Perhaps the best way one can see a city is to walk about it. Well, in my case that means sitting in my chair and rolling about it. But, one hasn’t seen the real city one goes to the residential areas; the back streets. Where the real people live and work. Not where capitalists interested in taking the tourists’ money, but where people buy there groceries or go to talk to friends. This morning, my brother and I took a walk into the backstreets of Montreal. It was quite a long walk – a good 8 kilometres I suppose (more like 15. Sitting in his chair, I don’t think Matt gets a proper idea of how far he travels – Ed). We wove our way down through the old town and out into the suburbs. It reminded me of Paris. It was rather quiet and there were very few people about, which isn’t disappointing – most people would have been at work. However, it’s worth mentioning that I saw a few more cripples this morning – not that I was on some kind of cripple hunt. We headed into the Latin Quarter how come every city has a Latin Quarter; the Romans got everywhere. Romano eunt domus, eh? We also stopped to watch a bit of filming on a what appears to be a film about photo booths. We watched the crew play about with a camera boom, rising up from a photo booth – which appeared to have been placed randomly in the middle of a square – to a shot of an old building for about 10 minutes, then gave up. We have no idea what was going on. We then headed for a large park in the middle of the “real” city, looking at sunbathers. From there we headed towards the river, past the Molson brewery. Perhaps brewery should be in inverted commas there because I haven’t been able to find a proper beer anywhere, that is to say, a beer with actual taste. Give me an Old Speckled Hen over a Budweiser any day! We then met up with the parents to eat lunch at a deli. It is worth noting that I wasn’t offered a menu – I hate it when people assume I’m illiterate. Anyway, at time of writing, the family is waiting to go out for tea – I better not keep them. I’m really looking forward to this final night in Canada. Oh yeah! Please forgive my editor he’s rather hairy and stupid looking (you’re fired, Matt! – Ed).

(Editor – Matt’s bro Luke, taking dictation)