Monday, March 05, 2007

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.

14 comments:

Naturegirl said...

Thank you for giving me scenes of Toronto! I.ve been here in the sun shine state for the last month..come on over and see my surroundings! Home next week so it was nice to see my familiar CN tower! hugs NG

Kahshe Cottager said...

You came into Toronto and we went west to London! Lucky for all of us the weather was good for traveling and the roads were relatively safe for driving. We have been lucky weather-wise in TO this year as most of the really bad weather has missed us.

It sounds as if you had a very special day with your daughter and you got some really nice photos to remember it with.

Christine Boles said...

Wow, Tea, your weather looks torturous! I hope you don't have to go a long way to work.
But this outing ("Grand Day Out"!) looked fun~ thank you for sharing the photos with us!

JacquiG said...

Oh that British Show looked good! I did think about going on Sunday, but ended up just spending a very lazy day. There's always next year! Glad you had a good day out (and a safe one), and the photos were great!

Marion said...

I thoroughly enjoyed this post, Tea...I felt I was there with you! And the photos were great!

I'm with you on "this bloody winter"...lol!

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful time you had, and fancys eeing Fizz from Coronation Street. I agree with you about the snow, but it's something of a rarity over here in the UK.

Judypatooote said...

Thanks for the tour....Years ago, we took the train to Toronto...I loved it.....but I thought it was the end, for we had to get around town with the TAXI drivers....from hell.......

Gary said...

Nice pictures. I've been to Montreal, but never to Toronto. Maybe some day.

Primrose Hill said...

Great pictures of Toronto, we didn't make it there in our trip to Canada, only to Montreal - wish we had now. That's so cool that you have a "British Isle Show"! I remember the weather being awful when we were over, about this time a couple of years ago. We had to drive up to Tremblant in a blizzard, scary!
Thanks for your birthday message - I still feel 26!
L x

Bob said...

Looks like you had a good time there Tea.

Heather said...

Sounds like a good time!! I can vouch for Sotto Sotto - excellent little restaurant!!

Rowan said...

Your weather sounds appalling! Glad you had a good time in Toronto and enjoyed the British Show. I'm another of the 'been to Montreal but not Toronto' crowd:)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tour of your day out, sounds like you had a great time. See how others live does make you stop and take stock of how much we have been blessed.

Hope the weather improves for you, sunshine all round down here...

Rusty in Miami said...

Great pictures of Toronto, I visited about 10 years ago in April and we experienced one the coldest day I ever seen. And accurse the first thing my family and I did was go up the CN tower and later drive to Niagara Falls a very tourist like vacation