Jeffrey Vanneste’s Personal Blog

So I’m back in Saskatoon, there is snow everywhere and it’s cold… just like it should be in winter. Last Wednesday when I was leaving Montreal Rach wanted me to spread our mice poison around the kitchen again. When I checked under the sink the mice had tore open the bag and stole all the poison. I guess it didn’t work very well as we still have mice.

Rach drove me to the airport on Wednesday which wasn’t too far away. The airport was huge (well at least compared to Saskatoon). We were a little worried that security would hold me up awhile since I was taking a bunch of gadgets (laptop, xbox 360, DS, ipod, etc) but they only had me empty my bag so they could swab everything. I watched some X-Files before getting on the plane (since I finished Star Trek: The Next Generation). So far so good. Well things went down hill from here. The plane is almost ready to take off until they discover they forgot to fill up the potable water so we had to turn around and get it filled up, 25 minutes behind schedule. Finally we take off and they announce we are going against the wind so we will be another 30 minutes or so behind. I usually wouldn’t care if I was an hour behind but I had a transfer in Calgary and only about 35 minutes to do it. Things looked bleak that I would catch my plane from Calgary from Saskatoon.

The next problem was once we got up to altitude I started to feel pretty sick. After about an hour in I was keeled over into the aisle begging for the flight to be done. I was so close to throwing up that I grabbed the plastic bag which held all the safety manuals so I could purge into that. I quickly decided I should probably go to the back of the plane instead of throwing up with the guy beside me watching me. I went to the back and told a flight attendant that I wasn’t feeling very good. She got me a “sick bag” (they don’t call them puke bags) and let me sit at the back of the plane. The back of the plane had way more room so I was able to keel over a bunch better. I sat at the back for about an hour before this drunk chick from business class comes back and sees me with the sick bag. She goes “What, are you bulimic or something?” to which I respond “No, I’m just not feeling very good”. Apparently this wasn’t a good enough answer. She goes “Ya whatever, you are just faking it”. “No, I’m really not feeling good.” At this point she decides to test her theory and she punches me in the stomach. Yes, that’s right, I got hit by a girl but I took it like a man. The sad thing is I still didn’t throw up. A flight attendant finally sees that she is harassing me and sends her back to the front. I let the attendant know that she hit me but that I wasn’t mad but that they should probably keep an eye on her (or how about quit giving her alcohol).

I end up staying at the back of the plane for about 4 hours of my 5 hour flight to Calgary. Once I arrived I run off the plane and discover that my flight to Saskatoon left quite awhile ago. I end up getting a voucher for a flight the next morning and a night in a hotel close by. When I go to pick up my luggage in Calgary I see the drunk chick with a bunch of cops waiting to pick up her luggage. She was crying and screaming at everyone probably having a real bad day. Sure I was having a bad day but she was having a worse one which made me happy.

I ended up arriving in Saskatoon 10 hours later than I was suppose to. Apparently my body was not meant to fly. For that matter I don’t think it was meant to float across water either. It’s pretty good at sitting still. I have 2 months now before I fly back to Montreal. I hope to not get punched next time. Maybe this time I will do the punching.

[tags]montreal,saskatoon,rachel,jeffrey,trip[/tags]

Well less than a week before I come back to Saskatoon so Rach figured we should spend more time together. This time it was off to the Santa Claus Parade (all pictures here).

The crazy thing is they have French Christmas carols. I know, I know, so weird. The parade was kind of a let down. There were lots of businesses that didn’t have anything but a van in the parade. A van, brutal.

When we got to the parade there were lots of people and barely any places to stand. It was pretty funny that we found a place right in front of “Super Sexe” that didn’t have many people.

They also didn’t throw any candy. Apparently there are parades where they don’t throw candy. I want candy. Sure I could just go buy some but I prefer having candy thrown at my face. Oh, and the best part of the parade was this old guy who did tricks on his bike.

[tags]montreal,jeffrey,rachel[/tags]

So our plan (Rachel’s plan) was to goto the botanical gardens and the insectarium. The bad day started off with lots of rain making any outside part of the gardens unbearable. Once we go to the botanical gardens we found out they were closed to prepare for the winter season. We only had a little bit of the greenhouses that were open for us to view. Once inside I brought out my camera and discovered that both sets of batteries were dead (way to be prepared).

Well onto the insectarium. After walking outside in the freezing rain we arrive. The coolest thing here was the termite queen. She was huge. You know… you know. Since I didn’t have a camera you can imagine that I just took these pictures.

Besides the guy hitting Rachel and all he seemed very sorry and concerned about Rachel’s well being.

I figure the day couldn’t go much worse but right before we started to eat supper I read that Justice (one of Rachel’s favorite new shows) is almost for sure cancelled. I think if I’m gonna get stabbed tonight is the night.

[tags]jeffrey,rachel,montreal[/tags]

Since I’m going back to Saskatoon shortly Rachel figured she should get a temporary roommate while I was gone.  Well the new roommate, Basil, who used to live on Baker Street, moved in yesterday.  When Rachel first saw him she was yelling for me to come and look at how gross he was.  When I went to the other room he quickly hid behind the stove to hide his ugly face.  Rachel quickly decided, we should kill our new roommate (she is so drastic sometimes).

I wanted to throw hammers at Basil but we ended up getting some poison instead.  Nothing like poisoning someone and disposing of their body.  We have littered our kitchen with poison since Basil likes to hang out there.  Last night while lying in bed we could hear Basil running around.  I look forward to Basil’s demise.  If we are lucky we can kill his whole family as well.

By the way, Basil is a mouse, or a rat, or maybe both.  A Rouse!  He moved in since they have been working on the sewers in front of our house I suspect.  I guess if the sewers are not an option to live in then our apartment is the winter retreat.

[tags]jeffrey,rachel,montreal[/tags]

So today started off well.  And by well I mean we had no internet so Rach and I were lost.  Rach watched some Grey’s Anatomy while I played some Splinter Cell.  Rachel capitalized on the no internet scenario and decided we should head down to Montreal’s biodome.

They had a big gopher exhibit.  Apparently not all provinces kill gophers.  Rach went underneath the gophers into this little plastic thing so you can be close to them.

Really we just went from room to room and saw different plants, animals and fishes. 

There were a bunch of monkeys as well.  I took a lot of pictures but most were way out of focus.  We weren’t allowed to use a flash and the lights were not that bright.

And the stars of the show were the penguins.

You can check out all the pictures we took on flickr.  After the biodome we went for chinese donuts and then went back home.  Internet had returned magically so we were happy.

[tags]jeffrey,rachel,montreal[/tags]