I'm living in a high rise apartment, on the 16th floor. In another life it would seem like a shoebox but I've been acclimatised by having spent some time in our Auckland apartment which is smaller. I used to joke with The Old Girl that if we had to live together full-time in the same small apartment then one of us would be dangled over the balcony by their heels sooner or later. Fortunately this hasn't happened (yet).
The views are good, looking out East over the quieter parts of the city (there is a cemetery in the distance) with views to lake Ontario. To be fair lake Ontario almost encircles the city so it's possible to get views of it from any direction except North.
The building is superb with 24 hour concierge service, guest suites, communal BBQ areas and a decent gym.
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| A 'weights' room |
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| The 'aerobic' room
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One of the best things about living here is the surrounding area. It's a bit like living in Ponsonby in Auckland or Newtown in Wellington but with more cafes, restaurants and small shops. The bigger format shops are a short subway ride away closer to Downtown but here there is everything we need. If, in the middle of cooking dinner there is a missing ingredient the supermarket is a few minutes walk away and,like last night when I was installing a new computer and realsied that I needed a different sort of UBS cable the computer shop was a couple of minutes walk away and it is open (like most shops) until 8PM - retail is usually later to open with the norm being after 9 and often 10AM. Makes sense to me.
Today was a good day. For Autumn the weather is still lovely and warm and I had some chores to do 'downtown'. On returning I shopped for dinner (conveniently at the supermarket in the local subway complex) and made my way home. This was about 3.30/4PM - you know, normal civilised hours for a layabout like me. As it was hot I stopped off at one of the local pubs. This one was a 'sports' bar that I hadn't been in before. There was a football game being televised (Chelsea vs some Rumanian team in Barcelona which apparently was am important decider in one of the European cup challenges or whatever. There were a few vocal supporters but otherwise it was quiet.
There were no annoying pokie machines or juke boxes in sight. I had a Heineken off tap. Fresh, lovely and from Holland. One of the things I've noticed here is the plentitude of beers on tap. In addition to local Canadian and USA brews there are many European, Irish and British beers that are fresh and bloody good. All off the tap. Second, you would be in hog's heaven.
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| The Sports bar |
I sat and watched the closing of the game (Chesea won 4-0) enjoyed my beer and toddled off home.
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View from the sports bar to home (the building obscured by the red sign)
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5 comments:
I'm glad you didn't call it soccer - the English guys at work hate that word! Good to hear that the Condom-inium is working out. Good too that you've looked at the gym - next step is using the machines. Hope all is well and that you guys are happy. Is The Wine Guy in the condom-inium as well?
Yes I could handle sitting in a bar with your witty conversation drinking Heinican on tap!
Rob, the wine guy would be there too moaning about any wine he tried.
I was there. They tried to sell me a glass of wine off the tap! Jesus wept! I haven't seen wine served like that for years (almost). Pizza Hut used to sell Penfolds(NZ) wine that came out of a beer keg. The gas used to pump the wine out made it fizzy which almost disguiised the crap taste. When I said almost before it's because Al Brown's place in Auckland The Depot have wine by the tap there - a decent Sauvignon Blanc and a Pinot Noir which admittedly isn't too bad.
So, back to the sports bar I didn't have any wine and didn't want beer so I sat there and sulked.
Now let me tell you about the time .......
... the time I was in the Murray Robert's truck with Second.
We had a pallet of beer on the back ...
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