Open:

• All family-friendly tourist attractions (incl. movie theatres, Toronto Zoo, CN Tower, Casa Loma, ROM, Ontario Science Centre, skating rinks and arenas)
• Eaton Centre
• Vaughan Mills
• Pacific Mall
• Woodbine Centre

Closed:

• Banks
• Schools
• Public libraries
• LCBO and Beer Stores
• Post offices
• Most malls and grocery stores

TTC is running on holiday schedule and GO Transit is running on Saturday schedule. Have a happy family day, everyone!

Now I don’t know if it was a press release error, but when I read Metro newspaper this morning they said that the seat sale for the $1 tickets will start on August 19th. I decided to check out the coachcanada.com website today myself and lo and behold $1 tickets were released up to November 24th! Had I checked a little earlier I might have scooped up some of those high demand weekend tickets for less that it would cost me to buy a happy meal. But I did manage to secure some super-cheap seats for the upcoming months (makes my LDR a lot easier!).

The majority (if not all) of the $1 tickets for weekend departures/returns are pretty much sold out. But I just seen a bunch for mid-week travel on sale for $1. Once the 10,000 $1 seats are sold out, you’ll still be able to find decent prices on Toronto to Montreal travel, between $10 and $60. Don’t fret about not getting a deal, try to make your travel plans as flexible as possible (I myself will have to endure some 3am arrival times, but it’s worth my loonie!).

$16 million dollars has been invested by Coach Canada for the 15 new Megabus buses that will depart/arrive at the following cities: Whitby, Mississauga, Toronto, Scarborough, Kingston, Kirkland and Montreal, at up to 8 daily departure times.

The 81-passenger, 3.99 metres (13.1 feet) high, two-level coaches have front and rear staircases and offer free Wi-Fi, power outlets and DVD video capabilities, as well as a panoramic view, two folding card tables, comfortable reclining seats, restroom, safety belts and mobility impaired accessibility.

I’ve taken Coach Canada buses before, but have never been on a Megabus. Head over on to coachcanada.com and book your dollar tickets before they’re all sold out! Good luck on finding the good ones!

After a tentative deal was reached, striking City of Toronto workers will be back on the job soon. And it can’t be soon enough. I didn’t even realize how much garbage was piling up during the month-long strike until I passed a giant park-turned-landfill the other day. Sure the overflowing garbage bins gave me an inkling, but a month with no garbage pick-up is just a tad ridiculous.

No wonder tourists aren’t visiting our “lovely” city as much as they used to. It seems the only tourists we had were an influx of mice and other vermon who have been digging through bags of trash lining city streets and parks. Personally, I think they should’ve been legislated back to work weeks ago.  Especially when there are so many city workers dependant on the income from jobs they had to suspend,  parents out there relying on child care and children eager to spend part of their summer in community centres and pools.

Seems like everyone’s going on strike these days. Just the other day Via Rail engineers headed to the picket lines. The two-day strike ended up with a 60% off promotion to compensate customers for the inconvenience. The promotion ends Wednesday night has been extended until Friday, July 31st if you’re thinking about purchasing train tickets… but it seems that their website is on strike now by how slow it’s running (probably the reason for the extension).

Hopefully it won’t be too long ’til Toronto is squeaky clean and running smoothly again.

My good friend managed to offer me a ticket to last night’s Beyonce concert at the Molson Amphitheatre. Now, I never was really okay with some of those diva-ish qualities of Beyoncé since her solo act began several years ago, and added to the fact that I don’t think she could really act (have you seen Obsessed?), I wasn’t too keen on attending initially. I must say, that I’m glad went because the show was phenomenal!

Ms. Knowles (or should I say Mrs. Carter) started the show about 40 minutes late (which was okay with me b/c I didn’t reach until 8:30), but it opened with a bang with the bootylicious vixen making an entrance on the sci-fi-themed stage dressed in a tight, gold number. Opening with a rendition of “Crazy In Love”, the show got underway with cheers and sing-a-longs from devoted fans.

I wish I had her personal trainer and choreographer because that girl can move (including a mind-boggling back bend to a guitar rif). It’s a wonder she can do all those amazing dance sequences in high heels, and still be able to sing without seemingly catching a breath (even with all that pre-recorded technology on set). That woman is talented.

My personal favourites of last night’s show was Beyoncé’s performance of “If I Were A Boy” and “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It”) (complete with a montage of YouTube amateur renditions and an SNL sketch). I loved the all-girl band musical solos (almost felt like I was at a Lenny Kravitz concert). Though, I was left a little puzzled by the whole Beyonce-aka-Sasha-Fierce-robot-turning-into-a-leopard segment… but I’ll let that slide because the rest of the show was so spectacular.

Beyoncé’s performance included a couple of Canadian covers including Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel” and Alanis Morrissette’s “You Outta Know” (which I think she did a pretty damn good job covering). She showed off her vocal skills with Etta James’ “At Last” and by performing “Ava Maria”. We got to see some retro video as her performing as a child, and even hear a few snippets from some Destiny’s Child tracks. Great job by Beyoncé’s backup singers, The Mamas with an entertaining interlude (including eying Toronto actor/rapper Drake who had his face on the big screen… much to the cheers of the female audience members). The 4-male, 4-female dancers were fabulous. There was also a fantastic Michael Jackson homage of “Billy Jean” done by the guitarist of Beyonce’s all-girl band, and Beyonce made sure to also thank the King of Pop at the end of her show which closed out with “Halo”.

Beyoncé’s Toronto stop of her “I Am” tour truly proved how much of a talented entertainer she really is. She loves her fans and it shows (she even ended up making her way through the front of the crowd). Beyonce is definitely proven that she’s fierce.

Make sure you don’t hesitate on this offer, the special $1 tickets are selling out quickly. After they’re sold out, the next batch of tickets with a reasonable price will be $10, and I’ve seen tickets between Toronto and Montreal go for as high as $60 each way with this Coach Canada promotion.  Other departure/arrival points included in this Toronto-to-Montreal deal are Scarborough, Mississauga, Whitby and Kirkland.

Visit the Coach Canada website to purchase your tickets online.

This morning I woke up extra early and headed out with a friend of mine to Evergreen Brick Works Farmers’ Market.  I never heard of this place before this year, much less realized that Toronto had so much ‘greenery’ in the mid-town area.  Now I’m not much of an outdoorsy person, but seeing nature in Moore Park Ravine touched by the colourful paints of autumn gave me a change of heart.

As for the actual Brick Works building which can be accessed through several trails in Toronto, the architecture seemed to be remarkably stuck in time.  It’s wonderful seeing a piece of Toronto in this nature.

We reached around 9:15am and it was already filled with people making their stops at all the different booths at the Farmer’s Market.  I picked up a nice, fresh baguette (delicious… I just ate a toasted slice with some garlic butter).  I was tempted to purchase some organic veggies and cheese, but I’m trying to watch my spending habits.  My friend bought some tasty apples and a dozen organic eggs.

The Farmers’ Market will be housed at Brick Works every Saturday until November 8th.

It’s that time of year again. The Canadian National Exhibition opened last Friday, and I finally made my way down there yesterday. Great crowd (esp. because of the Canada vs. Jamaica soccer/football game at BMO Field). Of course my first stop was the Food Building, since I was starving. Had a potato roti (no, I couldn’t afford the one with meat… lol), shared some fries & gravy with my friend and then we rolled out of there after we overate.

It’s a good thing the Olympic Exhibits are right outside the food building. After seeing some awesome trampoline work by some athletes, my friend and I tried wheelchair basketball which was a cool experience (check out my form ).

Then it was off to shop in the warehouse outlets housed in the Direct Energy Centre… got myself some nice deals at Stitches (can’t go wrong with $2.50 for a graphic T-shirt).

We missed a part of the Grand Illusion & Escape Artist show (featuring Kevin Ridgeway and Kristen Johnson), but we did manage to see her get submerged into a tank of water and escape from locked chains which was cool.

As the sun went down, we managed to sneak in a bit of the game by watching the giant screen just outside BMO Field (ended up in a tie game). Then it was time to call it a day.

I’ll probably be going again next week to get more Tiny Tom donuts.

Yesterday was Toronto’s popular Caribana parade, the highlight of the two-week celebration that brings a huge amount of tourism and Caribbean flavour to the city.

It was a gorgeous day on Saturday (after the morning rain let up at least), so I decided to make a last minute trip and head down to see the parade. I think I spent more time on transit than I actually did at the parade itself! Getting from any of the subways stations down to the Exhibition grounds was crazy. My friend and I were lucky enough to get a seat on the way down there and on the way back (makes a huge different walking to the previous stop). The bus was packed and there was a lot of traffic on the road heading down to to the parade.

Once along the Lakeshore, we were greated by wonderful sounds of steel pans, soca music and the smell of delicious Caribbean food. There were so many people, many of which were adorned in in a flag from their retrospective Caribbean nation, in costume (I guess they got all tired out from playing mas), or wearing as little as possible/dressed to impress. What sucked though that all the ‘real’ Caribbean food was on the lake-side of the parade, and there were fences sectioning off the parade from the other side that we were on: I couldn’t find a way to get the roti I was craving! Plus my friend had to head to work, so we walked around for a bit, took some photos, grabbed the most DELIOUS, sweet-tasting corn-on-the-cob ever (which was the most ‘Caribbean’ option available over hamburgers, fries, hot dogs and cotton candy) and headed home.

All in all, it was a fun day (especially the people-watching… if only we were fashion police). I was planning to go to Olympic Island today for the Island Festival, but I think I’m too late to buy tickets. Next year I’ll make better plans though, and make sure I get there early!

Turns out it’s not going to be a full IKEA store, but only a showroom that will feature a selection of new products from their 2009 catalogue.

In celebration of the launch of the 2009 Catalogue we are opening a showroom at 143 King Street East. The showroom will feature a selection of our new products that will be found in the new Catalogue. The showroom will be open July 31 – August 3, 2008.

That seems like an awful lot of work for only four days.  Then again, it IS IKEA.  Oh, well… looks like $2 breakfasts and $1 pasta will have to stay in the boonies.

The ride home was brutal though. We had to stand the whole ride back to Union station after a 20 minute wait for a streetcar. I felt sorry for the people the streetcar passed by a few blocks away from the Exhibition grounds because it was so packed.

I’m glad I’m home now though. Maybe I’ll snack on the squished Tiny Tom Dounuts that are in my bag. I also need to make sure I have enough money left over to cover rent.