Out and about and meeting friendly people

Sitting in the kitchen now eating the most delicious sandwich, which did NOT have a promising future when I first unwrapped it. After a morning of shopping downtown (in Newmarket if you're curious), and talking to lots of friendly people and buying some exquisite boots for which I paid more than I've ever paid for boots before, and then venturing off onto some roads that looked interesting but really actually weren't very, I was starving and stopped at the bakery down the street for some lunch on my way home. Between the people I talked with at the various shops and the conversation at the bakery, I decided that this is what I love most about living here -- just a very friendly, helpful, humble, and sincere bunch of people, these Kiwis! 

I was deciding between the two different kinds of sandwiches and asked the baker about a photo of a little boy with loaves of bread that was hanging on the wall when two more women came in, and a conversation ensued about teenage boys and their horrible attitudes and what to do about them and how awful they can be and, according to the baker, also that they're much better once they are 24. Mine is barely even a teenager yet; he has 2 1/2 more months until he's 13, and there are moments that I'd just as likely sell him into slavery as look at him. At least it's enjoyable to stand around with a bunch of sympathetic and humorous strangers and chat about it. Back home, I would've been hurrying out of the way so that the others could make their purchases, but here they are happy to stand around in a 4'x8' room and talk about your child rearing problems with you.

When I came home and opened up my sandwich, which I only bought because the other one just did not sound good at all, I saw that there's literally one verrry thin slice of ham in it. In my family we call this a Poppy Sandwich in honor of my rather miserly grandfather, Poppy. If he made you a sandwich, you got one like this with one thin slice of meat, while he had about a whole cow in his. We chalked it up to his blindness at first, but then noticed it was a consistent chain of events. 

Anyway, because this sandwich has three slices of the softest, most delicious bread I've ever tasted, I don't even mind the one slice of ham! And that is the moral of today's story. Enjoy the conversation, the day brightened by strangers, the soft chewy bread, the mustard and freshly ground pepper, the juicy slice of tomato, and don't worry about the rest.