Bevy

 Linking up with Marg at The Intrepid Reader

Weekend Coffee Share

Sunday Salon

January 2024 - Toronto ON

January 2024 - Wellington St. Toronto

Well the rest of the city and surrounding areas woke to snow on Saturday but we had nothing, nada!

We did a good cleanup of the hall closet and got rid of scarves, reusable shopping bags and other stuff - 40 items into the charity bag and some garbage. I also "found" my new winter boots I bought last year and forgot about!

There is a large flashlight, broken humidifier and my old laptop (reconfigured to factory settings) to go to the loading dock for disposal.

It is a cold week!

Tuesday we went to Longo's because they had more BOGO (Buy One Get One free) items, broccoli, bags of onions.

Wednesday I wanted a McChicken so I bundled up and went to Union Station, from there I was curious about another exit and ended up in the new CIBC Square. This did not involve any outside junkets, it was all done inside.

I found this in an aisle in Union Station.

Cutting through the new bus terminal. 

The 2024 National Hockey League All-Star Game is an upcoming National Hockey League All-Star Game, scheduled to be held on February 3 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs. This will be the first year that the four-team, three-on-three format used since 2016 is combined with the "fantasy draft" format used from 2011 to 2015.
The NHL awarded Toronto as the host city of the game on February 3, 2024. This will be the first time since 2012 in Ottawa that a Canadian city was selected to host the game. This will be Toronto's ninth time hosting the NHL All-Star Game, including the first game in 1947.

 Table Fare and Social in CIBC Square is on the 4th floor. It looks more like a swanky restaurant, with all the wood detail, soft lighting, sleek European furnishings and cozy booths. And in another departure from the time-honoured food-court tradition, it trades the usual basement digs for four storeys above ground, with floor-to-ceiling windows that let in plenty of natural light. There’s even a patio area so customers can take their trays for an alfresco lunch, a moot point in today's weather!

Click here to read more about Table.

At the moment there is Thai street food at Chaiyo, smashing smash burgers at Friday Burger Co, belly-warming bowls of ramen at Misoya and cocktails at In Good Spirits, the hall’s full-service bar. Open from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m., Table is the place to have lunch with colleagues, grab a snack and hunker down over your laptop (there’s free Wi-Fi) or meet for after-work dinner and drinks.

We will be trying Chaiyo, as their noodles are gluten-free and John is wanting some noodle soup.

Getting lost in the bus station, I found these new murals, created by the acclaimed artistic duo Blue Republic. The artists created a series of shapes that speak to the universal experience of travel, a theme that best represents the inside of the building which is part of the larger Union Station transit hub. According to Blue Republic, the installation will engage viewers on multiple levels with lots to see and discover each and every time they catch their bus.

I took this shot of CIBC Square (red letters spell CIBC) from RBC Waterpark Place.

For this week's coffee date I chose the Sheraton Hotel so that we did not have to go outside in the chilly air, and there was a pop-up.

Reese Witherspoon opened the first Canadian location of her pop-up library in the lobby of a Toronto hotel.
Over the past several years, the Oscar-winning actress has expanded her scope of work with Reese's Book Club, her monthly book newsletter.
Now, the book club venture is growing even more, with the launch of Reese's Book Club Lobby Library, a series of pop-up library spaces in hotel lobbies carrying exclusively Reese's Book Club picks.
The lobby library venture kicked off in Los Angeles in October 2023, and is now headed north of the border, with the first Canadian location set to take up residence in the lobby of the Sheraton Centre.
The library won't just house books, though. It will also play host to a number of events during its one-month stint, like "Popcorn & Pages," and "Chapters & Charcuterie," as well as book discussions and author appearances.

At Dual Citizen, John had a pumpkin spiced latte while I had a cappuccino, meh, it was the best I've had. But there is great people watching sitting in a hotel lobby. 

On the way back we found a Nadege bakery in the Richmond-Adelaide Centre and we were surprised that these pastries were gluten free.

Thank goodness for the PATH, it's perfect if it is too cold, too hot or too wet. You don't have to be afraid of your life due to impatient drivers!

Path (stylized as PATH) is a network of underground pedestrian tunnels, elevated walkways, and at-grade walkways connecting the office towers of Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It connects more than 70 buildings via 30 kilometres (19 mi) of tunnels, walkways, and shopping areas.

Click here for a large map of the entire network.

I've highlighted our destinations this week.

The green highlight is where we can enter the PATH, steps away from our bus stop.

The  pink is CIBC Square that I checked out this week.

The yellow is the Sheraton Centre where we had coffee and saw the library pop-up.

COOKING

Saturday slow cooker pot roast lots of vegetables potatoes and Irish soda bread

Sunday chicken wings for lunch, the last package in the freezer and not enough for a dinner.

Leftover pot roast, mashed cauliflower parsnip potatoes, buttered carrots.

Monday pork belly bites roast potatoes and carrots

Tuesday hamburgers. John used the cast iron pan instead of the air fryer and they were good!

Wednesday chicken divan and Irish soda bread, cheesy and jalapenos. Broccolini was BOGO.

Thursday lamb chops potatoes and carrots.  I used Nigella Lawson's Greek Lamb Chops and potatoes recipes but I also added garlic and oregano to the pan. She said cook for 60 minutes, I doubted this so went for 45 minutes. We felt that the chops were overcooked, so if I did it this way again, I would put the potatoes in for 45 minutes and then add the chops at the 30 minute mark.

Friday steak baked potato and broccoli.

WATCHING

John watched a series Citadel

We watched Money Plane, although we think we saw it before, we enjoyed it.

The Prisoner's Daughter 2022

Karen Pirie series 2022 is a British crime drama television series based on the Inspector Karen Pirie series of novels by Val McDermid (a favourite of mine).

The Kids Are Alright is a 2010 American comedy-drama film. It is among the first mainstream movies to show a same-sex couple raising two teenagers.

See How They Run is a 2022 comedy mystery film. In 1953 London, Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap celebrates its 100th performance, and sleazy American director Leo Köpernick has been hired by producer John Woolf to direct the film adaptation. After Köpernick's drunken behaviour towards the female lead Sheila Sim leads to a fistfight with her husband and co-star Richard Attenborough, Köpernick is killed backstage by an unseen assailant.

A little slapstick for me, but then, I don't like Agatha Christie.

The Slow Hustle after Baltimore Police Detective Sean Suiter is killed in the line of duty, the tragedy soon becomes enmeshed in a widening corruption scandal that threatens to unravel the public's already strained relationship with law enforcement. Very good.

Alice 2022 a slave in the antebellum South escapes her secluded plantation only to discover a shocking reality that lies beyond the tree line. Interesting premise.

Call Jane Joy, a traditional housewife in the United States in the 1960s, learns that she is pregnant with a second child but that the pregnancy threatens her life. After her hospital’s all-male board denies her request for an abortion, she becomes involved with the Jane Collective, a Chicago underground women's network that took risks to help women secure safe, illegal abortions, beginning in the late 1960s and stopping only in 1973 with the Roe v. Wade decision. Excellent and scary.

A Perfect Plan 2020 Four notorious thieves wake up in a fortified warehouse and are forced by a cunning master thief to plan and commit an extraordinary diamond heist. We always enjoy a heist movie.

READING

I read Don't Tell Teacher, the set up for this story definitely kept you on your toes and the ending is not what you expect!

I started What's Mine is Yours and must say I did not like any of the characters, but I have to know what happens and hopefully justice is served! As I read on I am puzzled as to what the husband and wife are up to! UPDATE - great ending!