Last night I went with my cousin and one of his friends to a pub on St-Jean Street, Sacrilège. I stayed a bit, taking in the atmosphere on the outdoor terrace, had a beed and walked back at my aunt’s house. There I went to bed when she left for her night shift at 23h.

This morning I went to the Old Port again, this time hoping to see at least one boat from inside! I queued up for the American ship. The tours were supposed to begin at 9h. But by 9h30 there was still no movement! Apparently they would only be ready for visitors 30 minutes later, after passing through security and in groups of 15. It would take at least 3 hours from where I was in the queue! So I decided to skip it.

Instead I went to the Irish boat L.E. Roisin. The Irish sailors seemed a bit tired, apparently from partying the previous evening. Nevertheless, there was a very handsome sailor who showed a small group of us around his boat, no waiting, no security measures. The ship was neat, arboring a Tazmanian Devil cartoon character. We went in the command deck, passing through a corridor with the Officer’s quarters. I really enjoyed the visit and the sailor’s hospitality!

Then I went to wait to see the Cassard French ship. The queue was longish. It took an hour to reach the boat. The tour started promisingly, with the On-Duty Officer welcoming us and thanking Quebecers for such a nice welcome. But they told us because there were so many people, the tour would be of only the boat’s exterior. And half-way through they changed it again to simply walk around the ship on a set course without stopping and explanations by the crew. So in the end the visit was a bit sucky! It’s nice to be able to interact and ask questions.

I noticed that Sûreté du Québec boats were surrounding the American ship, guarding it. No other ship was guarded from the water level like that!

Then I went back to my aunt’s, picked up my bag, took the bus to my bro’s, showered and changed for tonight’s gig, took a cab to the bus station and got onboard, listening to Matt Good music to prepare for the evening’s concert.

I went to see 5 boats in Quebec City’s Old Port… Two Canadians, one French, one American and one Irish.

First was an impressive Canadian boat, the HMCS Preserver. Some of the crew seemed to be mixing work and pleasure, standing on deck watching down towards the quay. Further there was another Canadian boat, the HMCS Summerside, much smaller.

Then was the French boat, the Cassard, with helicopter. Some were dressed in the traditional outfit with the red pompom beret. So cute! They were mostly busy doing stuff around the helicopter.

The Irish boat, the L.E. Roisin, was small but had neat looking crew, sailors with tattooed arms and all!

The American boat, the USS Mesa Verde, was huge and huge. There was a lot of crew out on the quay: cleaning the boat, measuring distances for the setup, officers chatting and doing P.R., installing detectors (to scan people who will go on tomorrow), etc. I was standing there for a while… And a man, some kind of officer, came to chat! He said hello, I said it was a big boat, he said yes proudly, I said it was neat to see how each country’s crew were different: the French working on their material, the helicopter; the Irish sitting and chatting; and the Americans working to make everything perfect! He said they’d also sit and chat later and went on doing his business. The Americans were the most opened with greetings, further 2 more sailors said hello, one even attempting it in French with a bonjour!

I really enjoyed my visit at the boats. Tomorrow I’ll go early to visit a few boats from inside!

Today I went shopping for more stuff… Flip-flops, a suitcase (I think got an extra 50% off somehow with the cashier making a mistake!), the movie Juno, a Spain guidebook, craft supplies, etc. I also went to the mall with my bro late arvo. He went to buy outdoor sneakers. Then we headed to dinner for my birthday dinner gift. It was yummy.

The most annoying thing from being away from my own home and into other people’s homes is that I cannot decide what time I want to go to bed in dark and quietness. I have to wait until my bro is ready for bed. He usually goes to sleep at midnight or later. While I am in bed sometimes at 21h, but on average around 22h on weekdays. I need my sleep! My tolerance level is so low in the evening when I am exhausted. Everything annoys me. Right now I wish I was in my own bed.

Tomorrow I’m going to my aunt who lives in Old Quebec until Friday midday when I leave to go to Montreal. I’ll see my aunt and cousin, but also enjoy the old city a bit… Maybe go visit the archaeological dig site under the Promenade.

Today I went shopping! It was quite a day! I love the stuff I got..! A combination of work, leisure and outdoors stuff.

Top row: Summer scarf, longish black Lolë raincoat, purple dress, gray chemise, purple cami.
Bottom row: Helly Hanson rainpants, outdoor activity shoes, socks, undies, beige skirt, blue Summer sweater, plaid longish shorts.

Tomorrow I’m going again for a part of the day… Missing: Spain guide book, new suitcase, flip flops, etc.

-Saying bye to Happy wasn’t so hard.
-The plane ride went fine… Though I thought the Air Lab flight attendant was rude.
-Waiting for a cab like that at the Quebec Airport is nuts. They really need to arrange it better and have more cabs. An hour’s wait. A cab showing up every 5 minutes.
-Yesterday shopping for my bro’s mini-apart-makeover was tough… But I got what I needed and it looks neat!
-Picking up a bag of food for Happy at Quebec City’s Mira office was a genius idea! (Before I went to Ste-Madeleine’s office and didn’t know I could in Quebec too.)
-Grocery stores in the city are huge with so much stuff!!!
-Today is a day of shopping for me!!

And of course it wakes me up! And because tomorrow is Departure Day, I can’t fall back asleep, too excited. I got new music last night, The Kooks (which I didn’t know before and am enjoying) and the new Death Cab for Cutie (which at first listen isn’t so good as previous albums)… I will have some new stuff to listen to on the plane!

What to pack! I’m preparing my suitcase today… As I am leaving tomorrow… But I don’t know what to bring!

I am going 2 weeks. I am bringing my big suitcase. I’m planning on buying a second bit smaller suitcase in the city (for the Spain trip). So when I come back I’ll have enough space for sure to put stuff I buy in town. But still I don’t want to bring too much in town because I know I’ll go shopping and end up wearing my new clothes, the old clothes staying in the bag.

So yea… I’ve been staring at my opened clothing drawers all morning. Well not staring, but wondering, looking, analyzing, waiting…

I could be like some people and just grab anything and stuff it in the suitcase. But I’m not like that when planning for a holiday! I take my time with packing…

It has been rainy/foggy on and off since Sunday… And it predicted the same until Sunday, my d-day for Quebec City/Montreal! When it’s rainy/foggy, there’s always a chance the planes won’t fly. So it’s been a bit stressing… Hoping for good weather on Sunday for my traveling… This morning I check the weather forecast and it’s changed!!! Yay! They now say Sunday will be sunny with clouds, which is muuuuuch better for me!

Tagged by Dave…

The rules are:

* There are 2 choices for all questions. Some are mutual exclusive, some are not. Regardless, you can only pick one answer. Pretend I have a gun to your head–pick your favorite of the choices.
* If you come up with ideas for other questions, add them to you post and tag the originator to update their post with the new question(s).
* Tag some friends to join in the madness.

Paper or plastic? Reusable bags… And it’s good to see that people are using them more and more here! When I first arrived in Blanc-Sablon in September I think I was one of the only ones!

Sock-sock shoe-shoe or sock-shoe sock-shoe? Sock-sock shoe-shoe, because I don’t put my socks on at the same time as my shoes.

Ginger or Mary Ann (guys), Professor or Gilligan (gals)? Who? None…

Chunky or smooth peanut butter? I like crunchy!

Dogs or cats? DOGS! HAPPY!

Leno or Letterman? Leno…

Car or truck? Car in the city, truck here!

PC or Mac? PC because I’m more used to it…

Regular or diet pop? Regular! Diet is yucky.

Left-handed or right? Right…

Coke or Pepsi? Coke! Or Sprite/7Up, for these I don’t care about which.

Disney or Pixar? Old Disney movies!

4 dodos until I leave for civilization… Quebec, then Montreal! I’m looking forward to it! But also will miss Happy. She’s staying here with mom for the 2 weeks I’ll be away. But I know mom will take good care of her.

Tomorrow I will start moving from my current office to my new Community Organizer office… Yay!

My guestroom went from baby pink to soothing green this weekend! The makeover is now done… It was a lot of painting work, but it was well worth it! Now, who will be the first guest to inaugurate it?!

Before, view from the door…

After!

Before, view from the corner…

After!

A close-up of the pillows, two of them handmade (not the middle one)…

A table-runner handmade for my chest of drawers, where I put family pics…

This morning, as I had just started painting my guest room, I got a call from J. and M. inviting me to go on a boat ride! Of course I put my painting gear down, wrapping everything up in plastic bags, and went out to sea with them!

We went towards Île Verte, through the ice pieces. The view of the village was nice with the ice pieces! My house is there somewhere…

We also stopped on a ice pan to take pics..! Was fun to walk on a kind of mini-iceberg!

Then we went towards Île aux Perroquets. We ate a lunch pique-nique near there. Then we had to go through the thick ice pans to go to Brador. In Brador we went to pick mussels… About 3/4 of a bucket. I have some in my fridge for tomorrow’s dinner! To return home, the ice was now packed too tightly and made it tough to go through with the boat. So we went to the wharf in Brador. I was scared to go up the ladder from the boat to the wharf… It seemed so high!!! It was a very neat day… Supposedly to be rainy, turned out to be nice and sunny! I’ll have more pics of the day in my Photoblog over the next few days…

Back home I went to do groceries, picked up Happy at mom’s (who dog-sat her the whole day), ate a lobster mom gave me (mmmmmm!) and painted more in the guest room!

That guest room will be nice in its new green shades. Hopefully it will be useful for guests at my house someday…

Chevery went very well! The plane left an hour later than planned (they called us to let us know the previous evening) so I got up at 7h as usual instead of 6h! I love going on a plane… The idea that in a little amount of time you end up in a totally different place!

Recently I watched two movies… 27 Dresses, which was a cute story, and Untraceable, which was thrilling but gross too. I hope I get new ones in the mail today, just in time for the long weekend! Yay! Monday is a day off!

Last night a friend came over with her new laptop, she had a problem with it and needed help! I didn’t know exactly how to fix that problem, so I looked at different things… And eventually with the help of a more detailed user’s manual I got from the manufacturer’s website, I found the solution and fixed it! She was very thankful! And I was glad I could help her out!! Because here in Blanc-Sablon there is no computer store with computer techs. If something’s broken, it has to be sent away.

This weekend I’m planning to paint my guest room. It’s predicting rain the whole weekend! Which isn’t so good for enjoying the outdoors…

Time for brekky, get ready, and work!

Oh my… My new assignment at work will be quite something! Amongst my functions will be managing a team and a budget for a program! The current Community Organizer looked at all of that with me today. It’s making me nervous, this overload of information, hearing everything there is to do in one go makes it seem like a monumental task, especially if you don’t know anything about it!

Tomorrow starts a series of 3 photos on my Photoblog… Featuring ice pans! On the boat crossing back from Newfoundland, I loved looking at the ice below, stating on the desk from the highest point of the boat (for passengers). Here’s the first…

I am going to Chevery on Wednesday for work! We’re doing the “Delirious Cocktail” activity there, and I will go in my new role of Community Organizer to team up with the local Social Worker. It will be neat! Chevery is a little village of about 300 people. It is 180 kms from Blanc-Sablon, and I will go by plane as there is no road linking us.

Today’s Photoblog pic is a boat heading out to fish some lobster!