Out of (Shopping) Shape
I went shopping this past week. I went to two real brick and mortar stores, a supermarket and a big box hardware store. It sounds a bit crazy, but true. And, I have to say, I resented every single minute of it. That is how quick new habits form and old habits go by the…
Read MoreQuarantine or Confinement – It’s All The Same
I remember a good 15 years or so ago reading an article about a young man (big surprise) who planned to spend the following year in his home (no doubt his parent’s home) without leaving and ordering everything he needed on-line. My first reaction those years ago was, “What a schmendrick!”. My second reaction was,…
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See You On The Beach
I love the water. I love being in the water. I love being on the water and I love looking at the water. One day, I would like to live in a place overlooking the water. I am not afraid of the water, and in fact I am very comfortable and at peace in the…
Read MoreIt’s Just Gonna Be Different
Janny has always said to me when looking at the New World and the Old World, “You cannot compare what is not comparable.” This past March 20 (seven days after I left the office for the last time), the author Yuval Noah Harari said the following in an op-ed piece in the Financial Times: Humankind…
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Bartali Cycling Club
Some people are members of multiple golf courses and county clubs. Others are members of multiple synagogues. Me, I am a member of multiple cycling clubs, and by extension, closets full of club kit. I am a one of the charter members of the Bartali Cycling Club in Toronto and a pretty new member of…
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Quarantine – Season 2
I have finished living Confinement – Season 2 (French with English subtitles), and now I am living a new series, Quarantine – Season 2 (English with French subtitles). So far, so good, although the plot seems eerily similar to Quarantine – Season 1. I have been back in Toronto now for seven days. I am…
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Jay Goes To the Airport
I am really out of shape. I am rusty. I once prided myself on my ability to get through an airport quickly and efficiently. But I now realize that my whole game is off. I need to go into training. I travelled this past weekend back to YYZ from MRS. Give then dearth of flights…
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Sad But Necessary
Sad. Sad but necessary. Janny and I returned earlier this week from an overnight to Nice, to visit her Mom at Baycrest Sur Mer. There was nothing else to do in Nice while we were there, quite literally. Closed up tighter than a drum, like all of France. Sad. We realized that one of our…
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Mowvember
In many parts of the world, November is Movember, a time to grow a moustache to raise awareness of men’s health. In Marseille though, November actually seems to be Mowvember. While only off by one letter, it is fundamentally different. Here during Mowvember, it is time to cut and prune and shave every branch,…
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Baycrest Sur Mer
My mother-in-law, Lydia, has lived for a few years now in a Jewish retirement residence in Nice called La Colline. That said, I refer to it as Baycrest Sur Mer in homage to Baycrest, the Toronto Jewish retirement residence on Bathurst. I could alternatively call it “Baycrest with a View”. Janny and I go often…
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