Cops Doughnuts

 Linking up at Marg at The Intrepid Reader 

Weekend Coffee Share

Sunday Salon

Adelaide St. Toronto

Saturday was a lazy, sleep in kind of day.

Sunday we were up bright and early with bacon and eggs for breakfast. John heated the leftover fries (fish and chips last week) in the air fryer.

Then it turned into a day of chores, stripping bed, three loads of laundry, baking, putting the winter coats away, clean the vacuum filter etc etc.

Gluten free blueberry scones definitely a keeper, perhaps make them a little smaller? BTW we finished them at breakfast topping them with yogurt.

Monday I went for a haircut on probably the only nice/warm day this week as temperatures began plummeting in the afternoon and would reach 0 zero as the week wore on. Some areas even got snow.

I also shopped (didn't buy anything) and browsed in the bookstore.

But the spring planters are out.

Yes, it was nice enough to wear your bathrobe and slippers outside the Royal York.

She had matching socks to go with her Hudson Bay shopping bag.

 John had physio and used the golf simulator a couple of times.  

John picked up the repaired ($80) vacuum, turns out it was clogged with broken glass........................

And just like that my 52 game streak on Wordle ended this week.

Thursday we went to Benares to pick up Indian for dinner. We never drive downtown, and picked 5 PM for pick up as we knew the Blue Jays were playing at 3 and the Raptors at 7 so we thought we could avoid traffic! Nope, it took us over an hour to get home!

Waiting outside for my late food order.

Entertaining myself on the slow drive home as John muttered about traffic.

These two were obviously dressed up for a photo shoot (engagement?) as there was a photographer with them carrying props.

Friday John took the car in to get the snow tires changed, buy new tires, total check up, brakes etc $2,500. It cost $80 to fill up.

We both also had to pay our income taxes!

The money is just leaking  bleeding out this month (fridge, washer/dryer, deposit for dishwasher)! 

And we still haven't received the bills for the plumbing jobs.

I had my coat on to go shopping and then decided against being out in crowded stores. We dodged a bullet Easter weekend with my cousin and family. All three came down with Covid last week, Wednesday, Friday and Monday.

COOKING

Saturday slow cooker pot roast. Provided a lunch as well, and then into the soup bag.

Sunday BBQ chicken quarters roast potatoes and broccolini.

Monday Creamy salmon curry, not a bad recipe but nothing to write home about. I skipped her step of cooking the salmon in the oven and just dropped it into the sauce to steam. I made homemade croutons with a gluten free baguette from Bread Essentials (that we thought was too hard) for a Caesar salad.

Tuesday spaghetti and homemade (frozen) meat sauce with garlic bread.

Wednesday pork belly tacos were delicious, I was looking forward to the pineapple but when I opened the can it was crushed pineapple! Now I need to find something to bake with the pineapple.

Thursday Indian take-out. Onion bhajis, vegetarian pakoras, lamb curry, chicken vindaloo (no - too sweet for us), lamb kebabs (yes, please first time ordering!), butter naan. Will provide a few lunches as well.

Friday steak frites with chimichurri.

WATCHING

Saw a few good/interesting movies.

Cleaner is a 2007 American thriller film. It stars Samuel L. Jackson as a crime scene cleaner who thinks he has become part of a cover-up. 

The usual corrupt cops and a plot we figure out easily.

Restless (French: Sans répit) is a 2022 French action thriller film. Good, sometimes funny, storyline.

Silverton Siege is a South African film directed by Mandla Dube in his feature directorial debut. It is based on the real life siege that took place in Silverton, Pretoria in 1980. Very disturbing and merits more reading on the subject.

Black Crab is a 2022 Swedish action thriller film. It is about a speed skater (Rapace) conscripted to join a team of soldiers for a dangerous mission to skate across sea ice behind enemy lines. The team is tasked with delivering a secret package to an island research base, which they are told could end the war. Entertaining.

READING

I had forgotten how much I love Val McDermid's books! 1979 was a fantastic read with a new protagonist Allie Burns.

McDermid herself was a journalist in 1979, and in this novel, she brings the newsroom to life, typewriters, carbon copies, flash bulbs and print presses, all things of the past. I loved the descriptions of the newspaper librarians clipping articles from the papers and filing them, while having to make copies if an article pertained to another story as well.

In 1979, she captures the atmospheric, dismal, and gray atmosphere of 1979 Scotland. Political strife, class struggles, sexism, and sexuality are some of the themes at the forefront of this novel. To be gay in 1979 in Scotland was still a crime.

The references to music, books, TV shows, and movies put me right into the time.

One of my favourite passages - no internet in 1979!
Danny wished phone books were illustrated. It would be helpful to see the houses attached to the addresses, just to give forewarning of the kind of person you were dealing with. It was a mad idea, he knew that. The books would have to be impossibly cumbersome, and they’d take forever to compile.

Probably my favourite book of 2022 so far!

I finished another McDermid, Still Life, #6 in the Karen Pirie series. Enjoyable.

I was looking for The Long Weekend by Gilly Macmillan at the library and put it on my wish list. Two other books popped up with the same title, so I borrowed The Long Weekend by Clare Lydon, and it is long on drama! Fun read but I not interested in reading any more of this series.