Toronto update

There is something within 5 minutes! A walk yesterday found a corner store in 3 minutes. Currently kind of a gourmet convenience store waiting for its coffeehouse license, but it would be a way of getting milk or bread in 1/4 the time of going to Metro (Canadian supermarket chain, not subway.) I had a nice talk with the proprietor, too. He, and a guest from Paris whom I met in Montreal, agree that Canadian groceries are expensive.

Later on my walk I found a combined florist and coffeeshop. In Montreal I'd seen a combined convenience store and plant shop.

I also found a school in what I call "brick castle" style, though with a wing in a newer style.

Today I found a meat store, with "smoked pork chops", and a game store; I haven't been in one of those in a few years. They had Hanabi and Bang, though not Chrononauts. Sadly I don't socialize enough to justify carrying any of them.

Staffpeople in the meat store weren't very masked, though to be fair they had the door propped open.

A few days ago I found a big park, and a mall; I may well use the mall, for underwear and eye exams. There was also an informational placard about proposed redevelopment of the north parking lot, with some interesting info: Toronto wants transit areas, within 500 meters of a subway station, to have a minimum density of 200 "persons and jobs" per hectare, or 20,000 per km2. The area is currently at 14,000, and unlikely to reach the target even with new development. I got excited, since 14,000 people/km2 is a pretty respectable density IMO, but then noticed the "and jobs", which is a qualifier outside of my experience.

I'm in Dufferin Grove, from other sources apparently a bit under 11,000 people/km2, as a mostly residential area.

Odd bit about Toronto: I have yet to see toilet paper sold as single rolls, even in convenience stores. I'm pretty sure I was able to in Montreal. Does Scott, the usual brand, not distribute in Ontario or something???

Yet another Koreatown

Long walk today, east along Bloor to Koreatown. But first, a note on the weather.

The last couple days have been 6 C whenever I check my weather app, but this has varied in feel. Yesterday afternoon I was prudent, wore my jacket over my hoodie, plus my winter hat, and still felt a bit chilly, especially in my legs, which usually are pretty tough. I'd been fasting all day, I dunno if that's part of it. Still, I had my walk. Coming back with Greek takeout, walking west I think into the wind, felt *particularly* chilly, and I put on my gloves (which lurk in the jacket pockets, unused since Feb 2019.)

The noon walk today was comfortable in my hoodie and sun hat. Definitely more sun, maybe less wind.

At 3:30 today the same outfit felt chillier, but I wanted to challenge myself, and figured it couldn't get cold enough to endanger me. After a while of movement, it stopped feeling chilly.

Conclusions: non-committal shrug. I'd still like to flee south to Barcelona, even if Canada is like the best covid country I can go to.

Anyway, Koreatown. Basically a long stretch of Bloor. Lots of Korean restaurants, some Asian markets. I noticed multiple fruit/produce shops, and there are a couple near each other on College too, Toronto (or Canada) just plain has a lot of them. Nothing too exciting about the area but I marked a lot of highly rated restaurants to maybe go to or pick up from.

Random note: Toronto seems to call convenience stores "variety stores". I'm still not used to them not being 'deppaneur'.

Other random note: At least three different parks here are sunken into the ground. Either Toronto had a bunch of pits that got turned into parks, or it's a design choice. Maybe to hide the street from people in the park? I wonder what it's like in the summer, if you're being hidden from breezes too. There was a sign in Quebec City about French gardens being sunken, but I'm not sure it's the same thing.

I ended up dining in an empty Japanese (probably Korean pretending to be Japanese, given 'bulkoki' on the menu) at 4:30, though it started filling up after that, including with an elderly woman coughing without a mask on. Yaaaay.

Bought some frozen dumplings.

brin_bellway had suggested cheaper groceries could be found at a No Frills in the mall. I'd been going to walk home, but walking 38 minutes to a grocery store felt too much; happily, the subway was *right there*. So I zipped over. "No Frills" makes me thing of something small and limited. It's huuuuuuuuuge. I can't say if it's cheaper overall, but did seem to have the cheapest bread I've seen in Canada, while still purporting to have flavors. And the store is about as far as the Metro store, though with a more residential walk -- OTOH, also less walk down those depressingly long blocks.

Hopefully I'll finish my work tonight, then I can go tackle Kensington Market and Chinatown tomorrow.