What’s Up & Adventures – September 2022

ADVENTURES

Halloween Marathon

Its the time of year again, even if I think its a bit hard to believe we’re already here. I’m going to admit right now that this may go very bad with very little output as mostly my sporadic lack of sleep does affect my writing efficiency. However, Halloween Marathon is something that I truly enjoy and with some changes in circumstances, via a one-month sub of a streaming service that I will talk about in the Movies section, I have some great choices to add to the line-up plus Netflix and Shudder has some nice stuff to watch as well. If you follow me on Letterboxd, you know what I’ve been watching and what reviews will be coming up. With that said, the first post for the marathon starts tomorrow. Expect TV binges and Double Features in the line-up.

Baby Update

Triple V has been quite a bundle this week as he passes his 3 months. For Chinese people, we like to celebrate 100 days so my mom got him some little gifts. On top of that, his 100 days also signified a change because he’s a whopping 15lbs now which means he can’t sleep in his bassinet anymore and had to be moved to the crib. The transition was the biggest highlight since we had just mastered some great sleeping habits in the bassinet to find that the transition to the crib felt almost like it was starting all over again, which was a little deflating on our already lack of sleep and slowly gaining back sleep stage. However, as I write this post, it was really only the first few nights with the first where Triple V decided he wanted to explore the ENTIRE space and started going in circles and then getting himself stuck and woke up and cried. A few days later, he is still doing it but all the trying to flip over and the getting stuck and waking up is done. He now wakes up mostly in desperate hunger and some weird need for attention in the early mornings but mostly he can go back to sleep fairly well or get himself out of the corner on his own. Slowly we will get there…

Exercise Update

Its been over 3 months so I’ve been taking longer walks now. I’m not jumping into intense exercising (not that I’ve done that in a long while) so its mostly morning and evening strolls with Triple V and they are gradually getting a bit longer. While I can’t remember to track everything, I still try to get one to two strolls a day nearby.

Broadwalk “Hiking” – Marais de la Rivieres aux Cerises

With the whole exercise chat, we decided that we would go for a little fall foliage since we seem to always miss it when we go during Thanksgiving. However, this year it seems everything is a little delayed so we were a tad early. There were some areas with a lot of trees that had changed colors but a lot of places that didn’t really have it yet. It was nice to take a little easy hike even we had already been here before (probably about a decade ago) but this time it was a little first road trip adventure with Triple V.

WHAT’S UP

Books

• The Summer I Turned Pretty (Review)

Currently reading: Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3), Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle

Look at me and reading. I can’t really recommend The Summer I Turned Pretty and you can read all about it in the review. In terms of YA novel content, The Lunar Chronicles does a better job as Cinder is a stellar book and its sequel is passable so I decided to start that one up but then got attracted to my new purchases of Kiki’s Delivery Service (which I never read the source material before) and Howl’s Moving Castle (which I have but wanted to re-read). I should finish a part of that list during October, let’s hope.

Movies

• Spirited Away (2001 rewatch)
• The Reef: Stalked (2022)
• Howl’s Moving Castle (2004 rewatch)
• The Little Mermaid Live (2019)
• Waitress (2007)
• Hocus Pocus (1993 rewatch)
• Mary Poppins Returns (2018 rewatch, review)
• Sheng Wang: Sweet and Juicy (2022)
• Death On The Nile (2022)
• Turning Red (2022)
• The Maze Runner (2014 rewatch, review)
• Do Revenge (2022)
• Monsters University (2013)
• Incredibles 2 (2018)
• Jennifer’s Body (2009)
• Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
• Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015, Review)
• Underwater (2020)
• Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018, Review)
• Antlers (2021)
• Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
• Captain Marvel (2019)

Currently watching: Nightmare Alley

As I mentioned before, I got a one month subscription to Disney Plus for the Disney Day deal for $1.99. Last year I got it, I forgot that it existed and didn’t really make use of it too much so we’re making back for it this year. There’s quite the catalogue even outside of the Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars content so it was pretty good. There’s still a little less than half a month left so you will probably still see some more of this service’s titles pop up in the next month.

With that said, its been a very low amount of reviews written mostly because a lot of this is prep work for the Halloween Marathon or for Movies and Tea podcast. If its not, you should see those soon, probably after October’s marathon month. I do have an ambitious goal of catching up with Marvel’s films since I stopped at Infinity War so I buckled down to do it. You can see that I’m already slowly catching up.

My recommendations this month goes to Turning Red, Do Revenge, Underwater and the Maze Runner trilogy.

TV

• I Just Killed My Dad (Limited Series, 2022)
• The Oasis鄧錄圓魚洲
• The Rap Of China中國説唱巔峰對決
• The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist (Limited Series, 2022)

Currently binging: Great Escape Season 4 密室大逃脫第四季, Love Between Fairy and Devil 蒼蘭訣, Call Me By Fire 2 披荊斬棘的哥哥, Heart Signal Season 5心動的信號, Hello Summer Relationship相遇的夏天, Rock & Roast Season 5脫口秀大會,

Oh boy, TV series will be hard to talk about unless you have a massive interest in Chinese Variety shows or dramas. Its honestly just the time of year where all the shows I like have gathered together to be released at the same time. Most of them are currently playing in the currently binging one. The standout is always Great Escape where Season 4 has truly notched up the fun element and they expanded and blended the Escape Room with other game elements.

I actually was planning on finishing Love Between Fairy and Devil before Netflix added it but got lured to watch other stuff and never got around to resuming it however, its a pretty great show and if you have Netflix, it makes it so much easier to watch.

Games

• A Plague Tale: Innocence (to be finished)
• Coffee Talk (Review)
• AI: The Somnium Files (not finished)

I’ve been taking a little more time on gaming when I have the time to spare. I mean, I have a fixed amount of time where I can do my own stuff when the little one naps or goes to bed at night so its not really a ton of time. However, with a lot of the Game Pass catalogue leaving during September, I tried to get through the ones that I wanted to play hence the unfinished two games. A Plague Tale: Innocence is actually pretty good but I saved myself the rush mostly because I didn’t realize that my husband bought it on Steam so I will get back to that eventually. AI : The Somnium Files is a pretty good game and super expensive to buy in general but its a visual novel with investigative elements and you can’t really rush those so I unfortunately didn’t get to finish it. I was pretty much a third into the game at that point looking at some of the game chapter breakdown. This one’s a little quirky and odd but there are some pretty graphic murder scenes in this one.

Now, lets talk about something that I did finish: Coffee Talk which is also a visual novel and once where you brew coffee while listening to what goes on with the customers. Its a relaxing game to say the least plus there are some fun drink blends that they include which were fun to discover as well.

Update & Announcement: Welcoming a Baby!

For those who have been reading my actual weekly adventures this year, I have been inadvertently dropping updates about preparing for a baby to arrive since the beginning of this year.

This past week, he has arrived! Boy, do I have a story to tell…. in time (probably the next Weekly Adventures). As I draft this quickly at 5am as we are in the first week with a newborn and the sleep schedule is still all over the place, my priority is not really on the blog. It does feel weird to not be writing but my brain can’t seem to process a ton of good analysis…yet.

Fret not, it is a hiatus and isn’t at the same time. I had a bunch of work in progress in preparation while I was waiting for it to happen. While I didn’t actually create the impressive backlog that I had intended to as a bunch of posts are unfinished, its still on my mind to do it when I have more time to sit in front of the PC.

For now, I don’t want to put myself through too much as unexpected situations arose and I also need some time to recover. I do want to still aim for a relaxing 1 post a week. If that doesn’t happen, the monthly segments will still be happening for sure.

Thanks to my amazing Movies and Tea Podcast co-host Elwood Jones, things over there will be running as usual with new episodes going up. Keep your eyes peeled as we continue through the Quentin Tarantino season. If you haven’t been following us, there’s tons of episodes in our archive from the past seasons and the show is available on most podcast platforms or you can listen to it via the player on the blog HERE.

We also managed to cover the non-E3 2022 gaming showcases and gathered a bunch of our selected highlights in a few separate posts over on Game Warp blog. You can check that out HERE if you don’t follow us yet.

That’s it for now! Things will gradually get back on track in time. I am fairly confident about it. In the meantime, hope you all are going to have a wonderful upcoming summer!

Announcement: Ultimate Decades Blogathon 2022!

Welcome to the 7th Annual Ultimate Decades Blogathon hosted by myself and Drew’s Movie Reviews.

Following last year’s suit in the new blogathon style, the Ultimate Decades Blogathon continues on with our numeric progress as we celebrate our favorite movies released in a year ending in “2”. That means you can pick any movie from 1922, 1932, 1942, 1952, 1962, 1972, 1982, 1992, 2002, 2012 and if are super on your game and have already watched some new releases worth talking about, feel free to talk about something from 2022. As usual, we allow for doubles in selections to keep it easier for everyone and see what movies stood out for you in any of those years.

To help with your movie choices from any of these years, here’s a list of the releases from each of the years mentioned above:

• 1922
• 1932
• 1942
• 1952
• 1962
• 1972
• 1982
• 1992
• 2002
• 2012

The details of this blogathon:

• Any movie released in a year ending in “2” is a valid choice. They are not limited to those in the list above as I’m not quite sure if those cover foreign film choices but that is always an option as well.
• You can choose to do more than one review. Just let us know in advance.
• The reviews will be posted to our blogs so make sure to submit it to us (if you plan on posting on your blog as well, let us know so that we give you the release date so that you can pair it with our release schedule).
• Submission Deadline: February 13th (if you need more time, let us know in advance and we can absolutely work it out)
• Blogathon starts on February 21st
• Email submissions to kim.tranquildreams@gmail.com and/or Drew at drewt510@gmail.com. Please notify us in the comments below or by email if you plan on participating.
• You can tag us and help us promote using #UltimateDecadesBlogathon

Welcome all to join! You can be from any platform since your review will be posted on our blogs. We look forward to your choices and submissions. Feel free to use the banner above to show off your participation. If you know anyone that would be interested in joining, please help us spread the word. The more the merrier!

2022 Upcoming Plans!

Its 2022! After spending an entire year in the pandemic last year, life has definitely changed from watching new releases to just real life in general. Routine and everything has definitely taken a shift. Its the new year and we can only hope that we will hopefully escape the pandemic in some form in the coming year.

With all that said, yesterday we wrapped up with a 2021 overview and today is to share what to expect in 2022. Not a whole lot of change in general but for those new to the blog, it will give a general guideline of what to expect. I will try my best to achieve the majority of it but some things may not actually pan out. Its just how life works in general. If 2021 has taught me anything, its to just let things flow.

Enough of that and let’s move on to the actual plans!

BOOKS

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2022: 15 books

Last year was a massive fail in terms of reading. So I’ve basically opted to half the goal from last year. This goal feels overall attainable. One book or so a month seems pretty doable in general. I recently did a clean-up of my books and the goal is to go through the physical TBR books sitting on my bookshelves.

MOVIES

Movies will be basically the same thing as this year. I truly don’t believe new theatrical releases are in the horizon in terms of actual theatre visits so I’m going to focus on Netflix, Shudder and Digital rentals for most new releases. At the same time, this year’s big change is to take a year off of festival coverage. I will talk briefly about some life changes below as we get into some personal plans.

• Focus on Double Features format
• New releases or screeners get single reviews
• Marathons:
  • February- Valentine Romance
  • October – Horror
  • December – Holidays
• Ultimate Decades Blogathon: annual blogathon that I co-host is back and announcement post will be coming in a few weeks
• Movies and Tea Podcast: podcast that I co-host will simultaneously be shared here as we dive into more director filmography and themed seasons

TV

All TV binges this year will focus on Netflix content for the greater part.

Where will the Chinese-language dramas that I consume go? That’s in the next section below!

TRANQUIL DREAMS PODCAST

After a few months of hiatus, the podcast will be making a return. This time, I’m going back to the original concept of what I had initially wanted to do with the podcast: Chinese-Language Dramas!

The podcast still needs some structural elements to be finalized but I will be covering Chinese-Language Dramas. What does that mean? Mainland Chinese, Taiwan and Hong Kong TV dramas. The main focus will be those accessible on streaming services since they are becoming more and more available on Netflix alone and I feel like it doesn’t get talked about enough since there are a few gems in general.

I am debating to have a Chinese and English version but that’s a whole other discussion which I’m not sure I’m ready to commit to quite yet in terms of time and editing alone. I do also have another idea for moving the once Sunday lists here as a monthly podcast segment but its a little more work so still under consideration.

MONTHLY SEGMENTS

Mostly the same:

• Music Obsessions: first weekend of every month
• Adventures & What’s Up: combined together at month-end

PARTIAL REVIVAL: BAKING THROUGH DISNEY & STUDIO GHIBLI

Look, Baking Through Disney is behind us. There’s no point in dwelling on something that probably won’t happen at this point. I bake desserts pretty much once a year. I’m not saying that it won’t happen again since I have been having the thought lately (due to some upcoming changes) but it won’t be happening in a good part of this year. However, I’m going through a bit of a burnout on horror films which makes the movie portion for horror marathon a big maybe whether I will do it by October or not. Maybe I will be out of it but other factors come into play (also something mentioned later in this post).

With all that said, I’ve been missing animated films and think its a great time to jump back into it so I do want to review Disney films preferably in the order of the ones I have access to or can rent (unless Disney+ has another cheap subscription month), very much like how the original project was structured minus the baking and creativity part. With that, I do also want to go through the Studio Ghibli films seeing as they are mostly available on Netflix right now. Perfect timing and all.

PERSONAL LIFE GOALS (AND A LITTLE UPDATE)

Most of the blog stuff is pretty much updated above so we will do some quick personal life goals. Last year’s workout goal in general worked at its best during the summer. This year is a little bit more different.

Let’s start with the update and real life news/update that may create the biggest change for my life and blog. I’m pregnant and due in a few months so anything in the second half of 2022 will be a big unknown at this point. With that said, the life goals will be very much oriented towards this new change.

• Eat healthier: For obvious reasons, this is already underway. I am in the process of boosting calcium since lactose intolerance doesn’t exactly help in that department. Along with that, also boosting fruit consumption since I was very bad at that last year.
• Streaming Once A Week: After that one stream last year in March, I’ve been thinking of streaming regularly for a while but never really had the right timing. So, I thought I’d take baby steps and set in one stream every weekend. I will probably do an official announcement once I finally take the step to start it up.
• Set Up the Nursery & New Office: The news above basically means I’m working on clearing out my current office to transform into the nursery. I mean, this is a gradual to-do list. There’s a general plan right now so this kind of links to the above goal since I do want to transition to the new office area in the house before streaming. Less hassle that way.

FINAL GENERAL NOTE FOR THE BLOG

I’ve been slowing down on writing this past year. A lot contributed to it. With the new changes in life, I don’t foresee writing frequency increasing and I don’t want to stress over it. The goal is to get a post up every 2 to 3 days. Plus, after a decade of blogging, I do want to jump into some new projects hence the solo podcast with this new structure and also streaming. Maybe when those things happen, I will also want to write more. It will take time for a new routine to build in so some of the newer things will be lesser frequency. Either way, I am going to maintain the quality instead of quantity.

2022 will hopefully be a great year despite the craziness in reality!
Happy New Year and Wishing Everyone All the Best!

Do you all have some new projects? Feel free to share it in the comments!

My April 2021 Adventures!

Welcome to the April 2021 Adventures! Its a tad later than usual. I have a pretty good reason is that: nothing really happened in April except work and a lot of work and then overtime and….a whole lot of nothing else. So I was debating whether to release the post. But you know what, I did get back on track with something and whatnot so I’m going to just do quick one and share some updates.

Workout

Apr.9: Run 4.35km
Apr.10: Walk 15mins.
Apr. 11: Abs Workout
Apr. 14: 34 mins/3.09km walk
Apr. 17: 30 mins/2.41km walk
Apr. 18: 53 mins/4.39 km walk
Apr. 24: 28 mins/2.58km walk
Apr. 25: 13 mins/1.22 km walk

The biggest change in April was that, despite the busy work schedule, I tried really hard to get more active. I only did one run and workout but overall, I tried to force myself to go out deliberately on walks outside of the normal routine. I put on a lot of weight in the last few months due to work and stress and the whole nine yards so its been making me feel a little unhappy about the whole thing so the best way to get active again. It was pretty good since it not only was getting me more active but also the walks helped me de-stress and refresh between work and overtime and actually made everything a little more efficient.

April is over so I’ll probably be doing more runs than walks in May as the weather steadies and I hopefully will have more time.

Tranquil Dreams Podcast

As of the last episode, Tranquil Dreams Podcast has gotten back to a weekly format covering one week of What’s Up. You can check out the last episode HERE.

In terms of schedule, I’m still posting a few days later than I would like but I’m hoping to slowly move it back to a fixed release day of the week. Plus, I have some ideas for other content lately so I’m going to see how to structure those in. Still, one step at a time and things will get back on track by the summer.

New Buys and Bubble Tea

I have some shopping therapy issue that I thought I had gotten rid of but apparently not. Although I’m not doing big buys but I was pretty interested in these Ooly stationary. I got these pastel liners and waiting for the pens to be delivered. I’m organizing stuff lately with a big notebook so its rather useful.

Other than that, we’ve been looking for a new controller for our PC since the husband and I have both gotten into streaming so its good to not have to move the controller between out two computers. Luckily, Costco sells these wireless Xbox controllers which are compatible with Steam. I’ve tested it out a few times on some games so far and really liking it. I haven’t had time to stream in April but planning to get back to it in May to play some of the games released on Xbox Game Pass in the past while. I have no set schedule yet but probably will have one set in the next month. If you watch Twitch, you can head over and give me a follow and get notifications to know when I go live HERE.

I feel like I haven’t talked about the new PresoTea opened over the last month or 2. I can’t remember but the Mango Green Tea with Mango Bubbles with less ice and lite sugar. The blend of that drink is awesome! Not sure if you all have PresoTea but if you do and like mango or iced tea, this one is so good. I don’t drink it a lot but I like to get one as a reward.

Streaming with Friend Update: Resident Evil Village on launch day

On the note of streaming and somewhat of an announcement!

For some of you who don’t know, I stream on Friday evenings with my friend playing horror games. The coming week is release of Resident Evil Village on May 7th (this coming Friday) and we’ll be playing that on release day! Its super rare that it happens and we’re going in completely blind (other than knowing that there’s the tall vampire lady) as we both haven’t played the demos or watched any videos of it or the trailer either.

If you want to come check it out, the stream starts at 8pm EST so you can head over to my friend Brandel Savage’s Twitch channel HERE.

Cute Kitty Pic

That’s it for the April Adventures!
I really stretched this one out and its not exactly exciting but pandemic protocols also doesn’t allow for a lot of variety.
At least, we can sign up for the first vaccine appointment soon so that’s progress, right?

Reminder: Ultimate Decades Blogathon

A quick reminder that the 6th annual Ultimate Decades Blogathon hosted by me and Drew’s Movie Reviews entry deadline is around the corner on February 15th! Remember that this year’s Ultimate Decades Blogathon is not about a specific decade but the year ending in “1”.

If you haven’t sent us your post, you still have a week to do so. You can send it to myself or Drew at kim.tranquildreams@gmail.com and drewt510@gmail.com.

If you haven’t heard of the blogathon but want to join in and want more info, you can find it on the announcement post HERE. If anyone needs more time, let us know in advance and we can work it out.

If you know anyone that would be interested, let them know and see if they can join. Help us spread the word. The more the merrier!

Thanks again for joining and we look forward to your posts!

My January Adventures

Welcome friends! January is behind us now! It was so busy that it almost felt like a blink of an eye and it was gone. Montreal is in lockdown and ongoing curfew but the whole being busy actually made this whole thing not very bothersome either except for some appointments that needed to be swapped around. This January was probably the least post that I’ve ever posted for the month despite all the craziness at work. This month’s adventures isn’t exactly anything exciting, just a few little updates!

Tranquil Dreams Podcast

Perhaps one of the biggest announcements for here is the launching of the podcast for this blog called Tranquil Dreams Podcast. I know, creative, right? Either way, at the current time, there’s three episodes uploaded for the What’s Up 2021 segment. If you haven’t listened to it yet, you can listen it to it on various platforms. I will be doing more diverse content once things slow down a little bit more at work (probably in mid-February or beginning of March).

With that said, I do invite you to go check it out. Its available on these platforms:

Anchor
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Breaker
Pocket Casts
RadioPublic

You can also access the podcasts posts on the right side of the blog.

Letterboxd Year in Review

Letterboxed Year in Review came in after the New Year and I thought that it would be fun to share it here as I usually do it with the year-end wrap-up post. Most of it is pretty expected except for the most watched actor who I actually had to look up.

• 267 Films Logged
• 423 Hours Watched
• Most Watched Director: David Fincher (I have watched 100% of David Fincher films)
• Most Watched Actor: Richmond Arquette
• Highly Rated 2020 Films: The Haunting of Bly Manor, Red Post on Escher Street, The Oak Room

Announcement: Ultimate Decades Blogathon

Drew over at Drew’s Movie Reviews and myself announced the 6th Ultimate Decades Blogathon! We’ve love to get as many people to participate as possible! Plus, we changed the structure so it’ll be a fun time. If you haven’t seen the announcement post, head over and check it out HERE!

Valentine’s Marathon

We’re a bit behind with the Valentine’s Marathon but its still happening this year! The current rundown is to get some TV binges and some romance films lined up. I might not go the typical romantic comedy film path so may wander into more romantic drama depending on what I find on Netflix. However, the highlight will probably be getting in a review of To All The Boys 3 when it is released on Netflix. At the same time, I might do something special for the marathon, maybe some baking or a podcast special.

Workout Update

From now on, I’m going to start tracking a very general list of workout for each week as a nod to the workout goal that I set at the beginning of the year. Its a tad slow and work got in the way in the last week. At least its some progress.

• Week 1: 2 Workouts (cardio and arm workout)
• Week 2: Cycling (on machine, 5km)
• Week 3: Shovelling & Walking
• Week 4: Nothing (working a lot so only exercise..walking and chores)

Cute Kitty Pic

That’s it for the January Adventures!
Nothing too exciting but a bunch of new things and announcements!

Announcement: Ultimate Decades Blogathon 2021

Welcome to the 6th Annual Ultimate Decades Blogathon 2021 hosted by myself and Drew’s Movie Reviews.

This year, we’re changing things up a little. Instead of picking an entire decade, we’ve adopted the Decades Blogathon from Thomas J and Three Rows Back. How this blogathon works is that we pick a number and of course, we’re going to just do it the easy way and work our way up starting from 1 and choose a year ending in “-1”. So movies from 1921, 1931, 1941, 1951, 1961, 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011. We’re allowing doubles for any year to keep it easy for everyone and see all of your choices from movies that stood out to you in those years (although if someone chooses 1921, 1931 and 1941 would be rather impressive since I don’t know much about them so it would be pretty cool to read about).

To help you all see what movies are from what year, here are some links to help you make a choice:

• 1951
• 1961
• 1971
• 1981
• 1991
• 2001
• 2011

The details of this blogathon:

• Any movie released in a year ending in “1” is a valid choice.
• You can choose to do more than one review (just give us a heads up in advance)
• We are posting the reviews on our blogs so it has to be submitted to us (let us know if you want to post on your blog also and we will let you know the release date so that you can pair it).
• Submission Deadline: Entries should be sent to us by February 15th (if you need more time, let us know in advance and it will be absolutely okay)
• Blogathon kicks off on February 22nd
• Email me at kim.tranquildreams@gmail.com and/or Drew at drewt510@gmail.com to notify us of your participation and your selection(s).
• You can tag us and help us promote using #UltimateDecadesBlogathon

Welcome all to join! We’re look forward to your choices and submissions. Feel free to use the banner above to show off your participation. If you know anyone that would be interested in joining the blogathon, please help us spread the word. Since we’re posting it, with or without a blog can join in. The more the merrier!

My November Adventures

November was a bit of a mess of a month. I was close to a burn-out after back to back film festival coverages and its why it took a while to wrap up the remaining films for those festivals. Luckily, that’s all done. With work also being an explosion of work, its been quite the crazy ride. I don’t foresee December being a lot better but at least, the slowed down posting schedule got my focus back on writing posts. With that said, not a really exciting month overall but still a few things to talk about plus at the end, there’s some December plans.

Not talking about any new projects until December’s wrap-up or January’s beginning of the year post as I have some final decisions to make on some possible changes or a new project/segment.

Blood in the Snow Festival

The ranking for the feature films (with the except of one Parallel Minds that I didn’t see):

1. Come True (Review)
2. For The Sake of Vicious (Review)
3. Anything For Jackson (Review)
4. The Return (Review)
5. Hall (Review)
6. Bloodthirsty (Review)
7. Bleed With Me (Review)
8. Shall We Play? (Review)

Overall, Blood in the Snow Festival was a good one. There were some really fun discoveries and some good direction on the stories that were being told. All the reviews for the feature films are up. I usually do something for short films but it already took so long to get this batch done that I haven’t had time to do that. I might still go back and highlight a few that I thought were rather unique and entertaining.

New Restaurant

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kim (@tranquildreams)

New restaurant opened up yet and its a Hong Kong style noodle shop who has both curries but even more for the fish soup base that they have for their noodle soup. The noodle soup is ordered similar to what you’d do for Japanese ramen where you get to pick the base, the type of noodle and then 2 toppings. The soup itself actually has quite a bit of extra ingredients added in. I had the combo which included a drink and mine was the lemon ribena which is something very much part of the Hong Kong landscape. Can’t go back to visit in this current landscape but at least there’s food to make me feel more connected, right?

New Spices & Masks

The husband had some company coupon codes sort of deal so we went ahead and took a look at the catalogue. I have some fun candles on the way that didn’t make it on this post but we ordered the spices kit from Gourmet Inspirations. So far, we’ve only tried the Veggie Fusion which adds a nice kick to the veggies.

As for the masks, the Instagram posts says it all. I’ve tried a few companies that make masks and Hop La Gogosses is by far my favorite so I’ve returned a few times. Not to mention, they are close so when I have time, I usually try to do a pick-up instead of getting it delivered. They have these custom ones so you get to choose the front and back from a range of choices.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kim (@tranquildreams)

Black Friday Haul

• Best Buy: Chromecast
• Google Play: The Almost Gone, Very Little Nightmares
• Cineplex: Rental: Guns Akimbo
• Steam: Gnog, Jenny LeClue Detectivu, Celeste, Transference, Sea of Solitude, The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories
• Xbox Ultimate Game Pass

Black Friday has pretty much mostly been an online deal even before the whole pandemic landscape so seeing as I did overall spend less this year, I ended up picking up on some of the sweet deals online for games and such. The only physical item I got was a new Chromecast. Our old Chromecast was starting really casting some things really well and was starting to get a little tempermental so we changed it and it seems to work better.

Everything else was mostly gaming related. Xbox Ultimate Game Pass for PC was dropped to $1/month and that’s great since I had a few games to catch up on so my next month of gaming is pretty much sort out since when I cut my subscription 2 months ago, I still had a few games that I hadn’t tried out yet.

As for Cineplex, there was some good rentals but the one that I’ve been meaning to watch is Guns Akimbo so that’s going to be done soon.

Christmas Marathon & Upcoming Plans

End of November means that its time to welcome in the Christmas Marathon! Christmas movies have been fairly slim pickings but thanks to Netflix releasing an immense amount of Christmas movies (whether good or bad), there’s a little more selection. Hopefully enough to fill out these few weeks leading to Christmas. It should start tomorrow December 1st if all things go well.

A quick mention on December plans while we’re at it. I’m trying to work out all the backlog and releasing some more current release stuff, mostly TV (Netflix and Chinese Drama TV binges). I’m going to blend it all in this month while catching up with some 2020 TV series that I’ve missed or didn’t finish. Fingers crossed that I can work on as much as possible.

That’s it November Adventures!
Nothing too exciting and just a lot of spending overall.
What have you been up to?

My September Adventures!

September has come to an end as Canada has officially announced the beginning of the second wave of COVID-19. We’re going through regional alert levels where with the past weekends leaps in increase of cases, Montreal (along with two other regions) will enter into maximum alert on October 1st meaning generally that other than shopping centres and retail businesses/personal care services, everything where social gathering can happen (theatres, libraries, bars, dine-in at restaurants, etc) are all closed for the next 4 weeks including all private gatherings. Just a little update on the currents of my whereabouts.

New Restaurants in Town

View this post on Instagram

Trying out the new #teashop in #brossard @shuyitealicious . Tried out the #fruitparty #oolongtea #drink the first time and the #taiwanoolong with extra #topping #grassjelly the second time. Other drinks shown is #pomelo #yakult #jasminetea and #oolong #milktea with #oats

A post shared by Kim (@tranquildreams) on Aug 30, 2020 at 8:36am PDT

Perhaps my fave place so far to open would have to go to Shuyi Tealicious where I just love the Jasmine Tea or Oolong Tea with Grass Jelly. Its some delicious stuff in the simplest way. So good. Whereas the husband loves the milk tea with oats.

View this post on Instagram

First dine-in since #covid19 started. Trying out a new #ramen #restaurant @sansoteiramen in #downtownmtl . Got the #tonkotsuramen #gyoza and #zangi #friedchicken . All around pretty good #food . #mtlfood

A post shared by Kim (@tranquildreams) on Sep 4, 2020 at 5:38pm PDT

The first dine-in since COVID-19 and the only one for a while, I’d assume seeing the current state of situation. Either way, this new ramen place was pretty good. Its new so there was a line-up which if it wasn’t for my friend’s birthday, I wouldn’t have lined up for it or chosen to dine-in. Luckily the tables here were spread out pretty good.

With the new restrictions in place, we’re back to hibernating at home and cooking our own food or taking out or maybe trying out some delivery services if we want to try new food. The little joys in life, right?

Fantasia Film Festival Wrap-Up

Fantasia International Film Festival ended on September 3rd with a successful first ever virtual edition which had a very good platform for its movies and loved the mix of live screenings, Q&A as well as the on demand film selection. If only I didn’t have actual work, I’d have done a much more elaborate coverage of many more films. Still, I managed to do a bigger load of movies in a shorter timeframe so I’m rather proud of myself in general plus, I picked some solid choices with maybe only one or two that was a little disappointing. As a final wrap-up since I don’t want to do another post for it, here is my top 10 (which I’m thinking whether it would have been great if I did it in a Youtube video format or even podcast format, right?)

1. The Oak Room
2. The Paper Tigers
3. Sheep Without A Shepherd
4. Detention
5. A Mermaid in Paris
6. A Witness Out of the Blue
7. Chasing Dream
8. The Mortuary Collection
9. You Cannot Kill David Arquette
10. Jumbo

Movies and Tea Podcast

The latest episode of Movies and Tea Podcast transferred to Youtube is here as Season 2 is in progress of being put up.

We’re in Season 5 David Fincher on the Movies and Tea blog. The latest podcast episode released was our After Hours special for You Cannot Kill David Arquette HERE.

Hiking: La Montée du Dragon

Nothing like a little hiking as we return to Mont-Megantic National Park earlier in September. You can check out the hiking recap HERE.

Announcement: Halloween Marathon Starts TOMORROW!!

October is around the corner (tomorrow) so its time for the annual Halloween Marathon! I’ve got quite a nice line-up as we tackle two different franchises. I was only suppose to be one and then I started watching the sequels of another one and finished it so kind of wrapped up another franchise as well. Its the Living Dead franchise (including the remakes) and Insidious sequels (since I already reviewed the first one before). I also have some random movies to slot in between so it should be fun. Living Dead franchise is a little hard to find some of the movies and I didn’t plan it better so I’m hoping that I will find some of them if not I might just skip over it depending on the situation. If you have any horror films that you’d like to recommend for me to watch, let me know and I’ll add it on to my list if I haven’t seen or reviewed it before.

That’s it for this September adventures!
What have you been up to during these crazy times?