From now on

Tonight I'm going to the Fish concert in Montreal. There will be a pre-gig meet at a bar called the Brutopia where we will have the chance to meet him in person and I find it kind of nice. Since he has rocked my world for the last 20 years, I think I will take this chance to shake his hand and thank him for his wonderful gifts he have given us over the years.

Speaking of gifts, this is one of his greatest and when he will sing it tonight, I will be thinking about somebody really special in my life these days and will hope that what we're living now is only the beginning of a great and long story...

To Dalexia,

Fish-Cliché

I've got a reputation of being a man with a gift of words
a romantic poetic type or so they say
but I find it hard to express the way I feel about you
without getting involved with the old cliches.

In the old cliches, it's the old cliches.

This song's begun so many times but never
in a way that you wont consider to be an old cliche.
I want to say that I need you, I miss you when you're away.
And how it seemed like fate - o here we go - the same old cliches.

It's the same old cliches.

It's not that I'm embarrassed or shy, well, you know me too well
but I want to make this song special in a way that you can tell.
That it's solely for you and nobody else
for my best friend, my lover, when I need help - cliche - cliche?
Everything I want to say to you is wrapped up in an old cliche
I'd waited so long to find you, I'd been through the heartbreak and pain,
but of course you already know that cos you've been throught the same.
That's why I'm trying to say with my deepest sincerity
that's why I'm finding it comes down to the basic simplicities
the best way is with an old cliche
it's simply the best way is with an old cliche
always the best way is with an old cliche
I'll leave it to the best way, it's an old cliche
I love you.

Today is my last day of my one week holiday. I have done a lot of things during this holiday like going to my Guatemala volunteer work trip's meeting in Thetford Mines. It's a small town in decline located 300 kilometres south-east from where I live. It's a declining small town because the major part of its economy is based on asbestos mining and since that asbestos is now banned in many countries due to its potentially health-damaging reputation, the production has dropped dramatically.


The meeting was very interesting. First I realized that maybe I'm a bit young to start doing international volunteer work. Well, I was visibly the youngest of the group and most of the participants(we were about 100) were retired or pre-retired. It must have to do with the financial security you have gained at this life phase, it's easier to travel without any income for a long period. Only a fool will quit is job to start doing some voluntary work trips!

The trip itself is really what I want to do: Working with locals on different sites and different kinds of job, learning Spanish, visit the country cultural attraction, all that in the voluntary simplicity way. I could do construction work or work on a pineapple farm. I could also work 2 weeks in a school run by Guatemalan nuns or work in a paediatric AIDS centre and take care of the children. Everything is well organized and I really like the philosophy of the charity organism behind this project. I will tell you more about it in the upcoming weeks but now I can tell you that at the beginning of July I will know my date of departure. I will stay there for 5 weeks, it's less that what I thought initially but with the latest developments that has occurred in my life in the past weeks, this shorter trip suits me just fine.

After the meeting, I began to explore the region. I pitched my tent in a campsite in Montmagny(+3°C at night and rainy!!). From there I took my bike and went for a 74 km ride west on my first day. And the second day, I took a ferry I went cycling on a beautiful small island of the St-Lawrence River called Isle-aux-Grues. I have talked with one of the 123 habitants of the island, and this young lady explained me a lot of things about their amazing islander life. Like how she went to elementary school by plane mornings and evenings! It was only a 7 minutes flight but hey! What an uncommon way to go to school!



There were a few craft artists on the island, a nice local cheese dairy and many swallows! Tree swallows everywhere nesting in wood nesting boxes place on almost every electrical post, it was so nice to see...





After that I've started my way back to home but I stopped at my sister's house in Quebec city for a night, did a bit of cycling there too. And Friday I went to Montreal to help my mother with her annual spring cleaning. I choose Friday because I had to be in Montreal anyway at night for the City Night Bike Tour. We were 12000 participants (there's always less participants at the nightly version than at the classic day tour) and it was really fun. People were in the street cheering at us, I almost felt like a real athlete!

And this weekend, I'm more on the relax mode. There are still many unknowns in my love life and going through this emotional roller-coaster ride is hard on the body and mind. But I'm not alone going through this and I know that it's even harder for that other person. But we must stay positive (you know I'm a positive man! ) and maybe soon everything will settle by itself and we all be able to look in front of us and start a new journey. Hey San, I may have found a new NLBC member!




More photos here

I sometimes envy people who believe in God. And by God I mean the largest definition that could be associated with the word. It could be the God of an organized religion(Catholic, Hindu, Muslim,...) or a personalized God that fits the personal beliefs of the person. It could also be a mystic power inside the person, a soul, a inner strength, a spirit. I would say any beliefs that transgress the material level or aren't associated with our hormones, brain chemicals.
Astrology, life after death, chakras, divination, the list could go on and on. It would be easier to say anything that is not scientifically proven but time has shown that science has also its share of beliefs.

So where's the line, you ask? Well let me talk about me. I have written before on this blog that I'm atheist. I chose this etiquette because even if it is a belief by default, it's the closest description of the way I am. To make it simple, let's say that I never have an image or a spiritual explanation that could help me understand, accept or be thankful for any situation. I always live the things straight as they are.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't own the truth and every event I face in my life pass to the prism of my perception and is interpreted with my own life experience and my mood of the moment.
But when sometimes it exceeds my capacity of knowledge or become too hard to deal with, I don't have any “mental valve” to help me cope with those life challenges and that it's why I say that I sometimes envy people who believe in God.

I just land from an intense and turbulent too short flight. I knew from the beginning that it wouldn't be a safe flight but I took it anyway. The landing was hard but no one got seriously hurt. The hardest part is certainly to have reached this height but being unable to keep the altitude for a long long time.

Much like the flying hamster game, eh Angie?

Thanks for the trip

"...Darling,
I'm trying to land,
This aeroplane of ours gracefully,
But my heart is so broken..."