Monday, June 25, 2007

I'll fucking do it then.

Hi all; just a quick kick in the blogging bottom, this.

Those of you not in Ed' have missed the following recently:

i) One Jeffrey Ketland getting explosively muddy whilst wearing an off-white suit and playing rounders in the Meadows.

ii) Rare glimpses of the lesser-spotted Dave Ward, when a certain Nicky "the Dave Robber" Ford has let him out of her sight. (Dennett is here on Wednesday, here's hoping that Dave won't renege on his promise to pull his beard).

iii) Mog flying into a violent rage over the correct description of the taste of celery.

iv) A spectacularly peculiar and drunken evening at chez Chris 'n' Tom on Friday night / early Saturday morning, featuring the lamest game of 'ring of fire' the world has ever seen.

What's your news, Americans?

3 comments:

Lottie said...

I can't believe Dave wimped out on the Dennett-beard deal, again. That's the only reason I went!

conor said...

Not again! Dave, you're all talk and no trousers, as they say (if I remember correctly). What was Dennett like? I suppose he was just trying to flog more books.

Cheers for the update Tom. How do you get caked in mud playing rounders? And what *is* the correct description of the taste of celery? People often say it's "peppery", but I don't really know why they say that. It doesn't taste of much to me.

I'll ignore you disgraceful remark about Americans. Of course Lisa and I are now 100% Canadian, me having returned to the motherland a couple of weeks ago and Lisa a fortnight previously. Since then we have been enjoying lots of warm weather (it went over 100F today) and sniggering at the apocalyptic conditions in the British Isles.

My final weeks in NY passed off well. I became a real-life hipster, complete with unconvincing goatee, which I shaved off on my arrival in Toronto. For a few glorious moments, in mid-shave, I once again resembled the dashing, mustachioed conference-organiser of 2005. It was a such a beautiful sight, I wanted to shag myself. Sadly, I can't share it with you all as no cameras were to hand.

Much of our time here has been taken up with Lisa working and me skulking about the house, trying to work or taking advantage of the pool. Lisa has a waitressing job downtown; for some reason they decided that the best initiation into the job would be to work a 70-hour week as soon as she started. It's relaxed a bit lately, though.

Last weekend we were in Quebec with Lisa's aunt Helen and her husband Joe. We drove to Montreal on Friday, stayed there for a night, then drove to Quebec city and stayed there until Monday, when we returned (8 hours in the car). The emphasis throughout was on food and wine, which suited us since Helen and Joe were buying. We got a bit of a taste of Montreal nightlife on Friday when we met Lisa's friend Marina for a drink. I must say it seemed like a very cool city; I want to go back and get to know it properly. Quebec city is a different proposition: *very* French (Montreal is quite mixed) and *very* focused on its history, which goes back to the early 17th century. It's nothing at all like a North American city as you would usually imagine it. There's a beautiful old port area, stuffed with historical buildings, and with cannons for some reason. It's also incredibly hilly - having originally been a hilltop fort that grew into a city.

When we arrived on Saturday it was the festival of St. Jean Baptiste, which is effectively the national holiday of Quebec. They celebrate it by going out into the streets, getting very drunk and shouting loudly while waving little Quebec flags. The streets were so swollen with people that driving to our hotel was quite hair-raising. At one point we turned into a street and became surrounded by thousands of people and completely stuck. I was having visions of people being dragged from cars and killed on the streets of Belfast when they drove into the wrong areas. It didn't help that we were in an Ontario registered car. Fortunately the people were not slavering with blood-lust (unlike crowds of Nordies) and we were able to turn the car around and edge away without killing anyone or being killed.

Hmm that's all I can manage for now. Take it easy, fools. Enjoy the new PM.

Tom R said...

Incidentally, folks, I understand that there is a new Amazon UK review of McHugh & DiNucci (eds); check it out, it's elegant in its brevity.