Speaking French in Montreal

In Montreal, if you speak French, the francophones are pleased, yet if you get stuck and speak English, they are happy to speak English. And they speak English without the accent that French people have.

English is my mother tongue, but the reason I learned French is because of Montreal, and the story goes back over a hundred years to a little Scottish village where my great grandfather became "the carpenter who drowned in the moss".

This drowned carpenter left a widow with four children, two teenage daughters and two little boys. The elder daughter, Margaret Jean, set out at the age of 16 to find a new life in Canada, at Montreal with "a pound in her pocket". When she had settled, and found work, she sent for her mother and two little brothers, while her sister, stayed in Glasgow, looked after by her grandmother's cousin.

Some ten years later, friends of my Aunty Jean visited her when their ship docked in Canada, and she asked one of them to take a parcel back to her sister in Glasgow, another port. Thus, that ship's engineer met and married my grandmother.

My grandfather was a seasick sailor whose family hailed from Liverpool. At that time, his ship often went to Le Havre, a small port on the north coast of Normandy, too small to load and unload the ships very quickly, so he tended to spend more time in France than in Liverpool. So he moved his young wife and first born child to live at Le Havre for a few years before world war I, which is how our family came to know two sisters from La famille Moulin.

Half a century later, one of these sisters and her nephew's family taught me to speak French. What goes around comes around, and now I speak French in Montreal, where my grandmother's sister spoke only English.

Touring Montreal

Montreal is a nice city for walking round and lots going on. Today we paid a quick visit to the Adler art exhibition, where the theme related to business.

The conference organised a trip round three Montreal businesses, (see my Phd blog here for details) and in the evening husband and I went on a boat tour though it was too wet to see much out of the boat.

Seedy side of Montreal

Husband is discovering aspects of Montreal that perhaps the organisers of this conference hadn't intended us to discover.

For instance, he went out early Friday morning, early Canadian time, but we're still on UK body clock, to look for breakfast, when a black woman came up to him and asked him if he wanted 'company'.

Then, today, when he tried to negotiate the steps into the hotel, there were some youngsters sitting there smoking. One announced, "Hey man! We're just smoking a bit of weed." and the stubs on the step are the evidence of that activity.

So these stories tell of a more interesting side of the city.

Not salubrious

"This area is full of drugs and prostitutes!"

remonstrated our taxi driver as he dropped us off at our hotel, Abri du Voyageur

This is not an auspicious start to our stay in Montreal. we have a studio flat for a week. The flat is ok, (I have internet access on my eeePC) but it's the sort of area I wouldn't want my son or daughter to stay, but they are not with me. Daughter is alone at home - again a tad worrying and son is staying on at uni on a grant to build a fusion reactor this summer - quite exciting. Husband will explore, and cycle while I attend an academic conference.

60th Wedding Anniversary

My parents celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary. Too old to organise it, too tired, too fragile, they weren't going to do anything, and when my brother #2 asked told him so, and said,

"You want something, you organise it."

And he did. He and his lovely wife organised us getting up there, booked our hotel, contacted our cousin to borrow her holiday cottage for some of us, arranged the evening meal, ferried elderly parents and aunt to and fro. He even told the Queen and she sent a card of congratulations.

We had a celebratory mass in the morning, followed by lunch on the church lawn with the St Vincent de Paul Society people helping. (Did you know how much this charity does for old people and others that are excluded? They work quietly, behind the scenes, visiting, liaising with families, driving people to events or doctors when they can't get there themselves.)

In the evening, the family shared a meal at a local hostelry, toasted the happy couple. It's nearly my brother #1 and his wife's 30th anniversary, and they brought out the card that my parents had given them 30 years ago, where they'd written,

The first thirty years are the worst

Brother and wife brought original card, and added their annotation:

You were right
The first thirty years were terrible. Any tips for the next thirty years?

My cousin wrote and sang a song for us.

Happy anniversary
to a couple most fair
to Jean and Joe
a diamond pair!

It was great seeing my family together, my family that lives in America and came over for the occasion, my cousin and his wife, my sister and every one. We exchanged casual news over Yorkshire beers, learned where we are with our jobs at the moment, and who has a new partner and where people are living or planning to move to, or what people are studying at the moment. I miss some of them, living far away.

This was a lovely opportunity and a happy occasion. And I hope that my brother #1 and his wife have a lovely 30th (pearl) wedding anniversary next month.

Ruby wedding anniversary

Husband's university friends have been married much longer than us. Today a couple celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary by inviting loads of their long term friends for a trip on the River Isis from Oxford. The boat was covered with ruby red balloons and streamers, with around 80 friends. We ate, we drank, we talked. The weather was great, neither too hot nor too cold.

One of husband's friends from college (see reunion here) is partner to a fellow post-graduate student at the Open University, so we spent some time happily comparing notes on our progress, our supervisors, theory (Bourdieu if you're interested), and we admonished anyone who dared ask, "When are you finishing?" That sort of question is one you just do not ask a post grad student - it's as rude as asking a woman how old she is - as this grad comic illustrates.

And just to add to that insult, someone asked me if I'd used my bus pass to get there today. I'm not only too young to get a bus pass yet, but they've raised the age at which I'll be eligible for it. So insults, unintentional insults flew round the boat.

These insults were not as bad though as those in today's Times Style magazine, in which AA Gill slated The Oxford Ashmolean restaurant and Oxford people - calling its female students "lesbians in blue stocking", and the restaurant "full of very old people. A sea of thin white hair." As the director of the Ashmolean met fellow PG and FPG's partner this morning, he was railing about the review. FPG's partner has something to do with the Ashmolean museum so the encounter meant they nearly missed the boat, and then they wouldn't have been able to tell me how rude the Times was.

It was a lovely day with lots of lovely intelligent and cheerful people to talk to. Perhaps AA Gill of the Times doesn't know what intelligent conversation can be about.

I wonder which college rejected him.

Tenth wedding anniversary

Husband wins brownie points for wedding anniversary present. Ten is tin or pewter, and I once had champagne glasses with pewter stems. He's got two silver stemmed (with hearts) champagne glasses engraved for us.

Magic afternoon

We celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary with lots of family. Step-son reminded us of who has joined us in the ten years that we've been married. We've gained a son-in-law and a daughter-in-law and five more grandchildren. They're all lovely.

Tenth wedding anniversary

Ten years and still together. Hurrah!

Tin for ten.

Austrian visitors

A few years ago we had some Austrian girls stay with us for a couple of weeks. This evening one of them is coming back with two friends for the night, and in August, two others are coming back with their friends, when we'll have five girls staying for a few weeks. August will be busy.

Guitar hero mum

Here's a first for me. I've at last played my first PS2 game even though it was around 1998 that son first bought a second hand play station. He had to plug it in himself to the video and TV system and I've not had control of its programming ever since.

Recently he got a game called Guitar Hero, and daughter, back from uni, has been playing it. She decided to get a second controller and persuaded me to leave my sewing to join in. I've been playing something of Blur's and Coldplay. It's fun, heaps easier than real guitar and a new way of listening to the music because you can move with it, which I like.

Wow! Go me!

Tiny frogs

My tadpoles are growing into recognisable but tiny frogs. Look! He's still got his tail.

Queen bee

We were sitting in the garden having a quiet evening drink when we heard this bee making the most almighty noise. On the plants next to us was this pair, and the smaller bee's wings were making this huge buzzing noise. As the top bee seemed to be trying to leave but was stuck, the noise got more frantic. Then another noise added to it, as if the queen were screeching. And they pulled apart and went their separate ways.

I thought mating killed the male bee. From the noise, it sounded like murder.

And now I suppose there'll be a bees nest in the garden somewhere.

Secret gardens

Today is "Secret Gardens of Aylesbury Old Town", and this afternoon around 15 of us are opening our gardens to those who want to see what lies behind the terraced houses that have not even a front yard. So my husband is outside now, polishing the stones, and mowing the lawn, which means my hay fever is about to start. If you want to come and can, do. Get your tickets and map at the County Museum. The money goes to charities.

Father's day

Shopping

Our parents are coming up to their diamond wedding anniversary but our father thinks he won't get our mother a diamond because she can't see any more, so he emailed round us siblings for alternative ideas. My brother promptly volunteered his sisters, wife and sister-in-law to take our mother on a shopping trip.

Now that's a nice idea to have a girls' day out. I can't remember going on a shopping trip with my sister ever, nor with my sisters-in-law. I remember going shopping with my mother, particularly when I was a teenager, though not with my little sister. I like going shopping with my daughter (bookshops) and with my step-daughters too. SD#2 was my style specialist when I went out to buy my first new pair of spectacles in over ten years. And granddaughter #1 is fun to go shopping with - we went to the jewellers together to choose something for her mother.

I suspect my sisters-in-law would be fun to shop with, though my brothers might be a bit nervous. Years ago, sister-in-law #1 arrived at some evening do in a most splendid bright orange trouser suit (it was the eighties). She explained that it had been half price so a bargain, but even the half price was horrendously high. I love her choice of colours, design and outfits. I'd enjoy the experience of going clothes shopping with her.

I'll wait and see what my sisters (and SiL) say.

a Good Day

June 17th
Both my children today are having good days. Although neither has spoken to me, I've heard from them electronically. One texted that she's:

"Off to Bordeaux! :))"

which means she's got good end of second year university exam results. The other has Facebooked:

"Done"

which means he has taken his last university exam this morning and is relieved.

It's beautiful weather.

And a Good Day.

Daughter in Hong Kong

Daughter at university has made new friends, and one consequence is that between exams last month and results next week, she's nipped off to Hong Kong this week where she's meeting a friend and discovering Asian heat and humidity. She writes:

You should see the lights and the shopping malls! It truly is a city that never sleeps. There are so many lights and skyscrapers! Closing at 12 seems early! I had octopus balls that night for supper, which were a new experience. But I figured that if I was going to another country, I might as well take every opportunity on offer. But even the supermarkets are different! The fruits on offer are so different to what you would find in England; and those that are similar are massive. Like an apple the size of a large orange, larger than a tennis ball.

I'm almost jealous that I've never been. But I've had other things in my life, and more to go. It's a wonderful life.

BBC

"What! You've never been to Broadcasting House?"

teased my colleague this morning when I asked him about our meeting tomorrow.

When I'd finished berating him for behaving like a teenage lad, he grinned and we sorted the details. You can tell, I'm excited to be visiting the BBC Broadcasting House to watch them record The Bottom Line for Thursday. My colleague does a two-minute talk on something related to the topic of the week and also writes a blog for it. I'm going to see who's involved and how they do it.

This visit is related to my research work, and it's work I love doing, finding out, learning is so exciting. If you want to know about it in detail you'd have to look at my work blog here.

Asset inflation

Assets - like my house and other things I've got - inflate, but my house has inflated more than anything else, and I don't like that because it means that it's too expensive for most people to afford. This situation is fine for the middle-aged people who already have homes, but tough on the younger ones. With easier access to mortgages than we used to have, and with two incomes counting towards mortgages instead of several multiples of the husband's salary and a fraction of the wife's, people get loaned more money, so can offer more money. Consequently, small houses perhaps have inflated even more than big houses, so people who can't afford very much find it even more difficult to get on the housing ladder.

The Telegraph has a campaign against the governments proposal to increase capital gains tax on second homes, because lots of people would flood the market with their buy-to-let properties and this would damage the property market, which is just recovering, that is, prices are going up again.

Now who benefits from house prices going up? Not me, and not the house owner who if buying another house just has to find more money.

• The government benefits from more frequent stamp duty.
  
• Surveyors benefit from the extra work each time a house is checked.
  
• Estate agents take a percentage of each sale.

This churn benefits those who get a cut of the changing houses, and house price inflation means they get a bigger cut, but it doesn't benefit people who aren't buying and selling or involved in this chain of business. In fact, it works to the detriment of young people who find small houses too expensive to buy. So a cut in CGT that causes a flood of houses on the market, might also help reduce the housing market, and house (i.e asset) inflation.

I can hear the surveyors and estate agents and the The Telegraph complaining that lots of jobs would be lost. But so what? What jobs are these? They don't bring money into the country, but just move money from one place to another within the country. So they don't increase the economy, (though the extra stamp duty paid will help to reduce the government debt).

So I want this CGT increase because it seems like its consequences will be a good thing for wider society, like bring down house price inflation so our children can afford houses again.