I hope.

We spent a couple of hours yesterday afternoon being driven around by a real estate agent looking at apartments. The first building we went to was a new building on Ted Rogers Way. Really new. The elevators were still protected by cardboard and the landscaping out the back hadn’t been finished. We saw three apartments, two were the same layout but on different floors. The one on the higher floor has bigger ceilings (though the flooring isn’t as nice). To cut a long, painful and boring story short, we decided to rent the one on the higher floor and are now putting together the application. (So ignore what I said yesterday about Motion.)

The building’s very nice, in a pretty good location up near Bloor St (which ironically we didn’t like when we walked down it the other day), the gym is well-equipped (though hopefully we can request an extra bench) and it’s close to the subway (the two lines intersect here as well so that’s convenient).

We looked at a few other apartments across the city. One was bigger and cheaper and closer but didn’t feel right. Another was way down in Old Town and was nice, very spacious (it was a loft apartment, two floors going up to a third sundeck all of your own) but it was too far away and no amenities.

We’re now filling in the application form. They require a credit score, which we looked into briefly before getting picked up by the real estate agent. After a search and a maddening discussion with a call centre, Glen was told he could fax (in this day and age?) the necessary paperwork to them and they’d send (probably post) a credit score back. That would take too long and after looking at the website a bit longer it would probably reveal we had no credit score (we need 700 or better) because we haven’t used any credit in Canada.

The real estate agent found a link to an Australian one which we should be able to use…if we can figure out how to access it. Glen was going to offer to pay three months rent up front just so we could show we’re good for the money.

All in all it was a very stressful afternoon and our patience was ragged by the time we got home. It only took three hours all up but felt much longer. Glen is also nursing a head cold so that didn’t make him feel much better.

In the evening we wanted to go to the Royal Ontario Museum’s Friday Night Live party to see the Mesopotamia exhibition. The museum puts on these Friday night events that give you access to the museum’s collection as well as play some tunes and have some food and drink. It’s a great idea and looking at a photo of the queue down the street it must be very popular. Unfortunately, Glen wasn’t feeling that crash hot and I wasn’t keen on going by myself this time. Sadly, it’s the last one of the season but we’ll have to check them out next year.

Thankfully we didn’t spent the whole evening at home and we went out for dinner to Terroni’s in Queen West. This Italian restaurant had come recommended and we only stumbled upon it by accident. There was a woman standing just inside the entrance when we arrived. She was clutching what I thought to be a clipboard but turned out to just be a brochure. We thought she was the greeter and weren’t the only ones to make the mistake. We had a quick chat with her, asking whether the food was good. She recommended the chocolate cake and went into elaborate detail about how it was presented and how good it tasted. She should get a commission from the restaurant.

We joined the queue to put our names down and were told it would be a 30 minute wait. We gave them our numbers and went to go outside but stopped to talk to the woman, Andrea, and her husband, Mike, in the entrance again. They told us Smokey Joe Robinson was playing in front of City Hall so we should go see that, then head up to Joe Mama’s afterwards as their son was playing bass in the band. They also recommended we go to a Blue Jay’s game because they’re having a really good season (baseball). Luckily, I managed to catch a few headlines on the news so I was able to contribute and say how they’d had such a winning streak they were having eight days off. Phew!

Mike’s cousin is head of security at Terroni’s so he very kindly (for us) went and got our name bumped up the list so instead of a 30 minute wait, it was only about ten or fifteen. Anyway, Mike and Andrea left, wishing us well, and we lingered outside until the message came for dinner.

Terroni’s is huge. Initially I thought there was only one dining room (which is big enough) but after going to the washroom (see? learning these Canadianisms) I saw there’s an outside, downstairs and upstairs area. So with all those people, it meant our food was a little slow in coming out. If we go again though, I’d like to sit downstairs as it’s quieter and more secluded. The food was very nice. Glen had beef and I had spaghetti marinara.

After dinner we went to City Hall to see what was going on with Smokey Joe. Packed. Free outdoor concert for the Toronto Jazz Festival. We only hung around for a bit but it was pretty cool to be out on a Friday night in Toronto listening to free jazz.