Karine's Birthday

Been busy a lot recently, been trying to get as much done, whilst the snow has been outside and I've had the time before Saima, Andy and Sha get here next week, so as far as events go it's been pretty quiet.

It's Karine's turn for birthday celebrations, so with Jeff leaving soon, the girls wanted to take advantage of his cooking skills maybe for the last time. As usual Jeff's cooking was faultless, or maybe my pallet is just very easy to please, but don't think that, that's the case.

I think Karine had an idea what was going on, well at least I think she seemed quite happy that we weren't going out for a meal. Of course there was the guitar playing, excessive drinking shenanigans going on, but that doesn't really need to be pointed out as it's the norm now. Afterwards it was off to an 80's night at La Tulipe, the same place we went for my birthday last November. I really don't know why we haven't been back here more often, and maybe it's the fact I'm a child of the 80's but I had a great time here, 80's tunes seem to be more of a thing for me now, then when I heard them first time around. Plenty of screaming at the top of our voices (Jolyne had a really croaky voice this morning), glow sticks and sweaty dancing later, we all headed home with ringing ears. Luckily though the nights are now finally warm which means having that the hanging around outside waiting for a cab isn't too big of a deal.

Happy Birthday Karine... More photos of Saturday night can be seen in the link.

New York for Easter Weekend

With Easter weekend upon us, Jeff, Jolyne, Julie, Karine, Denis and I had decided to go to New York, you may remember me mentioning a few weeks back about wanting to go but was worried about how much it was going to cost, well I for one am glad that I decided to go, as if I'd missed out on this I would of been extremely annoyed with myself.

So Julie picks the Mini Van up and hands over the keys to me, quickly finding out that it had a DVD player, not that big a deal but hey it impressed me, although I would be sharing driving with Denis so didn't think that I would be getting the chance to see anything. Okay so we get the road trip CD's on and race towards the states and arrive at the Canadian border, where we hand over our passports, and then I get asked 20 questions about my relationship to everyone in the car in way more detail than I was ready for, suggesting that I had something to hide. The smug way the guy at border control was asking didn't exactly help, I had to keep reminding myself not to laugh. Anyway, we get through and continue on to NYC.

We end up getting to New York with hardly any fuss, the hardest part seemed to be the short drive into the City, with the taxi's swarming us like flies and the hotel being right in the center of town incidentally inbetween Madison Square Garden and the Empire State Building, upon checking in the girls worked their magic and somehow we ended up with a suite on the 17th floor, and here was us thinking that we were only going to get 2 triple rooms and we would be rotating a sofa bed, time for a drink...

Saturday saw us starting with breakfast, and then us all spliting up to do our own thing, we all had a couple of things we either wanted to see or do, and only a couple of days to do it. I seemed to have an increasing obsession with finding the Ghostbusters Building or at least various scenes from the Bill Murray classic, but that was secondary. Of course I wanted to see the Empire State building, and yes I wanted to see Ground Zero, out of interest than anything else, but with New York being so dence we would end up passing plenty of sights that everyone wanted to see sooner or later.

I always find the best ways of finding some good bars and resturants is to ask bar staff, and get a general feel for where to go, we had had a couple of drinks in a cool little modern Irish bar near the hotel and got talking to the bar staff about where to go and it seemed that more than a few people were recommending the Village, so we didn't need anymore convincing that this was the direction that we needed to head. So after a quick rest we headed out in search of beer, dancing and a great New York night out.

So down in the Village, we grab a quick slice or two of Pizza, and then on to a dive bar for a quick drink and to sort out where to go, a couple of shots and Jeff's cheap can of beer later we are heading to a bar with a wide range of musical tastes and a wider range of drinks, and so the dancing starts, time to hit another bar for some more dancing, out comes the jelly shots, the new jersey bad boys hitting on the girls, and more 80's music than you can shake a cheerleaders pom pom at. Fun night, led to us all heading back to the hotel at 3 with Jeff running full speed into the Suite door, rebounding off of it a good 6ft into my path, which for some reason I was also following him at full speed. Which resulted in me falling over him hitting the door full on and landing on the floor in a fit of laughter for a good 20 minutes...

Sunday was as lazy as a short weekend getaway to NYC would let us, hangovers included, time for some Central Park action or none action as it were. Wandered down to the Park via Broadway, and then back up to the Hotel via 5th Street, which took us past Tiffany & Co, Cartier, the Plaza and of course the NBA Store, so I was happy, a quick bite to eat and before we knew it, it was 5pm and time to head back to Montreal, tired, but good tired. Time to try out that DVD player in the back of the car, and roll back into Canada around 1 in the morning and the girls and I had to work this morning, I was tired so I know they will be.

Fantastic City, will definately be back there again someday soon. Loads more pictures of the weekend can be found here: New York Weekender Pictures, enjoy.

Aussie Kris' Birthday Beerfest

Behold the bath of beer, cold beverages from around the globe.

Aussie Kris' birthday is today, and of course this would mean plenty of alcohol, but Kris decided that it would be a little more than just alcohol, so off he went to Ottawa to collect some of the world's finest, all the way through the alphabet.

Kris also provided us with the customary beer coolers, to enhance the crisp, clean taste. His place is overlooking Parc LaFontaine, and he has his own little terrace, a nightmare in Winter but the perfect party venue in the Spring/Summer, unless you are like me and scared of heights, and you have problems going anywhere near the edge. Once you've travelled up his medieval staircase, you already feel you've earnt yourself a drink.

You can see some more of the pictures from Saturday night here.

A crowd favourite seemed to be the Smokey German beer, which on first taste feels like you are drinking straight from a BBQ, definately an aquired taste but was interesting none the less. I forget the name of it though.

Think the mixture of all the different beers got a little too much for Paul, Jeff and Blake.

Kris had rented a tux for that elegant feel, it's getting to the point here where I think I'm acting more like a student, than when I was actually a student, everything seems to revolve around a beverage of some sort. Meh... Hangovers are for the weak!

Kids Day out

Did my bit to help some of the less fortunate of Montreal, by taking these three children (mental age of 5) to a grown up house party. I had them wash, changed and ready for bed before their curfew.

But I don't think that they are allowed to touch alcohol again.

*Not normally my style to post a photoshoped pic, but come on it was too hard to resist.