dbd33

cock fighting, bear baiting, prostitution, opium rings.

Purley

You know what Judy? Some twit tried to get I Vow to Thee My Country banned - I think it was supposed to be racist or something. It was Princess Diana's favourite and it was around the time she died I think that this came up. You can probably Google it if you want to. I can't be bothered because its such total tripe.

Oh yes, I would pay big money to see Dire Straits and/or Mark Knopfler.

dingbat

Vancouver? Last year?

<edit>
I must read the whole thread.
I must read the whole thread.
I must read the whole thread.

Lorna_D

Butch Cassidy

Calgary during stampede?

tinytears

Absolutely agree with this.

JLT

I have to second that.
To those who just come over for a holiday couple of weeks or so do not get to see the real thing as to what is really happening over here, especially when you are told by a variety of people both in business and personal "Why on earth are you thinking of coming back here to live, are you crazy" I got very defensive on my homeland England on how could you say this but now I am can understand why. I have been over here since last August with my daughter and cannot return back for a while to Toronto. I get sick to my stomach with everything that is happening daily and locally to my beautiful country, and why I keep asking myself? Although living in the GTA I am used to crime happening but not to watching where I go on my own for a walk at night or day and here being told you are not going there on your own are you! I am used to leaving my doors open, bikes outside on the lawn, going to pubs with chairs permanently left outside not taken in each night just in case they would be gone the next morning. As I have said before I pray that things change and quickly but alas I cannot see that happening. Maybe for some look at statistics of stabings etc not through vacation sunglasses as I did when I first returned back , these things are real here sadly, I see things happening in Toronto also but nothing like this. So many of our friends are desperate to leave or trying to find a little haven away from it all wherever. Oh I miss my wonderful, sarcastic, witty dry humoured kind people of the UK but hey hopefully more of them will be moving over to Canada and I will not have to cross the pond any more for a fix. I know I will maybe getting peoples back up on this topic but please again this is just my opinion. O my Land of Hope and Glory. When it comes down to it we just have to make a choice as to what is most important to us in life and how we wish to live it.

dbd33

In Toronto they don't bring the chairs in because they're either chained together or bolted to the sidewalk.

ireland2canada

I feel more comfortable going to bars where the tables & chairs are bolted to the floor (inside might I add). It stops people from throwing them at each other.
god only knows what would happen if they were left outside.

dbd33

It's not common for Toronto bars to have the chairs bolted down inside, the only places that immediately spring to mind are The Duke, the Crossroads and the Canada Tavern. (Also the nameless bar on the south side of Dundas by Jarvis). McVeigh's has them fixed together with a wire thing, like bicycles for sale on the pavement and The Stables has chains and handcuffs attached to them in a sort of non-functional sado motif.

When I lived on the Esplanade (a big street for bars) all the patios had the chairs and tables chained together and they took the umbrellas in at night. Nonetheless, one night, someone stole two picnic tables and about 30' of patio fencing. When we lived in the Beach someone stole two battered chairs and a bag of stinky hockey stuff off the front porch.

Toronto's not a wild place but it's not some paradise where you can leave half decent furniture laying around outside.

clynnog

My stag night started at McVeigh's....great place.

Is the Canada Tavern still around? (I haven't lived in YYZ since 1994)....that place was like stepping back into a time warp......I would have thought by now it would have been knocked down for condos etc.

This 'Stables' place wouldn't happen to be on Church Street would it?

dbd33

Closed within the past year. The sign's still there but the bar's closed. Now I think though the place next to the pool opposite the Welfare Mall has the chairs fixed down on Karaoke night. Maybe it's The Maple Leaf. The Chinese run place at Greenwood and Gerrard has some fixed chairs and so did the Paradise Cafe on Queen east of Sherbourne. Indoor fixed chairs are in all the best places.

There are still a surprising number of bars like that, places where you order a tray of four ounce glasses instead of pints. Places where the few women have more tattoes than teeth. Lots of them along the ungentrified bits of the Danforth. I suppose the Brunswick House was a sort of upmarket studenty version.

Yes, it's the place with the large mural of the Marlboro cowboys, one feeling the other's butt.

ireland2canada

Christ, a veritable crime spree.
What about getting your drink in a plastic glass? Or do the bars trust their patrons with proper glassware? There's something to be said for drinking wine out of a plastic pint glass.

dbd33

You can't leave the premises with a drink in Ontario so it's a bit different. In many places even to step from the bar to the, fenced, patio, you have to hand your drink to a staff member as, otherwise, you'll have stepped on a public sidewalk with a drink. Generally drinks are served in actual glasses though after my companion dropped one in the Duke she was served in plastic for the rest of the evening.

One thing that's a hint as to the nature of the bar is what people do with their glasses when they go out to smoke (even when smoking was allowed in bars people commonly went out for a toke) if it's any kind of a meat market they drain them so as to avoid the chance of a drink being spiked. If it's an average sort of neighbourhood place they leave them on the table, if it's a real regulars place the bartender tips the drink into a coffee cup so the patron can, gasp, have a drink and a smoke at the same time.

ireland2canada

Not sure I could ever bring myself to leave a drink unattended Just wouldn't happen.

You've shattered my illusions of Canada now, the country has clearly gone to the dogs.