Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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The boardwalk

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September, Woodbine Beach in Toronto

scenicbeach

We went to the beach last year in September. It was late afternoon and although the day had been nice it was starting to get a little chilly. I suppose that’s why the beach was almost empty.

boardwalkashbridges

I think that I took this photo on the same day. This is part of Toronto’s famous boardwalk. This is what I would call the beginning of the boardwalk in the Ashbridges Bay area. As you can see the boardwalk was almost empty that day.

On nice days, the beach is crowded with people getting sun or playing volleyball. Throughout the whole year the boardwalk is a great place to walk. Residents lucky enough to live in that area of Toronto regularly walk their dogs, cats and just about any kind of pet that you can imagine on the boardwalk.

Right beside the boardwalk there’s a bicycle path.

We aren’t too far from the beach area. It’s about a 10 minute drive or a half hour bike ride. It’s not uncommon for Chris and I to get on our bikes anytime from April through to November and bike down to the beach area, or on some of the nice trails in the area.

We’re actually pretty lucky living in Toronto. The whole inner core of the city has ravines and parks where city residents can walk or bike. You can actually travel quite a distance throughout the city on the paths that interconnect throughout the city.

Biking on the trails, or walking on the boardwalk is a great way to get some exercise and enjoy a nice day.

Do you make time to enjoy some of the things that you can do in your city or town?





Wonder if our friend might get engaged?

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Last night, Chris brought one of our friends from work home with him for a visit. It wasn’t a surprise visit – we’d planned earlier in the week on Oliver coming over for dinner. It was nice to see our friend since I hadn’t seen him for a few months. Chris sees him pretty much daily at work, but since I haven’t been to work in a while I don’t think I’ve seen Oliver since before Christmas.

Our friend spent the evening telling us about his girlfriend, and how this is the first week when they’ve each had other obligations and can’t spend much time together. This is the first long term girlfriend that our friend has had in the time that we’ve known him so I can understand his excitement and where he’s coming from.

They’ve only been seeing each other for about four months but she’s already given him a promise ring of sorts. It’s a very nice silver ring with a center that spins. Now he wants to get a nice ring for her too.

Chris and I are both former jewelers. So we talked to him about what kind of ring he wants to get, and whether he wants to get something custom made or perhaps just find a nice already made ring for her. We still have jewelry connections so I think Chris might take him to some of the jewelry trades people we know this weekend or sometime next week and see what they can find.

Now, while our friend says he only wants to get his girlfriend a nice ring since she got him a ring I’m curious as to what type of ring he might get. I mean he called his ring a promise ring … perhaps it won’t be too long before they are looking for engagement rings? I’m just guessing, but it seems like it’s a serious relationship so I wouldn’t be surprised if they do end up getting engaged.

Having been a jeweler myself I guess it’s kind of ironic that I really don’t wear much jewelry. Isn’t it? I mean, I don’t even have an engagement ring! LOL That’s always been fine with me, but perhaps one day when our finances are better, maybe for a big anniversary I’ll talk Chris into getting me a nice diamond ring. Perhaps a nice white gold sapphire diamond ring? With a lovely brilliant cut diamond with D color? Oh yeah, that’d be nice. You see, my birthday is in September and my birthstone is a sapphire so why not combine the two?

The only problem with that is that my wedding band has emeralds in it. Hmmm perhaps I need to get either just a diamond ring or one that has a combination of diamonds and emeralds?

Even though I don’t wear much jewelry I guess the jeweler, and of course woman, in me still likes to look at fine jewelry.

If our friend does decide to get an engagement ring for his girlfriend someday, if we can’t help him ourselves I wouldn’t hesitate to send him to Abazias.com. Abazias Diamonds is a jewelery company that specializes in the sale of loose diamonds. I’ve looked over their selection and I must say that they have some fine diamonds to choose from. They also have a wonderful selection of engagement rings and other jewelery mounts that these fine diamonds could be set into. The prices are reasonable and the quality is superb. Visit the site yourself to see what I mean.

In the meantime we’ll just stick with helping our friend find a “promise” ring for his girlfriend.

Spring is here!

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I was looking outside when I got up today, and thought “If I’m feeling better this weekend I’ve got to clean up my garden!”.

The weather has warmed up here in Toronto. The snow in the shadiest parts of my yard has almost melted and the grass, which didn’t suffer too much cold this year or the pressures of lots of snow on it through the long winter months has begun to green up nicely.

Even though I feel absolutely terrible today, thoughts of getting outside and doing yard work are filling my head. It’s got to be just that it’s spring. You know that feeling of renewal and rejuvenation that comes during this time of year? Funny how it can hit even when you feel as ill as I do isn’t it?

Living paycheck to paycheck

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Isn’t it funny how times change? When I first moved to Toronto I barely had two cents to rub together. I came here to go to college, but shortly after I moved in with my sister and her husband I found out that the course I wanted to take had filled up and I wouldn’t be able to get into my chosen course until the next semester.

I believe it was about this time of year when I moved to Toronto, March, and since I wouldn’t be starting college as planned in September of that year I’d have to find more than a temporary job. My sister was working in the thriving jewelry trade, and it was through her that I ended up becoming a jeweler and set myself on a new career path.

I lived with my sister and brother in law for about a year and a half and during that time I tried to save money so that I could get an apartment of my own. My sister lived in the suburbs in a new housing development and it took about an hour and a half using public transport to get to my downtown Toronto job from her home. That meant that I was commuting for about three or more hours each day, and working for eight to nine hours. I was nineteen at the time and all that commuting back and forth left me tired and didn’t leave me much time for a social life.

I eventually saved enough to move into an apartment of my own but I didn’t make much money at my job and found that I was living paycheck to paycheck. I remember there was one time when I was so short on cash that I couldn’t wait for my paycheck to come in and I actually went and got a payday advance loan.

It’s amazing how easy it was to get that loan. It was a long time ago so I can’t remember the exact details, but I think I had to provide proof of employment and state what my usual bi-weekly earnings were. I got the money I needed easily. I think I needed it to pay my rent!

I don’t know if you’ve ever lived paycheck to paycheck, but when you do it can be hard to time your pay periods with the times when your rent is due. I think that was the case when I needed to get a cash advance. I think my rent was due mid-week that month, and I wasn’t getting paid until the end of the month. I needed extra money to top up what I had in my own bank account so that I could pay the rent.

I lived pretty lean for the next month and I was able to pay off my cash advance on my next pay period.

I guess that even though I’ve had some hard financial times over the years I’ve never ended up getting into so much trouble that I’d built up late fees and irreparably destroyed my credit rating. I know that some people can’t get out of that cycle of living pay check to pay check and probably need to take out cash advances and loans much more often than I’ve ever had to in my life. It is nice to know that there are companies out there like National Payday where you can get payday loans easily enough when you need a helping hand.

Now, many years later I’m stuck at home with barely any income. Oh I have a job, but I’m too sick to work, and I’ve been off so long that I’m not getting any sick pay from my employer. It’s just pure luck that I’ve found ways to earn a living on the internet otherwise I’d likely be taking out a loan just to live on.

Earn higher interest on your savings accounts

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I’ve become really frustrated with banks over the last few years. It seems that it’s become harder and harder to find ones that offer savings accounts with decent interest rates. The bank that I’ve dealt with the longest used to have decent savings account plans but now I want to make anything more than perhaps 0.010% interest I have to maintain an account balance over $2,000, and even I maintain a bank balance of two thousand dollars it only bumps up my interest to a whole 1%.

Banks have to understand that not everyone can maintain a high balance just to earn some interest.

Now, having said all of that I have come across a site that makes it easier to find accounts that offer higher interest on lower balances. You can compare online banking, find a savings account or checking account and earn more interest today with SavingsAccounts.com. Several of the banking institutions listed on the site offer decent interest rates for low balance accounts.

I only wish that I’d discovered this site a few years ago when I was desperately searching for a bank with decent interest rates. I did eventually find one on my own, and it does happen to be one of the banks listed on the site, but it would have been so much easier to visit a site such as SavingsAccounts.com right from the start in order to begin earning decent interest on my money.

One of the banks listed offers interest rates as high as 6% on accounts with no minimum balance. Go visit SavingsAccounts.com now to see which bank I’m talking about.

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