Goldstruck

  Linking up with Marg at The Intrepid Reader

Weekend Coffee Share

Sunday Salon

March 2024 - Toronto ON

We started collecting items for our road trip.

I cleaned up some house plants.

My new crossbody bag arrived and I am pleased with it.

Travelon Anti-Theft Classic Slim Double Zip Crossbody Bag Messenger Bag. Roomy compartment has RFID blocking card and passport slots, open top pocket, zippered wall pocket and tethered key clip with led light patent.

Monday's Mural at John and King.

What a gorgeous day, it is time to stop wearing the big winter coat! Toronto broke a 50 year old record with a temperature of 16C or 61F!!!

Tuesday is expected to be 17C with thunderstorms predicted.

I did some shopping and John had a dental appointment.

John started planning our road trip route and I booked some hotels. We finalized our hotels for the way there.

We will leave on Monday March 11 and take 6 days to get there, spending 2 nights in St. Louis.

Our reservation in Las Vegas is from March 17-31. We don't have a firm plan for the trip home as yet.

Tuesday started out sunny, I even saw some people out catching some rays!

John did a Costco run for a few items to take away, coffee, water, energy bars, always good to have in the car on a road trip. I ordered a couple of flashlights as well.

I thought this was a good deal yesterday at Rexall 5 toothbrushes on sale 25% of at $42 before taxes. I then found 20 TWENTY for $16 (including tax) on Amazon! 

I also got flashlights, ours had all died.

John's new putter also arrived.

Wednesday I went for a mani-pedi then did some groceries for the rest of the week. John used the golf simulator.

On my way to mani-pedi.

Spring is here!

On the bus going downtown.

Thursday we caught the 9AM bus and went for breakfast at the Village Grange food court.

I had an egg McMuffin and John went to Karine's, a gluten free spot.

Then the AGO.

We saw most of the exhibits.

Indigenous people lived on the land we now call Canada long before paper money was even invented, but an Indigenous person has never before been honoured on a banknote.

The Native Women’s Association of Canada launched “Change the Bill”, a campaign aiming to get an Indigenous woman on the $20 bill.

I will only put the highlights of each exhibit here, then I will do a photo loaded post.

Click here to see the AGO website for Life Between Islands. 
Making its way across the Atlantic to the AGO from Tate Britain, Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art, 1950s–Now examines the relationship between the Caribbean and Britain and reconsiders British art history in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries from a Caribbean perspective.

1948 The British Nationality Act allows everyone born in Britain or its Empire to become a ‘Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies’. The act encourages Caribbean people to move to the UK to address labour shortages and help facilitate postwar reconstruction and the building of the welfare state. HMT Empire Windrush docks in London carrying 800 Caribbean passengers. Many find work in the NHS and for the train and bus services. Those who emigrated from the Caribbean to Britain between 1948 and 1971 become known 4 as the Windrush generation.

The elevator is part of the Keith Haring exhibit.

Keith Haring’s style of art is one of the most recognizable in the world. The American-born contemporary artist was known for his bold drawings and paintings and continue to be popular even after his passing. Exhibitions of Haring’s work attract audiences of all ages around the world.
The exhibition celebrates Keith Haring’s creativity and activism. It also offers insight into the artist as a person. Haring’s archival materials play a key part in understanding what inspired him and acts as a thread not just through his art but his activism. Haring participated in anti-nuclear, anti-Apartheid demonstrations, and AIDS activism.

This exhibit is the only Canadian stop on this tour.

Click here for the AGO detailed post.

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From there we went a totally different route.

From the Bader Collection at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, the AGO welcomes a remarkable selection of seventeenth century Dutch paintings. Shown in dialogue with paintings from the AGO’s European Collection of Art, at the centre of this focused installation are seven artworks attributed to Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), shown together for the first time.

This was the exhibit I really wanted to see!

The last exhibit I had already seen last year, but John hadn't.

John took this from the AGO.

We went for coffee at The Library.

Friday we each ran some errands and I got my hair cut.

We got some techie things resolved. Both our cameras on our phones were making a clicking sound when taking photos, solved that. Then John's camera was taking motion photos, solved that. I finally got the VPN setting on my laptop to automatically connect!

We're also gathering items for our trip, John's clubs are packed up.

COOKING

Saturday roast pork, potatoes and carrots

Sunday slow cooker ribs and fries

Monday sweet and sour pork leftover

Tuesday shrimp salad with hard-boiled eggs and homemade soda bread.

Wednesday lamb chops, mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts.

Thursday hamburger patty, mashed potatoes, gravy and beans.

Steak and fried mushrooms.

WATCHING

I am up to date on Belgravia Season 2 and Bollywed.

I started watching The Tudors (4 seasons). I was inspired to learn more about Henry the VIII after seeing SIX, the play.

Code 8 part 1 and 2 is a 2019 Canadian science fiction action film, filmed in Toronto. In a city where people with powers are policed and oppressed, an ex-criminal must turn to a drug lord he despises to protect a teen from a corrupt cop.

We finished season 3 of Entrevias (Wrong Side of the Tracks) a Spanish drama series. Set in Entrevías, the poorest neighborhood in Madrid, the series follows Tirso Abantos, a former military man running a hardware store, whose monotonous daily routine is shaken when his unruly and rebellious adopted teenaged granddaughter Irene, of Vietnamese origin, along with her Colombian-immigrant boyfriend Nelson, agree to sell heroin from drug dealer Sandro. While the young couple had planned to sell the drugs and run off together, the plan goes wrong, and she is violently raped by Sandro and his thugs. Tirso then teams up with corrupt police officer Ezequiel to face up to the criminals in the neighborhood.

The Survivor 2021 after World War II, Harry Haft is a boxer who fought against his peers in concentration camps. Haunted by memories, he tries to use fighting legends as a way to find his love.

READING

I enjoyed the story line  in Losing Juliet, however I got totally fed up with Chrissy's miserable character, she never stopped whining, and was just plain insufferable. But the "twist" was a bit far-fetched.

I started Strange Sally Diamond, this is a very dark and disturbing story dealing with mental illness and abuse. 

Pigeon Cafe Bar

  Linking up with Marg at The Intrepid Reader

Weekend Coffee Share
Sunday Salon

October 2024

King St. W Toronto ON

Saturday - we prepared our Thanksgiving dinner early in the day. Although we are going to my cousin's for Thanksgiving tomorrow, we like to do our own and have leftovers. John prepped the onions (stuffing), the potatoes, cauliflower, carrots and turnip. I made two pumpkin gluten free cheesecakes (one for my cousin) and then made two pumpkin cranberry loaves (also one for my cousin). For the first time, I made my own stove top stuffing and it was delicious (recipe below).

Sunday the turkey carcass went into a pot to make soup. We had turkey sandwiches for breakfast.

Then we headed to my cousin's to celebrate Thanksgiving together.

My pals, Joey and Freddie.

Yum, we started with pumpkin soup.

Monday, Thanksgiving holiday, I backed up the last three months of my blog. I did a load of laundry. Then we just frittered this holiday away.

Tuesday John did a Metro shop, hoping for some bargains. He found a NZ leg of lamb for $5 a pound.

Wednesday, was a bitterly cold day. I did give John the option of staying home...He did ask if he needed a toque, and I said no, which meant I felt really badly as we walked up to the AGO, Art Gallery of Ontario, I did suggest we stop into Marshall's and get him one, but he said no.

Of course, as we were going in the plumber messaged and asked if he could come and look at the heat valve in the bedroom after 5 today. We weren't in a hurry for it as we don't need the heat turned on as yet. So we decided to cut our visit short.

We started with Moments in Modernism highlights the diversity and high quality of the AGO’s modern art collection, which has been built over time by generations of museum curators and patrons. 

This installation will show collection strengths from artistic movements such as Pop Art, Abstraction, Realism, and Minimalism.  An international approach in artistic styles will be presented, including a body of work from the AGO holdings by Brazilian artists, recognizing the global nature of modernism. A selection of contemporary works that respond to modernist movements will also be shown. 

Many of the artists, including Andy Warhol, Helen Frankenthaler, Jules Olitski, Gerhard Richter, and Mark Rothko are well known while others are still yet to be broadly recognized such as Tomie Ohtake, Rubem Valentim, Gene Davis and Kazuo Nakamura. A particular focus will be Canadian artists including Alex Colville, Rita Letendre, Jack Bush, Agnes Martin, Guido Molinari and Norval Morrisseau.

To be honest, we didn't care for most pieces.

The caption of the source image, a clipping from Revue magazine from 16th March 1966, reads:

Ermordete Lebedame: Helga Matura (Murdered good-time girl: Helga Matura)

She was murdered by a person unknown on 26th January 1966.

We moved onto the Canadian exhibits.

We started looking at this exhibit but it was large and we both loved the pieces but didn't have enough time to take it all on. We will go back in the next week (John wants to eat at Karine's again). 

I'll wait until we complete the exhibit to do a separate post as it is picture heavy!

I wonder how long view will last? The Village Genius Pub has been renamed back to the Village Idiot Pub, a much better name.

This post shows it as the Genius and also shows the this block without this work in progress.

We rushed home and then the plumber got delayed on another job. He is doing this under the table for me, so no worries. 

Thursday I went to the $ store, I needed some large containers for freezing soup, as we have been making a lot. I also got a shelf for a kitchen cupboard to make it more useful. I also went and found two sweaters in Winner's and picked up a couple of things in Longo's.

Trees are turning, taken from the bus.

BTW the weather was much nicer! John used the golf simulator.

Friday we were up bright and early so I made John potato cakes, fried ham and and egg as he headed out early to play golf. The temperature was going to 18C and it was an absolutely gorgeous day. However, he did have a frost delay, only teeing off at noon, 1.5 hours later than planned.

I picked this up at Longo's, Living Lettuce. 

Unlike other lettuce, Inspired Greens are harvested with the root-ball still attached. This means they keep on living in your crisper and can stay fresh for weeks!

Simply add 2 tbsp water down the side of your Inspired Greens sleeve and put the whole thing in your crisper. Water again once a week to keep your greens fresh and delicious.

We'll see.

COOKING

I tried this turkey salad sandwich recipe for the first time, we really enjoyed it.

Saturday turkey, mashed potatoes and cauliflower, turnips and carrots, stuffing, gravy

Sunday out 

Monday leftovers

Tuesday Alfredo turkey and mushrooms

Wednesday ham, mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts

Thursday ham and au gratin potatoes/cauliflower

Friday steak frites duck fat with cilantro

WATCHING

I watched two seasons of Sorry for your Loss on CBC Gem, total chick flick series.

The Penguin I loved it!

We're up to date on Accused.

Caught up on latest episodes of shows we like.

READING

I read Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune by Anderson Cooper. I knew some of the history as I have read other accounts of various Astors. I am glad that I watched The Gilded Age to follow some of the stories. All in all, a good read.

Am I Guilty? was a riveting read, I thought I had it figured out until....

I started Drowning, thanks to Jinger at The Intrepid Angeleno and am also enjoying it.