Brennan's Adventures in the World of Science: Montréal Days Five, Six & Seven

I headed to the second day of the conference nice and early for the first session of that morning. Garry, one of the ANZBMS crew, managed to find me in the crowd and we had a quick chat as just before the first talk started. Spent the entire day at different sessions – there is some FANTASTIC science happening in the bone field at the moment and there were some very interesting talks.... and some were not. Though normally in that case it was not the science that wasn’t interesting – it was more the style of the presenter. I was very surprised at the amount of presenters who were READING their presentations... I can’t imagine getting away with that at Usyd!!

As a result of not going to the first day I apparently missed the ASBMRs Young Investigators event which has occurred the previous evening. However, Garry was going for dinner/drinks with a few other that evening so he invited me along. So after a long hard day of conference (ha!) I met up with Garry and a few of his new YI friends – Jenna and Hayley the Brits, Steve and Max the French Canadians, as well as Katie and Annie from the US. Garry, Katie and Annie actually all had evening workshops to attend so I headed off for dinner with J, H, S & M in Old Montréal. We ended up having dinner in this pub which had a fantastic view of the Old Port from the window. I also tried my first Canadian beer – instead of larger, ales etc. they are divided by colours red, blue and blonde. I think we had a Red which was pretty good. Once dinner was over we headed over to the Old Port and sat on a bench by the water having a chat and a few sips of Arizona ‘Ice Tea’.... aka Jameson’s mixed with Ice Tea.... a lil on the strong side but not too bad. We then headed back to the conference centre to pick up our workshoppees before heading out into the town. We ended up at this random bar in a pedestrian plaza that had $8 doubles and $3 shots... after a few double rums & coke, tequila shots and liquid cocaine’s (Jagger & the vodka with the gold flakes) I had a good buzz. K, G and I got into a large political/religious discussion which was full of drunken philosophical banter. We then decided to move somewhere... which then meant we wondered around Montreal for like an hour and ended up at some random bar that wanted to charge us $6, despite the fact they were only open for another hour!! We then decided to call it a night!

Katie, Garry and Me

Jessie and Katie at in the coat check area of some random bar

I had set my alarm early for the next morning in the hopes of catching the 10AM sessions which had a few good CaSR related talks... however I confused the snooze and disabled button... turning off my alarm and not really waking up to 11AM... meaning I missed everything!! I was VERY annoyed with myself! The rest of the day was... well.... conferencey...

Made plans with the YIs to meet up for dinner – we were heading for some Mexican. Met a few more US girls from Katie and Annie’s lab – Leecola and Clara. From memory the place was call Cassa Peppe’s (but that could be totally wrong) and it had a giant sign proclaiming the be the best Mexican place in Montréal... which lead to a discussion on the number of Mexican places there would actually be in Montréal... However best or not the restaurant was PACKED and we ended making reservations for the next hour. We then headed to a nearby Irish pub and met up with Dave, who is originally from Montréal, to wait out our time – Jenna and Katie managed to down a whole bottle of wine between the two of them within the hour... it was a pretty impressive sight!

We then headed back to Mexican where we grabbed a few Daiquiri’s & Margarita’s to go with our meals (they were massive & delicious!!). The food was very very good (of Flying Fajita standards at least) so maybe they weren’t lying... J After dinner we headed to a bar near McGill where Dave used to work where we had a few drinks & met up with Kara (another Yank). Steve showed off his origami skills and taught Jenna how to make a water balloon.... which they was used as a volleyball... and eventually everyone ended up throwing the free mints (“we” (aka Jenna) stole from the Mexican place) at each other!

A few people were in a dancing mood so we then headed to a club called Café Campus (it was actually just across the plaza from the first bar we were at the night before). We originally thought Dave said they played ‘fresh’ music... but he actually meant ‘FRENCH’... The music was not so great and I was sorta wrecked I headed back early with Jenna and Hayley, so we could catch the Metro back.

Clara takes on 2 Daiquiri’s

Max, Steve and Dave

Steve, Dave and Kara throwing things at Max

The next day I had to present my poster which was actually kinda boring. I probably had 4 – 5 people talk to me... which isn’t too bad – however, as I had to stand there for like 2 hours it wasn’t the most thrilling time I’ve ever had, that’s for sure!! I also managed to get a glimpse of Ed Brown (academic hero) however he was a lil busy when I saw him, so I didn’t introduce myself! (D’oh!)

AC had made mention of going out for dinner this night – however neither Ryan or I ever saw him to actually organise it so I instead went for dinner with a few of the YIs instead. We ended up having another pub meal at MVPs – where we discovered that you can get FREE POPCORN in US/Canadian bars... Jenna, Hayley, Garry and myself were amazed and despite the fact that we were all stuffed from dinner “we” (aka Jenna) made Max and Nick (another Quebeccer) get some for us. After that we headed to the ASBMR social event and ran into John, another ANZBMSer. It was held in a theatre type place – with a stage, massive dancefloor and lots of little tables/booths. They had a band going all night long; playing lots of familiar/old rock and roll hits; as well as a trapeze artist.

The Band

Trapeze skills

Ribboning

We spent most of the evening upstairs on the balcony (prime observing position) but after a few drinks the upstairs became our only private dance floor as we cut some sick moves on the dance floor... I even did a bit more gypsy dancing!! Though really the number one entertainment of the night was watching all these incredible intelligent people ‘shake their booty’ on the dance floor!! We did become slightly obsessed with this one guy who we nick names “Blue Shirt” mainly because... well... he was wearing a blue shirt. But he was awesome and danced all night long!!

Observing from the balcony

Leecola, Garry, John and Hayley

The Yankies – Leecola, Clara, Katie and Annie

After a few more drinks we headed down stairs to join the throng! Jenna and I headed over a danced in Blue Shirt guy’s circle for a lil bit, Garry need a bit of knee-sliding, while Steve pulled out some lovely air guitar solos.

Max, Katie and Steve

Steve, Me, Garry, Hayley and John

At one stage ‘Hey Jude’ came on – our group of YIers linked arms and I got John to take a photo of me in front of a line of people... before we knew it John and I were in the middle of a massive circle. John continuing to take photos to make it look like he was there for a reason, me running around and conducting (CONDUCTING) the crowd... it’s probably a good thing I’m heading for clinical medicine as I doubt anyone will be giving me a postdoc in the bone field after that!!

Me in front of the ‘crowd’

Part of the circle

John and I in the middle (looking very sober!)

Unfortunately it all ended way too soon as the social even wrapped up at about 11:30! We took a massive group photo for all the YIers, and then Jenna and I went and introduced ourselves to Blue Shirt guy and got a photo (yes we are dags). After that we headed off with a massive group of ASBMRs in search for a bar to continue the festivities.

ASBMR YIers: B: Carl, Garry, Jenna, Steve, Leecola, Clara, Katie, Max & John

F: Annie, Nick, Hayley and Me

We ended up at some ‘hip’ bar called the radio lounge which had poles which made Jenna very excited as she showed off her pole dancing skills!! The place was pretty skanky but the drinks were relatively cheap we managed to drag Blue Shirt Guy (who’s actually called Andre and is from Switzerland) and a few of his friends, Billy (originally from Glasgow) and Fabio (originally from Brazil), who are all currently in Calgary. We had some good fun dancing and talking with them and didn’t end up leaving till about 3ish in the morning. We also had to say Goodbye to all the yankies as they headed back very early the next morning. Hayley managed to grab some ‘free’ drinks to go and she headed out. I then headed out with Billy and Fabio on the search for some late night grease. I grabbed a kebab as Billy introduced me to the Quebec speciality, Poutine, which is chips, cheese curds and gravy... it is DELICIOUS! After that I grabbed a cab back to my hotel for sleep!!