route 93. It snowed nearly the entire drive back home and it was quite lovely driving through the mountains of Quebec (versus the usual route I’ve taken through flat farmland). However, the roads were a wee bit treacherous as a result of the snow and ice until we reached the Massachusetts border.
On New Year’s Eve we got together with Chris and Pete for dinner, desserts, games and “ball dropping”. However, we weren’t looking at the clock when it struck midnight and missed the event by a minute or two. Conveniently, Pete has Tivo so we turned back time by 2 minutes and relived it again as if it was happening live.
Yesterday (New Year’s Day) Randy and I went to the Museum of Science to see BodyWorld’s….the exhibit where dead bodies are preserved with plastination (sp?) and then exhibited for science. Most were ripped open in bizarre manners to expose organs and bones and nervous systems. It was mildly cool – but I was bit bored by the end. The bodies are actually exposed to the public (not behind glass) so you can walk up to within inches of the real corpses and inspect closely. Still, for $16 I’d hoped for more. And I was hungry when we got there so looking at all of the skinless exposed muscle only made me hungrier. Does that make me a cannibal? Randy’s friend, Sandra, said she was craving beef jerky as we left so I don’t think I was alone.
Anyway, enough about food, here are my shots of Montreal:
Can you believe this is the window display for an optometrist?
And this is the sign for a restaurant
And this is a church (okay, fine, it’s actually a strip club)
…but this is a church (across the street from the strip club)
…and another church
Here we are “enjoying” 11 degrees
…and a better way to enjoy that temperature
It’s like Paris…but cheaper…and colder…and closer!
Horses!
More churches
City Hall at night
Dinner anybody?
5 Comments
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Beautiful pix…you can’t beat Montreal. And I’m endlessly taken with that piggy. Happy New Year, Pooble!
Montréal looks like it was fun! Glad you enjoyed yourself. 🙂
You both look fantastic, glad you had fun.
(What did you expect at BMoS? I don’t know – I like the medical / sciencey thing, but this might be a little extreme for me… I find I spend too much time wondering what the hell I’m going to do if I turn a corner and recognize someone. Gaaaak.)
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who was disappointed with BodyWorlds 2.
btw, Karl- you have a fantastic eye. I always love the pics you post on your website.
Happy New Year!
Thanks, Sean. Though, I have to credit Randy with most of the photos I just posted. Of the Montreal pictures, I only took two of them!
Though, most of the Japan photos were mine (with techniques I learned from Randy, of course).