My August 2021 Adventures!

August is about to wrap up! I can’t believe how fast 2021 has been going by. I can’t say its overall very exciting for the most part but August itself was pretty fun, much like last year’s as its Fantasia Festival month. Well, it’s three weeks but it feels like a month for press coverage. I’ll talk more about that later on in this post! August was also a mega heat wave month which means a shift in workouts. With that said, a few thing did also fall behind and I’ll give a general update at the end as I slowly catch up with everything that I set aside this past month.

Staying Active Update

August 1 4.49km 52mins
August 7 1.47km 19mins
August 8 4.68km 51mins & Pool Workout
August 10 Pool Workout
August 11 Pool Workout
August 13 Pool Workout
August 14 Pool Workout & 4.03km 44mins
August 15 1.60 km 20 mins
August 21 Pool Workout
August 22 Pool Workout
….there’s probably more after this but I can’t remember…

In comparison, staying active probably was a little less focused on the cardio and then by the end of August, it just completely fell apart as Fantasia became a big rush to get things done quicker before it ended. With that said, I still think I did pretty well and kept up with what I generally wanted to do by increasing a little more pool workouts to make up for it. The hot weather was a big factor.

September is cooling down a little now so I am hoping to get back to taking longer walks and maybe get back to some running, maybe even get back to some cycling and weights. Hopefully when I do the update next time, things will be back on track in terms of staying active..maybe even get a few hikes in.

Fantasia Film Festival Recap

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Fantasia Festival this year was wild. Probably one of the best selections since I started covering the festival as there were so many films on my list but obviously a lot of it wasn’t available so I worked with what I had access. Even that was a little crazy as I might have beat my own record in Fantasia movie watching with 24 features and 16 short films (includes a short film program). Usually, I pick my top 5 or 10 from the festival but this year, its really hard to do since there was really only 2 films that I felt more lukewarm towards, even those that I ranked a little more average was more on flaws I saw but were still pretty enjoyable and they also had their unique angle.

For now, here’s a Top 10:

1. Hand Rolled Cigarettes
2. Hello! Tapir
3. Martyrs Lane
4. Seobok
5. Midnight
6. Glasshouse
7. Dreams On Fire
8. #Blue_Whale
9. All The Moons
10. Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes

With that said, I am thinking of getting a Fantasia Festival recap on podcast within the next few days. More than thinking, I’m actually already working on it so should be out by the end of this week.

Restaurant: Ogane

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While I’m still completely out of my shell with the whole deconfinement, a new Korean restaurant opened so after having some fried chicken takeout prior before, we decided to grab some dine-in dinner considering when we got there, there was no one…yet. Ogane is pretty good actually. I don’t eat Korean food a ton but for the seafood pancake and the Jap-chae, the flavors are really good. Plus, the seafood pancake as a lot of seafood in it. That’s always a plus. I’m usually not a big fan of Jap-chae but this one is very delicious. I’ve actually been thinking about these two for a little while and probably will order it again soon. As for the fried chicken, its decent as well. I’m impartial to fried chicken in general. This one also still feels a little more dry than other ones but its still alright.

Tranquil Dreams Podcast Update

So…Tranquil Dreams Podcast had a little bit of a hiatus and now, I’m not exactly how to go back to cover all of the 6 past weeks of the What’s Up. Don’t get me wrong that I would definitely fall behind with the podcast during coverage month but I just never realized how unprepared I was for this. The hurdles of the beginning of podcasting, right? However, I’m always up for a challenge so I might do a quick recap of the past few weeks separated in 2 to 3 podcasts stockpiled to release. The first will definitely be the one mentioned above with Fantasia Festival coverage being its own show as its still quite a bit to go through. I’m going to get that done sooner rather than later.

At least that’s the plan now! Hopefully things will get back on track! Since I am thinking about adding more content to the podcast gradually and getting the original plans for the podcast started. I’m just always caught on how to structure the podcasts and probably overthinking it.

Movies and Tea Podcast

As for a much more productive podcast update, during the past month, Movies and Tea Podcast has kicked off its Season 6 for Kickass Female Directors. Its really just the first of many of these seasons to come so you can also head over on the blog to share other female directors you think deserve a mention. Check out our episodes on most podcast platforms and see all our archives on the blog HERE.

That’s it for this Adventures!
August was pretty busy but nothing too exciting happened.
September will be bunch of catch up and for those who aren’t here for movies, other posts will go up.
Plus, its prep time for October’s horror marathon this month! 🙂

My July Adventures!

In the blink of an eye we’re past the halfway point of 2021! It’s wild how quickly this year has been flying by. I can’t say that there’s been exactly any particular adventures as it seems for myself to be a month that didn’t technically go so well on one side but still there’s some pretty fun stuff to share. Let’s just jump right in!

Staying Active Update

July 1st Walk 4.63km 50mins
July 1st Evening Walk 1.43km 18mins
July 3rd Walk 4.39km 48mins
July 10th Walk 1.42km 18mins
July 11th Walk 1.41km 18 mins
July 17th Pool Workout
July 18th Walk 1.45km 18mins
July 25th Pool Workout
July 31st Walk 4.75km 51mins

Not a whole lot to report back on staying active. I got plagued with pains and all sorts of fatigue during the month so as much as I tried to keep up with walking and staying active, I fell apart a little as the walks went a little shorter. I still tried to stay active but more doing pool workouts, which to be fair was one of my goals in last month’s staying active update for this month. Can’t say its a complete fail, right?

Gardening Update

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The abundant rain season in July has really done favors for the garden. Sure, we had a few really hot days but the good amount of rain meant everything’s growing pretty nice and harvests are coming in. Its been a few years since zucchini harvest has been any good but this year is looking nice. The new raised garden is doing great as well for the eggplants and we’ve harvested a few as well as the little cherry tomatoes which we have a rather sweet variety. Even the cucumbers are starting to do okay. We got one but there’s some more that are almost close to harvest as this post goes up.

The other big project was getting the front yard looking good as I’ve truly neglected it a lot. My mom had given me some plants from her garden and hoping to find the spot for it after I tidied up the front, we got to work and planted in the new plants (both front and back but didn’t take a closer picture of it) but also added in the mulch and bought a new hydrangea plant to create some symmetry in the front yard. The picture above only shows one portion of the front yard. The garden is doing really well. The next part is to get rid of the pesky vines at the back and added some more mulch to my bee garden and finally figuring out a bee bath probably. In time, it should be done.

2nd Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine

I got my 2nd dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the tail end of July. While the first dose basically had no side effects other than arm pain, the second dose was pretty intense. Headache for 3 days and muscle pain for 2 days really hit after the first 24 hours passed. I affected productivity and life in general so I resorted to calming teas whenever I wasn’t at work and sleeping earlier since I try to stay away from painkillers in general.

Fantasia International Film Festival 2021

Like previous years, around this time is coverage for Fantasia Film Festival. This year is no different. You can expect reviews for Fantasia going up as soon as today. This year is the 25th edition and the film rundown is looking fantastic. I have a pretty ambitious schedule so fingers crossed that I can get the coverage done. I believe the virtual platform is geo-locked to Canada but if you are in Canada, you should give its extensive film schedule a look.

Cute Kitty Pic

That’s it for the July adventures!
Not a whole lot of adventuring in general but things are getting done!

Workout Roundup: Game Plan (slightly) in Motion

Its time for the next workout roundup everyone.

I said that I’d have a gameplan to get back into the working out habit. We’ll just have to see how it goes. To be honest, I’m actually approaching this segment a little different this time so I have no idea what happens after this point as the working out hasn’t happened yet. You’ll be as surprised as me when we get to how much (or how little) that I’ve worked.

Week 1

Wednesday: Zumba

Sunday: Weight Training

Getting in a late evening workout does feel good. While I was about to do another Zumba session, I remembered my game plan and went with doing some weights/body weights while pairing up two fairly short workouts together but compliment each other well as it works the back muscles and the abs. These are my problematic areas so its my weakest and the most strenuous which is also why I don’t want to jump right back with something really tough.

Week 2

Saturday: Light Calisthenics

Crunches 20 reps x3
Squats 20 reps x3
Jumping Jacks 50 reps x3

 A light workout since I was having a hard time so to make sure that I could at least do a little something, I went with some quick calisthenics to just feel good about staying active.

Sunday: Heavy Chores

Its not exactly a workout session however, I helped out with putting up a car shelter for my mom and then did a bunch of garden work to get rid of the containers full of heavy wet soil to finish up the winter prep work to close the garden. Its not exactly a workout but they were both very active. It included a lot of walking and lifting and moving about that I actually had some muscle pain afterwards so I decided to pass up on any further workout.

That’s it for these two weeks of workout!
Not perfect but some things just didn’t work out in week 2 so I worked with what I could!

Workout Roundup: Taking a Step Back…

It seems a few of these segments are starting to fall behind. However, its completely my fault that I forgot to track anything in the second week. A lot was going on so its somewhat fallen back but I did write a little paragraph to just get an idea. To be honest, I haven’t really been in the mood to work out and that comes down to a lot of reasons but the main thing is just not having the motivation. However, I will get back on track.

Week 1
Monday/Tuesday/Thursday: Walking during Festivals

Monday: 5.75km

Tuesday: 4.5km

Thursday: 5.5km

I’ve talked about this in a previous post but Festival du Nouveau Cinema is probably the most active festival that I’ve attended. Theatres strewn across the downtown Montreal area. Luckily, only one of my films needed to go to the furthest one away from the general batch which averages about 15 to 20 minutes of weaving through streets to get there by foot. While I mostly had one film days, Thursday was the most hectic as it included a lot of speedwalking and light jogging to get to the second screening on time.

Week 2

I have nothing to say about this week honestly. I did do some walking around. Work had a few errands that took me here and there a lot. I went out for lunch walks quite a few times as well. However, with lack of motivation looming over my head, I thought about working out but vouched to catch up on things (unsuccessfully) and ended up watching a lot of TV and just relaxing. Luckily, our eating habits were kept up much thanks to my husband. To be fair, I had some appointments that I usually set on weekends that ended up being after work so that also cut down on time. Anyways, it sounds like excuses so I’ll stop.

I guess that best way to end this recap is some nice and cool motivational stuff and well, a “gameplan” for the next two weeks. This post is obviously late since it usually gets posted on Sunday but I’m determined to get a workout in today so I’ll be back on track soon. Winter is around the corner which just means more time indoors giving me no reason to make any excuses.

Gameplan for the next two weeks (and for maybe a month or two):

• 3 workout days (if not, at least two this week since work this current week is going to be tough)
• Zumba (or some other form of cardio) at least once a week
• Weight Training (at least once a week)
• Add in some ab workouts (since I’ve been neglecting it quite a bit)
• Add one session of yoga

I used to do circuit training workouts so I might actually dig out some of those old workouts to do them as well. Things to anticipate, right?

via Pinterest – Gymshark.com

That’s it for this workout recap.
Not much to recap but at least its keeping me accountable and the next recap will be better. I promise!

Workout Round-up: Working Back up to Par

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

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

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. 🙂