The British Isle Show Toronto

Entering Toronto...


This picture came out blue unfortunately. We were stopped at a light. A young mother and child had just stepped inside this door. It was their home where I glimpsed shoddy stairs and a dirty hallway leading up to some rooms above an old run down shop. It made me grateful for the many blessings I have and I silently hoped and prayed that better things would come for them. To think that even this would be a palace to some. This world is so badly lopsided. The city as in most, carries both the stench of poverty and an over extravagant abundance of money. Of course there is the middle, but these two extremes are so evident and disturbing.

Not far away....the people inside these nice homes are very lucky compared to that young woman and child. It`s amazing how there are extremely expensive homes and high end shops mixed in with run down falling apart ones in some parts of the city.


Arriving at the Exibition Centre and to the Queen Elizabeth building where the British Isle show was held......


Lots of yummy baked goods....


Some really nice sauces and dips that we got to sample. I bought some pickled onions for my Mum from England, some Scottish bread, Eccle cakes and tea biscuits. Is it noticable that I was hungry for dinner?

Herbal Teas gallore.....

My daughter took a picture of us in front of the Coronation Street set up.....

There were dancers and a fashion show on stage....

The place was packed with people, even when we got there at around 3pm....

We saw Jennie McAlpine who plays Fizz on Coronation Street. She`s really pretty and was answering questions from the crowd.

We missed Mathew Turpin who is the famous Prince William look-a-like. He was supposedly walking around in the crowd somewhere.

Time to leave for dinner. You can see the CN Tower from the parking lot. Speaking of which....they had to close some roads in Toronto today because massive great chunks of ice were falling off the tower. One was the size of a table top and 3 inches thick! Thankfully no one was hurt. But a taxi did get his windsheild smashed from one. This winter here is insane this year. We`ve had no thawing at all. Just snow and rain making layers of ice under the snow. Coming home today from work was disasterous. Closed roads, cars in ditches. Complete thick white outs that went for long stretches. You could hardly see the stop lights. The winds were 45 kilometers an hour and had been up to 90 at times. There`s going to be some bad flooding when all this does melt!

We arrived at Sotto Sotto for dinner. My picture was taken as discreetly as possible so it isn`t good. I didn`t try again because it was embarrassing my daughter half to death LOL None inside because that would just not be the thing to do there. But the meal was delicious even though I forget what it was called now. Slightly more expensive than Spuntini`s which is right above Sotto Sotto and where we went last time though. It sure doesn`t look like much from the pictures but it also is a favorite with the stars when they come to the city. Framed photos all over the wall in the entrance. We never saw any and didn`t really expect to at this time of year. I grabbed the only other two pics off the net but better pictures here http://www.sottosotto.ca/home.html

The meal and wine was lovely.


Back to my daughter`s for a bit then off home. The roads got a bit snow covered as we got further from the city and we saw 3 cars off the road. Hopefully no one got hurt.
All in all it was a fun time. Now if only this bloody winter would leave. There`s so many accidents every darn day.