On a new year

It has been a while since I last posted. I guess the reason is that I haven't been doing much cycling of late. Or even thinking about cycling. Christmas cycling goodies were a merino wool hoodie for after cycling, 3 bags of cola-favoured Cliff Shot Blocks, a Newfoundland and Labrador bike water-bottle and a deck of mini-playing cards. Nothing very exciting. The hoodie is very warm and welcome this week as the temperature has been hovering below the -20 C mark for much of the week, i.e. fricking cold.The low temperatures caused a water main to break rather spectacularly in Montreal today. I mention this as it seems to have broken at the corner of Peel and St-Jacques. This relevant as when I was biking on a regular basis to McGill, my typical route was along St-Jacques and then up Peel.

I did get to be the very first person to ever wish my niece a happy new year. Her father was very mildly jealous. I also bought a present for her first birthday, namely an Ekkore rocking moose from Ikea. It was so silly and fun, that I couldn't resist even though her birthday is only in April and it will six months later that she will be rated to use it.
It is currently sitting, un-assembled, at my parents' house. I reserve the fun of assembling it.

Margo and Chris set off on their epic trek. Their chance visit to a school in Thailand makes me jealous on a number of levels. For one thing, I am in Quebec during a cold spell suffering from a cold. For another, I am envious of their ability to accept such a warm, chance welcome. I can't help but think that I would have been too shy to really connect like they have.

In other news, on the eve of my 38th birthday, I was tossing and turning in bed unable to sleep when my mind turned to my apartment. When I moved in, a family friend asked if I was going to give it a name such as the Lions' Den on account of my name being Daniel. As I lay in bed I came up with idea of combining my totem animal with the meaning of my last name to create the White Moose. Whether it will be the Lair of the White Moose or the White Moose Flat or something I have yet to decide.

Actually, there was one more semi-biking related present from Christmas. I got Bernard Cornwell's Azincourt for Christmas. As might be guessed, it is about the battle of Agincourt. In the notes at the end, he talks about how well the battlefield is kept today. If I were biking across France with Chris and Margo in August or September, I wouldn't mind paying Azincourt a visit should it be reasonably feasible. The battlefield museum is said to be quite good. It makes me think of a French (from France) colleague of my father's who went to England where he was surprised about all the monuments to infamous defeats, such as Waterloo and Trafalgar. ;-) It sort of makes me wonder why there is a museum at Azincourt. Probably subsidized by the English!