Spring – Page 4 – slightly weird

30th May 201930th May 2019

Toronto shopping when you’re a foodie

Thursday, 30 May, 2019

I make no secret of the fact that Toronto disappoints me in many food (when it comes to shopping) arenas. There are lots of reasons for this, and the price point is probably the least of these….maybe. But we can talk about prices – sure we can! They’ve skyrocketed.

I do expect, after being away for a while, to find prices higher. However, this time the trajectory has alarmed me. I’d say that most things are about 50% higher than I found them in 2016. So the pork tenderloin i bought for $3.75 in Chinatown this week cost me about $2.25 when last I was here. Of course, this price is pretty fantastic, no doubt of that. However, to find lettuces at $2.99, cauliflower at $6.99, asparagus at $4, bread at $4-5, chips at $4 a pack – these things do alarm me.

However, I do have to eat so here’s a bit of a pictorial essay of my shopping experiences so far. There’s enough time to document more!

Closed up Chinatown — These shops at the North West corner of Spadina and Dundas are slated to go. No idea how long they have sat there but it looks really scruffy and neglected so far. New condos on their way?

Quiet day at the Chinatown supermarket — Abnormally quiet day outside the supermarket in Chinatown. Rain keeps the crowds away and there’s been a lot of it.

Inside the Chinatown supermarket. I got a pork loin, some hot sauce, and some frozen shrimp and pork dumplings for dim sum. Oh, and these tomatoes (next photo)

Tomatoes in Chinatown — I don’t like buying the much-picked-over things in Chinatown but there were freshly placed, reasonably priced, and actually looked good. Tasted OK too!

I’m not fond of the readymade food in Toronto on the whole but there are certain things I can’t get elsewhere or they are ethnic foods that Toronto somehow does so very well.

I’ve missed this sort of readymade food – a variety of Portuguese snacks in Little Portugal – takes me back to Lisbon

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1st April 20199th April 2019

Trafalgar Square, Pimlico and Victoria

April First – looking back at March

Well, March is spectacularly blank. It’s not that nothing happened but it’s been a bit of a whirlwind and I’ve committed the sin of writing posts in my head instead of in here. Again. So I’ll start here and I’ll fill in some blanks retroactively if there’s too much for a page! Since it’s now April, I’d better get started.

Krish needed a new Canadian passport. The laws have changed and anyone who is a Canadian citizen must travel with the Canadian passport to enter Canada. We set off one day for Canada House but just two stops away from our destination, Krish realised he forgot his photos! My sense of humour prevailed and we went instead to have lunch and wander around Covent Garden.

**Canada House with its prized place at Trafalgar Square**

The following week back we went. Much more successful. Everything was dispatched and paid for and we were on our way. Word came just three weeks later that we could come pick it up.

When I was a child I loved Trafalgar Square. I still love the view from there. Admiralty Arch and then the view down to Westminster. The square, however, has become tiresome. Without the pigeons it’s lost its charm. They’ve pedestrianised the area closest to the National Gallery too and somehow instead of making it more accessible, it’s made the traffic terrible and the jugglers and sellers and increased crowd have given it a sleazy carnival feeling.

**Looking up at the National Gallery from Trafalgar Square**

**Looking straight down to Westminster from Trafalgar Square**

Towards St Martin's in the Fields as the clouds gather. I miss the pigeons — **Towards St Martin’s in the Fields as the clouds gather. I miss the pigeons**

It’s interesting, though, that children and youth still love to climb onto those lions and sometimes paddle in the fountains. They can’t miss the pigeons since they have never known them to be there.

When we picked up the passport, we thought it would be fun to walk along the river path to Pimlico and check out the area as we looked for lunch. Walking down Whitehall, I thought we’d see lots of protesters at Whitehall, Downing Street, and outside the Houses of Parliament but we really didn’t. It was surprisingly calm. Although I still can’t get used to the fact that Downing Street is now a gated fortress, there were only a few tourists lingering outside. With the Brexit date only a day away, I was quite astounded.

A rare sight - a Trafalgar Square lion with no rider — **A rare sight – a Trafalgar Square lion with no rider**

**Looking down to Westminster from Trafalgar Square**

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25th February 201928th February 2019

Plus ça change…Tinnitus, Spring, Pottery

Tuesday, 26 February, 2019

Mired in the blahs a bit. The wedding was a nice little oasis of colour and new stuff to do but, for the most part, February has been spent right here at home or around the neighbourhood. And it’s not as if there’s nothing going on here. It’s all in my head!

My head being a bit full of tinnitus.

If you think tinnitus is just an annoying, somewhere-in-there, ringing in your ear, you’d be only partly right. Mine is ‘recurring.’ I can go weeks, months, even years without it – or at least there’s ‘acceptable’ level noise in my ears all the time but then every now and again it gets serious. It spikes and I can’t cope. This isn’t ‘carry on regardless’ any more. It leaves me incapable of doing even the ordinary things. I’m hypersensitive to everyday noises and instinctively avoid them. Running taps, the shower, the sound of footsteps, the wind blowing leaves, traffic driving by, someone unwrapping or rustling paper… This is called hyperacusis.

My personal kind of spike is this – Sometimes there are baby crickets making some noise occasionally, sometimes there are bigger crickets being a bit more insistent, and sometimes there’s a whole meadow full of really huge crickets in full voice for hours on end, if you’re lucky with intermittent breaks. Has anyone ever made a really loud noise too close to your ear? Yelled? Blown a whistle? If so, did you pull away immediately to avoid the noise? Imagine if you couldn’t.

One more thing about tinnitus – it isn’t actually in your ear, although it can certainly drown out other noises or upset your balance (quite a bit in my case) but it’s coming from your brain. Your brain is filling in gaps of sound or frequency with something recognisable. Sort of like phantom limb syndrome….

So back to Hackney and getting out when balance is on my side. It’s unseasonably warm. It’s T-shirt weather for some. My phone weather tells me it’s 19C. And it’s still February.

**Over the course of the day, so any variations in the sky. February.**

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23rd May 201827th May 2018

Penge Street Art Trail

Wednesday, 23 May, 2018 (afternoon)

I follow the Instagram account London Calling Blog ‘Documenting Street Art since 2015.’ They blog about and post street art from every London neighbourhood and have often helped me identify the pieces I’ve photographed. One thing I noticed is that Penge has a lot of street art. It has do with LCB’s Street Art Community Project aka SprayExhibition20 when a lot of pieces went up. The trend has continued.

I used to live not too far from Penge and I remember it being a not-too-desirable fairly boring place to be back then, so I wasn’t expecting too much. I knew it was quite residential and that it had a high street and that’s about all.

I was at a disadvantage, Krish having asked where I wanted to go and me having rattled off a half dozen options. He chose Penge. In a parallel universe I’d have prepared a map and plotted art pieces along the route. Instead I had some roughly scrawled notes to go with my admitted lousy map reading skills. Argh.

We set off about 2pm and arrived just after 3pm – love the Overground! We started at the southern end of the route, Anerly. Not much to see here but one shop shutter near the station did set the pace. Walking to our first stop, Maple Road, I remarked this looked quite a lot like Herne Hill but not as grand. Krish agreed.

Maple Road is a pretty ordinary street. It starts off small and residential and then starts to gain momentum with shops before meeting Penge High Street. We explored along the route and in some back alleys (quite reference to notes) and found quite a lot of art, good, bad, and indifferent. It’s a hard job choosing photos to post here but here we go with the first lot. I’ll add artists when I find the names.

This one is famous - doesn't quite do it for me — **This one is famous – doesn’t quite do it for me**

Leon Seesix - Dotmaster — **Leon Seesix – Dotmaster**

**We are not the droids you are looking for**

Neequaye Dreph Dsane - Dreph — **Neequaye Dreph Dsane – Dreph**

23rd May 201818th August 2020

Amhurst Road, Hackney Downs Studio, and Evelyn Court

Wednesday, 23 May, 2018

A busy day planned today! It started with a trip to the doctor where I asked about my leg pain and inability to walk like I used to. Of course, it’s to do with my arthritis and the fact I tore my meniscus several years ago. Advice is to lose some weight (noted) exercise my legs every day (noted) and to take better pain relief (noted) – I noted all these with some trepidation. The final bit of advice – This is normal and natural. Don’t beat yourself up! I like this new doctor.

On the way back from the doctor, I checked out a new cafe called Fingers Crossed on Amhurst Road at Shacklewell Lane.

**A not-flaky-or-chocolatey-enough chocolate croissant and a perfect handmade no-sugar chai latte at Fingers Crossed**

Around the corner from the doctor is a little inner yard full of artisans of many kinds. You would definitely have to know it was there to venture in. So I did walk in there to see how things were. I was surprised to see that they are building new places back there – looks like studios etc, and the cafe/events centre was padlocked so I’m not sure if it’s just an overnight or a permanent thing. Will keep checking on that!

Somewhat hidden entrance to Amhurst Studios from Shacklewell Lane — **Somewhat hidden entrance to Hackney Downs Studios from Shacklewell Lane**

**Some of the older Studios in the yard**

**Work on new studios at Hackney Downs Studios yard**

Going back up to Amhurst Road from Hackney Downs Studios - local secret — **Going back up to Amhurst Road from Hackney Downs Studios – local secret**

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