lining coffers, hopeful offers

it's been an eventful week - we started looking at places and a flurry of viewings later... we made an offer today! wow that was quick. i don't know if it might be a combination of our decision making abilities or just plain optimistic folly... it sounds like we're moving really fast but at the same time, i think we just knew exactly what we wanted. still waiting to hear back, but i'm rather ambivalent about the outcome. so i'll reserve judgement till the news arrives. on the positive side, it's a slowing season since winter is just round the corner and it seems like things are slowing down, so maybe our lowball won't be as bad as the snooty agent it's listed under.

toronto is a weird real estate market (for condos). there's a whole monopoly on nice architectural condos that have any modicum of character (we likey!). it's suspiciously consistent that they're all sold or listed through the same agent firm, headed by a single celebrity-status realtor. he's been on HGTV and other cable networks so i guess he's got some influence because he's hailed as the pioneer of manhattan-style lofts in Toronto. but his team of agents are notoriously snooty and hard to work with... i've heard stories about their highbrow attitude and lack of negotiating room for small fries like us. but then again, it might just be sour grapes by people who can't fathom paying for a tiny condo at city prices.... yeah, i know, ouch!

well - more news to come, but i thought i'd let you guys know our little update! it's quite an exciting step (and a little scary of a plunge) but i'm just focusing on that happy feeling once we get to settle into our own place finally!

maple syrup autumn

the colors are really pretty now that all the leaves are starting to turn. it's been getting really cool lately, some nights i'm even tempted to get the heater going... Fall is here! my favorite season, but it seemed to have crept up on us. i've barely noticed the change of season, Toronto weather is still a mystery to me. just a few weeks ago it was summer in full blast... then all of a sudden it starts raining non-stop and before we knew it, there were no more warm days. guess i've been super busy with my new job, time seems to have slipped into blended workdays and too short weekends.

things are going well on the work front, and i really like my team. but the pressure's building. as with almost everything these days, there's not enough time, a really aggressive schedule, and not enough people to do it all. yet, i'm supposed to somehow magically make it all work out? sigh...

i can't wait to get rid of the commute and move downtown. we're in the process of getting all the mortgage papers in order and we're starting our condo hunt in earnest, but there's not much out there in our price range right now. wonder if it's the end of summer, and the natural dearth of good listings... everything we wanted seems to have sold quickly over the summer, and all the nice ones are gone by now. i'm finding the mortgage process is a little different for us (since we have US credit but are virtually considered "newborns" in Canada credit status)... so it throws all these mortgage brokers into a loop. but still surprisingly painless once we learned to avoid pre-formatted online forms and found real live people to talk to. oh well, maybe i'm speaking too soon (keeping my fingers crossed)... hopefully we'll get all the paperwork out of the way soon, so we can actually move ahead!

oh yes, thanks to all you people who remembered... happy birthday to me! i think i'm getting older and more jaded - birthdays start to make me nostalgic and i try not to think about the big 3-0 (next year). i think i'll just quietly go to bed tonight and tell myself i have 364 days left to claim i'm still in my twenties! hehehe.... ;-p

hello sick kitty

i have a sick kitten at home, his name is edward and he whines a lot. the poor guy is down with the cold and still had to go to work since it's his first week... i bet his colleagues are all discreetly disinfecting their workstations as he wheezes past. other than that though, looks like it's all going well. he's having great geeky fun at work, whatever it is they do. he's having a comfy time at home too, now that his wife is here to attend to his sickbed... *long suffering wives of the world, i applaud thee*

i've sunk my teeth into my new project at work. now let's see if i survive intact after the whole experience. i was not exaggerating when i said in a previous post - these folks have a seriously messed up project, and they expect me to wave my hands and fix everything. eeps! i have 3 weeks to show *some* progress. shh, don't tell anyone but i don't know what it's going to be yet...

working downtown is great fun and so convenient, i love being able to walk to everything... guess i've been stuck in small town suburbia for too long. edward's workplace is pretty close by too, so we get to drive to work together, meet after work and have dinner downtown before schlepping back to our temporary suburban home. (it's been chinatown every night this week so far!) i can't wait to move into the city so that we can omit the commute entirely. is it Friday yet?!

workaholics anonymous

... phew! End of first week on the new job. I'm tired, to put it mildly. Now that I have to follow a decent routine again it's been rough adjusting. Edward even suggested we take another road trip this weekend, is that man crazy?! *shudder* no more vibrating in moving vehicles for a while... I have had enough of long commutes (it takes me about 1 hour on average to get to work in the a.m., coming back gets worse, welcome to Toronto...)

Where did the weekend go? It's Sunday again and Edward's turn for first day at work. He's quite excited about it. Me too, as it'll mean settling into another new routine for us. Work is starting to ramp up quickly, I got staffed on a project already. Don't know if it's luck or just timing. Can't wait to see what it's like, although I've already found out my project is going to be a heck of a wild ride from the looks of it. They have no idea what they're doing, development is almost done, but there's no plan and no documentation, the director is tearing her hair out and I'm supposed to go recover their whole "troubled" state of things... sounds like fun (!) I think at this point, anything I do is going to be better than what they have!

Well, more on that next time... The weather has started to get visibly cooler here and the leaves are also turning. It's actually really pleasant. Not gonna last long though, so I'm enjoying it all I can for now. I have a feeling winter is peeking her head around the corner already, wait - I'm not ready yet... brrrr!

french fries in Quebec

we're back from Montreal and Quebec City! It's been an awesome week, we had a lot of fun exploring a new place with our friend E* who came visiting from Singapore. french-speaking Canada is entirely different and picture-postcard beautiful... i think we must have taken 200+ photos. for the sake of your sanity though, i've posted just a few. if you want the full set of insomniac entertainment, drop me an email ;-p

it was kinda trippy to cross the Ontario/Quebec border and suddenly find everything's written in french, even the road signs are bigger and wider because of all the longer concatenated names (imagine, Cote de la ABC-des-Montagne, or Rue de la Sainte-XYZ-du-Beaupre, etc). and thanks to all the french influence, every meal was to die for, i think we put on 5 pounds just from this week's gluttony. we should eat salads for the rest of September.

well, i start work tomorrow! let's see what the working world is like in Toronto... i can't wait to wake up at 6am in the morning for the first time in 2 months! zzzzz....

montreal memories

some of our Montreal pictures... an old friend from Singapore came to visit so we had company during the Montreal leg of the trip. We went on to Quebec City ourselves after we parted ways in Montreal, her to the 26 hour flight back to SG and us, the 3.5 hour drive to QC. I can't believe she said she didn't get jet lag! is she even human?

2 girls ready to take on the town!

beautiful juxtaposition of old and new...

view of McGill University and Mont-Royal from downtown

another quaint contrast of old and new architecture...

look, all the hollywood movies but in french!

quaint quebec city

and these are our Quebec City photos. Note, it was WAAAY prettier than Montreal, so we got a little trigger-happy. there were tons more photos but i've controlled the flood here...

this road is ALL mine! muahahaha...hello kitty invasion - i can't believe even a quaint stiff-upper-lip

town like this still succumbed to the madness...

where's wally? (try to find Edward in this scene)
there were many trompe-loeil murals like these in the old Quarters...

along the St. Lawrence River - the view makes me understand a little more why
the French came, and some stayed... it looks much like Europe in many ways!

Montmorency Falls (the frenchies love to emphasize
that it's actually higher than Niagara Falls!)

modern architecture smacks right into old preserved architecturestrangely, some public bathrooms WERE indeed unisex!

i found that amusing, edward found it highly alarming.
he just wouldn't go until i promised to watch the coast for him...

the beautiful (but overpriced) Fairmont Chateau Frontenac.
me, i'd rather stay at a modern boutique hotel with much nicer furniture... :-)

At the Citadelle... a military fort still in use today

(of course, it's all just an excuse to dress up in bearskin
hats and put on a show for us tourists!)newly enlisted officer?
the changing of the guard ceremony...

Batisse the Regimental Goat (he even has a rank)...
they bring him out for all formal ceremonies. He's really well behaved,
didn't fidget much during the 40 min ceremony. Hee hee, too cute!

Poor Batisse, posing for tourist photographs.

Everyone just made a beeline for him and mobbed him after the ceremony.
He didn't even flinch when the crowds descended.

food, fabulous food

here's all the foodie pics we took in Montreal/Quebec City... this post's just for you, Mini! i actually took lots of pics of the open air markets and cheese shops, etc but my shaky hands ruined most of them so i don't have anything to show for it. told you, i think i'm getting old.

we ate mostly in patisseries, french bistros, and traditional quebecois restaurants (which is classic french but married with local fare... mostly game). everything was yummy, but now that we're back i think i've had enough of multi-course degustations to last me awhile. *burp*

mmm, that chocolate cake was divine!

some donut fritter thingy with nutella hazelnut spread and powdered sugar... yummy!tarte tatin and blanc mange (creme fraiche should be outlawed)

i think i ate at least 1 crepe a day, sweet or savory...

ooh, a fromagerie. and then i swooned from the ripe fumes.delicious creme glacee... i can't decide if i like this better than gelato, it's all good!

he's eyeing my sauteed seafood when he's got a perfectly good bucket
of mussels'frites himself! (and you wonder why we are both so fat) mmm, sidewalk cafes - we only got to sample a few of the many we saw everywhere we turned.

in case you're wondering why most these pics are of the sweet inclination... we usually forgot to take pictures till the end of the meal when we got a chance to lean back and nurse our satisfied tummies. but for the record, all the other entrees not pictured here were fantabulously delicious (we had lots of duck confit, rabbit casserole, osso bucco, elk, buffalo and other unusual game drowned in lovely sauces of all kinds)...