Picture - Charles and me under the surface

Aren't these 2 lovely pictures? I really enjoyed diving with my brother Charles in St-François Lake for my open water certification. Can you imagine the pictures to come from diving in Australia? Stay tuned for more...

September Projects...

Social Dancing is back in my life!!!

Thanks to Peter who accepted to be my dance partner for the social dance classes. I can't wait to see the schedule and to get started!

Spinning

Thanks to Hugo who invited us to join him at spinning on Mondays. I've never done this before. This sport basically consists of a group of stationnary bikers following the rhythm given by a leader on loud music and flashing lights... Supposed to be a lot of fun. Can't wait to try it!

Curling

Peter, Hugo and I are currently searching for a 4th player to complete our team from work. Once this mission is accomplished we should devote another day every week to curling.

Weekend in d'Aiguebelle

Next weekend is a long weekend for everybody living in Ontario as well as everybody working for Falconbridge Ltd. From July 29th to August 1st we rented a nice cabin (the vice-roi) near a lake at Parc d'Aiguebelle.

3 nights in this beautiful rustic cottage, away from t.v. and internet... Mmmm... Makes me think we better brings cards and games or it could be long ;)

Better not forget my bathing suit and lots of mosquitoe oil: we're in front of Lake Matissard, with the possibility of renting boats... But I'm not forgetting Abitibi's reputation!

Apparently, this cottage is located near a long trail full of blueberries. Blueberry shortcake anyone?

So far, the forecast is as follow:

Friday : 21oC
Saturday : 28oC
Sunday : 15oC

Better bring warm and rain clothes just in case... 15oC isn't exactly Miami!

Don't try to reach me on that weekend. My cell phone does not receive a signal in Parc d'Aiguebelle.

Movie Review : De-Lovely (3.5/5)

I enjoyed the soundtrack more than anything else in that movie. It is a musical so don't expect too much action, suspense and mystery.

Ashley Judd is magnificent in this role. Some famous singers make their appearance in this movie: Elvis Costello, Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, Robbie Williams and others I'm forgetting.


A movie to watch if you're craving the vintage swing and jazz music and costumes.

Blueberries and Subway at Mount Kekeko

Yesterday was a gorgeous 25oC day in Rouyn-Noranda, so we decided to grab a sandwich at Subway and head to Mount Kekeko which I had never seen before.

Kekeko is just a couple of minutes drive from Rouyn and offers a very nice scenery. The long trail is bordered with raspberry bushes and once at the top, you face the beautiful Kekeko Lake which is shown above. The picture is not fair to the place. On the left side, you can guess the shape of a big fireplace with a large covered area in case of rain. There are a lot of large flat rocks that are not shown on this pic on which we rested as well as tons of blueberries that we took for dessert.

For those who wonder, Kekeko is also the name of a colourful bird that learns to speak like a parrot but with whom you can converse and the bird can even give advice!

Sushi Night in Rouyn-Noranda

Who said you couldn't get a good sushi experience in Rouyn-Noranda? This statement proved false yesterday night.

7 people got together in a huge kitchen and divided the task: 1 person on the nigiri, 1 on the makis, 2 on the tempura, 1 on the veggies, 1 on the rice and 1 to set table.

It was so awesome! The red tuna was excellent and so was the keta salmon. We had some trouble setting the tempura temperature to the right level and experienced some foaming in the electric fryer, but eventually Hugo managed to get it right and save the day! Some more technical problems with the second load of sticky rice that got spoiled by mixing silica in it instead of a japanese powder (which can be substituted for the rice vinegar mixture)... Oups!

The supper was perfect! We had the tempura as appetizer, then some nigiri sushi, sashimis and makis with sake. The dinner ended on fortune cookies with green tea. What else could have been done to make it better?... Not sure, really, it seemed complete to me!!!

I hope we can make this activity reoccur sometime before the end of summer. It was inexpensive, tasty, healthy and so much fun!

Movie Review - War of the Worlds (2/5)

ARGHHHH! Let me out of this room!

How can you spend so much money on a movie and get such disappointing results?

Ok, here are the good points:
- good acting
- music by John Williams
- nice effects

Here are the bad points:
- incoherence throughout
- more incoherence and impossibilities
- horrible conclusion

Karla Homolka's case according to Stephen Williams

Back into reading a bit, I've purchased recently the book called "Karla - Le pacte avec le diable". I couldn't find the original English version here in Rouyn and I was looking forward to read it so I got the translation.

So far so good. Stephen Williams' style is very descriptive and detailed. This is his second book on that case. The first one, "Invisible Darkness" caused him to do some jail time for non-respect of the judicial order of non-publishing of crimes videos. I will read it as soon as I find the English version.

This book does not focus only on the attacks made by the couple, but also depicts the judicial system in all its corruption and glory. A very interesting reading that provides an insight into Karla's psychiatric file from Dr. Arndt and shows 'how' a normal person can turn into a serial rapist/murderer.

I received a postcard from Greece today!

Wow! Really Marie-Élizabeth, you chose a very nice place to find work!

I was very happy to receive news with such a cool postcard and I'm sorry to hear you are feeling lonely there. Hang on! This is only a phase to go through... Soon enough, you'll meet many Greeks and you won't have the time to write postcards or update your blog anymore!

Thanks again for taking the time to keep us updated and make us dream about your adventures in Europe...

Pssst! your postcard is the first to test my scanner... ;)

Des nouveaux blogs

Bonjour tout le monde,

Et oui! Je me suis créé un autre blog tout dernièrement! Cette fois-ci, c'est le besoin de trouver des gens avec qui voyager entre Rouyn-Noranda et Montréal qui justifie ce blog et ça permet à toute autre personne intéressée d'utiliser le service d'affichage tout à fait gratuitement.

Co-voiturage Rouyn-Noranda (voir la boîte d'annonces dans la marge de droite)

Pour ceux que les blogs de voyages intéressent en voici deux de personnes que je connais:

2 castors au pays des kangourous
Journal of a Canadian Swing Dancer in Greece

Pour les amateurs d'images, vous pouvez aussi visiter les sites suivants:

Photoblog de BlackCorbel
Gallerie d'aquarelle de Jerrika

Quand vous en aurez fini de lire des blogs, quoi de mieux que de sortir à Montréal pour voir un spectacle des Jello Shots!?

The Jello Shots' Official Page