So it's the holidays soon and Montreal is all lit up with cheerful decorations. The temperature has been going up and down from 5 degrees Celsius to -10 degrees Celsius (41F to 14F) and at it's coldest, it's been quite difficult to go outside at all. Also, with the snow and ice it makes it a lot more difficult to walk around. My warm classic Converse shoes with the lining won't do the job in the snow and ice, so I went and got myself a new pair of boots.
When I went to buy them it wasn't too cold so I was able to take my gloves off and take out my phone to grab a few pictures. Place Ville Marie had its usual Christmas tree made of lights and the McGill College boulevard was all decorated. And the BMO building was red white and green. It was quite nice.
Further east, at Place Des Arts, there was some kind of outdoor exhibition of some kind called Luminotherapie. There were these angular arches that were put up with different coloured lights called "icebergs" and when you walked under them, they changed colours and played different sounds.
Later, this weekend I did some holiday shopping. While walking on Saint-Laurent, I came across a new restaurant. Burger Royal, located at 3820 boul. Saint-Laurent. The place was still being renovated, but they were opening up that night! It looks like it's going to be a gourmet burger place. If there's one thing that Montreal is painfully lacking is a decent gourmet burger joint that's not excruciatingly priced. Hopefully these guys won't charge too much! I was really happy to see this because even though my top favourite meal of all time is a steaming hot bowl of ramen noodles with all the fixins, a good gourmet hamburger with quality ingredients comes at a close second. I couldn't go and try it out that evening because I had a little dinner event to attend, but hopefully next time I'm around I'll be able to go and try it out! I can't wait!
Montreal is pretty big on art in general. There are a lot of museums, galleries, theatres, orchestras and there are always street performers. Actually, there are even designated spots in the metro stations for people to set themselves up and play music. And of course, there's a huge hipster indie rock music scene as well. I mean, every fucking hipster band here is trying to be the next Arcade Fire and they all hang out at the Divan Orange on Saint-Laurent or Esco Bar on Saint-Denis.
But, enough of the hipsters. The scariest thing they'll ever do is give you this judgmental stare through their vintage Ray Bans, but there is a far scarier thing going on here. The stuff nightmares are made of.
In the world of art, if there is one thing that La Belle Province (that's a nickname for Québec in case you're wondering) is famous for, are clowns. You know the world famous Cirque du Soleil? They're from here. And while they're away, there's always a few of them left behind to perform in some theatres around town.
Oh, and did I mention that I almost poop myself in sheer horror every day when I take the subway to work? Here's why:
That poster has been up at Place Des Arts in the arts and entertainment district for two years now for every holiday to promote the Nutcracker ballet show. Look at that fat bastard! LOOK AT HIM! Clearly his stomach is so big because he just swallowed someone whole! I mean it's quite possible when you look at the size of his huge fucking mouth! Every time I look at his face I gotta hold on to something because I feel like I'm being sucked in like a black hole!
FEED MEEEE!
As if that wasn't enough, this year there's another show being promoted at the Tohu, some kind of local theatre dedicated to circus acts alone. And you can't have a circus without clowns! Especially evil monster vampire clowns from circus hell like this mother fucker here. I swear, Stephen King must've lived in Montreal to get inspiration for his book "It" with this kind of material.
He will eat your face off slowly with a thousand little bites
and suck your soul through your eye sockets!
When I saw that ad plastered across an entire piece of wall in the metro, my legs went numb and fell on the ground, trying to scream in horror, but the very fear choked me and all that came out was a whimper. People were gathering around me as I convulsed in a puddle of my own pee making weird little chirps while covering my face in terror. That was not a good day.
After a few sessions of therapy I was finally able to stand and fight the urge to curl into a ball in the presence of these monsters and gained back control of my life. But, this has been a terrible experience and I am still having nightmares about these fucking clowns. I'm sure I'm not the only one with this problem. Maybe I should start a Montreal clown-o-phobia (or coulrophobia) support group and organize a protest to stop terrorizing the population with these abominations. I mean, other than clowns and circuses, if there's something Quebecers are good for are protests.
Hey all. Man, it's been a while since I wrote anything. It's been, like, over a month now. There's just been a lot happening in my life lately. I still walked around the town though, whenever possible, but's it's been really difficult to find the time between dodgeball games and those awkward yoga classes that I've been taking.
I received a 5 courses package as a gift and the studio is located in an apartment in Verdun. I live close to the Olympic stadium so it's quite a long distance from home, but I went anyways because I had nothing better to do of my time. I went there on Wednesday because that was the only day where they had evening classes late enough for me to attend after work. And, it totally wasn't what I expected. The instructor made us build these sets with a bunch of blocks and cushions and chairs and make us strap our legs together and then we had to lie down on the whole thing that we had built. It just felt so freakin' awkward and I eventually ended up with my legs all numb and cramped up and with a really bad back pain. The worst part was when he made us use the chairs. They're basically foldable metal chairs, you know like the ones wrestlers use in the WWF. We had to put our legs through them and lie backwards with our head down with our back curved over the edge of the seat. Anyway, it's hard to explain, but it was really fucking painful. It was so bad that other people in the class complained as well and started asking questions about what the fuck we were doing because this shit was not the kind of yoga we were used to do in other studios. I had my last yoga class yesterday and I am not going back there again.
Dodgeball has been awesome. I signed up as an individual player and the organization who takes care of the whole thing, the Montreal Sports Social Club, paired me with other individuals who signed up by themselves. I didn't know what to expect. I mean, I used to play back when I lived in Ottawa with a group of friends and friends of friends who eventually became my friends. Now, I was starting all over with a bunch of strangers and I didn't know if I was going to have as much fun. Of course the Ottawa team, Shanarnia (it's a long story) was a group of crazy people who were out to make fools of themselves and the chemistry was just there from the start. This new team, now called team Thunderballs, was a bit awkward at first. But, after hanging out a couple of times we really warmed up to each other and we're having a blast every time we play. The best part though is that recently we started to go for drinks after the games and lately we've been playing around NDG near that Korean-Japanese grocery store. There's a tiny little Irish pub in that area called Honey Martin that I spotted when I was walking around that place. It's a dark little hole in the wall with a really cozy atmosphere. The people that hang out there seem super cool. I actually spotted Big James there the first night we went. (He's a YouTube "celebrity" I guess...) For three weeks now, every Tuesday night we've been going there and it so happens to be trivia night as well! And we've been pretty good! So far we've been able to tie with another team and lost the tie breaker every time, but the last time we went we actually won! We got small beers as prizes which was pretty cool. Some of these questions are tough and require some deep pop culture knowledge. It's a lot of fun and I will try to go back there again for the next few weeks until the dodgeball season starts again.
Also, I went back to the Asian grocery store again and got this:
Yes, that is a big-ass box of big-ass Pocky. I mean, check out the size of that thing!!
It's big and long and chocolatey brown,
just the way I like 'em!
I also got some Dragonball Z soda pop cans. I got those to share with a couple of friends of mine with whom we used to share a passion for those comic books back when we were kids. Also, I bought every flavour of Ramune they had in stock. Sadly, they didn't have any funky flavours like curry or shrimp or some other fucked up Japanese flavour. Speaking of curry, if you've never had Japanese curry, you have got to try it. I recommend going to the restaurant Ramen-Ya on Saint-Laurent as their curry is very good. I got myself a few pouches of 3min curry to make on the fly when I get tired of Ramen. (Hahahahaha, as if I would ever get tired of ramen, lol!) Finally, I got myself some Japanese mochi balls which are sweet soft gelatinous rice gelatin balls stuffed with all sorts of cream or jellies. It's pretty good.
I also switched jobs recently. That was really hard. Not so much on the effort it took and the stress and all that, but rather difficult of leaving some really good friends behind. I really had made some good friends at my other job and I miss them. But, I think this was for the best. I have gone through some rough times this year and that left a pretty bad impression with my previous employer. I feel like they lost confidence in me and my abilities and I felt like I had lost some pretty good opportunities because of my personal problems. So, this new job that was offered, not only was it more in line with my career objectives, it was also a way for me to get a fresh start. But yeah, I lost the company of some really good friends and that sucks. In exchange I got this amazing view of downtown Montreal though, which is pretty fucking awesome.
This new job is going to be a challenge. I'm working on an application for digital advertisement signs such as those large multi-screen advertisement panels we find in the metro or giant screens in Time Square. The programming language is one of the hardest to master in the industry and it's taking me a lot of concentration to be able to work, but I think I'm doing pretty good for myself as long as I don't get distracted. I hope I'll be able to perform in that new job this time and really shine. I think I deserve it after all the crap I've been through since I graduated.
Other than that, I've been keeping busy walking around, even though I haven't posted anything in a while. It's been super cold too lately, so it has been very difficult to motivate myself to go out in sub-zero temperatures. It's also difficult to take pictures when your hands are frozen or you're wearing gloves. Additionally, I felt that some shoes I had were inadequate for this kind of weather. Namely, my small Converse shoes. So, I went and got myself a pair of warm ones like I had found earlier this year. They have done the job quite well and kept my feet nice and warm during cold days. Plus, they look fantastic. As long as there's no snow storms I think I should be fine with those shoes. Otherwise, I might have to get myself some new boots.
This is all I have to say for now. There's more stuff to talk about, but that'll be for another post. I should have more stuff to write about now that my yoga classes and dodgeball season are over. Can you believe we went all the way to the finals?!?! We fought against the #1 team in the entire league! And lost miserably, but at least we made 5 points! (And they made 15, but whatever.)
Back in mid-October was an event in Montreal that started as a small, unique parade back in Sacramento, California. But, somewhere along the way word of it came out and the people around the world (well, mainly North America) took it to a whole 'nother level! I'm talking about the Zombie walk!
My good ol' friend Fouf went last year and I was sad that I had missed it. When he told me about it this year I absolutely wanted to go no matter what. Well, it turns out there was a record attendance this year. It was HUGE. I don't have the exact numbers, but I was told that there was a lot more than ever before. This even has really caught on. Especially since the start of the hit TV show The Walking Dead.
Case in point
Honestly, I wasn't really prepared for that day. I had completely forgotten about it and my friend was working the night shift at his new job so he got up kind of late and gave me a last minute call to ask me if I wanted to go. Of course I did! So I checked in my wardrobe for some old clothes that I keep for when I go to the family cottage in the woods and go fishing and stuff, ripped them apart, bought some cheap makeup at the pharmacy and voila! Insta-zombification!
My friend though was a little more prepared than I was. He decided to have a theme going for him. He dressed himself up as a zombie golfer! His costume was a hit, especially with the older spectators. He did look pretty funny.
We were a bit late so we had to hurry and put the make up on and then we walked from his place at the Berri Uqam metro to Place-Des-Arts where the march started. We got there just in time and were able to join the crowd. When I got there, I felt pretty cheap with my little make up from the pharmacy and my torn clothes with fake blood. Some people had some pretty elaborate make up with latex for fake bruises and bloody gashes and contact lenses and wigs and all sorts of accessories. But, one thing that seemed very popular were the zipper faces.
Seen here in the lower left, a zipper face.
One dude went as far as making himself an Flood infected zombie Master Chief costume which was pretty fucking bad-ass! For all you non-gamers out there, Master Chief is the main protagonist and the character that you play in the video games series Halo on XBox. The flood are these alien parasites that attack people and once they die they turn into these horrible bloated alien mutation zombie and start attacking you. So here's what Master-Chief would look like.
The walk itself started at Place-Des-Arts, going west on Sainte-Catherine, then down south on Bleury, East on Notre-Dame, South again on Place Jacques Cartier, west on De la Commune, north on Saint-Laurent and back to Place-Des-Arts. The walk lasted several hours, even though I could've walked this distance in 15 minutes. Also, pretending to walk like a zombie gets really tiring on the muscles when you have to fake limp and bend your back and what not. I was pretty sore at the end of the day. The weather was perfect, except near the end of the walk it started to rain. And then it started to pour pretty heavily. We we near the end of the zombie walk and people started to scatter and find refuge in restaurants or wherever they could go to hide. It was a bad ending to an otherwise awesome day.
Through the rain, my makeup became kind of runny. When I got home and got dry, the fake blood on my face started to dry out and make these crusts. It looked even more realistic. But, not so much as some of the stuff I saw that day.
FUCK YEAH!! BRAAAIINS!!
Anyway, that was an awesome day and I can't wait for next year. I wonder if I could pull off a zombie luchador? We'll see!
Man, it has been a while since I posted something on here. It's been what? Two weeks? It feels like it's been forever! Did you guys miss me? I haven't been walking around much to be honest because I have been very busy. There are a lot of big changes happening in my life right now and that took a lot of time. Tonight I went out for a long walk for the first time in these past few weeks and holy frozen poop nuggets was it cold! I think the temperature reached 0 degrees! (That's Celsius. That's 32 degrees Fahrenheit.) But, you know what? I was able to walk super fast and didn't break a sweat! I was feeling quite warm once I started moving. And the exercise is even better because I had to wear my late-fall-early-winter 100 tonnes black cow hide of a leather coat to keep me warm. I swear that thing is super heavy. Must be at least 10-15 lbs easy! I'm gonna whip myself into shape in no time wearing that! Anyway, lets catch up on some of the walking I did prior to the past two weeks.
About a month ago, I was riding the metro with a colleague of mine who's new to the company and she asked me if we ever do a 5 à 7. For those of you unaccustomed to the term, this basically means that we get together after work between 5pm and 7pm and hang out and have some drinks. I told her we didn't really do that because everywone's on a tight schedule to catch a train or avoid the heavy traffic of the Décarie highway and the road to the south/north shore. Also, there's the fact that there are no fun bars around my job. None! They are all a bunch of run down dives with people playing video gambling machines like a bunch of leeches stuck to a flashy screen. So we never really hang out after work. I realized how much that sucked, so I decided to take it upon myself to find a nice place somewhere close where we can all get together. The best place to start looking was in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG for short) on Shebrooke street just west of Décarie. I found one single pub called Honey Martin that looked okay, but that was it. That pub though seems cool. They have live bands almost every night. Other than that, there was nothing particularly interesting to see there.
After walking all the way to Cavendish Boulevard, I turned back around and made headed back to my car which was parked near Décarie Boulevard. As I was making my way back, I walked in front of a large middle-eastern supermarket called Marché Akhavan located at the corner of the Grand Boulevard.
I was pretty happy with that discovery because I love middle-eastern foods. I went inside to take a look and the place was big! They had a great variety of all sorts of imported products. They also had a butcher section that sold fresh meats and a prepared food section with all sorts of warm dishes ready to eat. But, the best of all was the sweets section with all sorts of cookies, baklavas and other honey-nut covered goodies! I'll definitely be going back there from time to time to rack up on middle-eastern supplies like spices and rice and oils and mostly sweets!
I didn't take any pictures inside because there were a lot of people and I didn't want to bother anyone. Also, I walked out of that place empty handed because I had to walk quite a ways back to my car and I didn't want to carry anything since it was still pretty far away. Still walking on my way back, I had just gone one block down when suddenly...
Across the street I made the most incredible discovery I could have ever hoped for. I would never have thought that I had to go into this butt hole of a neighbourhood to find the most incredibly awesome thing. Something that I've been looking for for so long and that I thought this city was lacking entirely. As I stood there and looked at it I fell to my knees and raised my hands to the sky and cried HALLELUJA!!!!
People, this has got to be the greatest discovery I'll ever make while walking around this city and I will share it with you tonight. And that most awesome thing is....
A FUCKING JAPANESE-KOREAN GROCERY STORE!!!
Why is this so special? Because I could never find a single grocery store in this city that focused especially on Japanese and Korean products. There are TONS of Chinese supermarkets, especially in Chinatown. But, not Japanese. By the way the Koreans have always been pretty close to the Japanese and always seem to carry a lot of Japanese stuff, but anyway. FUCK YEAH!
I dashed across the boulevard, through traffic, dodging speeding cars and ran to the door to find the place still open! Luckyyyy! The place was tiny, but was chock full of cool Japanese stuff. I went all around the store and snapped some pics to show you what they got. Right next to the entrance, it was instant ramen galore!!! There was a good variety of instant noodles in that corner. Definitely had a good selection.
First thing I did though was to check out the drinks section which was right in front of the entrance. Check this out. Dragon Ball Z soft drinks!
And they had Pocari Sweat sports drink powder! You can't find that stuff anywhere here!
I found panko, or Japanese bread crumbs for making some tempura! Actually they had a whole section of that stuff.
They had another section dedicated to packaged instant noodles of all kinds as well.
In the back of the store there was a fridge with packaged vegetables and sauces of all kinds. There was also another refrigerator with all kinds of tofu and pickled stuff. You could get a large bag of pickled ginger, like in sushi restaurants, for super cheap.
In one of the sections I found packages of Japanese curry. I don't know if you ever had that kind of curry before, but it's fucking delicious! It tastes a little bit like Indian yellow curry but it's kind of sweet. It's amazing with chicken. I will probably get myself a package sometime and make some.
In the far side of the store was a section with chips, crackers, cookies and frozen treats. I wanted to buy one of everything I found there because it all looked weird and strange and exotic but tasty at the same time. There was a box of giant Pocky! I wonder if it's the cookie sticks that are giant or just the package? Imagine super huge Pockys as large as a pencil dipped in chocolate! Hell that sounds good!
The frozen section was quite interesting. There were all sorts of frozen desserts that were just ready to be cooked and served. For example. there were these red-beans filled steamed buns that all you have to do is steam them and you have a dessert! Another section contained thick udon noodles. There was also a large variety of fish products and sliced meats. The meats were mostly for bulgogi, which is a Korean dish. A large wall of freezers contained gyoza dumplings and even frozen packages of ramen! But, the best of all, and I've been searching all over the freakin' place for these, are the frozen narutomaki!!! Those are a kind of fish paste swirly thing they put in some ramen soups in Japan. It's impossible to find here and nobody knows what the hell they are. Well, I found some and now I know where to get them!!!
The steamed buns.
Thick noodles
Dumplings a plenty!
The narutomaki!!!
Frozen ramen!!!
Hehehehehe....
There is a lot more stuff in that store, let me tell ya! But, the owner of the place was checking me out with a suspicious look and finally came to ask my why the hell I was taking pictures. I explained to him it was because I wasn't from this neighbourhood and that I wanted to remember what they had. So he said I didn't have to worry because they had a website! Ha! When I got home and checked it out, I realized it was all in Korean. Damnit!
Anyway, after spending so much time there, I couldn't help myself. I HAD to buy some stuff. So I geared myself up to make an ultimate instant ramen dinner of epic proportions. I got the bag of thin sliced Pork butt, not only because I thought it was hilarious, but also because it seemed all thinly sliced into small individual portions and thought it would be a great addition to instant ramen. I got a small container of sheets of sea-weed, like the one they wrap sushi in, a couple of sticks of narutomaki, a few bags of frozen ramen noodles, a pack of red-bean-filled steamed buns and some precooked gyoza pork dumplings. I was all set for that part. Additionally, I got myself a bottle of Ramune soft drink and Pocky cookies.
The Ramune soft drink is served in a messed up bottle. It's so complicated to open and even to drink your damn drink that it has to come with instructions! Here's a video that sort of explains what Ramune is and how it all works.
Tonight, I decided to take out all this great stuff that I bought and make myself that epic ramen dinner. And here's how it looked like in the end. I must say, I was quite proud of myself, but it could still be improved if I just marinated the pork first. I will follow up with a post on my cooking blog soon to show you how I made this.
In the meantime, I'm going to sleep now because it's pretty late and I have work tomorrow. Oyasuminasai!!!
