So Jazz is very big here in Canada and there are a lot of Jazz festivals at the moment. I guess during the summer they squeeze as much in because come Winter not too many people venture out. There is something like 30 festivals on at the moment here and 50% of them are Jazz and the best thing is that they are all free!
Tim and I went to this Jazz and Blues bar on Sunday for a spot of lunch and there were these 'more mature' men playing and they were so groovy. It was a small, dingy, claustrophobic little joint that had only these ceiling fans to cool down the whole place in 35 degree heat. The band members had sweat dripping of them, the lead guy who was playing the blues harp had his sweat dripping into the harp but nobody cared. If you looked around people were sitting in their booths drinking their beer grooving to the beat of the Jazz. It felt like a scene from a movie. This more youthful band were up next and had a very modern style of Jazz where the drums had a lot of the solo's, no singing and you could barely hear the double bass. The crowd were really into this group. I would say judging by the amount of people that started flocking in, that this group were well known to Toronto. However Tim and I were not feeling the Jazz from this group so we left.
One of the astounding things here is that Canadians have never heard of a Lemon, Lime and Bitters. The thing is they would actually love it if they knew how to make it, but you cannot buy bitters here anywhere. I guess their traditional refresher drink here is called a Caesar and I am very glad I asked what was in it before ordering it. It is made out of clam juice, pepper and tomato juice and you can have it with or without alcohol. I'm not quite sure what is so refreshing about it, but everybody drinks it.
Tim and I created a game the second day we were here. The game is called Squirrel. Now to play this game you have to be the first one to say squirrel (but you have to say it the way the dog in the Disney movie 'Up' says it) when you see one, no matter where you are. Now the squirrels here are as common as Magpies are in Oz, so you end up saying Squirrel at least 5 or 6 times a day. I have been trying to take a photo of one but they are so fast. So far Roxy keeps winning the game as she can always smell them before seeing them. Her ears go up, her nose starts twitching and her body freezes with one foot poised in the air like a good hunting dog, then it is up to Tim and I to be able to spot it first to see who wins the round. I will get a photo one day and I will post it on here.
Today we went to the well known St Lawrence Market. We both fell in love with the little township of St Lawrence. Tim so much so that he wants to work in this part of Toronto. It is a really old place with beautiful old and very abstract buildings. The big market is mainly food and has so many different types of cheeses, and they give you tastes of everything that by the time you leave you are so full that you cannot possibly eat whatever it is you have just bought. But I am certain that any Dutch person will absolutely love this market, by the amount of cheese any dutch person eats. The meat was very lean and fresh as I cannot normally stand the smell of meat, hence why I struggle to eat it much ( Jules I just have to tell you that I have tried Elk sausages, hope your proud of me), Tim was in awe of all the seafood stalls, especially the scallops. They were as big as an apple. I think I am going to have to learn how to cook scallops. They had many other stalls but we left not long after we arrived as Roxy started drooling from all the meat stalls.
Across the road were little street stalls that had more of your art and craft type products. There was this one stall that had these very funny items. The owner (and creator of the items) of the stall thought his items were so funny that every time he showed his items he would crack himself up so much he could barely breathe or talk and he would get even more excited with each item he showed us. Look out Hayden and Kristen, it was only fitting that Harvey should be the receiver to one of these amusing items!
The weather was starting to get very humid and stormy so we decided to go to the movies. We found this little cinema that looked so old fashioned on the outside. It had the white panel on the front roof part that tells you what is playing and when, with the flashing light bulbs all around it. Once inside they had all these retro posters on the walls from decades ago...but they had in a glass cabinet a replica of the white one shoulder dress with the big flower on the top bodice that Carrie Bradshaw wore from the latest Sex and the City movie, that you could win. I wanted to take a photo of it and send it to all my girlfriends who went with me to see the movie but I wasn't allowed. The theatre was very cheap as it only cost us $7.oo for the both of us to get in and the cinema itself was very old and had that musty smell just like the Lorne cinema. It was so delightful. Even the pre movie advertisements were very 70's and looked like the opening credits to 'that 70's show'. I think we will be going there for our movie fixes from now on!
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