Friday, June 30, 2006

Lobster night just a little messy

Jeff and Jolyne had been talking about about throwing a Lobster dinner, with it apparently being Lobster season here, and Jolyne being a jab hand at murdering these clawed creatures.

With the Ubi lot having the day off, Jeff entertained us with what is now becoming legendary dinner parties, Jolyne was chief Lobster killer, but Jeff isn't as completely innocent as he first appears, he too was capable of causing Lobster genocide. We had been debating all week over whether or not Lobsters felt pain and if they were aware of their surroundings, he seemed to be happy with the theory that they didn't and as I would be joining him in eating them, I thought it best to believe him.

Of course, when you get us all together it's bound to be fun, add some wine and an English favourite of PIMM'S and Lemonade (thanks mum), with all the trimmings i.e. mint, fruit. Paul decided that he would treat us all to one of his improvised songs, I can't remember what he sang but I do remember trying to sing along with him, which can be hard considering that he didn't know what he was going to say next so I had no chance.


Janet and I, on Jeff's balcony, enjoying the none humidity

Paul, Cari and Jeff ready for the carnage

Jolyne doing the robot, whilst the rest of us goad the boiled Lobsters, see she really is a cold hearted killer, she's dancing around her victims!!!!

Jeff has some more pictures I want to post of the night before, as cooking the Lobsters would take time, with the amount we had. Anyway, thanks to Cari and Steve for the above pictures, and thanks to Jeff for all the effort he and Jolyne put in, it sure was a messy night.

Monday, June 26, 2006

F1 Weekend 'n' Stuff

The F1 stands for 1 Ferrari by the way, as there are no pictures of the Formula 1 weekend as it would of cost a fortune to head up there today, and besides there was more important things to do, namely playing footy in the street

Here's me trying to get back into 'my' car, I locked the keys side and it was extremely frustrating, suppose I'll have to leave it here for another night. I have to point out that although this picture looks very shadey, I did not try to steal this car, just incase this car does wind up being stolen, and then this picture could be a tad incriminating.

After the game yesterday, we were walking down St-Laurent, and an impromptu game of football broke out with some more England fans celebrating the win, when you get sun, a closed off street due to the F1 activities and a random blokes ball, you get our version of Street footy! Although not massively skillful, the passion was there, and surely that counts for something?


The ball ended up in the Noodle shop behind Jeff in this picture a couple of times, a sublime piece of skill by Jeff to keep it out on this occasion. I think he then hoofed it down the street which was about as useful as a Paul Robinson punt.

Then it continues in the park in the old port, until Harry kicks the ball in the water, then you get Harry trying to do his best Baywatch impression whilst climbing out of the water.

After a long day out in the sun, playing footy as well as watching it, I was walking back to my apartment, and took this picture of tonights sunset... It was amazing, so much so, I thought that I'd share it with you all.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

England 1-0 Ecuador: Celebrating for England.

Harry showing his passion

Second round of the World Cup and this is the tense bit, again the loyal troop of Montreal based brits joined in supporting the lads in Germany, 11 am kick off meant being ready to go for 10, the bar was full of fans from both teams, everything was good natured even to the point where we started taking over some of the Ecuador fans chants. All in good fun.


Thursday, June 22, 2006

The Coming Weekend



The Formula One Grand Prix of Canada is taking place this weekend. I moved to Montreal the weekend of the race last year, but didn't know what was going on.

This weekend is filled with activities. Tomorrow the action will begin on île Ste-Hélène! There is the Open Pits day from 9h to 13h. That's your chance to get an upclose look at the cars and mechanics at work. Then Friday, Saturday and Sunday the drivers will speed around the track in their sleek Formula 1 cars.

Surrounding the Grand Prix there are also activities downtown: Crescent, Peel and (also new from this year) adjacent to the Bell Centre at René Lévesque and Drummond. You'll find cars on display, demonstrations, concerts, etc. Lots to do this weekend for race lovers!

It's also a Quebec holiday this Friday, so that just heightens the debortary, add into the mix England in the second round of the World Cup and you are gonna have a lot of fun.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Had an idea

So I've been thinking...

A bloke in work has offered me the chance to try something a little different, something that I don't think that I would of given a second thought to a couple of years ago. But I came here to experience new things, and after learning how to scuba dive a few years back, I thinking it would be good to go to the other extreme.

Ok so what am I talking about?

Skydiving...

Yep you read it right, me the guy scared of heights. What better way to get over it than to throw my self out of a plane on July 1st. It isn't confirmed yet, but I thought that I should put it out there and give you all a chance to either encourage me, or talk me out of it.

www.paradrenaline.ca


Sunday, June 11, 2006

1 year today.

It's now been a full year since I flew into Montreal to start the next stage of my Career with Ubisoft. Sooooooo much has happened inbetween, I don't want to do anyone an an injustice by not mentioning everything.

I feel like so much has happened and I've met some awesome people, of course there have been the down points, but there have also been so many highs, this now feels more like a city I live in as opposed to somewhere I work.

Moving to Montreal was probably one of the most selfish things I think I've ever done, I was making the move for me and a chance to advance on my career. I was absolutly packing it, and I didn't know what to expect, and the fact that I had left England, with all my friends and family behind, didn't exactly help. But I was excited, and ready for the challenges that lay ahead.

Still not sure what the future may hold and how long I'll stay, but I'm loving it so far and on that there is no question, although I do still miss home, but to be honest I don't think that will ever change, but you know what, when the time comes for me to eventually leave here, I know that I'll miss this place something fierce too.

Just looking back over some of my entries into this Blog reminded me of all the great times I've been having here, gutted that some things haven't worked out the way I'd hoped, but the ole cliche of every cloud has a silver lining is true, as I've had experiences here that I would of found hard to get anywhere else, here is to the next year in Montreal, now, show me where the festivals at.

Pretend Hooligans

Alcohol + National Football + Time to kill in between games = Prentend Hooligan's.
Of course we are all socially responsible people, but I had my camera on me and we all thought that Harry needed a good kicking. So I took some pictures...

* No one was hurt in the creation of these pictures, except maybe Harry's pride.

Bosh, ave some of that!!!

John even manage an uppercut to the face whilst he was watching the Trinidad and Tobago game

Game of 2 Halves.

So it's that time again, England are in the World Cup, and again we are one of a few teams capable of winning it. I'm excited, I've been waiting for this since the day we were knocked out against Brazil in 2002. With being in Montreal and the time difference being around 5/6 hours, it meant that if we wanted to watch this puppy, I was gonna have to drag myself up and out and sat down ready by 8am.

As this is a special occasion, I thought it would be nice to get as many Brits together as possible so we could get that famous pub atmosphere. 14 of us in the end (most from Ubi), all ready cheer on our team.

Jeff and Harry got excited.

Harry who I knew from Bristol was well up for it and by 8.30 we all had pints and breakfast and were ready for kick off. We tried to make it as rowdy as possible, but because I used to love watching matches with Andy, Justin and Sharon in the walkabout, Harry did his best, and was well up for the challenge.

As did Steve.

Jack and I combined our powers to help England to victory

If you squint you could almost be there, as you can see the score is 1-0

Joylne, got involved and wore the colours for our Boys, was also an honourary Brit for the day.

Lot's of screaming and shouting all around, combined with several pints of Guiness, that is fast becoming my tipple of choice whilst watching football, but it's so damn expensive.

We ended up winning 1-0, and it was a decent performance, and was a great start to what is my year annervsary of being in Montreal. Cheers everyone, I had a blast!

COME ON ENGLAND!!!

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Clerks 2: Click my link

Clerks II - July 21, 2006

Clerks 2 is gonna be out on July 21st. If enough of you click the picture, I might win some free stuff... So go on, click it, it's just a link to the Clerks 2 website, so if you've seen the first one you're bound to enjoy the second one, surely.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Best Action/Adventure of E3.

Promise that this will be the last post about this for a while, but this one is quite significant. The awards from E3 were announced last night, and Assassin's Creed was nominated for 4 of them, including Best of Show, Most Original Game, Best Console Game and Best Action/Adventure.

We didn't get best of show, that went to the Nintendo Wiiiiiiiii. Which is fair enough, as it had people lining up for over 3 hours to play it, but we did win Best Action/Adventure.

Upon looking back through the past winners of this catagory I noticed that Ubisoft Montreal seems to dominate this catagory, congrats to everyone, and let's hope that this is the start of big things.

1998 : Grim Fandango (LucasArts)
1999: Oni (Bungie)
2000: Escape from Monkey Island (LucasArts Entertainment for PC)
2001: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (Konami for PS2)
2002: Splinter Cell (UbiSoft Montreal)
2003: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (UbiSoft Montreal)
2004: Splinter Cell 3 (UbiSoft Montreal)

2005: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo for GameCube)
2006: Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft Montreal / UbiSoft for PS3)

Building that looks like a cat.


I Saw this building downtown, can't remember what it's for, think it might be the Bank of Montreal HQ, but whilst looking at it, it started to remind me of a cat.

A bit random I know, but thought I'd share.

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