No, but I've heard about it in movies.

I have a sore throat today so I bought these turquoise leather...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:58:08 -0400

I have a sore throat today so I bought these turquoise leather shoes. I had an upset stomach on Wednesday so I bought some orange slip on sneakers (online so no photos yet). Shoes = better feeling.

Keychain Dalek. What?

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:57:43 -0400

Keychain Dalek.

What?

Here are two more cowls I knitted (I love cowls), ready to be...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:43:17 -0400

Here are two more cowls I knitted (I love cowls), ready to be sent to people. They’re both out of Malabrigo Rasta yarn and are soft but not scratchy. These are definitely beginner level projects but I am inordinately proud of them. I am not a handy, crafty, or artistic person and I’ve never been one for handmade gifts. Between my three favourite (non-related to me) people we have a jewellery designer, an architect, and an industrial designer, so I often feel like the creative dud. Knitting makes me feel just a little bit crafty.

Sleepless in Toronto

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 11:17:00 -0400

I’m back here not because I have fun winter activities to tell you about (winter cottage, snowy delights, neighbourhood walks, blah blah blah), but because I am so, so, so angry, and I have nowhere else to put it. I am so angry that when I try to tell people about it, I start to cry a little bit (a standard reaction for me when I have A LOT OF FEELINGS).

Preparing to type this out makes me feel like an over-reacting crazy lady, but keep in mind that using sleep-deprivation as a TORTURE technique has a long history. Our downstairs neighbours are eccentric but delightful ladies. Our upstairs neighbours? Well I have been defending them to Shaun for months “Oh, they’re not bad people, honey, they’re just a little selfish.”

“They just don’t realise that we have a different lifestyle to them.”

“Perhaps they don’t know that our bedroom is off the main hallway.”

Well not any more, ladies, you are awful people. For pretty much the entire time we’ve lived in our apartment we’ve had noise issues with upstairs. One of the girls is a bar tender and regularly gets home after 3am, regularly waking us up. That would be one thing, I mean if that’s when she gets home then what can she do about it? But she often gets home drunk, loud, clumsy, and full of song. She drops heavy items on the floor that forms our bedroom ceiling, she sings all of ‘A Whole New World’ from Disney’s Aladdin, at full volume, she trips over things in the hallway, she slams doors, she has raucous parties, she tiptoes in with friends, only to go out the front to smoke, laugh, and yell.

We are not naturally confrontational people but bit by bit we have ramped up our response to this problem. We banged on the wall, we spoke to them politely the next day, we sent peace offerings of home-brewed beer and received apologetic cards in return, we sent polite text messages the next day, we sent less polite text messages in the moment. Shaun has gone out in his boxers to politely request they keep it down at 4am on a Wednesday. What more can we do? Every time we say something we get apologies and promises to be better in future.

This morning, at 4:30am, it sounded like they were carrying furniture or (I like to imagine) dead bodies down their stairs and through the hallway, dropping whatever or whoever it was regularly and loudly. Bang, crash, thud, shuffle, whisper, laugh, shuffle, thud. Right outside, and I mean right outside, our bedroom door. When whatever bizarro activities they were undertaking resulted in a HUGE crash (it turns out they had knocked over their bikes, which by the way take up over half the shared hallway while our bikes languish outside). I leaped out of bed, tugged my pajama tank top down to cover up the men’s underwear that I sleep in, stormed into the hall and yelled “Are you fucking kidding me? Is this really the best time to do whatever the hell you’re doing? Do you KNOW what time it is?” It was pretty dark so I still have no idea what they were doing. There was a strange, and stinking like the floor of a pub, man standing next to our doorway, who made no reaction to me at all. From what I could tell when our neighbour dragged him out the front door, he was too drunk to walk on his own. She apologised and said they were done (done with what?) and then proceeded to make noise for another hour and a half.

I was kept up for another 30 minutes on top of that because I was so mad. First world problems, I know. But lack of sleep makes me feel awful, so sick. It also makes me late for work and makes it hard to concentrate. For example, after I eventually got up this morning, 40 minutes after my alarm, I accidentally dropped the pill I was trying to take down the plughole in the bathroom sink, and tipped a stack of glasses onto the floor where they smashed to smithereens around my bare feet. Cleaning it up took another 15 minutes out of my already delayed morning. I was so upset that in order to feel better I had to listen to Avril Lavigne, Taylor Swift, and Miley Cyrus on the way to work. Rarely do I have to bust out the lady angst trifecta. And now I’m eating Timbits. Which are terrible for you. Just terrible.

This is maybe the 15th time this has happened (the noise, not the timbits - I don’t keep track of those). What can I do? Should we just move out? Will complaining to the landlord do anything or will these girls never change? Am I being unfair expecting everyone to operate to a midnight-6am sleep schedule? Should I take revenge? Why are they doing this to me? In super mature behaviour I have tried to retaliate by running the hairdryer and blender early in the morning but to no avail. I’m probably just bothering our nice neighbours.

Phew, that felt good to get off my chest. Tell me what I should do.

Here’s another thing I knitted. This photo really...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 10:44:15 -0400

Here’s another thing I knitted. This photo really doesn’t do this cowl justice, and I’m not just talking myself up here. It’s made from very snuggly alpaca wool and is awesome for pulling up around your face in the bitter Toronto wind. I took this photo while waiting for bathroom access, which is why my hair looks like that. My face looks like that because it was the morning.

The trek across the frozen lake to the cottage.

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 22:52:18 -0500

The trek across the frozen lake to the cottage.

Treacherous steps.

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:26:05 -0500

Treacherous steps.

On the way home on our big snow day last week.

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:07:21 -0500

On the way home on our big snow day last week.

Pete examines the frozen water that has seeped through the wall...

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 10:26:00 -0500

Pete examines the frozen water that has seeped through the wall under this bridge.

We hit up two craft breweries this weekend. The always fabulous...

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 10:24:20 -0500

We hit up two craft breweries this weekend. The always fabulous Bellwoods (not pictured) and the less exciting, but still good, Junction Craft Brewing. You know, for someone who actually doesn’t really drink beer, I am becoming quite knowledgeable about it.

Winter tree on King St.

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 10:40:13 -0500

Winter tree on King St.

Looking pensive, and damp, on the southern tip of the island.

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:38:00 -0500

Looking pensive, and damp, on the southern tip of the island.

At Isla Mujeres cemetery.

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:31:41 -0500

At Isla Mujeres cemetery.

The view from sitting by the pool at our condo on Isla Mujeres.

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:29:23 -0500

The view from sitting by the pool at our condo on Isla Mujeres.

At the top of the hill, waiting for my turn. The first 3 seconds...

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 22:34:28 -0500

At the top of the hill, waiting for my turn. The first 3 seconds of the ride down were pure fear. It was awesome.

From my snow tube, attached to the lift and being pulled up the...

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 22:31:40 -0500

From my snow tube, attached to the lift and being pulled up the hill.

Holidays

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:37:05 -0500

Woah, guys, I just suddenly got a tiny bit of an urge to update here after so long not updating. Quick, I’m going to write something before it fades. All credit must go to Mike from Alberta who we saw in Mexico (I’ll get to that later) who rightfully chastised me for my lack of updates. So thanks, Mike!

Where were we? It’s winter once again in Toronto - as you might guess from the hat I knitted. It is following much the same pattern as last winter, bitterly cold by Australian standards but fairly mild by local ones. Not much in the way of snow until after Christmas. My rage at having to wear so many clothes has returned. I mean, I’m no exhibitionist, it’s just so many damn layers. When I was a little kid I HATED the sensation of my shirt or t-shirt getting bunched up under a sweater or cardigan (or jumpers as we call them in my native land) - winter in Canada feels like that ALL THE TIME. Ugh. My winter coat is adorable, seriously, red with little toggle buttons, but I hate it. But let’s move on.

We’ve started skating again. Well, ok, we’ve been skating once but life is busy you know? We also went snow tubing. Snow tubing! In case an explanation is necessary, you sit in an inflated rubber tube and slide down a hill. I know what you’re thinking. But it’s actually terrifying. The hill is EXTREMELY steep and quite long. It feels like free falling backwards, if you’re unlucky enough to be like me and have your tube immediately turn around so you can’t see where you’re going. It was all kinds of exhilarating for this suburban Melbourne girl. The experience was only slightly impeded by the fact that Shaun, Pete and I were all suffering from an awful death flu. I’m jumping around a bit in terms of timing here, that’s what happens when I don’t update - I forget all of the details of my own life.

We caught the death flu over Christmas as it happened to be infecting all members of Shaun’s clan, one by one. It was a fun kind of illness where you would start to feel better and then wake up barely able to walk. Shaun in particular was happy as a flu-infected clam on NYE only to suddenly become faint and feverish for several hours. One day you’d have sinus pain, then it would leave and be replaced by throat pain, and then sinus pain would be back, and then a cough. At it’s worst blowing your nose was a multi-tissue affair, the loads were too great for just one, once I blew my nose and ended up unable to see out of one lens of my glasses (glad I’m updating again? If only this was the first time snot has been mentioned here). Almost three weeks after coming down with symptoms I’m left only with the sniffles and a recurring dry cough. Ok, sorry, that was an entire paragraph about flu symptoms - no more on that.

Other than all the germs, Christmas was quite the grand affair, with not one but two turkey dinners. I was spoiled as usual with many gifts, in particular a Dr Who bathrobe which I have worn every single day since receiving it except the time we were in Mexico, sadly it took up too much space in my luggage. Have I mentioned that I really love Dr Who? Because I totally do. So much. Nerds unite!

The boyfriend’s clan has been reunited over the holiday season, with their missing sibling arriving from Brisbane for a little visit, and a little WEDDING. It was super nice to see them all together - a first for me. This meant that along with Christmas and NYE (which I won’t bother describing since while the company was excellent it was a little dampened by the germs, also it’s my least favourite holiday) we had a bachelorette party (hen’s night for the aussies). We ate, karaoked, drank, and watched a drag show. Fun times.

After the regular holidays we jetted off to Mexico for not one but two weddings. It seems that destination wedding trend has really hit its stride. For most of our trip we were on Isla Mujeres, a little island northeast of Cancun. I would strongly recommend a visit. It was touristy but not too touristy. The beaches were beautiful and the food was fantastic. In our sickened state it was a pretty perfect place to stretch out a recuperate. We saw dolphins and itty bitty baby sea turtles (to die for cute), loads of fish, sunshine, coconuts, you name it. We took a golf cart around the island, and snorkeled the reefs. I can see why so many Canadians escape to sunny locations to top up their vitamin D reserves in the winter. It was also a perfect spot for a beach wedding. I am not generally one for wedding trappings like chair covers and seating arrangements but this was a spectacularly pretty and fun affair. Good food and company, shoes off on the sand, and lots of cocktails. Congratulations to the happy couple!

Our last few days were at an all inclusive resort on the mainland, which, to be honest, is not really my kind of thing. I just find it a bit suffocating and artificial. But I get why people, families especially, like it. A convenient spot for a wedding and a nice spot to enjoy the sunshine.

We had such a great trip and I cried every time we had to say goodbye to someone - even people I hardly know. I think leaving my family behind has messed with the wiring in my brain, I now have flashbacks every time I watch anyone else say goodbye to someone.

And after all the fun and excitement (and cold and flu drugs) here I am back in the office. Sigh. Time to plan some 2013 adventures I think.

I’ll post a few photos from our fun times, though I hardly took any!

I made this hat. It may not be much but I toiled over it....

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 21:43:18 -0500

I made this hat. It may not be much but I toiled over it. Painstakingly knitting each bit of that cable pattern in the weekly knitting sessions at my office (I know, fun!) while all around me other people churned out scarf after scarf. Triumph.

In my quest for a breakfast that I don’t hate, but also...

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 10:36:32 -0500

In my quest for a breakfast that I don’t hate, but also isn’t made of cheese and sugar, I made my own granola last night. It is kind of, a little bit, sort of, made of sugar but you can’t win them all.

Has it really taken me this long to post a photo of Toronto...

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 11:16:05 -0500

Has it really taken me this long to post a photo of Toronto institution, Honest Ed’s? Or have I just forgotten about an earlier post? Regardless, here it is in all its discount shopping glory.

You might recognize it from Scott Pilgrim vs the World. It’s a strange, strange place but we do on occasion shop here. Our gym bags, toaster, and hairdryer all were all purchased at Ed’s, to name a few items.