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The Divs were invited to High Table last night...for those of you outside the English college model, think of the table that Dumbledore and the other Hogwarts teachers sit at. It's like that, only without Hagrid and with fewer owls. Anyhow, High Table is something of an honour...I imagine it dates back to the medieval great hall, with the Lord of the Manor presiding over a feast of wild boar or something. We didn't have wild boar (the mention of which is making me hungry for some good, German food...I'll have to visit Mader's when I'm back in Milwaukee) but it was lovely nonetheless. We began with the Eucharist, and I have to say - we ought to have High Table every night. It certainly gets more people into chapel. Ah, free food. How it does draw the crowds. Pity the food of High Table seems so much more attractive than that of the Lord's Board. Oh, well. We then retired to the Senior Common Room for an aperitif and conversation. You have to put it that way...retired for an aperitif. It's snobbier that way. Dinner itself was dinner...no roast duck or pheasant or wild boar. But it was good, and the conversation entertaining. The American young-bloods at the table (which means those of us in our 30's) reminisced about cartoon theme songs and it became apparent that Fr. C has more silly lyrics in his head than can possibly be healthy. We also learned that green whipped stuff is actually tasty, and apparently addictive to priests of a certain age. After dinner we again withdrew to the very English-Gentleman's-Club atmosphere of the Senior Common Room. A digestif and a bit more chit-chat, and this Div was all tuckered out. With sleep hanging heavy in my eyes I bid my comrades adieu and walked back to the subway station. I'm such a party animal. I want to call your attention to the picture, below the blog. Below the Amazon.com box, below the Google box. (On your way down, notice the temperature in Toronto...not too bad, actually.) Yeah. Way down there. A new picture! It's the Fancy Fruit Stand on Roncesvalles. On this street there's a fruit stand every ten feet or so, most of them comfortably shabby...dirty floors, plywood fruit racks, a sense that if the store doesn't sell ten more apples and three more heads of lettuce today then the whole business is going under. The competition is intense and I don't imagine the profit margin very wide. So when my favourite of these shops (favourite because the owner's son is very friendly and chatty and gives away produce near closing time) closed its doors and papered over the windows, Amy and I assumed it was done for. But lo. A sign appeared in the same papered-over windows - Renovation! When the doors finally re-opened, the Roncy neighbourhood beheld a thing of beauty. Stone tile floors, polished wood racks, lovely paint job, a big TV tuned to the cooking channel, organic produce! It's the swankest fruit stand in all of Toronto (if you want to visit it, it's at 143 Roncesvalles, just south of Garden) and suddenly the busiest shop on the street...besides the Polish grocery, perhaps. I fear for the other fruit stands, but the posh shop is just so nice! And they stay open later, too, which suits a guy who forgets to pick up ingredients for dinner because he forgot that there was such a thing as dinner. Anyway, the photo below is a picture of that shop. What a long story just to caption a picture of produce. |
