Toronto, ON 2022
A nice way to spend the long Easter holidays, Toronto was more about relaxing than anything else. While I was visiting From April 15-18, I did not get home until the 19th.
I got up at 5:30am on Good Friday and packed only a few things more. I forgot to pack some leather gear as I would later find out. As my father was driving me to Abbotsford, I talked about Spring Break and the crap that was. After he dropped me off at YXX and saying goodbye, I dropped my luggage off with Swoop and did security. Boarding was already going on, so I bought a bottle of water and boarded my flight, sitting in 10A. I had the entire row to myself! We departed on time at 7:30am PST. I read some of C.S. Lewis’ Miracles, played Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition on my Nintendo 3DS, and watched Batman Ninja on the Netflix app. We landed at YYZ at 2:30pm EST. It took over an hour for luggage to arrive (if you include passengers just getting off the plane after parking). I bought my Up Express train ticket to Bloor Station for $5.65 and took the tram to Terminal 1. The train was stationary for half an hour until departure, so I just sat and relaxed. It was a 15-minute ride to Bloor Station. The east entrance was closed due to construction, so I took the west entrance and called a Lyft ride to Leatherbear Danny, my host's home. We have chatted before, but this is our first meeting. We did a lot of chatting and soon after, I settled in. For dinner, I walked over at dusk to a Vietnamese Pho place nearby called Vit Beo and picked up a couple of Pho for dinner: a spicy pork Pho, and beef Pho. I had them back at Danny’s and both were delicious. I spent rest of the night on my laptop, checking messages, and watching a few videos. I called Wayne T. to talk about his visiting MasterG that weekend and the Knights meeting on Sunday via Zoom. I went to bed after 3am.
I got up at 12 noon and had a nice shower. I went downstairs and chatted with Danny for a bit. I bagged the custom-made jodhpurs I got from Northbound Leather last year and took a Lyft to the shop and arrived around 1:20pm. I was 20 minutes late for my appointment, but it wasn’t a big deal. Anna, the same lady who took my custom order at their previous location in 2020, was there that day. I first began with my jodhpurs getting more tightened and she agreed the upper leggings and crotch area could use some leather cut out. Paul came down and did the markings. For my custom order, I started with wanting a pair of police style pants with white stripes (similar to the jodhpurs). For reference, she had me try on a pair of pants off the rack and made a good guess as to my size. I was skeptical but I tried them on, and they fit pretty good! I was quite impressed that I put them aside so I could debate buying them at the end. After putting in the order for the police pants, I also asked about getting a custom-made white leather long sleeved shirt as a replacement for my Knight’s formal shirt. Anna took the measurements for that too and the order put in. Before putting everything together, I got a leather armband for Wayne T. as he requested it from me. I decided to buy the off-the-rack leather pants I tried on. The total for everything with taxes was $3262.35. While everything will be shipped to me in under a month, the jodhpurs could be picked up by Monday, but I declined as I was going home that day and would not have time to make the stop. After some conversation and goodbyes, I left the shop and walked around the block to check on Google Maps on a place to eat. It was well past 2pm, and I was going to consider 8Mile Detroit Style Pizza on Atlantic Ave nearby but went to Ultramen Japanese Noodle Bar on the corner instead. I had the Shoyu Tsukemen with extra noodles and chashu. Salty, but very good! I didn’t notice until later in the day that they had mochi ice cream for dessert! Damn it! Anyways, I got back to Danny’s before 4pm. I puttered on the laptop and talked to Norman about the Knights meeting the next day. I went downstairs and had some samosas Danny made for dinner. I later called my father and see how things were at home. I asked if my older sister had done my taxes yet and my father replied she will be coming up to do them the next day. After Danny had gone to bed, I was still a little hungry, so I left the house after 11pm to walk west along Bloor Street to go to A&W over a few blocks away. It was a little nippy that night. While I saw A&W coming up, there was a Popeye’s next door. I saw their ad on the window advertising a Deluxe Chicken Sandwich. Curious, I decided to eat there instead. Inside I ordered the spicy version of the Deluxe Chicken Sandwich with Cajun fries, Coke Zero to drink, and two strawberry & cream pies. All for under $15. It was a decent meal. I walked back to Danny’s. Over an hour later, I eventually got a hold of Seattle Leatherdaddy Rick Ruben on WhatsApp and video chatted for a bit. Funny enough, he was at a Passover Seder as I mentioned that he accidentally answered my first phone call attempt in his pocket, and I could hear a little of their conversations but couldn’t see anything. After the video call, I went to bed by 4am.
Sunday I was out of bed after 12 noon, and texting Sir Ian about meeting up for the first time. There was a bear/chub play party at Spa Excess that afternoon that he wanted to go to but I did not have much interest. I went out and walked east along Bloor Street for over a few blocks, past Christie Pits Park to look for an intriguing place to eat. I decided on Hey Noodles near the corner of Bathurst Street as I always wanted to try Szechuan style Chinese noodles from Chongqing. I ordered a beef brisket with spicy broth but mild peppercorn numbness, and a strawberry-mango slushie. It was very good and even got another bowl of noodles to add (you can get unlimited refill noodles with certain orders) for no extra charge. It was just under $30 with tip. I walked back to Danny’s afterwards and arrived just after 4pm. Sir Ian said he would visit after 5pm. I had the monthly Knights meeting via Zoom at 5pm though Pat and both Waynes was late getting set up that we started over 10 minutes late. The meeting went by okay. Sir Ian arrived before I was finished the meeting, but he had a chat with Danny as they have known each other in the past. Sir Ian and I chatted about an hour with Danny about our backgrounds, also knowing of Shay from San Francisco, who is a part of his and his husband’s leather family. He left as dinner was ready and Danny’s tenant plus a friend of his joined us. Danny made a full turkey dinner, and it was good. I chatted with Danny’s Sir tenant and found he was a nice guy. The younger guy got suddenly tired and laid down on the couch, which he attributes to new medication plus the can of (I think) beer he was drinking during the meal. We continued to chat for a while more. His younger friend left around dusk and soon after, Sir did too while taking the rest of the turkey dinner that Danny offered him. Back upstairs, I was chatting with a local Bootdaddy for a possible meet up. But since he did not get back to me, I stayed home the rest of the night and went to bed after 3am.
Easter Monday, I got out of bed at 12 noon. I started packing and had a shower. After everything was done, I thanked and said goodbye to Danny for his incredible hospitality. I then took a Lyft to Bloor Up Express station. After buying a ticket, I missed the train to the airport as I was on the wrong platform so had to wait half an hour for the next one. I was cutting it close to get to my flight, but I got to the airport and checked in at Flair. Security didn’t take too long despite how busy it was. I quickly got a bottle of water and a Snickers bar on the way to gate B37 as my missing the train earlier prevented me from getting a full meal before the flight. Speaking of which, the plane was 20 minutes late arriving, and there was a major delay after we boarded, going past the original departure time of 3:25pm. Apparently, the airport has not released the wheel blocks for the plane, preventing us from taxiing. No matter how many times the pilots were requesting it and promises from the airport that they were on their way, we were still stuck for about an hour. As time went on, it started to snow sometime after 4pm. We finally were able to move eventually... but we were barely away from the airport and the snow was getting heavier. While waiting in the packed plane and getting sore, I ate the Snickers bar. Then before 6pm, shit hit the fan: the flight was canceled due to the weather! We de-boarded and had to wait an hour to get our wet luggage. Back at the check in desk, there was a large lineup for people needing overnight hotel accommodations and a separate line for those who did not need a hotel but would return for the 6:30am flight the next morning. They only needed to know my seat number. Whew! That saved me 3 hours! I called Danny to let him know and he said for me to come back and had no problem putting me up for another night. I also called my folks to let them know what was happening and that I will not be coming home that afternoon. I retraced my steps and arrived at his place around 8pm, very hungry. I immediately ordered a medium ham & pineapple pizza plus a tomato and bacon specialty chicken dish from the Domino’s Pizza app. It arrived about a half hour later and chowed it all down. After watching a little bit of TV with Danny, we went upstairs. I set my alarm to 4am and went to bed just before 1am.
4am rang on my phone, just as I finally falling asleep on and off a bit. I did my washroom business and repacked a couple of things. I slowly went downstairs so not to awake Danny. I called a Lyft near 4:30am though there were not many drivers available. Within minutes of arrival, the driver canceled out of nowhere and another took my request. Shit! The first train to arrive at Bloor station to the airport is a few minutes after 5am! Thankfully, the driver that arrived sped through Bloor Street and got me to the station just shy 5am. I quickly got my ticket and my train arrived in one minute! Any slower and I would have missed it! I got to the airport and there was a long lineup at Flair’s check-in. I got in the line, but over 10 minutes later, was put into a separate line for Abbotsford! Nice! I took Nexus for security screening but that did not help much as the regular line wasn’t long at all and I was still put into regular screening anyway. It was a long walk to gate B5, but I managed to get a bottle of water on the way. I boarded my flight and sat in the same seat as the previous day, 22A. But unlike the previous day, the entire row was empty, so it made for a more comfortable flight! We departed sometime past 7am, over half an hour later than the scheduled flight. I tried to sleep, but only got to for about half an hour of rest later. I read a chapter of Miracles, and watched the first five episodes of Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas on the Netflix app. One woman in the row in front of me asked to use the row seat as her (I guess) husband wanted to sleep on their full row. I said sure. It didn’t bother me too much, but I did find it intrusive. We touched down about 9:30am in Abbotsford. It took about 15 minutes for our bags to arrive soon after the plane parked! Nice! My father got me home by around 10:30am as there was construction around a roundabout that slowed things down, plus he had to fill up his car with gas as it was seven cents cheaper. When we got home, I had a bowl of chicken soup from mom, had a shower, and went to bed at 11:20am. I got up by 2pm and managed to make it to work by 3:02pm. I wasn’t that tired as the small amount of sleep I got helped placate it for the rest of the day. I let Danny know on Recon that I made it home and thanked him one last time for everything he did.
While I did not do as much I would have liked to, it was nice to relax for most of the long weekend on the east coast. I did accomplish getting my pair of jodhpurs fixed and got some new leather in the process too. I am grateful for Danny’s hospitality and may take him up on his offer to stay again for future visits though I am not happy with both Pearson Airport and Flair Airlines, but I didn’t miss a day of work over all that. I am not sure if I will return to Toronto for the rest of the year, but I am looking forward to my travel plans for the last half of 2022.