Back to school

Here it is the first couple of weeks of kids going back to school in the Toronto area. When kids go back to school it means a new routine for both them and their parents. The sleeping in until whenever doesn’t happen during the week anymore and there are schedules for going to bed as well which I think kids are going to be fighting for a while.

Something else that happens at this time of year is that the roads get busier because of course more people are back to their own routine. One of the things that makes me laugh about where we live is the number of parents that drive their children to the public school and drop them off. From where we live the distance to the front of the school is 350 meters so not very far at all. If I was to walk from where we live to the playground for the school is about 400 meters or around 5 minutes to walk. The advantage of walking is it is good exercise and in a lot of ways it is closer because if you drive the children to school, they have to go down into the parking garage to get to the car and then after getting out of the car they still have to go into the playground before they go into the school so they are probably walking the same distance and you are using gas, etc.

Back to school also means that overall, more cars are on the road because it isn’t just the elementary to high school students that are back to school it is also all the universities and colleges that have returned to campuses so a lot more people are commuting. Besides all the students that are getting to the schools there are all the staff that need to get back as well.

So, for the first couple of weeks of when everyone is going back to school it means that the traffic paths are going to change from what they were during the summer. Everyone now must learn to deal with these new traffic patterns even if you don’t have anyone returning to school. Even a simple trip to the grocery store can be impacted because of either students getting out of school and wanting to get home quickly or the school buses that are now on the roads as well.

 

Ikea - Swedish Restaurant special

Today (August 27th) we went to Ikea to have their special which was 50% off specific meals from 11 am to close between Monday and Friday. Well, we got into the parking lot without too much of an issue but then we saw lots of people. We decided to continue into the building to see how busy it was, and we walked upstairs to getting closer to the Swedish Restaurant and then suddenly we saw a long line up. It wasn’t just the line inside the restaurant it was a loop around three times as long outside the restaurant before it even got into the restaurant.

Once you get into the restaurant there is a loop three times around the area before you can get to where you can order the meatball dinner so that is going to take quite a while to get to that location. After getting your food you are going to have to get into another line to pay for your food and then there is the next major issue and that is finding a place to sit to have your food.

When we arrived it was just over 2 pm so a lot of people that got there for lunch should have been gone or at least wrapping up, but it sure didn’t look like it given what I could see of the dining area as well as the lineup for the food. We quickly decided that instead of standing in a line that could have been around 45 minutes to an hour before we got our food, we decided it was time to head downstairs and grab something else that we enjoy. We headed down to the like area where you can order hot hogs, pops and ice cream, and we order two hot dogs and a pop and that was our lunch. It was fine and it was a lot faster getting it than it would have been waiting in the long line to try and get some food upstairs.

Something that I did notice the last time we went during this special was there were tables of ladies just sitting and socializing without any food plates in front of them. The other thing I noticed were the number of people that were sitting doing work on computers while others were trying to find a table. If you are trying to find a place to do work, I wouldn’t pick a place is having a special for meals because yes, they provide free internet, but you are now taking up a table for 4, when there is one of you doing work.

Yes, the Ikea meals are reasonable and when they are 50% off it is even better but be prepared to have to stand in line for a while to get your meal and then have a challenge finding a seat. I do love the Swedish Meatball meal that Ikea has so maybe what we are going to do is once this special is over we will head back to Ikea and enjoy a meal when it isn’t quite as busy, and we don’t have to stand in line so long.