Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Are you going to the Taste of the Danforth?

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I can’t believe that I almost forgot what weekend was coming up. It’s the Taste of the Danforth this weekend! My local Toronto festival. Yeah!

I love going to this food and music festival. It seems to get bigger every year.

There’s always music, games and rides for the kids. Then there’s several band stand areas where international musicians – mostly Greek, but not all, play. There’s also dancing on or at the band stands, beer and wine tents, bubble machines blowing bubbles in the air, food from all the various restaurants along the “GreekTown” stretch of the Danforth. So that means food wise there’s Greek food, Indian food, Spanish food, some North American food, Asian food and I suppose a few other kinds that I can’t remember right now, but those are the main kinds of foods and all of them will be offered for fairly low prices. Oh and they’ll be tasty!

I’m definitely going Friday evening! Anyone else going to the Taste of the Danforth this year?





An apologetic thief

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I’d imagine that a Guelph Ontario couple is going through a range of emotions this week. Why .. well .. earlier this week they discovered that their house had been robbed.


A door screen had been damaged when the thief broke into their house and some items were stolen before the thief left the house. One of the items was the mans X-box and another item was a camera.

The family didn’t even know they’d been robbed until they awoke the next morning and found a green bag outside their front door with the stolen items inside it along with $50 to repair the screen and a note of apology for the robbery.

“I can’t put it into words how sorry I am,” the thief explained in the typed note, adding they were having financial trouble.

“This is the first and last time I will ever commit a crime… Please find it in your hearts to forgive the stranger who harmed you.”

The note explained the thief felt “ashamed” and would perform at least 15 hours of community service to “partially atone” for the crime.

In the news story that I saw the police said that they’d still have to search for the thief and charge him or her if they’re found as a crime was committed however I imagine that if that really was the first and only crime the person every committed and the fact that they returned the stolen items and showed remorse they might get a lighter sentence. As for the home owners they seemed relieved to have their items back even though they hadn’t realized they’d been stolen and they just seemed surprised that the person who’d robbed them had returned what they’d stolen.

Only in Canada – eh?

Renovations continue

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My living room and dining room is starting to look a little bit different thanks to all the work that was done last week. The renovations are no where near complete, but finally, for the first time in literally years, I can see that the room will be finished within weeks.

My brother in law, who came with his son, from Chicago to help us with our renovations had to leave for the weekend, but he’ll be back and we’ll be doing more work next week.

My brother in law and nephew were actually here because my nephew is about to join a Brockville OHL hockey team. He’s an extremely good hockey player and we – and the team owners – think he has a good chance of getting into the NHL .. so being on this team is hopefully the beginning of his professional hockey career. He’s a smart kid though – whether he’s on a hockey team or not he has education goals. He wants to be a doctor and he’s intelligent enough to become one.

I don’t know when my nephew is supposed to officially start with the Brockville hockey team if he joins them, but I know my brother in law and nephew will be back here next week for a few days and then they have to get back to Chicago. I think my brother in law has to drive his daughter to NC for a raleigh nc accounting interview. She’s going to be moving I believe or she’s thinking about it.

I’m in a for a few busy days so I guess I’d better relax while I can. Last week was pretty hectic!

Shooting in the Eatons Center Mall!

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I’ve been watching the news for the last hour or so because there was a shooting inside the Eatons Center Mall here in Toronto. It happened at approximately 6:30 pm in the North Food Court and at this time it looks like perhaps three people have been shot.


It looks just crazy downtown. Everyone has been evacuated from the mall but there were large crowds outside everywhere and of course the media started closing in too. They still don’t know if the shooter is still inside the mall or if he’s in the crowd that exited the mall.

I’ve lived in Toronto for over 25 years and I’ve never seen anything like this. Oh yes I have – on an episode of Flashpoint, but that wasn’t real!

When I first moved to Toronto I worked in the jewelery trade – which for the most part is located right across from the mall, so this area feels very familiar to me. Almost like a home base since that’s where my business was and since my sister still has her business across from the mall.

Now the news is saying that they have an unofficial source that says there might be up to 6 victims. I hope that’s wrong!

What an amazing Spring

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I can’t believe how well my garden is doing so far this year. If I didn’t know that it was the 22nd of April I’d swear that, just looking at my garden, that it was nearing the end of May. My garden is just that far ahead of itself.

Glory of the snow blossomsOf course it’s all because we had one of the warmest winters we’ve ever had this past winter. Barely any snow, much warmer than average temperatures. Hey I was was wearing shorts some days in March. I even watered the garden a few times in March. I’ve never ever done that before. I mean, I live in Toronto – part of the Great White North!

In the past I could rely on my raised garden beds to put my garden ahead of others by a week or two because my garden beds, being raised, would warm up a little earlier than ground level gardens, but I didn’t need that advantage this year.

Oddly enough March was warmer than April has been so far. In fact I hear that we might even get some snow tomorrow. Imagine that. It was so warm for a couple of weeks in March that I could wear shorts and people were wondering if we skipped to summer and now here we are expecting snow. Well I did say I live in the Great White North. A place where you learn to expect the unexpected. I should not be surprised!

O’ Canada Indeed!

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