I am a little behind on this too! But catching up on posts is kinda fun in a way… These were all read in 2022! Oops
In Cold Blood : A true account of a multiple murder and its consequences by Truman Capote
The Storygraph key words: nonfiction classics crime true crime adventurous dark tense slow paced
Me: This is one of those books I’ve actually had for ages but couldn’t remember actually reading. It was really interesting to see how Capote told the story with the various viewpoints and shifting the narrative around. However now that I’ve read it, I’ve handed it off to my dad who also hasn’t ever read it. So it’s out of the house!
The Wealthy Barber: The common sense guide to successful financial planning by David Chilton
The Storygraph key words: nonfiction business informative fast paced
Me: It was pretty good for a financial book written in the late ’90s 😉 The basics are good and tie in nicely with my supposed focus on being more mindful with money. It talks about “paying yourself first” (we have automatic RRSP/TFSA account contributions on top of our workplace group plans) and those kinds of basics. I also have the sequel somewhere in the house but it can wait I guess: I’ve had this one for years and years. It went into a local free library as soon as I was done.
Nosy Parker: by Lesley Crewe
The Storygraph key words: fiction historical emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced
Me: this was a fun read. It takes place in Montreal during the expo. You definitely get the idea that family is what you make – friends become family and the “ideal family” just doesn’t exist. It’s told from the perspective of a middle-school-aged kid. I was a little nervous about this but it was actually quite good and not at all cutesy (as I feared). I gave this away on our local free group on FB ’cause I knew I wasn’t gonna read it again.
28.5 km up to 4 December. And then 52.1 km (roughly) from then to the end of January – so 81 km. Which puts me really in the middle of nowhere it seems – between Newcastle and Newtonville in Ontario. Newtonville is considered the eastern end of the GTA (which, because I’m me, made me go look up “western end of the GTA” which is apparently Burlington. Distance from Burlington to Newtonville? 123 km by car as per google maps, 113 by foot.)
You’ll maybe notice a race in there. I decided to re-start running. Laura said “ohhh I like running with other people let’s run together.”
And then later, Laura “by the way, I may have roped Abby into this.”
And then “Oh and I found a race….”
So then Suzy (who’s moved on to marathons since the last time I ran with her) agreed to run the NYE race too.
The race was awful. I hadn’t run for 3 weeks before. I wasn’t nearly ready at all for a full 5k. But I did it and I didn’t die. Though maybe I should have had more than 1 pint before the race (even if I was the one driving).
I was worried (as usual) about being late. We were early enough to have pints before the race.
It did remind me though of all the reasons I like running (honestly it’s the time to myself, feeling the air and the rain (or snow) and being in the dark and the light and paying attention to new streets or sounds or smells. But the aloneness is awesome. And running by the lake? At night? In winter with the snow? BLISS.
As you can see from my tracking that bliss feeling kept me going for a week. And then I fell all to pot again with a really bad cold. So much so that I’m still trying to come back even though I’m writing this mid-February! I ordered myself a new Garmin running watch and also signed up for a new training app that I’ve never even heard of before. And well, tomorrow is a Monday so that’s as good a time as any to start again!
Left to my own devices, I will stay inside and never leave the house. Now I have a puppy. I leave the house several times a day. I have spoken to more people – STRANGERS! – in the past 7 months than I probably have since 2012 when we moved into this house.
Toby likes going out. And Toby loves trying new and different places to eat.
So I thought I’d combine the two – a list and going out to eat.
What better list than ALLLL the countries of the world?!?
Well, probably lots. There are honestly loads of better lists to use to pick restaurants than “an alphabetical list of the countries of the world.”
First of all, not everyone agrees as to what is “a country.” And seriously, this is not at all supposed to be political (not the blog, the eating out!). But if the list didn’t have Palestine on it I wasn’t gonna use it. This is my favourite list though – it recognizes Palestine and Kosovo (to the Mighty Q’s great relief).
And second, wow there are a LOT of countries that start with A. And not a lot of restaurants for all of them in Toronto. So Toby suggested, 1 country per letter and just keep cycling through the alphabet. I think that’s actually what I’m going to work with.
But wait…why eat around the world at all?!?
Okay, let’s step back a minute. I was born in Toronto Ontario Canada. In the early 1970s. I basically grew up with the story that Toronto is the most multicultural place in the world.
It turns out it is actually not just a story – see here: BBC Radio – behind the stats; or here: BBC Travel: the city of 140 languages; about half our population comes from elsewhere AND half of the immigrants to Canada come here: wiki.
But of course it’s not all honey and love and equality. Most people have heard of Little Italy or Chinatown. But we also have a Little Jamaica, and a Chinatown East, and Little India. I live near Greektown. And then there’s Koreatown. And so so many more. So the idea came to me to get out of the house and explore the city a little more. To entice Toby, and maybe some friends too, I’d link it to food.
Start at the beginning
So – I started at the top. With Afghanistan.
Map Of Afghanistan And Surrounding Countries
I googled “best [country] food Toronto.” I relied heavily on reddit: specifically /FoodToronto. And this is obviously not a new idea. There are other blogs dedicated to this: Eat the World TO, Global Toronto Eats, even a food tour! But hey I am still gonna do it my way.
On January 14, Toby and I and the Mighty Q and some friends (people came along! wheeeee) met at Bamiyan Kabob on Overlea Blvd. in East York. Inexpensive and cheerful – think hard tables, plastic chairs, picking your food up on trays etc. – and the food was really really good and three of the boys (7, 11, and 48 years old) all really liked their mango smoothies too. It was busy. We grabbed a table for the 9 of us and almost all the other tables turned over while we were there. A mix of ages and races and genders and everything.
barg kabobkofta kabob
Even Q ate it. Well, not the lettuce 😉 Turns out he liked the barg best. I ordered it because I had no idea what it was. According to the website it’s filet mignon. Kid has good taste.
And then across the “street” in the little plaza-type place, there was an ice cream shop. Remember we had 3 kids with us.
Anyway – why not have Afghan dinner and then Thai dessert?
Ice cream is rolled out on a tabletop that is chilled to -19 degrees Celsius. Then rolled up. That’s it in a nutshell. The Mighty Q got smores (complete with marshmallow). I got blueberry cheesecake with whipped cream and white chocolate. I don’t even remember what Toby got but I’m sure there was fruit involved. And no pictures even. Clearly we’ll have to go back.
Next up I think is Belgium. Moules…. lambics…ales… steak frites.
My brain is already thinking things like “so many different types of “Chinese” food – what the heck are we gonna do?!?!?” But one thing at a time I guess. January was Afghanistan. March will be Belgium. If you have a favourite “country” restaurant in the GTA let me know!
This sort of shouldn’t count for the decluttering / organizing part of this activity because it turns out the actual physical book I have is book two in the series so I read book one from the library.
Me: while parts of this “written in the 70s” detective story were kinda painful to read nowadays (bosoms should just not be commented on okay?!?) the overall premise of this one is awesome and I will be reading more! I don’t want to spoil it – which is weird to say about a book as old as I am but still. Once I get through the alphabet I’ll come back to read the second one.
Milkman by Anna Burns
Storygraph key words: fiction historical literary challenging dark reflective slow-paced
Me: if you want to read a book that seems to me like what my brain is like read this. Digressions all over the place (like for pages!), but always swinging back around to the point etc. Again, not my usual sort of thing but I LOVED it. So far it’s still on the shelf. And will likely stay there for a while.
I loved this book first published in 1979. Usually Butler is lumped into science fiction but I far prefer The Storygraph’s use of “speculative fiction.”
I thought this was just beautifully done. And also so much of what I would do. She travels through time, but doesn’t understand how or why and she and her partner try to figure it out as the story progresses and I love that part of it. I will definitely read more by her. I have read Bloodchild and Other Stories – I love short stories and these were all fantastic.
So I was really happy that I read three A books and got 4 books out of the house. Less decluttering with B books – they are all still here. But ohhhh so worthy of staying on the shelf. On to C next!
So, exactly how much stitching did I get done this week?
Oh you know
It really is hard to get anything done with a puppy around.
So here’s the last thing I did as part of a group project known as Steotch and it’s most recent Steotchalong. I had a deadline. I knew I could barely make it. So I was a few days late but I did it.
Toronto as touque. Our team picked a Canadian motif; the touque. Or toque. Or tuque. Whichever you use is fine. I use touque. Deal.
Our team – the Screaming Beavers no less – has some amazing people in it and some have really gone above and beyond. Our captain keeps us all informed and motivated and others have really done so much – one is putting all the touques together to submit as our group project; a bunch of us “sang” bits of ice ice baby and others put it all together; others acted out a spoof on the fold it in bit from Schitt’s Creek (complete with a cameo from one of the actors on the show!); they made cookies; and so much more.
And WE’RE IN FIRST PLACE
So apparently the final push is the percentage of the team to complete the stitch. By December 26. Clearly I need a solid deadline and there we go….I guess I should start!
