So I walked to the gym yesterday, and I went shortly after the end of the hockey game between Canada and the States. This is what was happening at 19h10 at University and Sherbrooke in Montréal. People running, screaming, cars honking.
Turn down the volume when you click on the link, though.
So for a couple years now, whenever I went to the gym, I wore this old pair of sweaty pants that had a small hole on the right side. It was along the outside of the leg, so you couldn’t see anything, but it was immediately below the pocket, and slowly getting bigger.
Since I haven’t been feeling well lately, I’ve been stuck inside, and so I finally got around to fixing it.
I couldn’t find the end of the black thread, so I used the red thread instead. I figure, they’re hulking-out pants, not fashion pants. And I did a terrible job with the stitching, so it won’t last. But that’s okay, because it’s red stitching, so it was bad to begin with.
But on the upside, when I’m feeling better, there won’t be a giant hole in my pants when I go to work out. :)
Pickles was looking through some of the books that we don’t plan to keep, either because we have multiple copies, or because we don’t like the book enough to keep it around forever, and she found this. It’s a post-card sized advertisement for the beef that McDonald’s uses in its hamburgers. She was using it as a bookmark at some point in the past.
This is just weird.
If you can give me a good translation of the Chinese phrase at the bottom of the advertisement, you will be awarded 4 points.
It’s usually not this dark here. I walk through here pretty much every day on my way to the gym. What I like about this is the shapes of the concrete against the overcast sky.
I went to the gym by Métro on Monday, and on my way there, I came across this statue. It’s supposed to be a crowd of people. I didn’t read the plaque that explained what it meant. I prefer the sense of mystery.
What is the man pointing at? Why is there a little gremlin person, crouching at his butt? Why is everyone standing so close together? Why are they all white people?
Another interesting thing: This statue was pristine. There wasn’t a bit of graffiti anywhere near it. Maybe this is because it’s right in the middle of downtown Montréal, and people would notice. But still, I see lots of buildings around there that have been vandalised.
Anyway, I like the contrast that the white crowd of people gives to the dark glass buildings behind them. And how creepy those gremlin-people are.
The McGill athletic centre is a maze. I went there on Friday for the first time, and again on Monday, to go for a swim and to use the weight room. To get to the pool, you go through the main entrance off Pins Ouest, and then turn right. You go down the hall until you see a sign on the right with a diagram of a man on a diving board, which says “vestiaire masculin” (men’s change room) and “follow me.” You open the door, then go down a set of stairs, open another door, and follow a winding path of doorways and corridors with low-set pipes running above your head. If I was much taller, I would run into them, I think.
After my swim, I checked out the weight room. It was very busy, but there were a lot of cardio machines there. I got lost on the way out and had to ask someone coming out of the football team office how to find the men’s change room that adjoins the pool. They pointed me in the direction of a completely different set of twisty hallways that went by a rather large set of loudly humming electrical panels and did eventually lead to the change room where I had left my things.
Oh, and by the way, they’re strangely insistent that you bring your towel to the fitness centre. When I paid for access to the school gym on Thursday, the gentleman who was helping me made mention of it at least 4 times while selling me the gym membership. Not only that, but there is a big sign, saying that you need a towel for entry, just outside the fitness centre doors. Maybe it’s a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy reference or something.