Sunday, January 25, 2015

New Year, New Place

Last week I moved for the third time in 7 years.
A lot of people asked me if I was excited about the move or stressed out. 
I wasn't much of the former and I only got stressed out the days leading to the move....

There isn't much to it really, 
1. Pick a date
2. Save the date with your friends/movers
3. Book the elevators at the current address and the next address
4. Reserve a truck
5. Get boxes
6. Start packing...(a little every day works great for me!)
7. Disassemble furniture that can be disassembled.
8. Protect corners of furniture that cannot be disassembled
9. Secure loose items

Come the big day, hope that everything goes as planned!
The best part of the day was that I get to drive a big 10 footer! Driving a car right after seemed quite ordinary.The funniest part of the day was when the security guy looked at us and asked who's going to reverse the truck into the loading area and all the guys looked at me! Yes, the only woman around is backing up the truck! Not too bad for an asian female driver!

Then when everybody has left and you have boxes everywhere, make sure you take a big breath and start unpacking, first with the basics and then with the "peripherals".
The faster you get to it, the better it is.

Of course, the first thing that was set up was my computer! 
Then to admire the view:



Granted, that's not the CN tower, but I get an unobstructed view of GO trains!

I liked my old place, but I think with time, I'll get to like this place too.
After all, home is where the heart is, right?

Thursday, January 01, 2015

Where did 2014 go?

As I sit here and ponder where the year has gone, I cannot believe that the last 12 months have gone by so fast. It seems only yesterday I was writing the retrospective of 2013. It's almost as if 2014 happened without any big impact on my life. But I know this is not true. 2014 has brought a lot of changes in my life. Maybe it's true what they say....as you grow older, the years just seem like days...

Well, if that's the case, then here's a summary of what I did over the last few days!

In January, Christina and Patrice were in Toronto for a visit. We hung out a lot and went to karaoke.
It was sad when they left. I went to Ripley's Aquarium a couple of times which is more than most people have since the aquarium opened in October.

February was a winterlicious month. I was at Casa Loma for High Tea and visited the castle for the first time. This high tea gave me the idea of organizing my own tea party! Another meaningful event was a trip to Ottawa to skate on Rideau Canal. We skated the whole length of the canal! The next day, we visited Parliament Hill before heading back to Toronto.



In March, I finally was able to host a tea party at my place. With lots of food, which were apparently all of the same shade, I invited a few friends over after going to pick new glasses for them in chinatown. A week later, I built my most impressive fondant cake yet, a LEGO movie cake for Nathaniel's birthday!


In April, I agreed to become a Toastmasters mentor to a club at MaRS Discovery District. For Easter, I went on a road trip to Cleveland. We went to the symphony orchestra, to a Blue Jays game and to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

May and June were fairly quiet before I flew back home at the end of June for Christina and Pat's wedding. It was a bittersweet return to the island. I appreciated it more because I don't anticipate going back soon. Being in the wedding party was relatively easy for Christina's wedding. Everything was planned, so it went fairly smoothly. I stayed one night at Angsana before going back to my own bed. Time outside of the wedding and its related activities were spent with family.




In July, as soon as I got back to Toronto, I went to a Katy Perry concert and another first for me, axe throwing! I wasn't too bad at it, I lost in the semis and was the top female in our group!

August was a big month for me. We went to the East Coast. As per my previous post, it started on a high with meeting a stranger on the plane. The whole trip was a lot of fun, with lots of sights and cities to see on the east coast of our beautiful Canada.




September came and went and in October, my parents arrived. This was the start of a big change for all of us.Between living in a cramped 1 bedroom in downtown Toronto and the trek to Mississauga, the weeks went by fast. Months of preparation culminated in the United Way CN tower climb. where for 3 days, I was in the cross-over room looking at climbers arrive at the finish line.

November has been a blur. It was spent looking at a lot of 2 bedroom condos around the area. Finally, just after mom's birthday, I found a place. So most of the beginning of December was spent making arrangements for the move and going to factory sales and dinners.

Which bring us to today! It's now 3 hrs into the new year and I'm watching The Godfather on Netflix. There's a saying which dictates that whatever you do on New Year's day, that's what you'll be doing the rest of the year. The plan when I wake up is to make dessert for dinner and clean and de-clutter. What's in store for 2015? Hopefully, not more cleaning and de-cluttering!! :)