Well Appointed Executive Home In One Of Markham's Most Desirable Communities. Fabulous Finished Basement In-Law Suite Complete With Granite Kitchen Counters And Stainless Steel Appliances. 4 Spacious Bedrooms With New Hardwood Floors. Huge Principal Rooms On Main Floor. Large Premium Lot. Perfect For Large/Extended Families.
FOR SALE $978,000
Rms: 10 + 5
Make use of the ordinary in surprising places
There are many ways to find space where none seems to exist. The key is to look and then look again.
Tall pre-fab cabinets can be used in living areas with some minor modifications to paint and doors. Photo courtesy of Advanced Furniture Outfitters.
Reel Asian International Film Festival
This showcase of contemporary Asian cinema features a selection of films and videos from around the world, with directors and filmmakers hailing from Canada, the U.S., East, West and Southeast Asia. Screenings at various GTA sites.
Secret Menus & Side Streets Food Tour
Foodies get a chance to dig into the hidden gems of Toronto’s restaurant scene, with an off-the-beaten- track tour of the city’s side streets. The culinary experience includes an insider look (and taste) of hidden menu items at top eateries. At 75 Portland St. Prices from $65.
Celebrate Mexican culture at the Day of the Dead Festival
The Harbourfront celebrates the Day of the Dead, with traditional Mexican cuisine, and a series of free concerts, events, and family-friendly activities.
Unbeatable Main Street Unionville Location. Busy, High-End Spa In The Heart Of Downtown Unionville. Low Rent Deal With An Option To Extend. Upscale Clientel. Able To Add Salon Services To Generate Additional Income. Easy Access To Parking Lot. Turn Key Operation, With Training Provided.
Type: Business
Sewer: None
Water: Municipal
Heating: Forced Air
November 6, 2013 -- Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 8,000 home sales through the TorontoMLS system in October 2013 – up from 6,713 transactions reported in October 2012. Over the same period, new listings on the TorontoMLS system were down.
“The GTA home ownership market has been broadly characterized by a rebound in sales since the summer. Market conditions have been tighter in some market segments more so than others. Ground-oriented homes listed for below one million dollars in some areas of the GTA have been especially popular with buyers, while listings for these home types have been constrained,” said Toronto Real Estate Board President Dianne Usher.
“The supply of listings for many home types and price points has either been down yearover- year or at least not up by the same annual rate as sales. The additional Land Transfer Tax in the City of Toronto and the removal of the government guarantee on high ratio mortgages for home purchases over one million dollars have arguably led many homeowners not to list,” continued Ms. Usher.
The average selling price for TorontoMLS sales in October 2013 was $539,058– up by more than seven per cent in comparison to the average price of $502,127 in October 2012. The MLS® Home Price Index (MLS® HPI) Composite Benchmark was up by 4.5 per cent year-overyear.
“Growth in the average selling price and the MLS® HPI Composite Benchmark will continue through 2014. Inventory levels for ground-oriented home types will be low from a historic perspective and home ownership demand will stay strong as affordability remains in check due to the continuation of accommodative borrowing costs,” said Jason Mercer, the Toronto Real Estate Board’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis.
Now that talk of a property crash has faded somewhat, many appear to be on the ‘happy’ bandwagon when discussing real estate. This optimism has been fuelled by Bank of Canada’s announcement that it is pushing out its timeline for interest rate increases while Finance Minister Jim Flaherty confirming that he has no intention of interfering in the housing market.
According to the CMHC, the average selling price will be in line with inflation and rise by 1.9 per cent in 2014. Based on current data, they expect house prices to rise overall by four per cent in 2013.
“The housing market is very hard to predict but these numbers are relatively accurate. Obviously, every market is different, and especially when you look at the current demand for detached homes in the GTA, with buyers having and willing to pay more,” says Monika MacMillan from Bosley Real Estate.
Housing starts, the CMHC says, will remain “stable” as inventories of unabsorbed units, completed and under construction, are drawn down.
MacMillan adds that buyers are tuning out of negative media reports and taking advantage of the favourable economic conditions to snap up properties.
“There has been a lot of fear put into buyers, with many thinking twice before they take that plunge, thanks to all of the bad press. This is now changing, as are the headlines.”
With long flights, decadent foods, and little time for the gym, traveling can take its toll. How can you avoid that nasty flu going around even when you’re in and out of airports or on the road? We asked three guys who travel for a living for tips for staying fit while still enjoying your trip.
Andrew Evans, National Geographic’s Digital Nomad, gets paid to travel the world exploring and to share his experiences through social media and blogging. He traveled 276 days in 2012, and expects to hit the same number this year. He averages one airplane and one new country per week.
Unplug to unwind
Shut off all your gadgets, turn off the TV screen, drink a glass of water, put on a face mask, stick in ear plugs, breathe deeply, meditate, and then go to sleep, he suggests.
“I rarely use any sleep aids because I don’t like feeling groggy,” he said. “I find if I’ve done some intense exercise before a flight, it helps me sleep.”
Improvise
When there’s no gym at his disposal, Evans takes advantage of what’s around. In hotel rooms he does dips with the chair and bed, arm curls with his packed suitcase, and pushups and sit-ups daily.
“When all else fails, you have to be inventive and determined,” he said. “I do pull-ups on tree branches or on the exposed water pipes in the hotel basement. You can do box jumps on a concrete barrier, or run intervals in a parking lot.”
Constantly traveling also forced him to become a runner.
“You can run anywhere in the world—and I have, on all seven continents.”
Make "less bad" food decisions
Travel tends to favor quick junk food or heavy luxury food. Evans allows himself one splurge meal per week, and otherwise steers clear of sweets and takes the bread basket off the table.
“When you don’t have a choice about what you’re eating, then it comes down to making bad options less bad,” he said. “For example, get the fish, skip the chips, and pull off the breading.”
Ironman athlete and marketing professional Peter Shankman travels 250,000 miles per year. He answers the majority of his emails on a plane and eats at home a tenth of the time he outs out, usually in another city or country.
Don't be shy
“Bellhops, receptionists, and shuttle-bus drivers usually know the best jogging routes in a new city, as do flight attendants,” Shankman said. “Ask them. You might even wind up with a new running partner.”
Drink, drink, drink
Flying, changing time zones, switching weather patterns, and sitting in airports or hotels are dehydrating. The more water you drink, the easier the trip is, he says.
Pack your own snacks
Airline food is filled with fats and oils. Shankman packs TSA-approved baggies of almonds, beef jerky, and other healthy foods that don’t take up too much room.
As the host of Mysteries at the Museum on the Travel Channel, Don Wildman averages over 200,000 miles in the air a year. In the first two months of 2013 he’ll have flown more than 40,000 miles traveling around the country.
Travel with a jump rope
“It makes life more fun wherever you go and you raise your heart rate in about 30 seconds,” Wildman said. And it won’t take up space in your luggage.
Use the plane's takeoff to lull you to sleep
At high enough speeds, G-forces can knock you out. On a commercial flight, there are barely-noticeable G-forces that can help you fall asleep, says Wildman.
“When we start to taxi I always lean back and close my eyes, awaiting the moment. It never fails. Takeoff puts me out for a 15-minute power nap and I’m good,” he said.
Want to get a taste of what Toronto has to offer in just an hour? Here are some ideas for time-strapped travellers, ambitious Torontophiles who want to cover a lot of ground in one day and those with an hour to kill who are simply looking for a brief activity that is fun, interesting and quintessentially Torontonian.
1. Get a birds eye view of Toronto at the CN Tour
A cliché is a cliché for a reason, right? If this is your first time in Toronto, or you haven’t yet ridden up the CN Tower’s famous elevator, you should give it a whirl and challenge your fear of heights. It takes just shy of one minute for the elevator to reach the LookOut – 346 metres or 114 stories above ground – and there is a level below that with a glass floor that you can look down through for high-up thrills. Tips: go before 11 a.m. or after 5 p.m. and buy your tickets online to get to the top of the tower faster.
2. Ride the Centre Island ferry
There are actually three ferries that leave the recently renamed Jack Layton Ferry Terminal (Bay and Queens Quay), but the Centre Island ferry is the largest and most iconic. Though often thought of as simply the way to get to the Toronto Islands, the ferry should really be considered an attraction in its own right – think of it as a convenient and affordable 15-minute harbour cruise (in each direction) that offers fantastic views of Toronto’s skyline and people out enjoying the lake on yachts and sailboats. Only problem is: you will likely be tempted to stay for a few hours on the Islands! Tip: to avoid crowds, take the ferry on weekdays during the day instead of weekends and holidays.
3. Visit the “Mother Ship”
Did you know that you can walk into the Canadian Broadcasting Centre (CBC building) at Front and John for a free self-guided tour of the Barbara Frum Atrium and the CBC Museum? While you’re there, you may also want to check out the Glenn Gould Studio. There’s also a cafeteria where you can grab a bite to eat.
4. Go Underground
If the weather is crummy or if you’re just interested in experiencing a different view of how everything in Toronto is connected, duck down to the PATH, Toronto’s huge underground walkway/shopping centre. The PATH goes from the Toronto Coach Terminal (near Dundas and Bay) south to the Convention Centre (Front Street). Last year, Star reporter Katie Daubs spent two weeks in a row down there, but you’ll probably find that an hour is long enough to give you a taste of what the PATH has to offer.
5. Visit the 401 Richmond Building
If you’re in the vicinity of Spadina and Richmond, the studios and galleries at 401 Richmond are definitely worth an hour’s browse. CineCycle’s in a coach house around the corner, and A Space Gallery, Musideum, YYZ, ImagineNATIVE, Images Festival and many more have offices and galleries there, but the building itself is also worth a good look: it’s a beautifully refurbished industrial building that was originally constructed in the late 1800s and expanded in 1903-1923. When you look at it from above it looks like a huge “A”. There’s also the Roastery Coffee House onsite, if you feel like getting a snack.
6. Find your sole mates on Queen West
The stretch of Queen Street West that runs between John and Spadina is probably the best place to go shoe shopping in Canada. Get Outside (at Queen and Spadina) is a great place to start, but also check out the deals at Groovy and the wild local style at John Fluevog. The number of shoe shops nearby is kind of mindboggling: there are two locations of C Squared, an Aldo and a Footlocker. Further west you’ll find more shoe stores including Heel Boy (Queen and Euclid) and The Australian Boot Company (Queen and Manning).
7. Go for a walk in Chinatown and Kensington Market
You can cover a lot of ground meandering through Chinatown and Kensington Market in an hour and this is the place to go for those who prefer an unstructured, choose-your-own-adventure style of exploration in downtown Toronto. Buy discounted kitchen wares, peruse seafood and produce of all varieties, grab a bite at Dumpling House, get coffee at Moonbean, Casa Acoreana, Jimmy’s or I Deal, visit market vintage staple Courage My Love or admire the guitars at Paul’s Boutique. If it’s later in the day you may want to grab a beer at Ronnie’s or take in some New Orleans-style jazz at Grossman’s Tavern. Be warned: you might be tempted to linger here a little longer.
8. Take in a special exhibit at the AGO
An hour is definitely not long enough to take in all that the Art Gallery Of Ontario (AGO) has to offer, but why not try visiting the art gallery to check out just one exhibit? There’s always something fascinating to see and the exhibitions change so frequently that an hour every so often will always be a new experience.
9. Cruise through Little Italy on a borrowed Bixi
Though Bixi has stations set up all over downtown Toronto, College Street is a good place to try the service because it has a bike path on it and runs across the bottom of the University of Toronto’s St. George campus, past Kensington Market and through Little Italy. Rent a Bixi near Queen’s Park Station then bike west along College to Grace or Clinton. You’ll find lots of cool shops in Little Italy, including Red Pegasus,Soundscapes, June Records and Balisi, but you will have to back track a bit to College and Borden to drop the bike off. You can catch the College or Bathurst streetcar from there.
10. Get Lost In Honest Ed’s
Going to Honest Ed’s is an essential Toronto experience, even if you have no intention of actually buying something out of the large fluorescent-lit bins in those huge, mirrored rooms. The place sells everything from house wares and electronics to socks and frocks (there’s a grocery store and pharmacy there too) and always showcases uber deals in old-fashioned window displays. If you manage to get out of there in good time, take a stroll down Markham Street to see what it has to offer (including the Beguiling, Suspect Video, The Central and the Victory Café) or walk to the Bathurst Side to flip through second hand CDs at Sonic Boom. Tip: go after dusk to see the building lit up.
These are just a few suggestions for what you can do in Toronto in an hour. The Gardiner Museum, the Textile Museum of Canada and the ROM are all centrally located, and Casa Loma is just up the hill off of Davenport. Fancy and historic Yorkville is easily walkable in under an hour, and so is the booming, artsy Distillery District. Or, if a book or hacky sack is more your pace, you should pack a picnic and ride the Queen streetcar out to Trinity Bellwoods Park – there are cool shops and good snacks across the street on Queen, including White Squirrel Coffee Shop and Clafouti (some of the best croissants in town). Happy exploring!
November is that tricky time of year where the weather is still nice enough for outdoor fun, but cool enough that no one would blame you for hitting up all the indoor events. Holiday events are getting started, with the Season’s Christmas Show,Toronto Christmas Market and One of a Kind Christmas Show happening in this month, and don’t forget the Santa Claus Parade!
If you’re not ready for the holiday season quite yet, you can still check out new plays from Mirvish like Once and the world premiere of Aladdin, or head to the TIFF Bell Lightbox for their latest exhibition, David Cronenberg: Evolution.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a type of talking therapy that's used to treat a wide range of mental health problems, from depression and eating disorders to phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). It recommends looking at ourselves in a different way that might prove useful for all of us in everyday life. But what happens to our brains when we have CBT?
CBT is based on the idea that problems aren't caused by situations themselves, but by how we interpret them in our thoughts. These can then affect our feelings and actions.
For example, if someone you know walks by without saying hello, what's your reaction?
You might think that they ignored you because they don't like you, which might make you feel rejected. So you might be tempted to avoid them the next time you meet. This could breed more bad feeling between you both and more "rejections", until eventually you believe that you must be unlikeable. If this happened with enough people, you could start to withdraw socially.
But how well did you interpret the situation in the first place?
CBT aims to break negative vicious cycles by identifying unhelpful ways of reacting that creep into our thinking.
"Emotional reasoning is a very common error in people's thinking," explains Dr Jennifer Wild, Consultant Clinical Psychologist from Kings College London. "That's when you think something must be true because of how you feel."
CBT tries to replace these negative thinking styles with more useful or realistic ones.
This can be a challenge for people with mental health disorders, as their thinking styles can be well-established.
Some psychological theories suggest that we learn these negative thinking patterns through a process called negative reinforcement.
For example, if you have a fear of spiders, by avoiding them you learn that your anxiety levels can be reduced. So you're rewarded in the short term with less anxiety but this reinforces the fear.
To unlearn these patterns, people with phobias and anxiety disorders often use a CBT technique called graded exposure. By gradually confronting what frightens them and observing that nothing bad actually happens, it's possible to slowly retrain their brains to not fear it.
Primitive survival instincts like fear are processed in a part of the brain called the limbic system. This includes the amygdala, a region that processes emotion, and the hippocampus, a region involved in reliving traumatic memories.
Brain scan studies have shown that overactivity in these two regions returns to normal after a course of CBT in people with phobias.
What's more, studies have found that CBT can also change the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for higher-level thinking.
So it seems that CBT might be able to make real, physical changes to both our "emotional brain" (instincts) and our "logical brain" (thoughts).
Intriguingly, similar patterns of brain changes have been seen with CBT and with drug treatments, suggesting that psychotherapies and medications might work on the brain in parallel ways.
Of all the talking therapies, CBT has the most clinical evidence to show that it works.
Studies have shown that it is at least as effective as medication for many types of depression and anxiety disorders.
But unlike many drugs, there are few side effects with CBT. After a relatively short course, people have often described long-lasting benefits.
"In the trials we've run with post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] and social anxiety disorder, we've seen that even when people stop the therapy, they continue improving because they have new tools in place and they've made behavioural and thinking style changes," Dr Wild explains.
CBT may not be for everyone, however.
Since the focus is on tackling the here and now, people with more complicated roots to their mental problems which could stem from their childhood, for example, may need another type of longer-term therapy to explore this.
CBT also relies on commitment from the individual, including "homework" between therapy sessions. It can also involve confronting fears and anxieties, and this isn't always easy to do.
Ultimately, as with many types of treatment, some people will benefit from CBT more than others and psychologists and neuroscientists are beginning to unravel the reasons behind this.