Taro, Muscles and checking out a little bit of Toronto history

On Saturday Aunty Tree and I wandered into Toronto CBD and meandered around for a bit. We hit Chinatown but then I got hungry and when I get hungry I get grumpy - Ida will attest to this so we found a little restaurant and had some lunch.

Toronto does great food , and cheap. For $13 I got a meal that I would pay about $30 for in NZ, goats feta stuffed chicken breast with greens and mash. It was so good and I show you a picture of it but I ate it too quickly.

I'm keen to try Jamaican which I hear is amazing - but I'm holding off on this until Jazz comes back up from college.He was supposed to be here this weekend but Cornell just organises non stop exams and tests for them so he is studying for one of those. Although bless him, he thinks this is the time in his life where he will be the most stressed. 

I hope to head down to Cornell, Ithaca to have a look around. Ithaca is meant to be absolutely lovely, of course its best to head down when the school has nothing on so that we can wander around, and Jarred can show us The Big Red (nickname for Cornell). I am definitely hitting the school shop and getting some hats and t-shirts, etc so proud of my cousin for making it through - any uni education is tough but at an Ivy League college - with the competitiveness, well I can only imagine how hard it can be. Plus, I've already stolen hoodies off him.

Anyway, we wandered around for a bit - there are some lovely old nooks of Toronto, as you can see in the picture below there are areas where they indicate whether a house is historic, and the cool thing is they note down the year , the inhabitant and their trade so you can really get a feel for the fact that history is a part of this city as it grows today.

In Chinatown, the street names are also written in Chinese.I would be interested to see if that started happening in Auckland. I imagine the Chinatown in Toronto has been settled for much much longer though. I have been told that there are literally very poor immigrants who sleep on mattresses and work in the sewing rooms - you know - like in an action movie when the good guys are chasing the bad guys and they always run through a Chinese restaurant and then out into an alley way and then back in through a room where about 10 old Chinese ladies are sewing.

I digress, we also went to visit Campbell House. We arrived just as a tour was starting. About five minutes in and I was ready to be rather rude to the know-it-all gentleman who was with us. The poor girl taking the tour was obviously new and clearly nervous and he was asking her all sorts of jerky questions that he already knew the answer to just to try and show off. Then he decided he was too good for the tour and walked out the front door - didn't even tell his (clearly patient and perhaps a sucker for punishment) wife that he was leaving and she only just noticed and followed him out only to walk back in to apologise and say they were leaving the tour.

Aunty and I being incredibly profound just said to the tour girl "you're lucky he has gone what a wanker" and proceeded to have a lovely tour.

                                   

I imagined myself in a beautiful ballgown gracefully descending down the stairs.

My aunty likes to sit in windows. I think its genetic.

         

This was the bath/shower. I do NOT think so.

Loving the four poster bed - unfortunately I suspect the mattress would leave a lot to be desired. Definitely not firm

Portable wash stand akin to what gentleman used to take on military tours. the basin  hole goes into the top drawer which is in effect the basin and is made of lead. Thinking this wasn't too great for the whole health benefits thign.

Fact: Rats love candles, especially olden days candles made from fat. Apparently they also like modern candles so beware. This made me remember the time that my father hid my Easter egg in the basement downstairs and rats gnawed one side of it - but he didn't notice and gave me the egg and as I turned it around I realised it had been eaten by rats and I burst into tears because there was no spare Easter eggs.  In hindsight it could be this fatty cakes behaviour that has landed me in the gym each day trying to slog it out.

The ballroom - apparently they were setting up for the evening for an event of "Jane Austen " dancing. I would attend if I thought Colin Firth would be there.

Now, my Aunt lost her lovely little doggie Chloe a couple of years back and to be honest, if you're a doggy person you simply can't live without dogs in your life, but it can be heartbreaking to think about a new dog because they really are your children.

Anyway, Aunty has a neighbour from Indonesia - Desi , who works from about 11.30 am until midnight and her flatmate doesn't get home until late evening so the dog they have, Taro, who is a daschund is basically left alone in the condo all day and has been getting bored and up to mischief.

Enter Aunty who is now dog sitting. AND loving it. Taro is so sweet and loves Uncle and Aunty - sort of puts up with me, I think I'm a bit too boisterous and is cute cute cute. Taro is a boy.

Taro jumps up behind Aunty when she is in the car and so Aunty squishes him

Now in the essence of all new dogs the below dog is my landlord's brother's dog. His name is Muscles. Yes Muscles. It makes me laugh each time I see him he is the most skittesh dog I have met!!

There are squirrels everywhere over here. I have a squirrel who lives in the tree outside my bedroom window. I refer to him as Ninja Squirrel because I see him but for the life of me everytime I go to take a photo he disappears. One morning I looked out and he was spread eagled up the side of the maple tree. Just chilling, like a ninja does. I had to take the photos below as I can't get one of Ninja Squirrel.

Actually on my way home last night I saw a squirrel that had been hit by a car just outside our house. I was very sad and thought maybe it was Ninja Squirrel. But no, I heard NS this morning so in my head he is still alive, even though I can't tell one squirrel from the other.

Finally, just have to mention the fact that all of that water below only cost me $2. I love drinking bottled water - especially as my stomach has a real problem with most tap water overseas (in NZ I can drink tap water no drama) so I am so stoked that it is so cheap here. I always remember in TV shows like Will and Grace they always have chilled bottles of water- so easy. Actually I drink more water now that they are in bottles and I can monitor how much they are. I used to think that the American water I got at Martha's backyard was a good deal 24 bottles for $24 but HECK $2 for 24 can't be beat!