to market I shall go

When I was considering taking the job I am now working at, one of the things that fell into the "pro" column was the fact that there was a little grocery market along the one-block walk I have from my office to the train station. I was thinking that would be a big plus, because I could stop frequently for fresh veggies - buying only a day or two's worth at a time to cut down on waste and have fresher produce. Last Friday after work, I stopped in there for the first time... and I won't be doing that again!

Oh my goodness, this place was AWFUL. Dirty floors, rusty shelving, the produce had seen better days (seriously, I couldn't find a banana without a black spot on it anywhere), and ripped labels on cans. Gross! I ended up buying a bottle of Pepsi and the only red pepper I could find that looked like it was in good shape, and hightailed it out of there, rather disappointed that I wasn't going to have a reasonably accessible market.

But this morning on my walk to the train, I had a flash of inspiration! I remembered my roommate mentioning that the Langley Market up on 12th Street is really nice and reasonably priced... and the bus that goes right past it stops right at the train station that's a block away from my work. And then the market is within reasonable walking distance of my home - probably about 6-8 blocks or so, and all either flat or downhill. So today after work, instead of taking the train home, I will be taking the bus up to the market, picking up a couple of days worth of produce, and then walking home from the market. My walk to the train this morning was quite easy (definitely easier than last Tuesday's), and after only a 6 hour work day (1 of which is already gone, wow... fast) it should be very doable.

And now to get some work done. I shall be making a longer post later about my weekend, which was absolutely splendid.

weekend update

Alrighty, time for a weekend update!

One of the things I was most looking forward to about working again was having the funds to get out and be social. As I worked on dealing with my depression over the past few months, I've become increasingly tired of being a hermit and staying home all the time. Add to that the fact that I've been seeing someone very casually over the past 2 months, and both he and I have a love of trying new and exotic restaurants and things like that, but doing that sort of thing is difficult on the budget of an unemployed bum.

So this last weekend, being the first weekend after starting my new job (and having my first paycheque in hand, to boot), I decided it would be fun to head down to Granville Island and wander around. Ian was all for this idea, considering that the Public Market contains several very interesting shops of interest to foodies. I was more interested in the various craft supply shops, as well as the hat store and Dragonspace. I actually ended up spending not a whole lot of money - all I picked up was 2 small vials of beads for the lace shawl I'm knitting, and 2 macarons from the boulangerie. We had a late lunch at the Granville Island Taproom, which does a very neat Tasters Round of beers - 6oz glasses of 4 different kinds of their own microbrewery beers. I'm not a beer drinker (yet), but Ian is, though I had sips of his to try them. I was VERY impressed with their chicken strips, which were quite obviously made in-house.

Our original plan had been to pick up groceries to cook dinner together at my place, but I had gone to the doctor in the morning on Saturday (which I will refrain from talking about because it would definitely be TMI), and ran into a good friend and her husband there, who told me that it was another mutual friend of ours' birthday and there would be a dinner for her that evening at a local greek restaurant. (By the way, I highly recommend Yianni's in New Westminster.) So when I met up with Ian at the train station, I asked if he'd be up for meeting some of my friends, as I'd really like to go to the dinner, and he was fine with that so we did that instead. It was a lovely time, and I got to meet some new people and catch up with some good friends, including my laurel, who was rather happy to see me out and about. After dinner, the party got moved to the birthday girl's house, but Ian and I headed back to my place instead.

Sunday was very quiet, but I did manage to get a fair amount accomplished, though not all of my laundry as I'd hoped, because my annoying roommate insisted on budging in to wash his new pants and then my landlord wanted the machines.

Today I'm working 8-2, which means my shift is already half over! Getting off of work at 2pm is going to be amazing. After work, I'll be heading up to the market, then I need to head home and finish up my laundry and mop the floors. Then I'm going to pull out my torch and start working on some beads again, to go with the norse outfit I'm going to be working on soon. Lots of fun!

Success!

So for my records, the walk home from the market took me 21 minutes today. I thought it would take me longer, considering it seems like a much longer walk than from home to the train, but I checked my phone when I left the market and again when I hit the steps to my door. Still, it was a darn good walk, and I feel really good now.

I think my plan will be to walk to the train every morning, and go to the market and then walk home from there on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Fresh veggies every second day will be plenty often enough.

One thing I'm VERY happy about is that their prices are excellent - significantly cheaper than the grocery store. Especially their meat prices. And their meat looks wonderfully fresh too. They sell fruit and veggies, all sorts of meat, poultry and seafood, baked goods, dairy and eggs, 2 or 3 double-sided shelves worth of dry goods (lots of ethnic stuff too), AND they have a tiny deli. I'm thinking that I will likely only need to supplement with a run to Safeway and Galloways for stuff they don't carry possibly maybe only once or twice a month.