Thursday, August 31, 2006
Summary Part 4: Hobo Roadtrip '06
Noisettes
While driving through these small towns in Quebec, we came to one particular town; on the outskirts there was this kid standing on the side of the highway with a cardboard sign saying "Noisettes, 2$".
Now, my translation of noisettes was "nuts". So I'm thinking this kid is selling mixed nuts for 2$. Weird. But maybe this is like a school fundraiser or something. Either way, we drove on.
It wasn't 30 seconds until we passed what honestly looked like an abandoned shack with a little sign out front - "Noisettes, 2$".
100 metres down the street there was a parked car with a lunch pail (presumably containing nuts) sitting on the hood, and a little "Noisettes 2$" bristol board sign.
A minute later we went past a house with a card table set up on the lawn and what looked like glass mugs full of nuts. You guessed it, Noisettes. $2.
In a town of no more than 100 homes, literally 19-20(Laura and I had different "official counts") of them were selling Noisettes in one fashion or another. It was truly the oddest thing I've seen - we really should have taken some video of it to capture it. Particularly humourous were the really ghetto attempts to sell nuts - like they needed a class in "Nut Marketing 101".
Now - what I *have* learned subsequently is that Noisette actually translates to "hazelnut". Furthermore, apparently hazelnuts DO grow in Canada, including Quebec. So it IS possible that this town just happened to have an abundance of hazelnut trees. Regardless, out there somewhere in the middle of Quebec is a town with nuts for sale. $2.
While driving through these small towns in Quebec, we came to one particular town; on the outskirts there was this kid standing on the side of the highway with a cardboard sign saying "Noisettes, 2$".
Now, my translation of noisettes was "nuts". So I'm thinking this kid is selling mixed nuts for 2$. Weird. But maybe this is like a school fundraiser or something. Either way, we drove on.
It wasn't 30 seconds until we passed what honestly looked like an abandoned shack with a little sign out front - "Noisettes, 2$".
100 metres down the street there was a parked car with a lunch pail (presumably containing nuts) sitting on the hood, and a little "Noisettes 2$" bristol board sign.
A minute later we went past a house with a card table set up on the lawn and what looked like glass mugs full of nuts. You guessed it, Noisettes. $2.
In a town of no more than 100 homes, literally 19-20(Laura and I had different "official counts") of them were selling Noisettes in one fashion or another. It was truly the oddest thing I've seen - we really should have taken some video of it to capture it. Particularly humourous were the really ghetto attempts to sell nuts - like they needed a class in "Nut Marketing 101".
Now - what I *have* learned subsequently is that Noisette actually translates to "hazelnut". Furthermore, apparently hazelnuts DO grow in Canada, including Quebec. So it IS possible that this town just happened to have an abundance of hazelnut trees. Regardless, out there somewhere in the middle of Quebec is a town with nuts for sale. $2.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Summary Part 3: Hobo Roadtrip '06
Local culture is an interesting thing.
- As one might expect, most of quebec is predominantely francophone. The level of bilingualism was higher in Montreal and Quebec as one would expect.
- What was weird though was the linear transition towards francophonie while driving from Ottawa - we hit serious french country WELL before hitting Quebec. Also, a big chunk of norther New Brunswick is heavily french.
That's where we leave the "normal" and hit the unexpected!
Acadia Land
We drove through one town that had some serious "town spirit" Acadia style. Virtually every house had SOMETHING red white and blue - streamers, flags, fence posts you name it.
The funny thing was that the next small town a few kilometers up the road was not acadian, and was obviously feeling a little competitive pressure. Almost every house in this town had multi coloured flags running from their roofs down to their lawns( think the kind they use in swimming pools 5m out from either end - a bunch of small triangular flags on a line ). Just trying to fit in I think.
Up next - mystery "noisettes" and the missing "blueberry country"
- As one might expect, most of quebec is predominantely francophone. The level of bilingualism was higher in Montreal and Quebec as one would expect.
- What was weird though was the linear transition towards francophonie while driving from Ottawa - we hit serious french country WELL before hitting Quebec. Also, a big chunk of norther New Brunswick is heavily french.
That's where we leave the "normal" and hit the unexpected!
Acadia Land
We drove through one town that had some serious "town spirit" Acadia style. Virtually every house had SOMETHING red white and blue - streamers, flags, fence posts you name it.
The funny thing was that the next small town a few kilometers up the road was not acadian, and was obviously feeling a little competitive pressure. Almost every house in this town had multi coloured flags running from their roofs down to their lawns( think the kind they use in swimming pools 5m out from either end - a bunch of small triangular flags on a line ). Just trying to fit in I think.
Up next - mystery "noisettes" and the missing "blueberry country"
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Mice have feelings?
A study about mice is getting much media attention at the moment.
The study claims to have found a gene that is linked to moods/depression, and that by "knocking out" this gene, they were able to breed mice who were not succeptible to depression.
Given that this is pretty similar work to what Laura used to do at her old lab, I'm comfortable with all these ideas.
What I'm a little less sure about is:
i) mice have feelings?
ii) the article mentions "chemical and behavioural tests" used to measure the mouse's happiness level. Wow. People have determined a "scientific" way of measuring a mouse's feelings?
iii) if mice do indeed have feelings, then doesn't it make it much less 'acceptable' to do all this weird testing / mutating on them?
The study claims to have found a gene that is linked to moods/depression, and that by "knocking out" this gene, they were able to breed mice who were not succeptible to depression.
Given that this is pretty similar work to what Laura used to do at her old lab, I'm comfortable with all these ideas.
What I'm a little less sure about is:
i) mice have feelings?
ii) the article mentions "chemical and behavioural tests" used to measure the mouse's happiness level. Wow. People have determined a "scientific" way of measuring a mouse's feelings?
iii) if mice do indeed have feelings, then doesn't it make it much less 'acceptable' to do all this weird testing / mutating on them?
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Summary Part 2 : Hobo Roadtrip '06
So in case anyone missed the high level plan for the trip, it went kind of like this:
-> Ottawa
-> Montreal
-> Eastern Townships
-> Quebec City
-> Riviere du Loup
-> Cottage(Saint John NB)
-> Cambellford NB
-> Gaspesie loop around the outside, from the south around to the north
-> Ferry over to Charlevoix/Saguenay(Tadoussac)
-> Up to Lac St Jean( Chicoutimi, Jonquiere)
-> Back through Montreal to Ottawa
The biking in the Eastern Townships was fantastic. Quebec has a provincial trail system called Route Verte and there's something like 4000km of trails around the province. The trails range from paved or gravel bike paths, to bike lanes on roads, to just...being on a road. In the townships though it's almost all actual bike paths that are really well marked and well kept. Each little region has it's own free trail maps which is a bonus. I did about 100km of riding in this neck of the woods - a lot of farming(dairy, corn, hay) and of course wine/cider, and maple syrup.
We stayed at a KOA just outside of Quebec City, and had a nice dinner in town at a place in the chateau frontenac building(but like not IN the chateau frontenac). We went there looking for crepes, but ended up doing this fondue trio - cheese&bread, the beef hotpot, then chocolate fondue to finish up. YUM!
After Quebec it was off to my cottage...I've already posted a blurb from the cottage though so I'll post about Gaspesie next!
Laura and I have almost 300 pictures, so I'm hoping to be able to get more of those online in the not too distant future!
-> Ottawa
-> Montreal
-> Eastern Townships
-> Quebec City
-> Riviere du Loup
-> Cottage(Saint John NB)
-> Cambellford NB
-> Gaspesie loop around the outside, from the south around to the north
-> Ferry over to Charlevoix/Saguenay(Tadoussac)
-> Up to Lac St Jean( Chicoutimi, Jonquiere)
-> Back through Montreal to Ottawa
The biking in the Eastern Townships was fantastic. Quebec has a provincial trail system called Route Verte and there's something like 4000km of trails around the province. The trails range from paved or gravel bike paths, to bike lanes on roads, to just...being on a road. In the townships though it's almost all actual bike paths that are really well marked and well kept. Each little region has it's own free trail maps which is a bonus. I did about 100km of riding in this neck of the woods - a lot of farming(dairy, corn, hay) and of course wine/cider, and maple syrup.
We stayed at a KOA just outside of Quebec City, and had a nice dinner in town at a place in the chateau frontenac building(but like not IN the chateau frontenac). We went there looking for crepes, but ended up doing this fondue trio - cheese&bread, the beef hotpot, then chocolate fondue to finish up. YUM!
After Quebec it was off to my cottage...I've already posted a blurb from the cottage though so I'll post about Gaspesie next!
Laura and I have almost 300 pictures, so I'm hoping to be able to get more of those online in the not too distant future!
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Summary Part 1: Hobo Roadtrip '06
We're back! We got in at around 10 last night, and are heading back to toronto on the 5pm train this afternoon....yesterday was a bit stressful - we had to drop Laura's bike off in Montreal so that it could be shipped on the train to toronto. Why? Via has checked luggage on the montreal/toronto route, but not the ottawa/toronto route, so you can't bring bikes between ottawa/toronto, but you CAN between montreal/toronto. PLUS it's only about $22.
The thing about shipping a bike though is that they put it in a box - meaning you need to take off your pedals, and turn your handlebars. I know enough about bikes to know that turning handlebars is relatively easy and requires an alan key, and that taking off pedals is more difficult, and requires a narrow wrench.
We arrive in Montreal, wrenchless.
Laura lived there for a term, so knows the city better than I do(read: not at all)...but the only hardware store she knew was closed on saturdays. We ultimately started looking up bike stores in the phone book, and eventually found somewhere we could buy a wrench.
We still had to actually get the pedals off, which ended up being quite a feat - i guess you're supposed to get a LONG wrench with lots of leverage, but we got this tinsy tiny little mini-wrench. So I'm in front of the train station literally like JUMPING on the wrench. We finally got them pedals off, and the ol' bike is now en route to toronto.
THERE WAS AN OPEN BRACKET INSTEAD OF A CLOSED BRACKET!!!
More later.
The thing about shipping a bike though is that they put it in a box - meaning you need to take off your pedals, and turn your handlebars. I know enough about bikes to know that turning handlebars is relatively easy and requires an alan key, and that taking off pedals is more difficult, and requires a narrow wrench.
We arrive in Montreal, wrenchless.
Laura lived there for a term, so knows the city better than I do(read: not at all)...but the only hardware store she knew was closed on saturdays. We ultimately started looking up bike stores in the phone book, and eventually found somewhere we could buy a wrench.
We still had to actually get the pedals off, which ended up being quite a feat - i guess you're supposed to get a LONG wrench with lots of leverage, but we got this tinsy tiny little mini-wrench. So I'm in front of the train station literally like JUMPING on the wrench. We finally got them pedals off, and the ol' bike is now en route to toronto.
THERE WAS AN OPEN BRACKET INSTEAD OF A CLOSED BRACKET!!!
More later.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Cottage sunsett
Grr. I'm really having trouble doing this whole photo-blogging thing.
This doesn't seem to want to work - Ali I'm going to need a tutorial.
Hopefully if you click on this you can get to the others.
This doesn't seem to want to work - Ali I'm going to need a tutorial.
Hopefully if you click on this you can get to the others.
Trip Update!
Well, we're half way through the trip...we've spent the past 3 days at my cottage in Saint John, which has been wonderful. The weather has been gorgeous and sunny in the mornings, and rainy in the afternoons.
The only real hitch in the trip so far was the night before getting to the cottage - we're booked a camp site in this nature reserve called Rimouski ( probably about 150-200km south of the city of Rimouski, right along the NB border). Well, we turned off the main highway at about 7:15....by 8:30 it started to rain...the roads got worse and worse and were very bumpy. The going was slow. By 9:15 we'd hit the last tiny town on the map and kept going...2 minutes later the road turned into a dirt logging road. At this stage of the game we still hadn't seen a single sign for the reserve, so were a little worried we'd taken a wrong turn. Anyways, we went back up to a convenience store and asked for directions...the guy was a little surprised that we were heading to the reserve this late at night, and told us the campground was "atleast an hour away - at a good clip" and that the road were all dirt and some were not in very good shape, and none were lit at night.
That was enough to discourage us from taking on the challenge, so we abandoned our reservation for that place and started looking for....a HOBO CAMP! Yes folks, Laura was about to have her first run in with hobo camping!! We ultimately found a pretty nice city park with a fire pit and sheltered picnic tables. We started a little fire and roasted up some weenies - it was probably 11pm by this stage, so we just quickly set up camp and packed it in. In the morning Laura started to pack back up and I hear her go "huh, they even have running water!!". A minute later - "oh, there's an electrical outlet too!" The kicker though was "wow! There's a bathroom....and SHOWERS!!". Turns out that our first hobo camp wasn't in a city park, but was actually in a legit campground and we just didn't know it - Dickie, talk about the ultimate Hobo Locate!
At the cottage we've been out canoeing, and swimming ( i swam across the river, which was more of an effort than I remember in the past!) and have spent hours picking blueberries and eating ice cream. We had a nice bon fire on my beach last night, and saw shooting stars and a big full moon.
Also, simon, I saw the aquatic driving range! My cousin lives right out near there.
We head off back to Quebec, hitting up the Gaspe peninsula tonight, then tomorrow we're off to Bonaventure Island where there are lots of gannets. Hopefully I'll be able to provide atleast 1 or 2 more updates. I'm hoping to add lots of pictures to this post, but have never done it before so may have some trouble!
The only real hitch in the trip so far was the night before getting to the cottage - we're booked a camp site in this nature reserve called Rimouski ( probably about 150-200km south of the city of Rimouski, right along the NB border). Well, we turned off the main highway at about 7:15....by 8:30 it started to rain...the roads got worse and worse and were very bumpy. The going was slow. By 9:15 we'd hit the last tiny town on the map and kept going...2 minutes later the road turned into a dirt logging road. At this stage of the game we still hadn't seen a single sign for the reserve, so were a little worried we'd taken a wrong turn. Anyways, we went back up to a convenience store and asked for directions...the guy was a little surprised that we were heading to the reserve this late at night, and told us the campground was "atleast an hour away - at a good clip" and that the road were all dirt and some were not in very good shape, and none were lit at night.
That was enough to discourage us from taking on the challenge, so we abandoned our reservation for that place and started looking for....a HOBO CAMP! Yes folks, Laura was about to have her first run in with hobo camping!! We ultimately found a pretty nice city park with a fire pit and sheltered picnic tables. We started a little fire and roasted up some weenies - it was probably 11pm by this stage, so we just quickly set up camp and packed it in. In the morning Laura started to pack back up and I hear her go "huh, they even have running water!!". A minute later - "oh, there's an electrical outlet too!" The kicker though was "wow! There's a bathroom....and SHOWERS!!". Turns out that our first hobo camp wasn't in a city park, but was actually in a legit campground and we just didn't know it - Dickie, talk about the ultimate Hobo Locate!
At the cottage we've been out canoeing, and swimming ( i swam across the river, which was more of an effort than I remember in the past!) and have spent hours picking blueberries and eating ice cream. We had a nice bon fire on my beach last night, and saw shooting stars and a big full moon.
Also, simon, I saw the aquatic driving range! My cousin lives right out near there.
We head off back to Quebec, hitting up the Gaspe peninsula tonight, then tomorrow we're off to Bonaventure Island where there are lots of gannets. Hopefully I'll be able to provide atleast 1 or 2 more updates. I'm hoping to add lots of pictures to this post, but have never done it before so may have some trouble!
