Summer in Toronto

July 21 is the summer solstice and the first official day of Summer here. And boy has summer arrived. This week temperatures have averaged in the 30C's with humidity making it feel even hotter.

There are so many public events happening, especially now that it has warmed up. Everyone is out and about. Canadians take full advantage of the good weather :) The sun is setting after 9pm these days, so sitting out on the patio chatting and drinking is the norm here. Every day after work, the streets are lined with tables and chairs filled with people enjoying the great weather.

Speaking of which, we are leaving this fantastic weather for the cold of Joburg's winter. We'll be back visiting for the first two weeks of July. So we'll see some of you soon!

In the meantime, here are some highlights of what we've been up to:

At the end of May, Toronto has an annual "Doors Open" event. This is one weekend, once a year when "up to 150 buildings of architectural, historic, cultural and social significance open their doors to the public for a city-wide celebration.

The program allows visitors free access to properties that are either not usually open to the public, or would normally charge an entrance fee. Many locations have organized guided tours, displays and activities to enrich the visitor experience." The whole idea is to get to know the city that you live in.

This year, Doors Open was on 26 May. We went to see the TTC Lower Bay street subway station. This is an old, unused subway station. Bay Lower is fully operational but is used today for work vehicles, moving trains from one line to another, train driver training and filming.

We were able to walk straight along the subway platform from one end to end. Not much to see, really, but fun to say we've seen it. A number of movies and commercials have been shot at this station, including films such as "Johnny Mnemonic ", "Don't Say A Word", "Mimic" and "Bulletproof Monk". There were movie posters up, and subway maps of New York lying around (used when filming a movie set in New York).



During the weekend of 15-17 July, the "Taste of Little Italy" festival was on. A section of one of the busiest roads downtown dubbed "Little Italy" was closed to traffic, creating a weekend-long street festival. There were *crowds* of people - sampling Italian food, listening to live music, game stalls, clowns, etc. Very family-oriented and festive. Reminded me of Lusitoland, except it's on the street.

A friend from back home stayed with us for the weekend, so we took him to taste a bit of Toronto life. We arrived at a good time, sampled some oysters, kebabs and then looked for a restaurant for dinner. We had to wait a mere 20 minutes in line for a table, but then a further 90 minutes for our food to arrive, it was that busy! I felt so sorry for the people waiting in line later on, I'm sure their wait must have been at least 2 hours just for a table. The food was good though and worth the wait.

Greener Living

It's been an interesting few weeks ... here are some highlights:

A few weekends ago, I was attending a Yoga Conference in downtown Toronto. The 'westernisation' and proliferance of yoga here in Canada is both pretty scary and impressive at the same time. What was quite interesting was the number of 'green' and 'organic' vendors at the exhibitor section ... 'eco-friendly', 'organic' and 'yoga' go hand-in-hand here. The ironic part was that the 'Green Living Show' was on at the same time, but having booked and paid for yoga workshops the entire weekend, I was not able to attend.

On a side note, I was in a workshop on Kids Yoga, and recognised a South African accent amongst the yoga teacher participants. Small world. Turns out she's from Joburg, has been in North America for 17 years, and Toronto for 15 - and still has her distinctive SA accent. In fact, everywhere we go, we do pick up an SA accent here and there in the crowd :) I guess we will be hanging on to that accent after all.

As always, not much to report on the news front - Canada's biggest news stories are generally something relating to the weather... However, there's been a recent uproar over ... plastic bags, another area where SA seems to be 'ahead' of Canada.

The Ontario provincial government has recently proposed measures to cut back the use of plastic bags - from an outright ban, to compostable bags, to levies for bags. The Toronto Star had an article debating whether or not banning plastic bags makes a difference - South Africa had the (dubious) distinction of being mentioned as one of the countries with a ban already in place. The stats are scary... "Ontario's 12.6 million residents use about seven million plastic bags a day."

I find it very annoying that cashiers at the grocery stores here double-bag almost everything, and put only two or three items per bag. In the first week of moving in to our apartment, we had literally a mountain of plastic bags. The only redeeming thing is that some of the grocery stores have recycling bins where you can return (any store's) plastic bags. It was quite funny the first time - we took our bag of bags and it completely filled the bin! The sad thing is, it seems no one else uses this service much. I guess it's because (unlike plastic and paper recycling) you have to make the effort of dropping them off yourself.

Perhaps a better solution is to offer *discounts* for not using plastic bags, rather than charging extra for them. An example of this is lululemon who give customers an 'environmental discount' of 50c on purchases (okay, it's not much, but it's something) when you either don't take a plastic bag, or re-use a bag. They will even give you a lululemon-branded re-useable bag with the company's manifesto all over it. For inspiring reading, check out the manifesto at http://www.lululemon.com/culture/manifesto

The No Bottled Water campaign is another one highlighting the wasteful nature of consumers:
"Think of the tonnes of waste, not from only the plastic bottles going to landfills, but from the carbon expended to get that water to your table. Think of the fact that Toronto tap water is tested thousands of times a year for purity. Think of the 1.1 billion people that have no clean drinking water of any kind."

So, Torontonians are just the same as Joburg residents - drinking less tap water, complaining about the quality of the tap water, etc.

What this highlights for me is... some things are the same wherever you go :)

Town of Markham

We went to visit family out in Markham, which is north of Toronto, and is in fact a separate town. Kindna like Midrand is to Joburg, I guess.
The houses here are relatively new - mainly new developments...
There is no work for architects here - the developers design a few houses, and then mass produce. This pretty much makes for surreal-ville.






This particular neighbourhood is a big circle around a public park, with swings, slides, roundabouts etc, and a baseball diamond. It's very common in the summer time, to see the neighbourhood kids playing until 20h30.




This is the family's backyard. As you can see, the lots are very close and the backyards are pretty small. Guess it's less maintenance with regards mowing, raking and snow-shovelling!




These are the nieces. My brother-in-law's daughters on the right and middle, cousin's daughter on the left.

Toronto Neighbourhoods

So here are some pictures of the neighbourhood that I'm staying in.
Scarborough is east of Toronto, and it takes me about an hour by public transport to get to downtown Toronto.

Scarborough is said to be one of the leafiest parts of Toronto:




This area is one of the older areas, so trees are fully grown, houses are of older design


This road is one of the newer parts of the suburb - as you can see by the small trees!


Houses are pretty close to each other here, and very similar in design. Mostly two storeys and NO FENCES!

HOT HOT HOT

HOT HOT HOT

Argghh.... The temperature on Tuesday afternoon...

Crime "problem" in Toronto

Shootings... big headlines here is that there were seven shootings in seven days. The worst ever in years.


"By the middle of last week, 41 people had been slain on the streets of Toronto so far this year - 20 as the result of gun violence." Torontosun.canoe.ca, Sunday July 23, 2006

There was a newspaper article this past weekend regarding the increase in carjacking in one of Toronto's regions, York (which is comparable to Sandton). 12 cars hijacked this year so far...
Here is the (single) crime report page from that newspaper.


Sigh. Reading the article, all I can say is, South African criminals have superior methods and are more ... creative... in their criminal activities.

Public Transport

Efficient. Toronto Transport Commission (TTC) covers most of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and you can pretty much get anywhere and walk a few blocks to your final destination. Then there's the VIVA and GO systems which take you to the outer-lying regions/ towns - commuting for work is a way of life here. And I thought Pretoria people were crazy for driving to work in Joburg everyday!

The subway here is easier than London - the system is a U with a line through it. The stations are named after the intersections, so looking at a street map, it's easy to relate to where you are.


Buses generally run east to west or north to south. Tokens costs $2.10 (about R13) and this can take you from one end of Toronto to the other. You just deposit a token when you board the bus, and get a transfer (paper slip indicating time and date and something or the other relating to the bus you're on) and this will allow you to board another bus without further payment, as long as you're not travelling backwards on your route.
Alternatively, you can buy unlimited weekly or monthly passes that allow you to use all systems (buses, subway, streetcars, light rail transport) on the TTC. A monthly pass is $100 (about R620) which is worth it considering the price of petrol.

The buses run frequently, and I've never had to wait more than 8 minutes for a bus. It is quite conceivable that you can get around without a car here.

Toronto Drivers

So... some Canadian road/ driving/ traffic terms I've noticed:
You all know this one - robots are called traffic lights;
And pavements are called sidewalks.
Highways are called parkways
So... you drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?!

There are traffic cameras everywhere, and electronic signboards to tell you where traffic delays are. Heck, there are TV channels dedicated to traffic reporting...
Peak traffic is mild compared to Joburg, though traffic reporters will tell you that there are major delays... JA RIGHT... a major delay being more than 10 mintes than usual. That being said, it is summer and apparently many people are away, so I guess we'll see what happens come September.

This is traffic to go on to the Don Valley Parkway at 18h00:

Notice that cars here drive with their headlights on at all hours.

Petrol err sorry, gas stations are self-service and petrol/ gas price varies from day-to-day, in fact, from morning to evening and weekdays to weekends.






Cars really do stop for pedestrians here... yes pedestrians actually have right of way. Sometimes I feel guilty walking across the road or driveway with a car patiently waiting for me!

The average vehicle here is HUGE... SUV's galore.

First Impressions

The best way to describe the weather here is - pleasant. It's warm but not hot and definitely not cold, unless you count the aircons in the malls ;) It's raining today, and apparently from August it gets really humid, so I guess I'll only experience the true Canadian summer in a couple of weeks still. Sigh... saw an advertising poster yesterday - "There are only 58.7 days in a Canadian summer- make the most of it".


The strangest part is the sun setting so late, after 21h30. At least the malls, shops and banks are open till late! Was at the North American institution of Wal-Mart last night... omigod, the variety and choice is mind-numbing. Yes it took me two hours just to buy shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste and shower wash! Just in general, the sheer volume and variety of products available in stores is just incredible... I mean, where do people find money and space for all this STUFF!!
Starting to wonder if I shouldn't just leave everything behind and not bother shipping anything over. I have yet to hit the malls for clothing and household stuff though, so I guess I'll see how it goes.

Went to the bank this morning, to re-activate my dormant bank account that I opened here last here. The teller asked where I was from, 'cos she likes my accent! Must say that's a first for me ;) Hopefully I won't lose it in lieu of the North American twang (and no I still cannot tell the difference between a Canadian and an American accent).

Going to dinner for a friend's birthday tonight, so I will be wandering around (hopefully not getting lost) downtown Toronto before meeting Brendon after work. Hoping to check out some yoga studios and re-orient myself with the city.