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Montreal; More snow and ice – Photos

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

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Saturday December 13 – the ice from last week’s ice/snow storm was still hanging off the branches and made for some nice pictures. The below are from Parc Lafontaine on Montreal’s Plateau Mont-Royal.

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Yes, yes, I know I look silly in tuques – everyone always tells me tuques and caps don’t suit my mishapen head.

Its rare that we have ice on the trees – although we get more freezing rain now than ever (because of generally warmer winters than in the past) it’s rare that it actually stays frozen on trees for an extended period. The worst case of freezing rain was the January 1998 Ice storm which brought down power lines in Montreal and left people without electricity for weeks. It was one of the worst natural disasters in Canada and required the deployment of the Canadian Forces.

Anyway, this ice storm was nothing in comparison (although parts of New England were hit very bad). The weather warmed up from -15C on Saturday to plus 8C on Monday, melting everything. Then it got cold again Monday night. There’s no more ice on the trees and most of the snow is gone – all that’s been replaced by a sheet of ice everywhere. Today everyone is slipping on their asses. The joys of winter…

Montreal – Hockey game from a Lodge box.

Friday, December 12th, 2008

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Last night I was lucky enough to get invited to watch a Montreal Canadiens game from a lodge box at the Bell Center. Montreal is a crazed city when it comes to hockey, I know people who would willingly donate internal organs for such an opportunity. The lodge belonged to Scotia Capital and we were about 10 invitees – free beer, Australian wine (Linderman’s Shiraz), and tons of food; smoked salmon, roast beef, chicken stuffed with something…then the desert buggy came and I had cheese cake and Grand Marnier.

The views were incredible and I just wish I could have taken better pictures; the new scoreboard (huge! Was built for the Canadien’s 100 year anniversary) and the ice are so bright its hard to get the right lighting.

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Below: zooming in on the scoreboard. It is unbelievable – 7.6 M by 12.2 M (the largest in the league) with incredible resolution.

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Lissette and I won’t live this life forever; we both look forward to quitting our jobs and doing some travelling and settling overseas for a while. Routine kills, no matter how good life is, people need changes and new challenges. Being there last night made me realize how lucky I am and how others would think we are totally bonkers to even contemplate leaving a comfortable lifestyle for the sake of new experiences. Travelling in South-East Asia when you can stay here and be invited to soirees where you get free wine and chicken stuffed with things? Yup, we must be crazy and stupid. But we’ve also been living this life for almost 20 years now and looking around, at similarly-aged banking aquaintances who are suddenly gray-haired and aging prematurely only reinforces my thinking. You only live once.

So I’ll appreciate these great perks that come with the job when they come, and remember them with no regrets in a few years when we’re travelling through the Philippines or Indonesia or Thailand, finally living on our schedule and doing things we’ve always dreamed of doing.

Anyway, great experience but a lousy game. Montreal lost 3-1 to Tampa Bay, one of the worst teams in the league. A real stinker.

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Montreal; Freezing rain & our first dump – Photos

Friday, December 12th, 2008
c1.jpg 2nd week of December and we've already had our first major dump of snow (with more on the way). What's interesting about this one was the freezing rain which then turned to snow. Look closely ... [Continue reading this entry]