Today is the first day of the World Figure Skating Championships in Sweden. Normally, my "Toronto Friends" would all get together at Larry's condo in downtown Toronto, and have a "Not Going to Worlds" Party, where we would spend the day watching skating, drinking smart cocktails, and eating. The entire coffee table is covered in food. There's veggies and dip, a fruit tray, the Eastern European expatriot starter kit (cold meat, cheese and crackers), sushi, guacamole, chips, and then later on, we order in dinner. There's red and white wine, as well as vodka cocktails.
Larry lives in a VERY expensive building a 5 minute walk from the St. Clair Subway Station. There's a big high end grocery store, and a liquor store next door so we never have to worry about running out of anything.
After 20 years of travelling to skating competitions together, and holding "Not going to . . . " parties when the events were too far away, Larry is the only one of our original group of 7 who still lives in Toronto. The rest of us have moved elsewhere, one died. When we all lived in Toronto, Larry's place was in the middle of the City with easy accessibility. This year's World's Party will be held via Zoom.
In addition to Figure Skating, we also go to baseball games, tennis matches (Rogers Cup is a favourite), and Raptors games, together. Megi, who was born in Poland, doesn't go to baseball games. She'll go to brunch with us before the game, but she finds the game boring, and she says baseball only seems to make the rest of us miserable.
This afternoon we watched the Canadian Pair of Walsh & Michaud skate their short program, I was reminded that the last time my friends and I watched these two skate was January of 2020 - live at the Canadian Championships in Mississauga. Before the world went to hell. It was the last time we were together.
Larry lives in a VERY expensive building a 5 minute walk from the St. Clair Subway Station. There's a big high end grocery store, and a liquor store next door so we never have to worry about running out of anything.
After 20 years of travelling to skating competitions together, and holding "Not going to . . . " parties when the events were too far away, Larry is the only one of our original group of 7 who still lives in Toronto. The rest of us have moved elsewhere, one died. When we all lived in Toronto, Larry's place was in the middle of the City with easy accessibility. This year's World's Party will be held via Zoom.
In addition to Figure Skating, we also go to baseball games, tennis matches (Rogers Cup is a favourite), and Raptors games, together. Megi, who was born in Poland, doesn't go to baseball games. She'll go to brunch with us before the game, but she finds the game boring, and she says baseball only seems to make the rest of us miserable.
This afternoon we watched the Canadian Pair of Walsh & Michaud skate their short program, I was reminded that the last time my friends and I watched these two skate was January of 2020 - live at the Canadian Championships in Mississauga. Before the world went to hell. It was the last time we were together.
