A day in Montreal

Thursday, 3^rd November

We had a comfortable journey yesterday and arrived at our hotel rested. We had dinner at the hotel, hotel restaurants are not as bad as their reputation.

This morning we had our appointment, the guy who served us had met Ben before, and we had already discussed our design, so it was quite straight forward. They guy remembered Robert and had heard about the memorial service. Ben excused himself, he needed some time. Of course it is the anniversary of his death today, I explained it. We were finished, so I met Ben in the lobby, he had composed himself. We went for a coffee ( very nice!) and then Ben wanted to light a candle for Robert. He just picked the first church we came to, he said Robert was not religious at all.

We went to the “gay quarter”, had some lunch there and a snoop around some shops. Nothing took our fancy, we did find a copy of one of Ben's films in a book shop! It was in the second hand section. Ben had an urge to look through the box, his psychic ability had kicked in again. I did not realise his movies were so popular that people made pirate copies! It was the only one he found. It had a nice professional sleeve, with a photo which clearly identified him. Ben demanded to see the manager, the shop assistant was not very helpful getting him, as Ben would not tell him why. Ben told him to call him or he would notify the police that they are selling pirate movies. Finally the manager showed up, he could not remember where he got it from, it was probably a box lot. He promised to remove it and any further copies he found. He was quite perplexed to have the “star” actually standing in front of him. Ben apologised to me, does it embarrass me to be with a porn star?

I said as long as he does not make a habit of outing himself, I am ok. He answered, well he was working on it to erase that part of his life, but it happened and he will not deny it.

We went back to the hotel and I used the gym. Ben used the time to write his diary. Tonight we are going to a restaurant. I am glad we are spending some time in South River with Barbara and Erik and will be able to have home cooking.