Monday 15th November.

Apologies for the slight gap in postings – it's the mad social whirl to blame!

By Monday morning I guess I was just about down to earth after the thrill and excitement of Saturday, but then, in order to write the blog for 13^th, I had to relive the whole thing – no great hardship. It took me most of the day to write it actually, apart from an expedition to the Complexe Desjardins, a large shopping mall beside Place des Arts. There is a fast food mall within a mall there, with several coffee outlets and food from around the world, and this has become my first stopping off point during the week, for a cafe du jour (grand) and croissant/cookie at the Cafe Depot.

Before leaving the UK I had purchased a ticket for a Steve Hill concert at La Chasse-Galerie. in Lavaltrie, a small town on the banks of the St Lawrence river, about 45 minutes drive from the city, and was contacted on Facebook by one of his fans who had read my postings. Actually, 'one of his fans' is not doing Johanne justice. She loves music, and the music of Steve in particular, and tries to see very possible concert she can. Would you believe that she had flown across to France in September, to see a couple of Steve's concerts in and near Paris? What kind of person would fly across the Atlantic to see their favourite artiste perform?

[I can think of one]

Ah.... yes.. well I guess that's why we got on well together. Two of a kind.

So,,, anyway, Johanne very kindly offered to give me a lift to Lavaltrie, and we arranged to meet on Monday evening,

[To give her a chance to change her mind, was it?]

Well maybe, but after a pleasant meal and a pint at Les Trois Brasseurs in rue St.Denis, she didn't. The only thing that spoiled the evening a little was the parking system in Montreal – it's very complicated. You can only park on certain sides of the road, on certain days, at certain times of the day/night and with a certain number on your windscreen. One of those conditions was not satisfied, so when we got back to her shiny new red car, there was an unpleasant addition to the windscreen – a $52 dollar parking ticket.

[You didn't really need to add the word 'dollar', there because you used the $ sign – that as most people in the civilised world know, signifies that the number following represents an amount of currency in dollars]

Thanks, but that really interrupted my flow. So Johanne dropped me back at the hotel having confirmed the lift on Friday. Na, na ne na na!

[…...........]

Actually we met up again on Wednesday, but that's another story. [I can't wait!] You'll have to!!