Back & Back

H2 2022

August: Alex came to JFR, wore the t shirt and got in the mega family photo. He cycled Samiyah around and stopped her crying. Alex also went to Washington

September: We stayed in the cutest cabin in Idaho Springs (near Denver) and saw The National at Red Rocks. Leila went to London for 4 days for the Selwyn Reunion

October: Disney! Lived in the Marriott for a week and it was great. Alex loved Harry Potter land. Canadian Thanksgiving at Aleem and Karen’s. Alex went up the CN tower with Mysha

November: Buenos Aires!! Best week of eating, friends and wine. Leila got to know Dave well and they made lots of plans! Wedding of Beto and Mer was great. Leila potentially injured her back big time but we don’t know yet. On Thanksgiving, they hired a car and went to Vetta Nordic Spa in Barrie where they sat in robes with their books all day and went in and out of saunas and hot pools. It was dreamy and L loved this sour berry. A really enjoyed his first massage!!

December: NYC trip, where we ran into Joohee, Alice, GS friends and DoorDash friends. Also we love Billy Bishop. Went to the Mariah Carey Xmas concert (booked on the day) and sung Xmas songs. Alex went to London for Xmas and Leil went to Bermuda and spent a few days with Aleem and Karen whilst they were house sitting in Waterloo. Leila’s back started hurting a lot over Xmas and she couldn’t do any of the activities in Bermuda but she was happy to be with the family.

January

Leil is back in Toronto before Alex and spends most of the days worrying about her back pain. Alex flies in on January 3 without his bags because Air Transat lost it, but the only thing he needed to buy was a toothbrush because he is very good at operating with barely any physical possessions.

Alex & Leila went to PAI and Alex made them order new dishes that they hadn’t ordered before and Leila can firmly say they were all worse than their usual dishes…. never again. But it was still nice and A had a grande beer. Also it was cute and spontaneous – they met in the middle of L’s walk home from work and ended up in a bar then PAI!

L started habit tracking as part of her new years resolutions and successfully flossed 3x a week for the first week, stretched every day, mediated every day and read the news every day (A is very good at telling L what happened in the news each day, so that helps). The only habit she’s failing on so far is pomegranate. But that’s hopefully not for long until her back resolves itself. On Friday, she went to Wine Down with Alex and joined him and Patrick. Alex really appreciated and enjoyed L visiting him at work.

L has been having very bad back pain, numbness and tingling in both her limbs and it’s been mentally tiring and lots of back and forth with doctors. A and L went to the ER and spent the full day there on a Sunday – A sat outside in the waiting room whilst L spent 7 hours in a separate room and was seen by a doctor for <5 mins. A was very supportive and L was SO grateful that A brought her a prawn sando and Lara bar to eat in the hospital because there was no food. L felt like a queen of the ER eating a fancy prawn sando.

On the weekend, they had a slow day, heading for a coffee explore – they went to fix coffee and bikes, Leila had a call with an ER nurse that Alex had booked in the morning. The nurse was super helpful, and super detailed. They then went shopping to buy Alex some clothes cause he didn’t have any after the flight. He’d also got really hairy. They ended up getting Ramen at Ikkousha – it was really really good. They watched Glass Onion from bed and then went to sleep.

They missed Nani’s birthday lunch due to the ER but they went to her house to eat on Monday after work – she had made beyond meat kebab no saak and she told L and A lots of stories, and told them to get married and have a baby ASAP. The next day, A went to the office but then cycled back in a rush home because L was crying as she thought she wet herself on a call (Due to back pain) but she hadn’t, L is so grateful for A. Alex had his first meeting of his Sci-Fi book club, he’d read ‘The paper menagerie’ by Ken Liu. He loved the book then was really enjoying the commentary before Ken Liu joined the zoom himself! He was super eloquent and Alex absolutely loved it and it made him reflect lots on being human and technology.

L had not seen A so content looking in a long time as he was whilst on book club writing on his iPad. He had this little content smile on his face and she loved watching him.

On Wednesday they randomly decided to go to Saku sushi for dinner and it was yummy!! A did not regret ordering the crab rice dish and they shared hot sake for the first time together as A told L it would cure her back pain. L felt gross (wearing tracksuit and no make up) but she was just very happy to be out of the house for the first time in a while.

A went our for dinner with QB people and brought back so much fish and kale leftovers. There were 20ish QB-ears and it was super nice chatting and meeting them. He came away really missing his community in QBLabs. He came home to L who was watching a Lindsey Lohan Xmas movie and then A got really into it and watched it with her, but L fell asleep right before the end and had to finish if it alone the following day.

A went to the office on Friday whilst L stayed home and wrote annual reviews. L’s nail is infected and about to fall off RIP . L went to Mandy’s for lunch but was not impressed by the salad as the mushrooms were raw.