As I’m driving to work this morning, the traffic report warned commuters that the area around St-Denis and Ontario was closed because of a movie production. On my way back, I hear that the same street corner is closed again but this time it’s because of a water main break.

Makes you wonder what the movie is about.

il fera beau bient

There will be no train strike this morning. CN management and the conductors union reached an agreement at 11 PM last night, only one hour before the deadline.

A victim of its own success, the AMT commuter train service is now dangerously overcrowded. Efforts at solving this vexing problem have included raising fares, reducing its on-time perfomance, using just enough cars to ensure that the majority of passengers will be standing for most of the ride and skimping on maintenance to increase the possibility that breakdowns will occur in the middle of snow-covered fields.

And yet people keep using the trains thus depriving our oil-industry overlords of much needed funds while reducing chances that the greenhouse effect will turn our country into a tropical paradise.

All is not lost, on Wednesday a strike by 1,700 locomotive engineers will force the 35,000 people who insist on taking advantage of this service to rediscover the unabashed joy of using their cars to go to work.

That’s how long I have been on hold with the city of Montreal in order to report a significant water main break on Royalmount. Do I need to mention that this street has no outlet? If this turns into a sinkhole, we’re going to be trapped here…with no water…which means that I won’t be able to take my fiber pills!!!

This place is next to the Old Port of Montreal, 5 minutes away from the metro station Champs-de-Mars.

As Spring runs close to an end, people keep coming here. There are about as many tourists as there are locals. It’s a beautiful. All Summer long, live performances are shown by volunteers and people eat on terraces or simply walk around to admire the old times architecture. The place is so special that cars are forbidden to roll there.

There are caricaturists who will draw your weird face.

There are stands which sell various items for your enjoyment.

The photo on the left is of a guy that was standing perfectly still for so long that I got bored and left.
The photo on the right is of a guy with his floating crystal ball, though I don’t know if it’s actually crystal but he makes it appear as though the ball was floating and defying all laws of gravity.

Unfortunately, like any place on Earth, it’s not all happy. Accidents happen.

Day or night, the place is filled up with happy people.

I’ll leave it up to you to figure out who the guy at the top is.

Yeah it is. La Ronde doesn’t thrill me anymore. It doesn’t thrill any of my friends either. But I like to go on a ride with someone who will freak out. A freaking out face is always funny.

This year, there are six new rides, although four of them are only revisions of existing rides. Not exciting for teenagers, but kids should definitely love them.

Au pays de Ribambelle is La Ronde’s new concept. New characters, new rest areas and a restaurant for kids. All redesigned.

And of course, new prices. When I worked there, there were rumors about them setting prices according to people’s heights rather than age, since that is what determines whether a person can go a on ride. Well, apparently, it’s not coming this year. Over the years, I had so many angry clients and they are for good reasons. Six Flags has done a lot of good things since it bought the park from the city and now, the next good thing would be to set prices according to height. If a 40 year old woman measures 125cm in height, she shouldn’t have to pay $30.42 like everyone else. I think that’s only reasonable. She might be scared to death about going on the Cobra, but it’s nice to have the option.

Like every year, there’s a special on the season passport until June 5.

I should add that, La Ronde is one the cheapest park in North America if it isn’t already.

This Saturday and Sunday, between 8 AM and 6 PM, Laval residents are invited to visit the partially constructed metro line that will soon link their island to the rest of civilization. You have to be more than 12 years old and in good physical shape since you will be expected to go down, and up, 400 steps, the equivalent of 22 floors.

You can park at the old Centre 2000, on the corner of Saint-Martin and Daniel-Johnson, where buses will take you to the tunnel entrance.

Do I need to repeat the condition that you have to be a resident of Laval? Us Montrealers may be footing part of the bill but we are not invited.

Zeke forgot to add that Julie Young of La Cabane got the top spot for Best Waitress.

Bloggers have power :-)

Felicitation Julie, c’est pleinement merite.

Howdy!

The Montreal Mirror Best of Montreal issue is out. This year they added a new category, appropriately enough for “Best Blog.” This is how their readers voted:

1 – J Gallagher
2 – Montreal City Weblog
3 – Zeke’s Gallery
4 – Blork Blog
5 – Letters to Memphis
6 – AD HOC
7 – Isabel Brinck
8 – Richard Martineau
9 – YULBlog
10 – ni.vu.ni.connu

Looking a little closer, one realizes that the Mirror’s readership does not overlap with that of Le Devoir, The Gazette/National Post, and La Presse. Or maybe it is that the bigger media outlets don’t quite get the blog thing, and are wasting their money.

Once again, congrats to all, and don’t forget to add all of them (except of course, number 3) to your blogroll and daily reading habits, they all kick-ass.