And, Like That, He's Gone

BAM, I'm out of Toronto like a bolt and back in London before anyone even knew I was gone. (Unless they didn't notice I was there in the first place...hmm, I must learn to make more of an impression on people. Maybe more yelling?) My exit strategy was formed by about halftime of Toronto FC's crushingly disappointing loss to New York on the 24th, when it became apparent that I would be leaving town pretty soon in lieu of any possible MLS playoff games. With the last week filled with birthday events, sickness and Halloween parties, I barely had time to take stock in the fact that I was once again leaving ol' Toronto town for yet another winter. On the bright side, I highly doubt that a plow goes down the back alley behind my apartment, so at least I get to avoid having my car buried for upwards of three months. How do people in similar situations operate? Do they just wake up one morning in December, notice their car vanished under a massive mound of snow, and then just shrug and commit themselves to taking a bus until the first thaw? Man alive.

It's possible the city didn't want me to leave. I wanted to be on the road before 2 PM in order to avoid any semblance of rush hour in both Toronto or London, but didn't get out of there until after three due to some fantastic incompetence....and not on my part, for a change. I went to get my keys copied for the winter subletter, and popped down to the keycutter in the mall to get the job done. So the keys are cut with no issue, I pop back to the apartment...and neither key works. Fantastic. So then it was BACK to the mall to explain to the guy behind the counter that yes, in fact, there was 'some issue' with the keys in the sense that both were total and complete rubbish. So he re-cuts them, I head back to the apartment, and hey, success! The key to the building's front door opens properly! But...not the key to the actual apartment door. So it was back to the key-cutter for a third bloody time to get another key, and this time, it ended up working. Total time allotted on these back-and-forth trips: a good 45 minutes. Just incredible. Now, I admit to knowing exactly nothing about copying keys, but is it really that difficult a task? Each cut took five minutes, tops, so there clearly isn't an overt amount of craftsmanship needed. Was my apartment door key somehow really complex to duplicate, or was the cutter handling the job just wretchedly bad at his job? My car went in for a service a few weeks ago, thank goodness the garage doesn't operate the same way. "Ah, back again, sir? Oh, this time just two of the tires blew out while you were driving? Ok, that's better! We'll just replace those two blown-out ones, and this time, let's cross our fingers and hope for at least a 75 percent success rate, mmkay?"

When I do get back to TO, at the top of my to-do list is to visit this Commisso Brothers bakery. Rewind to last summer, when I'm at my cousin's place and noting that I don't know of any truly great Angelo's-style food market in Toronto. Rewind again to general London history --- Angelo's is a fantastic all-purpose bakery/market, with three locations in London, one of which is thankfully a five-minute drive from my house. Huzzah for easy access! Anyway, while obviously Toronto has loads of markets that would probably put Angelo's to shame, I've never been able to find one due to my overt laziness. However, my cousin informed me of the Commisso Brothers, which she described as "a Toronto Angelo's." This certainly piqued my attention....though apparently not enough to actually go find the place in the subsequent two months I was in the city. Again, overt laziness, folks. But next year, oh, that'll certainly be the time to commence with the Commissos. I can taste the high-class bologna sandwiches already. That's right, bologna sandwiches on proper panini bread and with proper bologna, not the store-brought stuff that's shaved off of a dead horse's carcass.

Man, this post is making me ravenously hungry for Angelo's. Five minutes, here I come!