FLORSFLOREATS

So I have been really busy that I haven't written anything for a month. Then I have managed to give a minor makeover to this blog and now I'm saying I have started a new blog. Look, I'm really busy, so busy that I'm writing this post in a lecture…… anyway, head over to my food blog - florsfloreats! Comment and subscribe, if you're inclined!



(Sorry, no food post yet. Told you I'm busy!)

Weeks Two and Three in Toronto

Time flies is one of the phrases which I find to be extremely annoyingly clichéd. But it's true. Time seems to have grown wings and flies.

From the CN Tower

I can't believe I have been in Toronto for almost four weeks now. The longer I am here, the more I like this city (though the curve is starting to flatten, London and Hong Kong are still my favourites)... but it also means I have discovered more things to dislike:

1. STUPID TAX
I don't mind paying tax. Actually, I do mind a little bit. If you're going to tax me on everything, why don't you just include it in the price?

2. THE COINS / NO PENNY
Another very stupid thing is the round-up/round-down thing they do here. Canada has got rid of the pennies. For coins there are only 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, $1 and $2 (the physical size of the coins itself is quite stupid too but I've got used to that). So if you pay cash, and if the total is not a multiple of the nickel, some businesseses may round the after-tax price to the nearest 5 cents. It is up to them to always round up, always round down or round to the nearest 5 cents.

With a tax rate like 13% (5% + 8%), the post-tax total is bound to get strange. Even if there is no tax (e.g. groceries), the $x.99 cunning pricing strategy that marketing peeps love will ruin any niceness of the total amount. Luckily my local supermarket always rounds down. But if a shop rounds to the nearest 5 cents, does that mean I can take advantage of that and pay in a way that minimises the rounding cost (Florence conjecture)? Surely it's just a penny of difference, but if we do that frequent enough, we could make a big difference (ignoring time cost)! Isn't this sort of like what I've learnt about arbitrage trading strategies in Finance?

(Extended Reading as if this isn't long enough)

3. DRYNESS -> STATIC ELECTRICITY
I feel like I have my hands on a van der Graaff generator all the time. Hairs standing on end and that familiar electric "zzzeeeeeee" sound. My cashmere cardigan and my red hoodie are so electrically charged that I have left them on the floor to "earth"......


TL; DR, eh? (attempting to sound Canadian) Let's bring on the photos!! You may have seen some of the photos on Facebook but some are new...

Mid-Autumn Festival

It was Mid-Autumn Festival a week and half ago. Didn't get hold of a mooncake but I don't like it anyway... and eating a mooncake on my own would definitely lead to a sick stomach. When I was in London I might have agreed with the line 每逢佳節倍思親 but that day I didn't feel lonely at all.

Is the foreign moon really rounder and brighter?

For the past two weeks I have gone on two excursions and several food dates.

The Toronto Islands

OFFICIALLY MY FAVOURITE PLACE IN TORONTO. After discovering my love for the great outdoors, I feel that I appreciate the nature much more than before. I also feel more "connected".

When people go to the Toronto Islands, they normally take the ferry to Centre Island. This explains why that ferry is larger than the one we took. Instead of going to the Centre Island first, we took the ferry to Ward's Island

Photo point: Toronto skyline

Why Ward's Island first? Lunch at the Rectory Café! This steak sandwich was great. Wish I had enough space in my stomach to sample the Flourless Chocolate Torte

Looking awkward by Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes

Amazingly breathtaking

There are lots of beaches in the Toronto Islands. There is even a Clothing Optional Beach...

Sun is in the sky oh why oh why would I wanna be anywhere else

Whenever it is sunny I think of this song

Hello CN Tower

So windy I couldn't open my eyes properly

Riding a quadricycle to Hanlan's Point and back

The apparently haunted Gibraltar Point lighthouse

One of the best views of the Toronto skyline is from Hanlan's Point... according to some website I had read the day before

Me looking ugly with semi-shut eyes

Thank you for having me, Centre Island and your friends!

It was a great day trip and I can't wait to go back! After the Toronto Islands, we went to the Harbourfront Centre as there was something going on. Pan-American Food Festival. Not worth a mention though.


Poutine

I'm partial to healthy eating, but I regularly crave really really bad things. Pizza, chips, cheese fries, burgers, crisps, ice-cream, raw cookie dough... now let's introduce a new item to this list - poutine.

First poutine in Canada - Pulled Pork Poutine from New York Fries. Want to have this again but I shall run an accumulated distance of 10 km beforehand. I'm not a dog but I love to reward myself with food.

Regular Traditional Poutine from Poutini's. School bag (stop laughing at this term, I pack my school bag every night like a primary school chicken) used as a comparison... How is this size "regular"? It should be called "lunch + dinner + next day's breakfast"... The fries were really good, but I found the gravy too salty after eating half the bowl. I prefer the slightly sweet and spicy kick that pulled pork gives. I'm not very traditional~

Will pay Smoke's, a poutinerie known for its variety, a visit after the pimples on my face disappear... does that mean never?


Kensington Market

The location of the U of T St George campus is unbeatable. Shops, museums, restaurants are all within a short walking distance. Last Friday, before our visit to the CN Tower, we decided to meet up on campus and walk to the nearby Kensington Market.

According to prior research, Moonbean Coffee Company is famous in the neighbourhood. Should be true though, because even on a Friday afternoon, lots of people came to buy coffee beans

Self-service brewed coffee. Wish they had this in Hong Kong so I could overdose on caffeine all the time

Choc chip coconut bread pudding and a small... Costa Rica West Valley Strictly Hard Bean European Prep LOL

Posing very awkwardly with food

My second cup! This time I had Devil's Brew. Random fact: there is a coffee shop chain called Second Cup here in Canada

Love this shop!!! Always a sucker for novelty items / crafty stuff and needless to say damage was done to my wallet

Kid Icarus, a very cool shop. Would probably get some cards and prints here before I leave Toronto

The CN Tower

After walking around Kensington Market, we set off to the CN Tower.

The tower, a bird and a plane that you can't really see other than as a white spot (on the right of the tip)

Replace the "la tour Eiffel"s of this song with "la tour CN"

Almost $50 with tax but my father's said "you earn money to spend"... Dad, you've never been more right

Riding the extremely fast lift up

Toronto, you're surreal! (Going to fly from that tiny airport in November)

Glass floor! Always think glass floor is overrated. The concept's cool but the view underneath always sucks

Feeling the breeze at the Outdoor SkyTerrace, what a fancy name

Friends and me

Paid $12 + tax for access to the SkyPod because as advertised on a clear day you can see as far as Niagara Falls, ON and Rochester, NY. LIES. It was a clear day but according to the girl working in the lift it wasn't clear enough. Do they say that every day? But it was surprising that, thirty floors up the LookOut Level, the view was not very different...

I'm obsessed with panorama and this is no exception

To make ourselves feel better, we kept reminding ourselves we were three of the tallest-standing-on-ground people in North America at the very moment (there were about ten people in the SkyPod with us and the CN Tower is the tallest building in North America)

"I was there last week!"

Going down... why is there a window at the bottom of the lift? I don't care about wires!

The red dots were Edgewalkers. I wanna join them!

Post-tour meal

I want to do this - CN Tower Climb... Y / N? Need advice.


Skype

Skype-ing is my one of favourite past-times. Living alone without someone to talk is daunting. It's no news that I talk to myself, but recently I've started having conversations with myself. I'm secretly scared that one day SOMEONE (or spirit?) will join in my one-man conversation... This is why I have to have multi-hour Skype sessions with Konny. My Skype ID is florsflor (duh) and please add me and let me know if you want to video chat some time!

Skype-ing with the siblings!

ooVoo-ing with mes amies! First time using ooVoo upon the recommendation of Theo

Cooking

When it comes to silly things, I like to be competitive. Last week, a friend who is also on his exchange semester posted some pictures of his cooking on Facebook, caption being "exchange studies = cooking practice". Obviously he was proud of his culinary creation, but sorry to say his cooking didn't look good at all! I may be kidding when I call myself a domestic goddess, but my cooking can be rather impressive :P All the hours spent watching cooking shows on Sunday afternoons haven't exactly gone to waste?

Obsessed with this for several days - italian sausage capellini, so so yum!

Please ignore the plastic bag at the back

Cookies were brought to you by procrastination

The cheddar should be in their "melting" state but I added it as an afterthought, after weighing the benefits (e.g. savoury gooey-ness) against the costs (e.g. a significant increase in calorie intake)

Sorry! I only have two identical plates

Going on exchange is not the same as going on holiday as some may say. In fact, I had quite a bad day today. But I'm just going to eat my feelings in pasta and post some pretty photos on my blog and write some silly sentences. There have been way too many episodes of sadness earlier this year... no more room for that stuff! Not a lot of plans for the coming fortnight, but there is something major coming up for Thanksgiving... Stay tuned!

Missing everyone back home! ♥