Tuesday morning, I headed north up Coxwell for a short stroll. I usually avoid arterial roads due to car noises but I wanted a change from walking along Danforth Avenue. I thought it would be a concrete jungle like Dufferin or Ossington in the West End but Coxwell was more like an ok Dovercourt Rd. That is: with the houses set back from the street with green lawns, it was nicer than Dovercourt north of Bloor but it wasn't quite the pleasant tree-lined boulevard of Dovercourt south of Bloor.
Near O'Connor there was a cluster of businesses. You can always tell where the downtown of former villages used to be by the block or two of stores amid the residential homes. Of course, 150 years ago, they wouldn't have had Sushi or Greek restaurants. I wanted to check out this area during my sublet in 2022. I never got around to it and don't recall which restaurant was on my to-do list.
I also wanted to visit the series of connected parks and green space around here so I looked for a pedestrian entry. One of them, Taylor Bryant Park, was nestled among the chi-chi houses of Taylor Drive. A series of steep stairs led me down to Taylor Creek. Looking back, I should have taken the walking trails to Woodbine or even Victoria Park. But I headed west to the Don Valley. This wetland strip was a bit of nature amid the urban landscape but it wasn't particularly pleasant. Firstly, the noise from the DVP highway mostly drowned out the Don river or any other natural sounds. And secondly, you were committed to a long walk as there was no exit until past the Millwood Rd bridge at Beechwood. I then headed south along traffic-heavy Broadview until I was back at Danforth before double back to my rental. This accidental 11 km walk took almost 2.5 hours to complete.
After a quick washing up, I jumped on the subway to the first event of the day: the Fide Chess Candidates at The Great Hall. The top players from 2023 competed in classical chess for 3 weeks. The winner would face the current champion later in the year. It was the first time The Candidates was played in North America and the first time ever that both the Open and the Women's Candidates took place at the same time and in the same location. I wasn't a huge chess fan (nor a good player) but this was the sort of random event that I used to attend because Toronto was a big city full of interesting activities.
It turned out to be a let-down. Though my ticket claimed that I had a window from 2:40-4:30 pm to watch the players from the balcony, you had to be there by 2 pm. There was no "late-comers" or any sort of rotating entry policy. There was also a "no camera and phone" restriction. I wasn't the only one caught flat-footed by this strict rule.
Supposedly, this was to give the players a quiet environment to compete. But given that media was walking around on the main floor with cameras while VIPs (those who paid for pricier packages) can enter and leave at any time, I doubt these policies were meaningful. In any case, we all shuffled into the fan-zone in the basement to watch the matches on TV monitors. I hung around listening to the commentaries, watched some amateur games, and bought a t-shirt as a souvenir. I headed out after about an hour as it was too sunny an afternoon to be inside watching a screen.
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