pphaneuf | A few of the things that happened...

Insane recap of more than two weeks, I was guessing that I might end up writing it on the plane. And here I am, on the plane. Turns out that British Airways has a sort of sideway cattle class, where I have plenty of leg room (well, okay, adequate leg room), but no space whatsoever for my elbows. And the coffee was the most atrocious coffee I've ever had in my life, bar none. Take some old coffee from a no-name donut joint, add some tap water, and that's about what I got.

azrhey's non-presence in England is thus easily explained. And the steward spilled her wine on her. Charming. And I'm watching the Pink Panther, but thankfully, I'm about brain-dead by now, so I'm in the perfect state for it.

Thursday the 18th, lady

azhrey and I went to play some pools with

gregorama and

jul3z, where there was mild abuse (mostly of

gregorama, of course, although cleavage was carefully looked after). We were then joined by

swestrup and

taxlady, who also gave us a ride home in the pouring rain.

Friday the 19th, I went to see Pax Nipponica at Café Blue Monday, after picking up

ayria for the long weekend. There was many LJers there, including

abelynx,

phreedum,

archdiva, as well as the singer and who knows else.

Saturday the 20th, I went to the Anarchist Bookfair with

ayria and

azrhey, rather briefly. I felt rather bad, going there wearing a Point Zero t-shirt and Mexx jeans, with my fancy Cocotte bag, while there was some pretty hardcore people there, saw some bike messenger with a Cocotte bag, but totally worn out, being the type who rides all year round in the brutal Montreal weather, not the flimsy pleasure rider like myself. Oh well, I do what I can, and my conscience will just have to shut up. We then headed over for coffee nearby, after some rather clever parking planning on my part (oh, come on, give me some credit!). I then proceeded to spend a fine end of afternoon and early evening with mademoiselle

ayria, playing some foosball and chatting. I'm glad we could see each others one last time before I journeyed over to Europe.

Sunday the 21st, had one of these difficult talks with

azrhey. We have differing viewpoints, and it pains me to see the hurt I cause, but I am confident we can see this through. Then went to the Kam Shing with

tygrbabe, where I hadn't gone in a long time, just about a year, actually. She is quite wonderful, minding that we have little time, that I'm under tremendous stress, and trying to help me relax and let off some steam. I see myself crumble, at times, but I'm hopeful I'll see the end of this. I always do, don't I?

Monday the 22nd, I was treated to a rarity: a late morning in bed with

tygrbabe. Nothing but lazying about until a bit past noon. Of course, I was confused, again, and messed all sorts of things, worrying

azrhey terribly and slightly short-changing

tygrbabe. I'm so skill-full that way. Still, 16 hours of doing nothing and lazing about is nothing to sneeze at, considering

tygrbabe's silly café-driven schedule and my moving insanity. I then joined a crew, which included

azrhey,

ryss_rhiannon,

kyotto,

gorbash_dragon, and a number of others (you'll pardon my poor stressed-out memory, it was a while ago!) to see The Da Vinci Code. Was all right, rather poor acting chemistry, oh well.

Tuesday the 23rd, drove over to the boonies with

azrhey to have dinner at my sister's and her boyfriend, with my dad and his girlfriend. Was appalled again at what passes for culture where I come from. I think they find me rather snobbish, being the fancy-pants city boy leaving for the Old Continent.

Wednesday the 24th, I spent a nice quiet evening with

azrhey, then headed back to the office for some more slaving away on this last project. Yeah, I am insane, no need to point it out again.

Thursday the 25th, I went to some kind of underground punk show in Ottawa with

tygrbabe,

liberation_now and another girl. It was quite energetic at times, although I couldn't help but feel old. Man, there's some people, they're so hardcore, it's like they're made out of cast iron or something! A girl there had the most gorgeous hand-built city single-speeder bike I've ever seen! She was a bit freaked out at first, but was then rather proud of her bike getting such careful gawking. I gave driving directions toward Montreal to one of the bands, but they probably got lost, as we had stupid highway trouble, with both the 40 and the 20 closed off. It was so weird, at a stop sign, somewhere in some town west of Lachine, in some forsaken detour road, there was andrewmp right beside me, at 3am. Coincidences, they are quite the thing, sometimes!

Friday the 26th, I was stupid in the morning. I don't remember what, but that's what I wrote down in my notes to remember what to write here. That'll teach me not to post for more than two weeks. In the evening, I went to party with the folks from the cégep era at Chris' place, a rather cool (other than at the top of some insanely steep and narrow stairs) loft. There was all sort of nuttiness, and

azrhey finally got to meet

pdage, after all this time!

Saturday the 27th, there was a BBQ at

azrhey folks. Now, that was quite the event. I think their algorithm to figure out how much food to cook is to make enough for the case where everyone decided to eat the exact same thing, all the while having a selection of three or four things you could eat from (at least, I might have missed some). We were 18, I think, and I'll let you imagine how much food that is exactly (a hint: it's even more than that!). My mom thought

azrhey's dad was joking after dessert when he said the shrimps were coming soon. You should have seen the look on her face when the said shrimp landed in front of her, it was priceless. I went up and down the stairs what seem like a million times, this is rather good exercise, I don't think I'd put on weight doing that kind of party, surprisingly enough. There was some scare where I thought for a second my digital SLR camera fell two meters unto concrete, but it was just a scare after all. Ah, kids...

Sunday the 28th, I saw

cberner and his girlfriend with

tygrbabe at l'Étranger. He's such a biking and airplane geek, but he's also so bloody charming, LOL!

Monday the 29th, I went to my mom in St-Denis in the morning to sign some papers at my bank (credit union, actually, being a left-leaning type of person and all), as well as installing my server at her place. This turned out to be quite the adventure, but I was successful, in the end. Saw X-Men: The Last Stand later that day, all right movie, but quite the terrible ending. I then handed over the Diva to the good cares of

joenotcharles. She was rather unhappy at first, but this is a cat being moved, it's all rather normal. I hear she's adjusting herself to her new home...

Tuesday the 30th, I got a long-overdue haircut, and went to see

tygrbabe to pick out things from my place, either for her or for other people who will put them to good uses. I'm glad my Sega Genesis had finally gone to someone who will appreciate it to its rightful value (as well as the Shadowrun cartridge!). Poor

liberation_now, he's doomed.

Wednesday the 31st, I cleared out more of my things, including a bunch of things to

cpirate, as well as to Joëlle. I then crashed at

azrhey for some much appreciated cuddling. I wanted to do a few more things, but she told me to go straight back, and she was right. I was dead by then.

Thursday the 1st,

tygrbabe and I had a nice evening, going to some pub on Côte-des-Neiges (not the original plan, but oh well!), then heading over downtown for "people watching" (we're such perverts). Was a slow night as far as hot girls went, but when we arrived at the Place-des-Arts, there was Aïda outside playing, where we saw

sfllaw,

gorbash_dragon and

kyotto right there in the front row.

Friday the 2nd,

tygrbabe and I went to the SAT to see

phreedum play, then had some fine dinner of flattened chicken and noodles in Chinatown, discussing girls bleeding and other nice things. We then headed over to Nocturne 3, which was quite awesome, other than one of the musician being merely okay (had this been a night out in a club, I'd have been quite satisfied, but this is Mutek, and it's supposed to be totally awesome). Tiredness reaching fabulous levels. Spent a last night with

tygrbabe before my departure.

Saturday the 3rd,

azrhey joined me at my place and we packed up more of my things that nobody took. We then headed back to her place and packed the luggage we'd be taking with us. This is heavy, very heavy! We've got about 120 kilos of checked-in luggage (which will have to be checked out at Heathrow, taken on a bus, then checked back in at Gatwick), as well as, hmm, maybe 30 kilos of carry-on? Easy, it's probably more than that, actually. Took the rest of the day and evening easy, trying to gather some steam for the trip.

Sunday the 4th, turns out I slept something like 12 hours, and it did me much good. I headed out and did the last clearing out of things at my apartment, with my dad and one of my uncles coming over to help me move the fridge, stove, washing machine and couch. There was some last items left that I thought I'd leave to the next tenant, but between my dad and my uncle, they cleared out almost everything, pretty good. We delivered the couch to Joëlle's sister. I then headed over to do my farewells to

tygrbabe (and to

liberation_now too, take care!), which went very nicely. We held each others, cried a bit, laughed more and even had ice cream! Headed back to

azrhey place, where I had more good food stuffed in me (it was her favourite food that her dad cooked for her, it was great!).

This has been quite the insane period of my life, I have to say. Both of my girlfriends, at some point or another, have wanted to break up with me, and justifiably so. But they haven't, and I think this is all for the best. Stripping down my apartment was especially difficult in the last week, where it brought back memories of doing the same at

denizsarikaya's apartment, with some of her things. I parted with Diva, which was rather painful. I became a kind of homeless, if only partly and temporarily, which I find rather difficult considering how important having my own place is to me. I'm being separated from one of my girlfriends. And finally, I'm away from all the small things, my friends, my family, the places I'd hang out and see every day.

I'll keep the day we departed for a coming post.

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From:

skjalm.livejournal.com

The thing about insane periods like this is that when we somehow manage to pull through it makes for some very good stories and confuzzlement at how so much could happen in such a short time.

Where's the next destination?