The Neighborly Saturday

It’s a bit weird that in 10 years of living in Singapore, I never really got to know my neighbors or felt particularly neighborly towards the people I live near. Maybe it’s just a stroke of good luck, but the second we move into the new apartment, BAM! We got neighbors, and cool ones.

The morning was actually spent wandering around the St. Lawrence market. We checked out the North Market which is only open ’till noon and is primarily for farmers to sell their produce. The South Market runs all the time and is a more “retail,” touristy experience, though it has interesting things going on, like a street musician who played the Oboe, and some amazingly fine smelling coffee. We came away with a few knick knacks like baking trays, some Atlantic cod (which tasted really good for lunch) and as Yet Another Housewarming Gift from the neighbors, something called Cat Grass. I dunno what the stuff is, but Uno sniffed it then immediately started grazing. I’ve never seen this cat eat anything plant-like, now all of a sudden she’s hoovering this stuff like it’s oxygen. Zero, strangely, completely ignored it.

The evening was also spent with the neighbors when they invited us down to meet some former tenants who lived in our apartment, and there was wine, cheese, crackers and even sitting in an outdoor tent in the backyard while a fire roared away and people talked. The Wife, amazingly was able to take this despite the -7 temperature. I’m going to chalk that up to the relatively calm wind and the fact that she seemed to enjoy playing fetch with the dogs.

The Canadianization process seems to be slowly but surely working…