yes, this still exists.
So I realise I haven't gotten round to blogging much lately, but it's been a whirlwind of a weekend (extra points for alliteration Hannah). I'm going to try to fill you (whoever "you" may be) in on Thanksgiving weekend in Quebec City. I may or may not be slightly concussed at this point, so you may have to bear with me and deal with some discrepancies or spelling mistakes - don't worry though, I'll get to the concussion story soon.
Sooooo, beginning with Thursday night. We'd agreed to take Gwynne in for a night, which proved to be far more hilarious than we'd ever expected. He got here around 8.30 - though Alice and I had been waiting for him upstairs in the "ballroom" (empty living room) for a good 25 minutes. We passed the time by skipping and sock sliding around the laminated floors. When the car finally arrived, his school secretary, who had driven him down the painful eight hour drive from Sept-Iles, got out of the car, only to see me standing in the pitch black of the front room window. There was an awkward second where I considered waving to her, but instead I ran away from the window. Completely sensible, as per.
Anyway, so Thursday evening passed without a glitch, and though it was a long weekend, I still had last period class on Friday to deal with before the weekend could really begin. Alice had to work, so I invited Gwynne out for lunch. We headed to Cosmos (the only place we really know), and had, predictably, poutine. The waitress kept speaking to us in English, and I couldn't stop laughing at Gwynne's refusal to respond in kind as he continued to spew French at her, and I attempted to follow suit. Anyway, a large poutine later, I headed to school, leaving Gwynne to explore the city and find his way back to ours. He seemed to have a successful outing, as when I returned home he'd bought the last Celine Dion CD that he needed to complete his collection - cue giant celebration. For reasons that none of us really understand but also for ease, Gwynne ended up staying with us for the next few nights too. So we invited him on sushi night, where we played heads up for hours and hours and I ate far too many marshmallows.
Saturday dawned. We made it into town to explore the Plains of Abraham, which is an enormous park in the centre of town. The weather is holding out pretty well, and Saturday was no exception. Windy as hell, that's for sure, but the sun came out to take some pretty photos. Another Starbucks name fiasco (Hannah & Alice = Anna & Alex apparently) later, we found ourselves waiting our friends' arrival in yet another coffee shop, Second Cup. The barista in there had the most wonderful moustache - if only it was appropriate to take photos of people with interesting facial hair. Anyway it was a wonderful one that curled up on either side, as if he twiddled it as he considered life.
Getting sidetracked.
Anyway we met them, had a bit of a chat over life so far, then took them to, surprise surprise, Cosmos for tea. It was great to catch up, though Joe's tales of driving did sort of terrify me (late nights and moose, take that as you wish). Anyway, we went our separate ways after the meal to freshen up, agreeing to meet later. Cue more heads up at home. We also invited our new Italian flatmate Paolo out, as he doesn't know that many people yet. It turned out to be a pretty decent night, as the place we went to had a really huge variety of music. The thing that took me by surprise -and also kept me laughing for hours - was the ridiculous people there. There were a few people that were dancing till well past 2am who really looked like their idea of a good time should really be sitting on the front porch with a cuppa - which ironically, is actually a pastime of Alice & I.
Obviously, a night out requires a McDonalds at the end of the night - I managed to resist, something I regretted when I realised Gwynne had indulged in 3am poutine. Oh poutine. The highlight for me, and for anyone who has ever watched 8 Simple Rules (the episode when Kerry meets the French Canadian Gee/Guy whatevs) - I swear down, in the capital of French Canada, a guy turned round and said 'Did anyone see Gee(Guy) come in?' I was absolutely beside myself. And quite honestly, I still am.
GEE EXISTS.
Anyway, we'd all arranged to meet up for lunch on the Sunday. I told Gwynne that I'd crawl out of bed around half 10 Sunday morning. I woke up - it was after 12, but all of us were in the same boat. The hostel lot had woken up earlier, given us a disgustingly short time to get ready. We managed to meet them, and Isobel, who'd come down from Lac Beauport, and we headed to this place someone had recommended. It was a really quaint little place that just about managed to seat all 9 of us together, with a little bit of table rearranging on our part. The food was spectacular though and really cheap - meals out here tend to be really decently priced. It's a shame cheese is so expensive - but I digress.
After food we wandered about, I tried my first beaver tail - no, it's not actually a tail of a beaver. It's like a pastry delight that you can get with all sorts of toppings, but predictably I got La Quebecoise - maple spead & chocolate. It was heavenly, though really incredibly sweet! I've taken it upon myself to always pick the "Quebecois" option if there is one in food (so far poutine quebecoise, pizza quebecois and beaver tail quebecoise all check!). We also took the funiculaire up the hill to the chateau, which was a wonderful change to the really disgustingly steep hill that we walked last time. We continued to explore, though we were all obviously flagging. By the time 6.30pm rolled round, and bubble tea attempts were occuring, most were feeling the effects of the busy weekend. After a good half an hour of giggling at Leanne's attempts to avoid the bubbles in her bubble tea, and laughing at Monique drinking hers for no real reason other than sheer delirium, I'd accepted it was time to grab a big bottle of coke and go home to Downton Abbey & X Factor. What an exciting life we do lead. I won't lie, it was a lush evening. Spectacular television. It was a pretty late night (though to be honest, for the right little nannas that Alice & I are rapidly becoming, anything past 10 is a late night), with more, yeah you guessed it, Heads Up. As Andre, our flatmate, had let Gwynne stay in his room while he was away, we made the most of the BEAUTIFUL bed that Andre has and just lounged about playing Heads Up for hours. I got overly enthusiastic in lying down though, and stotted my head pretty damn hard off the end of the bed. Hence the possible concussion, and probably why the writing of this post had to be spread over a couple of days. Heads Up never fails to provide absolute hilarity, whether it's by doing crappy accents that nobody understands or that sometimes border on wild racism; or by doing terrible impressions of hide and seek (hiding under the blanket) that Alice then misinterprets and proudly guesses 'fornication'; or when doing the round that requires you to hum a song until the person can guess it, Gwynne essentially getting more passionate with every note until he basically sings the words at you. I must say, not playing it today or yesterday has made me feel slightly down.
Monday morning was a sad farewell to Gwynne, though we'll see him again in a couple of weeks when we have our reunion meeting in the city. Then Alice & I had a trip planned - the countryside tour. Whilst on the last tour we did, we were only just younger than some of the others, on this one, we were considerably younger. We were, however, lucky enough to have Alain, our tour guide from the whale watching day, back in our lives, and he just about remembered us too. It was a crappy weather day at first, so no pretty photos from the waterfalls, but it cleared up beautifully for some blue sky shots of St Anne de Beaupre's basilica, which was really beautiful. We also caught a bit of mass (in French, you know - never know when I'll need to quote the Bible in French), but it was a really incredible place. We also visited the Ile d'Orleans, this beautiful island in the middle of the St Lawrence that is home to a pretty awesome little chocolaterie. I bought a large ice cream dipped in milk chocolate... man it was good, but it took me a hell of a long time to finish it. If only there was photographic evidence. We also went to a copper museum - sounds dull but it was actually really interesting, and the work they had there was all done by this one family and was super intricate. The dad who had started their copper work, and even worked for Walt Disney etc in his day, had designed the doors to the church we visited too, so it was all linked. The sneaky little highlight was a visit to Chez Marie, a little bread factory where you can try homemade white or raisin bread smothered in maple butter for 1.50$. She has this gorgeous little shack in St.Anne, where she cooks the bread in an outdoor oven, and the little restauranty bit is all wooden and even has rocking chairs and old photos of the Quebec Nordiques - the old Quebec hockey team. It was a really nice day, made even better by little Alain being our tour guide again, though I reckon we were probably more excited by his presence than he was about ours. It was another good tour though, and then we finished the evening with Made in Chelsea and Crimewatch, which was a bit traumatic, and inevitably led us to hearing creaking upstairs and panicking like mad. We then spent a good 5 minutes investigating every room upstairs to make sure there was no axe murderer just chilling in a cupboard - as I'm sure you've probably guessed, the coast was clear.
Today was a bit crappy being back at school, though I had some really great groups and got some pretty positive feedback. I did make an absolute mug of myself whilst telling my mam about my possible bed frame induced concussion, swinging on my seat as you do, when I fell backwards, slammed my head off the wall and was stuck, entangled in my chair, on the floor. Double concussion time. I'd also knocked my iPad on the table so it ended up facing up at the ceiling, leaving my mother, who I was currently Skyping, very confused as to the sudden change of view and my abrupt departure from view. When people say don't swing on chairs, they're right - you're never too old to fall backwards and make an absolute tit of yourself.
We then had a pretty damn delirious evening - skating about in socks on the floor in the "ballroom", doing headstands and handstands and Alice mastering the backwards roly poly and also making a damn good attempt at the splits before playing air hockey on the floor with a mobile phone. Tell me your nights can compare to this, and I may struggle to believe you. We also booked a nice little trip this evening, though I'll wait to get the confirmation through before I reveal the full details! I'll just tell you how incredibly excited I am about it - words can not even describe.
So anyway, this is my round up of thanksgiving weekend in Quebec City. Whilst it wasn't quite the turkey-fuelled extravaganza I'm sure some of my Canadian friends out west enjoyed, we sure as hell made the most of it, and frankly I'd quite like another few days off to recover from the exertion. Hopefully we'll be able to make something out of this weekend too. I'll stop writing now, as I realise this has become a little bit War And Peace-esque. I hope I haven't lost anyone along the way - though frankly, I'm not that arsed if I have. Goodnight bros.
Sooooo, beginning with Thursday night. We'd agreed to take Gwynne in for a night, which proved to be far more hilarious than we'd ever expected. He got here around 8.30 - though Alice and I had been waiting for him upstairs in the "ballroom" (empty living room) for a good 25 minutes. We passed the time by skipping and sock sliding around the laminated floors. When the car finally arrived, his school secretary, who had driven him down the painful eight hour drive from Sept-Iles, got out of the car, only to see me standing in the pitch black of the front room window. There was an awkward second where I considered waving to her, but instead I ran away from the window. Completely sensible, as per.
Anyway, so Thursday evening passed without a glitch, and though it was a long weekend, I still had last period class on Friday to deal with before the weekend could really begin. Alice had to work, so I invited Gwynne out for lunch. We headed to Cosmos (the only place we really know), and had, predictably, poutine. The waitress kept speaking to us in English, and I couldn't stop laughing at Gwynne's refusal to respond in kind as he continued to spew French at her, and I attempted to follow suit. Anyway, a large poutine later, I headed to school, leaving Gwynne to explore the city and find his way back to ours. He seemed to have a successful outing, as when I returned home he'd bought the last Celine Dion CD that he needed to complete his collection - cue giant celebration. For reasons that none of us really understand but also for ease, Gwynne ended up staying with us for the next few nights too. So we invited him on sushi night, where we played heads up for hours and hours and I ate far too many marshmallows.
Saturday dawned. We made it into town to explore the Plains of Abraham, which is an enormous park in the centre of town. The weather is holding out pretty well, and Saturday was no exception. Windy as hell, that's for sure, but the sun came out to take some pretty photos. Another Starbucks name fiasco (Hannah & Alice = Anna & Alex apparently) later, we found ourselves waiting our friends' arrival in yet another coffee shop, Second Cup. The barista in there had the most wonderful moustache - if only it was appropriate to take photos of people with interesting facial hair. Anyway it was a wonderful one that curled up on either side, as if he twiddled it as he considered life.
Getting sidetracked.
Anyway we met them, had a bit of a chat over life so far, then took them to, surprise surprise, Cosmos for tea. It was great to catch up, though Joe's tales of driving did sort of terrify me (late nights and moose, take that as you wish). Anyway, we went our separate ways after the meal to freshen up, agreeing to meet later. Cue more heads up at home. We also invited our new Italian flatmate Paolo out, as he doesn't know that many people yet. It turned out to be a pretty decent night, as the place we went to had a really huge variety of music. The thing that took me by surprise -and also kept me laughing for hours - was the ridiculous people there. There were a few people that were dancing till well past 2am who really looked like their idea of a good time should really be sitting on the front porch with a cuppa - which ironically, is actually a pastime of Alice & I.
Obviously, a night out requires a McDonalds at the end of the night - I managed to resist, something I regretted when I realised Gwynne had indulged in 3am poutine. Oh poutine. The highlight for me, and for anyone who has ever watched 8 Simple Rules (the episode when Kerry meets the French Canadian Gee/Guy whatevs) - I swear down, in the capital of French Canada, a guy turned round and said 'Did anyone see Gee(Guy) come in?' I was absolutely beside myself. And quite honestly, I still am.
GEE EXISTS.
Anyway, we'd all arranged to meet up for lunch on the Sunday. I told Gwynne that I'd crawl out of bed around half 10 Sunday morning. I woke up - it was after 12, but all of us were in the same boat. The hostel lot had woken up earlier, given us a disgustingly short time to get ready. We managed to meet them, and Isobel, who'd come down from Lac Beauport, and we headed to this place someone had recommended. It was a really quaint little place that just about managed to seat all 9 of us together, with a little bit of table rearranging on our part. The food was spectacular though and really cheap - meals out here tend to be really decently priced. It's a shame cheese is so expensive - but I digress.
After food we wandered about, I tried my first beaver tail - no, it's not actually a tail of a beaver. It's like a pastry delight that you can get with all sorts of toppings, but predictably I got La Quebecoise - maple spead & chocolate. It was heavenly, though really incredibly sweet! I've taken it upon myself to always pick the "Quebecois" option if there is one in food (so far poutine quebecoise, pizza quebecois and beaver tail quebecoise all check!). We also took the funiculaire up the hill to the chateau, which was a wonderful change to the really disgustingly steep hill that we walked last time. We continued to explore, though we were all obviously flagging. By the time 6.30pm rolled round, and bubble tea attempts were occuring, most were feeling the effects of the busy weekend. After a good half an hour of giggling at Leanne's attempts to avoid the bubbles in her bubble tea, and laughing at Monique drinking hers for no real reason other than sheer delirium, I'd accepted it was time to grab a big bottle of coke and go home to Downton Abbey & X Factor. What an exciting life we do lead. I won't lie, it was a lush evening. Spectacular television. It was a pretty late night (though to be honest, for the right little nannas that Alice & I are rapidly becoming, anything past 10 is a late night), with more, yeah you guessed it, Heads Up. As Andre, our flatmate, had let Gwynne stay in his room while he was away, we made the most of the BEAUTIFUL bed that Andre has and just lounged about playing Heads Up for hours. I got overly enthusiastic in lying down though, and stotted my head pretty damn hard off the end of the bed. Hence the possible concussion, and probably why the writing of this post had to be spread over a couple of days. Heads Up never fails to provide absolute hilarity, whether it's by doing crappy accents that nobody understands or that sometimes border on wild racism; or by doing terrible impressions of hide and seek (hiding under the blanket) that Alice then misinterprets and proudly guesses 'fornication'; or when doing the round that requires you to hum a song until the person can guess it, Gwynne essentially getting more passionate with every note until he basically sings the words at you. I must say, not playing it today or yesterday has made me feel slightly down.
Monday morning was a sad farewell to Gwynne, though we'll see him again in a couple of weeks when we have our reunion meeting in the city. Then Alice & I had a trip planned - the countryside tour. Whilst on the last tour we did, we were only just younger than some of the others, on this one, we were considerably younger. We were, however, lucky enough to have Alain, our tour guide from the whale watching day, back in our lives, and he just about remembered us too. It was a crappy weather day at first, so no pretty photos from the waterfalls, but it cleared up beautifully for some blue sky shots of St Anne de Beaupre's basilica, which was really beautiful. We also caught a bit of mass (in French, you know - never know when I'll need to quote the Bible in French), but it was a really incredible place. We also visited the Ile d'Orleans, this beautiful island in the middle of the St Lawrence that is home to a pretty awesome little chocolaterie. I bought a large ice cream dipped in milk chocolate... man it was good, but it took me a hell of a long time to finish it. If only there was photographic evidence. We also went to a copper museum - sounds dull but it was actually really interesting, and the work they had there was all done by this one family and was super intricate. The dad who had started their copper work, and even worked for Walt Disney etc in his day, had designed the doors to the church we visited too, so it was all linked. The sneaky little highlight was a visit to Chez Marie, a little bread factory where you can try homemade white or raisin bread smothered in maple butter for 1.50$. She has this gorgeous little shack in St.Anne, where she cooks the bread in an outdoor oven, and the little restauranty bit is all wooden and even has rocking chairs and old photos of the Quebec Nordiques - the old Quebec hockey team. It was a really nice day, made even better by little Alain being our tour guide again, though I reckon we were probably more excited by his presence than he was about ours. It was another good tour though, and then we finished the evening with Made in Chelsea and Crimewatch, which was a bit traumatic, and inevitably led us to hearing creaking upstairs and panicking like mad. We then spent a good 5 minutes investigating every room upstairs to make sure there was no axe murderer just chilling in a cupboard - as I'm sure you've probably guessed, the coast was clear.
Today was a bit crappy being back at school, though I had some really great groups and got some pretty positive feedback. I did make an absolute mug of myself whilst telling my mam about my possible bed frame induced concussion, swinging on my seat as you do, when I fell backwards, slammed my head off the wall and was stuck, entangled in my chair, on the floor. Double concussion time. I'd also knocked my iPad on the table so it ended up facing up at the ceiling, leaving my mother, who I was currently Skyping, very confused as to the sudden change of view and my abrupt departure from view. When people say don't swing on chairs, they're right - you're never too old to fall backwards and make an absolute tit of yourself.
We then had a pretty damn delirious evening - skating about in socks on the floor in the "ballroom", doing headstands and handstands and Alice mastering the backwards roly poly and also making a damn good attempt at the splits before playing air hockey on the floor with a mobile phone. Tell me your nights can compare to this, and I may struggle to believe you. We also booked a nice little trip this evening, though I'll wait to get the confirmation through before I reveal the full details! I'll just tell you how incredibly excited I am about it - words can not even describe.
So anyway, this is my round up of thanksgiving weekend in Quebec City. Whilst it wasn't quite the turkey-fuelled extravaganza I'm sure some of my Canadian friends out west enjoyed, we sure as hell made the most of it, and frankly I'd quite like another few days off to recover from the exertion. Hopefully we'll be able to make something out of this weekend too. I'll stop writing now, as I realise this has become a little bit War And Peace-esque. I hope I haven't lost anyone along the way - though frankly, I'm not that arsed if I have. Goodnight bros.
On the Plains of Abraham - me & Gwynne
Canny little street up to the chateau
definitely our names hmmmmeeeee
Artistic shots
La Quebecoise Beaver Tail
please keep all innuendo based jokes to yourself
yes you kevin (lol jk he won't read my blog)
Probably our first sober photo together!
Canny little group shot.
Nice pose Joe.
I really like this picture, the statue is pretty impressive and the sky looks mint.
Love this. Like the main street through city centre at dusk.
Chilling at the falls.
Candle room at the Basilica.
Can't explain the heat in this room, incredible.
I love a good church me.
Just after Mass.
More candles.
Canny.
Here's some more candles.
I must look like a reet pyromaniac.
Cracking photo from outside, when the sun eventually said hello!
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