Beaches jazz festival fortress

So this was a nice change for the Beaches. There was some life in the neighbourhood and people in it too. Unfortunately, the life only lasted for three days and only for 4 hours each night. Life eagerly started at 7pm each night and was promptly halted at 11pm. It's very sad that music, dancing, food and happiness has to be done within strict time restrictions. But here in Toronto in the Beaches, everything must be done within specified boundaries. There is no freedom unless it's within the bylaws here in Toronto. It was amazing how many police officers there were. At 2-3 at each intersection and a court vehicle, police car, police on bicycles, parking police and even police on horses. And of course they didn't poop and scoop after the horses! The jazz festival itself wasn't all jazz. It was everything, blues, latin music, big band music and even some jazz. It's called the International Beaches Jazz festival. I thought that meant it was known throughout the world. Well, now I know why it's called that, they have groups from all over the world, but, not real well know, if known at all, groups from where ever in the world. They were good but it is very misleading. Toronto has it's own jazz festival just before the Beaches one. I don't understand why the Beaches had to have it's own. But, it seems they've been doing it for 22 years now. I think it's an excuse to finally give everyone in this Beaches area a chance to finally live for a few days and not be forced to live within the strict rules of the white bred leaders of the Beaches community.

Big butted white women licorice thin black men?

Why are there so many half black/half white babies/children in this city? And why is it so many white, blubbery, fat, rolly, polly women end up with skinny, unhappy, black men as the fathers? What's with all these skinny black men sleeping with these big, butted white women? It would be one thing if they looked like a nice happy family but there doesn't seem to be any happiness there. YET, someone that one would associate with happiness occurred between then, at least for a minute for which there is a baby. I just can't figure out how the two people ended up together? I find it hard to believe that all these big butted white women with the little babies barely a couple of years old are just carrying extra pregnancy pounds. That must have been some pregnancy if they now have a but that rivals an IMAX movie screen! And why do these thing black men stick around? There are tonnes of losers out there who just leave and sherk their responsibilities. Are these licorice like black men now all of a sudden responsible and doing the right thing? What do these licorice like men see in these big butted women? Are they all chubby chasers? Or is the predator the but butted white woman cornering the poor licorice thin man? And these babies...they seem so...wild! Which side of the family does that come from? The big butted white side or the licorice thin man side? These babies seem both bouncy like the big butted white side and gangly from the licorice thin side. It's all too confusing for me. Maybe love really is blind!

I never knew you could ruin a Grilled cheese sandwich. I guess you can!

Grilled cheese. This is a good thing. It's a classic. How can you ruin it? Toasted or friend bread with cheese inside. It's not hard to make and it's certainly not hard to ruin either. At least that's what I thought! But, leslieville cheese market managed to ruin it. $7 fucking dollars for a grilled cheese sandwich??!!?!! I figured that there would at least be some serious cheese oozing out of this sandwich. But no! It almost seemed like they used a craft singles slice of cheese between some really, REALLY thick pieces of bread, stuck it in a toaster oven, overcharge you and call it grilled cheese. They use "fancy" cheese which is probably how they justify charging you enough to buy a hunk of cheese and make at least half of dozen grilled sandwiches. They even have grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon, sausage and pear. Who the hell puts fruit in a grilled sandwich??!!?! Some nutty vegan?! If I were to give this leslieville cheese market a rating, I would give it -10 where 0="whatever", 10="fucking a!" and -10="what the fuck was I thinking?!!?"

Are customers always right? I don't think so!

The customer is always right. Bullshit. I think there are some customers that take that statement to an extreme. So this one person calls wanting to try our service. No problem. We have an introductory special. She says she has sisters that would be interested as well. But she's booking an appointment just for herself at this point. A mid morning appointment on say Wednesday. She calls shortly after leaving a message saying her sister wants to join her but the appointment must not be early in the morning, 7:30am. Well, this is not an early morning day for me so I don't want to start quite that early, however I compromise and say 8am. She takes it, 8am wed. Wednesday comes, it's 7:30am and she calls telling me she's not coming at 8am because her sister can't make it so she's coming at mid morning for her original mid morning appointment. Very presumptuous of her that her mid morning appointment is still available. Fortunately for her, and unfortunately for us, it is. Her mid morning appointment time comes along and no client. She doesn't come until 20 mins later. She is still given her full hour long appointment because she's...well let's say considerably learning challenged. She then decides to come later in the week and try a group session and books a spot. No problem. Early that morning before her group class she calls and says she's not coming. A day later she calls wanting to make an appointment for her sister and herself. No problem. This time we know she's trouble and will probably be late if she shows at all. Sure enough she's not on time. We wait and then decide after 15mins she's not coming. Doors are locked, shop is closed and we go on with life. Phones are turned off as well. 30-45mins later messages are checked and sure enough there are calls from her and her sister and various others looking for us. Sure enough they were late and expected us to be there ready and waiting for them. We call back, ask if they'd like to reschedule. They say they've found another place to go for the same service. Good luck....to that poor business that has to deal with this lot!

This may be a side note but these people are foreign, live in a foreign country where educators, which they are, are respected, service people are always waiting around to service and the customer can come and go as they please and they are always right. Some people need to go back to their country and stop polluting this country with the worst of their culture. Respect for another person's time seems to be something that other parts of the world, in particular Asia, don't seem to hold as a value. Fucking asians!

Pilates Studios Reception

I have tonnes to say about pilates studios. I'm going to start with reception. I got the worst reception from this one studio. I went into to buy some stuff. I knew this place would have the stuff because they have all their merchandise online. So, I go there, ask the reception if they have what I'm looking for because I don't see it on display, a magic circle. She looks at me with this vacant look. It burdens her to check in the back. She finds it, brings it out and asks if I am interested in buying it. I say yes. But also say I am interested in some other items that I don't see on display for customers just samples. I want to try them all which aren't all on display and would like to talk to someone knowledgeable if she can't help me decide what to buy. You see I want to buy a large number and want to see what the produce is like. I want bands and toning balls of different tensions and weights. But of course they don't have a sample of each tension and weight for me to try. The receptionist has a hard to walking to the back to look for sample either. Heaven forbid I don't buy anything. BUT, it seems if I want to buy more than one of any item, I can't. How is that good for business? So, I buy one item, the first one..the magic circle. I ask for a bag. She says "We don't have any back that fit it." Well, I know this is not true. I bought one of these magic circles just over a year ago from the same place AND I was given a bag and the magic circle fit inside. Bunch of snots, pilates people. No wonder so many people get nothing out of pilates....they don't give much but attitude!

The customer is always right except when they're in a Pickle Barrel!

So I have to go to Yonge and Eglinton area for errands and appointments, lunch is approaching and I'm hungry. I really need some food...a big steak would be nice but whatever is offered at the local Pickle barrel would be fine and even more welcome in an air conditioned, quiet environment. A nice booth by the window watching all the hot sweater Toronto-ites rushing around aimlessly around the corner of Yonge and Eglinton getting no where! I stood by the entrance waiting to be served. The hostess looked at me vacantly like I wasn't there they finally asked for how many. I said one. She sort of smiled. Then this group of four, two women, a baby and a small child barged ahead. They're more important because they are more than one, I guess. Anyway, the hostess seated us....I got some crappy little table in the middle of the rushing chaos and the barging party of four got a nice table elsewhere. I then asked if I could have a seat by the window. Apparently, there is a minimum of two people to a booth. I said oh. Sat, then just walked out. Whatever happened to the customer is always right? Not at the Pickle Barrel. I guess the woman did me a favour. I then remembered about this really amazing pizza place at Yonge and Eglinton, Mondato, went there and sat where ever I liked. Don't waste your time at the Pickle Barrel. Go across the street for real pizza at Mondato.

FRIENDS OF WHAT?.. IN TORONTO (THE GOOD?)

So, yesterday I went to various locales and events for Canada Day. BTW, this is an actual event in other places in this country, not a loose agglomeration of tepid foreigners with cheap, shitty Canadian flags and pins and huge cameras. Just a thought.

In any event, I chanced upon Buck 65 at Nathan Phillips Square (c'mon City Hall, would some grass to sit on be such a fucking hardship? You can carry the industrial motif too far y'know..), and while he was enjoyable and obviously working hard for the enjoyment of the lukewarm plebs, I was concerned at the ironic activities of the title sponsor. There was a tent titled the TD Friends of the Environment (I know, funny huh?) and a team of 'volunteers', mostly pimply teenagers being directed by a few TD employees (no doubt doing their 'corporate social responsibility' time). They had a really large banner, of the vinyl variety, perhaps twenty feet long, attached to a fence and were letting people paint on it with some sort of coloring. Then they took it into the only real grass at Nathan Phillips Square (the area fronting Queen) and washed it down with buckets of 'water' and dumped it into the grass! Nice!!! I only saw the once, but then it was late in the day. Wonder how often they'll do this during the Jazz Festival.

Real environmentally friendly. I'd just like to commend them for this incongruous, poorly planned planned activity. Way to live up to the name. Next time I need to 'launder' some money I know where to go.

Another reason to hate having to live here, and more justification why everyone who doesn't live here hates those of us who do.

C'ya.
FU TO