LEFTBANKED.

2.24.2016

473. Recent Life

Rainy day today + my Daft Punk Bearbricks. Nothing new has been happening in my life lately. I mentioned a few posts back (I think?) that I'm in the early stages of moving. I'm putting that off for a few months now until I file my taxes this year/get my tax assessment so I can figure out budget and all. I'm really not looking forward to paying it this year lol. I wish I was in the category of people who gets a cheque back during tax season rather than having to pay a huge chunk of money all at one time. But there are also many perks to having my "own business" and handling it like this. It's kind of ironic; when I was in the process of counting up my income every month in 2015, I kept wishing it was less (so I'd have to pay less in taxes) but of course I also like to make more. So stressful. The stock market is also doing quite bad at the moment which sucks because most of the money I was putting aside to pay are in stocks..so that probably wasn't a good idea lol. Ugh. Anyway enough about that - but that's basically what I've been focusing on these months.
I can't wait to get my new place and decorate though. I want to get a couple size 1000% Bearbricks (these ones in the photo above are size 400%) and a couple Gray Malin prints such as THIS ONE or THIS. Decorating will be an on-going process though because I like to only get things once I find the perfect one that I like the most. Also the style of things that I like are not that easy to find (not to mention expensive..usually). Which is why I'm starting this search early on.

Here are some photos of my recent life, taken over the past couple weeks or so....

Fast Fresh Foods is my current obsession. I haven't had a salad like this in years but recently I was suddenly craving a chicken caesar salad. So I went here to get one (there's always a huge lineup at their location near me so I figured it was good) and it's really good..really does taste "fresh"! I've literally had one of these every day in a row for the past maybe..5 days. You can't tell in the photo but their salads are HUGE. I get the large and get very full from it (& salad is pretty hard to get full from). Also they have a large variety of different options for you to make your own custom salad. Prior to this my obsession was IQFoodCo which I still love. So if you are in Toronto/close to the Financial District I would recommend these two places. Takeout food is all usually pretty unhealthy but I think these 2 are the best healthy options. Oh I also like McEwan's hot food bar which I mentioned in a previous post. I'm pretty extreme with my food phases though. Prior to this I had a few days of way too many cup noodles and way too much candy.

Apart from the rain today, the weather is getting better and we are having more daylight in a day!

Saks Fifth Avenue finally opened here in Toronto!

Baking 30 Valentine's Day cupcakes!!

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472. Recent Life / Food

As mentioned in my previous post..here is a big catch up of random photos taken in the past month or two! I just went through and saw that pretty much all of them consist of food lol. In the photo above are the travel magazines I bought this month. I got all the good ones I could find. Now I am subscribed (by mail) to CN Traveler, Lonely Planet, National Geographic Traveler, Travel + Leisure & Canadian Traveller lol. Plus I also have subscriptions to 3 business magazines. I guess I read quite a bit.

The Chinese New Year decorations at Shangri-La Hotel!

Lunch + work at Bosk.

A few weeks ago, my mom came downtown. We went for lunch at Terroni on Queen St.

I heard this is a good restaurant but to be honest I didn't like the food that much. The restaurant interiors were nice though.

Then we had dessert at Nadege

Banoffee pie

I can never resist taking photos of their displays

I've been going to McEwan's for lunch a lot these days. For those of you who don't know - he is a famous chef here in Toronto. He has some restaurants around the city and gourmet grocery stores as well. He has a grocery store now in the PATH and a section with prepared foods. My favourite thing there is the shrimp penne (there at the top) but every day there's different dishes. One complaint I have though is that a lot of things are spicy...and unfortunately they don't state that it's spicy on the sign so I accidentally get that stuff alot. & it's things that shouldn't even be spicy (like vegetable penne! I was quite disappointed lol)

Eclairs also at McEwan's

Because of the cold weather I've also been staying indoors a lot, only going to PATH-accessible places. So I've been going to Marche more again. I only like the rosti here though. & their Napoleon dessert is pretty good as well.

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471. Chinese New Year

I'm pretty behind on my "recent life" posts since I've just been focusing on the vacation posts these days. Here is a quick one of my Chinese New Year! The actual day was yesterday. I spent the day with my mom. The night before that I went back to my house for a dinner. Here are some photos from that night. As you can see there was a lot of food..(for 4 people)

Red pocket money

This is my cat Blueberry. Well he barely remembers me now since I haven't lived there for years. He's a blue point Himalayan. We got him when I was about 12 years old I think..now he's like 13 years old.

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470. Quebec 2016 | Quebec City

Quebec City was less than an hour's drive away from our cabin, so we went on a quick trip there once day. Unfortunately it was the coldest day during our time there (like -25/30C) so we didn't stay for too long. The walled in part of the city is where we usually go (I've been to Quebec City a few times before but only during summer). It is so nice and magical there during winter. The style is very European. It's like a little village with old stone buildings and cobblestone streets. We went there for dinner, dessert, walked around a bit then drove around. As it was so cold, most of these photos were taken from inside the car. I wish we could've stayed longer and walked around more. I'd like to go back during the summer though!