I’ve been talking with a few landlords over the past few weeks and they have all told me that this year, the phones are ringing less and people are taking their time in choosing.

My current landlord, who owns two other apartments, told me his phone barely rings at all for the 2 places he has for rent. And when they do arrive to visit, they say they like it, but will think about it.

He has the same apartments for rent last year and he claims the phone wrang off the hook. People were willing to sign right away. Some putting considerable pressure on my landlord to sign right then and there.

What he has also noticed is that the amount of scams has increased considerably.. The favorite of course being someone from Russia claiming to be moving to Canada. They send over first month’s rent but it’s a cheque for $10,000 and promptly claim they made a mistake and ‘would you please return the rest’… Of course the cheque then bounces.

If you are looking for an apartment for July 1, have you noticed that there is more choice and that you have more time in choosing ?

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The funeral march from Griffintown to City Hall took place this afternoon. Complete with dogs, babies, musicians, speakers and a coffin, the protest drew upwards of 150 people. Have a look through the Flickr album to see the townspeople in action. The decision is slated to be made at City Hall tomorrow evening, and hopefully, a glimmer of hope will dawn upon the evolution of our fair city.

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The Griffintown development issue sure is on everyone’s mind, these days. In brief, Griffintown is now a hot topic for Montreal. It’s a great up-and-coming area between University and Guy (some say all the way to Georges-Vanier) from Notre-Dame to the waterfront. Imagine a bustling and friendly new neighbourhood right south of the downtown core. Unfortunately developers have come in and are keen to make it into another short-sighted Dix30 eyesore, fraught with gigantic condo buildings and big-box stores, alienating residents. This decision was taken with no real public consultation whatsoever.

There will be a march to from Griffintown to the Hotel de Ville organized this Sunday April 27 at 3pm starting at the horse palace at 1220 Ottawa, down by the canal. I personally, have never been one to rally for causes, deferring to other more zealous individuals to fight for common beliefs. However, the Griffintown cause is one that affects all of us in this city, and more importantly, I’m convinced that the strength of the people actually might just make a difference. So if you’re interested in keeping Montreal beautiful with well-thought out urban planning and attention paid to those of us who love and live in this city, come join us on the march!

Sites of interest:
Save Griffintown
CSRG
Facebook event

Help support the cause!

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The police is asking for your help to identify the idiots who have sullied our city’s reputation all over the continent. Several movies and photographs of the rioters have been posted on the SPVM website along with contact information should you recognize any of them and are feeling in a vindictive mood.

After you’re done, check out Fagstein’s excellent listing of various Habs riot myths.

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Well… what a day! The Habs won last night. One step closer to the cup. So much joy and a great reason to celebrate, but of course, human nature dictates that people shouldn’t just feel joy and happiness, but they must also disturb everything around them through senseless riots. What’s wrong with tasers? Nothing. It’s just people.

Next, we have a possible shooter at the Cegep du Vieux-Montreal according to American authorities. The school is closed and the doors are locked. All measures for prevention seem to be paying off since nothing has happened yet and hopefully, nothing will happen.

Like I said, what a day!

Next game, Thursday!

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It may not be the same at being in the Bell Centre or La Cage aux Sports but Twitter certainly makes for a more enjoyable game. I felt like laurentlasalle, TanMcG, JohnnyCanuck, stephdau and JeromeParadis were right here with me.

• Game on!
• The Bruins are playing much much better than last time.
• The throwing of the puck behind the blue line, it displeases us.
• Now we are pleased. 1-0 Mtl.
• Don Cherry’s vest, it burns, it burns us!
• I like this second period much better that the first one. Now 2-0 Mtl.
• @laurentlasalle @JeromeParadis Price is certainly a prime candidate for the first star of the night.
• Gotta make sure that the families of our cherished Russian players remain gainfully employed…more vodka.
• Bad defensive play, they never should have had that return. 2-1 Mtl.
• Even though the Habs were one man down, Kovalev got some one-on-one quality time with the Bruin’s goalie…just before Boston tied it 2-2.
• Somebody slip some Valium to Kovalev, he almost caused us to miss out on another power play.
• Kostopoulos got hit on the face…and we have blood. At least we’ll end the game in a power play.
• We hit the goal post with 0.1 sec remaining…overtime!
• @laurentlasalle Nope, just saw the rerun, 0.1 sec.
• For those of you who can’t see the abomination that is Don Cherry’s vest.
• YYYEEEAAAHHHH! We win it 3-2. I just could not believe that we could spend 6 min in power play without nailing one.

Montreal is in a hockey frenzy with the Canadiens starting the playoffs tonight against Boston. As winners of the Eastern conference, this is one year where bringing home the Cup may be more than a die-hard fan’s pipe dream. Even for those not usually into hockey, it’s easy to get swept up in the excitement. All over town, fans are displaying their Habs flags. It’s pretty clear what most of the city will be watching tonight.

I remember the last time the Habs brought home old Stanley’s Cup. I was still in university taking a summer course and I managed to convince the prof to let the class out so that we could all go over to Sherbrooke and watch the parade. I say we’re overdue for another champion parade. It’s time. Bring it.

It’s annoying for anybody who want to go through the stairs, but it’s nice to see everybody enjoy nature.

According to an article in La Presse, Gaz Metropolitain has discovered that they need to dig 40 holes along the Main.

I’m speechless. After everything The Main has gone through in the past two years. What all the merchants and citizens of that area have gone through, it’s unimaginable that Gaz Met has just woken up to realize that they now need to rip the street open again.

Unbelievable.

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La semaine dernière, la journée où la température était environ 11C, plutôt que d’aller chez moi après le travail, j’avais fait une promenade d’une heure sous le beau soleil. Ça faisait énormément de bien.

Aujourd’hui, j’ai presque fait la même chose; la promenade a duré 30 minutes plutôt qu’une heure. Il y a un beau soleil avec un petit vent bien doux.

Ce n’est pas comme si je n’avais pas autres choses à faire avec des échéances à respecter, mais en bon québécois, je dirais “Je me calisse du reste! Je veux faire une promenade!”

Right now words fail me.

As “luck” would have it, we were scheduled for a Saturday family lunch at my brother-in-law’s condo near the Plaines d’Abraham. We had just learned about the explosion and fire at the Quebec city Armoury so, after an excellent meal, we decided to walk over to survey the damage.

It was so much worse than we expected.

I was raised in Quebec city and it just breaks my heart so see such a notable landmark dissapear just like that. While the North wall seems to have survived pretty well (stone isn’t a very good combustible), most of the building has been completely gutted.

You can see more pictures on Flickr.

What happened today, yesterday actually, was beautiful. That snow could have been the same one for Christmas. I consider it the last blow of winter. It’s like a losing boxer who has enough energy left to do a little significant damage, but after the blow, there is no way he can recover. For the next 6 months, I don’t think the temperature will be lower than today, I mean yesterday, April 4.

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Ladies, it’s that time of year again. Time for the National Women’s Show taking place this weekend at the Palais des Congrès. Running Friday, Saturday and Sunday, it’s a showcase for any type of vendor or organization you can think of. Interested in taking some pole dancing lessons? Check. Looking for some eco laundry products? Check. Want to try some organic yogourt? Check. You can even get your photo taken on a Harley. Or get a picture of your aura taken. The best part is all the free samples. I don’t know about you, but I love free stuff. I don’t even care what it is but if it’s free and you want me to try it, heck, I’ll give it a shot. Speaking of which, the chocolate shooter cups with coffee liqueur were really good. Entrance fee is $12 but you can get a 2-for-1 coupon that makes it all the more worthwhile when you take into account all the food and product samples available. If you go, wear comfortable shoes and don’t dress too warmly or else you’ll get hot and tired. I also recommend taking a break by sitting and watching a show. Quite an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon with your girlfriends if I do say so myself. Pictured here is my gift bag (a reusable tote) with all my goodies.

I’m not usually one to promote events happening at Dawson College, but this one is pretty interesting for all of you who are into photography (you know who you are).

April 22nd at 6:30 you can meet two Olympus professional photographers, Lou Manna and Judy Herrmann. I’m personally interested in seeing Lou Manna who is a food photographer, that’s something that I’d like to learn more of and get into one day. I plan on being there, contact me if you’d like to meetup beforehand.

The event is free and open to the public, plus there will be a raffle with prize of an Olympus E-510 Digital SLR camera. Nice.

Check out the posters below for the details.

It’s been a long winter made even worse by the fact that I missed 4 Yulblog meetings in a row. Sometimes I had a good reason (snowstorm, trip to Rome) but other times I was just too lazy, tired, depressed. This is why I decided on the following question of the night: What was the biggest mistake you ever made?

Debbie: Having broken up, then going back with my ex. I learned and kicked him out of my life!
Jean-Luc: Avoir internet!
Pluche: Avoir decide d’aller chercher de l’eau, loin de la tente a 10h PM du soir, au milieu du parc de Jasper en Alberta. Un ours brun en liberte c’est l’fun dans Yogi mais pas dans la vrai vie.
Emile: Ecrire ce que j’ai en tete, a ce moment precis, serait - je crois - ma pire erreur, ever!!
Karo: Ne pas partir faire un voyage backpack en Afrique quand j’avais le temps et l’argent.
Chris Baum: Took a full-time job when I had a great contract with the best firm out there. My path remains the same, but took some detours.
Fred: Ne pas avoir tente l’aventure aux USA qunad j’etais plus jeune.
Tanya: Not going to more Yulblog events.
Frederic: Growing old.
Mikel: Moving from a perfectly nice house in Montreal…to Ottawa! Came back 2 years later.
Zeke: Walking out of the LMMC concert on March 4th.
Le lapin blanc: Avoir une vie sociale au cegep!
Steve (Fagstein): Not asking Chez Nadia out on a date. Wait a second, she’s right here! Nadia, do you want to go out some time?
Vero: Refuser l’invitation de Guy A pour aller a “Tout le monde en parle”.
Carl: Avoir force mon coloc a faire jouer une piece d’Annie Major Matte un peu trop souvent.
Max: Avoir laisse une fille qui presentait une magnifique disparitee.
Martine: Getting my third facelift.
Ed: Falling for Frank H.’s April Fool’s blog post (three years in a row!).
Laurent: J’ai insulte la mere d’un ami sans savoir que c’etait sa mere.
Long: J’ai dit un gros mensoge mais ca m’a rapporte $10,000.
J. Ruttan: Coming here.
Eric D. : That condom that time…
Patrick: De ne pas avoir achete de condo en arrivant a Montreal en 1999.
Maggie: (Written by Chris before he wa sknown as Zeke: It happened on May 4th 1995)…and it involved a pair of galoches and an Elvis Costello Concert.
Nadia: Fagstein.
Etudiant Alpha: J’ai rit d’une leucemique de 6 ans sans savoir qu’elle etait malade.
As for me, I took the fucking blue pill which explains why I’m still here.

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