Before we had kids

Steve and I in front of our first house in 2001

Back when we lived in our first house, before we had kids, there were many things I remember doing spur of the moment like driving 30 minutes to downtown Toronto on a warm summer Saturday night just to get Chinese food from Hong Shing.

We would jump in the car, roll down the windows, turn up the music and off we went.

When we were half way there, we would use the cell phone to place our order of Garlic Beef with no vegetables, General Tao's Chicken and Mushroom Fried Rice so there wouldn't be any waiting once we reached our destination.

Once we got there, Steve would park the car on the street right beside the restaurant and then run in to get our piping hot, ready to go order.

I loved sitting there in the locked car for the few minutes by myself listening to the hum of the traffic, the muffled voices, shouting and laughter echoing off the buildings and street, the tapping of heels hitting the sidewalk, the nervous excitement of constantly checking the rear view mirror and behind my shoulder hoping that some dude with a big toothless grin on his face wouldn't be standing there at the car window the next time I turned around -- ah, the city life.

The aroma driving home was just too much to handle so we would sometimes open the container ever so carefully to take out a little bit for each of us -- a tease taste. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

It took me about a year to realize that this place was right around the corner from where I used to work. How I didn't realize this before, I don't know. I'm not sure if this was a good thing or not as I'm sure we would have made Hong Shing a weekly meal (if not more) if I had known sooner.

After making this realization, I would sometimes take a quick detour to Hong Shing before getting on the subway to Union Station and then catching the Go Train home. I always had this feeling that people were staring at me with this thought of "who the hell does she think she is stinking up this train". No one ever seemed to move away, turn up their nose or yell profanities at me -- not that I noticed anyway. Or maybe they were all quietly thanking me for masking the scent of the hundreds of people who had just crammed on to the train after being at work sweating in their business suit all day.

As I type this I seem to have developed a craving for some Ginger Beef from Spadina Garden.

I love living where we do but it's these memories and cravings that remind me what's missing from life in suburbia.

Actually, there are some great restaurants out here -- but I'll save that for another day.