stroll to work - alternate route

Well, here's a depressing sight to me upon leaving the house.

Even more depressing...


That is per litre, folks, not per gallon. And these days it seems we're meant to be grateful when the gas price goes below $1.00/litre. Hard to believe that only three years ago the prices were hovering between $0.70 and $0.80/litre and some gas bars were lowering it to $0.50 at certain times to get business...

And look at this tree - with leaves still on it! Not in the natural order, really, for December...



But its time to stop lollygagging and get to work. Today, I think I'll get off at Osgoode, the subway stop before my usual one, for a change of scenery.

The first thing I see is the sign for Campbell House, which currently houses the Advocates' Society.

If you bothered to read the fine print, you would have realised that this is actually a mobile home. Yes, that's right - it was picked up and moved at least a dozen blocks back in the 70s.

And what does this "mobile home" look like?

Ah, Toronto. No boring old trailer parks for us! Picture the truck that they got to tow that puppy!!

Westward ho...
One of my favourite (although rarely visited these days) watering holes, the Rex Hotel. Great music on a Friday afternoon...

And a little oxymoron for you...

Oh, look! A car is ready to run into the CN Tower!!!!

Eeekk!!

But I'm not one of these accident-happy rubberneckers, so my eye turns to a kickin' pair of boots and matching satchel:

This is the store window at John Fluevog, my favourite shoe store. I am sorely tempted to smash and grab the following shoes every time I walk by:

They have left them in the shop window since the summertime, just to taunt me, I'm sure. At $270.00, my iron resolve has not yet broken, I'm happy to announce (after all, I've yet to try out Handmaiden Flaxen...). Unfortunately, I'll be out of town this year during the one week a year they actually have a sale - after Boxing Day.

Next up - one of Toronto's great independent bookstores.

I don't know what the yellow construction fence is there for. I do hope they are not getting rid of Pages to build another condo.

After all, who couldn't love a store which brought their prices down in light of the high Canadian dollar weeks before the big box bookshop chain which shall remain nameless bothered?!?

(In case you can't see for the glare, that is a drawing of Captain Canada.)

And hark! What's this? An ad for...

...yet another reality show. With absolutely no offence intended to my Australian friends, are we really so short of North American reality shows that we have to import them from Australia?!?

Oh - and just in case you forgot we were in Toronto...

Here is my favourite tree trunk in the city.

Cute, eh?

And - a moment of silence while I honour the passing of one of my long-time past haunts.

This was one of the first gathering places for the Friday meetings of The Tenant Advocates, where the beer was cheap, the snacks were plentiful (and even somewhat edible) and the times were good. Vale the 360!

And, since we are, after all, in December, here's some Christmas cheer...

I actually took a photo of this because I thought it would make a good future inspiration for a freeform motif:

And some more Christmas cheer:

I'm never drunk enough when I pass this place to actually go in. Seems like it might be worth a trip some evening, however.

And finally, on the last left of the journey to my office - the infamous Dead Letter Branch which appears to have swallowed packages destined for the United States.

I blame the postie who looks like Santa. But then again, there was a woman in there once who seemed interested in yarn...

Happy Thursday! And please do note that on this day in 1959, Archbishop Makarios became the first president of Cyprus. War ensued between the Greeks and the Turks soon after and has since been a constant underlying threat. Beware the mixing of politics and religion...