Montreal – Parc du Mont-Royal

Montreal got its name from the hill that rises behind the spires of downtown office towers, affectionately known to Montrealers as "The Mountain" or "Mont-Real". The hill was made into a public park according to plans by Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of New York's Central Park, with a broad pedestrian only road and smaller footpaths for strollers, joggers, cyclists, and in-line skaters.

There are several routes to reach the top of the hill – the quickest and most strenuous approach, which I took, was taking the steep sets of stairs that go directly to the Chalet du Mont-Royal and its lookout. The chalet was constructed from 1931 to 1932 and has been used over the years for receptions, concerts, and various other events. At the front terrace, the beautiful panaroma of the city beneath made the climb all worthwhile.

The steep set of stairs

Skyline of downtown Montreal

About 10 minutes walk from the chalet is the Croix du Mont-Royal. Legend has it that a wooden cross was erected here in 1643 after the young colony survived a flood threat. The present steel cross, installed in 1924, is lit at night and visible from all over the city.

Montreal – Stade Olympique & surroundings

The Stade Olympique (Olympic Stadium) was built for the Montreal Olympics in 1976. It now houses five indoor swimming pools which are open to the public. The stadium has a 175m inclined tower at a 45-degree angle, and a funicular ferries visitors to the observation deck where expansive views of the city and the neighboring Laurentian mountains can be seen.

Biodôme de Montréal (foreground) and Stade Olympique tower (background)

Views of the city from the observation deck

Next to the Stade Olympique is Biodôme de Montréal. Originally a velodrome for cycling track for the 1976 Olympics, it is now a tourist attraction with its unique replication of four ecosystems – a tropical rainforest, a Laurentian forest, the St. Lawrence marine system, and a polar environment. I got excited at the polar environment section coz I saw these:

Birds and golden lion tamarin monkey in the tropical rainforest ecosystem

St. Lawrence marine ecosystem

Across the road from the Stade Olympique is Jardin Botanique (Botanical Garden), spread over 75 hectares. Due to time constraints, I didn't really explore the area which has ten large conservatory greenhouses, Chinese and Japanese gardens, an Insectarium and Butterfly House.

Can't get enough of the beautiful colours of fall

Montreal – Vieux Montreal (Part 2)

Marché Bonsecours (Bonsecours Market), completed in 1847 evolved from being the Parliament of United Canada, then as the City Hall, later becoming the central market, a music recital hall, and finally the home of the municipality's housing and planning offices. It is more of a retail centre now, but is also used for exhibitions and musical performances.

Marguerite Bourgeoys, a nun and teacher who was made a saint in 1982, founded the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel (Sailors' Church). It is named as such because many seamen come to worship here, while sailors saved at sea made pilgrimages to the church to give thanks. A museum within tells the story of Bourgeoys' life, and beautiful views of the port and Vieux Montreal can be seen from the top of its tower.

Snapshots of the interior

Views from atop the tower

Vieille Douane (Old Customs House) was erected from 1836 to 1838. One side of the building faces Place Royale, the first public square in the 17th-century settlement of Ville-Marie (Montréal). It's where Europeans and Amerindians used to come to trade.

Opposite Vieille Douane is Pointe-à-Callière, the original site where Ville-Marie (Montreal) was founded in 1642. It now houses the impressive Museum of Archaeology and History, where ruins of the ancient city can be seen. The museum is connected to Vieille Douane via an underground connection.

My last stop was Vieux-Port (Old Port), Montréal's historic commercial wharves which have been reborn as a waterfront park frequented by cyclists, in-line skaters, joggers, strollers, and picnickers.

Montreal – Vieux Montreal (Part 1)

After a look around the heart of the 21st-century city, a walk around Vieux-Montreal (Old Montreal) highlights the ample contrast between these two areas.

I started my walk at Basilique Notre-Dame, an exquisite church designed in 1824.

The impressive interior of Basilique Notre-Dame

Beautiful stained glass windows

Behind the altar is the Chapelle Sacré-Coeur (Chapel of the Sacred Heart), a charming chapel that's extremely popular for weddings. Montreal's most famous import, Celine Dion, also took her wedding vows here.

The photo doesn't do justice to the beautiful chapel

Next to Basilique Notre-Dame is the Vieux Séminaire de St-Sulpice, the city's oldest building, surrounded by stone walls. Banque de Montréal, Montréal's oldest bank building dating back from 1847, stands at the opposite side of the road. Nearby is Montréal's first skyscraper back in 1888, the Edifice New York Life, a red-stone Romanesque building with a clock tower. Next to it is the Edifice Aldred building, modeled after the Empire State Building in New York.

L to R: Vieux Séminaire de St-Sulpice, Edifice New York Life building, Edifice Aldred building, Banque de Montréal

Four blocks away is the Vieux Palais de Justice (Old Court House), and a little bit further down is Place Vauquelin, a small public square, with a splashing fountain and a statue of Jean Vauquelin, commander of the French fleet in New France.

Statue of Jean Vauquelin at Place Vanquelin

Home of the city's French governors for 4 decades, Chateau Ramezay was built by Claude de Ramezay between 1705 and 1706, the governor at that time. It was later taken over and used for the same purpose by the British, before being used as a courthouse, a government office building, and headquarters for Laval University, before being converted into a museum in 1895.

Montreal - Downtown

It's been almost three months since my trip to Montreal so I better quickly post up details of the trip before I forget them.

I didn't know until I started researching about Montreal that it is the largest French-speaking city outside Paris. It also has a distinct European flavour, very unlike cities in North America, and hence the moniker "Paris of the West." One of the afternoons I took a walk around the downtown area.

Basilique-Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde is a copy of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, though much smaller. It was built between 1875 and 1894 as the headquarters for Montréal's Roman Catholic bishop.

Right smack in the shopping area of Rue Ste-Catherine is the neo-Gothic Cathédrale Christ Church.

Nearby is McGill University, Canada's most prestigious university, home to over 33,000 students. It was founded following a donation from a Scottish-born fur trader, James McGill. This beautiful central campus ground has an eclectic mix of modern concrete and glass structures alongside older stone buildings.

A mixture of old...

...and new, with lots of greens (at that time of the year, yellow and orange) in between

Inside the campus ground is Musee Redpath, housed in a building dating from 1882. The museum's main draws are its collection of Egyptian mummies.

I also visited Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal (Montréal's Museum of Contemporary Art). Among the exhibits were installations, video displays, and examples of pop and abstract art, though I couldn't really appreciate nor understand them.

And this is venue of the congress I attended, Le Palais des Congres de Montreal (Montreal Convention Centre).

Conversations with Yiu Yiu – Part 2

Most times when we eat out, I'll let Yiu Yiu order the drinks (she'd normally order iced "cham" or iced milo) and I'll share with her (I know I know, she shouldn't be drinking coffee but she's so used to seeing me drink iced "cham" whenever we eat out that she acquired a taste for coffee too). One morning we were having breakfast at the neighbourhood coffeeshop and Yiu Yiu ordered a glass of iced coffee. She didn't even drink a sip so I reprimanded her:
Mummy: Why did you order if you don't want to drink?
Yiu Yiu: No, I order for you one.
Staring at me with her big round eyes for effect, she added, as if to emphasize,
Yiu Yiu: I know you like mah, so I purposely order for you one.

Yiu Yiu has consistently said that she wants to become a doctor when she grows up. During one of our conversations on doctoring, pointing to herself, she said, "I'm a very good doctor. Everyone come to see me no need to pay money one. Because everybody is old and has no money. So after see me, everybody go and take medicine, then can go home already. No need to pay money one. Then go home must eat medicine, then only can get well and no need to see me anymore." I hope she continues to have such generous spirits and a great, big heart.

Yiu Yiu still needs me/hubby to help her clean up after doing her big business.
Yiu Yiu: Mummy, I shee shee and poo poo together. So smelly ah…switch off your nose.
Mummy: How to switch off my nose?
Yiu Yiu: (Acts to hold her breath)
Mummy: Then you cannot breath lor.
Yiu Yiu: When you switch off your nose, cannot breath and cannot smell.

Conversations with Yiu Yiu – Part 1

One day while we were in my car:
Yiu Yiu: Mummy, who buy your car for you?
Mummy: I bought myself la.
Yiu Yiu: When I grow big and become a doctor, I will buy you a car. Very beautiful one, pink colour one (somehow when she said "very beautiful", I already anticipated that she'd say the car would be pink :-))
Mummy: Ohh…that's nice of you. What about papa?
Yiu Yiu: Yes, I'll buy for papa also.
Mummy: What colour?
Yiu Yiu: Blue…oh no no, red colour.
Mummy: Will you buy us a house to stay also?
Yiu Yiu: No, I will make (build) a house for you all to stay. Very clean one (Huh! Does it mean our house now is dirty??!!)

When I fetched her after her art class one day, we saw Teacher Vivian and Teacher Ken, owners of the art centre, and a couple, leaving the centre, hand-in-hand.
Mummy: Teacher Ken is Teacher Vivian's husband, you know?
Yiu Yiu: Yes, I know.
Mummy: How come you know?
Yiu Yiu: Because they hold hands.
Mummy: Huh? Hold hands must be husband and wife meh? Papa is mummy's husband but we never hold hand also.
Yiu Yiu: Yeah lor, I think they (are) afraid they will fall down la.
Mummy: Haha…

Nutmeg syrup

I read about how this mummy prepared nutmeg syrup using fresh nutmeg so when we had lunch at the Cecil Street Market Hawker Centre when we were in Penang recently, I tried my luck to scout for fresh nutmeg. We found just one stall selling them and bought all that he had, about 3kg in total.

Following the recipe given, I set out to prepare my own nutmeg syrup.

Fresh nutmegs

Halved nutmeg

The beautiful lacy "mace" aka seed

Nutmeg layered with rock sugar in the slow cooker

I had to cook them in two batches, as my slow cooker couldn't fit all the nutmegs at one go. It was super tiring having to smash the nutmegs, so much so that my right hand was still fatigued the following day, and I couldn't write or do anything that required fine motor skills. Anyway, the syrup turned out fine, and I've been having chilled nutmeg juice when the days are hot. I also tasted fresh nutmeg juice at the Cecil Street Market Hawker Centre, and I prefer this cooked variant.

Yan Yan – 5th month update

This update is 10 days late, AGAIN :-) I don't know her weight and length as she has not visited the paediatrician for her 5th month jabs, as he's been on leave for the festive season.

She was rolling about on the mattress in the living hall and got herself entangled with the blanket

The major milestone this month is her ability to push herself up on all fours, and rocking back and forth with her body parallel to the floor, skills she needs to prepare her for the more complex task of crawling. Once, I saw her lunging forward two steps, but most of the times, she pushes herself backwards.

Floor exercise

She is now able to reach out and grab an object, and more often than not, will put it into her mouth. She's also a bouncy baby, and when held with her feet balanced on the floor/thighs, she'll bounce up and down non-stop. She used to be able to entertain herself when placed on the bed/mattress by looking around and sucking on her thumb/fist but over the last month, she has wisen up. Nowadays, she'll cry out to be carried whenever she's put down, making it extremely difficult for me to eat/shower when hubby is not around. Most times, I had no choice but to let her cry it out while I grab a quick dinner or steal a quick shower.

She still loves to suck her thumb, and sometimes, even her toes get into her mouth. When we were out at the malls recently, she attracted lots of smiling glances from other shoppers with her thumb and toe sucking acts :-) We introduced the pacifier to her recently but somehow, she doesn't quite get the act of sucking on the pacifier. Maybe we should try harder.

Care for a suck?

She's a friendly baby, and doesn’t mind anyone carrying her. She'll respond to "Yan Yan" or "mei-mei" by turning her head towards the caller, and will giggle and laugh excitedly when people make funny faces at her. She's becoming more attuned to our tone of voice, too. On several occasions when I spoke sharply at her or Yiu Yiu, she'd start to cry. But whenever she's upset, somehow she'll be soothed by her sister singing "Take a seat, climb aboard," a phrase from a nursery rhyme Yiu Yiu learnt at kindy. She also likes to make baby noises.

She was born with a headful of hair, but it is starting to fall off. She now has a bald patch at the back.

She's still on full breastmilk and in a few weeks, it'll be time to introduce solids to her. Sometimes when I tease her by holding out a piece of food to her, she'll respond by inching her head forward and opening her mouth. Haha…looks like I've got a glutton in the making. I hope she’ll be an easier eater compared to her che-che.