Memories

 May 1 Toronto ON

Today would have been my mother's 96th birthday!!

Photo taken 1945 Dublin Ireland

Her favourite song and version she knew best.

Bee Gees version

Birthday Reflections

July 2025 - Toronto ON

You start dying slowly ;
if you do not travel,
if you do not read,
If you do not listen to the sounds of life,
If you do not appreciate yourself.
You start dying slowly :
When you kill your self-esteem,
When you do not let others help you.
You start dying slowly ;
If you become a slave of your habits,
Walking everyday on the same paths…
If you do not change your routine,
If you do not wear different colours
Or you do not speak to those you don’t know.
You start dying slowly :
If you avoid to feel passion
And their turbulent emotions;
Those which make your eyes glisten
And your heart beat fast.
You start dying slowly :
If you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain
If you do not go after a dream
If you do not allow yourself
At least once in your lifetime
To run away from sensible advice
Don't let yourself die slowly
Do not forget to be happy!
~ Pablo Neruda♡

The moment I hear a Senior start acting, speaking and looking like a Black Cloud of Dying Negative Energy, I can't disengage fast enough and draw me some Positive Energy from a more Youthful and Vibrant Source. 

Paul's Coffee

  Linking up with Marg at The Intrepid Reader

Weekend Coffee Share

Sunday Salon

Sunday Post

 August 2023 - Toronto ON

NEW - OPENED ACROSS THE STREET FROM US

Saturday we woke to heavy rain. So as per the last two Saturdays that we had baseball tickets, we headed out with rain jackets and sneakers. 

Shohei Ohtani is the American League Player of the Month for July, marking his second consecutive A.L. Player of the Month Award and the fourth of his career!

Halfway through the game, they opened to the roof and we were sitting in full hot sunshine and sweating.

Sunday stay home/relax day!

Monday - my birthday!! John golfed, I insisted. I just picked up what I wanted for dinner.

Saw this walking to Longo's.

Came home and got a flower delivery.

Flowers! And chocolates.

Tuesday we had lunch reservations at Bardi's, my choice. 

BARDI’S STEAK HOUSE IS AN INDEPENDENT, NON-PRETENTIOUS, TRADITIONAL STEAKHOUSE, OWNER OPERATED SINCE 1966 by Phillip Bardwell.

Wednesday John went for a pedicure and then golf. I headed out to meet BFF for lunch. Neither of us felt like our lobster roll (gasp) so we tried Michel's Bakery Café and chose sandwiches instead. The bread and croissant were delicious. We are adding it to our rotation.

I decided to cancel my birthday dinner on Thursday at Velouté, in our building. Instead I bought myself a birthday present of a new telephoto lens for my Canon. I had traded my one in when I bought a new camera a few years ago and really missed it.

Instead of going out to dinner, John bought a special bottle of wine for dinner.

Thursday it was so hot and humid when I went for a mani pedi at 10 AM that I decided to stay home while John went for his golf lesson.

Friday was another lazy day at home. I did spend most of the afternoon working on our itinerary for our time in Whitehorse. 

Since I'm light on photos this week, here is one John took last week as the sun was setting, coloured by the fires.

And the Marilyn Monroe buildings in Mississauga.

COOKING

I forgot to mention, when in Montreal last weekend, John's daughter ordered celery fries and they were delicious!

I also didn't post John's Philly cheesesteak poutine (and I many of you think this is a gross idea!).

Saturday - ordered Swiss Chalet chicken

Sunday - Roast pork, potatoes and broccoli

Monday -cilantro lime honey salmon, Greek lemon potatoes, and spinach

Tuesday - out for lunch - cheese and crackers

Wednesday - teriyaki chicken skewers with mushrooms, peppers, and onions and kale salad

Thursday - Velouté  spaghetti and meatballs with focaccia.

Friday - steak, baked potato and broccoli.

WATCHING

11M: Terror in Madrid Survivors and insiders recount March 11, 2004's terrorist attack on Madrid, including the political crisis it ignited and the hunt for the perpetrators. We were not aware of these attacks, a year before London July 2005. 

Mother's Day 2023 is a thriller action movie from Poland (org. title: Dzień Matki). The story unfolds around Nina (Agnieszka Grochowska), a former NATO special operations agent, who is alive and well despite standing over the grave that says she died in 2005 in defense of her country. An interesting foreign film for a Saturday night. 

We finished the series The Night Agent. Low-level FBI agent Peter Sutherland works in the basement of the White House manning a phone that never rings - until the night it does, propelling him into a conspiracy that leads all the way to the Oval Office. We are enjoying it.

Sleeping Dog is a 2023 German mystery series. A disgraced police officer and an ambitious young prosecutor open a closed case, which sends them down a conspiracy rabbit hole.

The dubbing is excellent.

Georgetown is a 2019 American crime drama film directed by Christoph Waltz (in his feature directorial debut). It is based on Franklin Foer's 2012 New York Times Magazine article "The Worst Marriage in Georgetown", which details the 2011 murder of 91-year-old socialite Viola Herms Drath by her much-younger second husband in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Waltz stars alongside Vanessa Redgrave, Annette Bening and Corey Hawkins.

Creepy and good.

READING

I am on a kick of Toronto true crime stories.

A Daughter's Deadly Deception: The Jennifer Pan Story was good (I knew the story) but it didn't cover how she was captured nor give us much of the trial. 

Click here for a quick recap of the case in Toronto Life.

From the outside looking in, Jennifer Pan seemed like a model daughter living a perfect life. The ideal child, the one her immigrant parents saw, was studying to become a pharmacist at the University of Toronto. But there was a dark, deceptive side to the angelic young woman.

Secret Life: The Jian Ghomeshi Investigation 

It began as rumours. Whispers at dinner parties. Warnings about bad dates with a Canadian celebrity. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, superstar CBC broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi revealed his interest in “rough sex” in a long Facebook post, and a scandal of unprecedented scale descended on the radio host.

I had read the excellent book about and by Marie Heinen, Nothing But the Truth. She was Ghomeshi's lawyer. I actually read it in one sitting! The woman loves shoes, how could I not??

Click here for an article about her and the Ghomeshi case.

An intimate and no-holds-barred memoir by Canada's top defence lawyer, Nothing But the Truth weaves Marie Henein's personal story with her strongly held views on society's most pressing issues, legal and otherwise.

Bean Head

 Linking up at Marg at The Intrepid Reader

Weekend Coffee Share

Sunday Salon

Sunday Post

March 2023 - Toronto ON

Sep 2022 - Toronto ON

It rained all day Saturday but since it is usually a PJ day we didn't care. We dawdled over our coffees reading/watching. Did a couple of loads of laundry. Hung my latest embroidery. 

Got rid of cardboard boxes that have started to accumulate.

I have spent some time yesterday and today going through the multitude of CDs we had used as backup. Hopefully I will finish on Sunday. UPDATE I did finish on Sunday! YAY me! I just have to dispose of them. I kept the old laptop with the CD read/write.

I received our new compost bin (I had been using a bowl on the counter). This works really well. 

Sunday was certainly productive for me. A load of laundry, I cleaned out the freezer as repairman coming tomorrow (fingers crossed) reorganized and threw out a bunch of crap. It seems like the freezer is freezing and unfreezing on the right side so any bakery products were mushy, soup stock went in garbage. Then I ended up with a gazillion reusable freezer bags to wash and a bunch of tupperware. Finished CDs as above, washed kitchen floor.

Decluttered the bar and moved the tech chargers/plugs into the drawers of the coffee table that got rid of a basket on the bookcase.

I even had an hour telephone chat with a friend.

John descaled the coffee pot, something we should do more often.

Cleared out the empty boxes were were keeping "in case".

Heck, it's Sunday...

Then I sat down to embroider and watch stuff.

Monday John used the golf simulator. 

Fridge repair guy came, nice guy, said it was because ice was building up blocking fan and unable to push cold air down...Okay...we were told to defrost it for 24 hours. So we packed up the meats and put in the other freezer, got ice and put the rest on the balcony. 

Tuesday we headed to meet friends for pizza at Libretto's, we were early so we took the long way underground.

Since it was 24 hours later, we plugged the fridge in. Waited a few hours, freezer felt cold but bottom is still at around 60 F. We put some stuff back but left the meat in the other freezer.

Wednesday I checked temperature in the morning 54 F.

We left at 9:40 to catch the bus downtown, I noticed the sign said to Dufferin. Sure enough, at Dufferin we had to get out and catch the streetcar. It was not warm out! 

Got off at John St. and walked up to the AGO for the Leonard Cohen exhibit. We found a new mural at OCAD, check back on Monday.

Back of the AGO

Entitled Couch Monster: Sadzěʔ yaaghęhch’ill Jungen’s new sculpture for this outdoor space is a monument to creative form and engineering. In his first large-scale work in bronze, Jungen has constructed the figure of an elephant from discarded leather sofas. “The use of discarded couches came from my experiences of walking the streets of Toronto and seeing them abandoned on the sidewalks waiting to be picked up at night,” said Jungen. “This was foreign to me and surprising, but to the residents of this city, accustomed to seeing them, they are invisible. I look forward to making them visible again.”

Intrigued by the tragic story of Jumbo, a captive circus elephant who made international headlines when it was killed by a train in St. Thomas, Ontario, in 1885, Jungen is deeply concerned with the terrible price all living things pay when forced to perform for others. That concern is embedded in the title of the work. “Once captured and trained, things are no longer themselves: Jumbo was no longer an elephant, but a monster created by humans for entertainment. Its will and spirit were broken,” he says. The Dane-zaa subtitle of the work, “Sadzěʔ yaaghęhch’ill” translates to “My heart is ripping.”

Click here for our visit to Jumbo in St. Thomas.

Click here for my full post on the Leonard Cohen: Everybody Knows exhibit.

After a cappuccino in the Galleria Italia we walked over to St. Patrick Station and took the subway up to St. George and transferred over to Shelbourne for John's birthday lunch at The Shelby.

1883 - The mansion was designed by acclaimed architect David Roberts Jr., who had extensive connections to Toronto’s prominent Gooderham family (the cofounders of Gooderham and Worts Distillery, now known as the Distillery District). Roberts Jr. was also responsible for designing Toronto’s Flatiron Building.

2018 Interloper Cabernet Franc from 13th St. winery in Niagara on the Lake.

Delicious steak frites! We both gave the sauce a miss.

Crème Brule sooooo good.

Other dining rooms. 

My BFF was gardening this morning then sent me a text asking if we were getting the storm? Yes.

We came home to the mystery of the missing crocs. John had put them on the dining room chair, out of the way of the cleaning lady. We couldn't find them anywhere so I messaged her and she said she had no idea. Around 8 PM I went to sit on the couch and found them! I sent a photo to the cleaning lady and we had a good laugh. Her husband said she had probably put them there.

Came home and the fridge was still 54 F. John attempted to contact them and got the run around.

Thursday morning fridge was 49 F but it soon climbed back up. John eventually reached a representative, Eve, who was actually helpful and scheduled another repairman for Tuesday. But he still had to provide the same information over again and again and then to the actual company who sent the previous repairman.

John used the golf simulator and I went to Longo's to get our Friday steaks.

Friday, John's birthday, so we went to Kitchen on 6th for a big breakfast. Delicious, we will be back!

Grapefruit mimosas.

We picked up gluten free cannoli from Holy Cannoli!

Cirque de Soleil Zooza is setting up a new show down the street from us. I also noticed the restaurant in our building had a poster made. It will be interesting to see the impact on traffic.

It was a very rainy day.

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COOKING

Saturday John suggested Chinese curry and I remembered I had bought a mix from Blighty's. When I opened it, it is just a spice mixture so I used it. 

Sunday pizza

Monday pork chops beans and mashed potatoes

Tuesday lunch out - sushi for me and peanut butter cheese and toast for John

Wednesday lunch out - popcorn

Thursday - chicken quarters and salad

Friday breakfast out - steak with gluten free garlic bread. We tried the Schar baguettes and they were great.

WATCHING

We finished The Consultant, not sure how to explain this one...we enjoyed it. It is described as
horror/satire/workplace comedy-drama.

We also watched a movie Dead Drop 2013, After surviving a fall from a plane 3000-feet over the ocean, a former CIA operative turned government contractor re-infiltrates a dangerous North Mexican drug trafficking ring to find his own killer. With his memory unraveling, he descends into a murderous rampage while trying to uncover the truth. Who threw him from the plane? Was it his best friend?

Bullet to the Head 2012.

READING

I finished The Girl With No Past, this was a GOOD read, the ending totally surprised me.

I started A World of Curiosities, Louise Penny's (Three Pines) number 18 in her series and it's got me hooked. It has also introduced me to a fascinating piece of art The Paston Treasure that I am also reading about. Another great article, this one gives an interesting perspective.

Cannonball Coffee

 Linking up at Marg at The Intrepid Reader 

Sunday Salon

Seasons 

Hearth and Soul Link Party

Weekend Coffee Share

Sherry's Pickings

April 2021 - Toronto ON

                                                2020 TORONTO ON

Here we go again! We went into a 30 day lockdown "emergency break" province- wide effective April 3. It really doesn't mean much, we've been locked down in Toronto since end November. Other parts of the province had opened indoor and patio dining a few weeks ago as well as personal care. Toronto had opened patios two weeks ago now those patios have to close again.

We are in a third wave as cases increase.

Last week's Hamilton mural and Tuesday Toronto lanes.

Monday was our movie date with popcorn. The weather was absolutely miserable and it was to be nice on Tuesday and freezing again at the end of the week.

Tuesday John had a couple of appointments and I went OUT!! I took the 9AM bus and then walked to St. Lawrence Market and discovered a great household gadget shop right in the middle. I had walked by it numerous times and didn't realize they had a full shop. I picked up a new cocktail shaker, our old one would leak when shaken. Then onto mussels at a fishmonger and garlic, all required for John's requested birthday meal. 

Macarons from Futures Bakery at the market.

Then to the LCBO for white wine for the mussels. 

A stop in the pharmacy and then Winners! Winners had finally gotten some new stock so there were lots of new things to look at. I ended up getting John some more gifts I hadn't really planned on.

I had a great time being out and about. As I walk along Front St.

VIBE Arts, in partnership with TO Live, presents NExT: The Future of Art Exhibition 2.0, an online and outdoor exhibition celebrating Black Futures, March 22–May 11, 2021.
The Future of Art will run online and outdoors in a window exhibit at the St Lawrence Centre For the Arts (27 Front St. E., Toronto ON), in accordance with local COVID-19 health and safety guidelines.

Will get takeout from here soon, they do gluten free.

Looking back, west.

This dive bar was having a chicken pop up.

This block used to have two coffee shops, one a Starbucks, both now gone and the block has three cannabis shops...

John received a birthday gift from his daughter and family in the afternoon.

Wednesday and we celebrated John's birthday in style even if it was just the two of us.

We started with some sparkly and orange juice and he opened one gift, the least inspiring. Well, he said he needed underwear and golf socks...

Our cleaning lady arrived with a bottle of wine for him.

Another gift opened and then a delivery at the front desk.

The balloons were a great hit and he had fun trying to get them into the elevator.

He received many birthday wishes in emails, Facebook, and even a video happy birthday sung by a BIL.

Gifts continued through the day. In keeping with our new Saturday cocktail tradition. 

Check out the Tequila Mockingbird literary concoctions. The Last of the Mojitos to The Old Man and the Seagram’s and Orange Julius Caesar - are some of the drinks on order.

Some golf shirts.

6 month subscription to a whisky of the month.

A friend dropped off some home baked goodies.

Another surprise delivery from K and B! Edible Creations.

YUM and the chocolate covered pineapple was even better. To be healthy, we used some of the fruit for breakfast with yogurt.

We had a birthday cocktail virtual visit with my cousin and family at 6.

We then had video calls with John's son and daughter.

John says thanks for all the wishes!

John received his first vaccine shot on Thursday. It was at the Metro Toronto Convention Hall, a huge venue downtown. No line-up, taken ahead of schedule. I have read that only 33% of 70 and older have had their shots and that there were thousands of appointment spots available that hadn't been booked.

They dropped the age requirement to born before 1961 on Friday so I am now booked for April 6.

We forgot to eat the macarons yesterday!

Friday was Good Friday so we hunkered down and watched movies.

And how is the daily crossword challenge going? Finally my March average is beating John's.

SOPHISTICATED SHAKERS

MUSEUM TAVERN BLOOR ST. WEST TORONTO

Photo taken 2019, restaurants and bars haven't had indoor dining in over a year!!

We will have to check out these drinks.

Thanks to Laurie C for recommending the Negroni for next week.

Vodka cosmopolitan 
While the cocktail is widely perceived to be a more modern creation, there is a recipe for a Cosmopolitan Daisy which appears in Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars 1903-1933, published in 1934.

COCKTAIL CIRCUIT - TO DATE

Mai Tai with orgeat which is new to us

Tequila Sunrise

Rob Roy required bitters which we had never bought

New York Sours 

Gin Fizz

Rusty Nail

Vodka Sidecar

                                                    COOKING

John had mentioned that he would love some black pudding so I found that a local Kensington Market butcher shop, Sanagan's Meat Locker, carried it. I've been in the store a few times and know that they carry excellent products. Not wanting to trek down there in these times I placed an order online. It included black and white pudding, some good pepperoni (not the grocery store kind), cheese curds! and horseradish pickles.

Then I found some items on my list for when I could get to China or Korea Town. This is what happens when you watch Australian and UK cooking shows.

Nước chấm is a common name for a variety of Vietnamese "dipping sauces" that are served quite frequently as condiments. It is commonly a sweet, sour, salty, savoury and/or spicy sauce.

Chili OKAZU is an umami-rich chili, miso, and sesame oil based condiment often eaten with rice in Japan, which can also be used to top chicken, burgers, fish, eggs, potatoes, and more.

XO sauce is a spicy seafood sauce from Hong Kong with an umami flavor.

Saturday we had pizza with the good pepperoni!

Sunday roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, mashed sweet and white potatoes, cauliflower and broccolini with gravy.

Monday leftover roast beef became a stirfry with rice, peppers and onions.

Tuesday chicken legs, mash and cabbage.

Wednesday 🎂🎂🎂 JOHN'S BIRTHDAY and he requested moules et frites, mussels and fries.
I used this recipe for mussels in white wine and it wasn't the best. But the fries in the air fryer are the best!!!

Thursday was pork hocks in the slow cooker with potatoes and cabbage (again) but we love cabbage.

Friday was steak and frites. We pulled out the grill for the steak as the fries were in the air fryer. We won't be going back to using the grill. It smokes and is so messy compared to the air fryer!!!

Working backwards through the Celebrity MasterChef (UK) seasons and found this recipe in Season 14 sea bass and turmeric potatoes in rasam broth from Ottolenghi. The broth sounds divine.

WATCHING

We're still watching the Canadian series Intelligence.

For Tuesday's movie we watched The Silencing.

Since it was Good Friday we decided to watch a movie or two. John had recorded Intrigo: Samaria which we enjoyed very much. And since we found out it was part of a trilogy we found the other two and watched those as well.

Intrigo: Death of an Author starring Ben Kingsley and the first in the series and then the second in the series Intrigo: Dear Agnes. All three were absolutely intriguing.

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We also watched a great bank heist, one of my favourite types of movies This was like the super good series Money Heist as it was also about the famous Bank of Spain vault that floods. 

The Vault

READING

Browsed on my laptop  Dinner Solved at Laurie C's suggestion.

💡 moment - use tortilla scoops for appetizers! Brie ideas. Deviled eggs, shrimp, guacamole, so many variations! And gluten free!

This might be on the menu in the future prosciutto wrapped haddock piccata.

There are no gluten free options offered.

Binge-read on my tablet Snap by Belinda Bauer and loved it, my kind of thriller.

Also finished The Woman Outside My Door a quick good read set in Dublin.

Started Those People and I know this will be a good domestic drama. If you've ever had, and we did, the neighbours from Hell then you will like this.