blogging, fun, midlife, momlife, parenting

Enjoying some local Toronto culture

Friday was a PA day (no school) so my girl and I decided to spend the day together doing something a little bit different.

There’s a neighbourhood in Toronto’s west end where a coveted tea shop is located. My girl has been asking for weeks that we go there so she can buy her favorite tea flavour: ginger sparkle.

click on the image to see the website

But first we had to stop at the mobile phone place to get my smartphone looked at. The first stop was at a sister store of the main one, and the sales girl didn’t seem very interested in helping me out.

“What is wrong with the phone?” she asked me. I told her it had done some update and ever since then I was no longer connected to the network whenever I left home.

“Oh you have to call and talk to IT”, she said.

Ugh. 😉

No offense to those of you who work in IT, you guys and gals are heroes with all your knowhow, but I really didn’t want to spend half an hour talking to some guy in India who speaks in code… 🙂

So I said thanks, took my phone, and my daughter and I walk down the street to the other place, the main store.

The guy who fixed my previous phone a couple of years ago was there, and he immediately knew that it was my APN that was erased by the update. I told him what the sales girl said and he said “oh, I can fix that for you here right now, no worries” so I made a date to marry him as soon as he was done. ❤

Long story short, and a few tests done by my daughter with her phone (she sent a few pictures to check downloading and transmitting issues), and everything was working again. Plus, it was free of charge. We have our family plan with that provider. 🙂

Sadly, the guy didn’t want to run off to elope with me, so my girl and I thanked him and left. Of course by then I needed to find a rest room so we had to walk aaaalllll the way to McDonalds to use the facilities, and stop off at the post office for a stamp, but eventually we were on our way to Roncesvalles Avenue.

Toronto has many rules when it comes to driving in these densely populated neighbourhoods and is governed by many one-way streets that almost always take you in the opposite direction where you want to go.

But I know the area well enough and after reading all the signs with all the rules about when you can park and whether or not you need a permit and how long the free street parking is allowed before the parking enforcement comes along and gives you a ticket, we found a spot to park near a school. 🙄

The area where our tea shop was located is culturally known as the centre of the Polish community in Toronto. Many polish businesses, especially delis, butcher shops and bakeries, used to make up the bulk of the retail along there. Sadly, the Polish mom-and-pop shops started to close down as the elderly owners began to retire from working.

It’s been a while since I’ve walked along that road though, and I was pleasantly surprised that there aren’t as many closed shops as there were when my first born was still a baby, going back more than a decade. The area has revitalized, which was wonderful to see, and I took some photos for those of you who are interested in witnessing some local culture from my little corner of this big, metropolitan Canadian city.

Note, Toronto is a city of neighbourhoods. This one has a village feel to it, similar to the one I live in, closer to the lake. Let me know if you agree.

Roncesvalles Avenue
The cold remedy is a flavour she picked up as well.
Nutella pizza listed with the dinner menu… ?
Lots of little coffee shops and bakeries…
There’s a cat sleeping in the window…
Next time we’ll have to go in and buy some dog treats.
Murals typical of many neighbourhoods in Toronto – this is with the iconic red streetcar
Flower, fruit and veg stands at every corner…
Simple but effective, showcasing the wares in boxes and crates.
I don’t know what this sign means, at the bottom of a large church… ?
True statement. 🙂

The next date she and I have (besides all her rink activity) is a One of a Kind craft show. That’ll be in two weeks.

Until then…I’ll probably resume regular blogging. 🙂

32 thoughts on “Enjoying some local Toronto culture”

  7. It looks surprisingly like the town I live – although it’s changing here slowly. The town is becoming more affluent, and forcing all the independent shops out – replaced by offices, coffee shops, boutiques for elderly women, and fake sport shops full of branded clothing that costs six or seven times as much as it should. There are four Michelin starred restaurants within a mile of each other – and you can’t get a seat at any of them (not that we could afford to anyway). It’s madness.

    Liked by 1 person

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      3. Hemispheres… north and south poles. We are not the centre of the universe. Life most certainly works… We get a lot of Canadians traveling through here. You guys are the biggest mining industry in the world I think, followed by us. Hence we are each the most important middle powers to the US

        Liked by 1 person

  17. Great post on one of Toronto’s nicest little communities. I grew up not far in “The Village of Parkdale” … until I was 12 then hiked it up to Etobicoke. I miss the Polishness of it, but it’s still there nestled on the small strip. Only peeve today is it being called, “Ronci”, by the Hipsteratti. Ed’s Real Scoop may have the best ice cream in the city. Have you tried Defina for pizza? 🙂

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