562. Shanghai | The Bund & Nanjing Road (+ Life Update)

It has only been about 3 days since I left my place (see here) and already I can't wait to go back! According to my contractor, my place is all ripped up now except the washroom. They will finish the demolition/disposals next week then start working on my floors. I'm going to start furniture and appliance shopping next week then visit my place to see the progress. I think by the end of next week my floors and walls should be ready so I can start moving stuff back again. I really hope everything will turn out the way I envision it in my mind..I'm so excited!!

Now in the suburbs I have a lot more time it seems since I just stay in all day. Besides work, I listen to Shape of You (by Ed Sheeran) literally non-stop, drink a lot of smoothies, green tea, do yoga and walk my dog. Actually not too different from my life downtown hahah. Except at my place, I am not home a lot as I'm always out in search of food (which I don't need to worry about here)..and I also go to a studio for yoga rather than doing it at home. & I have slightly more of a social life down there. So tomorrow I will stop being a hermit and will explore my mom's area a bit.

So the point of this post: I now have time to continue with my Asia trip posts!! Here are some photos from Shanghai when we visited The Bund and Nanjing Road. Out of all our days in Shanghai (while staying with my aunt and uncle at their place near the city), we only had one night when it didn't rain due to a typhoon. So we went to see The Bund and walk along Nanjing Road. As you can see, the skies were not clear and it was quite foggy.










At the Fairmont Peace Hotel.





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561. Renovations | Part 1

My renovations officially started today! I had the most hectic, stressful yet fun week leading up to it though. Packing took me so long. I didn't realize I was such a hoarder lol. Well I had been living at my place now for 8.5 years already (time flies!) so I had accumulated a lot of stuff. In addition to the packing, I tried to see as many people (the ones I had wanted to) before I leave for a few weeks which would feel like forever lol.

In the photo above it maybe half of everything..which I am keeping at my dad's place for now. The other half is at my mom's. & during my renovations I am also staying here. For the next week I have to go furniture/appliance shopping because I have nothing left now. I had a junk removal company come yesterday to take literally everything except my desk which I actually really like. I also have to look for faucets and cabinet door handles which is my main priority for my kitchen and washroom. I think first I will go look for a new bed though or else I'd have nowhere to sleep lol. I am so excited but also stressed that I won't be able to find anything I like.

I had wanted to blog about my whole renos process but I was just too busy last week to post. Here are some photos I took of the packing process. It was actually nice to get rid of a lot of stuff and rediscover all my old stuff again:

Discovered a box of paint. I love art and used to paint a lot but never got the time to do it as a hobby. I ended up throwing these out because they were half dried out =\ I really want to start painting again someday.


Cleaning out some of my LV boxes! Hennessy also made a contribution.

My favourite toys...Daft Punk Bearbricks, a Union Jack Bearbrick and a couple balloon dogs! I want to get a 1000% Bearbrick for my newly renovated place.


LV coffee table books collection. Ended up not bringing these as they were suuuuper heavy and didn't even fit in my suitcase lol.


My stock trading book collection

Champagne boxes/alcohol bottles/Pravda souvenirs collection. I used to save the nice bottles and boxes from our nights out lol. These bring back a lot of good memories..



Break #1 from packing..went to the Library Bar at Royal York again for dinner one night with my friend. This has become our new favourite place. It was also a fun night of people watching (in particular the old 88 year old woman sitting at the bar)..we heard all the conversations lol.

This is how I'm such a hoarder. I used to use these Dior compact foundations exclusively..collected a lot over the years and saved all the empty cases. Now I got rid of them all..

Organizing and packing up by postcards collection. I used to collect them and have over 1000..I don't collect them anymore since I now take tons of photos when I visit each place. & Hennessy always comes and sits in front of anything I'm doing lol.


Break #2 from packing..meeting new friends (& dogs) from my building.



Break #3 from packing..having my favourite salmon from Beer Bistro! Also tried this cookies & cream ice cream for dessert. I think they put a lot of beer in there because it tasted really strong of alcohol lol.


Yesterday after all my furniture was removed..we had nowhere to sit on except a duvet on the floor lol. So sad.

The last of my stuff. My sister came to help me back for a bit. I plan to go down sometime next week to check on my place to see how the progress is..so I'll post an update again then. So excited to see the final result!!!

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560. Recent Life

Hi everyone! Life has been really busy for me these days so I haven't had much time to update. I've been really busy organizing and packing up because I'm finally getting my renovations done soon! If you've followed me for the past few months..you'll know it has been a long process. I actually considered moving to a new place about one year ago exactly...then for a few months into the summer I had slowly looked at possible places. Eventually I wasn't able to find any I loved as much as my current place, so I decided it was better to do a full renovation instead. At first I had wanted to have the renovations take place during my few weeks in Asia last Fall but there were some complications..and now finally, they are set to start next week. I'm so excited but it's also extremely stressful. I'm renovating my entire place top to bottom and getting all new furnishings which I am excited for since I love interior design..but I'm also worried I won't be able to find everything I love in time. I'm quite picky lol. I spent hours already searching for the perfect kitchen sink..& that's only one of the many things I have to get! I'm also afraid the colours and materials I chose don't end up looking as nice as I envision in my mind. Well I guess anything will be an upgrade from the current state. Also it's hard to believe I already lived here for 8 years!! & its taken me this long to renovate..

So the past several days I've been really sick..I assume because of this extra stress lately. Rushing to get everything in order and packed up in time. I went to the clinic today and luckily I don't have a flu. It was just yesterday I felt really bad..my nose was runny, and I kept sneezing and coughing. Today I feel a lot better though but still recovering.

I've been doing a lot of packing the last couple nights. If you follow me on Snapchat or Instagram (Instastory)..you can see the progress. I will blog about it as well in my next post. & I do plan on blogging about my renovations process extensively so be sure to check back! Also I still have a LOT of vacation photos from Asia left to post..which I'm actually also stressed about lol. I am worried I won't be able to get them all posted before my next vacation. I guess that is a good thing to stress about.

Here are some photos from my recent life. In the photo above is a view from my window. The sky was very pink that evening.

Choosing my wall colour was a difficult decision since there were endless options..and many looked very similar to each other. It's also hard to figure out how it'd look just by a small swatch. I think I'll keep my final decision a secret for now though..I also chose my new floors which I'm super excited about!!


One of our Chinese New Year dinners! This was with my mom and sister. The food here was really good.


My friend brought me to an Israeli restaurant called AISH Tanoor..quite a far distance from my usual area lol. It was so good!! I don't think I've had this type of food before..if I did it was definitely not as much variety as we had that night. The owner gave us all those small dishes on the house. I ordered a chicken schnitzel (& Israeli salad). It was amazing!

Meeting a friend for lunch at the new(est) Scaddabush. This is one of my favourite Italian restaurants. I always get their Caprese Salad here. Last year when I got back from my trip to Capri, I developed an addition to Caprese salads so that's how I first discovered it at Scaddabush. Then I would get the small Caprese salad with a small pasta every time I went. This time, I decided to go for the large Caprese Salad instead without a pasta. This was what it was..I was quite surprised to see it was so small and probably just slightly larger than the small size. I was still hungry after that lol.

When I met my dad and sister for our next "Chinese New Year dinner", we decided to go for Persian food lol. Well it was my sister's idea. We went to North Restaurant in Thornhill. The food here was really good and I really loved their interior decor. It is designed to look like an outdoor village.





Excuse the mess on the table..I was trying to get a shot of the interiors


One night my friend & I decided to go to the art gallery. I haven't been here in yearssss. Strangely enough I rarely visit the galleries and museums in Toronto (I have been to them though) but I don't usually visit again/regularly. For the ROM I will go more this year though as I have a membership now. But when I travel I usually love going to art galleries and museums.






Crepes and apple cider after the museum..yum!



Library Bar at the Royal York Hotel..our usual place for a nightcap.

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