Places Where I've Lived: Burnaby Street 2

Despite the peaceful setting of my new apartment the interior noise was something to write home about.  On one side lived a rather large verging on fat performing drag queen and his male partner.  He liked to rehearse to loudly played Broadway tunes and I was of course a captive audience.  On the other side a rather crass young woman who brayed like a jackass.  In the small hours of the morning I was often woken by her conversations with her boyfriend.  Thank heavens that all I heard was talking!  She was succeeded by a young man who was not quite as loud with his overnight girlfriend.  We did become friends, sort of, and he also agreed successfully to lower the noise.  Upstairs was a young woman with a cat who stomped around like an elephant--the woman not the cat.  She and I did become friends and I even hung out a bit with her and her boyfriend.  She moved out, to my dismay, and was succeeded by a rather pathetic chap with very creaky bedsprings and I will let you, Gentle Reader, fill in the blanks.  In those days I did not know anything about earplugs.

I quickly got in the habit of having guests over for dinner, coffee, tea, chats, sometimes to sleep overnight--and ONLY to sleep.  I also did this in the previous apartment.  I liked the idea of people finding refuge with me and felt deeply honoured to be in a position to provide it.  This got a bit uncomfortable at times.  One was a waiter at Benjamin's, not gay himself, who would sleep in the nude and then coyly ask if I wanted to sleep with him.  I replied no and I suppose that got us both off the hook.  He stayed for twelve days, was in between places, and became such a selfish and self-absorbed presence that I had to ask him to leave and he quickly moved in with his girlfriend who lived nearby.  There was another waiter from Benjamin's, also not gay, who came over for dinner and a visit, complained that it was too far for him to go home so I invited him to occupy the spare bed.  In his skimpy underwear he offered to give me a massage.  I roundly refused and to my relief he returned to his bed without arguing.

Despite the inconveniences this apartment was very much a respite following my nearly two years on Robson Street.  For a few weeks members of Ed and Louise's Satanic coven appeared to be trailing me, leaving odd looking markers in front of the building and in front of my apartment but they soon gave up the chase.  The beaches and Stanley Park were nearby and I enjoyed long solitary walks, especially by the water's edge in the early morning and at night near bedtime.