Day Three: Lot’s of Hurkle-Durkling Happening

It is Saturday. It is vacation. It is my birthday. I’m staying in bed.

The Scottish have a word for it. Hurkle-Durkle - to lie in bed when one should be out and about. I’m not one for hurkle-durkling usually, but today was an exception. Piled up in a massive bed with tons of pillows and a good book hurkle-durkling like a pro.

I didn’t have anything planned until noon, so I read.

Whoops. Not going to have anything to read on the plane tomorrow at this rate.

I got moving and got ready around 10. I need to eat something before noon so I don’t accidentally faint or something similarly embarrassing due to low blood sugar, so I headed out in the vague direction of my appointment so that I could get an idea of where it was.

I walked along and found Montreal’s Chinatown along the way.

A gate, lions, AND an epic mural.

I found the studio but it’s in a part of town that’s essentially full of pubs (since it’s close to a university) and since the poutine didn’t quite settle well last night, I decided to opt for something safer and headed back to the boulangerie at the mall a little ways back. I got a pain au chocolate (croissant with chocolate in the center - love) and sat for a little while until I was closer to my appointment time.

I left the mall about 20 min. before my appointment and promptly rolled my ankle on one of the many holes in the sidewalks here. Not…ideal. I hobbled along, putting a little weight on it as I made my way the five blocks to the studio. By the time I got there it was feeling slightly better, but still not great. Hopefully sitting in a chair for a bit will help. I dropped something on that same foot a few days ago so I’m not having good luck with it right now :( I still have a fair bit of walking that needs to happen so hopefully it will hang in there.

I’ve been chatting with Jess at Colibri for several weeks now and I got to see the sketches on Thursday night when I arrived. But for my birthday this year…tattoo!

This is the pic of the stencil and the design. Jess added more shading for the actual tattoo. It’s red and healing so I won’t show the actual tattoo yet, but it came out great!

Update: Healed!

It took about an hour and afterwards I made my way (slowly) back to Old Montreal for some walnut maple ice cream (which they absolutely should sell everywhere). I continued hobbling to the Montreal Archeology and History Complex down near the harbor.

The museum is built on top of extensive archeological excavations of this part of the city, which date back to the founding of New France. It’s very well done and I had a great time looking through the displays at the artifacts they’ve found as they excavated over the years.

All the museums in Montreal are SO high tech. This is just the theater.

So many fascinating items they’ve dug up. It’s like a time capsule!

At this point it became hard to ignore that I had, in fact, done something to my foot (not my ankle). I probed around and didn’t think anything was broken, but I had felt a pop this morning when I originally injured it. I had gotten reservations at a cool restaurant in Old Montreal inside a converted stable, but there was zero chance I could be on my foot for any longer than was strictly necessary. I cancelled my reservation, hobbled my way back to the hotel, propped up my foot, and started icing it down.

On the plus side I’m very close to a near infinite supply of ice?

I didn’t eat lunch since I was meant to be eating early today (so I didn’t have to be out after dark), so I DoorDashed some Chinese food and an ace bandage while flopped on my giant bed.

And it’s DoorDash with the save. Ace bandage and General Tso’s.

I think I’ve had just about enough drama for one day so I’m going to pack a bit and then re-ice my foot while watching my soapy Chinese dramas. Ah, the perfect way to end a birthday.