All summer long I’ve been talking to my four-foot-high Roma tomato plant on my townhouse balcony, sweet-talking the green fruit into turning red.
Three tomatoes have fallen for it. And with us now entering the last throes of summer, I’ll settle for an orange first date at this rate.
By the way, I’m laying the blame for the late harvest at the feet of a record-breaking wet spring, rather than the wet blanket provided by my horticultural chat-up lines.
So it was kind of ironic, in my little world at least, that I noticed during my daily exercise walk from our office on Ackroyd Road to Lansdowne Centre that the giant red balls – remnants of a forgotten giant called Target – had turned bright green overnight.
Was Lansdowne ripening in reverse, I joked to myself. (No one else laughed, of course)
The upper sections of the walls on the south-east corner of the centre had also turned green.
As it turns out, it’s not the shopping centre management trying to forever erase the memory of the massive flop that was U.S.-based Target’s Canadian venture.
No, it is, in fact, potentially the dawning of a new era at Lansdowne in the shape of the popular Asian supermarket chain T & T, which will exorcise the ghost of Target with an opening next summer.
Personally, I’m not a fan of Asian cuisine (I know, I work in Richmond etc. etc.), so the move hardly has me punching the air.
I’d much prefer they resurrected horse racing — not seen at Lansdowne since 1960 — at the centre, given how much I miss the sport from my native U.K. (Vancouver’s Hastings Park, although sweet, doesn’t really hit the mark).
However, with the odds of a return to Lansdowne for horse racing about as good as Donald Trump winning a lifetime contribution title at the World Media Awards, I guess I’ll have to settle for fresh river fish and Wei Long (spicy snack) at T & T.
My insignificant and petty preferences aside, it is great to hear of a big name moving back into Lansdowne, especially considering the centre — in its current form — will only be there for another decade or so, with major redevelopment on the horizon.
As much as I enjoy my daily power-walk around and through the centre, it is slightly depressing to see a large section of it lying empty every day for more than two years (now I know how Steveston residents must feel, a la Onni/Imperial Landing).
And, if I’m really honest, the buzz that Aberdeen Centre and Richmond Centre enjoy is conspicuous by its absence at Lansdowne and I’ve no doubt T & T will inject some much-needed electricity into the site.
Here’s hoping, for the sake of Lansdowne, it doesn’t turn out to be another sweet deal that turns sour.
