Oh Boy.

On est dimanche.

J'ai congé, Allen aussi.
On mange tranquillement, et on écoute un très intéressant documentaire sur le cosmos et les dernières découvertes en astrophysique.
Une fois terminé, c'est Sunday Showcase, un programme montrant des films étrangers, qui commence. Habituellement, je me tape un bon petit film français ou italien, mais ce soir, j'allais avoir une surpirise.

Les Boys III.

You gotta be kidding.

C'est ce genre de film qui nous représente à l'étranger?
J'ai pratiquement honte.
Surtout quand je le compare à à peu près tous les autres films que le Québec a produit depuis quelques années.
Sérieusement. Les Boys?? 3???

Avec tant de films de qualité qui sortent du Québec ces temps-ci, j'espère que le prochain film québécois qui jouera sur SBS à Sunday Showcase ne sera pas Les Boys 4.

Where Superman lives.

Lois Lane. Get it?

The frustrations of watching the Games

It happened during the Olympic Games.
It is now also happening at the Commonwealth Games.

I am not completely certain we are that bad in Canada, but here, it is absolutely impossible to see anything else than Australian athletes competing in sports.

I have been trying to see Alexandre Dépatie diving.

I missed the 3m finals last night because I was working, and on the news today, they told us every single position the australians finished at, and that's all. Nothing about who won the three medals. I had to go on the net to find out he won the Gold!!
Man this is so frustrating. I missed everything from the Olympics, and now, the Commonwealth Games too.
I miss our great Canadian athletes.

Oh, and frankly, the australian obsession with Lawn Bowls is absolutely insane.
What is it with this country and booooooring games?
My opinion is, if you can play it professionally when you are old or very fat, it is not a game, it is a past time. A leasure. Not a sport.
Who's with me?

Jolleys

I was hired by the restaurant I work at, Jolleys Boathouse, to take pictures of the restaurant to update the website and the portfolio. I had taken a few pictures in the past to show my parents where I worked and I thought I'd show you guys as well.

So here it is. Where I have been spending most of my time lately.

Allen and Juliette

That was the first time I saw Allen holding a baby.
Aren't they cute together?

It's funny how you can see a person in a different light in a fraction of a second. Suddenly, Allen looked so grown up, you know? He looked like a man. He looked like the father of my possible children.

Now, everyone, don't worry, I haven't changed my mind about not having kids.
But sights like this sometimes make me wonder if I never should say never.

Merci Radio-Canada!

J'ai toujours beaucoup aimé écouter Indicatif Présent à Radio-Canada avec Marie-France Bazzo en me levant le matin, les jours de grande paresse.

Depuis que je suis partie de Montréal, ça me manque beaucoup. Ça, et l'émission de Grégory Charles le dimanche.

Dernièrement, j'ai trouvé, sur le site de Radio-Canada, les chroniques d'Indicatif Présent à downloader. Pas des podcasts de l'émission complète. Juste les différentes chroniques. Je peux décider lesquelles je veux écouter. C'est génial. J'en écoute quelques unes le matin en me réveillant, mantenant. Ça me fait du bien d'avoir ma dose de français le matin, ma dose de ce qui se passe à Montréal.

Que c'est beau la technologie.

Inspection

One thing I hate about living in a rental is the numerous inspections done by the property agents every few months. I don't like to know that while I was at work, someone snooped in and looked around the house, through my things, in my shower or in my stove to see if I (and Allen) keep the place clean enough for them to be satisfied.

I will tell you one thing. Allen is a clean freak. The place is always spotless because I try to keep up with him. We have an official cleaning day and everything.

And we never get a perfect score on one of those inspections. Why? Because the appartment itself is flawed. Even if we scrub the walls, they will never look spotless, because what they really need is a fresh coat of paint. They are not dirty, they are old. So it pisses me off.

I can't wait to have our own place.

Aussie's favorite films - Top 5.

Sorry this took so long, I just found the paper I had written the top ten on, I had misplaced it... So here they are, the top five favorite films of Australians, tallied after a survey conducted for 5 months.

5 - DONNIE DARKO

I have never seen it. Apparently, it was an absolute hit, an instant cult film over here. Jake Gyllenhaal's breakthrough role.

4 - SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION


Man, those Aussies really surprise me. Yes, this movie was good, powerful and all, but man, number 4 of their all time favorite movies? And it is not the most recent movie. I guess a country founded a few hundred years ago with criminals and ex-cons could relate to this movie...

3 - BLADE RUNNER

Ok, now this one makes sense to me. This movie is a staple in science fiction films. The question about what makes us humans and all that, never goes out of style.

2 - AMÉLIE

Aka, Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain. Hun???? The second favorite films by Australians is a french film? My God. I almost fell out of my chair. It made me think this survey might have been either a hoax, or just really really shitly tallied. But no, apparently, this long survey was totally ligit, and lots of women quoted this colorful, playful movie as one of their favorites of all time. Impressive, considering it is the only foreign language film of the list and that they had to READ it instead of just plainly enjoying it.

1 - (drum roll....)

THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY

OK, so not the biggest surprise. We all knew it was coming.

But what surprised me was that other big blockbusters like The Matrix didn't even make the top ten. Or that none of the top ten films were Australian ones.
What happened to being patriotic? Just a tad? No?
Not even for Galipoli?
Pic-Nic at hangning rock?
Shine?
Strictly Balroom?

No?

Oh well.

Indescriptible soulagement.

Aujourd'hui, il fait 26.






Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

Another Picture

I don't know which one to put up yet.
*looking through collection...*

Ah, there. This one.



It was last July. I believe it was Canada Day. The whole family went down to the cottage for the week-end. Vanou also came along, it was so much fun.

I just love my father's look on that picture.
Like he is saying: 'Ha, look at me, I am kissing the most beaufiful woman in the world. Am I not something?'
I just hope Allen will have a look like that when he kisses me after more than 30 years of marriage.

I love my parents. Above all, they showed me what unconditionnal love really is.

Je fond

J'ai juste besoin de prendre une minute et pour exprimer ce qui me tape depuis quelques jours.

BORDEL QUI FAIT CHAUD!!!!

C'est officiel, si tu n'as pas d'air climatisé en Australie en été, c'est absolument invivable.

Ça fait quatre jours qu'il fait 37-38 degrés. Le soleil plombe, il n'y a pas UN SEUL nuage dans le ciel pour nous donner un tout petit break. Rien. Pas de vent venant de la mer, RIEN.

Souvenez-vous que j'habite dans un apartement minuscule au deuxième étage avec pas d'air qui circule en ce moment parce qu'il n'y a pas une miette de vent. C'est comme un four - la chaleur entre et nous cuit tout crus. Oubliez les ventilateurs, car faire circuler de l'air à 40degrés, ça ne rafraîchit pas. Ah, et oubliez aller au bord de la mer - le sable est si brûlant qu'il est impossible d'y marcher. Et le soleil tape encore plus fort, et le sable blanc reflète la chaleur, donc, pas une bonne idée avant 8h le soir, la belle plage.

La seule solution est de se réfugier dans un grand centre d'achat. Mais tout est fermé, nous sommes dimanche.

Je m'en vais au cinéma. Je ne me supporte plus.
J'espère m'y rendre avant de devenir une flaque de sueur sur le bord du chemin.

Une drôle de pensée.

On est en plein dans le festival. Le festival de tout. Donc, au restaurant, il y a plein de voyageurs qui s'arrêtent manger un petit quelque chose avant un spectacle, ou après une activité quelconque.

Beaucoup d'américains, de canadiens.

Ce soir, j'ai servi un anglophone qui habite Burlington en Ontario, depuis quelques mois. Il m'a demandé d'où je venais.

- Montréal.
- Oh yes? I just moved from Montréal. I lived there for 25 years. Well, I wasn't
actually from Montréal, I was from a little suburb on the south shore called St-Lambert. Do you know it?
- Well yes, that's where I used to live. My parents are still there. What street did
you used to live on?
- Oak.
- No kidding.

Toute ma vie, ce monsieur habitait à 5 minutes de chez nous et là, à l'autre bout du monde, je suis en train de lui servir un verre de vin.

Ça m'a fait sourire au milieu du resto trop rempli.

One struck off my list

You know that big list we all have of things we want to do before we die?
Last wednesday, I struck one off my list. One thing I had on my list since the first time I saw: La Grenouille et la Baleine.

I always wanted to swim with dolphins.

On tuesday night, Allen told me that we had to wake up early the next morning, because he was taking me somewhere. It surprised me that he knew I had the day off on wednesday... He wouldn't tell me anything about the surprise.





At 6h30, we were off. We rode down to Glenelg, a rich area right on the beach. We walked up to the marina where the rich people keep their yachts, and there was a big catamaran there, ready for us to hop on. I didn't know what we were going to to on the boat. A man walked up to us, and handed us wet suits and a piece of paper. Allen didn't say a word. I read the paper. It was a release form. I read it. I realised what we were here to do. I jumped up. 'Oh my God, you are taking me to swim with dolphins?!?!?!'
Allen smiled.

It was fantastic. We were about 12 on the big boat. There was two long ropes behind the boat, and we would slide in the water and the boat would drag us through the water and the pods of dolphins. They would come and swim around us and under us.
We had masks on to see in the water. It was wonderful. The water was so clear, and the sun was shining. We were out at sea for over 3 hours. We would get on the boat, find a pod, then slide in the water, then when the dolphins were gone, go back on the boat and find another pod.

An absolutely fantastic day. Allen was so thoughtful to have organised that. He made reservations with the boat, and called my work to make sure I was going to have the day off. And best of all, he knew I've always wanted to do that.
Thank you so much babe.

Another Picture

I am in the process of uploading pictures of the wonderful day I had last wednesday.
I will tell you all about it tomorrow.

But today, I will pull one out of the archives.
I took this one a long time ago.

It was the four of us. Janice, Ariane, Éric and myself. We had been working in Edinburgh for 3 months, where I met Allen, and we were off for a week up in the highlands. This is Ariane, sitting on top of the world, somewhere between the Loch Ness and Oban.

It was a very peaceful moment. I think something happened inside all of us during that trip. We were never exactly the same after that.