Real estate adventures, visits, Georgie

Oops I let almost a month go by again. So many things have happened in that time. It is busy and interesting in our lives. Thank god for vodka. First off, we sold our triplex! It's been on the market since late November and we had it fall out of escrow twice. Third time was the charm and we got our hands on the biggest check I've ever had in my hands day before yesterday. I'd show you a picture, but don't want to gloat. Let's just say it was big enough to want to take a picture of.

Here she is. She was very good to us and we took good care of her over the years. Replaced the roof, balconies, facade, doors and renovated the bottom floor completely. She gave us back our down payment tenfold. Yay!

Two weekends ago our good friends came up for a visit. They came a weekend too soon as all the summery and touristy things started this last weekend. The pink balls went up in the village (confused? click here) and they closed the street again for the summer. Such fun to have outdoor patios at all the restaurants and bars. Despite the crummy weather we managed to have a great time together going to the top of Mont Royal, visiting the planetarium, eating poutine in the old city and drinking and playing Uno Blast.

My fave pic of the weekend.

And this was Serge's favorite. Thanks for a great time David and Bryan.

Since we knew we were selling our building for the purpose of investing elsewhere, Serge started sleuthing about the internet to find markets with good numbers for rental properties. He ended up finding a property in Florida that got my mind racing. When we moved here back in 2000, Montreal was just starting to recover from a housing slump that lasted through the '90s. I remember being shocked that one could buy a brand new condo for $59K. Well, over the last 13 years, that has changed dramatically. You have to pay triple that now for a new condo. But Florida is just now starting to recover from the crash. So we decided to fly down and shop for real estate. Flights were half the price from Burlington, Vermont so we drove down last Friday and stayed at the Best Western.

It was packed because it was graduation weekend at the University of Vermont. Serge got the prime rib and I went for nachos. I really regretted chowing down on those jalapenos the next day. Ouch!

Then Saturday was kind of a lost day. Our flight wasn't until 1pm so we went to Famous Footwear (I think that's what it's called) and got shoes! I got a new pair of Birkenstocks, my last pair lasted me 13 summers. They are pricey but when they last that long, they really aren't that expensive. We flew down, changed planes in Newark, rented a car and drove to the hotel in downtown Tampa. I got the hotel for $45 a night on Priceline. Dang, that is a good price. Okay so it was Howard Johnson's but the location was perfect.

The next day we started driving around with our list of properties to do drive bys. After about a dozen or so properties, we realized that the GPS was not being charged by the cigarette lighter in the car. Shit! What are we gonna do now? We decided to turn it off, go back to the hotel and then use Google to get to the real estate investment guy's office. He took us around to see properties in his car and we charged our GPS at the same time. By the end of that day, we decided to meet the next day at 2pm so we could purchase two properties.

A property with two duplexes on it.

And this house. We could buy them both for cash and net over two grand a month from the rents. But then the next morning we drove out to Clearwater to look at the first property that Serge found that got us interested in Florida real estate. And we kinda fell in love with it.

It's an 8plex. Numbers here. So we ran over to a different investment broker and made an offer. Problem is, someone else offered too on the same day. We accepted the counter but the seller will decide at 5pm Friday. The other offer is all cash and ours includes some financing. Whatever will be will be. We will go to plan B which is to buy the other two properties instead if we don't get this one.

In the evenings we walked around downtown Tampa and enjoyed the sights.

It reminded us of Long Beach California, only more humid. We walked the river walk which was delightfully uncrowded.

See? Long Beach esque. Great shot of my honey except for the cigarette in his hand.

Sadly, the last day we were there, we got a call from Julie, Serge's cousin who was watching the dog. Seems Georgie hurt himself and herniated a disc in his neck. Poor little guy can't run or jump or play for a month. No more choke chain for the rest of his life, harness only.

He's acting like nothing's wrong, but after talking with Rox yesterday (not linking unless you want me too Rox) and how she had to put two of her dogs down after their herniated discs ruptured, I am being extra careful not to let Georgie get excited. It is an enormous challenge. He doesn't understand why we've stopped our walking routine, poor thing. Oh well, it's for his own good. I'll try to pop in more often, but it will probably be after the upcoming cruise we are going on June 17th. Don't roll your eyes, it will have been over two months since the last cruise. Grin.

For you, Rox

Okay, so I admit it, I actually enjoyed posting all the trip posts. And I can't believe I didn't blog the road trip I took in February. Well, I can actually as it kinda ended on a sour note, and now so much time has passed, it doesn't seem worth it. Sean blogged a bit of my visit with him and Jeffrey and the pups. That night was big fun.

This weekend has been so nice weather-wise. Serge and I walked 9 kilometers yesterday. Serge likes to go onto Google maps and see how far we walk. As you may know, I love me an hours long walk. It's so great in a city like Montreal where at this first sign of beautiful weather, simply everyone is outside, on the balcony, in the yard or out and about. You would too if you were shut in for the last seven months.

It was so nice, we spent half the afternoon sipping wheat beer on our patio with our shirts off. Yes we got sunburned, but it is a small price to pay for WARMTH from the glorious sun, our friend.

Yesterday wasn't quite as warm as today is but still the sunshine beckoned. We walked over to the Montreal Pool Room to get our fix of the best dogs in town. Incidentally, they also have the best poutine in town but after the weight gain from the cruise, I gotta hunker down on that. We each had one hot dog and split an order of fries. Perfect!

There are two of these restaurants and we are so lucky to have one just a couple blocks away.

Spring is late this year. Nothing has popped yet. No green. The magnolias will pop this week though and the tulips next. Then we will have a couple weeks of that intense florescent green that makes me go wild. Probably gonna get that annual spring horniness too. Hey Serge, come over here for a sec will ya? ; )

The terraces were open too! Serge proclaimed at the start of our walk that they would not be. Ha! We got a prime people watching spot on St. Denis street and enjoyed insanely overpriced pints. We were out the door for $25. Money well spent.

I wish every day could be like this. Well maybe it can one day. We are in the middle of selling one of our buildings for a decent gain and are planning to purchase rental property in the states. The returns in some places are at 15%. I keep fantasizing about liquidating our assets and buying those kinds of deals. Then we could run away to Mexico and lie on a beach and while away the days in paradise.

On our way back home, we passed through the famous Park Lafontaine and were surprised to see that the lakes had been drained. It was weird looking. I wonder if they do this every year and we have never gone to the park at this time of year before.

I had been hankering for Japanese food, so we went to our fave Montreal Japanese joint, Kazu, where we arrived twenty minutes before they opened to a huge line. We were one of the last tables in for the first seating. They don't take reservations so the people behind us waited over an hour to get in. It is so worth it though. We had okonomiyaki, gyoza, carpaccio, tuna and salmon tartare bowl and pork neck paté.

The Japanese know how to do sauce man. So interesting and bursting with flavor. Makes ketchup and mayonnaise seem boring.

That is one happy camper. We had sake too. Yum. I bought a T-shirt on the way out. Their t-shirt had a Japanese flag on it. I looked for a t-shirt with the Japanese flag on it the whole time I was in Japan and never found one. Problem solved now.

After dinner, we walked from Guy-Concordia metro to Papineau metro. Serge says 3 kilometers. The setting sun made some nice picture taking ops.

This is our place des arts, and also place des festivals. All the big public events take place here over the summer. After this we stopped at Sky in the village for a drink and then took the metro home. A nice relaxing weekend. Looking forward to the next. They are calling for these wonderful temperatures (around 70F) all week so that should really jump start the foliage. Until then my friends. Mwah!

Asia trip part 8 - Tokyo

The next morning we were happy to see that the rain had stopped. We hustled over to the train station and waited for the bullet train to arrive. We were really excited because we have never been on a fast train before. 

 In two hours and twenty minutes we arrived in Toyko and the largest train station in the world. I believe it. It took us a good twenty minutes to get to the subway station we needed to get close to our hotel. We ran into the same cruise couple and learned they were going to the same hotel. So we all figured it out together. It was a little tricky since the street names sometimes have no English. 

Then we hit the streets to explore our neighborhood - Shinjuku. 

 

We explored the supposedly gay area but there wasn't much going on for a late Wednesday afternoon. Found a cute wine bar and noshed on some cheese and sipped some bubbly. We explored around town some more and then went on a hunt for dinner. We found this great hole in the wall place where chefs were grilling various meats behind a counter. And people were smoking! So Serge got to indulge himself.

  

All over downtown Tokyo and Kyoto for that matter, there were no smoking signs. The rule was you could smoke on private property, but not public. So no smoking on the sidewalk for example. But duck into an alcove and you are fine. 

 The reason we settled on this place besides it looking good is because there was a small sign announcing English menu available. It was English, but we certainly didn't order the wing with hard packed dirt floor. What the heck?

We kept getting so lucky with the prices too. I thought Tokyo was super expensive. Apparently it was a couple years ago, but the currency has shifted so I didn't find it any more expensive than our own city back home. 

Then we walked around our neighborhood some more. There was an area, a couple blocks where people kept coming up to us and asking if we wanted sex. Some were very insistent. We noted the area and stayed clear of it after that. 

This photo caused some speculation on Facebook. I have zoomed all the way in there and it's black. No I wasn't wearing undies but you can't see anything either. As you might notice, we turned in early that night. We were tired from all the traveling. We had some kind of Japanese sweet thing for dessert.

The next day we headed out on the subway. We noticed all the business men had the same clothes. Basically a black suit and shoes with a white shirt. Later when I asked the natives about it, I learned that it is an insult if you show up to do business with someone unless you are wearing a black suit. Makes shopping pretty easy I suppose.

They had smoking cages outside. You can also see the costume I was talking about.

Next stop Tokyo Tv tower. We stood in line, shopped in the souvenir shop and went to the top. 

Where we had an amazing 360-degree view of what seemed to be an interminable city. Urbanity as far as the eye could see. We were all excited about getting to see Mt Fuji in the background.

We walked for hours. Stopped at a cute cafe and had a coffee and tried to make our way to the palace. Turns out you can only visit the palace twice a year. 

There you can see just a little bit of the palace in the background. As you can see it was a fantastically beautiful day. It was odd though, even though Tokyo is North of Kyoto and Nagasaki, their cherry blossoms were already bloomed and fallen to the ground. Maybe because of the heat island effect of a big city, nay, the biggest city in the world. 

We walked some more and decided to go check out a whole other part of town. Which I can't remember the name of nor can I identify from a list, lol. Good thing I'm blogging this or the memory would fade to nothing. 

this part of town had lots of modern structures. This was a convention center type place. Cool architecture. We went in and had gyoza for lunch with a beer. Yum. Since coming home, we have gone to Chinatown and loaded up on gyoza. I know how to make them but it takes a long time. So much easier to cook from frozen.

I just like this picture. One thing that was very inconvenient in Japan for me was the taboo on blowing your nose in public. The day I got off the boat, I came down with a terrible cold. After getting numerous rude looks as I blew my nose, I checked the guidebook to find that it was unconscionable to do that. The rules dictate, nothing coming out, only in. So you are just supposed to sniff that nasal batter up and swallow. Ugh.

We found a kind of amusement area but didn't hang out to do anything. I did look for pinball but they didn't have that.

Toyota had a showroom there with future models. The one seater looked pretty neat. No doors though, so obviously not for rainy weather.

Then there was an upscale mall place with a very Vegas like interior. Reminded me of the Venetian as the "sky" changed color and morphed.

I made him pose for that. Will I ever grow up? That was another mall that we didn't go into. What we did do but didn't get any good pics of was go to the science museum. There were TOO MANY KIDS, as there usually are at such venues. The most interesting thing for me was the space station replica and the toilet contraption. A guide was explaining it in Japanese so I couldn't understand, but there were suction cups and clamps which would be necessary in zero gravity. What a long day! We started the journey back to our hotel so we could get ready to go out to dinner with my former students.

They took us to a great Japanese restaurant and then for a nightcap at a hotel rooftop. Their English was awesome (I'm such a good teacher, ha!) My favorite moment was when I asked the kids (now 18 and 20) what they missed most about Montreal, and without a moment's hesitation, they both said POUTINE! 

The next day was our last day in Asia. Although that brought a certain sadness, we were also feeling ready for home again. I decided I wanted to check out the Rappongi area of Tokyo where the expats are. Yes, there were more white skinned people but also more Western chains like the Hard Rock Cafe. No, thanks.

We came into this place because I thought the yellow picture was okonomiyaki, but as it turned out, it was tonkatsu - a breaded fried port filet - which was the final thing on my list that I wanted to eat in Japan. Ah good fortune, how sweet it is. This was the hardest time we had ordering because the waiter didn't speak any English. 

We were in the area of the famous spider sculpture so we made the detour to see it. 

Then we headed to an area my students had suggested we check out, again blanking on the name, where there was a huge street market and temples. It was crowded! But we found what we were looking for, yukatas (thin fabric robes) to take home. 

We enjoyed a coffee and the view and felt satisfied at our successful visit to Tokyo. The Tokyo tree is in the background, the tallest structure in Japan. We didn't go up it. Maybe on a future visit. By this time we were just enchanted with all things Japanese and though we want to do South America first, we definitely will come back to Japan in the future.

We chilled for a few at the hotel and then dressed up for our final night out. We got reservations at Nobu, easily our favorite place to dine out. 

The first course was a trio. The first thing was fugu. You know the fish that if it is cut and served wrong, you die? Yeah, we ate it. We didn't die. Crossed it off the bucket list. Don't get why all the hubbub though, it was kinda chewy. But the meal was fantastic as usual and included 8 courses. It turned out to be the most expensive dinner we have ever paid for ourselves. $550. But, you only live once right? No regrets.

Then we got home and tried our new yukatas. They will be delightful to wear in the summer here. The next day went swimmingly well, no trouble getting to the airport and we slept on the plane. However, the jet lag was really bad when we got back and took us nearly a week to adjust. It was easier going than coming back. I hope you enjoyed tripping along with us. I'll try to blog a little more frequently. It's still a fun hobby and unlike facebook, I don't feel like I'm shoving my thoughts in your face. XO tout le monde.