Over the lunch hour a couple of my colleagues and I headed over to Kensington for a nice walk. When you enter the area, it’s pretty surreal because you’re hit by this eclectic mix of stores and people, with this reggae music being pumped into the streets from all of the pot paraphernalia stores. It’s really interesting.
Just as we were heading in crossing from Chinatown into the market we passed by this parked truck. I was minding my own business when suddenly this guy comes out the back and around the corner with two whole dead pigs on his shoulders. He almost ran into us with those darn things. The pigs looked fresh and were nicely cleaned and disembowelled. How could I tell? Well the back ends of the pigs had these huge holes–way too big to be a pig anus. The run in was just so freaking random. All I could do was let out a good “Whaaaaat the fuck?!” I laughed so hard. A guy who smelled looked like hippie was passing by and laughed as well “yeah, that’s like, totally surreal!” Indeed.
The guy holding the pigs just carried on with his business, probably taking them into one of the Chinese restaurants in the area for roasting or whatever other preparations you’d normally do with a whole pig. As a Filipino, one word immediately came to mind: lechon! The guy was just hauling the pigs right on his shoulders without an apron or a cover. Wouldn’t the pigs be a bit moist? Wouldn’t he be a big mess? I guess being in that business he’d be used to being all covered in pig juices. I checked the back of his truck and there were still numerous pigs hanging by hooks. He had a long way to go, so I guess he had no choice but to man up.
So, later on as we wandered around we passed by this bohemian-type woman who couldn’t have been older than me busking on the sidewalk. Oh man. She was dressed in some unconventional garb that could probably have been mistaken for being hip. She was atonally trying to sing Over the Rainbow, talking about troubles melting like lemon drops or something like that. She had an ivory-coloured rattle/shaker thing and was shaking it on the beat, which was going at a good clip. She even danced a little bit, stepping side to side with much vigour. It was completely eccentric, but oddly entertaining. I mean, she was really giving it a lot of oomph despite looking and sounding ridiculous. I kind of admired her spirit. The four of us rushed past her without making much eye contact, but really, when I reached the end of the street I felt like I just had to show some appreciation. I took out my wallet, fished out a couple of quarters and headed back to her. As I bent down to drop the coins in her hat, I tried to flash the best smile I could muster at her. *clink clink* She let out a huge “Thank you!” That made my day. As I walked away, she stopped singing.
(Secretly, that also made my day.)
And that was my lunch hour walk. There was enough randomness in it to allow me to carry on with the rest of my day in the rigid regimented structure of work. All is well with the world.
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