Montreal

I just flew into Montreal, and boy are my arms cold! I actually landed last night, when it was a balmy 3 degrees Fahrenheit (which converts to minus JESUS IS IT COLD celsius) and after locating my rental car I drove to the hotel our business hosts had procured for us.

I was in Montreal to train the Montreal fire department in the use of our saws. More accurately, I was there to train the trainers, the eight guys who will eventually teach the 2,200 firefighters. Even more accurately, I was there to stand next to the guys who actually do the training, and look all official and vice-presidential and representative-of-the-companyish. So it's a lot of standing around in the cold or sitting in a conference room.

In fact, it's a pretty big deal. Montreal is the first big "get" of my Cutters Edge career so I'm very excited. We'll have one of our saws on each of their trucks, and it's very important that the guys who use the saws know what they're doing. Hence the trek to the frozen tundra.

Once I had parked my Le PT Cruiser, I made my way into the hotel, which is actually a B&B, A l'Addresse du Centreville. It's a very nice, clean spot that I would certainly recommend to any visitors to Montreal. Nice bedrooms, shared breakfast, close to Rue St. Denis and downtown Montreal. We ventured out in the bitter cold and found our way to Les 3 Brasseurs, a brewpub where I dined on a sumptuous choucroute:



A perfect way to celebrate the Year Of The Pig, I thought.

The details of the day would bore you, so suffice it to say it wasn't as cold as it had been, the pompiers were very enthusiastic, and tomorrow we'll be cutting holes in the roof of an abandoned house. Tonight we dodged bundled up Habs fans on their way to the Bell Center to eat at what is, apparently, a Montreal institution, Bar-B-Barn. The menu options run the gamut from chicken to ribs. I had the combo.