ESL Shop and The Clubhouse

Saturday February 23, 3:13 p.m.

One of those damp and dreary February days although the temperature wasn't too bad hovering at the zero point.

Had to pick up a new textbook for Mr. Moriya which I did by going over to The ESL Shop south of Dundas West Station. I found out about this place purely by searching on the Net when I was trying to track down the text, so I placed the order and decided to head on down. It's a bit of a pity that I'm pretty much retired from teaching now since Moriya is now my lone student; the store looks pretty well stocked, although I couldn't get 2 copies of the text. And the proprietor of the shop, Mr. King, is a very amiable sort and was willing to give me a nice discount even though the text was a new purchase, and the quoted price was still quite a ways below what other sites were selling it for new....apparently, it's no longer being published so I'm gonna have to search elsewhere for my copy on Amazon. But there are plenty of used copies there when I checked.

I made some photocopies and bought a large enough envelope next door at the stationery shop so that at least I will be covered until I get that used copy. I may be paying through the nose in terms of postage since I want to get it over there by next Friday at the latest, in which case it'll be going ExpressPost....not that cheap at all but it'll get to Japan quickly.

I decided to have my meal at the lunch shop in between the stationery store and The ESL Shop. Aside from one old fellow, I was the only customer inside the place. I ordered a Clubhouse Sandwich with coffee. The old fellow came in, had his soup and stuff, and then left...while I was waiting for my sandwich. I was pretty patient, though, since the owner gave me a free copy of "The Toronto Sun" to peruse with my coffee (very good...very double-double...and that is NOT an oxymoron to me).

Then, I realized when the guy finally brought the plate over. Man, that was one massive Clubhouse Sandwich. He made it totally from scratch which included toasting and buttering the bread, and perhaps even frying up the bacon. I was so accustomed to getting the pre-made wrapped stuff from Starbucks or any other similar place that I didn't expect someone to actually make a sandwich for me. And I had completely forgotten the architecture that goes into a Clubhouse. This was one tasty meal....something that Japan still hasn't quite discovered yet. Hamburgers have been a boom there for the last several years but their sandwiches are still kinda emaciated overall. And heck, they even sell strawberry-and-cream sandwiches in the convenience stores...I like my desserts, but not between two slices of white bread.