Queen & Country
To mark George Washington’s birthday, the third Monday of February is Presidents Day; an all out celebration of freedom, stars, stripes and everything else American. Here, they don’t celebrate the birth of George Washington - why should they? But they do still want a public holiday, so this Monday we experienced our first Family Day: a very nice, very Canadian holiday.
One thing we took advantage of on Family Day was an open day at the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres; a double decker theatre built in 1914, and quite unique in the fact that it remains (almost) exactly as it was on the day it opened.
We rode in the original cage elevator, had a very informative tour and took plenty of photographs. According to tour guide, Richard, the very seat that the infamous John Dillinger sat in the night he was shot can be found in the Winter Garden theatre - thrilling!
A free Family Day tour of the grand Winter Garden theatre.
Family Day also marked the acquisition of our new permanent residence: downtown, conveniently located at the junction between Little Italy and Little Portugal, and completely bare. Our landlady, Lily, speaks very little English but was sure to hit home about the hardwood floors, and how our deposit hangs delicately in the balance.
The rest of the week has predominantly been spent sourcing furnishings for our bare apartment: Value Village, Craigslist, IKEA and the bizarre circus of bargains that is Honest Ed’s. I have never been anywhere like Honest Ed’s, and I doubt I ever will do again. Both times we visited the place I left with more bargains than I could carry, and one hell of a migraine.
The circus and it's ringleader: he isn't lying with that slogan, either.
A Toronto landmark, Honest Ed’s has one hell of a history; it was opened in 1948 by Ed Mirvish, who rose to fame through various outlandish publicity stunts during the posts-war period, and established himself as somewhat of a Toronto legend. Now you can visit Mirvish Village, Mirvish Theatre or dine at one of Ed’s restaurants.
Whilst Ed’s is a headache to navigate, encourages countless unnecessary purchases and leaves you with a sort of commercial amnesia, we were lucky to have managed to experience it when we did.
“It’s closing down.” Andre told us on the way home. “Some Vancouver investor bought up the land, they’re gonna turn it into Condos. Anyway, the old man’s been dead for awhile.”
Andre is a man with a van - in every imaginable sense of the phrase - and all of the aforementioned, vital shopping could not have been possible without him (or his van, which is also christened Andre). Born in Quebec, he’s been in Toronto thirty something years, in which time he’s been a professional boxer, a truck driver and everything in between.
He ran all over town picking up sofas, chairs, mattresses, beds and then gave us a ride home from IKEA with the final haul. He even let me and Danny sit in the back on our new sofa; truly a king amongst men (with ven*).
Me and Danny enjoying what could be our last ride, whilst Andre assures us it'll be fine.
Sunday is moving day, and for those who are interested I’ll add some better photographs of our apartment and furniture. This week we also attended our first house party since our arrival; an intimate soiree above a Jewish deli called Caplansky’s. Predominantly populated by OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design) students, it was good fun. I participated in my first game of beer pong; a doubles match, in which me and Danny repeatedly announced our team’s allegiance to Queen and Country, and won.
It was neck and neck (pun intended) / Jess clearing the steps to our new apartment, as is legally required in the province of Ontario.
*Ven | noun.
Rhyming plural of van.