Sonya's Patates Braavos: Edition #24 💌🥔

TLDR: the magic of every day

welcome 👋 

Hello, brave patates! 🥔 

Watch: The Gentlemen on Netflix is a satisfying British dark comedy with Theo James (no, not a Franco brother), Kaya Scodelario (traumatizing Skins), and some familiar faces from Game of Thrones. It’s like Downtown Abbey went gangster in 2024. With just the right amount of blood.

Yoga: this 20-minute yoga practice by Adriene is a delightful full-body stretch with just a hint of core conditioning.

Work: I interviewed the CEO of The Ottawa Hospital for Telfer and wrote his story. This week I also wrote my article for the Canadian War Museum about their new exhibition “Outside the Lines,” which will be published under Apt613’s Sponsored Posts. I am looking for new writing assignments for fall so if your work needs a copywriter or content writer, let me know. Happy to arrange for a referral fee and I’m available to work on a retainer basis.

Eat: for my friend’s birthday we went to a relatively new Italian restaurant, The St. Rita, on Bank St. I had the lamb pappardelle, and every pasta is freshly made to order. It was delicious, and the service was great. At the end of the night, we went to pay, and our young server said it was all on him. To say we were shocked would be an understatement. We thought he was joking or it was a trick. But he didn’t even let us see the bill. And he was so calm about it, there were no weird smirks or glances or asking for anyone’s number. We left $50 cash on the table and he ran out after us trying to return the money. I left a Google review and turns out it was the owner himself. And before you can cynically say it was just because we are young and cute, my mom told me a story of how, one time at a restaurant, a man at a neighboring table paid for her friend’s entire family—that’s four children and a husband. We don’t know why people do things sometimes. Maybe they just want to be kind. Maybe they felt lonely. Maybe they are paying it forward. There is magic in kindness towards strangers.

The next day, my grandma and I got an Uber and it was a Tesla—the magic continued. And I saw a red felt heart on the ground. On Saturday, I went for brunch ($12 eggs benedict at The Third btw) with someone I used to work with 4 years ago and she paid for me while I paid for our coffees. There are good things and people in the world. Small things. Gestures. Hope. Kindness. We just have to look. And give. And not attune our antennae to only the negative.

My grandmother is visiting this week from Guelph. It is a brave thing to share a one-bedroom apartment with family. I used to get deathly triggered around her by some of her comments. Now, everything is different. Thanks to my exponential coaching studying—new website page with additional info is linked—I see beyond the words. And I don’t feel triggered anymore. I see what patterns are operating in her mind and where they came from. I see my own reactions as if at an arm’s length and I understand why they’ve formed. I am in the role of the Observer.

On Tuesday, we watched “A Family Affair” with Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman, dubbed in Russian. Nothing like encountering a sex scene with your octogenarian grandmother. Then we watched “It’s Complicated” with Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep and that was a much better movie. On Thursday, we went to the National Gallery because it’s free in the evening and then to a Balkan/Mediterranean restaurant—Bistro Ristoro, highly recommend—with kind Serbian/Macedonian owners.

If you got this far, thanks for reading ❤️ cooked something yummy? lmk. went to a cool event or read a fun book? lmk. see you on the flip side 🥔