Redneck Bar

This was the most red-neckest bar I have ever seen in Montreal... Some place east of St Denis on Mont Royal...

Sheesha

Sheesha time... this Sheesha, unlike most others on St Denis bars, was a no-tobacco one... not that I have a problem with some tobacco in an occasional sheesha..

Fairmont Bagel

Fairmont Bagel shop - best bagels made in the Jewish tradition. If you don't like bagels, that's no reason not to try these - I used to not like them too before... Yummm yummm....

Harmony

Mont Royal's cross as seen from Rue Duluth and Blvd St Laurent.

Montreal, the city dubbed La ville aux cent clochers, the city of 100 bell towers in its many churches, the city with a prominent gay community complete with their sometimes not-very-conservative gay parade, the city that is proud of a Christian cross overlooking them, the city where pro-choice is practiced in many clinics... the city of tolerance, the city of harmony...

PR in Canada and marching pre-schoolers

Today I applied for PR in Canada - despite/or because of (a phrase I learned from a cool friend) my love hate relationship with these people. And when I could have easily applied in the rest of Canada, I instead chose to apply in Quebec, knowing fully well that the French will be held against me - well, that's me... And mind you, I am doing this by myself for $400/- as opposed to $3000/- of lawyers fees...

forgive me pretty baby, but I'll always take the long way home
- Tom Waits

I must say, I was surprised that I had all the documents in order; it was surprising because I had to navigate through the French/English websites and most people who went before me, who seemed to speak perfect French, did not seem to know what they were doing... The Indian guy who went before me had all his documents in order - must be the genes of the sub-continent!!! heh heh... Let me put myself in a tiny box here... so I would separate myself from the other human beings...

This picture, of pre-school kids marching in line, taken on my way back from the Immigration office, has no relevance to me applying for PR other than this was taken a few blocks from the office of Immigration.

I have often watched in amusement, these kids, I imagine from day care's, chained together (ok, they are not chained... their hands are just roped together) so the caregivers don't lose them, and they don't get one of those crazy ideas and dash across into the traffic, and all sorts of safety reasons like that. Coming from a culture that clearly distinguishes between kids and animals, at first it was hard for me to wrap my head around kids being roped together like that, much like sled-dogs. But over the years I have grown to see this act in a positive way - it is what's best for them and who doesn't think a pack of sled-dog-like kids are cute? C'mon dogs are cute and so are kids... I think we've got a win-win here. Some of these caregivers are pretty enthusiastic - they sing cute little nursery rhymes and have the kids join them in a choral while marching... It pumps up my day to watch a shameless fully grown adult lead a group of sled-dog-like kids in a nursery rhyme choral; the kids with their ADD, their heads bobbing, turning to look at everything and anything, dreamily joining in their peers in the choral... Human beings learn this act of following their peers without giving much thought to it, at a pretty early age...

Festival des Films du Monde

It is the Montreal Film Fest; yes those

"black and white hippie movies, they're always about gay cowboys eating pudding"
- Eric Cartman

so of course I went... ;) I am not done yet... but I did catch a nice World War I documentary to go with me reading...

This week also marks the beginning of the school year for universities around town... so an excess of giddy college freshmen, loud, drunk... it is very fun to watch them actually...