Behind the Shop

Ontario has recently lifted some of its restrictions, and is now allowing retailers with street facing entrances to offer curbside pickup. We have had a lot of people asking about curbside pickup, and I’m thrilled to say that we’re now going to be offering it again.

These are pretty wild times, and being with both of the kids all day, either at the main shop or at home has taught me a lot about the kind of mother I want to be (and the kind of mother I am). Trying to get photos done, things burning in the over, trying to get the blog done, wondering if the shrieking and crying is going to resolve itself, trying to answer emails, making decisions on the fly with not enough information about both the shop and raising children.

The world continues to tilt underneath my feet. Someone else on the team here got an e-reader. Let’s not name names but it was Josh.

Literally today, on our way into the main shop, there we saw a man being repelled from a restaurant a few doors down from us, and then shortly after, trying to break into another restaurant across the street from us. Jon was about to call the cops, but someone inside the restaurant had already called the cops and there was an arrest.

In Toronto, we have two Chinatowns. The main Chinatown at Spadina and Dundas is the larger, more well-known one (although it was moved from its original location downtown to build City Hall). It’s busier, flashier, has the hanging signs with the Chinese characters, more restaurants, more of the traditional Chinatown institutions, and it’s also close to the Art Gallery of Ontario and Kensington Garden and downtown Queen Street West.

A few local businesses and other shops we know have been sharing how they’ve been broken into, windows smashed, liquor or goods stolen. Some have boarded up their windows, and it’s a haunting sight. Fewer eyes on the street, everyone at home.

Now that the shops are closed, I’ve been making my way through the ink in the tester pens in the shop, rinsing them out and leaving them to dry. It’s been going slowly.