Workout Round-up: Making Things Work (as best as I can)

workout recap

Welcome to a late workout recap for the last two weeks. Things didn’t quite work as I was caught up my black hole of TV series and then other projects and social experiments and doing everything other than working out. Week 2 did have some great improvement. Film festival season so expect a lot of walking logged for part of next recap also.

WEEK 1

Wednesday: Zumba

WEEK 2

Tuesday: Walking

It was a busy week so the only thing that I managed to kick off the week was doing some walking. It wasn’t a whole lot but the day took me for a few errands which rounded to about 5 kilometers. Its not a huge amount but its still something. I was speed-walking most of the distance.

Wednesday: Weights & Calisthenics

3 rounds each

Bicep Curls (15 reps @ 5lbs each hand)
Squats (20 reps)
Tricep Extensions (15 reps @5lbs)
Pushups (15 reps)

Friday/Saturday/Sunday: Festival and Walking

Friday: 6km total

Saturday: 2.5km total

Sunday: 2.2km total

This wraps up these past two weeks.
It might seem like I didn’t really do much but to be fair, I do a lot of walking for this festival as the theatres are well distanced from each other and I chose the films by movie preference and not theatre location.

Workout Round-up: Working Back up to Par

workout

I can finally say that I’m somewhat pleased with how these past two weeks went. I wanted to get workouts in and I worked hard to even find just like 10 to 15 minutes rather than not doing anything at all. I did three workouts in the first week and only two in the second. The last one before done right before this post goes up, but that is because I insisted on getting the minimum two I want to do. Its just making the effort to get it done and when I do accomplish that goal, it makes me happy.

 

Monday: Short Zumba Session

DreamHack coverage wrap-up took longer than anticipated on Monday following. Its usually the case with fatigue just hitting hard but I wanted to get in a workout so I ended up doing a short one at 11:45pm. Not optimal as it cuts into sleeping time but a 10 minute session is better than nothing, right?

Thursday:  Weights & Yoga

I have the worst back muscles ever so I figured out that I’ll do that and it was fairly challenging. Then I went on to do  yoga that I haven’t done in a good few months (if not an entire year). Let me tell you that the side planks were so painful. I guess its time to work out the abs more.

Sunday: Hiking

Reserve Naturelle des Montagnes Vertes

Location: Reserve Naturelle des Montagnes Vertes

Trail: Etang/Decouverte

Distance: 9km

You can check out the details of the hike HERE. Its our first hike after my husband whole health debacle scare. We’re hoping to get another hike in but we are still waiting on some results and also on medication to hopefully fix the issue. We’re still keeping it rather gentle.

Wednesday: Zumba

Nothing like a session of Zumba to keep things happy and light. The week was fairly ridiculous and stupid on all levels so my stress level was really high. Zumba is my go-to destressing thing.

Sunday: Calisthenics/Weight Training

A final workout before we wrap up this week! I asked my husband who helps me out with figuring out workout stuff a lot to just give me different sets to do. This is what he came up with it.

3 rounds of each set

Set 1
Push ups x12
Bent Over Rows – 5lbs each hand x20

Set 2 (15 reps)
Overhead Extensions
Bicep Curls

Set 3 (12 reps) – 5lbs each hand
Lateral Raises (dropped in 3rd round)
Front Raise
Reverse Flies

Set 4 (15 reps)
Squats

Survived that one! Lateral raises are my death usually so it wasn’t surprising that my shoulder starting to hurt so I stopped that in the 3rd round and just did front raises and reverse flies (is that how you spell it?). Either way, it felt good to get back to weight training and slight calisthenics.

That wraps up these last two weeks!
Goals for the next two weeks? Get in some ab workouts. 

Maybe go for a jog if it doesn’t get really cold.
Keep up the 2 workouts minimum per week!

Workout Roundup

workout round up

I apologize for the tardy post. These two weeks have been about digging really deep. I’m not going to lie that getting back into working out has been a mega hard uphill trek. As much as I acknowledge the necessity of it, there is always that lack of motivation. As I try hard to stay accountable here (and trust me, it really helps), I’m trying to also find back the push to make me want to find that perfect balance of workout that doesn’t put into a boring routine same thing every week but still enough to keep me challenged and motivated.

Weights & Cardio

Done with 5lbs dumbbells

Weights

After a series of days postponing workouts, I had to get in a few days in a row to feel less guilty. With that said, I’ve been trying to strengthen my arms a little so I went back to do another short arms weights workout. I chose the Tone It Up Sculpt Your Arms Workout.

Here’s the link of the Love (and Sculpt) Your Arms Workout!

So I did 15 reps with 5 lbs weight for 3 rounds.

September 7 to 9: DreamHack Event Coverage

This past weekend was DreamHack Montreal. As with event coverage, time runs a little thin on hardcore workout but cardio and excessive amounts of walking and stair climbing was definitely put in the mix here. I realized that I forgot to set my health app after I switched phones so I don’t have an actual amount of distance or step count.

For accountability purpose:

Friday: attended for 4 hours and sat about 20 minutes for eat and watch an esports match
Saturday: attended for 7 hours and sat about an hour or so for events and game trials
Sunday: attended for 2 hours and didn’t sit much at all. It was a quick in and out to grab remaining coverage

Overall…

I can’t say the last two weeks was a riveting success but getting one workout in a week is already a step forward to getting back into a routine slowly. That’s generally the idea. I realize that when I go too intense, the schedule gets warped and I just end up feeling bad that I let something slip whether it be a blog post or editing a video or keeping up with chores so I’ve actually been feeling great about the baby steps back into a solid workout schedule. Maybe in two weeks, I’ll be back and doing two workouts a week. I think thats a solid goal to set. 🙂

Workout Round-up: Week 9 &10

workout roundup

I’m going to be reasonable now and say that from now on, I might be changing this to biweekly. Weekly commitments are a little intense. Even biweekly sometimes gets a little crazy, mostly because as much as I want intense workout schedules, its actually proving to be more stressful than it being a healthy change in my life. So I’m doing mostly workouts on day offs from work. During the week, I tend to do a lot more walking and well, with Fantasia season, its a lot of standing also.

I think right now, I have some great routine set with Zumba and pool workouts. Honestly, I know it sounds crazy but these two things combined actually do quite well plus they put me in a fairly happy place even when I’m dying of fatigue to push a little more.

Week 9

Monday

We opened our pool finally so I’m super happy to get back on a back to back day following off last week’s Sunday pool workout with a little of the same. I did do an extra round here from the day before.

To be fair, I didn’t write it here as workouts but Friday, Saturday and Sunday was Montreal Comiccon. I spent 5 hours on Friday, 6 hours on Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday pretty much walking and standing around a lot covering the event with the exception of four 45 minute conferences. Its one of the main reasons why I kind of took it easy during the week to kind of rest up for the intense weekend.

Week 10

Saturday – Zumba & Freestyle Pool Exercises

Pool exercises: Knee Tucks, Shuffle, Breaststroke, In-pool jogging

As I thought back to the past week of recuperation and trying to get a workout in, I doubled down on the Saturday workout with a longer Zumba routine than usual and put in a few more routines that I had to learn so it was harder as it switch things up. After that sweaty cardio session, because we’ve just been stuck back into a heat wave, I went into the pool to cool down but also get some freestyle pool exercises inspired from the pool workout above. I love doing a few rounds of 30 reps for knee tucks and then doing shuffles in between. I did a lot of jogging around the pool and also worked in some swimming with practicing the worst form I have which is breaststroke so I had to focus a lot on the form and getting that slow and steady but effective.

Sunday – Zumba & Pool Workout

Pool Workout (2 rounds)

Another hot day over here in Montreal! I took the time to do a normal set of Zumba workout, this time with a few more familiar routines. I did research a pool workout and this time decided to focus on abs and core. It was a 2 rounds cycle. Because my pool is different from the one here, the crunches were a little harder so I fell for a few more reps and longer times for the other workouts while adding in some knee tucks at 30 reps. I still did some cardio with jogging and again, some more swimming.

Overall, a lot of the same but I was pleased with just getting that bit in.
I did have some walking around here and there to get from one spot to the next for the events, just didn’t bother to write them in.
You should expect that Zumba and Pool workouts (hopefully find more workout options) to be the summer focus.
If the weather cools down a little bit more, I will go back to getting in some jogging time, probably in August.

With that said, biweekly recaps is the new structure so I’ll see you with an update in 2 weeks! 🙂

Weekly Workout Recap-Week 5: The (almost) Week Off

workout roundup

It happens to everyone, that week off that is simply inevitable.

Week 5 was all about no workout. It had many reasons. Last week’s hike was the reason for Monday not happening as I always need a rest day to not strain my knees more. Then Tuesday, my lady problems started so cramps hit me all the way into Wednesday. Yoga would have been an option bu then Thursday came the reality of the house having absolutely no groceries left so I was already making a choice between eating one better meal and one not so good one which doesn’t work so great in the big picture so I had to do that. Then, Friday was a pre-scheduled fun day to check out the Grand Prix festivities in town and came home to my husband catching an odd bug so it was scampering to go get him meds and make sure he was okay with everything. The weekend hit and it was all about E3 and chiro and other errands that I don’t have to take care of during the week to the various reasons above.

There are no excuses to not working out. Trust me when I say that things sometimes just don’t happen. I did however, get in a lot of extra walking time to kind of make up for the lack of workout. I took walks during lunch and then took walks to run errands downtown before going home. Grand Prix Friday also had a lot of walking around which was great. There are some wins in these situations and to make the best of what I have to do and what just can’t be done.

I debated to not put up the post but I want to stay accountable and honest about this workout journey because I am serious about getting back on track. Plus, I’ve been getting a lot of motivation to do the 5K run in Montreal in September which I have been thinking about lately.

With that said, today was when I put my foot down and decided to make some time between everything and waiting for the E3 Xbox press conference to start to make up my own cardio stuff by putting together by doing some Zumba from Youtube. Here are the vids below!

Here’s the Sunday workout, everyone! Give it a go if you want! Its like exercising and partying all at the same time!
The exact boost I needed!

For now, Xbox E3 has now started so back to Game Warp duty! Have a fantastic Sunday!

Hiking: Parc Regional du Mont-Ham – Button & Panoramique Trails

The second hike of 2018 takes us back to the Eastern Townships of Quebec to the Parc Regional du Mont-Ham.

We actually found this one the way back from the last hike in a little pamphlet. There is a nice variety in the trails and the loop you choose to make. If you want to do the direct path, the L’Intrepide trail is 1.7km (intermediate to difficult level) and takes you on a climb to the summit. Of course, being the hikers that we are, we decided to do one of the longer loops starting out in the Button Trail to reach the summit and consequently hitting about 3 lookout points before, then going back on the Panoramique Trail. It took us about 4 hours to complete the 6.9 km route we went for. These two trails are also intermediate to difficult levels so much to our surprise, it was very challenging with the steep slopes and constant quick changes in elevation. A lot of times, hiking for us is both exercise but to see the natural beauty around us at the peak and this one takes you to the absolute peak of Mont-Ham so nothing is obstructing the view (except other hikers). There’s a cross at the top and its quite the climb where they give you ropes to go up. Like I said, its a pretty awesome spot. We actually like to do secluded spots so this location was a little too popular for our preference but we still thought the feeling was fantastic.

Here’s a few snapshots of the trail!

And for a more 360 degrees view, here’s my Instagram video for it. Of course, if you want the updates more, just follow me there. I don’t post a ton but a lot of this hiking views and food stuff.

This wraps up this hiking adventure!
A memorable and breathtaking one as well as a very crazy uphill trek!
We climbed up rocks and hopped down rocks and it almost felt like an obstacle course at some parts.

Weekly Workout Recap – Week 4: When Everyday Life Takes Priority

Four weeks in and its already starting to feel like things are going downhill quick a la slippery slope style.

With that said, I had anticipated that it may be a lull this week. Its not really an excuse but I had another cavity filling session that I had mentioned previously in my Weekly Adventures and the whole numbing my jaw thing really knocks out my motivation and makes me feel all loopy.

Still, lets just see how it went down.

Monday

Rest & Recording
For those of you who know, I co-host two podcasts and one of them had our biggest episode yet with the sheer material to cover today. Nothing like a 2 hour recording session to push back the entire evening schedule. It was a fun show and if its already released, I’ll have the link right under here.

Tuesday

Another rest day (unfortunately) due to cavity filling after work and then hours for the anesthesia to wear off.

Wednesday

Booty (2 rounds of 20 reps)
Single Leg Deadlift (each side)
Weighted Sumo Squat
Single Leg Squat + Kick (each side)
Side Plank Lateral Lifts (each side)
Inner Thigh Openers

Thursday

So many rest days this week.

Friday

Legs (1 rounds of 20 reps)
Stationary Lunge (each side)
Squat Up Downs
Side Lunge (each side)
Side Plank Inner Thigh Lifts (each side)
Tuck Jumps

Saturday

A beautiful weekend brought in a little landscaping in the garden. It took both time and a lot of strength to get it all done so skipped on the actual working out for garden labor. Gardening update tomorrow and you’ll see it all!

Sunday

Hiking is official back tentatively every other week meaning this Sunday was a hiking day. We headed out to Parc Regional Mont-Ham and the post is coming up soon once I sort through the pictures and put them together.

Hike was 6.9 kms in total and took us 4 hours to go up and down. This is a pretty intensive hike as there is a lot of rock climbing and steep uphills. However, you will see in the post that is coming up in a day or two that it actually takes you to the summit with a cross planted there and its a true 360 degree view. Worth all the energy and hard work! 🙂

Thats it for this week!
I’m starting to stray from the Tone It Up Bikini Series a little.
However, life does take priority sometimes especially for my own well-being (even if its not physical exercise).
Next week is less crazy hopefully so I should be able to get back to running as long as it doesn’t rain everyday.

Music Obsessions: Zumba Overload!

 The holidays are over now and I’m heading right back into the busy times at work.  At the same time, all that food binging and vacation meant that only means that I need to get back to the healthy lifestyle.  I have to admit that I did let loose a little at the end of the year after all the getting married was gone and I didn’t have to worry about not fitting into my dresses and looking pretty for the pictures.  But, this year, I need to get back to working out regularly and hopefully, I get back not only cardio but the weight training back as well.  What better way to get me motivated to get off my behind and start working out than Zumba music, more specifically my fave songs that I’ve been acquainted with because of Zumba class.

Here are some of my faves that I love working out/dancing to in class! Hope you like it and it adds some energy to your day, just as it always puts a smile on mine 🙂

This kind of reflects how a normal Zumba session would go but the Zumba instructor usually swaps a bunch of songs around and adds and removes things every week.

La Gozadera – Gente de Zona ft Marc Anthony

Bambalam – General Degree

Caliente – Jay Santos

Adios – Ricky Martin

6AM – J Balvin & Farruko

El Perdon – Enrique Inglesias & Nicky Jam

Lento – Daniel Santacruz

I think the best thing about Zumba other than making me feel energetic and happy all the time, its about discovering that I really like Ricky Martin now.  I was never a fan of his when I was younger in his Livin’ the Vida Loca days but if I had the choice, I could fill up this list with 2 more of his songs but I wanted to keep some variety. 😉 Also, I’m not much of a Pitbull fan but although not here, one of the most fun for routines is the routine to Fireball.  On a side note, we just learned this Salsa Zumba routine and I can’t find the song but when I do, maybe I’ll put it in the next Music Obsessions 😉

Now, I just need to make sure that I follow through with the weight training portion and when winter ends in a few months, I’ll be back to running also. I’m pretty pumped up about getting back to working out and staying healthy for 2016.

Happy Sunday, my lovelies! 🙂

What Fuels You?

It seems a little weird to be posting about workouts and the like since I’ve really dropped off the map in that direction, even though I am still working hard to train towards running that 10K next year. I have been pretty quiet in talking and updating about it.

ETB Fit reached out to me and inspired this post regarding nutritional lifestyles and how we fuel ourselves before, during and after a workout. That sounds rather fun to do.  Its a good way to help me look at what I do now.

So, what does fuel me?

What I eat pre-workout?

Before working out, or in general, while I’m in the training phase, I try to be more aware of what I eat.  For one, I’m horrible at hydration so I work hard to make sure that I have lots of liquids from water to tea.  When I  used to do Dragonboat, I would sometimes bring diluted energy drink to keep the energy flowing.  Usually, if I know that I’m going to run or Zumba class (which is more like my current workout focus), I choose better snacks during the work day. Something like fruit energy bars or nuts (natural non-flavored almonds) and the best is when I can bring fruits, simply like clementines, bananas or apples. I also make sure to have protein like chicken or peanut butter sandwich(when I’m in a hurry). My pre-workout foods vary quite a bit.

Although I don’t take any pre-workout supplements, perhaps you do and you could always hop over to ETB Fit and check out their line here*.

What music do I listen to during workout?

If I’m at Zumba class, they have their own latin music so that’s not something I need to think about.  I normally run without music.  Partially because I don’t have a holder and my hand is already busy holding my phone that has the running app tracking my route, distance and time. However, when I do weights, I pop on some electronic music to rev things up a little. Plus, its very rhythmic so the beat helps me stay constant when I do reps and not rush through my moves.

For the kicks, here is my Youtube playlist for workouts that I go to.  I haven’t updated it in a while but you get the idea 😉

How do you switch up routines daily/weekly to stay motivated?

What are you talking about? I’m always motivated!  Just joking! 😉

Actually, I usually try to follow challenges or pre-set routines.  When I do runs, I’ll use the Nike Running App to set the coach to make sure I stay on track. I like it a lot because it sets an 8 week program that helps you prepare for a certain mileage that you want to aim for. If I do workout/strength training (more so in winter), I follow Nike Training Club workouts one or two months out of the winter.  It helps vary the workouts a little more while keeping a steady routine whether its toning, slimming down or building strength.  These are in 4 week programs so its very effective.  However, when I do make my own workouts, I tend to like to flip the days I’m working out around and also try to rotate around doing yoga, circuit training and full body training.  I also do change around and do more focussed training whether its abs, legs or arms.  One thing I do need to work on more is definitely adding in is do back strengthening to balance things out a little.

This reminds me that I need to be heading back to do some 30 day challenges 😉 Setting continuous goals and challenging myself is how I stay motivated.

What do I eat or do after the workout to make sure I get the most out of my workout?

For one, I rest, rehydrate and make sure to stretch lots for the next day or two, depending when I have the next workout.  I always believe (so I try to do it the best I can) that eating good and clean and healthy is the way to go.  After strength training, I usually grab some protein shake depending on what time it is.  Although I don’t drink it as much as I should, I do it because it does help my body recover.  If not, I go for fruits and veggies.  In general, just trying to stay eat as clean and healthy as possible 🙂

What fuels you? Do you take protein powder or other supplements before, during, or after workouts? What eating habits do you have to help promote healthy living? 

**Please note that this is my sharing of what fuels me.  ETB Fit inspired this post however I am not being compensated.  As I’m not very knowledgeable in these forms of supplements, I did ask my fiancé to take a look at it.  Paraphrasing what he said: A good line of products that covers all basics from vitamins to protein powders and pre-workouts, etc.  What stood out [for him] was the natural whey protein which has a decent amount of protein per serving and sweetened with stevia along with it being from grass-fed cows (hormone-free).  These are just our opinions. **

My Weekly Adventures: Another Month Went by so Fast!!

I’ve been a tad on radio silence about my own life after the whole getting sick ordeal.  I already don’t have great health so when I get sick, it takes time to get better.  And then, work gets busy and I hurt my toe so things have been interesting. Suffice to say, I had to change up my routine that I had worked on in the last month to build but that’s okay.  Although not a whole lot went on, there was still a few memorable moments to share.

Of course, there were some frustrations.  For one, I mentioned this on Twitter about Netflix changing their whole setup structure.  I’m feeling a little conned because I now cannot see what movies will expire. At least they fixed whatever stopped me from seeing my entire list on Netflix. I’m still a little angry at it but they’ve been updating some stuff I like so its made me feel a little less bothered by the whole thing. Not that I’m not displeased. Then I had a Paypal issue that probably was from a phishing email pretending to be from Netflix and that caused some scam on my Paypal account.  Thankfully, it will be reversed.  Finally, its the whole roof business that my mom’s place has. I’m just not understanding how that company had defected shingles so its ruined before the warranty period and there’s a whole settlement thing but to get it, I need to climb on my roof and walk all over it and take pictures.  There was one part that said to count the shingles that were done.  Excuse me…I’m not counting every shingle on my roof.  Plus, after I send it in, they will still send someone to check it.  Then just send the dude in the first place, no? I just don’t understand…

Done with my rant, moving onto the actual Weekly Adventures from the past month! I’m giving you mostly highlights so buckle up and have some fun!! 🙂

1) Running/Training

Being sick and hurting my foot meant that I was off running for 2 weeks.  My idea is to not further the injury so that I couldn’t even walk.  I think that’s pretty fair 😉 I did do upper body workouts to keep in line with training a little so I didn’t just sit around.  And had to put some foam roller and yoga after the first week of recovering when I could. Sitting around all day just meant a lot of hip pain so it helped.

Fortunately 2 weeks ago, I got back into running again with a little 4 mile run which felt tons of good, especially after being on the road to Toronto and then eating a lot so that night I headed to the treadmill at the hotel.  It felt pretty great. Then this past week, I went out with one of my girl friends and her husband for a jog/bike thing and did a nice 10km run. My time isn’t great and it was baking hot even at 8:30-9am in the morning. But point is, its the first time I ran my whole run instead of taking brisk walking breaks.

2) Garden update

Some win and losses this month.  We had a little issue with the cucumber plant but I soon realized it was because of the heat and not watering it enough.  I’ve gone back to the wine bottle watering system to keep it moist while I’m away at work so that when I get home, I get take care of it. Same goes for the raspberry plant. Strawberry plant is extremely abundant BUT the little bunny has a really nice eating schedule and just nibble them away whenever they get anything close to ripe. And its just cute as a button that I don’t really get that mad anymore…

Second round of romaine lettuce is coming out.  The iceberg ones aren’t quite growing again.  I think we need to figure out the way to harvest it properly.  Two out of six regrew a second round while 5 out of 6 is growing again for romaine.

My pink and white flowers are growing but thats really just a guideline when they did the seeds because there’s yellow and purple flowers also.  I don’t really mind.  They are super nice.

Aside from that, I spent Quebec’s birthday gardening like a crazy lady and the weekend before last pulling weeds and trimming ferns and fixing up the garden beds and they are ALL DONE! Sure, its just maintenance now but its a whole lot nicer than before.

How are your gardens doing?

3) Toronto/Gatineau Weekend Getaway

On the last weekend of June, the fiance and I went off for our weekend getaway to Toronto.  It wasn’t exactly super planned and we just did a lot of practical shopping like we needed to get him new glasses.  I had already gotten mine last month and I don’t even think I had posted a picture of it. I mean, we went to Canadian Tire to get car parts.  Like I said, practical.  We did make a little trip to Vaughan Mills to do a little shopping.

Minions

Make your own Minions at the Build a Bear Workshop in Vaughan Mills

Other than stocking up on Teavana and getting some yellow tea, which I have yet to try, the best buy was going to Disney outlet and finding the last Miss Bunny plush toy to add to my collection and on sale!! You should’ve seen me! I was this short girl frantically waving my fiance over to grab it from the shelf because I couldn’t reach it. It was pretty funny…and probably embarrassing, but I didn’t really care 😉

Casino Lac-Leamy

Casino Lac-Leamy

Aside from that, we took a little ending thing to redeem our voucher that was going to expire at the Casino Lac-Leamy in Gatineau for one of the restaurants called Banco Bistro. I’m going to do a recap on the 3 restaurants we tried on this trip.  Probably in one post.  Since I still have a ton of Seattle and Alaska ones to do.

4) Starting Zumba classes

One of the reasons my running has somewhat slowed down is also that, I started Zumba classes with my girl friend (that I did the run with).  We got a sweet Groupon deal for $30 for 10 classes within a month.  Its pretty close to home and so far, after these two weeks, we’ve tried out 3 instructors and we’re having a lot of fun.

Zumba is really feel-good, full of cardio and dynamic body weights of some sort.  Its energetic and can get pretty intense.  My only issue is that my body doesn’t function that way in like the whole shaking your chest and moving my hips…questions marks float around my head.  Haha! Still, I’m slowly picking up these routines and its a ton of fun! We’re definitely thinking of continuing to do this.

Have you done Zumba?

5) Our first hike this year: Mont St-Hilaire

The weekend before last, we took an afternoon and went to do our first hike. We were supposed to go off to Quebec City area to visit a garden but other priorities took over in the morning and we ended up heading out in the afternoon to Mont St-Hilaire and catching a nice hike up one of the trails.

Mont St-Hilaire

Mont St-Hilaire

The view was awesome and while there was a good bit of people going, it was pretty spaced out so there was never a lot of traffic and we got to enjoy the peace and quiet in the nature.

Mont St-Hilaire

Chipmunks and toads were our main companions 😉

6) Festival season in Montreal!

Francofolies and Jazz Festival both came and left the city.  We just stepped into Just For Laughs Festival and the last weekend was the Percussions Festival.

Percussions Festival

Percussions Festival

We met up with some friends and checked out both of these events.  The main highlight for us in Just For Laughs Festival was the food trucks.

I’ve only tried one before so we were down to try some delicious food and we definitely did.  There wasn’t a lot of food trucks, at least not much I could eat from because of food allergies but the ones I tried were great.

Any festivals hitting where you are?

7) Fantasia Festival 2015 begins TODAY!

Fantasia Festival 2015

Following right along that topic up there, Fantasia International Film Festival starts today! I’m not heading over for any movies today but the advanced screening of Ant-man is probably the highlight to kick off the festival. I didn’t even want to bother with getting tickets since last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy ran out in a second.

I posted up my list on Saturday after getting the tickets.  If you missed it, check out the run down HERE! I’m still on the fence about two movies which show at the same time (Synchronicity and Momentum) so I might just take a day off in general for that one. I’m pretty pleased with the line up.  Head over there and tell me what you think. There’s a ton of horror and I’m sure all of you have better insight than I do for that genre 🙂 I do have to head over to pick up my tickets today so I’ll see how everything is.

As for posts, I hope to get reviews up within 2 days after I see it.  It might change since some are late showings and I’d get home late especially on week nights when I need to prepare for work the next morning.  If you aren’t here for movies, I’ll try to keep a good bit of variety going on here.  I’ve gotten back in cooking and baking so hopefully more recipes and all those backlogged posts need to go up.

Anyone else going to Fantasia?

8) Upcoming….

  • Seattle Day 2
  • Fantasia Film reviews
  • Toronto/Gatineau food
  • Baking and Foods (recipes)

And to wrap it all up, a song that I’m totally obsessed with.  Its just so happy!! 🙂

Have an awesome Tuesday! 🙂