Linking up at Marg at The Intrepid Reader
July 2022 - Toronto ON
June 2022 Scotiabank Plaza Toronto ON
Saturday a blogger asked me where we were going and why it took so long to arrange it.
I am so glad we did not go to the fireworks/cocktail party the board of directors had on the 46th floor for Canada Day. The restaurant provided the food. On Monday we learned that there are at least 3 cases of covid in the building.
The residents are currently in quarantine in their units and have been reminded to exercise extreme caution. We are following our COVID protocols for extra cleaning and disinfecting, garbage pick-up and parcel delivery to the affected floor. Please be assured that as we have always done in the past, the Management is working very hard to ensure the health and safety of the residents by providing additional cleaning and disinfecting to common elements and high traffic spaces, fogging the elevators, and ensuring that sanitary wipes and cleansers are stocked and available.
Around noon the power went out for about 30 minutes. It was an area outage as shown on this map.
I was reading blogs I follow and a blogger who lives in France mentioned that the UK grocers offer too good to go baskets for a great price. This is produce/products that they might throw out. France has a law that supermarkets are not allowed to throw food out it must be sent to food banks or soup kitchens. She then looked and found that France has an app for too good to go locations. So I googled Toronto To Good To Go and we have the same thing!
Then in her post she also mentioned a paella recipe from a site called A Girl Called Jack (renamed Cooking on a Bootstrap), which lead me down a rabbit hole.
She even has a Wikipedia entry Jack Monroe! And she has written cookbooks! Off to the library (virtually) and put two of her books on my wish list as they were all currently borrowed.
And I wonder where the hours go?!?
Tuesday we had plans to go to Hamilton for fish and chips (John) and tuna poke for me (only on Tuesdays) but it was a rainy foggy day. Since the restaurant doesn't have a dine in option, we were going to eat at the park.
We did clean up the balcony and moved the edible plants inside in prep for the spider treatment on Wednesday.
Wednesday and the spider treatment was done before 10!
John headed to golf and I went downtown.
Union Station outdoor patio is open.
I walked up to The Bay shopping and then walked back to the bus underground. Nothing bought other than chocolate on sale at The Bay and potatoes!
Thursday we did go to Hamilton for fish and chips and tuna poke. The poke was okay, the rice was good as was the tuna. Also had cucumber, cilantro, scallions, edamame and kimchi. The sauce was odd. As in I have no idea what was in it, just bland.
There is work being done on the loading dock and parking garage. Since the entrance is closed they have installed traffic lights to control the cars going in and out of one lane. Scary stuff!
This affected the entire country and brought down 911 services, debit machines, City of Toronto, hospitals, parking machines, etc. We are not Rogers customers. The condo is Bell and our cells are with Telus.
Rogers owns the sports centre in Toronto. This appeared on Twitter.
Lessons learned according to Twitter:
Always have cash on hand.
Make sure there is always gas in the car.
Print movie and concert tickets.
Have a landline.
BUT when we had the power outage this week, my elderly neighbour who has a landline couldn't use it. I told her it is probably because Bell is using VOIP (internet) for her landline. She was livid, why pay for a landline if it doesn't work when system/power is down? She went to the office and sure enough they confirmed it.
People flocked to Starbucks locations, even sitting on the ground outside, as they are on the Bell network.
COOKING
Saturday Coho salmon, potato salad and broccolini.
Sunday I wanted to finish a bag of frozen shrimp so I used a box of paella that I had picked up a while ago.
Contained Valencia rice, Spanish olive oil and spices.
See above re: Jack Monroe Cooking on a Bootstrap sort of paella recipe sounds much better to me! Love the idea of using turmeric to colour the rice rather than expensive saffron.
Monday was hamburger patties (frozen from last week's burgers) mashed potatoes and cauliflower, beans and gravy.
I also made and froze a bag of vegetable soup from freezer scraps.
Tuesday chicken pot pie. I had frozen the remainder of last week's rotisserie chicken in broth (as I had read) and it was delicious in the filling to my surprise. So that rotisserie chicken did us for 8 dinners for $10, as there is half a pie left.
Wednesday pork chops, boiled potatoes and broccolini.
Thursday leftover chicken pot pie and salad.
Friday Philly cheesesteaks.
WATCHING
We finished The Americans!!! It didn't end with what we had predicted.
We also finished the final season of Peaky Blinders.
We started watching The Lincoln Lawyer, entertaining.
We also watched Scarborough. I had read the book and liked it, John enjoyed the movie.
Scarborough is a 2021 Canadian drama film. An adaptation of Catherine Hernandez's 2017 novel Scarborough, the film centres on the coming of age of Bing (Liam Diaz), Sylvie (Essence Fox) and Laura (Anna Claire Beitel), three young children in a low-income neighbourhood in the Scarborough district of Toronto, as they learn the value of community, passion and resilience over the course of a school year.
Scarborough is a 2021 Canadian drama film. An adaptation of Catherine Hernandez's 2017 novel Scarborough, the film centres on the coming of age of Bing (Liam Diaz), Sylvie (Essence Fox) and Laura (Anna Claire Beitel), three young children in a low-income neighbourhood in the Scarborough district of Toronto, as they learn the value of community, passion and resilience over the course of a school year.
The 355 is a 2022 American spy film. The film stars Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, Diane Kruger, and Lupita Nyong'o as a group of international spies who must work together to stop a terrorist organization from starting World War III. Édgar Ramírez and Sebastian Stan also star. The title is derived from Agent 355, the codename of a female spy for the Patriots during the American Revolution.
READING
We are halfway through the year and I have read 57 books! I'm happy with that.
See above about Jack Monroe's cookbooks.
I finished The Midnight Killing by a new to me Belfast author, Sharon Demsey. It was a pretty predictable plot but I was more intrigued by the other story line about Rose's mother's involvement with IRA and/or police informer.
Then I started the first book in the series, Who Took Eden Mulligan.
I'll be checking out Jack Monroe's cookbooks just as soon as I finish here. Good thing you avoided the party ... we're still engaged in safe practices; you just never know who has COVID. We watched Lincoln Lawyer (in fact, finished it last night). The books are pretty good too. I've read one, but Mr. BFR has read them all. I recently learned about Too Good To Go from a YouTuber in the UK. There isn't one near me, but it sounds like a really good deal. I'm about where you are in reading. I have 61, but at least three of those were kids nonfiction, which meant they took an hour or less to read. :)
ReplyDeleteI am on Bell at home and my primary phone is on Telus. I was not affected.
ReplyDeleteI am always going down the rabbit hole, start surfing for one thing and next thing you know I'm somewhere completely unrelated. Havn't thiught about Jack Monroe in ages, I used to follow on Twitter. See, now you have me and Beth Fish reads looking into those cookbooks :-) The Midnight Killing sounds good so I will add it to my librarry holds if they have it.
ReplyDeleteYou have had a great reading year---57 books. Wow.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that France or Toronto had laws about surplus food like that. What a good idea.
I'm not sure most of us here would survive if power would go down. We need good air conditioning to make it.
Oops. What happened to my comment?!
ReplyDeleteLet me try again. I seem to be having commenting troubles.
ReplyDeleteYour reading is going great this year---57 books. Wow.
We wouldn't survive here if power went out. Air conditioning is all that keeps us going.
There was a lot of that one-lane traffic with stop signs when we were in the French countryside. Super scary.
The Union cafe is very popular.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason we keep a landline is that it doesn't cost us anything. My mother is the only person who calls us on the land line.
While I don't use it, I still like to have a couple of hundred dollars of cash in my wallet.
My 95-yo mother used to ALWAYS keep $200 cash in the house. I should probably start doing that. I do try to get gas whenever the tank gets to the halfway mark. I think for a landline phone that works during an outtage you have to buy an old school, analog phone. I need to get one for our landline because the phones we have connected to it do not work during an outtage. So many things you don't think of or can't be bothered with until there's an emergency and you really NEED them. lol
ReplyDeleteThat spider treatment guy!!!!
The Americans is one of my favorite shows of all time. I still miss them. :-(
I also love a good interent rabbit hole.