737. Recent (Quarantine) Life | Coronavirus Edition

We are currently in a state of emergency due to the Coronavirus outbreak. In Toronto, most businesses are closed with the exception of grocery stores and pharmacies. Restaurants are still allowing takeout/delivery for now but apparently tomorrow, they must all shut down completely as well. I heard they may be announcing a total lockdown starting tomorrow but that may or may not be true. I personally hope it's true so that we can have this all under control faster.

The stock market has crashed and I have resisted checking my stocks for days now (normally I check multiple times a day) as I don't want to get depressed lol. Mainly I just look at the ones on my "To Buy" list as I'm happy to see them declining. As now (or when it bottoms out) will be the best time to buy more. So I am patiently waiting.

A lot of people are now working from home (or completely off work/unemployed). For me it doesn't make a huge difference since I've always worked from home..but I just can't go out to work at cafes anymore. I've been about 3x busier than I was before all this chaos though. As I work in the wedding/beauty industry, all our bookings for this month and next have to be postponed/rescheduled. I've spent the past several days dealing with a lot of panicked clients and rebooking everyone. Now it has calmed down a bit but two days ago I saw that I sent 200 emails within the day, which was probably a record for me. By the end of the day my wrist was actually sore from all the fast and non-stop typing all day lol. On top of work, I started an online course 10 days ago which has quite a heavy workload, so I've been trying to manage everything at the same time which isn't easy.

I am a bit jealous of most other people who are now stuck at home with more free time. I haven't really had any of that in the past week.

Today I finally have a bit of time to update my blog again (I am SUPER behind!! as always). Later I will go and stock up on more groceries. One positive about this whole situation is that we will be forced to cook all our meals for the next little while/save a lot by not eating out.


A lonely little Corona I found in the PATH.


Stocking up at Pusateri's.

**The following photos were from last month/pre-quarantine life, as I'm just trying to catch up now lol.

A few weeks ago we accidentally discovered True True. The place we had wanted to go was completely packed so we ended up coming here. It was nearly empty inside and we were not expecting much. But we ended up loving the place. This pumpkin hummus is soooooo good. My favourite is this bread though. It is freshly baked and very soft on the inside, with some seasoning and honey. I also got one of their flatbreads which was also amazing. We ended up going back the week after as well.


The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
The author, Oliver Sacks, is a neurologist. In this book he recounts the stores of patients he's had and their unique cases.





Terroni Adelaide in the photos above, La Bettola di Terroni in the photo below




Gulp by Mary Roach I love all of Mary Roach's books (my favourite is Stiff so far) as they're always about weird and interesting topics nobody else writes about. She writes in an engaging and humorous way. This one is about the alimentary canal.

My new favourite place is Early Bird! I can't believe it has taken me so long to try it. Their avocado toast is so good. Sometimes they make it into the shape of a rose (I'll show a pic of that in my next post). This is the plain avocado toast and below is the one with an egg and salmon.






Our "28th-month anniversary" at Nord Bistro. We first went here on one of our first dates and I had always wanted to go back.

A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility by Amor TowlesI loooooved both these books. They are the first and only fiction books I've read in years. They're both beautifully written and really captivating. I will try, one of these days, to do more formal book review posts.

But unfortunately with my current schedule I doubt I'll be able to read much more from now on lol.


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734. Recent Life

Chinese New Year/Year of the Rat macarons from Laduree! I'm so happy a Laduree location has opened in the PATH..a few minutes walk from me. My favourite flavours are the Strawberry Guimauve and Marie Antoinette.

Here are some photos from the second half of January:


We went to a small skiing/snow-tubing place a short distance away from the city a couple weekends ago. I've only been skiing once in my life and am pretty bad at it. So just did the tubing this time lol.



My dad's birthday lunch at Chotto Matte.


Their washrooms are super dark with fluorescent lighting..so my shoes literally glowed.




One of the books I'm currently reading - A Gentleman in Moscow. I really love it so far. Will post a review once I'm done with it.



Clockwork at the Royal York.





Last weekend we went to watch The Gentlemen. It was such a good movie! I loved the concept.

The best place for schnitzel in the city - Country Style Hungarian Restaurant. The place is really cozy and authentic, and the portions are HUGE. They only accept cash though.

Another book I recently finished: The Inner Life of Animals. It's part of a trilogy by Peter Wohlleben. I read The Hidden Life of Trees first which was really interesting (I posted about it previously). This Animals one wasn't as informative but it was still entertaining.


Chinese New Year dinner


Another dinner at Chotto Matte (I seem to have gone there a lot this month)


Another one I'm currently reading: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. It's ok so far.


Breakfast at George Street Diner - a really popular, old-school diner close to me that I've only recently discovered.



My friend's birthday dinner at Terroni.

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632. Recent Life

I was supposed to have left for Spain/Europe last weekend but due to a last minute situation our trip is now postponed to a few more weeks from now. I do believe that everything happens for a reason, and it's weird how true this can be at times. A few (minor) things came up this week that made me realize it was better to have been in Toronto still for it. & I suppose a few weeks from now it will be warmer there so that would be nicer too. So here are some photos from this past week. As usual, mostly of food..


A Mexican dinner at El Catrin..it was my first time there. I really loved it!





At the groomer's..he's always terrified lol.





Terroni dinner #1 (above) & #2 (below):








Some recent cooking

Spanish dinner at Barsa Taberna last night. I came here many years ago when they first opened and sat out on the patio. Last night we sat inside (of course)..it's kind of like a cave in there. Pretty nice and cozy. The food was pretty good. & I really liked the sangria.








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