Tag: merry christmas
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Merry Christmas everyone
Merry Christmas everyone!
And for those of you who don’t celebrate, I hope you have a relaxing day with family and friends. We’ll be making pancakes, because that’s one of the things that we like to do on Christmas morning.
This time last year I think a lot of us thought that the world would feel far more normal by now. We’re not in total lockdown like we were, but we are also not back to normal. And that is impacting our ability to be with some loved ones in the ways that would normally be possible.
Prior to this pandemic, we had also made a point of traveling during the holidays. This is that one time of the year when you can truly disconnect, explore the world, and not feel any anxiety every time you pick up your phone and see your inbox. That is obviously a challenge right now.
But these realities are no reason not to be grateful for this holiday season and to be hugely optimistic for the year ahead. We will be doing both of these things while we enjoy our Christmas pancakes. If any of you have any Christmas traditions of your own, I would love to hear from you in the comment section below.
P.S. The image at the top of this post is my CryptoBabyPunk NFT (#660) all dressed up for Christmas.
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Merry Christmas everyone
I’m taking the day off from blogging (kind of), but I would be remiss if I didn’t leave you all with something city related. And so here is an article by Bloomberg CityLab talking about how the quality of municipal Christmas trees can serve as a kind of proxy for a city’s current state of affairs. In other words, the inability to execute on a reasonably good Christmas tree is perhaps a signal of other municipal problems.
For those of you who celebrate Christmas, I hope that you’re somewhere with a tree that doesn’t look like a toilet brush or a plucked chicken (these are some of the dubious monikers that have been given to bad Christmas trees around the world). I know that this is not the Christmas we all ideally want. This time of year can be lonely without family and friends. But I think we have every reason to be optimistic about 2021.
I wish you all health and happiness. Merry Christmas everyone.
Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash
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Merry Christmas, everyone
The frenetic run-up to Christmas has come to an end, and I’m looking forward to relaxing and taking it easy with family and friends. I hope that all of you are able to do the same, however you spend the holidays. This is the one time of the year when the email firehose completely shuts off and it’s a lot easier to do exactly that. I think that’s important for all of us.
This past year I found it particularly difficult to disconnect. And 2020 is on deck to be an even bigger year. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am, however, going to take this time to slow down, read, write, travel, and likely drink a bunch of wine. As always, you’ll find me here on the blog every morning. Merry Christmas, everyone.
P.S. The Toronto Raptors are hosting their first ever Christmas Day game.
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Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas from Rio de Janeiro.
Even though I am still practicing my daily blogging ritual, this is about the only time of the year where I find it’s possible to “disconnect” a little. So hopefully you’re doing a bit of that yourself and spending time with family and friends, regardless of whether you celebrate Christmas or not.
The above photo was taken from the feet of the Christ the Redeemer statue at the top of Corcovado mountain. Excluding its base, which is about 8m tall, the statue itself is 30m in height. That’s basically the same height as Junction House (a 9 storey midrise condominium).
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Merry Christmas
I took the above photo on Christmas Eve in Toronto’s Distillery District (one of my favorite neighborhoods in the city). It was before the snow had really started falling. We got a white Christmas this year – the best.
This is one of the first photos with my new Fujinon 23mm f/2 (35mm equivalent) lens. I have come to realize that if I’m not photographing people, 35mm is the right focal length to have on my camera for the types of photos I seem to gravitate toward.
And now back to eating. Merry Christmas everyone. If you’re reading this post in your inbox and it feels late, then: Happy Boxing Day 🙂
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Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas everyone! And, thank you all for reading this past year.
I just checked into an Airbnb in Mont-Tremblant, Québec and will be spending the next few days here with family and friends. I’ve also brought along some of my favorite wines (see above) and, obviously, my snowboard.
Hopefully that wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, that you’re with family and/or friends. I know that this time of year can be lonely for some people when things quiet down. So hopefully you have good people to spend it with.
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Merry Christmas from post-tribe Toronto
Merry Christmas and/or happy whatever you happen to celebrate around this time of year.
Hopefully things have slowed down for you all and you’re relaxing with family and friends either at home or somewhere on vacation. I’ll be doing that here in Toronto and making pancakes for breakfast, because that’s what I like to do on Christmas morning.
If you’re in the market for some long form reading material while you relax, I recommend you check out an article in The Walrus called, After the Troubles. It’s by Toronto-based planner Joe Berridge – who is a partner at Urban Strategies – and it’s the story behind his team’s Belfast City Centre Regeneration Strategy and Investment Plan.
It’s a fascinating and entertaining read, and there are lots of comparisons between Toronto and Belfast. Here’s a little taste:
“IT WOULD BE HARD to conceive of two cities more different than Belfast and Toronto. One old world, one new; one grand, one utilitarian; one barely ticking over, one growing like topsy. And of course, one tribal, the other the epitome of post-tribe. Belfast is 96 percent white—forget about Catholic-Protestant, that’s the critical urban statistic. And yet it’s important to remember that Toronto itself was once the largest Orange town in the world. (Wikipedia asserts that every mayor of Toronto since its founding was an Orangeman until Nathan Philips, a wonderful Jewish mayor, was elected in 1954.) Even the current mayor, John Tory, draws his name from a bunch of brigands and royalist cattle thieves in the Irish backcountry.”
I spent a bit of time in Belfast when I was working in Dublin (2007) and so it was particularly interesting for me to read about his assessment of the city. Like Berridge, I found the city eerily empty during off-peak times. But it’s an architecturally rich city and a fascinating city for urbanists because of all that has happened.
Though now we are talking about “after the troubles.” Things are progressing. And that strikes me as a positive thought while I make my pancakes on Christmas morning.
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Merry Christmas everyone
Today is Christmas Day. I hope that you are all having a wonderful day and spending it with family and friends. That is exactly what I’m doing here in Toronto.
It’s certainly nice to have a bit of downtime. I’ve been playing around with my new GoPro (see above photo), which had been sitting unopened on my shelf for the past few weeks.
The photo above was taken at the Pier 27 condos. It’s still very much a construction zone. The area at grade in the photo will be a linear public park that connects the main street to the waterfront. I’m looking forward to seeing it come together.
Have a great day everyone 🙂
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Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas everyone! I love it when Toronto gets a white Christmas.
If you were hit by #icestorm2013, then you may still be without power. If that is the case, I hope you’ve found someplace warm to celebrate with friends and loved ones.
