It's Friday 14th October, 2011
No it's not, it's Monday 17th October, 2011
For the purposes of creativity, I prefer to think that it's just after I have returned from Bistro à Jojo, after another 'good day'. Actually, then, if that's the case...
It's Saturday 15th October, 2011.
No it's not, it's Monday 17th October 2011, just like it was five minutes ago!
I have already explained my reasoning, and adjusted my timings, for the purposes of creativity. A kind of poetic licence …. playing with time. It also helps me to remember what happened.
Ahah, that's more like it.
So, looking back on Friday from a much closer perspective, I am able to recount the events more accurately. In fact several hours of Friday were spent in reliving Thursday, particularly the visit to L'Assomption, Les Filles de Caleb et … sorry (it's just that when you manage to string four words in French together you get carried away with your success) and the visit backstage. The wonders of Skype having been explored the day before with Iraida, I had agreed to spend some time with her, Daria and Jane, to tell them about the show, and Luce and Bruno, and Daniel and everything else I could possibly remember. When Iraida and I were making arrangements for this video-conference extraordinaire, we realised that with the versions of Skype that we all had (the free version) we were unable to set-up a video-conference.
Cheapskate!
Not at all. I think most normal people just have the free version. Normally it suffices, but in this case it didn't. In fact we have discovered that it might be possible to get a week's free trial of the video-conferencing facility, but that's for another time. So it was that we settled for an audio chat, with the four of us speaking in French. Can you believe it? I felt a bit like I was in a press conference, making a statement and then answering questions. It was amazing, and thoroughly enjoyable. I had only just heard Iraida's voice for the first time the day before, and Daria's only once before, a couple of years ago when she called me on her mobile phone, whilst I was in a pet store in Sunderland. It was to be a first for Jane. The narrative completed, and the questions answered to the best of my ability, the four way conversation dissolved into a wonderful mélange of flute, temple bell and guitar playing, with efforts at various songs being attempted in French, by all, in Russian, by me, and even the odd word of English thrown in for good luck. There are even plans being made to produce an international piece of music, if I can teach myself to read music and be able to play in the right key within the next few weeks! At the end of two and a half hours, arrangements were made for a follow up chat on Saturday, before we counted down to a switch-off. How old am I?
Sixty-six, with the kidneys of a seventy six year-old.
Thanks for that, but I felt like everyone else feels inside, as young as I wanted to be. Thank you girls. After the conversation I took some photos of the autographed posters and programme, which I intended to post to the girls on Facebook. It then dawned on me that I was a bit confused about the identity of Jane K. When you have a multi person audio chat on Skype, there are pictures displayed of each person involved in the conversation, apart from yourself, because you probably know what you look like and when you are speaking. The name beneath the space for Jane wasn't Jane, it was Eugenia, as I explained in an earlier posting. This confused me at the time, and when it came to sending her the picture of Luce and Daniel Boucher, I wasn't sure who to send it to. So, my logic led me to search for someone on Facebook called Eugenia K, or with a surname beginning with K. There she was: Eugenia Komandirova. Eugenia Komandirova had the same interests in music, and our mutual friends were Daria and Iraida. So I wrote a short, and therefore not very explanatory message to go with the picture. It wasn't until later that I discovered that Eugenia K wasn't Jane K, and that I had to resend the picture to Jane. I then had a pleasant written dialogue with Eugenia Komandirova who generously accepted my apology in excellent English and said that she had quite enjoyed being the other Eugenia for the short period of confusion. So, another "Fille de la Russie" who wants to see Luce in Russia!!
Last year, when I visited Montréal in November, I went to a Steve Hill concert in Lavaltrie, some distance outside the city. I would never have got there, ...
Yes it's difficult when you can't get to the Lavaltrie.
.... had it not been for Johanne, one of a group of 'maniaques' (that's their word, not mine) who are super-fans of Québec's finest blues-rock guitarist. We became firm friends, and so had arranged to meet up again. In fact we were going to meet up again three times, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, for starters. On Friday it was to be a rendez-vous at Les 3 Brasseurs on rue St.Denis, just across the road from the final destination for the evening , that wonderful institution of the blues – Bistro à Jojo. For most of the day it had been raining. In fact it had been sheeting down all day, and no Mexican type jokes at this point, please.
Ok Senor
It was busy on rue St Denis when I arrived, having made it from Place des Arts (photos above) on the Metro. It was raining heavily, shall we say. I had purposely dressed in my Rohan Dry Requisite trousers, 100% waterproof trousers, which almost look like normal trousers, North face anorak and Berghaus waterproof walking shoes, and carried my trusty Rohan umbrella, So I stood outside Les 3 Brasseurs, oblivious to the effects of the cloudburst. What was amazing was that it was so warm, so warm that I felt like taking off some of my 100% waterproof covering.
That would have been foolish.
There goes the voice of reason again!
It wasn't long before Johanne (Jwanne) arrived and we entered the brewpub/restaurant which was really heaving (very full). The beer is good, even if it wouldn't be classified by CAMRA as real ale, and so is the food. We shared a huge Flammenkeuchen – look it up, or read one of my older blogs!!
Having caught up on news and shared information about our ailments – by coincidence we had both been suffering from back/neck/shoulder/arms problems, we went across the street to Bistro à Jojo.
One of Québec's foremost blues musicians was on the bill : Jim Zeller, harmonica player extraordinaire, supported by an excellent band..
It's now 19.41, on Monday 17th October, and I am sitting at the bar in Benelux typing away as I have been doing for about an hour and a half, and my eyes and back are getting tired. Break for food and a sip of Periskop Baltic Porter, at 7%. Back soon.
The food was eaten, the porter sipped and the bill paid. Returning to my room at 20.30 I sat sat on my bed and woke up at 23.50.
So back to Jim Zeller. We managed to get a seat right in front of the 'stage', which is in effect a small dais raised by about 6 inches from the rest of the floor. So if you are at the front, you are really at the front. The music was excellent and the atmosphere electric.
At one point a rather short gentleman, strangely dressed and carrying a tambourine appeared and began to dance around in what little space remained between the tables, bar and stage, inviting others to join in the fun. At the break in the set, Johanne left to catch the Metro, but I decided to wait for the second half. I went 'up' on to the stage to buy a CD, and thought I would get a photo for my blog. Jim handed my camera to his drummer, and we posed for the shot. I say we posed: I think I just stood there while Jim posed. Then he insisted on taking a picture of me with the drummer ( wish I knew his name as it seems a bit strange just calling him 'the drummer').
These are two of the scariest photos I have ever seen. I eventually left at 01.00, and the second half still hadn't started. The streets in the Latin Quarter were still busy as I walked up rue St.Denis. It's about a 20 minute walk back to rue Ste Famille, but fortunately the rain had stopped, and it was still quite warm, even at that time of the morning.
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