We had lots of snow last night, which turned into rain today. Problem is that the temperature was supposed to go up to 6 degrees C but it didn't get above -1! There is ice absolutely everywhere; the roads are a skating rink and everything is covered with a layer of ice... including all the trees and power lines! A similar thing happened here in 1998 (on January 4 as well... imagine!) and many people were without electricity for over a month. The city shut down for a good week... very strange to be walking downtown Montreal and it looking like a ghost town! Here is a brief trailer for a National Geographic documentary about the storm:
Anyway, although around 92,000 are without power now in Québec, I hope that it won't get any worse. It is still raining.... ugh! Bummer is that the holidays are now over and we will all be stuck in the morning traffic, sliding along ;) Welcome to Canadian weather! Wish us luck!!!
Yesterday evening, I went to the airport to pick up the son of a Danish friend of mine (a colleague from the lab I used to work at). He will be studying in Montreal for this semester as an exchange student. I am not quite sure why he picked the winter semester (!) but he seems excited by it ;) To remind me of Denmark, he brought some yummy lakrids treats.... Needless to say, there aren't very many left :) THEY ARE AWESOME!
I thought I would take a picture of them because they weren't going to last long ;)
Today, I opened my mailbox and, tucked between the adverts, was a lovely package from my blog friend Ageeth! What an absolutely lovely surprise- thank you so much! This is one big bonus about blogging- you meet super nice people from all over the world!
Ageeth: could you please send me your address? The one on the envelope wasn't so clear... it must have ended up blurring in the cold ;) I have been sitting on a little something for you too :) Don't worry- it is NOT snow!!
Happy New Year! May 2015 be filled with health, happiness, love and peace!
Last night, we celebrated at home with the boys. Nice and quiet. My mother came over for the night and we had some good food (thanks to Andreas), good bubbly wine (if it is not from Champagne, then it is not champagne... I have been well trained!) and good family time :) I finally finished my corrections earlier in the evening so that was also a reason to celebrate! Whew!
Hope you all have a great/quiet January 1! Thank you for coming to visit my blog :)
We don't have the money to do a full kitchen renovation but it is fun to do some small, inexpensive improvements from time to time. A while back, we had our kitchen cabinets painted white (they used to be an 1980's wood stain before). Today, I re-arranged the table, bought a small "coffee bar" (which freed up a lot of counter space!) and ordered a cool retro garbage pail in red (find it here... cool gadgets!). It is way cosier and seems bigger... cheaper than buying a new house ;)
Can you tell that I am supposed to be correcting exams but am doing a better job at procrastinating? ;)
Two posts in one day (?)... but I couldn't help but posting a picture of the five us where we actually look like ourselves ;) No closed eyes, strange expressions, tongue sticking out or nose picking (yes, this is actually a concern on photos...yuck!). What do you expect from a family of three, I mean four, boys? ;)
I have decided to brave Boxing Day but later this afternoon... yes, I am a sucker for punishment ;) I'll let you know about the chaos!
