Attented the Michael Buble concert at the Bell Centre last night. This was going to be my third time seeing him in Montreal, each time at a slightly larger venue. In November 2003 Sandra and I saw him at the Metropolis Club with maybe 800-1000 other people. This was 5 months after his first appearance in Montreal at Le Cabaret, a really tiny but nice club on St Laurent during the Jazz Fest. Sandra had bought a CD of his before his first big commercial release a couple of years earlier so we went. It was a great mixture of song and bantering with the audience. The fact that Metropolis is on the small side allowed for intimacy.
The next time I saw him was during my annual birthday/Jazz Fest concert. My birthday falls during the Jazz Fest and I usually buy tickets for the headliner show. In 2006 it was Michael Buble appearing with the Montreal Big Band (I have many friends who play in that band). While we were seated at the top of Place des Arts which does not make for an intimate setting the concert, non the least, was very good. He incorporated some of the schtick he had done at the Metropolis but it was kept to a minimum as Jazz fest concerts are tightly controlled timewise.
So, now he was moving up the the Bell Centre, 18,000 people. Would there be any hope of retaining that closeness with the audience? Well, he managed to do it. He gave a very entertaining concert while interacting with the crowd whether in the front row or answering to the many I love you Michaels from the nosebleed section. He knows how to work a crowd. He sang a good misture of the standards he has been known to cover and some of the contemporary repertoire he has been building up. A very entertaining evening and I wouldn't hesitate to buy tickets again next time he comes to Montreal. BTW, he did don a Habs jersey at the end of the concert despite the fact he's a known Canucks fan so I'm sure that help cement Montreal's love affair with him. I guess he feels somewhat grateful for Montreal as it was a singing gig at the wedding of Brian Mulrooney's daughter that he was noticed by guest David Foster and the rest, as they say, is history....
I usually have a busy week. I have a regular 9 to 5 job then I play in several orchestras and am involved in several committees so I am not home that much during the week. Despite that I still want to have a homemade hot meal every night or for lunch. My usual Sunday routine is laundry followed by cooking something in a large enough quantity to last for several meals. Normally I don't like having the same thing for lunch and dinner although sometimes when I make one of my favorites like roast beef or pot roast I can't help myself, it's just so good!
So, since I had a big baggie of stewing beef (leftover half of a tray from Costco, the othet half was used for beef bourguignon back in December) I decided to make a beef stew. I also thought I would do a variation on my usual stew recipe and make a beef stew with Guinness. A quick search in my favorite cookbook, the internet, came up with what looks like a good one: Irish Beef Stew Recipe.
At the moment it is simmering away with a half a can of Guinness in it (along with wine and boullion) while I drink the other half ;-). I'll do an update to let you know haow it turns out.
Update: Well it's done and it's not too bad. I wouldn't say it's so great that I would make it over my regular stew but it is pretty tastie. I followed the recipe except I also added parsnips because, come on, how can you have beef stew without parsnips. The meat is really tender and the sauce is flavorful. I'm sure it will taste even better tomorrow.
I have been very remiss in updating my blog. I really need to upgrade my blog software and hosting but have been very lazy about it. Anyway, this is my year in review to bring the blog up to date. So, let's start!
January
On Christmas Day, 2006 I flew to London, England joining up with my friends Bev and Fraser at their house in High Wicombe just west of London. Bev was actually in Aberystwyth, Wales spending Christmas with the girls. Fraser arrived back a couple of hours after I arrived at the house. I took the train the next day to Aberystwyth to join up with bev and the girls then her and I drove back after a couple more days.
On 5 January 2007 Bev, Fraser and I took off for Bangkok, Thailand for two weeks. In Bangkok we stayed at a time share hotel fairly convenient to the Sky Train system. We shopped, we ate, we toured. Pretty mush non-stop for 7 days. Hired a private guide for two days of trips outside of Bangkok visiting such places as the floating markets, the Tiger Temple, Bridge Over the River Kwai and the ancient city of Ayathuya. After a week in Bangkok we took the train to Hua Hin for a week of relaxation by the sea. Again we ate, toured, swam and basically relaxed. On the 20 January we flew back to London where I spent a couple more days before returning home.
March/April
At the end of March I was given the opporotunity to go to Vimy, France with the combined Central Band and Air Command Band for the 90th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Five others from the reserve band went also. We left to go to Trenton, Ont for three days of rehearsals before fliying to Lille, France on a Canadian Forces Airbus jet along with the rest of the 350 strong contingent. We stayed at a hotel just across from the airport. We spent 5 days rehearsing with a rather light schedule before doing the main gigs over Easter weekend culminating in the big ceremony on Easter Monday with the Queen of England, President of France and the Prime Minister of France in attendance. It was quite the experience. We had five days free at the end before heading back so everyone participated in a scatter drill. Tessa and I took off on the TGV for Paris where we spent 2 nights. When we got back we went with a group on a day trip to Brugges, Belgium before returning to Canada.
May
In the first week of May I was laid off from the place I had worked for 6 years at. I was nit unhappy. It had not really been the greatest place to work since my previous boss retired in October. I was quite on the verge of quitting when they laid me off and gave me 6 weeks of severence pay so I was, like, woo hoo! I'm on vacation for 6 weeks! Since I had started the job with a trip to visit Bev and Fraser right after they had moved to London from Canada I decided that if I could find a cheap flight I would take it. I managed to find a flight from Ottawa for $512 round trip toward the end of may so I took it. As much as I like my friends, and I assume they like me since I've done 4 family vacations with them, I had just seen them in January so I started looking for last minute vacations out of London. Well, I found airfare and hotel for 7 nights with buffet breakfast to Luxor, Egypt for $420cdn. The next day after landing in London I took off for Luxor, Egypt!
June
The first week of June was spent in Luxor, Egypt and yes, it was hot! On the bus to the hotel I befriended a single mon traveling with her 11 year old son and another woman coming to Luxor to break off a relationship with an Egyptian boy toy. Since Thailand had been so cheap I still had $900us in travelers checks left so I decided I was going to do all I wanted to while there. On the first full day I took a tour with Maggie and her son across the Nile to visit the Vally of the Kings, Valley of the Queens and a few other temple. Joined up with Leslie and her boyfriend that evening for a few beers at the floating bar across from the hotel in what became a nighly ritual. The next morning Maggie, Tvetsfor and I took a sunrise hot air balloon ride over the Nile and some of the monuments. Back in time for the hotel's buffet breakfast I then spent the rest of the morning at the Luxor Temple. It was too hot in the afternoons for anything but the pool at the hotel. Day 3 saw me taking a plane to Cairo where I spent the day doing the pyramid thing. Crawled all over the pyramids, went inside one, took a camel ride across the desert to the Sphynx before lunch then the Egyptian Museum to see King Tut's goodies. Off to the bazaar, a fallafel sandwhich then back to the airport for the flight back to Luxor. Day 4 was recharging batteries at the hotel just hanging around the pool as I was exhausted. My gift for spending the day at the hotel eating hotel food was to come down with the runs which put a bit of a crimp on day 5 but managed to salvage it with a sunset fallucca sail on the Nile set up through Leslie's boy toy. He came along on the sail with me and Maggie's son as Maggie was a bit under the weather. Day 6 I took a trip to the Red Sea where I spent the day on a boat going from coral reef to coral reef snorkling and swimming in absolutely gorgeous water. Last day (day 7) was spent crawling around the Karnak Temple then packing and flying back to London.
At the end of June was my 50th birthday. It ended up being rather anti-climatic and a bit of a bust but so be it
July
Went camping for a week near the end of July to Maidstone lake in NE Vermont with Marc, Claudine and the boys and had a great time. In fact it was to great thet we reserved a lake side lean-to campsite for the end of July 2008.
September
Was in the midst of planning a trip to SE Asia at the end of November for three months when on a lark I gave my CV to a friend's sister and I ended up getting hired on a four month paternity leave contract. The money was just too good to give up and it was at a company in Old Montreal so it was easily accessible. This would just push forward the trip to mid-February but would also give me more money for the trip.
October
Started the job and I just loved it. I was doing two things, updating four infrastructure guides for file/video graphics software and working on a proposal concerning placement of product documentation on the company website. The company has free fruit (apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, etc) in the lobby in the morning. Free bagels every morning in the lunch room. A complete coffee bar also stocked with juices and soda. My greatest accomplishment learning how to use the milk frother on the expresso machine to make frothy hot chocolate! On Fridays at 4 is beer call with beer, wine, popcorn and chips. They show movies on the big screen in the atrium lobby and there are four 42" plasma screens with gaming systems attached. I even joined a Wii bowling league!
November
I interviewed and was hired for another contract within the same team for five more month after the current one finishes at the beginning of February. It's a more technical position, taking care of the software that helps the writers write the document and to work on developing the on line help system used within the programs and is derived through the software used to produce the written manuals. It means I won't be taking off mid-February (much to the relief of the orchestras I play in). I also won't be taking off when the contract finishes at teh end of June as I don't really want to travel to SE Asia during the summer months with monsoons and such. I am just pushing the trip to the end of Novemeber 2008. This will allow me to save more money in the account that will pay for bills here while I am gone and might allow me to travel a bit longer.
End of Novemeber the football gals, Beverley, Sandra and I went to Toronto for four days for the Grey Cup game and a good time was had by all.
December
In three months as a technical writer I only offical wrote one paragraph that went into some release notes on one of the beta releases. The big feature that was being introduced that would make me have to write lots ended up getting pushed to the next beta release because of hardware glitches and delays. At least I had the web documentation project and some of my proposals were actually accepted. Because the guy with whom the second contract was for was going to be leaving mid-Jan and there was not a lot to do with the docs assigned to me I was shifted to work exclusively on learning the next job as it was very technical. So I spent the rest of December learning scripts, producing and processing the html help and the PDFs of the documentation.
So, that was my year. No return trip to Thailand but I should be in a better position finacially when I do make my trip in late 2008. October and Novemebr were a bit crazy as I had accepted a bunch of stuff musically thinking I was only going to be working part time at Air Force. This resulted in having a few weekends where I would have an orchestra rehearsal Friday night, a parade with Air Force on Saturday, an orchestra concert Saturday night, another parade on Sunday with another orchestra concert Sunday night. Made for a great week the next week....