Autumn!

We went for a walk up "the mountain" last Sunday and were rewarded for our efforts with this view. We were hoping to be rewarded with pizza but it wasn't to be.

I had another success last night with meeting strangers off the internet. I joined the Meetup group called "Cheap Ethnic Eatz" and was able to look past the z and go to a vietnamese restaurant with them last night. I had a really good time, and it wasn't all due to the absolutely amazing fried ice cream. Goddamn, it was good. Like a big giant icecream wonton, smothered in orange syrup. A wonton suzette. Unfortunately this restaurant is about a 5 minute walk from my apartment so I am hoping the fried icecream won't be calling to me in my vulnerable hours.

I also joined the Aussies in Montreal meetup group and will be enjoying a beverage (possibly Fosters, hopefully Coopers) with them next Saturday. Apparently the night will involve trivia and a raffle, so fingers crossed I can pick myself up a nice meat tray or a jar of Vegemite.

Anyway, speaking of Aussies, I had best document my weekend in Kingston over the Grand Final weekend (coincidentally it was also the Queens University homecoming weekend which apparently is the biggest busiest weekend of the year). It is already a bit of a blurry memory, which is everything to do with the 3 weeks that have passed and nothing to do with the amount of alcohol consumed. The grand final actually started around 12:30am or so Fri night/Sat morn and conveniently was shown on Jona's cable so we didn't have to squint at the little screen with no sound at the Irish pub we frequented before the game started. We tried to get the Festival of the Boot going online but JJJ decided for some reason not to play it live online this year and we were stuck with Bruce and Dennis.

Fosters was drunk, I will admit. Many many anzac biscuits were consumed however (we had a drinking game style thing going for a while where you had to eat a biscuit if your team got a goal but it was an unsustainable endeavour) which I think makes up for the Fosters embarrassment. The cans of Fosters are actually something like 750mL which is ridiculous, it's bad enough drinking 375mL from a can let alone a longneck's worth of beer.

Of course the next day got off to a bit of a seedy start but this was soon sorted out with a massively calorie dense fryup breakfast and a mad run through the city to get down to catch a boat which we missed by 10 minutes. Yes, nothing like a huge feast followed immediately by a crazed run to sort out a hangover. After checking out the nearby ChiliFest we managed to get on the next boat and had a glorious cold, wet journey through Lake Ontario, resisting the urge to get a hotdog just to see how bad they really were (plus we had coupons for a free postmix drink with any hotdog purchase!). Throughout the trip they played a recording telling you about the sights, which involved a woman telling you things and a Scottish man interjecting (he was apparently the ghost of some historically significant man, and judging from his voice was related to Sean Connery). Oh the witty repartee, it was all I could do to stop flinging myself over the rail, grabbing a hotdog on the way.

After the trip we walked through ChiliFest again, thinking it was some magical festival where you walk around getting free food. We lined up and were given some corn chips and asked for our cups, only to realise that you are given the cups for the chilli when you pay at the front gate. We showed them though - we didn't pay and we kept the free corn chips! Ate them all! It was actually a charity event though so the only people that suffered from our stinginess is the war orphans or whoever it was.

The hours to come involved drinking giant coffees, eating our weight in delicious Greek food, and then getting stuck into the crazy party night of Queens Homecoming Saturday night.

I'm quite fond of this photo, what with the "No man, seriously, I love you!" guy and the brainsucking hand of the guy to the right. Actually, both of these guys are dressed the same...maybe they are the same guy?!?!!!

In a nutshell, it was a mad mad night of thousands of drunk hooligans roaming the streets. I have never seen so many police in my life, it was nuts. My shoes were filthy by the end of the night, I'm not sure why though, possibly it was just the filth of youth. Fun was had into the wee hours, then sleep called as I was all too aware of the train trip home I had to make the next day.

So all in all it was a most enjoyable weekend and I am very grateful to my gracious host, thanks Jona, the boat trip wasn't all that bad ;)

I'm partying it up BIG TIME this weekend with Myriam's 2nd birthday party, man it's going to be wild! As many artificial colours as the eye can see, enough tea to knock you out. Actually I'm in charge of making the birthday cake and I'm quite looking forward to my first foray into cake decorating. If all goes according to plan I will be posting photos of an amazing cake and a very happy 2 year old in a few days. If not then there are lots of good boulangeries/pattiseries around these parts so I could always cheat (oh but you know I won't).

Oh, and one last thing, Australia was in the news here today as there was such a pissweak turnout in the federal election here on Tuesday that there are talks of bringing in compulsory voting. John Howard was in the news lately too as apparently Harper (the PM here) ripped off some of one of his speeches, nice taste there Harper. Anyway Harper is still the PM but I'm glad the election is finally over so I'm not constantly having to avoid eye-height cable ties holding election signs to poles. Some of the graffiti on the signs was funny though. Oh, speaking of graffiti, here's a nice picture to bid you adieu