Tennis, Pickleball, Pizza, Red Wine and friends these are a few of my favourite things. Welcome to my small space on the internet. Come stay a while.
All in Musings
When a new restaurant opens in the area I’m almost always very interested in what it is going to be like. And, this one so far has not disappointed. Just around the corner, or what I would suggest a short stumble is a new place called “Stella’s Italian Kitchen.” It’s located at 182 Dupont Street very close to the intersection of Davenport and Dupont.
Well, you might wonder where this blog post is going, and frankly, I wouldn’t blame you. Trust me it’s all good. I recently found myself in NYC one weekend when a well known “influencer” was introducing new products for her brand dairy boy.
It got me thinking about who makes the best steak/frites in Toronto.
For some those would be considered fighting words while for others it’s simply a great opportunity to clog your arteries with red wine and delicious steak and frites.
As a bit of historical reference my baseline or comparison is the chain of restaurants in Paris called “ Le Relais de l’Entrecote.” A legendary stopping point for both locals and tourists while visiting Paris. I was taken there over 25 years ago by some colleagues at Wilson to the location just off the Champs Élysées. For whatever reason, I still remember the street name - 15 Rue Marbeuf, How could you go wrong - steak and frites. What a simple but wonderful combination.
I guess it’s fair to say, I may have veered off the wagon. No….nothing to do with drinking too much - lets save that for another day. I am talking about staying current with blog posts. Can’t give you any good reasons, so I won’t try. But, I’m back.
If you do an internet search for the best pizza in Toronto, one place that is appearing on almost recent lists is - Pizzeria Badiali. I had first read about this place over a year ago and it has been on my list to get there, but alas had never found the right opportunity to make a pilgrimage to it - till recently. As the cool weather has come on too quickly, my opportunities to get out on my e-bicycle are becoming less and less. So, I try to make the most of them when the sun is out. Recently, I was riding out in the west-end of Toronto and I thought I was fairly close. I did a quick check on my phone and I could see it wasn’t very far away.
I have a couple of go-to websites that I look at daily and they are BLOG TO and the other is TORONTO LIFE. Like all forms of social media you have to make your own judgments, however what I look for is articles on new types of food/restaurants, real estate and events happening in the city. I recently read one about a new restaurant on College Street called “Danny’s Pizza Kitchen.
This seems to happen to me every year. Usually around one month prior to the Grand Slams, I start to think - maybe, I should go! Now, this doesn’t happen for Australia (too far), but usually it does just before Roland Garros (Paris) and just before Wimbledon (London). And typically, I think and think and don’t actually ending up going.
I guess it’s inevitable. After over two years of running, staying out of sight, masking and hiding from the world it does and it will likely catch up to you. Of course the first thing you do is ask yourself how and where did you get it? After a couple of years of this you realize that is a complete waste of time because it’s impossible to narrow the search down….especially in today’s world.
After over ten years of ownership we recently decided to sell our condo at Saddlebrook in Florida. It’s been a long time coming and coming to this final decision was hard but also easy. So, how about let’s start at the very beginning.
Yes…now what? I have been wanting to write this post for a long time, but up to now I have resisted. Not sure exactly why? I guess I don’t want it to sound too maudlin, and full of self pity and I’m pretty sure that it does and will…..so, at the risk of that here goes.
War has broken out in Ukraine and there is a real danger that this could escalate to something even more serious than what it is at the moment. The game of geo-politics is at play with most democratic societies unwilling to enter into a much bigger and more dangerous war with Russia.
If your a follower of tennis you couldn’t help notice that there was more excitement prior to the tournament then possibly during the ongoing Australian Open. The top player in the world was front and centre in a stupid, silly legal battle to play in Australia. Basically the rules to enter the country were very straightforward….you need to have proof of a double vaccination.
Another year has come and gone….thank god! What a crazy two years. It was 2 years ago that I ended my 30+ years at Wilson. It was 2 years ago that we first started to hear rumours about a new virus that was coming out of China and it was 1 year ago that Ms. Sheila was out walking a neighbours dog near the condo and in a flash she went down on a patch of ice. No big deal right? I later found out she crawled home and I could hear her crying out from downstairs. Off to the hospital we went and a broken something or other was the result. The first few months she had to work from home and because of her lack of mobility she was stuck upstairs. Nurse Doug had to step up and take on more responsibility. Our bedroom became her office and she managed to keep working for many months from upstairs. It has been a long rehab and unfortunately, she could not play any tennis this year. She still walks with a bit of a limb but here’s hoping that maybe in the spring she can try to hit the yellow ball.
Well….it’s official, I’m old. The picture above was taken recently and I didn’t post it on social media -well……because, I think I look old. I imagine we all have some sort of image in our mind that we are still 25 years old and no doubt, there are times when I still feel I can run as fast as I used to, but I took a look at this picture and realized - I’m getting old.
At the time of this writing we’ve now been locked down for 27 years or at least it feels like that. Our provincial government keeps extending the ban on everything. There are a significant number of people who are upset that recreation activities are shut down - which includes tennis courts, golf courses, basketball courts etc. The science seems to indicate that the government is not correct on this one and that being outdoors and playing sports has a very low risk of spreading COVID 19, against the issue of being indoors not withstanding the concern on the mental health of people.
I’m not sure I can add anything profound or new to the discussion about 2020. I think history will do it for us. I’m confident that none us had this figured out when we first learned about Covid 19. Someone who I play tennis with and who I think is very, very smart - told me “ this thing will go away as soon as the warm weather comes in.” Well, that certainly didn’t happen.
Wow…it’s been quite awhile since I’ve either had the time or realistically the inclincation to sit down and write something. Frankly, I guess I have not felt very motivated to do so. I guess you could call it Covid 19 fatigue. Anyways, so how are things?
We are in the 2nd week (I think) of the mandated City lockdown which second serious lockdown we’ve seen here since the beginning of this pandemic. We had a pretty good summer and it certainly looked like things were getting better. But if you followed what was going in other parts of the world what we are seeing here is not surprising. I guess they called it the 2nd wave.
