Montreal Day 4

June 30, 2010 Le Bar Mont Royal

Federer down 2 sets to 1. Not good. He doesn’t seem to have the same confidence or swagger that I’m used to seeing. Berdych is an immensely talented player who has never really played up to his potential. Let’s see what happens. Speaking of Federer, I read a great line in a story about him the other day (I think it was by an ESPN writer, but I can’t remember). It was a description of Federer as an athlete. “Federer is one of those athletes that God took one look at and said, ’Hey you. Go get a tuxedo.’”

I’m a little disappointed as I look at the grass on Centre Court. I remember the good old days when the grass around the “T” was as worn out as the grass around the baseline. (SIGH)

Already went for a 15-20km ride this morning around the city. Everything in pretty good working order. A bit breezy. Somewhat cool. Nice city. The only place that’s really hilly is around Mont Royal (which really is a Mount Royal). Courteous drivers. Actual bike paths in some places. I then came back to the vicinity of the hostel and did a couple of laps around Parc La Fontagne. Of course, there were a lot of other cyclists out this morning. Some of us obeyed the traffic signals. Some not.

Quesadillas for dinner last night. Pretty good. A bit of red wine as well. It all sat well. Always a concern. Slept pretty well.

Finished Baghdad Without A Map and began Motoring With Mohammed: Trips to Yemen and the Red Sea.

For some reason, I thought there might be fewer people who smoked here in Canada. Why would I think that? It CERTAINLY isn’t true.

No more World Cup matches until the 2^nd of July. Whatever shall I do? Great Spain-Portugal match. One thing is for sure at least as far as I am concerned: Ronaldo really is a prick. Fantastically talented footballer, but certainly not much of a teammate.

ZAZ Bar 5:45pm

What a disastrous day at Wimbledon for all my favorites: Federer lost and looked pretty terrible; the Williams sisters lost in the Quarterfinals of the Women’s Doubles; the Bryan brothers lost in the Men’s Doubles. GEEZ!!!

Oh, ya. And as I write this, it’s raining pretty good. I sure hope that doesn’t continue to tomorrow. The sun is looking as though it’s trying to make a breakthrough as well. Let’s see who wins the battle for tomorrow.

I wandered down to the Latin Quarter (Quarter Latin) to check out some accommodation options for my return to Montreal, but didn’t really find anything that looked reasonable or that cost what I felt was a reasonable amount. I guess I might have to re-think the return trip. I guess I could go for the McGill Residences for accommodation. I don’t think I want to spend $100 per night for accommodation (I know I might have to pay that later along the East Coast and certainly in Corsica). Anyway…I’ve got my accommodation lined up in Montebello and Ottawa, so I’ll worry about the return trip to Montreal and Quebec City a little later.

Having a little trouble with the computer on the bike. It keeps time pretty well, but doesn’t register anything else but the rpms of the pedals. Nothing from the odometer or from the speedometer. I’ll have to see if I can change that later.

While walking around the city today, I saw a couple of pretty unusual things:

1) A crowd of guys in a group talking to each other…two wearing Yankees hats; one wearing a Chicago White Sox hat, and another wearing a Boston Red Sox jersey.

2) A guy walking down the street wearing what looked to be a trench coat (blue); he was also wearing gloves. One was an Easton batting glove, and the other was a cycling glove. Pretty weird.

It’s also been a bit gusty (windy) today. It will really suck if that keeps up tomorrow. Certainly not what I’d like to see on the first day of the trip. Oh, well. Not much to be done for it, is there?

I took a couple of more pictures today, and I’ll try to include them along with the next update of the blog. We’ll see how that goes. My understanding is that I’ll have free internet in the room at the Motel Blu-Eau tomorrow night. I might use that in order to do all my updating and searching for the accommodation for my return to Montreal and Quebec City.

I received a couple of more e-mails from the Steering Committee regarding my initial posting to “Get the discussion started about the topic for the QEP.” The Provost responded with something to the effect, “My thinking is exactly the same.” Not too bad. We’ll see how the rest of it goes. The more we can get accomplished during this July/August lull, the better it’ll be come September.