Take Away Coffee

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Weekly Wonders

T Stands for Tuesday

10 April 2026

HUE VIETNAM

This coffee stand was at the bottom of the hotel stairs.

Last week's post

John's photos from his walk yesterday, He did 7 km and it was 21 C out. Not so this week!!

No buds yet on the trees.

SATURDAY

We received our gluten free flour order and two new pillows. John didn't believe the pillows would really fluff up, but they did! They vacuum pack them as flat as a pancake!

I played sous-chef and got everything (mise en place) ready for John to bake a couple of cinnamon raisin loaves.

I did some laundry and John striped the bed, a job I hate. We really need to replace our mattress soon!

I cleaned up/filed some of My Documents folder. Converted some files into Google docs.

SUNDAY

Back to last week's post about rabbit holes, being Easter! I decided to track what I did from 7:30 to 10:30 this morning. BTW this is most of my mornings!!!

I put away last night's pots that were on drying rack.

Got out breakfast dished, made my breakfast and ate it while checking e-mail and Twitter. Washed up breakfast dishes.

Caught up on the news, read about 6 blogs, added a new blog to my list, responded to blog comments. Scheduled one Weekend Roundup blog, drafted three others. Posted a quick post. Learned another feature of the Snipping app. 

Planned two outings after looking up the location of a mural.

Renamed and updated a draft blog.

Labelled and filed latest 2026 photos.

Found around 10 new books in various places and added either to library wishlist or Goodreads Want to Read, if library didn't have them.
Made a To Do list and update for the rest of today. Shower get dressed.  Tidy 1 top drawer (learned I didn't need the 2 chemises I bought as I already had 2 in those colours added lavender essential oil to sachet) and 1 bathroom drawer MONDAY. Tie up shredded bag for garbage/loading dock along with two old pillows. BONUS changed bag and shredded more stuff. Complete charity donation bag BONUS ADDED CDS. Take out lamb for dinner. Fix bobbin on sewing machine. Debated getting rid of candle, lit it instead. Make meal plan. Work on one of those projects that seem never-ending. FINISHED 1MONDAY. Gather items for tailor this week.

Not on list but done. Found potato recipe for Friday. Read more blogs, there are 3 or 4 that I read on a daily basis plus the ones' on my sidebar. Drafted a couple of posts.

Washed the kitchen floor and also deep cleaned the fatigue mats. Investigated some more books. Found a new cafe to visit. Frittered around. Ordered some shower steamers. 

Hung up clothes.

Baked a coconut flour chocolate cake (I had homemade ganache to use up), this cake is gluten free and dairy free, only uses one bowl!!

I read for an hour. Borrowed some magazines from the library.

I watched an hour while cooking of YouTube. 

MONDAY

Monday Mural Memphis

Foto Tunes New Orleans

Did some administrivia, updating spreadsheets and filing. I also found some photos that were never scanned for some odd reason.

John went to pick up his golf clubs.

Well, that was weird, I was tidying in the pantry and there was a case of coke (Costco) on top of the freezer that was stuck to the fridge. A can of coke had leaked with no apparent holes!

I ran out to Longo's.

Then I finished one of those projects that hung around for too long. YAY me 👍Vietnam Recap.

Interesting Amazon Canadian employees make $25 an hour. 

TUESDAY

Tuesday Treasures

Thank goodness it's spring!

Wouldn't you know that we had plans for lunch with friends, on the coldest possible April day, at least we had sunshine. 

They parked here and we took the shuttle downtown, since we were early we dropped into the "new" Union Hotel" and it turned out they had stayed there on business years ago when it was the Strathcona Hotel. 

They had never tried Vietnamese food so we went to Senla and it was wonderful. We shared a small bottle of sake to start with. It was served cold which led to a discussion, hot or cold?

I said we had had it cold in Tokyo.

.

I had charcoal octopus satay, herb dressing, everyone pronounced it delicious. The others had the spring rolls. Portion sizes are large.

They had the duck curry, it looked very good, large portions, and they said it was the best duck that they'd eaten.

John had the Beef Pho - beef tenderloin, rice noodles, onions, beef broth, also enjoyed.

I had shaking beef 8 oz tenderloin cubes, pepper sauce, watercress salad, fried rice. This is too much beef for me at any time, it was very tender! The sweet potato fries were crispy and I ate them all!

I chose this because I had tried it in Hue Vietnam.

On the bus home, I spotted this little house, advertising, obviously.

The shower steamers were delivered, like this! They were returned!

WEDNESDAY

Signs

I wandered downtown not realizing that the Blue Jays had a 3 PM game, so crowds were heading to the stadium.

I cut through the hotel and was lucky to find the Royal York Easter display still up!

And I found the owner of the Snuggle house.

THURSDAY

Throwback Thursday

I did intend on going out, but never did. I tidied up the fridge in anticipation of John's Costco run.

Putting it away takes some planning and menu adjustments.

I froze two yogurt containers of beef stock (for soup) that I made, and another that I froze into small containers to use as beef stock since it is so hard to find at Costco. I also made a pot of soup for lunch from it.

Did some more administrivia.

Costco - John got a huge amount of asparagus!! But I'm not worried about using it. I found an interesting recipe for asparagus and celery soup, which will use up the stems and some of the celery from a previous Costco trip. 

I've been craving scallops so he got some along with frozen shrimp.

FRIDAY 

We had planned on going to a soon to be gone old-fashioned diner for breakfast, but it was raining and we didn't feel like it.

John booked the golf simulator for 1:30 so I wandered around College Park and picked up some needed items at Farm Boy and the $ store.

I started the asparagus and celery soup. UPDATE I didn't finish making it. It looked and smelled unappealing to both of us. We also thought it would not be very tasty.

COOKING

Since I compared latte and cappuccino last week, I thought I'd find out more.

MENU

SATURDAY

L - bacon and tomato sandwiches. D - ham, mashed potatoes and Brussel sprouts

SUNDAY

L - ham        D - oven lamb chops, Greek lemon roasted potatoes, carrots oven,  and asparagus and scallions.

MONDAY

L - ham salad sandwiches  D - Spaghetti with meat sauce

TUESDAY

L - OUT D - popcorn

WEDNESDAY

L - leftover spaghetti D -  ham potato egg hash and tomato

THURSDAY

L - homemade beef soup    D - scallops with lemon garlic cream sauce (sauce wasn't impressive), asparagus and Greek lemon potatoes (again, because the last version was so good) 

FRIDAY

L - egg onion sandwiches D - steak, asparagus and garlic toast (use up some stale bread)

 

WATCHING

We finished The Cleaning Lady so we watched The Madison  The Madison is a neo-Western, 6 episode television series created by Taylor Sheridan. The series follows the Clyburn family, originally from New York City, who relocate to the Madison River valley of southwest Montana for emotional recovery following a major life-changing tragedy that both shocks and permanently changes the family. Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell lead the series. Pfeiffer is excellent. Russell is and looked too old for a 65 yo.

 It is essentially a soap opera with gorgeous vistas. 

John PVR'd Weapons as it starred Julia Garner, a girl crush of mine. When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance. Listed as dark comedy, monster horror. 

I hadn't heard the expression Aunt Gladys until today when I saw this meme on a Facebook page Weird Toronto and didn't understand it until the movie, how weird was that! IYKYK!

I am definitely going to  started  finished watching this Australian 12 part series The Brides of Christ! The struggles of nuns and students at a Roman Catholic convent school in 1960s Sydney. AND Brenda Fricker!! AND Russell Crowe!!

The episodes are not quite in the right order but you'll figure it out.

OMG the girls making their First Communion could be me, on mine!!!

Typing class, although I didn't take one, I taught myself.

Kneeling for communion. Hats/scarves at mass. Front facing masses. Birth control.

I am also going to watch, also on YouTube, Berkeley Square. So far I've only found it with sub-titles. UPDATE you can find it in English on DailyMotion (you have to turn off your ad blocker) and SirJohn seems to have the best version.

I watched the first episode of Australia Dessert Masters season 2. I can't stand that French host, it is a good thing that Melissa is there!

I also watched the Great British Bake Off while in the kitchen, I think I know who will win.

I see the latest season of MasterChef Australia is beginning! It is the best!! I'm hoping that my secret little place will be uploading the episodes as they air, as it takes forever for them to show up here on Prime streaming!

READING

Again I didn't read much, as I'm still plowing away with Adrenaline. 

MAGAZINES

I meant to include this photo in last week's post about rabbit holing and analog tracking.

This book struck a core with me. Love her name!!!

The 4% Fix: How One Hour Can Change Your Life by Karma Brown is a non-fiction book focusing on time management, productivity, and personal fulfillment. It argues that dedicating just one hour (4% of your day) to a personal passion or goal can reduce feelings of being overwhelmed and lead to significant, positive life changes without requiring massive schedule overhauls.

I saw this recently.

If you need to get any book on the internet, type the name of the book followed by “doctype:pdf” and you’ll get the book in pdf format

For example, Purple Hibiscus doctype:pdf

Purple Hibiscus doctype:pdf

Iron Grate Coffee House

 Linking up at Marg at The Intrepid Reader

Weekend Coffee Share

Sunday Salon

Sunday Post

 April 2023 - Toronto ON

                                                     Dundas East Toronto ON

We hosted Easter brunch on Saturday with my cousin's family. We had done a lot of prep on Friday. I made a loaf of gluten free bread (bread maker) and then a lemon cheesecake. Then we set the table and got everything ready.

We started with mimosas and Italian sausage. Menu below.

 They are going to Ireland in September so we discussed places to go.

Gifted tulips.

I am going to attempt to keep this hydrangea alive.

By supper time we were not very hungry.

At around 6:30 John commented on the traffic on the exit to Lake Shore Blvd, aha, they were going to the 7 PM Cirque du Soleil show which just opened. There are two lanes but you should be in the right lane for CduS (no traffic light, just merge). Left lane has a traffic light to go straight or turn left..

This photo is from a Book of Faces group I belong to, taken from a condo overlooking the venue.

You can just see the ramp in the top middle just above the tents..

Here's an article about the traffic chaos.

In the middle of Saturday afternoon John got a call from the never--ending fridge repair company scheduling ANOTHER appointment for Wednesday. He had also sent an email to the manager he had spoken to last week and he replied on Monday that he would get someone ASAP, followed by a call scheduling someone for Tuesday. Well, Monday evening, Peter the repairman, called and talked to us, as Friday he had changed the fan to no avail. He determined it was the motherboard, none in stock, so no point in coming on Tuesday. Tuesday morning Peter called with his manager and said they have discontinued this motherboard (why? because it doesn't work???) so they are recommending to LG to replace the fridge. Next up John had to speak to LG several times providing, for the third time, all the documentation. Wednesday John got an email stating a new fridge would take 7 to 15 business days from the warehouse to us. That's fine, it better fit and work! 

BTW I owe Paul, in our convenience store, a HUGE apology for asking for a refund when our milk went sour, it was the first indicator that our fridge wasn't working!!!!

John used the golf simulator twice this week. Photo from simulator, playing St. Andrew's.

I rearranged the tulips and they lasted all week, very unusual for tulips as they usually have droopy heads.

Wednesday we went for lunch at Union Chicken in Union Station. I'd eaten here last summer and wanted John to try the Nashville chicken since it had blown my head off with the heat. He enjoyed it but didn't think it was too hot.

I had the fried chicken, photo was too blurry, it was alright, too much breading. But this drink was delicious.

We won't be going back, he agreed that it is too noisy (ceiling is low) and the service is rushed to say the least.

 The weather was incredible 24 C or 75 F!

It was opening day for Blue Jays baseball, I caught a glimpse of the open stadium from the bus on the way downtown.

Towers of Finance.

Then we went to upgrade our phones as the buy back period of two years had ended. We could with "buy out" our phones for $460 or return them and get that  credit. We worked with Richard at Telus and came away with a decent deal.

This doesn't surprise me - Toronto is crane capital of North America.

Bay St. south of Front.

Walked down to Farm Boy for a couple of things, including Wagyu hot dogs that I had promised to our bus driver, Amir loves hot dogs! UPDATE he said they were great.

Walking back to bus from Farm Boy Harbourfront.

Again from the bus - Rogers Centre ready for season opener at 7 PM.

Home and we discovered that while our phones had converted everything it did not bring over the library data, Starbucks, or Flipp. We use Flipp to store our loyalty cards so we spent the rest of the day tracking down our cards/account numbers and updating. John has updated Bitdefender as it still had my old laptop and the old cell phones using up our number of devices allowed.

I glanced up from my laptop and got this shot!

Thursday I met my BFF for lunch, another hot day! We went to our usual, WVRST, but it is time to find a new spot, we had trouble finding something we wanted. We even spent time discussing what we were missing - steak sandwiches at College Park.

We also miss our lobster rolls from The Chef's Hall on Richmond, just checked and the lobster place is no longer there. I did find Buster's Sea Cove so we will check that out next time.

I had the chicken schnitzel sandwich, a little dry for me.

While I was at lunch John went for a walk along the lake.

2023 Spring Stations exhibit is being hosted in front of Mirabella Condominiums at Sir Casmir Gzowski Park (1751 Lakeshore Blvd. West)


The three winning designs were selected from hundreds of submissions worldwide, including one with a Toronto story. “Conrad,” named for the raccoon who died at Yonge and Church Streets in the summer of 2015, has come alive in a 3-dimensional sculpture to inspire warmth and compassion in this larger-than-life incarnation.

Ripple Hut

These designs perfectly compliment the 395-foot-long Motion in Air mural facing onto the Gardiner and confirm this area as a place to enjoy the natural environment and appreciate art.”

P.S. that's us at the far right.

Friday and golf season officially starts with John playing at Burlington Springs.

I went downtown and poked in the shops and picked up steaks for dinner. 
I booked our spring booster shots for next week at Commerce Court.

Placed a call to the guy who installed our blinds as one of them is getting tangled as the threads are unravelling. He did call me back, but didn't leave a message.

 I was on the phone to Telus about the "connectivity fee" we were charged this week $50 X2. Richard had suggested calling and getting it reversed as a longtime loyal customer. She said that only applied to online orders. I said we had a "bring it back" phone so obviously we had to bring it into the store. No, she said, we would send you a mailer to send it back. So I said that would take a long longer than the 30 minutes it took us to go to the store, trade in our phones, get a new contract, have our phones set up - all times 2 phones. Finally she gave me a $25 X 2 credit. Better than nothing..........

I'm still tracking down our contractor to do the painting he promised. My third message asked him if he was ghosting me? No response...

Click her for my Titanic post on the anniversary - April 15.

COOKING

Saturday Easter brunch - ham, potato salad, kale salad, coleslaw, sauteed mushrooms and tomatoes, cheese, pickles, beets, homemade bread. For an appetizer we had Italian hot sausages from Highland Farms. Dessert was lemon cheesecake with gluten free crust.

Dinner - cheese and crackers

Sunday ham, au gratin potatoes and Brussels sprouts.

Monday sirloin steak stir fry with rice.

Tuesday leftover au gratin potatoes and ham.

Wednesday out for lunch - cheese and crackers

Thursday lamb doner with fajitas

Friday steak and loaded baked potato.

I posted my gluten free hot cross buns recipe.

WATCHING

We started the series Empire and are in season two.

Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) is a hip hop mogul, former drug dealer, and CEO of Empire Entertainment. Informed of his own imminent early death from ALS, Lucious is forced to choose, from amongst his progeny, a successor who will control his dynasty after his demise. He begins working to groom one of his three sons to take over the family business – Empire CFO Andre (Trai Byers), R&B singer-songwriter Jamal (Jussie Smollett), and rapper Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray). In the process, Lucious pits them against each other. Lucious' ex-wife Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson) is released from prison after serving a 17-year sentence, and also pulls for control of both the company and of her sons.

We're also watching Food Channel's Tournament of Champions season 4 and Top Chef International so no spoilers please.

READING

Not my usual reading style but I enjoyed The Lost Art of Mixing, it was a pleasant change from murders, but thought it ended rather abruptly, I wanted more.

I started The Kitchen Front In a new World War II-set story from the bestselling author of The Chilbury Ladies' Choir, four women compete for a spot hosting a wartime cookery program called The Kitchen Front - based on the actual BBC program of the same name - as well as a chance to better their lives.

Another cute read, I am enjoying the cooking and recipes.