Doing it Differently

Betty Boop at Carte Blanche

Back in Montreal, back to work.  Spent the weekend here actually, which was good even if the weather wasn’t. It sucked actually, sucked bad.  Saturday was either extremely humid or pouring down rain. Our little plan to go see the drag queens was a bust. 

We had some friends over which was fun, but it felt a little same same.  We were hoping that the drag extravaganza might have broken up the monotony, but it wasn’t to be. Sunday the weather was a slight improvement, enough that Paul and I could wander the village and see the sites. We spent a long time waiting around for Deborah Cox, drinking persecco and beer, which was actually fun, waiting around I mean.  It was about all I feeling up to as my neck and back were severely out of whack.

Dancing Figure on Sign - Plateau

Yesterday we more or less took the day off (yeah Ontario! you set a good example again!).  We spent the morning at the doctor’s getting checked out, nothing more serious that our annual physicals, but we now HAVE A DOCTOR!!!!! in Montreal, which by all reports is a coup.  We already have the results of our blood and pee analysis and all seems fine, phew! 

The rest of the day was spent doing errands and taking care of things around the house.  Today it was back to work. I did do something I have been meaning to do for a while, after work I went to Parc LaFontaine and sat on bench and read.  Lovely.  The first bench I found was a little too close to a car with an alarm that was going off periodically.  I moved along and found another spot.  Here there was an elderly man playing with a remote control boat on the pond. Now I would like to say that he was a hobbyist, navigating his hand hewn replica of some famous ship amongst the ducks, but no, this was a toy boat, a crappy toy boat at that.  This is the kind of toy that even an hyperactive six year old would feel a little ripped off to receive.  Oh well the old guy was having fun.

I went and watched some people play boules (or pétanque) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A9tanque.  At first I marvelled at how such a french activity had taken root in Quebec, thinking wow these people are really trying to get in touch with their Gallic roots. But as I listed the the three groups playing, one was a bunch of anglos, one was clearly from France and the others, well who knows cause they played in silence.

The other noticeable group activity seemed to involve groups of women, generally more than 5 and fewer than 10. I saw three groups of women using the park to their advantage.  The first group I have seen before, they are a fitness group that move around (jog) the park. Periodically their leader will have them stop and do something, say jumping jacks, or she will have them run sideways for a while.  They all run with yoga mats strapped to their backs. The second group appears to be a yoga group, they hangout behind the theatre and do yoga in a circle.

The final group are slightly older than the first two, mostly in their 40s and 50s.  This is the first time I have seen these gals.  Today they seemed to be standing in a loose circle patting themselves on the head and laughing forcibly.  I watched for a moment and realized that nothing was particularly funny, that they were in fact forcing themselves to laugh, or at least sound like they were laughing.  After a moment their leader told them to stop.  She said something  that I missed and then they started up again, patting and “laughing”. 

I read my book on the far side on one of those benches

Every time I go to the park I love it more. I don’t go there enough, and when I do I am often running or ”doing stairs”, it is hard appreciate it.  Today I simply hung out and it was great.  Car alarms, crappy toy boats and laughing ladies, I love it all.  When we ever decide to leave Montreal for good, this is something I will truly miss.

The days are getting shorter, I am going to be out of town lots this month,  I need find a way to spend more time in the park before it gets too cold.  On my walk back home, I thought about my snow shoes and how I didn’t use them once last year.  This year things are going to be different.