Day 428: Montreal

Nice

Aahhh... this is nice.

I'm in Montreal. Today, for the first time since I arrived, in actual Montreal, though since I got out of the train station, I've been in the same cafe, just down the road from McGill University and Mont Royal. This is somewhere I never really explored when I was here an aeon ago. I may not even really explore it today. I may just check out Montreal as it is. I'd like to find the big posh library (Library and National Archives of Québec) and take a walk down St. Denis and Ste. Catherine. 

I'm loving being here, discovering all kinds of things. Maybe I'm a little bit loved up (I am). Maybe I'll say more at some point, maybe not. Big smiles all round, though. What a delight to be able to spend real time with someone who has been a tantalising fiction, to some extent, for a few months now. Thanks for having me. Thanks for giving this a try. It's brilliant!

Grateful for two fabulous emails on Friday to say 'we've paid you', one of them from a job I'd forgotten I did. Result! And thank you to Paloma, as always, for some work. I'll get onto it right now. And to Marc in Montreal for workshop help. 

Thank you to a great stream of lovely new people in the form of Nicolo's yoga community. Such a great bunch of people, and so warm and welcoming. We discovered a new invention by Ganesha (not the actual god this time, and no elephant face on his own face). We danced and stamped and did some improvised singing and it was lovely. We also talked yoga and listened to a wise old gentleman talking yoga too. He was impressive! He was 90 and really really really could have passed for 60 easily. Very lithe, very clear, very bright-eyed and really very gentle and loving. I liked him and was inspired.

This is what it was!

We fasted yesterday, for the first time on the same continent. As is often the way when you're fasting, there was a lot of food business around and about. We served cake to about 40 people, slicing it and dishing it out. We also went to the supermarket and bought food (though nothing that smelt as heavenly as the cake). We didn't get grumpy and we were very nice to each other, so even if either of us was secretly grumpy, it was good. 

Not my feet.

And, inspired by Ganesha (again, not the actual god), we walked home barefoot. There's snow around, but that's misleading - there's only snow because it's in such big blocks from being cleared that it takes a long time to disappear. We discovered the different textures of pavement. I was surprised to find that the road was smoother on the soles than the pavement. The least pleasant sensation was the wet carpet on the steps up to the flat. Very close to home, though, by their very nature, so a hot footbath was (literally) on tap and the fast was almost at its end. Well done us for managing not to eat anything when preparing food for the morning. The final challenge, well met.

This is great. Thanks, Daniel.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=620210511326802&set=vb.473267562687765&type=2&theater

This really made me laugh with its aptness. Apart from the gun.