Despite my entrenched resistance to growing up in general, Audrey and I appear to have reached that stage of adulting where holiday family dinners can't help but be exclusionary in some way; by flying to Toronto for Spring Break so we could spend Easter weekend with Fenya and Bobby, it meant abandoning Glory! But with the Noah Kahan concert on Friday night and a visit to her bestie's family for Easter supper, we knew she would not be completely abandoned. And what a wonderful week in TO it was!
Air travel is still a conundrum to me in some ways; a mere four-hour flight that between airport travel, security screening and getting a ride from YYZ to F&B's Cabbagetown apartment, somehow felt like we were travelling the entire Tuesday, or at least from 8 am to 8 pm... Some of this discomfort is mitigated by the ability to have waffles and a bevvy at the Belgian Beer Cafe at 9 am, however.
Wednesday saw poor Bobby both under the weather with a (non-Covid) cold and under the gun for his PhD committee presentation the following day, which I understand to be not only an intense, nearly hour-long Powerpoint show but is followed by what is essentially a mini-dissertation defense. We left him to his own devices and best wishes and just got a little shopping in, including the turkey that we agreed to cook up for Easter supper.
But even a simple shopping trip is kind of cool when you realize their neighbourhood Loblaws was formerly the legendary Maple Leaf Gardens and has their eponymous sigil recreated in an array of arena chairs on one wall...
That evening the three of us heading back to Etobicoke to visit our friends from Wesley-Mimico United Church, our congreagation from when we lived there in the late '90s. John and Nancy had graciously agreed to host a potluck there, and it was nothing short of delightful to reconnect with these dear friends (and some new ones, including their new minsiter and his wife!).
Despite our only having lived in Toronto for four years, those relationships have somehow managed to stay intact, and they were hugely important in helping F&B get settled when they were apartment hunting there last year.
Thursday began with a trip to Kensington Market, a truly funky assortment of shops and restaurants situated in former homes in this old Toronto neighbourhood that most people my age are likely to associate with Al Waxman. The primary purpose was to find a dress for Fenya at one of the many thrift and vintage shops in the area (as she has a singing performance coming up), but when Bobby showed up following his academic ordeal, his cerebellum truly wrung out and in need of a rest, he and I made tracks to the nearest restaurant.
Blessedly, this turned out to be my first encounter with Jamaican/Italian fusion at the amazingly named Rasta Pasta. My Fettucine Irie (with a generous portion of spicy jerk chicken stirred in) was fantastic, but I think his namesake dish of Rasta Pasta was even better - the fluffiest gnocchi I have ever tasted paired with a mixutre of ackee fruit and salt cod. The ladies ended up getting the same thing when they joined us a little later, and agreed that the dish was worth seeking out, even if the restaurant's three-door layout was a little confusing.
Xenomorph Brain Fluid (15) |
Yes, OBVIOUSLY I kept the Lich King Tiki Mug... |
By Saturday, Bobby's cold had begun transferring itself to Fenya, but she was still up to walking just over a block from their place to the Allan Gardens Conservatory. This collection of plants is not dissimilar to the Muttart in Edmonton, but is contained within a set of greenhouses dating back to before Confederation, and their tropical wing has a tremendous collection of turtles I found entirely captivating. The plants are amazing too!
"WHAT."
We attended the 4:30 show (which included birthday announcements for celebrants aged 4 to 50, which I found delightful), but they hustle you out of there pretty quickly afterwards, leaving a lot of souvenir and bar money on the table in my opinion. But this left enough time for our traditional viewing of Jesus Christ Superstar, which Fenya was keen to do before Easter Sunday, as the movie ends on Good Friday.
And this of course includes Skye, who, while still a terror when left unsupervised and has disassembled a closet and its contents, including at least one door removal, obviously has a tremendous amount of affection for her new family, but still remembers us fondly too.
No comments:
Post a Comment