741. Recent Life | Long Overdue Update!

Hi everyone! It has been a long time since I last posted..I've been extremely busy these days that I've literally had no time. Also there isn't much to update about I guess. The COVID19 situation is still more or less the same. Places in Toronto are still not fully open yet..but are starting to slowly now. I just hope there will not be a second wave bringing us back to square one again.

I have gotten so use to living in quarantine though that I don't really care about stores or restaurants re-opening lol. I mean I do want things to go back to the way they were before eventually, but I've been busy with work, my course and my new store (that I will reveal in my next post) that I haven't had time to think about that. Living in quarantine actually helped me to be more productive these months which I really needed. I do look forward to travelling again though.



The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert. Unfortunately I've also had to cut down on my reading time these days. I've been slowly reading this book about the mass extinctions that happened on earth and the 6th one which is happening now caused by humans. It talks about how humans have altered life on the planet for other animals/plants causing more and more extinctions of different species. I'd really love to go back in time and see some animals that are now extinct..in particular the large ones. Apparently there used to be sloths the size of a house.


Some more of my books collection..mostly the finance/investment ones


An hour long wait at TD bank one day







My favourite building in Toronto. It's nice and peaceful to be here when it's empty


The Shoppers across the street from me boarded up all the windows last (?) weekend due to the protests. Luckily there were no riots and looting. But it's sad it had to get to that point. I can't believe the state of the world we're living in right now.

My building/hotel has a restaurant which is closed for now..but they've been offering weekly meals for us residents. This was from a few weeks ago. So good!



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583. Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day!!! I realized today that I never fully celebrated a Canada Day before. I love my country and I feel I am patriotic, but I always try to avoid big holidays because I don't like huge crowds. Today was different though..I was out almost the entire day and had such an amazing time.

It seems as if all of Toronto went to the harbourfront today. That giant rubber duck arrived on our lake so I guess it attracted more people. I never experienced the area quite so busy before. It rained on and off for a bit but stopped by the evening which was great because we got to see the fireworks! The forecast had actually predicted thunderstorms and I was so glad they were wrong about it, as usual. So far this weekend I did the exact opposite of what I talked about in my previous post (about no new friends lol). I went for a walk around the harbour with a new friend and it was super packed. We wanted to go somewhere for a drink but the wait was like 2 hours..so we ended up just walking around..then it started pouring rain so we went into Pawsway to watch a dog show. Then I came back home. At that point I was feeling so tired and almost decided to just stay in for the rest of the night.

Luckily I didn't and ended up going out with my friend and some new friends we just met to watch the fireworks by the CN Tower (see photo above). After that we just walked around and made our way to the harbour again in time to catch a bit of another fireworks show (this one was even more amazing). We just continued walking around and trying to decide where to go next. The amount of people and cars/traffic was crazy. We decided it was best not to take a cab and just walk somewhere...so in the end we went to Earls for some drinks and food. & that was my Canada Day!

Here is the Canada Day decor in my lobby. They also had a plate of Canada cupcakes which I resisted:



The world's largest rubber duck, which cost the city ~$200k. I remember seeing this in Hong Kong (in photos only). I think it would be nicer if it was on the middle of the lake to look like it was swimming.



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569. Recent Life

Hi everyone..so I'm putting a hold on my "renovations" post series for now since there hasn't been much progress recently. I'm still waiting on my kitchen to be made. The cabinets have been taking a long time..I also took a break from furniture shopping because surprisingly, shopping does get exhausting lol. Good problem to have though I guess. I need to try to buy the rest of my stuff this week. But at least I'm pretty much moved back into my place now and life is semi-back to normal. I've been extremely busy these days with work and going out that I literally have no time to blog! (or even keep up with blogs)

My birthday is coming up next week. I don't make a big deal out of my birthday anymore..well I never really did ever. But especially in recent years I don't really celebrate because I don't want to get any older! I do have a few things planned this week though and I think I'll try to plan a few more events..good excuse to go out I guess.

Last night was fun. I went out for a dinner with some friends to Reservoir Lounge. Just as the live music started I had to leave as I had planned to go with my friend and his co-worker to watch Logan. It was amazing!! I really loved it. I'm really into extreme and gory action movies. I definitely recommend it.

Here are some more random photos from the week:



My coconut water obsession is still going strong. My friend recently got me into coconut water from Greenhouse Juice. It tastes amazing and so fresh but a lot more expensive than the other stuff. At the rate I drink it, I definitely can't afford to get it all the time lol. In other news, I really love my new full sized fridge. Lots of space for all my smoothie ingredients.


My favourite pasta (so far) from McEwan

Almost every time I walk away to go to the washroom or wherever, my dog quickly takes over my spot lol. I thought this was funny because it looked like he was working on my laptop. If only he was able to help me with my millions of emails..

I'm super excited about this. I first discovered the Nanoleaf Aurora at the Interior Design Show this year. I thought it was really cool..but didn't think about purchasing it. Then I suddenly thought of a really cool way to use it. The design I want to create requires 3 boxes (though now I figured out to do it using just 2) and is going to be a ridiculously difficult task but it will definitely be worth it. When I went to buy this first box, it was the only one left so I got the last one. Today I went back and they restocked! So I bought another one. Now I have to order one last piece before I can start putting it up. I will post the final results when I have it done.


Last night at Reservoir Lounge. Their thin crust pizza is amazing.

Last week they were filming a show called "Perfect Citizen" in my building. One night I went to walk around the set. It kind of creeped me out being there by myself so late at night lol. I just walked around quickly and snapped a few shots. The base building of where I live is very historic and apparently this floor is haunted at night. I used to wander around here a lot with my friends but I never usually come alone hahah..except for that night. When I first moved in here, this area was some sort of members club. The walls were full of portraits which made it even scarier at night. I remember exploring with my next door neighbour at the time. Good memories.




The directors' chairs - David Zucker, Paris Barclay, and...don't remember the last one.




Calamari and Prawn Spaghettini at Cactus Club!

My bathroom is my makeshift kitchen hahah. I had to make my smoothie in there since I don't have a kitchen yet! & I will post better photos of my bathroom once it's 100% complete and I have everything set up for it. I'm contemplating now to change the mirror because it really doesn't match the colours :(


My morning green smoothie: spinach (sometimes kale), pineapple, apple, banana, chia seeds, maca powder, and coconut water.

I spent a few hours at my lobby bar again today. Did a lot of work and ate a LOT of edamame. I decided to be adventurous and not get my usual chicken caesar salad from here so I ordered edamame instead..it was pretty good. I ended up getting 2 boxes!! Couldn't finish the second box though. They cook it with oil, sesame seeds and salt.


Then of course we ended up at the Library Bar again at night.

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568. Renovations | Part 7

I feel my renovations posts are starting to get repetitive now hahah..progress has been quite slow. So far I got maybe half my furniture/appliances here..still waiting on more and have a few more small things left to buy. My washroom is almost finished now. Apparently they will finish the countertop and sink tomorrow. Not sure when the kitchen cabinets will arrive..that will be the final thing they have to put together, along with the countertops for that as well. Also I'm soooo excited for my new faucet!! Kind of weird, one of the most important things for me in this entire renovations project is my kitchen faucet lol. I spent two Friday nights searching for hours for the perfect one. I finally did last week and placed an order, which should arrive sometime this week.

I'm really happy with the way everything is coming together so far. I still need to get lighting for my place. I have a cool idea for one that I sort of have to "make"..going out later to buy the stuff then work on it today. I'm so excited for it. Hope it turns out well.

My friend took this photo of me above. We go to the Library Bar at the Royal York Hotel a couple times a week now, which you probably know since I've posted pics from there for a few blog posts in a row now lol. As it's connected directly to our building, we don't have to walk outside in the freezing cold weather or wear our coats! This was Thursday night..it was super busy so we had to wait for our table.



I really love my new bed! My new mattress is amazing..it's soooo comfortable. I've had really good sleeps these past few nights.

Yesterday my couch thing arrived! I'm not sure exactly what to call this actually..as it's not really a normal couch hahah. The bottom part is leather and the two cushions are suede. It's pretty cool. It can also be used as a bed. I chose the colours myself so the blue cushions matches my bed. Hennessy really loves it as you can see. Now I'm a little worried about having to maintain the white leather..would've made more sense to get a darker colour but white matches my other furnishings better! I'm going to reposition this when everything else arrives. It's a bit bigger than I expected so I have to figure out how to place everything. Wish I had a bigger place now hahah.


My appliances arrived! I should've asked them to turn my range out the other way (for photo purposes)..but I guess I'll show you once the kitchen is finally complete.

My outfit the other day! I was planning to go to yoga again but ended up not having time that day. I haven't gone in weeks already :s I really need to get back into it. I bought a new yoga mat as well to use at home. Then I have my other one that I keep stored at the yoga studio. I realized that almost everything at my place now is navy blue, gray, and white. That's why I got this pink mat (I know it looks red in the pic).


My west side view..the first thing all the delivery men say when they come in is that they love the view hahah. I do as well (obviously)!


Snapchat: @leftbanked / follow me & on Insta-story too! I've been posting a lot these days.

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566. Renovations | Part 5

Here is another renos update (which I'm sure you must be sick of hearing about by now)..I'm getting burnt out from this whole process. A lot of time, energy, $$$$$ spent. & when you deal with sooo many different companies/people, there are always issues that come up like with my furniture and appliances. For the most part, the companies we went for have been good to deal with so far (since we compared a few different places for each thing we bought and went with the best). The one that has caused me the most stress so far is the appliances. I hope my fridge will come soon so that when I move in I can keep up with my daily smoothies lol. & I hope all goes well with my range, since they have to change the voltage on my power outlet to install it. Besides that, my contractors have been really good to deal with so far. They're already doing 2 of my friends' places after mine. If you want any recommendations, feel free to ask me! Next week I still have to get my kitchen faucet, cabinet door handles, side tables, shelf, wardrobe, microwave, desk chair...I think that should be all for now. Then some extra stuff I will buy over the next few months.

We should be in the final stretch now. My washroom should be done tomorrow then my kitchen next week. My bed is arriving tomorrow so I'm going to go and spend the night there (for the first time in weeks!!!)

Besides my renovation project, theres also been a lot of other (good) things going on in my life recently. So I've been extremely busy..in a good way.

Every time I go down to my place to check on the progress, I spend most of the day at the bar catching up with the bartender + having my daily chicken caesar salad + sweet potato fries. I also meet up a few friends every time. It's funny because when I lived there, I never went to the bar (well it has been a few years since I did that)..and I don't even meet up with people half as much hahah. I should continue that when I move back.

I'm so in love with my new floors. If you follow me on Snapchat and/or Instagram (Insta-story)..you'll know I nearly ruined them as soon as they got put in lol. I think when everything is done I will take advantage of my building's hotel maid service to clean everything for me so I don't run into another issue with cleaning hahah.

Just ordered my curtains!! The curtains were probably the thing I cared the least about at first..I didn't think it would really matter what they looked like. But now I can't wait for them to be installed since I found the perfect fabric!

Current state of my washroom. I like how they put the tiles on my ceiling as well. So excited to see it all come together...I really hope the tiles will match my cabinets/faucet/door handles. I also need to think of what colour towels and floor mat to get. I kept my old mirror but now I don't know if it matches. As this is my first renovations project (all from scratch) I'm so nervous that something will look un-matched or off when it's all done. It is a fun experience though. I think I want to get into the business of flipping properties someday since I love designing lol.


Dinner the other night..so busy I had to work while eating lol =\


A few weeks ago I said Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" was my favourite and I had it on repeat..but with my current stress levels, I needed something way more extreme hahah. So my current favourite form of stress relief is blasting this song. Now I decided to get new speakers for my place (my neighbours are going to hate me)...currently looking for nicely designed ones. However I still like Shape of You so I found this..so far my favourite version of this song:



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