Jeffrey Vanneste’s Personal Blog

Since Rach and I decided we are going to stay in Montreal and live downtown we also decided that there is no need to keep our RAV4 (interested in buying it? send me a message.)  We will be living so close to the metro that we should be able to get around without a car just fine.  I figure I’m quite proficient at using the subway here but I haven’t yet conquered the buses.

On Tuesday I went out on my own with the goal of using only buses to get where I wanted to go (I needed some Montreal smoked meat.)  The first couple bus rides I had no issues.  Get on the bus, show my bus pass, pretend I now what the bus driver says to me and give a Star Trek head nod in an attempt to convince them that I know what’s going on, and then proceed to the back of the bus.  On my way back I bought some groceries and saw 2 buses across the street.  The light was about to turn green so I j-walked in true Montreal style and ran to the 2nd bus.

I whipped out my bus pass and looked up to board the bus.  The doors started to close.  There was no way I was going to walk home with all these groceries so I lunged with my left hand into the doors thinking that if there was an obstruction in the doors that they won’t close all the way.  Incorrect assumption.  Just as this is happening a guy is running up to me yelling “YOU DROPPED TEN DOLLARS!  TEN DOLLARS!  AT YOUR FEET.”  At this point I thought it was funny that this guy was going crazy over the $10 at my feet and not concerned about the bus attached to my arm.

As I begin to panic, yanking to get the bus detached from my arm, the bus driver finally decides that she should open the doors for me.  I grabbed the $10, jumped on the bus and held up my bus pass.  The bus driver just looked at me, “ya sure whatever.”  I’m not sure if this warrants acceptance of my bus pass so I held it closer to her while simultaneously head nodding.  No sign of acceptance from the bus driver.  I decided to take my chances and just mumbled “I’m going to go sit down now.”

Well Rachel and I finally made the big decision.  We’ve decided that it was time to give up on Saskatchewan (for the time being anyways) and have me move to Montreal to live with her.  Living with your wife sure sounds like a good idea.  It will be sad to leave friends and family behind but they can always come and visit!

We’ve been going back on forth on the idea but today we finally sealed the deal and signed a lease for a new apartment.  I told Rachel that if I was going to move to Montreal that I wouldn’t stay at our current place another night.  So we stepped it up, probably more than we should have.  We are moving from a place that is infested with mice, has a leaky ceiling in the bathroom and kitchen, has noisy neighbors (piano players, guitar players, dogs, little kids), lots of smokers, horrible power, a kitchen where none of the cupboards close and so much more that I can complain about to this:

More pictures on flickr.

We will be living downtown Montreal. 1 very short block from the metro, half a block to a YMCA, 2 blocks from Old Montreal, and close to so many awesome restaurants. It should be pretty awesome.

So when am I moving? January 1, 2009 I will start the trek from Saskatoon to Montreal (this time with everything we own.) We have a spare room so setup a trip and come and visit us. We promise, no mice this time.