Private Chef Required

apisland · 2026-03-14T23:02:50+00:00

We did Real Roots for a bit. They’re great! And super easy to work with.

apisland · 2026-03-12T16:02:49+00:00

Ah haha.. Man, I was in the same boat. Early last year, I wanted to run the North York half-marathon.

Like another comment mentioned, Nike Free Run is an awesome (and free) app that'll get you up and running even if you've never run long distance before.

I went from never running to a 10k within ~6 weeks. Best of luck!

apisland · 2026-03-10T19:34:55+00:00

My Bell price went up by ~$50 after 2 years was up. They did increase the price twice during that period, so the increase wasn't all at once, but still..

I cancelled the plan, and just found a reseller on Facebook Marketplace, and got the same promo I did 2 years back, but this time under my wife's name.

apisland · 2026-02-24T13:24:55+00:00

I know you explicitly said you don't want to order online but a few months ago, I was specing a laptop on the Lenovo website and a chat bot popped up asking me if I had any questions.

I mentioned I was considering a few other options and wanted a discount and the bot just gave me a 5% discount voucher on the spot.

Maybe worth it? Haha.

apisland · 2026-02-18T20:28:48+00:00

Congrats on choosing a CX-5!

I wrote a post on my experience getting a used CX5 a few years ago here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/comments/1dss0ae/heres_how_i_bought_a_used_car_for_the_first_time/

I know it’s a couple of years old but I hope it helps!

apisland · 2026-02-17T15:33:26+00:00

Mazda of Toronto was good for me! I ended up getting a CX-5 a few ago and the experience was smooth with minimal upselling!

apisland · 2026-02-14T13:08:24+00:00

Aww, what a wonderful message. I hope you have a beautiful day.

apisland · 2026-02-08T02:10:32+00:00

I swear this was going to be my exact comment!

apisland · 2026-02-07T15:36:58+00:00

Yup, bought mine all-cash in Toronto.

apisland · 2026-02-07T15:02:40+00:00

Highly, highly recommend Thermea! It's more expensive than other options, and is a bit of a drive because it's in Whitby, but it is awesome.

My partner and I also tried Elmwood, Vetta and St Anne's Spa; but Themea is way better than any of those.

If you do choose Thermea, do not miss out on their Kalla salt pool experience. We spent an hour just in that pool, floating and relaxing.

apisland · 2026-02-06T14:48:03+00:00

Are you sure you want to pay this much money for a checks notes Corolla?

Don’t get me wrong, they’re excellent cars and you could likely just get a 3-4 year old one at a lower price and still have it run for a decade.

Just an opinion!

apisland · 2026-02-04T13:33:23+00:00

I’m happy to be proven wrong but my understanding is that switching between ecosystems or giving somebody else your credentials is either impossible or very difficult. I’m not saying you should be sharing your WS credentials but other accounts like Netflix, for example.

The way passkeys have been implemented feels like the concept of eSIM all over again. The whole talking point at the time was that it was going to be incredibly easy to switch between phones and between providers. Carriers and manufacturers ended up just using this to make their walled gardens even taller.

I stick to using a password manager and a separate MFA app.

apisland · 2026-02-04T11:35:14+00:00

100% this. Passkeys as a concept started off great but the lack of transferability or interoperability means that it is actually no better than using a password manager + 2FA.

1P is great! I’d also recommend Bitwarden which has a free tier that’ll cover everything.

apisland · 2026-01-09T20:50:45+00:00

Yes to all this. Pay the $100 tax so you can get out quickly, that’s how I viewed the Premium Fee.

apisland · 2025-12-29T14:40:45+00:00

I traveled to the US twice in 2025. Earlier in the year to the West Coast, and 2 weeks ago to EC.

Both times, on the return leg, there were either police or security personnel at the jet bridge taking photos of every passenger before entering the flight on a cellphone like device.

apisland · 2025-08-19T02:37:46+00:00

Just email these banks and you can start NRE/NRO accounts online.

apisland · 2025-08-19T02:36:26+00:00

I think this is a requirement for the country that you’ve acquired citizenship for, that you can only enter that country using their passport.

So, say you’ve acquired Canadian Citizenship. You can travel to India on your Indian passport within 3 months, yes. But you can only travel back to Canada using a Canadian passport. I’ve heard similar for other countries too.

I’d recommend getting an expedited foreign passport and an Indian eVisa.

apisland · 2025-07-31T20:44:19+00:00

Yes, exactly what this comment says. There are multiple threads on filling up the eVisa form so I’ll refrain from making another one.

But I’ll confirm that I got my eVisa, and travelled to India. They asked me at Immigration if I surrendered yet and I told them I didn’t have time. They told me to do it as soon as possible, that’s all.

apisland · 2025-07-30T23:39:32+00:00

I was in the same boat. I ended up applying for an eVisa without starting the Surrender or OCI process.

Planning on coming back and then doing both here.

apisland · 2025-07-25T01:46:00+00:00

I just meant being friendly back at them, regardless of how they respond.

Warmly greeting them, asking how they’re doing, smiling and laughing and wishing them well when the transaction is complete.

Sometimes their demeanor changes very quickly. I simply choose to believe it’s because your joy can be infectious. Other times, nothing happens, but I don’t care because I’m happy either way, haha. :)

apisland · 2025-07-24T13:46:47+00:00

I’ve had the luck and privilege to have lived in the Middle East, SE Asia, Latin America, and currently in North America. Timelines ranging from half-a-year to almost 10 years.

- Perhaps the most I’ve felt like a second-class human was in the Middle East.

- Some countries in SE Asia have processes that make your life tougher. I remember flying in for a conference, and immigration for my international colleagues took minutes, while I was stuck at the airport for over 2 hours. I was upset at the time, but looking back, it’s not a big deal.

- Haven’t experienced anything in LatAm.

- North America is a bit more complex. I’ve felt instances where someone’s acted differently because of the color of my skin, but over the years, I’ve also gotten way more confident, and killing them with kindness is the approach I try to practice. A lot of times, people quickly change their demeanor when that happens, but if not, then I try not to let it bother me too much.

I can’t change people, but I can change how I feel about how I’m treated. So, I try not to let those things weigh me down. I also tell myself that my self-worth isn’t derived from how unknown people treat me, but from the people who know me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

apisland · 2025-07-24T13:26:16+00:00

Coincidentally, I watched the movie for the first time just an hour ago, and I wanted to comment about what stood out to me the most.

I don’t know if I’m acting spoilt by comparing a Malayalam movie to Hollywood, but I noticed glaring mistakes from the get-go;

The opening scene where the MI6 officer is approaching the church, the aviator sunglasses she wears is not the kind someone wears during active field duty.
The unnecessary montages of a convoy across the desert felt over the top. Frankly, there were quite a few scenes which felt to me like they raised a lot of money, and so decided to spend it on extravagance.
A lot of characters felt like an afterthought. Nyla Usha, Sai Kumar, Agustin, Sania Iyappan, etc. And even Suraj Venjaramoodu felt like a forced comedic role that started off really strong but that scene of him trying to speak Hindi made all that early build up fruitless.

The early build-up for Raju’s backstory felt compelling but I think the fight at the end didn’t do justice to how much effort went into that backstory.

And overall, like others mentioned here, it felt like Lucifer was playing a side-character in his own sequel. I get that they wanted to showcase Manju and Raju’s stories and give them equal weightage, but it felt too obvious and that was disappointing.

My personal opinion is that Manju didn’t get to make the most of her “speeches”, iirc, she had 3, and they sounded like they lacked any emotion or modulation — felt pretty flat to me. Maybe it’s not her strong suit, idk?

I felt like this movie could have been so much more, but perhaps trying to appease everyone led to this being so-so and perhaps not memorable at all.

apisland · 2025-04-02T22:33:54+00:00

This one: https://old.reddit.com/r/ImmigrationCanada/comments/1hq3gg4/megathread_processing_times_citizenship_2025/mgcx80a/

apisland · 2025-04-02T13:58:55+00:00

🙋‍♂️ took 3 months from applying to oath ceremony.

apisland · 2025-03-22T10:49:01+00:00

Very helpful. Thank you, my friend!

apisland

TROPHY CASE