5 posts tagged “montreal”
Well, near me anyway.
This Friday, can't wait. Explosions in the sky two weeks ago, and DMST this week... !
Here are some notes I wrote when I woke up Saturday morning, disappointed as I wanted to continue my dream as it was perhaps one of the greatest I've had, and remember, in a long time... here's what I wrote to myself:
Dream 1
platters not wanting to touch them
red dressed. cute petite
black and white floor, checkered, chairs setup like that
awesome bread collection, hummus bread!
magik cinema that was free and showed films from everywhere, including australia, you pay what you want
whites wear black, blacks wear white - not mandatory
rolling in a trolley
funky lift
freezing milk splash
blue
Dream 2
How glad I am that I wrote these notes down as just yesterday I was trying to explain it to a friend, she was so keen to hear it, but I couldn't portray it to her as I couldn't remember everything myself. All I remember is the feeling I woke up with. I was so eager to get back to sleep and attempt to return to the wonderful world, but what resulted instead was the second dream.thief
hand slag
naked
girl from casa
broken windows
storm in the distance, red baloon thing
no karina
hard to see
So here is an attempt to flesh them out.
Dream 1 - Magik
I can't quite remember how I met the girl that most of this took place with, I know she's a friend of a friend and some how we just hit it off. She was petite, in a red dress with a thick black belt on the outside that matched her hair colour. This wasn't the first time I went to her place, but I can't be sure if the first time was her place. We definitely entered the same foyer twice and what I assumed was the same door but I guess not as what rested on the other side was different in both cases.
The highlights of this dream were really inspiring, I remember waking up telling myself "that girl is perfect!", what shame it was only a dream and I hadn't actually found her.
The cinema to which costs nothing, but instead pay what you feel it was worth - came no doubt due to Friday's reading of the Indian restaurant in Perth that is run this way. It sparks an interesting idea and puts a huge emphasis on creating a unique experience and excellent customer service. And this place was, it was furbished 80/70's happy-days style, played Australian films as my friend made sure to point out and they suggested the different uniform of whites in black and black in whites which begs the question, how would the public react to this? It no doubt entered my dream due to my red, black and white theme going through my apartment lately.
This was just the beginning of the inspirations and the run ins to red, black and white. As we reached her apartment it was evident she was an artist, she had food platters laid out on chairs, positioned as if there were a table in the middle but there wasn't - until she brought out her bread platter that had bread made out of hummus (the power of dreams), the table was then in front of me, did I just not see it? She showed me photos, or I showed her, I'm not sure whose work it was but I loved it, photos of frozen milk drops exploding upon impact, at different angles. In my head, it was great and it still is, I remember the images vividly and so I'll be embarking on attempting them for real. Perhaps not frozen milk, I think that ingredient isn't quite necessary.
Via use of a mixed steampunk/70's elevator, we reached her apartment which like the cinema, had black and white square-tiled floor, red 70's walls made out of plastic. I remember not wanting to eat her food because I liked her platters so much. I remember there being a blue object and thinking "that's out of place! why is that here?", I wish I remembered it all, I remember being annoyed that I had woken up and saddened that it wasn't real. But I can now make elements of it real and thats the best thing about the dream.
Dream 2 - The Hybrid
I can't remember a great deal of this one, it was some hybrid between Magik as it was my attempt to get back into that dream.
I have no idea what "hand slag" is meant to represent, but I have a good feeling that it was written whilst the words, "I should describe this better" were going through my head... surprise, I didn't and now I can't remember.
The gist of this dream revolves around thievery, I can't remember what we were stealing but it was in public and on the metro system, that looked nothing like the metro system in Montréal, but it was here.
I remember walking around with my scarf up around my nose so that only my eyes were visible to the public.
I remember Karina taking off on a motorbike and in a cartoon-style getaway, she fell and injured herself but not badly. I ran to her aide and so did the waitress from the Casa del Popolo who was working Friday night, odd, but ok.
Perhaps the happiest memory is just before I woke up. On the way back to my place, we passed some kind of balloon festival. When I reached home, I looked out my window towards the Jean-Drapeau Island, there were no buildings anymore, there was no karina, it was just an open field in my view and a snake like red object floating through. I focussed and it became bigger and bigger, it was more of a red tubular kite at this stage and behind it? The darkest most threatening storm I've bared witness to in any dream and any reality. It set such a good image, I was happy to wake up and happy to read now, that I wrote it down.
If only I could paint.
Can't get enough of them, I wonder if it'll be the same after I've been listening to them for a couple of months?
I've been in Montréal for 18 months now, or just shy of that - I thought on the two year mark it would make a good post to list my thoughts on the place, but then realised 18 months is more than sufficient also.
It's on my mind everyday as to how long I'll stay here. I love the place, as much as I loved Adelaide, I've met fantastic people here and probably the closest friend I've ever had - which is saying something as I consider myself close to a couple I left in Adelaide. I wrote on From Sand to Snow how a friend of mine from Italy was returning and how I'd had enough of saying goodbye, having to reset and continue the search for close friends.
They always take time, the biggest decision to leave a place for me is leaving the time you've invested there, eventually I'll end up in a city I find I can't live in, what then? Up and move once more, comme d'habitude. I don't like having my closest friends at a long distance, as I found when I moved to Montréal, I relied on my closest (yet now distant) friends a lot to sort emotions and seek advice. It's difficult, given the timezone.
Montréal has become comfortable for me. Winter is indeed bloody cold but I'm coping better than I thought I would have. The majority of people here come across calm and nice, there's certainly a large amount of beautiful people, there are a large amount of homeless in comparison to Perth / Adelaide / Sydney, or people asking for change in general (you'd be surprised how well-dressed some of these people are), there's almost no one who will hold the door open for you - which is ok with me because it makes me look nice when I do it out of habit ;) and learning French, living in a heavily multicultural place is wonderful.
But living so far away from Australia, being paid slightly less and issues that would come with being here for the rest of my life and how they would impact family, are the three major concerns that have me continuing to weigh up the pro's and con's. I guess when it's necessary, I'll see the light of day. Here's hoping for clarity.
Speaking of clarity. I guess the above isn't very focussed on my impressions of Montréal, perhaps it's what I really needed to talk about instead.
-18°C
Overcast
FEELS LIKE -27°C
...and it's bloody cold!
I've been up since 6:00, wasn't able to get back to sleep despite having had a fairly big night. My fridge is as empty as it was when I left it back in December, so I have quite a bit of shopping to do today. The only items of food I have consist of rice and frozen chips, the latter being this mornings breakfast. Disgusting I know.
There's quite a few things that need to be done today:
- Restock the fridge, buying ingredients for:
- Creamy Chicken with Gnocchi
- Spaghetti Bolognese
- A big fat juicy steak with veggies
- Garlic Prawns
- Cheese platter
- Head into work to pickup my phone charger
- Buy a slow cooker, with the mindset that I'll eat casseroles for lunch everyday and have some dinner ready when I get home.
- Buy a grill - cause it's too cold to BBQ!
- CLEAN
- Try not to freeze
At least I have some new music to listen to whilst achieving these goals.
