The weekend started with a family brunch. We hosted Nani, Amina, Imran, Mysha and cooked aubergine, big eggs, potatoes, pizza, and lots of goodies. It was nice to host and make our types of food. It felt very low effort compared to usual times seeing the family and they loved it. In the evening, they went to Liberty Commons for Will’s birthday. Annie and Paddy were also there. It was a lovely evening. On the Monday (bank holiday), they went for a super long walk in the cold sun and went to midtown and did one of the old railway trail walks.
During the week, A had an interview with Worldcoin who do digital identity but he was convinced by the role title. L did legs up the wall. On Friday, they went to ICT for A’s first time in khane. It was an interested experience (see separate write up) and they gave lots of feedback to L’s parents. They then spontaneously went to Lake Inez wearing L’s indian outfit and ate crazy good bucatini that was fried, cornbread and some lovely trout. A liked L’s outfit.
On Saturday, A and Will watched the rugby whilst L and Tamara met up randomly in nutbar. Later, A and l went to happy hour at Downtown Winery and loved their $5 wine. They then spontaneously went to Tavern Bernhardts and ate some shrimpy thing and arancini and then headed to the Jazz cafe for an evening of music and Tamara and Will joined. On the way to the Jazz cafe, Alex taught leila about statistical significance and variance. It was a fun evening. A and L had a little dance in the jazz club and it was lovely.
On Sunday, they tried out Woolshed which is a such a cute, warm, local cafe and was incredibly chilled. In the afternoon, they went for a long walk in Ontario place whilst L caught up with anish and A caught up with Masha. In the evening, they cooked a really long slow roast and Alex made puff pastry for the first time in ages!!!! He loved it. Also, he spoke to Cam on the phone and laughed a lot. The roast was great.
The next week went by until Thursday|On Friday Leila headed to Montreal. On Thursday they decided to go for spontaneous dinner and L booked Favourites Thai – they didn’t realise this was behind Sam james cafe, in a really cool little back room. The food was good but service was better and A had an amazing thai basil cocktail. Was good vibes. On Friday, they woke up early for A’s flight and L went swimming before work! It felt great. In the evening there was a snow storm and she was lucky to make it to Montreal. On arrival, she ate amazing indian food cooked by Auntie Munira but they had to take Domenico to the ER so it was a bit hectic (he was fine). On saturday, it was very snowy and L played with the kids and then went for coffee and to Nuraiyah’s house which was lovely. They had deep chats alll day. In the eve they went to a wine bar and had snacks, but L came back hungry and ate popcorn and more food at Auntie M’s and they made turmeric milk with saffron and cardamom. L decided she really wants good spices, good pans, a vitamix, nice crockery and a happy kitchen. On sunday, she played with the kids again and also went on a long sunny cold walk with Nuraiyah. on Monday, she worked from their house and learned how to make rotlo in the evening, before flying back on Tuesday.
Alex headed to Copper Mountain with Ana and Paige, his McK / MPAID ski team buddies. He had a super nice time, it was absolute chaos trying to get to Frisco where they stayed, they last minute snuck on a public bus, but when they got there the AirBnb was super good and equipped and they had ice wine. Alex got altitude sickness which put a downer on things but the skiing was great, with all three of them really prioritising first and last lifts. Getting back was similarly chaos, they had to leave Paige behind to sneak on a bus again but they got there and it felt really good to ski really hard for 3 days. Also copper mountain was such a good & difficult ski mountain.
Both Alex & Leil felt overloaded during the week, especially Alex cause there was loads of pressure on the EconDev vision, and he’s struggled to staff anyone. He was having a tough time especially weds & thurs. On Thursday he decided to get a last minute haircut with Elio in Leslieville, they decided to go for dinner at Enoteca – it was ok. But they had a nice vibe and Alex snuck into Avling for a sour. On Friday they worked and then met Julie Anne and Michael for dinner at an (average) plant based mexican but the drinks and company were really nice. They came home and made more food (lol) and watched the final of Next Level Chef. We liked all of the finalists and was happy Jade won. They cried.
On Saturday, they had a slow morning. And headed to Emmer (where they currently are) and had a great cheese croissant and halloumi tahini toast which was banging in taste but quite sweet for L’s palette. They bought goodies to take home too.
Coffee, Wine and Isolation 