After a really nice night of sleep in my giant comfy hotel bed, I had a nice brekky and headed out for the day!

I started with some shopping… I hit H&M, Mango and Simons. I still want to visit a few more stores, including Zara! Perhaps on Saturday? If stores are open… After a crappy food court spaghetti lunch, I headed to my hair salon. I met my usual hair dresser and he put some copper coloured streaks and cut my hair quite shorter than usual. I also succumbed and bought a hair straightener! Now, let’s see how much I use it! Then I went to the sports store to buy my snowshoes (and mittens and fleece neck thingy and Smartwool socks)! Ahhhh! I had so many bags to carry back to the hotel!

My cell phone I bought in 2002 when I first arrived in Montreal died. So I bought a new one today at Fido. One of the cheaper models because it only works in town and on pre-paid cards. I just need to be able to call on occasion when I’m in the city! I was glad to see the model I choose was 25% made out of recycled bottles!

For supper I went to Keg’s on St-Paul. It was quite full! After 5 minutes I was lucky to get a spot in the pub section. I decided to order and eat there. The music was crappy, but the atmosphere was nice with lots of happy people and the Habs winning. My steak was good. I was too full for my usual crème brûlée dessert so I will have to go back just for that. A good last meal for 2009!

I just arrived in Montreal and already it’s quite striking… The homeless/poor people. I am not used to them anymore.

I was happy to see though… At the supermarket earlier this homeless man was not only buying some wine, but also a liter of 2% milk and a banana. Good to see he was taking care of himself.

Ahhh…

I just came back from the movies. I enjoyed seeing Brothers. It was quite intense. But really good. And at the end you’re kind of left with a “wow” feeling. I still love Jake. He looked good in Jarhead, and in this movie too!

The bonus: free popcorn Wednesday!

The flight went according to plan. Quebec was fun for a few days!
-Shopped on the 24th, beat the crowds by going early.
-Spent time at my aunts, that’s always nice.
-Visited my bro and help him set up his kitten’s new things.
-Saw a good friend from home who now lives out West and was in Quebec for the holidays.
-Enjoyed giving nice Christmas gifts to my bro/aunts/uncle/cousins.
-Had a turkey supper at my grandma’s.

Then it was La Tuque for a few days too! I hadn’t been there in 10 years… Back then I went for a day for the wedding ceremony of a cousin. I went with my brother.
-Stayed at an aunt/uncle who were very welcoming.
-Visited a cousin who’s married to a nice girl from home (nice coincidence eh!).
-Played poker for the first time and almost won.
-Had supper at dad’s, playing Scrabble and Uno.
-Visited an aunt/uncle who live in a rural area near the city, saw their 2 nice dogs and went for a little walk on the property.
-Received really nice gifts from the aunt who makes things with a loom (métier à tisser): a beautiful tablecloth, a piece for in the center of a table and neat dish cleaning thingies (lavettes à vaiselle).
-Took a nice walk on a cold day with aunt/uncle, partly on the nice snowshoe trail.

Now I’m in Montreal. I checked in at a hotel. It’s quite nice. My first room the phone didn’t work so they changed me to another room. This one is bigger. But it doesn’t have the pretty stone wall of the previous room. That’s why I like boutique hotels, no two rooms are quite the same.

Yesterday I hosted a tapas supper at my place for J.&M. and mom. It was pretty good! All new recipes! I prepped most of it in the afternoon and put it in the fridge…

Then when the guest arrived I cooked all of it. I had: prawn & bacon brochettes, meatballs in tomato sauce, cherry tomatoes stuffed with olives, herbed chicken, crispy spicy potatoes and Catalan cream for dessert.

Today I went to be a little elf at J.’s to help wrap her Christmas gifts. I got there at 10h30, only took a 40 minutes break for lunch and left at 16h! Non-stop wrapping! The packages all looked so pretty!!!

At home I finished putting up my newly bought Christmas lights. They look so pretty! I want to keep them all Winter!

I also cleaned out my closet/drawers. Since I came to Blanc-Sablon I put on some weight… And about 1/3 of my clothes don’t fit anymore. I made piles to give. I’ll bring them to Quebec when I go on Wednesday. Sad thing is that there are a lot of pieces in there I really like… A nice hip-looking “blazer,” some nice skirts, lots of tops, nice pairs of jeans. Oh well. What’s the point of keeping it all if I can’t wear it anymore?

Usually at work every year in our department we collect 20$ from each person to give to the Church for their Christmas baskets. They give these baskets with good food to families who have less income. Monday I saw no one started the initiative yet… So I took leadership and went around with an envelope, collecting funds. Some gave the usual 20$, but many just gave what they could… A bunch of change, 5$, 10$, whatever! In the end we collected a good amount and I went to bring it myself to the Sister in charge of the Church (we don’t have a Priest anymore). She was super happy and thankful. She uses the money to buy fresh food to add to the non-perishable goods people donate.

After work today I had to go to Labrador to buy stuff. It’s funny how no two stores around here carry the same stuff… Some things I can only find in our neighboring province. I didn’t really like the road though! Dark outside + lots of cars in opposite direction with lights that blind you + slushy/snowy pavement = not fun. I went slow and was fine. I put Great Big Sea’s live CD on. It’s really a good CD for driving when you’re not enjoying it… You just sing along to the cheery songs and go!

I first went to the hardware store in L’Anse-au-Clair (5 minutes away from the border) to get Christmas lights. I had a strand of lights on the top of the balcony rail… But I wanted more! So I bought coloured icicles ones to add underneath! Now it’s A LOT of lights and super pretty. I am not done installing them all though… Tomorrow I’ll finish.

Then I drove further to Forteau (15 minutes away) to go to another hardware store that carries a good selection of frames. I bought two. Someone from work asked me to prepare a set of photographs to give as a Christmas present. I think it looks pretty… I choose to frame a whale tail (typical/Summer) and icy rocks (less typical/Winter).

For supper I was lazy and decided to order takeout. I also went by mom’s and picked up some old style donuts she had just made. Mmmmmmmm! They are really good.

I’m going to Quebec City/La Tuque/Montreal in 6 dodos. Let’s hope the planes don’t have trouble flying… We’ve had lots of crappy weather for planes lately (snow storms, icy rainy, etc).

This weekend was pretty busy… On Friday it was the Christmas party for work. I was on the organizing committee for the event. It went quite well, with more than 90 people showing up. I went home around 22h15, when dancing started… That’s not really my thing.

On Sunday there was another activity at the arena. It was planned by some parents for the whole community… Especially children! Skating with Santa (and Polixe the Sûreté du Québec’s mascot), cake, hot chocolate, etc. Quite a few people came! It was nice because there are not a lot of family activities in our community. An overview of the arena at the beginning of the activity before everyone arrived…

There are 2 grocery stores in town… One in the village where I live and another in the one next to it, about 5 minutes away by car.

Today I went to do my groceries there. The staff was not very helpful. I was at one cash register with a new lady working. There were 2 other staff at the other cash register which had no clients. The young dude didn’t offer to help pack my bags, I did it. Then when it was time to bring it all to my car, 5 big bags/boxes, they had left! The lady at the register wasn’t so helpful either… I asked if someone was there to help me, and she uninterestedly mumbled she could find someone… I had to do it myself, in like 4 voyages back and forth. Really bad customer service.

Then at home I looked at my bill. I was charged 3.99$ for a cantaloupe! Yuck! I don’t even like that fruit!! The lady serving me was new… I remember she had to refer to her sheet to find a produce code once. That’s probably where it went wrong and she forgot to erase it.

I debated whether or not I should go back. In gas, my time and my effort it would come up to approx 3.99$ to get there. But I went, out of principle. I had bad service and they charged me for an item I didn’t even buy!!

When I got there and explained, the lady was doubting me! Why the heck would I lie about not buying a cantaloupe and having it on my bill and driving all the way back to the store to get money back?! In the end she gave me my 3.99$ back.

This weekend was pretty busy!

On Saturday I dragged mom along and we went out pretty early to get my Christmas tree. I spotted an alright one pretty quickly! It was fun to chop it down! Then I went with J. on a walk on the Mosquitoe falls road. It was quite pretty! And Happy made a friend… People who were at their cabin had an husky and they played/ran together a good part of the way! In the evening it was our team’s Christmas party. We had a buffet (lasagna/ceasar and chinese), played games, chatted. Despite a few glitches (they thought we didn’t want dessert and people came in for a while even though we had the room on private party until 23h), everyone seemed to have had a good time!

Today I went for another walk with J., this time on a track behind Brador, following the hills. We walked for about 2.5 hours on the soft moss terrain, on a bit frozen lakes, through our “woods,” crossing little streams, going up the big hill, etc. It was quite fun! We followed a quad trail someway, but also just left the trail to explore on our own!

Afterward at home I decorated my Christmas tree!

I just went to do some grocery shopping… The business around here are doing a “Midnight Madness” event… For grocery stores it was good deals on a few select products. I first went to the store in my own village. I got good deals on stuff like Tide laundry detergent, butter, fondue meat, toilet paper… So I stocked up a bit! I know I’ll eventually need it and by then it will be full expensive price again..! The owner was there… She had like 10 full boxes of Delicio’s pizzas on the ground and according to her they would all sell out tonight! I didn’t buy one. Frozen pizza is not really my thing. There wasn’t too much people so it was a nice experience!

I then went to the other grocery store in the nearby village. About 25 cars in the parking lot was not a good sign… No carts left, so I used a little hand basket, which limits the amount of stuff I can buy. The store was packed with people from our neighboring province (Newfoundland and Labrador) that came for the good deals. But here deals weren’t that great… I did buy family packs of pork chops and sugar for a really good price. But this shopping experience showed me how I am getting unused to crowds! People not being careful where they go with their carts, people everywhere blocking the ways, etc. Ahhh! How am I going to manage when I arrive in Quebec just before Christmas and have to do my shopping on December 24th?!

Tonight’s a chill-at-home night (like all usual nights in Blanc-Sablon) but tomorrow I’ll go out! The social club at work (which I’m on the organizing committee for) is having a Christmas party at the resto-pub. It should be fun (if it’s anything like last year)!

It’s windy!

A fellow Blanc-Sablon blogger writes there were gusts of wind up to 145 km/h.

Right now the official weather page says it’s 55 to 74 km/h. And strangely it’s Westerly winds. So they are hitting my house in a different way… The main entrance door/the living room windows… I can really feel the wind… Lying on the couch watching tele and it’s shaking.

Thankfully Happy isn’t really scared (knock on wood). She’s doing her usual thing of playing with her fake bones, lying around the house following me in every room I go to. When she’s scared she lays in her bed shivering.

My house has one of these outside green garbages on wheels. At lunch when I got home it was in the ditch nearby, without the cover on… It broke and blew off! The 3 garbage bags were scattered around… I had a big heavy rock in there. In the 2 years I’ve lived here the garbage can never blew away.

I didn’t want to be cold today so I wore my ski pants, Winter boots, new Canada Goose jacket. People noticed. What’s the point of freezing your butt off when you’re getting to your car or taking the dog out? I have that warm gear, why not use it? I even went for a walk around the block with Happy at lunch… I almost blew away a few times, but I was nice/warm/snug.

So yep. In other words, better “tie on your tuque” (attache ta tuque) when you step outside.