Quick Thoughts After A Week In Montreal

Montreal's a great city.  No doubt.  I haven't spent any significant time here since about 1987, so it's fun and interesting to try to get to know the city a bit again.  Frankly, this time I'm an urbanite, whereas last time I lived on the west island in the same suburban lifestyle that I've had most of my life.

So this time is a bit different.  I'm living in Westmount, and commuting in the subwway (Metro) to work.  No car, which is a different way for me to see the city.  Better to experience the real city, probably, though I found it harder to get my bearings than I do in a car.  Particularly because we travel underground a lot.  But at least it's warm down there.  The city has been pretty cold for my first week here.  The natives are restless, with a much colder than typical winter now having overstayed its welcome.

I've found lots of good food here.  That wasn't a surprise, but a welcome confirmation of my impression of Montreal.  Coming from Vancouver, where food is cheap, diverse and excellent, I could easily have been disappointed, but I'm not.  I do think restaurant food is more expensive here than in Vancouver, but it's based on a pretty small sampling to this point.  The food has been interesting enough that i'm thinking I might start a side-blog with quickie restaurant reviews.  But maybe I'll be too lazy for that.

I really like riding the Metro.  It gets you across town efficiently and and without freezing.  But it's noisy.  Far louder than my normal living environment in Vancouver, and I'm finding that a bit disturbing.  Noise blocking headphones/earbuds help some, but I don't wear them when traveling with my colleages.

I'm really looking forward to discovering the music scene here.  So far I've seen/heard nothing.  I don't even know anyone interesting in Montreal to follow on Twitter, so suggestions would be welcome.  Oh, I guess I have Nikki Yanofsky, but that's about it.  Tomorrow, I hope to get a visit to Steve's Music.  I haven't been to the Montreal store since a trip my high school rock band made in a Volkswagen bus back in the late '70s.  Should be fun to visit.  I'm missing my regular visits to Long & McQuade around the Vancouver area.

Until today I've been pretty positive about the experience, but I found myself kind of down in the dumps at work this morning.  Rather than join the lineup in the cafeteria at lunch, I decided to dash out and ride the Metro north to the end of the line at Cote Vertu.  I didn't know what was there, but figured it was as good a place to explore as any other nearby.  Somehow, fate must have been guiding me, as I walked a block south down Decarie from the station and immediately found Decarie Hot Dog.

This is a place I remember eating lunch with office-mates when I worked in Montreal in 1986/87.  I had only a vague recollection of where it was, and previous searches on Google Maps hadn't turned up the location.  Stumbling on it on a very short lunch break was completely unexpected, and very welcome.  I sat down to the "traditional": 2 hot dogs, all dressed (with lettuce!), fries and a Coke.  There were only a few people in the place when I was in, which surprised me a bit... I recall the place being elbow to elbow, and having to reach over people at the counter to get my food.  It was the same friendly environment, though.  No... they don't want your money up front... please enjoy your food and pay on the way out.  This little diner has been in business since I was an infant, and I can see why... it's highly recommended for a little taste of tradition.

As I walked briskly back to the Metro, I found my mood had lightened considerably, and I proceeded to quite enjoy my afternoon.  Rock on!

Moving on...

Wow, I can't believe I let this narrative stagnate for a whole year.  Life is busy.  And then it's not... or at least you think it might not be.

I was recently canned from my employer of 9 years because they're restructuring where the work is done.  Old story, even for me.  However, before my last day there, I and a number of teammates got a renewed lease on life, working for the company in a different product area.  It's a good opportunity for us in a number of ways, so I'm still "there", but it's all new.

As part of moving to this new role, I'm also temporarily working in a different city, far from my family, friends, and bandmates.  An opportunity to explore places, technologies and musical inspiration, and hopefully to spend a bit more time with family who live closer to my new temporary home than to my permanent one.

The new location is Montreal, which is somewhere I worked for more than a year a long long time ago, before I moved to Vancouver. As a fitting first dinner last evening, I had Montreal smoked meat, which was excellent. Montreal is an interesting, ethnicly diverse city, and I'm looking forward to lots of great meals.

I also hope I can find my way around the local music scene, as I also think of Montreal as vibrant in that area. And meanwhile, back in my "bachelor pad", I have a minimal setup for making music, and hope I can make it work well for me.

I've written previously about how I find business travel both frustrating and inspiring.  I expect this experience will be no different, but am looking forward to the inspiring part... there's a LOT of possibilty there. For the rest... hopefully FaceTime will help keep family close.