Making myself at home

The intervals between posts are getting shorter. Honest. And I've not written recently because life has been a little bit manic.

A week ago I was propping my eyes open, trying to be polite as our housemate had friends over. Friends who are also good friends of Denis. Also because I was waiting for Denis to get back from teaching a Rockabilly Jive class. And all because our Winter Wonderland/early St Patrick's Day event had been a hectic success. 

Decorating started at 9:30 a.m.. Although it felt like 8:30 a.m. as the clocks chose the night before our big day to jump forward and "save daylight". And I got home that evening at 6:45 p.m.. Between these times there was, as I said, decorating, there was also: dancing, hot chocolate, live music, homemade maple marshmallows, 400 guests, lots of talking, a small girl who played with my twirly owl skirt, people other than myself snowshoeing, face painting, networking and trying to raise as much awareness as possible of the organisations involved in the event.

The event was brilliant but totally draining. So then most of this week was spent feeling like I needed a weekend. It was also a bit odd because there was hardly anyone in the office. For several days we were just two. Still, had plenty to be getting on with.

I'm quite desperately looking for a car. The problem is that it will be by far the most I've ever spent on anything so I don't want a pile of poo nor something I dislike *cough*Hyundai*cough* but trying to find something fitting, within my budget and no further away than Quebec City is something of a challenge. This is where the small surface area/large population of England makes car buying more convenient. Clearly my parents are taunting me as last week they bought a very specific make and model of second hand car without having to drive six hours. Or maybe it is the universe that is taunting me because one of my friends rocked up in the exact car that I've been looking for. 

This weekend has been pretty relaxed. Friday night was a night of grand vins (if names mean anything to you, they were apparently: Châteauneuf-du-pape Domaine de Nalys, Châteauneuf-du-pape Clos des papes, Cayus, Modus and le Clos St.-Thomas). All I know is that there were different levels of yum. Everyone brought a wine and something to eat. Denis brought the Modus, I brought Brie and Walnut Scones, Crab Choux and Chocolate Melting Moments (a chocolate biscuit base with chocolate ganache topping). Saturday involved brunch with Denis, his mother and brother, looking for secondhand teacups, trying out the new café in town, running into people I actually kind of know and a family dinner. And today has been quiet. Denis had a political brunch followed by a drive to Montreal and is now on a plane to Vancouver. I watched the Australian Grand Prix and very much enjoyed all the action. I was even not too disappointed with the result. 

Denis should be back late Thursday night. It just sucks that for the next four days all the people I'm emotionally closest to are the geographically furthest away. At least I have plenty to be getting on with - yay I have a job!

Hello? Promotion? Anyone? Hello?

No, no, it isn't me that needs promoting, it is an event. Quite a large event (for a small town) to which about 3,500 people may attend. It is Super Motocross Intérieur and it is coming to the RDL arena this weekend. However, it isn't hard to miss, seeing how bloody difficult it is to find out the basics: what is going on, when and where I can get tickets.

I now have a ticket thanks to serious Googling and a bit of guess work: I Googled the event, found a fax number, Googled that and came up with the name of a bar, went to the bar and asked if they sold tickets, they do. However, I'm still not really sure of what the format is and what time I ought to be there, whether I can leave for dinner or if I want to see the main event I must starve/eat skanky arena hotdogs (the hotdogs are skanky*, not the arena). 

I really would not be surprised if the venue is mostly empty. Which could really scupper my chances of running off with a hot biker guy. It'll probably just be the dads of the competitors... Maybe a few mums but judging on the limited photos I've found of similar events, the females are generally wearing not very much and holding up boards. We are not signposts damnit! Or umbrella stands! F1 I'm looking at you.

Why wouldn't you want to promote your event? Unless you don't want people there. In which case, don't hold it in an arena, hold it in a back garden. It isn't too fantastically difficult, you know a few posters with the key info (date, time, location, price, a telephone number/email that will actually get a response) go a long way towards making people decide to go to something. If it wasn't for the fact that my life is so lacking in motorsport right now, I'm not sure I'd've made all this effort. And now I need to decide what I'm gonna wear...

It will be a good weekend though. After an afternoon/evening of watching blokes on bikes (alliteration y'all. I'll be hoping for some broads on bikes too, of course) fly through the air** we have the Monaco GP on Sunday morning. I'm still missing Kimi pretty desperately. A whole aspect of my race enjoyment (namely shouting at the TV to try and make Kimi win/do okay) has gone. I can still appreciate good racing and a good race but it isn't as fun. Don't you dare suggest I try supporting Lewis. When anything goes wrong for Lewis I get a little bit of the joy I got from watching Kimi do well. Sorry.

*I'm basing this on my general hatred of hotdogs rather than personal experience of any from this venue. I should stop talking about hotdogs. It's making me feel a little nauseous. 

**I really do enjoy flying, be it on a plane, watching planes, watching people on bikes or just being thrown about a bit in swing. Most of my thought processes include swing and this blog should be representative of my thoughts.

I suddenly really want a chicken korma. I don't even like curry. Oh, chicken korma...

15 minutes till 24

Canada is great. Having cable in Canada is better. Getting to watch 24 before the peeps at home makes me feel special and privileged, as well I should for braving temperatures below -20 Celsius just to teach some Quebeckers how to speak properly...

Passing my time in one of my most favourite ways - no, not dying my hair - reading style blogs, I come across many many people bemoaning the prevalence of Uggs. My favourite part about the one linked to there is that it points out the shuffly nature of Ugg-wearers. If I was to do a Monday Rage List (Artur Boruc stylee @Miss Duck (oh the internets)) it would go something like this...

I REALLY HATE PEOPLE WHO DON'T PICK THEIR FEET UP!!!!!!!!!! YOU LOOK STUPID AND YOU DESERVE TO FALL OVER ON ICE!!!!!!!! AND BE IN PAAAAAIN!!!!! YOU LOOK ESPECIALLY STUPID BECAUSE YOU'RE WEARING YOUR MORONIC UGG BOOTS!!!!!!!! YOU NEED TO BE DROP KICKED INTO ALDO/OFFICE/RUSSELL&BROMLEY!!!!!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!! PEOPLE AREN'T TRYING TO BE WITTY WHEN THEY SAY YOUR BOOTS ARE UGGLY!!!!!!!!! THEY'RE TRYING TO HELP BUT YOU'RE SO BLINDED BY SHEEPSKIN YOU WOULDN'T KNOW!!!!!!!! SHEEP SHOULD EAT YOUR FACE!!!!!!

Also I forgot to say: I'm going to the 2010 Montreal GP. But Kimi won't be there. MS will. I'm still not over Kimi not getting a championship when he was at McLaren (I WILL CRUSH RON'S FACE WITH STOMPY STOMPY BOOTS!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!)

That was far too geeky. 24!

The bright lights (shows) of the big city

First time to Quebec City and how do we get there? Lison just happens to be driving and and gives us a lift. I swear we get more than our money's worth for our rent. Brilliant, non-exploitative brilliance.

Just before leaving Dad said "hope you find a good Winter coat" I said, "I'm not going 200km to go shopping. I'm going for a party!" (the response was "Even better!"). So yes, we headed South to celebrate Nick's birthday. Eibhlin and I arrived at the hostel and immediately bumped into two other assistants, then on our quest to find the Allo-Stop office walked past Andy's housemate and his brother. First time to a strange city and three familiar faces in less than 40 minutes. Madness.

It was beautiful sunshine so

we spent most of Saturday-day wandering about looking at buildings and water which suited me very well. Saw a one-man-band playing old favourites such as California Dreamin'. Stopped off for an expensive beer, tried to nick some crisps (nearly said "chips" - stupid Americanisms) from the people next to us, succeeded and were very disappointed. Ick.

Aaaanyhoo, after a rather nice dinner of fish and chips with an over-attentive waiter, at least until we wanted the bill, we headed back to the hostel to get ready to meet the others and bumped into the St-Georges Crew. We weren't allowed to drink in the rooms but we befriended a French girl in our dorm and started the party.

She came with us to see the Moulin d'images which was an amazing light show out by the port. When I say "light show" it was more like a huge cinema experience on the side of several industrial buildings with pyrotechnics and booming sound effects. I was massively impressed and didn't even mind that it turned cold about 9:30.

On the way back to Andy's (to get the party started) we invaded his l

ocal depanneur. The girl on the till looked very surprised about how many people were shuffling in, picking up copious quantities of booze and blocking the doorway. Mind you, with sales like that she looked pretty happy.

Andy's place is pretty impressive. There's three of them in a pretty central house that's spacious and fairly minimalist - perfect for house parties. Space and not much to break. We were only going there for one drink and impressively Andy managed to mobilise the troops and get us on to a bar before heading for Bistro to get our groove on, throw some shapes etc.

We invaded the place and made the dancefloor our own. A few locals tried to join the group just to have a dance but they couldn't keep up with our awesome moves. I use "awesome" in the loosest possible sense. We were definitely going for maximum flailing, minimum cool.

At one point Emma coerced a breakdancer into throwing down, mostly by going into the middle and doing some sort of chicken-esque move and daring him to do better. He didn't seem very keen to show off but we made him anyway!

2:40am and time to head to Chez Ashton for a poutine fix. My first time in Quebec and it was everything I'd heard it to be. Yum.

I got up early the next morning to watch the Grand Prix. Totally worth it. Lewis crashed on the final lap and gifted Kimi third place. I was grinning all day.

I and a couple of the St-Georges lot met Laura M in Second Cup to sample their indulgent hot chocolate before meeting everyone else and heading to Cosmos for brunch. And my, what a brunch it was. Yum yum yum.

After that Eibhlin and I called into the Allo-Stop office to book a lift home and then everyone piled onto Andy's bed to watch

silly YouTube videos.

We got to the meeting place for the Allo-Stop (this is a brilliant car-pooling service that is cheap, convenient and a chance to practice some French) and shortly after our lift arrived and we had a really nice journey chatting about Quebec, England and Ireland and the people that live there. If only we didn't have to walk 50 minutes after being dropped off to get back to the house it would've been the perfect end to a fabulous weekend. 200km isn't far for a party.

Lindy ate my life

Friday night went to Leeds for Lindy Fridays Stays Up Late - we lindy hopped until 1am - there were only about eight of us left by the end including some of the best leaders. Hurrah! Got home sometime after 2am.

Saturday King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys played the Foundry, supported by my beloved Carmen Ghia and the Hot Rods. It isn't that I stalk them, they offer up the information freely. I got to see my friend Tom who I'd not really seen since before Christmas. Carmen Ghia, swing music, dancing, good friends, alcohol - it was a lot to take. Then headed t'pub to see Mike's DJ set and meet up with some other people. Got home sometime around 2am.

Sunday went to see Pockets Filled With Matches at The Grapes and got to talk to the lead singer, Elie, and that made me feel cool. There's just something about these stylish female lead singers. Le sigh. She's like an angsty punk Joni Mitchell. It's amazing.

Tuesday, after Swing Dance, headed down to the Old House for a speakeasy - live music from the Dizzy Club. Dressed up flapper style and flapped at some people I don't know very well. Also discovered someone I'd briefly met before likes Kimi and doesn't like Lewis (for all the same reasons I hate him - hoo-bloody-rah!).

T'was Lindy tonight. Sadly Mike'll not be there for a while as he's been given a DJ slot in town on a Wednesday night and is keen to persue it as he's just starting out. Damn good though.

I'm not giving anything up for Lent. The only thing that really would mean something is Lindy and I need to get as much of that in as possible.

Ella says that music is her boyfriend. Dancing is mine but I'm cheating on it with shoes.