The saga continues

You'd think that I was asking for much more, but all I really want is high speed internet access at home!! It's a LONG story and much too boring to tell, but the result is that high speed internet access from the comfort of my home still alludes me. :( I really don't get it, but such is life and I'll keep working on it.

In the meantime, one too many trips to a packed Starbucks with nowhere to sit with my laptop to check my email has finally led me back to the slow world of dial up... yes, dial up... until such a time when the high speed victory has been won!

I was quite surprised and pleased to discover that my laptop does in fact have a modem, so here I am. Dial up is definitely much slower, but it gets the job done from the comfort of my home and Starbucks is still just down the street when I need it and if it's not packed out.

Due to my high speed dilemma, I'm not sure when I'll be able to update my online photo albums (sorry Charity), but I'll see what I can do. Perhaps that will be the purpose of my next couple of trips to Starbucks?

Anyways, in the meantime... what have I explored lately? We live in NDG (Notre-Dame-de-Grace), but very close to the border of Westmount, which is a very nice area with lots of huge, beautiful houses (kind of like the Montreal version of Uplands, for you Victoria folk). So, I've gone for a couple of walks through Westmount to check out the houses and see what I can discover. I have seen a lot of amazing houses, which I would love to see inside, and a really cool park that I am going to visit frequently in the summer.

Here's the view of the city from the park...



And here's one of the houses that Ang and I saw one day. Ang loved it and it really is quite cool. I think it looks like a house straight out of a fairy tale or something. Can't you just imagine Little Red Riding Hood living in this house? :) Anyways, it is hardly one of the most amazing houses I have seen so far, but it is one of the cutest.



Then one day last week, Ang and I went for a walk around Mont Royal Park, which was amazing! The park has a huge man-made ice skating pond, which I am definitely going skating on next winter, and the view of the city from the top is incredible. To capture the entire expanse of the view, I had to take five pictures!

Here's a picture I took in the park, with the pond in the background.



And here's one of the pictures that I took of the view. It's part of downtown and the river is in the background.



After gazing at the view for a while, we went to see the cross that is on the top of Mont Royal. The original cross was wooden and was placed on Mont Royal in 1643 by Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, the founder of the city. The current cross was erected in 1924. It is a 102 feet high and 30 feet wide metal cross that is lit up at night by blue, red, and purple fiber optics light.

Here's a great picture that Ang took of the cross!



I've heard various accounts of the symbolism of the cross. Some say that it is a historic and religious symbol that commemorates the founding of the city. Some say that the lights resemble prayer beads. According to the Archdiocese of Montreal, purple is the colour of mourning in liturgy. And I've also heard that the cross was erected as a symbol that Montreal was a pagan city in need of God. I'm not really sure what the true symbolism is, but perhaps all of it is true.