Coach and Shoes

7:30am
There is something about travelling in the morning that makes me reflective. The sun is up just outside of Montreal. The snow is bright. Small, rural houses blow white smoke out of their brick chimneys. I am being carried away on a train.

I wonder if I could live in Montreal. I don't think Toronto is a city for me in a permanent sense. I suppose I could live in TO for a year or two, but the vast urbanscape is wearing. I like trees, hills, rows of flax. I like the Prairies in an aesthetic sense.

Granted, Toronto doesn't sleep. People are always going, with people wandering the streets at 4am just about the same as when they roam the streets at 10am. Little shops are always open, there's 24 h grocery stores, and there's always a place to just hang out. Montreal goes to sleep at 7pm, so you'll have to be home before then if you want to stay warm.

But, for me, Toronto is just too urban. People walk everywhere without stopping to look or think or dream. I think Edmonton is still small enough that you can stop and think for a second without getting trampled. In TO, you have to go, go, go. On the Rocket. Off the Rocket. Onto Bloor. Yonge. Queen. Spadina. Crazy.

Montreal can be this way when you hit the heart of downtown. Rue St. Catherine Ouest is where you can be trampled. Pedestrians dash between speeding cars, just so that they can get to the other side and do it again in the next 100 metres. They do it without flinching.

But the people in Montreal are warm. They speak English if you need. They aren't the bastards that everyone makes them out to be. Maybe if we were in Quebec where EVERYBODY speaks French, they wouldn't be so tolerant, but in Montreal, you are so close to the Ontario-Quebec border that bilingualism is more of a necessity than it is an asset. I like Montreal. It has all the facets of a great city, with its truly poor parts completely contiguous with its truly rich parts. You just have to walk south to north to see it all. It has a well developed underground and above ground transit system. Le Metro et les autobuses. It feels like a real big city without the urban landscape that Toronto has. Toronto is all about glass and walls. Montreal has windows and trees and normal things. And a whole lot of hills. It's a rhythm, I suppose.

11:15am
Checking in at Clarence Castle again. Oliver greets us with a big smile and a, "Sable and Friends!" I ask not to be pluralized again without my permission. He smiles. "But I forget which one of you is Sable ...".

After changing, applying lipstick (real lipstick, with dark colour and everything!), and waiting for some guy to arrange to get his cat from Vancouver, we called Sable's friend Justin to try and meet up with him. We ended up texting him from my phone, so hopefully there's no long distance charges for text messages ...

We met him at East! on Queen and St. Patrick's Market. It's a fusian asian place. Sable and I shared Sexy Summer Rolls, which were thin slices of smoked salmon, prawns, vermicelli, and veggies in a rice wrap. We shared a house pad thai, with chicken and prawns, and talked with Justin for a while. He asked if we wanted dessert and we said,"Sure!".

He drove us in his car downtown, whipping around the UofT in a record 10minutes. We made fun of school children who had to spend their day at the Uof T, even though they were four. Getting an early head start, we supposed. Oh God. Those poor children. The design school is held up by giant ... pencils? They look like coloured chopsticks, but they are supposed to be pencils. The top is a large slab of black and white tile. The library is supposed to be shaped like a peacock ...? I don't see it. Physics building was. Shudder.

Yorkville mall is much too swanky for me. It was upscale enough to make me feel uncomfortable. Like, if I worked there, I would be watching me too, with my ugly Esprit hobo bag and odd purple jacket. There are four Hugo Bosses within a square mile. Over the Rainbow is way overrated. The jeans aren't even that nice, but are worth $300, apparently.



On our way out of Yorkville, when we realized that Coach is in YorkDALE and not YorkVILLE, we saw an ice-sculpting contest. They were unloading their ice that has to be shipped here in pre-formed pieces. There was a treasure chest and sea horses already standing. A mermaid was in process but still in pieces. Looked cool! The lady had to shoo away hobos, as they seemed fascinated with the ice and wanted to plunk themselves down to beg in front of a big public draw. Too bad for them.

Bloor offered numerous shopping opportunities .... for Justin. He bought shoes and some stationary gifts for people. Sable bought a long-anticipated pendant from Coach that ended up being oddly spherical. But still cool. Just spherical. We searched for Matt and Nat bags, but to no avail. The Pet Boutique, however, let me handle pink velour hoodies by Juicy Couture that cost $128. God - I don't even have clothing that expensive for myself, let alone a dog. I bought my mom and Melissa some gourmet dog treats. There was a Christian Dior t-shirt on-sale, so I bought an XL for Dilly and a pin that reads "I love my chihuahua" for my mom. I hope the dogs like the Pupcakes!

Then we headed to a cafe on Bay and Yorkville called Pusaterie where we sampled 7 - count them - SEVEN different delectable treats, courtesy of Justin. Key lime chocolate, berry, lemon meringue, chcolate, tiramisu, almond meringue, and a caramel meringue. SO. GOOD. They also served free water containing lemon, lime, grapefruit, strawberry, and cucumber. I resolved to make some when I got home. Erotic chocolate bars. Enough said.

Dawn joined later and ended up spilling her wonderful salad from Fresh! Not the avocadoes! Sable and her gathered the sprouts and avocadoes from off Dawn's purse and legs. The floor was scavenged, but then abandoned. Alas, most of the avocadoes were done. But most of the salad was intact, so the green dressing went down, and the salad was eaten. We cleaned up and took off to the Bata Shoe Museum.



Pablo Picasso had zebra shoes! Shaquille O'Neal is a freakin' size 23. Christian shoes contain the papal seal. We bought a gift for Nicole then headed off for dinner.




Everybody had recommended New Generation on Bloor, just west of Spadina, but we tried and couldn't get in. Far too busy in such a small place. So we crossed the street and tried the least shady sushi place we could find. J-time offered us a wonderful combo of 8 california rolls, 8 CNE rolls, and 6 spicy tuna rolls. We drank green tea and passed the time amiably, eating the large amount of sushi and tempura in front of us. Then we ordered green tea ice cream and found out it was on the house! The Cantonese people that owned the place were super nice. I would recommend the place for delicious sushi!



Dawn called and met us at St. George's station. We took the Rocket to Bathurst, boarded a streetcar (no, not named Desire) to College. Walked to Dawn's apartment. We met Sarah's, Dawn's roommate, guinea pig, Bella. she was fat and cute. We tried to convince her to go to Mod Night, but she was already going to a salsa function the next night and wanted to get work done. C'est la vie. After a handful of almonds for Dawn, we left.

The Mod Club is AWESOME. Even though we came super early, at about 10. Not too many people were there, but that meant that I could really see the place. It's really like a concert venue rather than a club, with a big stage and huge sound. Large screens flank the raised stage and small, white tableclothed tables sit near the back of the dance floor. Each table is it by a small tealight. There was Brit Pop radio being broadcast and it was pretty groovy. The bartenders don't have tip jars and don't seem to want them. They're fast, as long as you know what you want. A gin and tonic? Right up. Two malibu sunrises for Sable and Dawn. We sat and grooved for a while. Watched the bouncers greet each other. Watched the psychedelic movie screens. Looked at past concert photos of Metric and Death Cab for Cutie. If you want to start big in music, you have to start here. It would be a cool place to start, that's for sure. We left early so that Dawn could get some sleep.

We headed to Dominion, a 24h grocery store and bought a berry salad and chicken wraps for tomorrow's lunch. We walked Dawn back, caught a street car up College to Spadina and Spadina to King. Off to bed. Another day well spent. The liquor had made me warm and overly happy. Mmmm ... sleep.