I got the subway to Royal York to see my mate April who works at the nearby Costco supermarket, just along from where my Gran used to stay. Her Mum, Winnie, who was my Grandparents' neighbour still stays in the same house, so I'm on familiar turf here. Everything in Costco is huge, the shop itself, the TVs, the portions of food and some of the people themselves. Despite asking around, she had apparently finished her shift so she was at home asleep by now. I decided to wander around the local Queensway Park (pictured below), right across from my Grandparents' house and even had a go on the swings too. Was tempted to belt out This Used To Be My Playground by Madonna, but decided against it. Was a bit misty-eyed though thinking of all the fun me and my sister used to have here. Went along to see Winnie, who hadn't changed at all. Chatted with her for a while and by default smoked two, very strong, fags. I bade her adieu and promised to give April a call later on.
On route back to the subway, I stopped off for a Cadbury's Pep and a Grape Crush, awesome stuff. I love the smell of the shop I bought it in, not to mention the smell of the Grape Crush itself—the Irn Bru of North America. Sandwiched in between two people talking/singing to themselves—thought that was an almost exclusively Scottish trait—one on the bus and one on the train, was a busker playing one of my favourite Beatles' songs Here Comes The Sun. Think it might have been tongue-in-cheek given that we're heading into winter. Going back to the two local lunatics, they are nothing compared to a couple of the maniacs I'd encountered on previous visits to Toronto. There was one woman whose makeup was so bad it make her look like Captain Spalding (pictured below) from House of 1000 Corpses and she then proceeded to smile at me with her blood-covered teeth. A senior citizen serial killer in the making! Then there was another guy who was carrying an array of albino rats on his shoulders. Yeeshk!
Finally arrived at Bloor/Yonge in Downtown Toronto but I was a bit disorientated for once as they seemed to have knocked down a good few familiar buildings such as the iconic Sam the Record Man's store (pictured below). Still I managed to get find my bearings and got to the Eaton Centre where I successfully managed to obtain a SIM card from a fella whose overuse of the terms 'sick' and 'awesome' was slightly annoying. Since when did the term 'sick' become an ameliorative term? There's nothing 'sick' about sick when you're being sick. Had a potter around the usual shops, Roots and all the sports stores, including the adidas store—where I couldn't resist a spot of keepy uppy with the display balls—and Sunrise Records where I got my ticket for the Dandy Warhols concert in a fortnight's time. I was actually at their last concert in Toronto in September 2008. Everybody could still understand me perfectly too so I was passing the accent test with flying colours after only two days, unlike my brother-in-law who once nearly made a drive-in intercom explode! One guy in the adidas store even thought I worked there, must have the native look about me. After getting a pepperoni pizza slice from Mamma Mia's I headed home.
We had a Chinese meal tonight. Love the multiculturalism of this city! Gonna try every nationality of food that I possibly can. Martin Dunlop, this is for you! After finally sorting the contact lens in my left eye, my right one started flaring up. It was all bloodshot and horrid looking. Still one good eye is all that was required to see the Peking Duck that my Uncle Eddie, Fe and I had opted to share for dinner. Nothing unusual about that apart from the fact that the head was still on it, cooked obviously, but that didn't make it any easier on the eye when he started sawing away at its roasted carcass. There was quite a bit of fat on it too, don't think this one had been slain all that long ago. That said it did go well in a pancake with the Hoi Sin sauce.
Texts started to come in thick and fast too, so my Canadian SIM card was good to go. Just had a quiet one tonight as my cousin Sarah wasn't up for going out because she had work the next morning—lightweight—so I just watched the Texas Rangers celebrate reaching their first ever World Series! Joy for Rangers today, hopefully it wouldn't be for their Glaswegian namesakes on Sunday!
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