After waiting for a little shy of a month after I took occupancy back in early April, it seems like the tradesmen have abandoned fixing my unit, so it’s probably time for me to move in.  It has been a hectic week because I was unprepared for moving, and the need for condo size furnitures creped up on me.

It all started last week when I began my search for furnitures, and it was both frustrating and stressful.  The big items that I need are:

• Bed Frame
• Mattress
• Night side table
• Sofa (With bed and storage)
• Dining Table (extendable)
• 2 Stools for kitchen island
• Coffee Table
• TV console unit
• Rug
• Floor lamp
• Table lamp

Let me tell you that it is extremely difficult to find things that you love - things that you feel good paying for.  My journey for furniture started at the King East area.  It is a very trendy and sophisticated area, so I didn’t expect to find good prices here.  But you get what you pay for, and I do want my place to look nice.

I ventured into EQ3, where the prices seems to be good.  One of the items that caught my eye was the bed featured on the lower level.  It is simplistic and modern, and the price starts at $549!

Perfect! …or so I thought.  It turns out that the featured bed was decked out with options.  For drawers on the side, it’s $300 more.  To add a headboard, it costs couple hundreds more.  By the time I have a full bed frame with storage, it’s over $1000!  So I think I’ll pass, but I got to give credit to their sale tactics, because I would never have looked at the bed if they displayed the full price.

Another piece that caught my eye here is the arc lamp.  I’ve seen a lot of similar arc lamps, but all of them differs in price.  This floor lamp at EQ3 is priced at $199, but I’m a little hesitant to make a purchase when I don’t know why there is such a big gap in prices for arc lamps, so I’ll have to do my homework and research on them.

Stay tune for my adventure at Roomy Interiors and Visitor Parking!

It’s truly amazing how fast phase 2 of West Harbour City is rising.  I hope the purchasers of the east facing units of Phase 1 wasn’t expecting an unobstructed view of the city for long!

West Harbour City - Phase 2:

West Harbour City Phase 2 - Tower:

West Harbour City Phase 2 - Podium:

I’ve always liked this dish because it is so delicious, but it is quite pricey when ordering from chinese restaurants, so feeling a bit adventurous, I’ve decided to try make it at home instead.  Here is my progress:

1. Two 1.5lbs live lobsters in a bag (all chopped)

2.  Lobster parts all cleaned up and patted dry.

3. Lobster parts lightly covered with flour

4. Cooking the lobster parts under high heat

5.  Dish of cooked Lobster parts

6.  E-Fu noodle is next!

7.  Once the noodles are cooked, drained the water and leave it.

8.  Cutted the block of cheese into slices

9.  Heat up another pan and added butter, green onions, and ginger.  Cooked it for a bit before adding the heads to the pans.

10.  Now added all the remaining lobster parts to the pot and pan fried it for awhile.  Then I added chicken stock and wait for it to boil.  Once boiled, I added the prepared cheese slices and let it melt with the chicken stock

11.  Place the lobsters and the sauce over the prepared E-Fu Noodles and serve!

Hope you liked it!

The Toronto Waterfront is one of my favorite places to visit during the Summer. It has gone through significant changes over the years due to the Waterfront Revitalization Project by Waterfront Toronto, and hopefully we could see a completed transformation of the area in the coming decade.

Living in the Fort York area, It is always a joy to walk along Queens Quay starting from Bathurst Street to Bay Street. If you look at the map, you might think it is a long walk, but trust me, you won’t even notice the distance because there is just so much to see and experience!

Walking East from Bathurst along Queens Quay, you will first encounter the Music Garden. The Music Garden was inspired by Bach, created by landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy. The 3 acre public garden is based on the “First Suite for the Unaccompanied Cello”, and is sectioned accordingly into these parts each with it’s own characteristics: Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Menuett, and Gigue.

To complete the theme, concerts are held during the annual Summer Music in the Garden, and best of all, it is free for everyone to enjoy!

Next up we have the Spadina Wave Deck. This is 1 of the 3 wave decks that was implemented during the past couple years. It is meant to be a gathering place for people to enjoy the Waterfront, and is a vast improvement of the area compare to what it was before. Sitting on the long stretched bench facing the waters, it feels as if time has stopped and all my stress and worries are temporarily dismissed. It allowed me to reflect and find some peace for myself. (Just hope the 510 or 509 streetcar doesn’t come by, as its streaking noise might interrupt your peace!)

Further along, we have the HtO Park. It is in my opinion the most welcoming addition to the waterfront, because it allows the public (especially families) to embrace the long forgotten Waterfront in a beach like setting. With a man-made sand box stretching along the waterfront, and bright yellow metal umbrellas along with Muskoka chairs, it is truly “Toronto’s Urban Beach” as it was billed.

The grassy areas are separated like individual pads, where people can claim their own spot in the park. At night, colorful LED lights are lit up to illuminates the hills and the paths, making it an ideal location for nightly walks.

The 2nd wave deck is the Simcoe Wavedeck. It is a very distinguishable structure as there are 2 giant waves at one end of the deck. As Waterfront Toronto mentioned on their website, it is meant to “give urban dwellers a feel for life at the lake.”

Out of the 3 wave decks, this one has the most traffic and is the most popular among the three. The kids love the wavey part as they can slide along the side, and lots of people such as myself love to walk/climb over that part as well.

Continuing along Queens Quay towards the east, the 3rd wave deck can be seen. The Rees wave deck is the latest addition for the waterfront, but is the least used from what I’ve seen. It is meant to create more public space along the Waterfront, and it served its purpose well.

Walking past the Rees wave deck, we are just steps away from the Harbourfront Centre. The Harbourfront Centre “is an innovative non profit cultural organization which creates events and activities of excellence that enliven, educate and entertain a diverse public.”

There are so much activities going on here that you can easily spent the weekend without ever getting bored. The Sirius Stage is always jam-packed with concerts and other events.

If you like to take a stroll, the boardwalk along the waterfront is the ideal location. I always enjoy watching the boats and ships that are docked on the marinas, and browsing through the International marketplace happening annually during the summer.

In the winter time, the pond transforms itself to a functional skating arena, so you can grab your skates and enjoy your day of fun with friends and family!

Passing the Harbourfront Centre is the Ferry Docks. This is a hugely popular location every Summer because this is where you take the ferry over to the Centre Island / Hanlan’s Point / Ward’s Island. Since this is also one of my top 10 places to visit, I’ll leave the details for later. But if you are coming here on a hot and sunny day during the weekends, be sure to arrive early as the lineup to purchase tickets might cause a delay!

And before you know it, we are at the foot of Bay Street already! Not a long walk after all eh?

Disclaimer:  all images used is from varies sources available on the Internet.  All credits goes to the original photographer for each image used.

Below is a list of my top 10 favorite neighborhood / areas to visit in Toronto. In subsequent blog posts, I’ll go over each area in detail and explain why I think these 10 spots is the place to be if you are living or visiting Toronto!

1.  Waterfront - Queens Quay
2.  Distillery District
3.  Liberty Village
4.  King Street
5.  Queen Street West
6.  St. Lawrence Market
7.  Yorkville District
8.  Eaton Center
9.  Center Island / Hanlan’s Point
10.  PATH - Toronto’s Downtown walkway

What’s your top 10 list?  Share your list by leaving a comment!

太掛念你了王菲…

只因為在人群中多看了你一眼
再也沒能忘掉你的容顏
夢想著偶然能有一天再相見
從此我開始孤單地思念
想你時你在天邊
想你時你在眼前
想你時你在腦海
想你時你在心田
寧願相信我們前世有約
今生的愛情故事不會再改變
寧願用這一生等你發現
我一直在你身邊
從未走遠

只因為在人群中多看了你一眼
再也沒能忘掉你的容顏
夢想著偶然能有一天再相見
從此我開始孤單地思念
想你時你在天邊
想你時你在眼前
想你時你在腦海
想你時你在心田
寧願相信我們前世有約
今生的愛情故事不會再改變
寧願用這一生等你發現
我一直在你身邊
從未走遠
寧願相信我們前世有約
今生的愛情故事不會再改變
寧願用這一生等你發現
我一直在你身邊
從未走遠
只因為在人群中多看了你一眼

My brother recently received a letter for a visitation appointment for his unit at Verdale - Downtown Markham, so we proceeded to the design center this past Sunday to take a look at the available finishes.

There are 6 sets of finishes to choose from, 3 standards, and 3 upgrades.  You are also free to mix and match, allowing you to create your own personal style instead of the pre-set package.  Overall, the standard materials and choices are quite good, so there won’t be a definite need for any upgrades to be made.  There are also a lot more upgrade options available that is not shown on the 6 pre-matched boards in terms of materials, but since we are just going for the standard finish, I did not take pictures of the upgrade options.

Here are some of the pictures from the trip:

Standard Finishes:

Upgrades:

Standard Kitchen Faucets:

Bathroom Shower Package (Upgrade?):

I am a man with many hobbies, and painting is one of them. Art has always been something that I am interested in, but I have never pursued a formal education on, despite the fact that I do possess a bit of natural talent in the subject. Instead of applying to Sheridan College for their prestigious animation program, I have chosen to apply for the Computer Science program at University of Toronto and University of Waterloo. My reason for choosing Computer Science was simple: I saw a 4th year Computer Graphics course (CS488) listed on the University of Waterloo pamphlet, and that was it.

After getting my first full time job after graduating in 2006, I began to pursue art through taking night courses at George Brown college. It was my only option that fits my schedule and is easily accessible using public transportation. I took many courses such as the Foundation Design, Foundation Drawing I, Foundation Drawing II etc, but the one that I enjoyed the most was the Oil Painting class that I took there. I liked it so much that I actually took the same course again! (Back then there was no advancement after the course)

Since then, I have started and completed 2.5 paintings. The 0.5 Painting is the CNE Chandelier painting that I started which can be seen here. It was meant to be an experimentation on using acrylic paint and a study on black & white abstract paintings. Personally I think it is incomplete because it seems like it is lacking a focal point, but I haven’t been able to identify what is missing, so I left it as is at the moment.

Then came the recession late 2008 which forced me to reconsider and re-balance my own priorities in life. With painting being an expensive hobby, it was low in my list of priorities, so I haven’t touched my paint brushes since. But I believe the time has come for me to embark on this hobby of mine again, so I will tackle a new painting that might just be the focal point for my new unit at West Harbour City! Be sure to stay tune for updates on this new painting in the near future!

Yesterday night, I decided to get serious about creating a budget for myself.  I consider myself to be a saver, so I thought I was doing quite well with how I managed my money so far.  But lately, the amount on my visa account is creeping up, and it’s been quite consistent for the past 2 months, so I thought I better investigate on what might caused this increase in spending.

There were 2 software products that I tried: Quicken for Mac and Moneywell.  I’ve heard good things about both, so i started off with Quicken for Mac.  After setting up the software, I proceeded to create a new account for my chequing account at CIBC.  Scrolling through the list of banks, I realized that CIBC was not listed anywhere.  Uh-oh.  It seems like the software only contains a list of American banks, so how am I going to synchronize my bank statements into the software if I am not able to create a CIBC account in Quicken?  I did some quick Googling, and found out that I can at least download the statement from CIBC and import it to the software, so that’s what I did next.  By doing so, another problem arise.  When I download the statements from CIBC, it gives me a file with .qfx file format.  During the importing of the file, Quicken gaves me an error:

As I found out later, this problem arises because “Intuit’s Quicken software will only import QFX files where the providing institution has paid the fee and in some cases passed quality tests, otherwise giving the error message.”

So I guess I’m out of luck with Quicken.  It’s just too much trouble to deal with when I just want a simple budgeting system to track my earning and spending.

Next up: Moneywell.

Setting up an account in Moneywell is similar to Quicken.  I could not find CIBC on the list of banks.  I tried to create the account myself, but I think that defeats the purpose because I know I wouldn’t be able to keep manually entering the transactions to the program on a regular basis.  I was about to give up until I tried to import the .qfx file from CIBC that I downloaded earlier.  Surprisingly, the program was able to read and import all the data from the file.  The data defaults to be separated by month, and it shows you whether you are in the green or in the red (blue bar in the software) for each month.  Also it allows you to categorize each of your transaction into different “buckets”, so you know exactly how much from each “bucket” that you are spending on each month.  There are other functionalities, but that is all I have time for last night, so I will explore more in the near future.

After going through downloading my visa statements and categorizing both my chequing account and visa transactions to their respective “buckets”, I was surprised at the numbers.  I didn’t realize how much cash I withdraw from my bank account each month.  It was in shock!

Thankfully with this budget software, I now have a better perspective on my spending habits and I will definitely need to create a strict budget that will fit both my income and my lifestyle.  As much as I love Gail Vaz-Oxlade from the show “Til Debt do us part“, I don’t want her come knocking on MY door!

Went over to take a look at the parking garage at West Harbour City today, and was surprised at the number of parking spaces it has allocated for visitors.  The spaces are kind of tight, so let’s hope your neighbor’s car is not a giant vehicle like the Hummer!

Parking Entrance:

Visitor Parking Area 1:

2 Vans parked next to each other:

Empty Spots

Tire Tracks at Parking Spot:

Gates to separate the Visitor and the Resident Parking Area:

Residence Parking Area:

Resident Parking Area: