Chris' Blog

A week ago we took a weekend trip to Boston with our friend Amy and her son Julien. It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed seeing Boston for the first time. Click on the thumbnail below to see photos from our trip.

We finally put up our Christmas tree. It looks great. Merry Christmas!

I am finally approaching that endearing level or proficiency with a second language where you know just enough to say everything wrong. Recently, in my French class, I was given an assignment to write a love story, une histoire d’amour of 150 words, so more of an abbreviated lettre d’amour.

One of the phrases in my grand tale of daring deeds, unrequited love, a boy and his dog, and so on was a bit about watching seagulls diving which I masterfully translated to:

regardait les muettes qui plongeaient

When my assignment was returned to me, this phrase was underlined with a giant question mark above. It all seemed on the level to me, so I asked my professeure what wasn’t correct about it. She gave me this crazy look, as if to say that she had finally figured out what it is that was wrong about me, and said that she didn’t understand it. I said it means “was watching the seagulls diving”. Well, she started laughing hysterically and in between convulsions explained that I was missing the “o” in mouette. It should have read:

regardait les mouettes qui plongeaient

We had a good laugh and after she left I looked up muette in my dictionary, which of course means a female mute.

We just got back from seeing K’naan and the Black Eyed Peas at the Festival d’Été. I was fairly disappointed with K’naan and so had low expectations going into the Black Eyed Peas. They were much better than I expected and put on a really good show. The Plains of Abraham were completely packed this time. There were supposedly 100 000 people in attendance. According to the Black Eyed Peas, Canada is “where the love is” and the audience in Québec is the best they’ve ever had anywhere.

I won’t be rushing out to buy an Black Eyed Peas albums anytime soon, but it was definitely worth seeing them live.

We just got back from seeing Rush at the Festival d’Été. I’ve tried a few times to get into Rush, but I just can’t do it. There was no lack of actual Rush fans; however, as the Plains of Abraham were packed with people, many sporting new and old Rush t-shirts. At about 8:30 they took a break “because we’re so old” according to Geddy Lee. That was kind of funny.

I just got back from watching Santana at the Festival d’Été de Québec. It was an outdoor concert on the Plains of Abraham. Definitely in my top ten, it was a great show. Outdoor concerts are always better! Including Carlos, Santana consisted of two drummers, a dude on the congos, trombone, trumpet, bass, guitar, and two singers.

They played a good sampling of the Santana catalogue including ‘Evil Ways’, ‘Jingo’, ‘Singing Winds, Crying Beasts’, ‘Black Magic Woman’, ‘Oye Como Va’, ‘Smooth’, ‘Into the Night’, ‘Maria Maria’. The rest I didn’t recognise or didn’t know the title because it had no lyrics. They also played a great cover of ‘Sunshine of Your Love’.

It also turns out that Carlos Santana is engaged and introduced us to his fiancé who performed a five minute long drum solo. Good times!

Today the Festival d’Été kicked off in Québec. The streets are swarming with people. I imagine it will be like that for the rest of the summer. We walked up to the Parc de la Francaphonie to listen to Bedouin Soundclash. It was so full, we couldn’t get into the park and had to stand in the street along with a few other hundred festival goers to listen. The festival runs for ten days and we’re looking forward to hearing some more great music.

So the SAAQ, as an equal opportunity employer, decided that it wasn’t enough that only I should have great difficulties with my driver’s licence, and in their wisdom issued Christine a driver’s licence…that was good for two weeks (minus the week it took to arrive in the mail, of course). You can see the ‘Valide le’ and ‘Expire le’ dates in the picture below.

She went back and notified them of this little gaff. They were happy to issue a new licence at full price, but first they needed a new picture for the new licence. That makes three photos in total: one for my “gender identity disorder” licence, one for her “psych” licence, and one for the “real” licence.

I must admit, it’s a very creative way to generate additional revenue to offset cost overruns due to inefficiency. Someone must have extended their business lunch to two or three hours to come up with that gem of an idea.

After many trips to the SAAQ to get accident reports, register our car, and apply for a new driver’s licence, it finally arrived in the mail. The accompanying letter said to review the licence carefully and check for any mistakes that might exist in the birthdate and other personal information.

It’s funny; the letter never said to check the picture. So I went down to the SAAQ this morning to let them know that I had indeed found a problem with my licence. They seemed a bit surprised, which is good; I wouldn’t want to think this happens all the time. Now everyone is up to speed and it’s time for a new picture. This is when I’m told that before they can take a new picture they’ll need to see some photo ID…

…I guess that’s because they wouldn’t want someone walking around with, say, someone else’s picture on their driver’s licence. It’s a good thing the SAAQ is there to nip these things in the bud.