Tag Archives: Festival

My Weekly Adventures: Hangouts, Gaming & Podcast Guest

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Welcome to the next Adventures! Its been a bit quiet on my end to be honest. Well, kind of. To be fair, the weather’s been pretty weird and then work’s been in its crazy phase. Still, we managed to get some time to hang out with friends, check out an event and pretty much wrapped up some stuff over here while to try relatively calm about everything. At least my few days staycation is just around the corner so I’m ecstatic for it. Can’t wait!

Dinner: Korean BBQ at Mon Ami

Steam Dumplings
Fried Dumplings
Korean BBQ
Korean BBQ

As a replacement for the monthly Battle of Ingredients and to compromise for a busy schedule (and my incredibly messy house that I didn’t have time to deep clean for guests), we decided to head out for a dinner out. The final decision came down to Mon Ami Brossard for All You Can Eat. Its a pretty good deal as it includes a great deal more than just Korean BBQ. It was pretty good but as I was on the verge of getting sick again, I stayed a little further from BBQ food and loved that I could get Bibimbap and a ton of dumplings. Its pretty fun and we had nice chats. Time with friends is always such a great way to stay sane and get in a ton of laughs and good times in general.

Montreal Joue 2019

Montreal Joue 2019

The 7th annual Montreal Joue Festival is happening right now. It has a variety of game-themed events on its program. For myself, the one that interests me most is their video games festival which was held at Marche Bonsecours. Its been a go-to spot for gaming events lately. Overall, there was a lot of rinse and repeat games that I had seen in last year’s various events (but then, I go to almost 90% of gaming events in Montreal so its inevitable). However, it was nice to catch up with some games that have been on radar especially those in development for a while and finally see that they are all getting a release date. The game above is an upcoming mobile game called Feathers of Time which have had my attention for a while. I’ll be doing a recap on it in a few days over on the Game Warp blog (and That Moment In).

Valentine’s Marathon Officially Done

Valentine's Marathon

I know that technically there are like 4 movies that I need to post and they will go up soon by the end of the weekend (hopefully). I need to power through some more of the films to get them watched. However, after watching two great films, the remaining ones are looking a like lackluster. Haha! I’m just kidding…I’ll get to it. However, Valentine’s Marathon dragging further than February is not something I’d like to do. So I’m cutting it off. You will see this format again probably for next year. Its one that I’m enjoying and plan on doing on various months of the year just with more creative themes and maybe not a specific genre.

However, Valentine’s Marathon was pretty great. I achieved the goal of taking movies off My List on Netflix and also managed to discover some pretty fantastic movies. There was a lot of average movies but great films are made everyday so the idea that some showed up is already great. The entire Valentine’s Marathon reviews is updated HERE! Check it out if you think you may have missed any of the reviews.

Asian Cinema Film Club Podcast

I joined Elwood and Stephen over at Asian Cinema Film Club on their podcast to talk about 2012 Hong Kong film, The Bullet Vanishes. They were gracious enough to let me choose and it was a nice discussion we had about it. I never get enough chance to talk about Asian Cinema especially Hong Kong films that I always accept their invite. Plus, any chance to talk about my favorite celebrity Nicholas Tse is one that I won’t turn down. It was super fun as always. Give it a listen and hope you enjoy! Remember to follow them HERE if you haven’t already.

Cute Kitty Pic

That’s it for this Weekly Adventures!
I promise the next one will be a bit more colorful 😉
What adventures have you had?

Festival du Nouveau Cinema: Mirai (2018)

Posted in Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Film Festivals, Movies by

Mirai (2018)

mirai

Director (and writer): Mamoru Hosoda

Voice cast: Moka Kamishiraishi, Haru Kuroki, Gen Hoshino, Koji Yakusho, Kumiko Aso, Mitsuo Yoshihara, Yoshiko Miyazaki, Masaharu Fukuyama

A young boy encounters a magical garden which enables him to travel through time and meet his relatives from different eras, with guidance by his younger sister from the future. – IMDB

Every festival I like to add in an animated film in the middle. Call it the desire to cut through the depth in a lot of indie films or just to have a fun little family friendly experience. Mirai was my pick for this festival. I don’t watch a lot of Japanese animation outside of festivals (except for rewatching classic Studio Ghibli films). Mirai is a cute and funny one. Its charm is in its story which talks about a little boy and his inner conflict of accepting his little sister’s birth and how her existence suddenly means sharing his parents’ attention and patience and love. However, it is wrapped up in a cute adventure that values siblings and family as a whole as he finds his way through imaginative sequences from different past family members that helps him understand how to be a big brother.

The imagination here is grounded in a magical world because it reflects the idea of a family tree and how its roots affects how Kun is now. As we dive into the stories of the other members of his family, there is a reality to his little trips like past characters or younger or older selves taking him for a trip like the ghosts in A Christmas Carol. It reflect directly to the challenges and each of these bring us closer to his meeting with the future Mirai who strives for his acceptance as well to prove that she is worthy of their sibling love and the importance of it all while also teaching him a lesson on being understanding of his parents as well. And the scenes of parents and their pressures set in some scenes filled with familiar parental turmoil.

For the execution and colorful appearance and cute and funny ideas packed with a little drama and positivity, Mirai is a fun movie experience for both adults and kids. It has an imaginative and magical aspect that reflects into an familiar reality for both parents and kids and siblings.

My “Weekly” Adventures: Fantasia and More Events

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Are you ready? This past month was so busy that I’m still trying to get grips and find back all the energy. Its why well…a lot of things have been behind. The one thing that we haven’t left behind is the heat wave because its still as present as ever. Not really a bad thing because I can now have time to go back into the pool once I catch up a little more. This post might be a little heavier on the Instagram since its easier to do that than to just keep uploading photos. Its going to be heavy on pictures on the things that happened. To be honest, Fantasia took up most of my life so not all that much happened.

Let’s just jump right in!

Fantasia Festival

Boy was this a festival and a half this year. I pushed really hard and covered 5 more movies than I normally would. Of course, I had work because if I didn’t, I would be at the screening rooms and covering even more. However, this year was a really nice selection of films. Most of the films delivered fairly well. There were some odds and ends that didn’t quite land as well for myself. I probably will still do some sort of Fantasia wrap-up within the next week. Its a little after the event but I still would like to highlight some of the films.

As for my Instagram game, I even impressed myself when I went to do some press work and took pictures of the directors and cast and such whenever they were present.

So yeah…A lot of fun times here. I didn’t take any pictures with the cast and crew although you could, except for the director of Big Brother but then my shyness came out since I’m really a behind the scenes person (except when I do Game Warp, I guess). That picture is just for myself since I looked like an elephant. The roster of lists from when I posted the Weekly Adventures a month ago definitely did end up changing a little since I ended up missing a few other films but adding in some other titles.

You can find all the reviews now. The full roster of films: A Rough Draft, Big Brother, Bleach, Cam, Fireworks, Knuckleball, Laplace’s Witch, Lifechanger, Nightmare Cinema, The Nightshifter, Our House, The Outlaws, Playing Hard, Pledge, Rondo, Searching, Tigers Are Not Afraid, Under the Silver Lake, The Vanished, The Witch in the Window.

Wedding in Toronto

Wedding

One of my best friends had her wedding in Toronto. It  was absolutely lovely despite the heat with both the church and the dinner reception. These moments also have the time to see everyone dressed at their best and partying together and wishing happiness for our dear friend as well. It was a great time. Of course, it helps that my husband also was able to be there. I talk about that a lot but thats because my husband used to work the graveyard shift so now its always grateful to have this new shift where he can live normal human hours and do things and attend events.

Some people take for granted how amazing it is to spend time with the ones we love but sometimes different situations make it hard but hey, you work through it and it all comes together in the end. Rambling again…

Brossard Festin Culturel

Mon Ami Restaurant – Korean Food

Street Monkeys – Cambodia Food

Mucho Burrito – Mexican Food

Every year, the last weekend is always a busy one. We would hit two festivals. This year, we decided to not head out to the Matsuri Festival. A few key reasons is honestly the crowds and the parking and the traffic going out since road works are ridiculous right now. So, we went to check out earlier the Brossard Festin Culturel  which is a cultural festival in the Montreal suburbs. Its primarily a family event and this year, it moved locations so we wanted to see how it all went down and actually this new location works really well, even better than before. We tried out some cool restaurants also and enjoyed the sun a little and walked around. Fun times!

 

Matinee Movie Date

I feel like every time that I tell you all about going to the theatre it will be for some popcorn flick where its not outstanding terms like Oscar films but just a pure entertaining film. Most of the films that I look forward to and will watch in theatres (aside Fantasia) is honestly films that I feel the big screen will make a difference. Just to be clear, my suburban theatre only offered UltraAVX and 3D had more choice in times than the normal which had one showing only. Either way, I don’t really regret it at all. The experience for The Meg was quite unique since I honestly really got into the film and had some moments where I literally was startled and jumped back in the seat. Its a pretty awesome shark film experience. I know this movie has its issues. Either way, my review will be going up. In the meantime, we did a Movies and Tea After Hours kickoff show reviewing The Meg that literally just went live today.

I’ll still reblog the post tomorrow or something but just to have a fun listen!

Tranquil Dreams on Facebook

In case you missed the announcement post a few weeks ago, we are officially on Facebook! It was meant to happen eventually but you know circumstances changed  for Facebook linking here so I got that set up quickly. Head over and give us a like or follow! I’ll share random stuff there every once in a while so it’ll be a fun time. Check it out HERE.

That’s it for this adventures! 🙂
Things are getting back on track. Hopefully summer has been treating you all fantastic!

My Weekly Adventures #60 Back to Normal & New Blog Announcement

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Its March already! What is happening to 2018? Its been just really busy all around, particularly with work which has docked more overtime than I have ever since I started this job, so its kind of crazy. Either way, its taking a toll on energy and it also makes for a more sporadic posting schedule. Of course, we are in the last week of Ultimate 70s Blogathon. If you missed any entries for it, you can find the posts here. We are gearing up for the final entries from myself and Drew to wrap up this year’s blogathon.

With Ultimate 70s Blogathon sorted out, I also would like to say that Valentine’s Marathon is done. I burnt out on the Twilight Saga with Breaking Dawn so I just couldn’t finish it before March. I will however watch and post up the reviews within the next week. I’d like to get that over and done with soon and move on to better things. Here is the updated list of the Valentine’s Marathon roster. I still need to do a little update on it but the links are all there. Its not particularly impressive but its better than last year already. I’ll think of another franchise to watch next year or better prepare for it.

PC update: Operations back to normal!

My PC is back and its pretty much all new except for retaining my 1 year old video card and my very new Blu-ray player. I’ll have a PC rig breakdown over at Game Warp soon. Its something I’m going to work this coming weekend as I edit and compile some new videos for Game Warp so we can get back on track.

At this point, I’ve pretty much sorted out all of the set up stuff and gotten used to where everything is so we’re pretty much back on track. I’m super pumped to get all the postponed posts up over the next few weeks. The backlog on my end is getting a little ridiculous, particularly in the TV Binge category.

Montreal Joue Festival

Montreal Joue Festival

Gaming festivals are coming back! I headed out with my best friend and her boyfriend to the Video Games Festival which is part of the Montreal Joue Festival which pairs up with the Lights Festival which is going on right now in Montreal. There was a lot of games to try out, however, there was also a lot of games I’ve already written about so I’m still trying to figure out if there’s enough to build a post for That Moment In for event coverage. Either way, one of the most interesting things that I saw there was by Gros Joueurs which replicated the Duck Hunt gun into a huge format which is compatible with the actual Dunk Hunt game. I watched a few people play it and everyone had a different strategy on how to make it work for them.

However, if I don’t end up doing an event coverage post for the video game festival, I do want to mention that I recently backed a project shown at the festival which I’ve been chatting with the devs about at different festivals they’ve shown their game. Its called Abyss Crew, which is a multiplayer coop game where each person takes a different role to navigate a steampunk submarine. You can check it out on Kickstarter here if coop games are your cup of tea. I think this is a fantastic idea.

You all know that I don’t talk about Kickstarter projects here frequently, nor am I ever asked to talk about it, so its more just how I’d like to show my support. I was actually thinking of highlighting Kickstarter projects more on the Game Warp Facebook page or in Kickstarter picks in written form. Still pondering those ideas as a side note.

Game Warp Blog is Live

GAMEWARPBLOG.WORDPRESS.COM

Elwood and I have decided to archive our posts that we have over on That Moment In over here. Its still a work in progress to continue updating it with the posts released in 2018 so far, however, there is more than enough posts over there to check out, along with indexes for the games we’ve reviewed. We have all the podcast episodes from intervies to featured and new indie game review shows as well as written reviews and features for retro, mobile and general video games.

With that said, show us some support if you like gaming related articles and go follow us over there! We wanted to keep something here to be able to chat with everyone about games where we can run it on our end. Looking forward to see you all over there!

Cute Kitty Pic

Upcoming: 

  • TV Binges!!!
  • Battle of Ingredients
  • Disney Reviews
  • Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1 & 2 review

This wraps up this weekly adventure!
Its a bit shorter than usual. Forgive me as I’ve been trying to get things back on track.
The only thing I didn’t talk about was my optometrist trip and also my opthamologist check-up today, which is why this post is going up so late.
You know, waiting for my eyes to get back to normal. Good news is my eyes are in perfect health!

Battle of Ingredients #5: Fall BBQ & Moon Festival Edition!

Posted in Battle of Ingredients, Food & Wine by

I know its a little early to take a break from the horror marathon and it’ll resume tomorrow. However, Battle of Ingredients is our monthly segment and our gathering just happened this past weekend. I promise it’ll be a short and sweet one and one that matches perfect with today which is Midautumn Festival, mostly referred to as Moon Festival!

A warm and maybe slightly cooler welcome from me and my cohost, Phoebe from Starry Traveler’s Road to the next Battle of Ingredients. Due to our love for the previous BBQ session and the weather being still decent, we decided to do another BBQ event. battle of ingredients

This time, we took it to mostly basics. Mostly because we realized quite last minute that no actual plans were formulated. Also, we were both busy with personal life stuff so the final menu looked like this.

I made burger patties. Actually, because I was in a lot of pain that day, my husband being the champ that he is helped me make the patties. We got medium lean minced beef and used eggs and spices and he made the patties. He also took on the grill master role in the evening. So our event became a lot more relaxed than it usually would be. We bought the Italiano burger buns and got some cheese, gouda and lactose-free swiss.

Phoebe pulled the stops this time and brought her take on the veggie foil pack that I had tried out last time. This time, her’s had bell peppers, zucchinis and also added in two to three slices of prosciutto. The prosciutto being on the top spread its salty flavors to the veggies, making it no necessary to spice it at all.

Phoebe also found on Pinterest a way to roast corn on the grill. It simply required snipping off the top part. It turned out perfect! She also brought on to try roasting eggplants on the grill as well. Most of us weren’t very into eggplants and didn’t normally cook them so in my opinion, they weren’t done too good. Definitely something to further into bettering our skills at or maybe its just better to cook them in another way.

Aside from that, this time was almost like a potluck as our friends also brought some chicken breast along with tzatzki sauce (not sure how you spell it).

We ended with our dessert.  Our friends,who is always responsible for beverages, brought the Pepito Rose Sangria and some light fruity coolers. While I forgot to take pictures of it, I brought some garden fruits like raspberries and a lot of ground cherries. Aside from that, we also had an early celebration of Moon Festival, or Midautumn Festival which most people know for eating moon cakes, a little chinese pastry with lotus paste normally.

moon cakes chow's

Phoebe found a pastry shop in Chinatown called La Patisserie Chow that makes their own moon cakes and we were interested to see how they were so she bought the box with their bestselling four flavors.

  • Double yolk White Lotus Paste
  • Double Yolk Green Bean Paste
  • 5 Stars Mix (5 different nuts, sweet melon and tangerine)
  • Golden Double Yolk Paste

Our biggest issue was that each one wasn’t labelled. We easily could identify the white lotus paste one which was a win for both me and Phoebe. The nuts got an okay where it was good but not great. Then we have a mystery one which I personally suspect is the Golden Double Yolk Paste that my husband and our friend liked. Then there was one that unanimously was pretty bad. I’m guessing its the green bean paste but it wasn’t labelled so I don’t really know.

Chow Pastry Shop is pretty commendable to have their own moon cakes. Huge applause for that. However, its better to label the variety one way or another even if the ingredients are also labelled super vaguely. I think this one could be hit or miss. Its definitely not like the ones you’d buy from the big brands. Phoebe posed a good question about how we usually do eat from the big brands and maybe traditional moon cakes with any preservatives and in their natural state would taste more like this. Perhaps one time, I’ll be in Hong Kong where actually smaller bakeries also make moon cakes or I’ll attempt it myself and we’ll see.

That’s it for this Battle of Ingredients!
Thanks for joining us!
November might be skipped because our crew usually does the MTL a Table event.
However, we’ll find a festive return in December for the holidays!

Fantasia Festival is Here!

Posted in Movies by

Fantasia International Film Festival is in town (aka Montreal)!

Fantasia Festival started today in the evening, opening with Korean film, The Villainess. It runs for the next three weeks! It runs from July 13 to August 2.

Luckily, I’ll be covering it this year, like past years! This year, I did think ahead and tried to get myself media accreditation and it happened! That is awesome and I’m really excited. I’ve generally gotten my calendar set on what movies to fit in and I’m being a little pickier with times and what movies I see. The first review goes up tomorrow afternoon as I ponder over a documentary and how to word it properly in a review, as you all know that I don’t review documentaries a lot.

No double features on this one. Fantasia Festival will be getting all full reviews and I’ll hop back to double features after the festival is over.

With that said, I’ll try to keep variety here, however, excuse me if the festival gets on and I don’t have as much time or energy to think in advance for it. Between balancing actual work, Fantasia Festival and Game Warp, its going to be a intense scheduling and efficiency practice on my part. And no, this festival has jumped back to its roots a little more and dives into a lot of foreign films as well as straying a little more away from horror this year. Its a nice change although I do potentially have some in my schedule. I won’t bore you with the technicalities of having the press pass, because honestly, I’m feeling incredibly grateful to even have it so I’ll be working extra hard.

With that said, every year I talk about hte movies that I’ll be going to see. I feel like I can’t promise anything this year as it can change anytime so instead, I’ll talk about the movies I plan on seeing and the movies that are in my maybes and has me intrigued:

  • Abu: Father (2017)
  • Tilt (2017)
  • A Ghost Story (2017)
  • Vampire Clean-Up Department (2017)
  • Savage Dog (2017)
  • Replace (2017)
  • Radius (2017)
  • Origami (2017)
  • Most Beautiful Island (2017)
  • JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable (2017)
  • Friendly Beast (2016)
  • Better Watch Out (2016)
  • Overdrive (2017)
  • Fashionista (2016)
  • Bushwick (2017)

Movies I considered but can’t seem to fit into the schedule (or trying to):

  • Shockwave (2017)
  • Mohawk (2017)
  • Senior Class (2016)
  • Bad Genius (2017)
  • Rage (2016)
  • 68 Kill (2017)
  • Napping Princess
  • Bitch (2017)
  • Boyka: Undisputed (2016)
  • Dead Shack (2017)

Looking at the listings, there are over 200 films, both shorts and full lengths and an awesome lists of guests that will be hosting their films from directors to writers to cast members and even crew members. Looking at the calendar and blog archives, I’ve been covering Fantasia unofficially for the last 3 years (maybe 4 but first year, I only saw 2 movies), and the Festival has grown so much over these years and the movie choices have been incredible. Its always a positive experience going and if you are in Montreal, I urge you to go check it out!

If you do, give me a shout! Maybe we can hang out and talk movies! It’ll be fun…if time matches up, of course 🙂

Have you heard or seen any of these movies?
The full list of films can be found HERE. 
What movies peaked your interest?

My Weekly Adventures #38

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Time sure flies by! February was a busy busy month. I barely had a moment to catch my breath. As I mentioned in the previous My Weekly Adventures, its really a ton of behind the scenes stuff as I barrel through reading and TV series and movies. I also had an eureka moment over the last two weeks and have finally figured out that I’m a photographer and not an artist so to figure out a beautiful banner for Tranquil Dreams was not going to happen out of graphic design but rather, putting together a photo! It only took 2 years to figure it out. Haha! Sad, right? Now to actually put it together, right? Let’s hope that’ll be soon! Creative juices are flowing through me and it feels awesome! I just have so many ideas and not enough time but I love being busy. Things to look forward to is always great.

However, this past two weeks have been pretty cool with Montreal events picking up yet again. We got some really cold weather and now these past two weeks have been nice and cool.

Musical: Mamma Mia [Farewell Tour]

Mamma Mia

My girl friends and I were incredibly lucky to be able to go to see the farewell tour of Mamma Mia! Sure, we had to pay and all but we learned about this so late and still managed to find seats not exactly next to each other in the same row but we found seats one behind the other in a decent spot. I love Mamma Mia! Love it to absolute bits! I’ve really only seen the movie and despite it not being perfect in some ways, I really enjoy the music and humor and all. Seeing it live in its original musical form was amazing. Everyone did fantastic and it was incredibly fun the entire time.

Montreal Joue Festival

Montreal Joue Festival

Montreal Joue is going on right now. It started with the Independent Games of Montreal that ran on February 25th for 12 hours and had about 30 games. I managed to see all the games but only got the chance to try out 7 of them. Some I have tried at previous festivals and also the reason why I opted out to save myself some time. Others had incredible amounts of people all the time that I just had to skip it because I hadn’t slotted out a full day for the festival. If you want to see a more detail recap, you can find it at That Moment In where all the gaming content I do is here. It is the first time I’ve made it out to this festival and after this I believe the game festivals in Montreal start looping back to the ones I started with last year. It always amazes me how small these spaces look and how many games can fit into it and always with its fair share of surprises. For those interested, there are still lots of events going on like society games and what not. They had the retro games one as well. You can find it all on their festival page.

Oscars Night

Oscars happened this past weekend. If you’ve been a long time follower here, you’ll notice that its the first year since I’ve started covering movies that I haven’t had an Oscars recap. The fact is that since I moved out to my own place, I don’t have actual TV. Last year, I was able to stream it on the local channel online. This year, they blocked it out to only users with a TV subscription and I don’t have that. I find that a little stupid because it feels like times are going backwards. However, #firstworldproblems, right? So, I’ll stop complaining about it. I just thinking that Academy Awards should probably do something about streaming it online since you know, a ton of big shows like these do it anyways. Its the beauty of the Internet. Regardless, it wouldn’t have made a difference to me seeing as I saw none of the best picture picks and only saw Zootopia and Captain Fantastic and perhaps some random smaller categories.

Point is, I didn’t see it so no recap. I’m a little unhappy about how I didn’t get to see it but hey, my husband and I chose a much more fun choice and binged Ultimate Beastmaster on Netflix. Two more episodes to go this weekend and I’ll be doing a recap on that, as a sidenote.

Health & Class Update

Moving on to a good and not so good note, 2017 has just been a crap storm in terms of my health. Bugs and ear problems plagued me last time. Luckily, the bug never came back. I even caved and ended up going to the doctor to figure out what was wrong with my ear. Luckily, no infection so that was taken care of and I’m enjoying hearing perfectly well. Its definitely fantastic. Except that same evening that the ear thing was resolved, my eye decided to have something go wrong. If you’ve been here a few years, you’d know that a few years ago, I suffered a few months of that also. It sucks that its back but at least I’m dealing with it the best I can to hopefully get rid of it without having to go have another mini surgery because that hurts like hell. I’m not kidding when its really bumming me out and taking a whole lot of energy to stay positive and just keep on keeping on especially with work going through a stressful phase the past week. Luckily, that is somewhat over…the keyword here being somewhat.

Other than that, my online class is in the final week now. Trying to get ready to do the final assignment and final test. Not a huge fan of tests of any sort but its okay. I’ve learned some cool stuff in this class. While I would have loved to free up time, I apparently am crazy and for some deal thing, I ended up signing up for a month membership for the classes to take up something else. I’m still deciding what but I’m leaning towards photography or guitar. I do have a guitar glaring at me every single day that I don’t know how to play at all but have always wanted to. I’ll decide soon but this is going to be the last month I have planned for any more of these classes since things get busy with work afterwards and I just won’t have time. Plus, all those new segments I’m working on are going to need some time and love to put together. 🙂

Cute Kitty Pic

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Upcoming:

  • Ultimate 90’s Blogathon continues
  • TV Binge posts

That’s it for this time! 🙂
What have you been up to?

My Weekly Adventures: Vacation, Festivals (and some pondering…)

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Welcome back! Its been a month since a proper My Weekly Adventures. This tiime, we’re catching up a little and getting in some updates. You know, actual updates. Last night was Midautumn Festival so yeah, I was planning to do a vlog and get all fancy inserting pictures and videos but nope, not happening for this one yet. But, a vlog is coming up… I hit over 2000 followers in the past week and color me happy. It also somewhat confirmed something about the blog that I have been thinking about for a while now. It kind of puts me in a rut. Give me some time to have those thoughts calmed down and I’ll post up a chat with you all to ask about your opinion on it. That is for probably near the end of the month seeing as right before writing this, I recorded and then deleted it again because I ramble just too much and it was missing the point completely. Things to look out for soon…

Now, back to My Weekly Adventures!

Vacation Time!!

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Its funny that this time, we went on vacation, we flew somewhere and then rented a car and ended up doing quite a bit of road trip out and about. Vacation was in Vancouver and Kelowna. Two posts have gone up already. If you are up to date, don’t think that the rest are by days because they aren’t. Some of them might be just by location if there’s too many pictures that I liked. However, pictures are incredibly a lot (they still are) but I just had my phone so I couldn’t go crazy.

Regardless, we had some good food, beautiful scenery, lovely road trips. The weather didn’t agree with us all the time but we didn’t mind it and just kept enjoying our vacation. We even had a talk about what vacation felt like a vacation. One, bustling cities are a big no-no because we already live in a big city. It is probably the main reason why we really stayed in further out places when we stayed in Vancouver except the one day we went to Stanley Park and Vancouver Aquarium.

Lots of vacation stuff coming up in the next few weeks. I didn’t want to swamp my blog with just that so we’ll take our time with it. 🙂

Festivals!

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I did an entire post on YUL EAT festival so you can check it out HERE if you missed it. What more is there to say: Old Montreal, great companies with my girl friends, lots and lots of food, free samples and learning and seeing a waiter race. I’d say it was a pretty fantastic day. I am currently peeling on my shoulders from the huge sunburn I got and thinking about how its been quite some time since I had a sunburn to that extent. Hmm…Need to remember sunscreen all the time. Although autumn is around the corner so sun is going to decrease significantly soon by the time we hit winter at least.

Festival des Vendanges

Festival des Vendanges also had a post right HERE. This one is in the Eastern Townships of Quebec located right next to the Memphremagog Lake which is absolutely beautiful to walk along. We had a train pass right behind us (almost because we crossed the street). Odd urban planning structures but that kind of applies to a lot of places. This is a festival I’ve been looking forward to checking out and we finally did so I’m super happy about that.

The Long-Awaited Somewhat Garden Update

At this point, after coming back from vacation, my garden is pretty much non-existent except for a few things. The leeks are still going. I think its almost time to harvest before we lose them all. Lettuce is seeding, which means I can use it for next year. Same goes for broccoli. I didn’t harvest any of the florets in time. We had a few cucumbers but we froze them before we left so that it’d still be good. They are all eaten now so there’s nothing to show you. However, the raspberries are at full ripe state and we’re just harvesting every other day. This was from last weekend.

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For the record, that’s a pretty deep tupperware.

Next up is a little surprise discovery in my geraniums, a ground cherry popped up on the side!!

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Aside from that, I have completely revamped the side front yard flower patch. It finally doesn’t look like a cluster of a mess. The cure was to pull out almost all the irises. They just spread way too much. Although next year, I am almost positive it’ll be overflowing with these lily of the valley that just ended up popping up in the garden. This is what it looks like after I finally bought some chrysanthemums. Chrysanthemums are perfect for autumn but they are biannual so I have to get them every other year pretty much.

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Before winter comes, I just need to separate the roses from the echinacea a little. There’s a bit of shifting on the front yard part lining the front of the house where I need to move some plants around. The raspberry patch needs some serious work to control mint overgrowth, raspberry intensive spreading and strawberries.

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I don’t have a vegetable garden here but that will be for the next update. It just has too much overgrown grass that I need to figure out how to control better. And we need to figure out how to fence the garden in but leave room for the pool hose to run along the back without it destroying my shallots.

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And one more thing is the clematis finally has lots and lots of buds and as this post goes up, its already starting to bloom.

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Apparently we have the late summer-early fall variety so that’s why it is going crazy now. When it all blooms, it is going to be so pretty! You might want to head over to Avenue of Daydreams and I’ll have lots of artsy close-up shots of it!

That is really it. We have lots of raspberries, apples and pineapple sage (which has its own accident). The herbs need to be planted into the ground before it gets super cold. That is the next mission also. Updates next time for that.

Cité Memoire

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If you happen to be dropping into Montreal, this is an event I really think is worth your while. All you need is to download the app, have some temporary storage space on your phone and some good shoes to do the walking. Cité Memoire is a concept where it is a history walk around different locations in Old Montreal. There are 30 mins, 60 mins and 90 mins circuits. Both 30 mins and 60 mins have two different circuits each. 90 mins only have one. There is also a Daytime and Nighttime. I have yet to try Nighttime and actually might soon. There are some places that tells you at the stop in a recording with a text (that you can choose to read or not) about the history of the location and the significance and what it has become now with some old photos of what it looked like. There are some spots where you can use your phone and do augmented reality segments where its like a little video. I think the concept is really cool and although I didn’t retain all the information, I did learn a lot about the architecture and the background of some more obscure buildings (not like the Church or Board of Trade or Banks).

Funny story is that I was doing this circuit after work and this Amphitours bus goes by and they are saying the exact same thing passing by the building that I had just listened to the recording for. So you see, all you need are your legs and this history lesson is for free. Plus, Montreal even has set up a wifi that stretches along the entire path so that no extra data fees. I’m not sponsored or anything but this is one of the better ideas Montreal has had. A more detailed post will go up soon 🙂

Midautumn Festival

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 Last night was Midautumn Festival and the full moon was ever so bright! I went for a lovely walk with my mom after having dinner with her to celebrate. Here’s dinner and moon cakes 🙂

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The one on top is the moon cake I usually eat. The one on the bottom is supposedly Taiwanese Moon cake. I believe I’ve tasted it before and its is actually more fluffy and delicate than the top one but then, I like my traditional lotus paste moon cake. 🙂

That’s it for this My Weekly Adventures!  As usual, here is a Cute Kitty Pic! This is my in-laws cat by the way. She’s one month younger than my kitty. Oh, and she hates me..absolutely loathes me for some odd reason…

wp-1474039500774.jpgUpcoming posts:

  •  Cité Memoire
  • Netflix A-Z
  • Vacation

That’s it for My Weekly Adventures!
Next one will be probably with the Halloween month announcement!!