On Saturday morning I finished working out
the chords for “L'homme à la tête de chou" (The Man with the Head of
Cabbage) by Serge Gainsbourg. I couldn't post it on Christian's Translations
yet because I still had to fine tune the rhymes. The scheme is unusual for
English songs, as it goes: abaababbaabbababbabaababaaba. Gainsbourg does this
kind of rhyming a lot in which only two sounds throughout the song are rhymed
in various combinations. Of course it’s easier in French because there are
hundreds of common words that easily rhyme.
I
worked on my journal.
At
9:38 I left for the food bank but as soon as I got on my bike I felt the back
wheel wobbling. I stopped and saw that my rear tire was not only flat but that
the tube was sticking out. I took it back upstairs, grabbed my spare bike and
pumped up the tires and then rode that instead. I didn’t realize until I got to
the stoplight that the brakes were gone on my back-up bike. I had to use my
feet to stop myself from running into a pedestrian. A block away from the food
bank I made sure I was going slow so I could stop more easily. It wasn’t very
graceful but I managed.
As
soon as I got off the bike I saw that they were already giving out the food. I
didn’t even bother to lock my bike. I just leaned it against the bike post and
walked to the end of the line where the woman with the hennaed hair was there
with a cart containing boxes of food. I showed her my membership card and she
wrote me down. She was arguing with the middle aged blonde regular, who
declared, “I’m the victim here!” I asked if I could take a box of food from the
cart and she said I could, plus the big paper back that was there as well. I
asked if they would be starting this early from now on and she said, “We just
started early because of this.” I asked what had happened but she just shook
her head in such a way as to indicate that she didn’t want to talk about it and
then she pushed the cart back to the food bank.
I
asked the blonde woman what had happened and she explained that she used to
volunteer at the food bank but her year was finished recently. I guessed that
she had volunteered to get the extra $100 a month that Social Services pays out
for a while to clients that volunteer. She said that recently the Second
Harvest truck had delivered some food and as usual some of it was bad and so
Valdene, the food bank manager had put the bad stuff out on the curb to be
recycled. The blonde woman told me that the woman with hennaed hair has always
had it in for Valdene and had made a video of the food that she’d thrown out to
send to the board, with the result that Valdene was fired. So now the woman
with hennaed hair is in charge. I pointed out that she has been there for years
longer than Valdene. I assume that this video was shot weeks ago but the issue
this time seemed to be that the blonde woman had been in the video and she’d
let the new manager know that she didn’t appreciate it. That’s all I got from
it but there might be something I got wrong or parts of the story that are
incomplete because what happened weeks ago didn’t really explain why the food
bank gave out food early, although I was sure glad that they did.
I
gave the blonde woman my envelopes of instant oatmeal and taco spices, as well
as a few other things. She took them because she said there are guys that don’t
have any food in the rooming house where she lives.
Of
the food that would normally be on the wire shelves downstairs I got another
bag of jalapeno whole grain chips, a box of Romano cheese flavoured Triscuits,
a can of mixed beans, a tin of peas, a jar of garlic and onion pasta sauce and
a 900 gram bag of cavatappi. Cavatappi is a kind of spiral macaroni with three
twists in each piece. “Cavatappi” is the Italian word for “corkscrew”.
Of
the refrigerated foods I received a package of fourteen frozen breakfast
sausages, which I found out later had maple flavouring. I also got three eggs
and carton of 3.5% milk.
The
paper bag contained ten potatoes, seven carrots four small onions, a red
pepper, three apples, three kiwis, a 227 gram pack of sliced crimini mushrooms,
a seedless cucumber and a pomegranate.
I
packed up all my food and was out of there just a little after 10:00. It would
be nice if it happened that way every time.
I
had to brake with my feet three times on the way home and overshot my place by
three metres, almost losing my balance when I braked.
When
I got home I set about to resituating the inner tube under my back tire and
pumping it up. I put my food away and then talked with my next door neighbour
Benji for a while. He told me that the variety two doors up the street was
robbed yesterday by a guy with a knife. But he was recorded on video and picked
up by the cops an hour later.
By
the time I was ready to ride to the supermarket my tire was still firm and so I
was able to ride a bike with brakes to get to No Frills.
There
was a line-up of about ten people. A woman who wasn’t in line approached the
security guard, said she was a front line worker, showed her identification and
got to go in ahead of the line. Her friend, a big, loud and aggressive woman
whom I recognized from the food bank, waited outside with their dogs. While she
was waiting and smoking she asked the security guard what company he was with. He
answered that he wasn’t from any company. She asked, “Who are you then?” A guy
near the front of the line demanded to know who the hell she was and wondered
why her friend got to skip the line. She basically told him to mind his own
business and not to interrupt conversations between two people. She pulled out
her identification card to show that she was a front line worker as well,
although I don’t know where. I know she volunteers or has been a volunteer at
the food bank and maybe she volunteers at other places but I doubt if she’s an
emergency worker of any kind.
They
argued back and forth until the security guard advised the guy that it wasn’t
worth it and he calmed down for a while. It flared up again just before he went
into the store.
I
bought six bags of grapes, a pint of strawberries, and a half pint of
raspberries. They had a great deal on chicken legs, offering packs of three for
about $3.00 and so I got two packs. I got mouthwash, some Greek yogourt and
some berry skyr. Skyr is a very thick Icelandic yogourt and even though the
fruit kind is sweetened it has a lot less sugar than other kinds.
I
got home from the supermarket just after 11:00, which was a time when I would
normally still be at the food bank.
I
had Triscuits with cheddar and some skyr with a slice of pie for lunch.
After
a siesta I rode my bike up to Freedom Mobile. The clerk told me to leave my
bike outside but I told him I hadn’t brought my lock. He reluctantly let me
bring it in and put it against the window. When I pulled out my money and said
that I was there to pay for my May plan I was told they weren’t taking cash
right now. I put my money back in my pocket and told them I would have to go
get my debit card. The manager said he’ would let me pay in cash this once.
I
worked on my journal and didn’t take a bike ride. It rained later on anyway.
I
noticed that evening that my back tire had gone soft a bit and so there must be
a slow leak after all.
I
thawed and fried two sausages and then added an egg. I had them with a warmed
up naan and a beer while watching two episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood.
The
first one was story four of the fourth season. The tale begins with Robin and
his men robbing three knights while Marian watches from the bushes. The three
men have just returned from fighting in the Crusade and that they are carrying
treasures that they looted from the Holy Land. One of the knights turns out to
be Marian’s cousin, Sir Nigel Fitzhulme. Robin goes to tell Marian that she’d
better ride home. Robin's man attempts to tie the men up but they protest that
to be bound with ropes is undignified and they offer their word as gentlemen
that they will not try to escape. But Nigel breaks his word, breaks free and
escapes. He chases Marian but she is far ahead and makes it home before he gets
there. Later Nigel’s companions, Sir John and Sir Gerald are released without
their treasure and they join Nigel at Marian’s castle. We learn that it is
Nigel’s intention to marry Marian so he can take possession of her land. Robin
makes a deal with Nigel’s friends that he will give them back some of their
treasure if they will participate in his plan to foil Nigel's attempt to wed
Marian. They say they are getting tired of Nigel’s behaviour anyway. Nigel
tells Marian that he knows she is in league with Robin Hood and that he will
expose her to the sheriff if she does not agree to become his wife. She refuses
and he sends for the sheriff. When the sheriff arrives and Nigel tries to tell him that they were
captured by Robin Hood and that Marian was with him, John and Gerald tell the
sheriff that Nigel caught a fever when they were in the Holy Land and that it
addled his brain. The sheriff tells Nigel he can either come with him to see a
doctor in Nottingham or he can seek help abroad, as long as he causes no more
stress to Lady Marian. In the end John and Gerald tell Robin they are going
back to the Crusade in the Holy Land because life is much simpler there.
The
second story was fourth of the series and the one that introduces Friar Tuck.
Robin receives a message to meet Tuck at Eldritch Shrine. One of the men tells
Robin that Tuck is known to be an unusually good swordsman for a monk. Robin
thinks they could use someone to say mass for them in the forest. Robin poses
as a monk and finds Tuck fishing. They banter for a while and then Tuck tells
the monk to be on his way. Robin asks Tuck to carry him across the stream. Tuck
refuses and so the disguised Robin says he will stay. Tuck is protecting
someone in the shrine and so he agrees to carry the monk to be rid of him.
Halfway across Robin is teasing Tuck and treating him like a horse until
finally Tuck tosses him into the water. I think this is part of the original
story. Robin and Tuck draw swords and duel, although Robin is winning. Finally
Tuck asks if he is Robin Hood and Robin conforms that he is. At that moment
just as Tuck tells her to stop a young woman comes up from behind and knocks
Robin unconscious. When Robin comes to Tuck explains that Mildred had thought
that he was one of Lord Germain’s men. She is the daughter of Brian the
herdsman who works on Germain’s estate. Germain wants to marry Mildred off to
Sir William of Marmundsbury in exchange for a piece of William’s land. But
Mildred is in love with Harold the Smith and so Tuck is protecting her. Tuck
wants Robin to smuggle Mildred and Harold out of the shire so she’ll be free of
Germaine's reach. Robin asks in exchange that Tuck serves to perform mass for
the men in the forest and to join in their feasts. Just then Germaine and
William arrive seeking Mildred. Tuck tells them Mildred has sought sanctuary in
a consecrated place. Germaine says he’s never heard of sanctuary applying to
anything but a church or monastery. Germaine tells William to wait there while
he goes to fetch the sheriff. Robin thinks of challenging Sir William to a duel
but Tuck says he can’t allow Robin to go into combat without first hearing his
confession and that might take weeks. Harold confronts William but as Harold is
not a swordsman William is reluctant to fight him. Tuck asks that Harold be
allowed to say goodbye to Mildred. Seeing Mildred run to Harold and hearing that Mildred would resent
William for killing her love, William gives up and leaves. Tuck marries Mildred
and Harold.
No comments:
Post a Comment