Showing posts with label me. Show all posts
Showing posts with label me. Show all posts

Sunday, May 5, 2024

Hello May!

If you ever read my blog before, you might have noticed that I am not a big fan of winter (aka understatement of the year). I love green, sandals, warm air, sunshine, sunglasses, wine on the patio, long walks in the warm evening air, fresh strawberries, BBQs, sleeping with the window open, outdoor soccer, flowers, gardening and ice cream. Please note that the vast majority of my "likes" are better in the late spring/summer months. The only thing that I am not such a big fan of is my birthday (in June) but that is another storyπŸ˜‰....


In any case, it is now May and I am feeling hopeful! I can feel a bit of warmth creeping into my bones.... finally! Hello May!!!!


Is it spring yet?












Wednesday, September 2, 2020

First day of school in 2020.... the me edition

 Here we go..... πŸ˜‰

Yes, I did some online teaching when we shut down in March but, now, it is the real thing. All undergraduate classes are online for this semester but I still have to go in to work with my Master's and PhD students face to face. Honestly, as much as I like the challenge and variation of online teaching, I find it hard to connect with the students, especially when I have a large class and have to scroll page by page to see what is going on. I enjoy the eye to eye contact and the spontaneous communication/discussion. Now, it feels much more "organized" to ask a question (ie: clicking on the raise hand icon/using chat or trying to find who just said something), which can be a bit intimidating for the students. Also, they are not obliged to put their video on so, sometimes, teaching to a bunch of black boxes feels like talking to my kids when they are watching Youtube videos on their phone (ie: no interaction πŸ˜‰). Plus, I had to change all my evaluation methods to suit online delivery... hope it all works out!

Anyway, we are back and I am looking forward to some sort of routine. I missed my job and those I work with. Keeping fingers crossed that my internet remains somewhat stable and I don't provide any entertaining background adventures for my students πŸ˜‰

xox









Saturday, June 13, 2020

More postcards from a pandemic

Day seemingly 1,234,567 of this pandemic: Andreas and I are still going for our walks. The energy in the air seems to be changing though and, even though the government still has a lot of aspects of our society closed up, there is a definite trend towards a re-opening. The stillness on the streets is disappearing and we're seeing more and more traffic again. Shops (besides grocery/pharmacy) are starting to open up, as long as they are not in a mall. More of my friends are returning to work. Summer sports activities are planning for a return. While I am excited for a return to "normal", I really hope that we can hang on to a bit of the non-scheduling, a bit more of the calmness and a bit less of the stress. 

Happy weekend to you all xox















Saturday, May 23, 2020

More Postcards From a Pandemic

Today, we went walking in Pointe Claire Village. For those of you who do not live near me, it is a suburb just west of Montreal. By North American standards, it is pretty old. It used to be its own village (ie: not part of the westward sprawl of Montreal), ideal for being situated along the St Lawrence Seaway. A bit of history can be read here. Walking by the water on such a beautiful day is really fantastic.

We are going on lots of walks so beware of the postcard spam  xox





















A bit of love from Pointe Claire Village


Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Celebrating 15 years

And this time the celebration is not for Alexander's birthday but for our wedding anniversary! Fifteen years brings a lot of history and water under the bridge. I couldn't think of anyone else who I would have preferred to have as a partner on this life voyage. Here is to many, many more! xox


Yes, this is a long time ago and, no, he is not trying to bite my face ;)

Saturday, April 13, 2019

New and improved....

I am talking about my eyes!

Yesterday, I had laser surgery done to correct my vision (both near and far). It is less than 24 hours after the procedure and I can see! Reading small script is still blurry but everything, otherwise, is all good. I have to put a million kinds of drops in my eyes and wear sunglasses when I am outside but that is totally reasonable... especially since one of the reasons that I got it done was so that I could wear sunglasses outside. I can now be on my computer again, watch TV, drive and do things around the house. By the end of the week, I can play soccer again (with eye protection) and not have to wear sunglasses, if I don't want to.

I will keep you up to date on the progression, if you were ever thinking of having laser surgery done.

PS: If you have any questions, feel free to ask! "See" you later... haha... couldn't resist ;)

Happy Saturday to you all xox


23 hours post procedure... I can see!

1 hour post procedure

Just before going in... wishing that I had taken them up on their offer of a valium ;) Bet you are jealous of my hat ;)

The night before...




Sunday, October 14, 2018

The strangest Saturday night...

Last night, I had appointment to get an MRI done at our local hospital. Apparently, the evening MRI sessions are fairly ordinary because the technicians have to be there in case of emergency anyway. So, rather than just having the machines and technicians sit there, routine non-emergency MRIs are booked fairly late in the evening. Despite the procedure sounding pretty drastic, I only had it done for the same arm/shoulder injury that I have since February. 
Anyway, let me tell you that it was the strangest Saturday night that I ever had... and I had some pretty strange Saturday nights ;) Firstly, there is a lot of construction going on in Montreal. This means that I had no idea on how to get to the hospital and was faced with a bunch of detours that made absolutely no sense and took about 45 minutes more than it should. Secondly, the hospital was dark and deserted, which made it look really creepy. It is not the building itself because, on a normal day, I sometimes go there for work meetings so it is pretty familiar. When it is dark and empty, I totally don't recognize it anymore. I think that, from the parking lot to the actual imaging department, I must have crossed the path of 4 people (and 2 of them were cleaners). 
After having arrived late because of the detours and random traffic because of nothing, I found myself in a dark, abandoned looking waiting room with 3 other people. The only reason why we knew we were in the right place was a sign which essentially said "You are in the right place. Please don't leave." Hmmm.... reassuring ;)
The night only became stranger when I was asked about metal plates in my head and pacemakers in my heart. The technician then asked me to put on a very fashionable gown and blue slippers that were very suitable for my meeting with the "alien pod". This was my first MRI and, honestly, I could have sworn that I was making contact with distant extraterrestrial worlds. About 5 minutes into the procedure (which already felt like 5 hours), I had to stop myself from laughing because it was too freaking strange. They had strapped me to the "bed" and put some funny looking headphones on me to "block out" the most bizarre sounds that I ever heard. I would not have been surprised if I was only there because some alien had recruited me for some spacey experiments.
After the 2 week 20 minute procedure, the weird sounds finally stopped and I was allowed to come out of the machine. I said happily thanks and good-bye to the technicians, one of whom I was sure asked me about how I liked life on Mars ;) The place was as deserted on my way out as on my way in (actually, it was more deserted because the other 3 people who had initially waited with me had left already). Although I had taken absolute care to park as close to the elevators as possible (so I could find it again), it seemed that my car was much further away than I had remembered ;) Decidedly, this was one of the most bizarre Saturday nights! I wonder if my test results will include a Martian letter of rejection ;) 

Hope you all have a nice rest of the weekend xox


So many people ;)

Don't be too jealous of my fashionable outfit ;)

OK... a bit creepy...

Usually, there are line ups in front of the elevators!

Where is my car? ;)