Montreal is a bit far from the FIFA World Cup that started today in Germany. And there isn’t a Canadian team competing. But nonetheless it seems the football fever is also hitting our city! Bars/pubs have signs out inviting clients in to watch the World Cup. Today in the metro I saw a girl proudly wearing a Germany flag on her shoulder… Happy that her team won agains’t Costa Rica in the opening game. So… Who is everyone cheering for?

Tuesday, I saw this guy who was on a scooter in the lane reserved for bicycles, which was strange because scooters should be rolling with cars in the street.

It turns out that it was a motorized bicycle disguised as a scooter. It sure looks better than the thousand dollar one that Canadian Tire sells.

From May 16 to June 4 I was abroad… I went on a holiday! First to Amsterdam for a few days and then the majority of the trip was London + UK. It was great! I saw so many great things! Visited awesome places! But now I’m back in Montreal. It was strange the first time I heard the Canadian English accent again on the plane trip back. For 3 weeks I was surrounded by the English accent… And the Australian one (I travelled with 3 Aussies for a week). It was strange to hear Quebecois French as well! Now a few days after my return my body has adapted to the Montreal time again. I loved the past few days back in my city… Nice and sunny Montreal weather. Most of my time in Europe it was crappy gray skies and rain. I can count the number of blue sky days I’ve had on one hand!!! Anyways… All of this to say I’m back! And I’ll start posting again.

You might not think it this morning. However that’s the title of the June Newsletter of Tourism Montreal. It may be intended for tourists, but there’s lots of good ideas on what to see in Montreal for those of us who live here too. I highly recommend subscribing to it.

Tonight’s Yulbloggers meeting took place at La Quincaillerie and it certainly looks like we’ve found a new home for the next few months.

As for the question of the day, I asked the participants the strangest/most memorable place that they’ve ever had sex in.

Hakim: In the woods.
Francois: A lot of places that I don’t remember…I was too drunk.
Patrick: Is Sherbrooke strange?
Julien: In a public photo booth. The curtains didn’t go down enough and I almost got arrested.
Michel: Under an overpass in California more than 20 years ago.
Phillipe: On the Mont Royal.
Eric B: On a ski lift in Jay Peaks.
Stephane & Caroline: We really like trees ;-P
Martine: On a blog (in the comments).
Blork: In the Fisherman’s Monument in Budapest.
Shiraz: In a jacuzzi in Verona.
Vero: I’ll tell you in my next vid on my blog.
Rene: On an island in the middle of the Riviere Rouge.
Nick: On a Cuban millionaire’s front lawn.
Kristi: In a McDonald’s bathroom.
Ella: On the Eiffel Tower.
Marie-Jo: In the woods next to a ski slope.
Amy: In an office of my graduate building.
Francois: In a movie theater.
Dominic: On a Cuban beach.
Carl: In a public parc next to a garden gnome.
Michel: In a UQAM classroom.
Eric D: In a schoolyard a 1 o’clock in the morning.
Vila H.: In a graveyard.
Frank: The parking lot of La Ronde with a great view of the skyline.
Alston: Numerous places during my sister’s wedding day. In front of the Canadian Tires, on the bridge where I had my first kiss, next to some vehicle near my parent’s house. Problem was that she was having her period and we didn’t notice because we were too drunk. I was wearing my brother-in-law’s white shirt. He and I haven’t discussed the stains.
As for me, it wasn’t as much where (her bedroom) as what happened after. I overslept and had to sneak out through her bedroom window. Unfortunately I had forgotted that it was a Sunday morning and that her house was right next to an Anglican church.

Finally one of the above participant also confided that he/she once did it in a chemical toilet during John Paul II’s visit to Quebec city.

Imagine the scene, Stephane is riding his bike on Ste-Catherine when he suddenly hears a woman scream and sees a guy running away with her purse. He starts pursuing the thief and runs him over at the corner of Bleury. Both of them fall to the ground but Stephane is the first one up and he grabs him by the collar.

This is where it could have gone ugly, cover of the Journal de Montreal ugly. Fortunately the guy just stays there and surrenders. Stephane tells him to get the f*&k out of there.

And the victim in all of this? She recuperates her bag on the ground and dissapears without a word, leaving her benefactor with a broken bike ($50) and ripped pants ($70).

Y’a des coups de pieds au cul qui se perdent!

Important message from Patrick:

An another month an another Yulblog and, incredibly, another month another bar. That’s right, we’re moving once again. Reasons?

I’d like to see as many people as possible, to have your opinion on the place and also to put a nice ending to my tenure at the helm of the Yulblog meetings. Yup, between now and the July meeting a new mini committee will be taking care of the meetings and of diversifying the thing a bit.

This is not an official announcement by the Metro system. Indeed I don’t know where you’d go to find such news. It seems to work by the Word-of-Mouth system. Am I missing something here?

If only the STM had a blog. They could also have a RSS news feed. Then the minute they put a news item up, those of us who are using news feeds would quickly be alerted that something has happened. We could then feed the Word-of-Mouth system and more people would be less frustrated. It’s so easy and cheap to do. Indeed as a public service, if someone at the STM wanted to telephone us here, we could make this the official STM blog service. What do you think?

Today… actually yesterday and maybe today as well are perfect for spending time outdoors. I went to the Old Port to go away from “everything”. There is a lot of people there: old, young, artists, tourists, Chinese, …

At one end, people are planting flowers and at the other end, horticulture is on its way to beauty once again.

The Conference Of Montreal, otherwise known as The International Economic Forum of the Americas, is taking place in Montreal this week. This is the 12th Edition since these sessions started back in 1995. It has as its principal mission the promotion of wide-ranging and completely open discussion of the major international economic issues.

This year there are over 3,000 registered participants, 186 very influential speakers and 100 accredited journalists. This sample will show the eminence of those who are speaking.
* Alain Juppé, former Prime Minister of France and visiting professor at the École nationale d’administration publique (ENAP)
* Pascal Lamy, Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO)
* Koichiro Matsuura, Director General, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and
* David H. Wilkins, United States Ambassador to Canada

No dramatic breakthroughs can be expected, I would guess, however the networking and the new relationships that develop can only be a power for good.