humans and flies

I have learned some valuable life lessons lately. They haven't been handed to me in a very pleasant form but I guess one wouldn't learn from them as efficiently if they were served in a glass of champagne.

                        "You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar"

I got handed this metaphor over the phone from Toronto. This phone call was not my life lesson but it came at the convenient moment. I hadn't heard it before and I found it fitting splendidly well. I see it ever so appropriate thinking about career moves and work environment in general. So I took a long look in the mirror and made a note to myself to add a bit a sweetness to my flavor.

Another little idiom that I stumbled upon by accident when practicing some Spanish verbs was this one.

                                         "En bocas cerradas no entran moscas" 

"In closed mouths, flies don't enter". Funny how flies are so present in figurative speech. I don't suffer from having my mouth open too much but I enjoy being reminded that silence is golden and often a good weapon of choice. 

I find myself a bit wiser and more humble this week than last week. One can only hope it was lessons lasting for life as the mind can be not only forgiving but ever so forgetting.

To remember is that love is what matters and stress kills, so enjoy your beloved ones and relax, that makes you not only happy but very wise a person as well. 

A hat trick or two

This past weekend was a grey and rainy one. I got a reminder of the reality of Fall and I wasn't really enthusiastic about it. What spun my mood to happier thoughts was a movie date at the Montreal Forum. This movie theatre used to be an indoor hockey arena. Opened in 1924 and closed in 1996. It was the home of the Montreal Maroons and later on the Montreal Canadians.

I like the feeling inside the building, you can sense that once upon a time a great deal of action went on here.
I'm not a fan of Hockey, I leave that to others but I do enjoy a nice piece of history.

The enthusiasm in the picture therefore originates from the atmosphere of the place, along with the the movie I saw and the company I saw it with and perhaps a little bit from the fact that I for the first time got to enjoy candy from a funny little thing like this.

You put a 25 cent in, turn the metallic handle around and out comes the candy. A very moderate amount, perfect for my diet.
The movie, me and my handsome date also known as my Dominican went to see, was "Mr Holmes". A nice little movie from the point of view of Sherlock Holmes. We both really enjoyed it.

This place, my Dominican and the fact that Sherlock Holmes wore hats, brings me back to a fine summer day when I took my handsome man for some hat shopping to a store that has been open since 1932. 

Started up by Honorius Henri and Jean-Maurice Lefebvre and still run by the family, more precisely the grandson of the latter, the shop became famous thanks to their love for sports and very much so hockey. In Quebec, when a player scores three goals in a single game, it's called "a tour du chapeau" ("hat trick"). In 1950s and 1960s Henri Henri took the habit of offering a free hat to every player who completed the hat trick at the Montreal Forum. Maurice Richard, apparently a very famous player, had a nice little collection of them. What I myself find even more interesting is that famous people such as Robert de Niro, Marlon Brando and John Travolta have shopped here. And so did I, when I decided to buy my sweet little darling a newsboy cap. 

Summer is more or less over, a more rainy and grey season is upon us and I wouldn't mind a few tricks or two to keep my hat dry and my thoughts positive. I think I will use the good old trick and flee into the great world of splendid fictional private detectives. It's an old family recipe and I will feel proud to honor it.   

milk on a hot downtown roof

After 3 days of sun, +30°c and careless time off work, I come to the office on Tuesday morning and got asked about my weekend. I tell my colleague that I finally saw that big bottle of milk. Been here for a year and only made it to the bottle this weekend, shame on me. She looks at me asking, "what milk"? I tell her "the big bottle of milk, right there down town next to the Bell Center". I show her this picture.

She informs me that she lived here 30 something years and didn't know it existed until our conversation. It made me feel less bad about my 1 year delay in my chase of that big white bottle.
The bottle is a water tank for the fire system of the building. The building used to be a a dairy plant under the name "Guaranteed Pure Milk". The owner had this unusual design to a water tank built as a publicity stunt to restore people's faith in milk. This was back in the beginning of 1900 when several cases of food poisoning occurred that later lead to the law of having to pasteurize all milk. This famous or perhaps I should say hidden famous bottle of milk from the 1930 was reborn in 2009 when Héritage Montreal came to its rescue. The dairy had closed down in 1990 leaving the bottle to rust on the roof. I'm very happy there are associations like this in Montreal that understands the beauty of Art Deco. I'm equally happy that my boyfriend was kind enough to join me and kiss me under the bottle. 

then comes Monday

September is knocking on the door. So much has happened this summer. Flew to Finland and had a great time, went to Ottawa and had a great time, was hanging out in Montreal and its surroundings and had a great time. Tomorrow Fall starts. September is still considered an Autumn month at least according to my Spanish book, I say it's pretty darn hot for its cool reputation.

This first week in September they announce +30°c and sunny here in our great city of Montreal. I will embrace it and show my gratitude with more relaxing moments on the beach around the corner "la plage de l'horloge" http://www.vieuxportdemontreal.com/activite/plage-de-l-horloge  

Next weekend is a long one, on top of it all as we have Monday off. We will be celebrating labour day. Find it a splendid idea! Wouldn't mind celebrating it more often. 
I will continue the next day with celebrating education and starting my second level studies in Spanish at McGill University. I'm proud to announce that I made it through level one and its final exam including my oral presentation about Diego el Cigala "El principe del flamenco". I'm rarely proud of myself but learning my fifth language does give me a certain amount of satisfaction and doing so at such a high ranked University makes me walk proud, at least every Tuesday until December, starting next week.

  
While hanging out a la playa this weekend I was trying to remember what I learned during level one and was practicing my Spanish on the very basic level I am. Our 2pac has very different schedules during the week and we basically only see each other during weekends, except some random cranky mornings during the week. So I tell my dear sweetheart with a sweet smile on my face thinking I'm being cute "Todos los sabados y domingos estamos....hmmm enamoradas...enamorados" My dude gives me a look like "what the f****" What do you mean we're just in love on Saturday and Sunday? What are you doing during the week???
"Oh sweetie, my sweet sweetie"... trying to give him a few "besos of patience". I'm just practicing my Spanish here, don't take me so seriously. Thanks to the warming sun and the fresh breeze from the St. Lawrence river, my dude forgave my poor level of Spanish pretty fast. Level two at University is clearly needed but I doubt it will make me feel any different about my random cranky Mondays but it will absolutely upgrade my Tuesdays.