“Voyage, Travel and Change of Place impart vigor” (Seneca)
This weekend I made a trip up to Moncton to help my Dad move
in to his new house. This might be a bit of a misnomer because he had movers
and unpackers, so my role was relegated to helping move furniture around rooms
for stylistic purposes as well as put things away in their designated spots.
However, anyone with experience helping people move that even this ‘endgame’
stuff can still take a vast amount of time and energy, especially over a large
house.
The trip started Friday with a train trip down to Moncton,
for only the 2nd time in my life! The train is a lovely way to
travel if you’re not in a hurry. It combines the luxury of the train with the
speed of a bus and the price of an airplane ticket. I don’t understand what
makes train tickets so expensive but I can’t imagine many people can afford to
take it over long distances. They’re fairly affordable over the short haul,
with prices comparable to the bus, unfortunately they have a much more
restrictive schedule. It only runs a few times a week as compared to Maritime
Buses three times a day. Why did I go by train then if it’s so terrible?
Sometimes VIA rail has an awesome sale, this trip they had a sale that pushed
the price down to $32 one way, which can’t be beat!
The train had a bajillion cars, and surprisingly only the
last two at the very end were coach cars, the rest being sleepers. I was
confused by this until I realized that the train departing Halifax goes all the
way to Montreal in a trip that takes twenty two and a half hours; I think I
might want to be able to sleep in a bed some of that way as well.
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| It's like one of those optical illusions that just never ends. |
The train itself was nice, if a bit dated. I had a laugh
when I thought that I had been mistakenly directed to first class. There was so
much space, the seats were so large and the legroom so spacious I figured I
must have been directed to the wrong section. I just waited as the conductor
came around, figuring when he came to my seat he’d send me back to the right
section with an admonishing glare. Instead he just checked my ticket, smiled
and wished me a good day. As it turns out I was in what passed for coach on the
train, it was very classy.
When I arrived at my Dad’s house everything had already been
moved in but had been pushed to the centres of the room by the painters. I
helped him reorganize the living room before some coworkers came to work on a
presentation for later in the week. At that point we ordered chinese and called
it a night in terms of moving stuff, pretty slack for a first night, a thought
I would later regret.
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| Dad's house. |
We ordered from House of Lam, which I guess anyone from
Moncton would already know about but I thought was amazing. These guys have
been in business since 1973 and for good reason, the food was delicious! It was
exactly what you could hope for in Canadian-Chinese cuisine. I know it’s not
authentic (I had a friend in Toronto who took me to Chinatown every time I was
up so I know the difference) but in terms of what is defined as ‘chinese’ food
for most people it couldn’t have been any better. I got a combination plate
with Chicken Balls (Sweet and Sour Chicken), Honey Garlic Ribs, Chicken Fried
Rice and Chicken Chow Mien, all delicious! It was apparently a favourite of my
Grandfathers and I hope it sticks around until the next time I find myself in
Moncton.
The next day the unpackers arrived and did their thing,
which is basically just unpacking boxes and assembling furniture (although we
later found out, that doesn’t included just purchased IKEA furniture!). Dad and
I figured out how he wanted the kitchen. At that point my Mom showed up for a
surprise visit (my parents are amicably divorced) so we went for lunch.
On our way to lunch we stopped over at the Moncton market
and got some eggs and samosas. It’s a bit of a price shock going from Oakville
where samosas can be had for 45 cents to Moncton where the going rate is two
for $5, but if you want your fix on that tasty Indian treat you’ve got to pay
in Atlantic Canada. I also thought it was funny that the market was so busy at
12:45, I thought the crowds would thin out earlier than that, although it was
clear the vendors were getting ready to throw in the towel at 1pm regardless of
the crowds.
For lunch we went to the Homestead to meet with my aunt and
cousin. It is a restaurant in Riverview that feels like it is as old as time
itself. I had gone there at least once a vacation when my family used to come
down to Moncton and cottage in Shediac every summer when we lived in Toronto. I
hadn’t been there in many years but it was still very popular, underlined by a
10 minute wait to get in. The homestead has an interesting business model in
that everything is super cheap but everything costs extra. If you want a burger
you get just a burger with relish, mustard, onion and ketchup. You want cheese?
Extra, you want lettuce? Extra? You want fries? You better believe that’s
extra. Everything is very reasonably priced there, and you can usually get a
full meal for about $10-15. I got a Bacon Cheeseburger with a side of homefries
(basically just fried diced potato).
After that exceptional lunch, we headed back over to Dad’s.
With a quick goodbye Mom was on her way back to her sister (my aunts) house,
Dad and I made a trip over to the Mecca of wholesaling: Costco. After we
returned home dad and I continued to arrange the house before his partner
arrived from all the way in Oakville, ON (He was electing to drive his own car
down, rather than ship it). Once he arrived we had a delicious home cooked meal
of Lentil Sheppard’s Pie and an evening of relaxation. That is, Terry (Dad’s
partner) and I relaxed and watched TV while Dad organized the main bedroom
upstairs. We all swore up and down that Sunday would be a true day of rest.
If that was the case, it turned out to be the most restless
day of rest ever. After realizing we had forgotten a few things at Costco on
Saturday. As well, it had vigorously started snowing and Terry and Dad agreed
that they should hire a plow service. Finally, we had promised to pick up an
old table from my Aunt Janet once we realized Dad’s old kitchen table wouldn’t
cut it in his cavernous new kitchen and living room.
In what can only be described in the most hectic four hours
in recent history we managed to get the payment over to the plow guy to get the
driveway plowed that same day. We got to Costco to pick up the things and
realized Terry had also asked for a new desk, without realizing that said desk
cost four hundred pounds in two boxes, after loading all that into the van we
even made it over to my Aunts house to pick up the table without a minute to
spare (we were trying to make a bus that got me back to Halifax).
While it only took Dad and I to get the desk into the van,
it took all three of us to get it out of the van again, through some sort of
heavy package magic. By the time we got it to the 2nd floor we were
all ready to collapse in a heap of exhaustion. Instead to threw a room full of
books onto a bookshelf and called it a day.
Finally, proving Dad is a culinary master, he managed to
throw rice, tofu and brown beans together with a salad and make it into an
appetizing meal. I do enjoy tofu so it wasn’t even that, it was just the fact
that it was so few ingredients and it still came out to a delicious supper. I
guess it’s a prime example of Occam’s razor, the simplest solution is the right
one. We were all hungry, Dad took delicious ingredients and threw them into a
big pot and it came out awesome.
Finally, I managed to make it down to the bus station at the
Via Rail Terminal in Moncton a whole ten minutes early. Only to have it 30
minutes delayed anyway for a slow bus connection. As said in perils of
planning, sometimes it doesn’t matter how well you plan. The new bus service,
Maritime Bus is pretty good. It’s not any cheaper than Acadian Lines, but the
busses seem nicer, possibility because Maritime Busses parent company: Trius Tours,
manages Tours of PEI and other maritime locals, so their buses are generally
used to ferry customers in comfort.
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