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| Burnaby, Vancouver BC |
Hi from Canada,
I’ve been in rain for the past week, but the temperature is cool not cold, not hot. Pleasant if you are dressed well.
I have a basement Airbnb room, quiet, warm. The décor, paint and finishes were familiar, then I learned the owner is an Indian meditator family. Yellow, gold and whites. J who is the tenant rents out the 6 bedrooms to people like me. J is cute Asian gal ~40? Disheveled sunglassed smiley solicitous spacey upon first meeting her, happy upbeat but looks like she stumbled out of bed at 4 in the afternoon. J has had many careers including lead singer with a a number of small jazz bands. J is deep into the older VBC music culture. Yesterday she had a invite to MC at a memorial to a Jazzman, 30 minutes later she shows up glamourous in black evening gown and a wig. Modern, svelte and cool. J has pictures on the walls of her well attended house parties complete with live jazz bands. I wondering if the sunglasses are to cover pinpoint pupil of an addict?
J wants me to stay and unilaterally without telling me first, blocked the rooms off Airbnb for the rest of the month. Waiting for her to get up at 4PM to discuss a reduction in rent or maybe trade work to stay (1 hour a day?) lots of simple maintenance to be done here.
Plan B is head back south, maybe into the rain shadow of the Salish sea. Or Portland area...or farther south to the 72 degree weather of Redding CA.
Fellow roomers; M & Irene. M is a 76 singer & P&P (pension & a paper route). Has TV music videos of himself singing professionally in the early 1970s, very professional and good. Then went on to MC at dinner & strip clubs. Strippers never excited him, being as they are "paper and paste", he volunteered the only time he was aroused by a performer was on a amateur night a regular normal unadorned woman stripped to her natural self, he liked that. M still sings & strums guitar at church and small events. He is embarrassed about his bad and missing teeth, but is on a government waiting list to remedy that.
M’s wife Irene is a simple dumpy gal who was once beautiful. Her mind wanders and tends to bore others with astrology theories. M is tolerant, mostly. I wonder how they will get on, especially if Irene is in early dementia?
M & Irene are financially strapped, hence the paper route when they are 75 & 69 YO. They had lived in the same apartment for 40 years then after a long eviction fight, settled for $10k to move out, now they are here in a room for $1200 a month and sharing the house with travelers that pass through. They like me, they are not happy with their situation.
Another roomer-tenant is Tony who everyone seems wary of. I finally met him big black strong young guy with a scowl. I introduced myself and shook hands, and he opened up with a smile and a hello. The other residents seeing this later expressed their amazement, in the 3 years Tony has been here that is the first smile and most words they have heard him speak. His accent is Dominican. They say he works construction, but I suspect more of a underground profession.
Unitarian Church
Clarence had a card table set up in the Unitarian Church hallway during the after-service-coffee-klatch. 76 and wheelchair bound he expressed a happy demeanor, was neatly dressed with spiffy cap and manly necklace and rings. He was offering to sharpen peoples knifes for free, my chisel and screwdrivers would take more than a honing. Asking about his conditions he related he was a mine mechanic (like me) deep in the Canadian Rockies, had a nice lake house with a 3’ diameter fir tree that had fallen across a ravine. Cutting it into sections, the trunk shifted and fell breaking his back. “It is what it is, I’m happy to be alive and functioning.”
I’m going to call him today about a Shark Tank episode I saw today about Knife Aid (mail-order knife sharpening $10 a blade)…. Well…. I called Clarence, he has no PC nor smartphone, not interested in my story, he was written up in the newspaper as a interest story and the police called him to enquire about his Biz, then the landlord in his subsidized housing reminded him he couldn’t have a Biz in his apartment. So he doesn’t charge people, does it for free, "it was never about the money". He invited me over to see his themed subsidized housing décor, complete with a camouflaged out door machine shop on his patio porch.
Swimming
Big 50 meter pools here in VBC, and many swimmers, mostly Chinese.
Differences; unisex locker rooms- similar to Amsterdam, wanting clarity I asked a attendant about the etiquette of coed sharing the locker room, they said there are privacy changing booths but sometimes people strip in front of everyone…unusual but there is not a rule against it. I'll need to try that. ;)
Showers, one is labeled “cold shower” with warm side spray. Strange, high entry walls below the dive blocks, kids can scamper up, but I need to swim to ladder. Signs in shower say "no spitting or other personal hygiene allowed in shower." Apparently Chinese like to spit, a lot.
Chinese. Burnaby was a sprawling suburb now has a high rise city center like I imagine Hong Kong, mostly Chinese signs, all pedestrians Chinese. Not racist, but what happens when you are suddenly surrounded in your home town by people who don’t look like you speaking a language you don’t understand. Just so many of them. .. I had a preview of this in Croatia, when Chinese cruise ships loaded in Dubrovnik and I was suddenly transported from a Dalmatian mindset to the land of China.
And coincidentally the housing market became unaffordable for the average Canadian, many like M & Irene.
Burnaby’s 20 year old houses are being raised for incoming high rises. Mostly Chinese I am told.
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