Music: AnTgry
It honestly wouldn't be the last post of the year if I didn't end with city pop. AnTgry, aka Antoine Grenet, is a new-age producer from Normandy, France. I am loving his 2017 album Road Trip with each of its songs (Palm Road, Honey Road, Sunset Road etc) feeling like funky theme music for a level of a chibi racing game (a la Leon's Bird World). I am loving all the amazing city pop coming from all around the world, and AnTgry's particular french flavour is really getting me. It's sort of a mix between vanilla Japanese city pop and Daft Punk circa 2002.
Accomplishment:
I caught up! Yes, I finally caught up to my blog schedule...by the last week of the year. This was really the time to catch up, I suppose. Yep, this year has been more of a struggle to keep up with posts, but that's just because I've been really busy socially and professionally. I feel like my heart is more full at the end of this year than it has been in past Decembers, and I cherish that.
More Christmas parties this week, it was nice to hang out with my band and participate in the Secret Santa at work - Dan on my team was my Secret Santa and he got me a really cool adult-looking set of salt and pepper grinders. Siobhan, who works in support and is also his girlfriend, hand drew the card for me which I really appreciated :) She got him the job here and has also become more involved with some of my projects...I think they're so cute together!
The Winter Solstice Parade was wonderful this year. Such a joy to stroll through the streets of Kensington Market with marching bands, lanterns, and beautiful light-up costumes. And it all ended with a beautiful burning of this year's effigy: the sun.
Goal:
We've got the big band Christmas party this Friday and family hangouts on Sunday - I bought little ugly sweater cookie kits to make! Since I haven't done much in the way of specific Christmas activities I hope this will suffice.
And on Saturday night I'm going to the hockey game with my dad! They always do a little something fun at Christmastime games - maybe they'll dye Carlton red and green or something.
Random Thought:
I can't believe it's been five straight years of weekly updates. I always felt in the back of my mind that if it got to be too much work and I wasn't getting anything out of it anymore, that I would quit writing. And I'll be honest; I did feel that way a bit this summer when I was about six weeks behind.
It was a bit of a struggle finding the motivation to keep writing for a while, but the joy and opportunity for self reflection continually outweigh the time it takes to write a post. Beyond that, in the same way as playing drums does, I find writing to be a healthy outlet for creativity and self expression.
Small goal setting has always been easier to achieve through writing, and it's something I'd definitely lose track of without this blog. I find there aren't enough appropriate moments to celebrate personal wins in life, so I try to do that here and pay respect to the hard work and growth I've achieved in my adult life. Even if it is just the achievement of perfecting my own lasagna recipe.
I plan to keep writing into 2020 and make it six years of weekly updates. Thanks for reading!
Inspiration: Wheel of Lunch
While the neighbourhood of Liberty Village has grown on me since I started working at Vena, I still keep my original opinion that there are no good lunch places. They're all too bougie and overpriced as we witness the winds of gentrification in full swing. I'm seeing the replacment of a $5 sandwich at a mom-and-pop place with a $12 open-faced flatbread (read - one less piece of bread in this sandwich) at a bougie one-off restaurant that only serves five items.
On top of that, the cortex of food establishments only really starts around Atlantic and Liberty, a 12-minute walk from my office. This creates a hefty motivator to stay indoors (or worse, order food from UberEats). It also means that I have no idea what restaurants there are around me, and it seems to be a common problem of deciding where to go for lunch in one's neighbourhood - especially when there are multiple indecisive attendees. May I hereby present, the Wheel of Lunch:
Simply enter your location and radius preference, and the wheel will offer several local choices based on Google Maps and online reviews. Better yet, it can even randomly pick an option for you! Then, either go there, or collectively decide you all hate that option and pick another from the wheel. It's foolproof!
Whether you're a homebody (or workbody) who doesn't know what's good in your neighbourhood, or just can't make a decision on an empty stomach, give the Wheel of Lunch a spin.
Check out the Wheel of Lunch.
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