Toronto The Good

Hello internet. I am still Deb and you have clicked once more upon my blog Deb in the City. I know this is technically speaking a vlog because it’s video but I can’t say the word vlog without feeling silly. It sounds like the brand name for the new ugly shoe of the season. As in: "dude, I know they look funny but my vlogs are soooo comfortable."

Deb in the City is my new coping mechanism since my friends did an intervention on me and took away all my scrapbooking stuff. See, I’ve had a little more stress than usual lately because I just moved, which according to the interweb is the third most stressful thing you can do after getting divorced and dying.

I can’t fully absorb it but I now live in Canada. Toronto, Ontario to be exact. It is fantastic here, truly but arriving and settling has been a workout. And the Canadians are nice about immigrants. Look, we have our own magazine.

Stress aside, Toronto is an amazing place. I get to live in a fantastic house:

OK, It’s not actually in Toronto proper but in the GTA. Richmond Hill, to be exact. Brand new house, where a bungalow once stood. The march of progress.

So, when I first got here I was really excited to go skating immediately at Nathan Philips Square with all the other new immigrants and I was shocked to discover that there is no ice in May. Contrary to my dumb Amercian notions about Canada, it is not perpetual winter here.

Slightly crestfallen, I decided to soothe my Yankee sensibility and went to go look for something to buy. I got on the wrong streetcar and got totally lost and ended up here:

Did I go inside? You bet I did! Honest Ed’s is an amazing discount-shopping parallel reality, with a fantastic show biz glitz design going on. Ed’s sells just about anything you would need to set up your life on a sturdy foundation of useful products at a deep discount. And sold in a unique florescent light slash neon and chaser light setting.

Groceries and sporting goods! Meat and furniture! Maple syrup in the adorable leaf-shaped bottle!

It’s incredibly tidy in Ed’s and as a nanny that deals with child-induced clutter on a pandemic basis, the neat rows of everything put a smile on my face. I spent ten bucks at Ed’s and left with a huge bag of useful discount joy.

This is Deb in the City saying so long from Toronto, Ontario, where the two official languages are French and English but if you have to call 911, the city can respond to you in over 150 languages.