Winnipeg is the smallest big city on Earth

I know, the title of this post isn't exactly news to anyone, but I just had another one of those extremely crazy moments. Now, this one doesn't involve me stalking houses on the MLS (that's a first!) but it is pretty wild anyway. For more of my weird small world stories go back to this post (it also links to another) and this one.

Okay, so when I'm not busy planting flowers in my boulevard for hooligans to destroy and buying arborite tables, god how I love arborite tables, I hold down a job, well, two actually, but that's not the point here. So one of the things I do at my job is I help people find programs that might be able to help them fix up their houses. Now some of the programs I know about are city-wide, however, I specifically work with residents in the North End.

So today, I popped out for lunch and came back to a voicemail. She was good enough to leave her address as I request of people (makes it much easier to know what info to call them back with) which happened to be in Wolseley. Which more specifically happened to be in my BFF-since-I-was-6-years-old's old house!
Seriously, what on earth are the odds of this? Now, I tried calling her back, but no luck reaching her so far; I am absolutely desperate to know how she got my number (since I work with a North End organization). Did one of my business cards get wedged in a baseboard? To give a little extra perspective, I get maybe 3-4 calls a year tops from people who live outside the North End. Mind blown.

*Update: she got my number from a friend who does live in the North End, but it's still crazy*

Another quick what are the odds sort of story. There is a house on Home St., near Sargent that was once occupied by a girl I worked with at Grapes, I used to drive her home sometimes. Then one day in the early days of facebook I joined a group that talked about home renovations and things and they organized a house tour of some houses in the West End. That house was part of it (then owned by different people). Fast forward another year or two. Since I stalk the MLS, I noticed it come up for sale, and then when I noticed a friend congratulating another friend on the house purchase on Home St., I felt compelled to check to see which one. Yup. Same house. So I now know 3 people that have owned the same house, in a neighbourhood that I am not a part of, and those 3 people are not remotely connected to one another in any other way.

Do these sorts of things happen to you? We are a city of about 750,000 - it just seems insane to me to have things like this happen this often.

Qatar is back!

Like many bloggers I get a kick out of some of my stats and search queries. Since I love to travel I also really enjoy seeing what countries some of my readers come from. Months ago I had a semi-regular visitor from Qatar. This particularly makes my day because a). Qatar is just a cool name and it's a "Q" word without a "u"    b). I've been to Qatar, sort of. As a general rule I don't count airport stopovers as countries visited so it's not technically on my list, but I did spend about 5 hours in the airport in Doha a few years ago. Most unexpected thing? They have an A & W in the airport - that's just weird, it's not like A & W's are found all over the place. Anywhoo, welcome back to my Qatar reader - I've missed ya!

This brings me to yet another "small world" Winnipeg story. Yes, I'm aware that Winnipeg is a crazy small town at its heart but I seem to have stranger than normal encounters. Last  week I was attending an auction at Kaye's and I sent out a Tweet (follow me! @LoveMeLoveMyWpg) commenting that I was at an auction and that it was more fun than watching Storage Wars on TV. One of my followers tweeted back that they were also at Kaye's. Ok, yes, that in itself is not that shocking, Winnipeg is not exactly overflowing with daily auctions. What is completely freaky and small world like is that when I responded to the Tweet to say that I was the girl who just lost out on a vintage fridge - the real life person next to me looked up from her phone and introduced herself!

Turns out the friend that had told me about the auction in the first place (who didn't even know that I had a blog) and was good enough to be willing to help me haul the fridge home in his truck, had another friend at the same auction. The three of us were chatting as I responded to my tweet and we each discovered the real life person behind the user name. So it was super great to meet someone who reads and likes my blog but crazy to think we were already connected by one degree of separation!

The fridge I didn't win actually wasn't for me (not that I'm above hoarding fridges, because I'm not) but a good friend of mine. So I'm officially doing a shout out to find his "dream' fridge. It's a 1938 Frigidaire. There must be another one out there somewhere... please help me find it - I would win best present ever forever. I'll never understand why the guy bidding against me also seemed to want it so bad, I don't believe that it's a particularly valuable model (except to my friend) and I think it's even too small to qualify for the free $40 that Hydro will give you to scrap your old fridge (I would link to that program but I can't support the destruction of such beautiful works of machinery, I call balderdash on them being super expensive to run, I run two of them in my house right now and my electric bill is on par with other friends of mine who only have 1 modern fridge). But here it is, it may have also been available in 1939 or into the 1940's, the key identifier is probably the push button to open it.

This is the outside

This is the inside

So, readers far and wide (although Qatar is probably too far) please find me one, will pick up, I'm always up for a road trip! While you're at it - I'm looking for an early 1950's fridge with a separate fridge/freezer, will pay extra if it's the model that has the lazy susan inside.

I have strange hobbies

So, as promised, my latest and greatest "small (Winnipeg) world" story. There are similarities between this story and my last one - it also involves the MLS and chairs. So, Winnipeg Girl has a few strange hobbies, one of them is trolling the MLS; you'd be amazed at the interesting things you can learn off that site (like for example, someone on my street clearly smokes crack as they think they can get $179k for a ~800sq. ft bungalow). Every now and again it even does what it's supposed to do and drags me down to an open house.

This brings us to a few weeks ago, I went to an open house on Rupertsland (the street just past the Green Brier on Main) down by Scotia. It was one of the most fantastic houses I have ever seen. It was 2236sq. ft of 1955 original goodness. Gleaming hardwoods, amazing built-ins in every nook and cranny, an untouched all original kitchen with turquoise countertops and a turquoise upstairs bath to match. Even a triple garage to house all of my cars! If I had to find fault with the house (and I'm grasping at straws here) it would be that someone had dared to renovate the main floor bathroom, so while it retained the original layout, what I can only dream were pink tiles had been replaced with, ugh, beige nastiness. As well, in an attempt to update? the exterior and add insulation what I would guess was likely wood siding had had styrofoam added and hideous terracotta coloured stucco.

But my obsession with this house is only the starting point to my story. As we all know, I have a hoarding problem, specifically regarding arborite tables from the 1950s/1960s. I can't help it, I'm looking for my holy grail. So sometimes, when it is particularly out of control, I release one from the herd, via kijiji. Usually I've done some mini-restoration work to it or in the case of the set below, completely recovered the chairs (if anyone out there would like to donate an air compressor and air stapler to me, I would be forever indebted to you). I have to say I've gotten pretty good at it, and it makes me feel less guilty for watching tv as I am doing something while I "watch".

Arborite table and chairs in Winnipeg Girl's awesome dining room

So, since I am saving up for a jukebox (yes, I'm a crazy person) I did a blowout sale on the table and chairs and a lovely couple came to take a look. The wife mentioned that they had just bought a 1950s house that still had the original kitchen and that they were looking for a table to go with it. I jokingly asked if it was "the beautiful house on Rupertsland". Ok, so, since clearly I'm not the master of suspense, you've probably guessed it, but it was the people who bought my dream house!! They hadn't even taken possession yet!

What are the odds of this? Does anyone else have experiences like this? I mean, how do the stars even line up to make something like that happen?? I begged them to buy the table just so I could know it was in that beauty of a house, and they did. Of course it might be because I frightened them with my knowledge of their new abode, but we'll pretend it was because it truly was the perfect table and chairs for them. Yup, the MLS has been good to me for life's little surprises and coincidences. One time I'll tell you all the story about how I found my house, it was entirely an accident! In the mean time, if you have any old tables and chairs kicking about here or at the cabin, I'll take them off your hands and show them some love and give them a second lease on life!

Reasons to leave the house in winter

Hmmmm... this could be my shortest post yet based on my feelings about winter!

Actually I just thought I'd highlight two upcoming local events, one with a fascinating tie-in (you'll have to trust me and keep reading).

As many of you know, okay, perhaps mostly Christian over at West End Dumplings, I was pretty obsessed with the story of Fraidie Cat, the second of two cats at the St. Paul condo fire (Wyatt, the other cat was a miracle survivor story). Although Winnipeg has seen WAYYYYYYYY too many fires this winter that have left many many people homeless, knowing someone so close to that particular situation made it a lot more "real" for me. Throw in the animal angle and I was hooked.

So the first event I will encourage you to attend, even though it happens after the event that I'm going to mention next (but that story needs to wait - it's how I'm keeping you intrigued) is a "Deductible Party" for the cat owners. Some might argue that since they were "lucky" enough to have insurance that they don't need help. I don't know that everyone who has insurance would have the money at the drop of a hat to pay their deductible, would you? Now I don't know the cat owners Jason and Alix personally but via the Paypal link I made a donation - think of all the socials you've gone to over the years where you barely know the folks but you fork out for the ticket anyway all so that they can indulge in one lavish day. Well worth ten bucks to help these folks out.

Next is an event for someone I actually DO know - Ms. Demetra Penner. Demetra is the cover girl on the current edition of The Uniter. I've heard via Demetra that tickets are close to being sold out, so best to buy in advance rather than hope for tickets at the door. How do I know Demetra? So glad you asked! Demetra is actually central to my best ever "small world" travel story.

I worked with Demetra up in Churchill probably about 5 years ago (clearly since that began her love of the North it was a far more rewarding experience for her than I!). That winter after "bear season" we both went to warmer places; I believed she was going to Thailand and she thought I was going to South America. Enter best ever small world travel story.

I had just gotten off a long bus journey from Pokhara, Nepal to the major city of Kathmandu and followed a fellow traveller to this little hidden gem of a food stall located in what can only be described as a back alley. While waiting for my order of chips (for whatever reason while travelling I eat more fries than I ever do at home, they are the ubiquitous backpacker food) I turned around to see this girl staring at me with a crazy look on her face. Not sure exactly what I had done to anger/amuse/offend/??? this person I grasped for context. Standing next to her was another person that we had worked with in Churchill - and that's when the lightbulb came on! Of course, the girl was Demetra! It's funny the way our brains work - I had been trying to figure out if I had come across this person on my trip somewhere, there was no logical reason to think it was someone I knew from anywhere but that trip. This was especially true as both of us thought the other was travelling in another country.

So, yup, in a back alley in Kathmandu, Nepal, I ran into people that I had met in Churchill, MB. What are the odds of that?? An interesting side note is that after a mini catch-up and plans made for later, we went our separate ways and as I was walking back to the hotel the other traveller I was with, he noticed them across the street, about 5m away, and I didn't (if you've every been to a chaotic developing world city this would make sense to you!). It just shows that I was *that* close to being in a very foreign place at the same time as people that I knew and not even knowing it.

Well, that's it for now, and might be for a while actually; in 5 more sleeps (because I count like a small child does apparently) I will be headed off on my next adventure, Nicaragua and Honduras. So if you don't hear from me for a bit two things: first don't count me out of the blogosphere, second, if I get kidnapped or something I will retract all of my hatred of socials if you hold one to raise the ransom.

And this is why there are no strangers in Winnipeg

We've all heard it expressed before that Winnipeg is one giant overgrown farm town, and that everyone knows everyone, but I just had one of my strangest experiences to date. So while browsing the MLS (as one does. Right? Everybody does that right?? I mean, that's how I found this place, which is still for sale, with a $10,000 price drop from the time of the original post) I came across this charming little place on Selkirk Ave.

After reading the wordy description, which I of course liked, as I have, ahem, been known to be a bit wordy myself, I decided to click through to the pictures to see if it would better jog my memory as to which house this actually was. And what did I find? Well gosh darn it if I didn't find a piece of original "artwork" designed by Winnipeg Girl herself! Seriously. What are the odds of that? Now, of course you're all wondering if I'm actually some sort of high profile artist that you've seen in a gallery (okay, maybe one of you is wondering) and that of course then it wouldn't be odd to come across my works occasionally in Winnipeg homes.

The MLS link will go dead after the house sells so here it is.

What if I told you that it was a piece I decorated back in the day (well, more like the middle of the night actually) when I used to get home from late night restaurant shifts and needed to do something to unwind while watching Law & Order reruns at 2am? What? There were no blogs then. Plus, I lived in a non descript concrete construction apartment block in River Heights so there wasn't really much to blog about. Don't judge.

So, I called (okay, texted) the friend who had bought the chair from me at my yard sale only to find out that she had in turn sold it in a yard sale a few years later. So my admittedly primitive piece of "art" went from a yard sale in the North End to a yard sale in St. James and ended up back in the North end on Selkirk Ave. And then I saw a picture of it on the internet. To think that people actually wonder how it is that everybody knows everybody by three degrees of separation or less.

It also makes me happy that it is nicely displayed and not shoved in a corner :)