Tag Archives: Update

What’s Up & Adventures – April 2023

Posted in My Weekly Adventures, What's Up by

Its time for this month’s What’s Up & Adventures! Yet again, not a whole lot of adventures per se as its all pretty normal life stuff and I’m even talking normal as per the pre-pandemic life like actually going to a restaurant to hang out with friends without masks the entire time. Its a big step for me since I’ve been pretty much keeping things fairly protective especially with a baby at home. Our biggest adventure as a family which I’m not going to write an entire section about: our first power outage. I mean a legit one where it took 8 hours to get back the electricity and we all had to bundle up at home to stay warm.

ADVENTURES

Baby Update

Triple V has gone through some big developments this month. Over the course of the month, he’s been still practicing how to work and after a lot of guidance and motivation, he has started to crawl recently. He’s also able to eat his own finger foods and starting to get curious about how the spoon works whenever we use it for the puree. The baby gates have finally been unboxed. As of very recent like this morning, he’s also starting to learn to go down the stairs on his own with his butt. The crib has finally been dropped to the lowest level since he’s been able to stand up on his own in there and being a tall baby also stands pretty tall over the edge. We’re at the 10 1/2 months now and its been lots of first times and memories. Its also great that we had our first playdate after a few stroll dates with my best friend and her baby.

Brunch With Friends

After trying to get together repeatedly since last fall until now, the gettogether with my friends finally happened. My husband relieved me of the baby duties for a few hours so that I could go out for a brunch. It was a lot of fun to go out although after 10 months of being 24/7 with my baby, it did feel a little weird to be out. With that said, the restaurant’s service was rather poor although I think that it had to do mostly with lack of staff which is an issue with most restaurants nowadays. However, the chat was my friends were great as we caught up with everything between brunch and some window shopping and bubble tea at Real Fruit where I got a Jasmine Green Tea Light Sugar with grass jelly and mango jelly. Its the first time I’ve had Real Fruit Bubble Tea. Their Jasmine Green Tea is pretty good and I’m glad that I got light sugar since the mango jelly was surprisingly sweet so it balanced out the drink.

Building Blocks Puzzles

While I probably should be writing and reading more, I find that building blocks really help clear the mind with the sheer concentration it takes to dig through these tiny pieces and put this together. With that said, they are looking gorgeous on top of my bookshelf so I decided to grab the set of the zodiac and take my time to put them together.

WHAT’S UP

Books

  • My Illustrated Classics Collection

Currently reading: The BFG

I’m still spending most of my time reading books to my little man. While I’m sure he doesn’t quite understand any of it and just likes it as a means of soothing him to sleep, I’m starting to go through some books that I’ve bought for when he gets older and using this time to read through them and see when is suitable for him. We just started the Roald Dahl boxset (bought from Costco) and going through them all. I’ve read a few of them when I was a kid but its good to revisit as well as check out the ones I haven’t read before. Book reviews should be popping back soon.

Movies

  • The Witch Part 2: The Other One (2022 Review)
  • Monster Hunter (2020 rewatch, Review)
  • A Short Story (2022 short)
  • Saint Maud (2019)
  • Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018)
  • The Menu (2022)
  • Ride On (龙马精神, 2023 Review)
  • Saludos Amigos (1942)
  • Fresh (2022)
  • Anita: Director’s Cut (2022)
  • Disenchanted (2022)

Due to upcoming Movies and Tea season preparation, I ended up getting a month of Disney Plus so a lot of films this time are from there as I try to make the most of the month (with not a whole of success) but still managing to catch some decent titles. As I work through the titles I haven’t seen from animated films and watched Saludos Amigos which was pretty average with one or two more charming shorts, I also caught mostly Searchlight films catching some newer films like The Menu and Fresh. I’m working on those reviews so they should be posted in a few days. Disney Plus also acquired Anita but the Director’s Cut version, a film that I’ve been meaning to watch so I settled for this version and still trying to figure out where to find the theatrical version and see where the differences are. Much like the end of my MUBI subscription made me finally be able to catch Long Day’s Journey Into Night which I’ve heard great things when I was chatting up with other reviewers back when I was doing press during film festivals.

TV

  • Veronica Mars (Season 2 rewatch, Review)
  • A Love So Beautiful (rewatch, Review)
  • Come Sing With Me我想和你唱 (Season 4)
  • Veronica Mars (Season 3 rewatch, Review)

Currently watching: Light The Wild, Who’s The Murderer S8

As you can see, everything got affected. I decided to rewatch A Love So Beautiful before it left Netflix, a series that still holds up and is a lot of fun. Of course, you can still catch the Korean version of it which I have yet to watch. I’m mostly focusing on rewatching Veronica Mars with my husband who is watching it for the first time. We caught up to everything for the original series so that we can experience the first watch of the “Season 4”. I’m basically trying to catch up and finish all the stuff I’ve started so first up is Chinese variety show, Who’s The Murderer Season 8.

Games

Currently playing: Coffee Talk Episode 2

I had tons of intentions of what to play this past month but a few things occupied my evenings so only recently I’ve been able to start playing Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly. While its not for everyone, I loved Coffee Talk (review) since it was such a fun little experience set in an alternate Seattle and the only thing to do was just making coffee for the clients who dropped by for a chat and share their stories. The second Coffee Talk happens after the first one and I just started so just met two new characters. So far, its still really fun and I’m looking forward to mixing and discovering some new drink mixes.

That’s it for this month’s Adventures/Updates and What’s Up!
What have you been up to?

Adventures & What’s Up – January 2023

Posted in My Weekly Adventures, What's Up by

Hello everyone! The first adventures & What’s Up of 2023 is here as I wrap up a bunch of small things. Not a whole lot going on in terms of adventures since its winter and our little baby isn’t vaccinated so yet again, mostly updates on a few things.

If you missed my Upcoming Plans for 2023, you can check that out HERE.

ADVENTURES

Baby Update

7 months old now! We had our “supposed to be 6 month but because of previous postponed” 7 months checkup. Triple V remains high on the baby curve as a bigger baby and everything is developmentally on track. He has a little bit of cradle cap or dandruff or something along those lines but not a big concern so far. Triple V is also eating an assortment of purees now which is really fun to see his reaction to the different flavors. He even had his first snow picture and since January was rather snowy, we’ve had a few uses for his snowsuit. He’s definitely getting stronger day by day and its so nice to see him grow a little more and learn more things. One of the big recent successes after the doctor’s follow-up appointment and her pointer which he took the change like a champ is that he is officially able to sleep through the nights and has a decent sleeping and wake-up schedule. He even got his first teeth. Last development goal that he reached is recently responding to his own name.

Letterboxd Year in Review

Letterboxd Year in Review always is a bit late and its pretty self-explanatory so here’s a quick look at that.

Avenue of Daydreams – 365 Challenge

I’m working on reviving the Avenue of Daydreams this year with a 365 Photo Challenge. I’ve been sharing it on a weekly basis on Instagram as well. Here are the weeks in January. I fall behind every once in a while but its been really fun to try to get a little more creative and push myself to explore the pro feature on the camera on my phone.

Hydroponic System

After a good bit of research and a final failed attempt at planting basil in our no sunlight house (or at least rarely sunlight comes in), we decided to get a hydroponic system. We got the Yoocaa 12 Pods Hydroponics Growing System and decided to give the first whirl to a herb garden. As we speak now, the mustard has germinated first and its only been about 4 days or so since we set it up. Fingers crossed it’ll work out. I’ll probably keep you all up to date with that here (and also acts as a notes for myself since I have horrible memory now).

February Romance Month

Normally, February is our Romance month. I have to admit that I’ve been pretty bad at keeping up with the marathons but I will try to get some reviews up for this one. No guarantees on how many movies but I do have a decent list compiled even if I’m pretty sure I won’t get through all of it and review them all before Valentine’s comes around. Maybe I will just do it for a month-long event and get some romance instead of the overabundance of crime, suspense and horror that I keep watching.

WHAT’S UP

Books

  • Mr. Nosey
  • Mr. Topsy-Turvy
  • Mr. Bump
  • The Queen Who Stole The Sky
  • Mr. Messy
  • The Berenstain Bears’ Moving Day
  • Love You Forever

Another month of children’s books despite really wanting to start an actual book. Good thing is that as I’m writing up this post, my Kindle is on charge plus after watching a TV series for a book I read last year, it changed my mind and I bought the remaining two books of that trilogy which I plan to start after a book review commitment. Its actually really fun re-reading books from my childhood that I’m passing on to my little guy now. He might not understand any of it but he’s starting to look at me when I read especially when I make weird sound effects for some of the things within my limited ability.

Movies

  • Roadgames (1981)
  • Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical (2022 Review)
  • Perfect Blue (1997 Review)
  • Jimmy O. Yang: Good Deal (2020)
  • Freaky (2020)
  • Kairo (2001 rewatch, Review)
  • To All The Boys I’ve Love Before (2018 rewatch, Review)
  • Project Wolf Hunting (2022, Review)
  • Fall (2022)
  • A Cinderella Story (2004 rewatch)
  • Russell Peters: Deported (2020)
  • Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
  • The Wandering Earth 2 (2023, Review)
  • Ponyo (2008 rewatch)

Its been a pretty fun month in terms of movie watching with quite a bit of variety. To be fair, I didn’t watch a lot of movies since I was absolutely obsessed with Matilda the Musical so had it in the background constantly. I did catch up on a lot of films that I’ve been meaning to watch for a while like Perfect Blue and rewatched Kairo with the husband and taking advantage of the wonderful MUBI deal I got. I did get a couple of screeners, one was a lot better than the other. I did manage to catch Everything Everywhere All At Once after multiple recommendations especially co-host listing it as his top first time watch of last year, much like Roadgames which also made it on his Top 10. If you haven’t listened to that episode on Movies and Tea, you can check it out HERE.

Basically, January is always a bit like this every year where I want to sort out what to review in the backlog while working out the upcoming year so working through a lot more TV or rewatches instead of starting something new.

TV

  • Pressure Cooker (Season 1, 2023)
  • Wonderland Junior (Season 1, 2022)
  • Line Walker 2: The Prelude (2017)
  • The Circle (Season 5)
  • Bake Squad ( Season 2)
  • The Summer I Turned Pretty (Season 1, 2022)
  • Line Walker 3: Bull Fight (2020)

Currently binging: Night on the Greater Bay S2, Physical:100, Drunken to Love You, Lockwood & Co., The Last Of Us

I’ve been catching a lot of reality shows on Netflix. The beginning of the year has been pretty packed with a lot of these shows from Pressure Cooker to Bake Squad and the latest season of The Circle. I also signed up for the Amazon Prime trial so caught up with The Summer I Turned Pretty which I had reviewed the book (Review) last year and as mentioned in the “Books” section above, I ended up buying the sequels and it kind of changed my mind a little on the story. Its rare that the adaptation is what changes my mind but somehow it did in this case especially since it was renewed for Season 2. The big triumph and focus was to finish the second and third season of Line Walker and boy, it was a crazy ride. Line Walker 2 and 3 aren’t nearly as great as the first one but it still has some great moments and such a solid central cast.

Games

  • Doors: Origins
  • Doors: Paradox

Currently playing: The Gunk, Alt-Frequencies

I believe I mentioned last month that I picked up the Google Play Pass for peanuts so I’ve been focusing on that mostly. I ended up finishing the Doors: Origins and Doors: Paradox which is so creative. Its a mobile game but I had a ton of fun figuring out the puzzles and such. I’ve moved on to Alt-Frequencies on my phone which is one that I’m definitely going to talk more about when I’m done as the game mechanics, premise and concept are all very creative and a very unique gaming mechanic and experience. Aside from that, I’m still waiting to get back to finish The Gunk but January has been a wild month so didn’t have time to get back to Game Pass just yet.

That’s it for this month’s adventures and What’s Up!
What have you been up to?

Upcoming Plans 2023!!

Posted in Everyday Randomness, My Weekly Adventures by

Happy New Year everyone!

2023 is here. Honestly 2022 went by way too fast even if its probably the year that I slept the least, got my first hospital operation ( since wisdom teeth extraction is also considered an operation), birthed a little baby boy Triple V and my life milestones are celebrating his developmental milestones. In the midst of that, I managed to cover a couple of film festivals and took a few review opportunities as well.

For a general overview of 2022, you can find it HERE!

As we look forward to 2023, we’re looking at mostly the same but perhaps a little more goal-oriented (or an attempt to be). Maybe it will help with my indecisiveness when there’s just too many choices!

Let’s get right to it!

BOOKS

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2023: 15 books

Setting a rather ambitious goal of 15 books this year but above is all the books I do want to get through this year. I still have a ton of unread books that I physically own but I’m going to start with that. It will also have some children’s books in the mix since I’m reading a lot to the little one. Not that he understands anything as I write this up but hoping to get him used to the sounds and such to hopefully help his development.

Also, I’ve been thinking about reading all the Hercule Poirot books by Agatha Christie so I’m planning on trying to get that kicked off. I’m going to read them in order of release.

MOVIES

Not too many changes to movies this year. Much like previous years you can expect Double Features and single reviews on new releases, mostly those that I am more enthused about. My main source of entertainment remains Netflix and Shudder and sometimes Amazon Prime so I’m working mostly off those avenues. Not too sure whether I will getting on for the bigger festival coverages but I’m going to guess it will be a year or two more before I get back into it (if I’m still doing this by then). Marathons should remain the same with February Romance, October Horror and December Holidays. These suffered quite a bit this year but I’m hoping to shorten the length but get some decent reviews out. Still working on getting some themed months but hopefully this year will be it.

Also, seeing as my co-host for Ultimate Decades Blogathon announced last year his hiatus or possible permanent departure from blogging, this will not be happening.

My main focus has shifted a lot on Movies and Tea Podcast. Its a great time to record and Elwood and I have a lot of fun as we move through more directors and have some pretty good ideas for upcoming seasons.

TV & Tranquil Dreams Podcast

If you were here last year (and amazingly have stayed after my hiatus and slow content), I already talked about this. Only difference is that I actually put a lot of set up work on this in the past 2 months so its almost ready to get going. I just need some small polish to get things ready to relaunch.

For those who weren’t here, TV binge will focus on everything other than Chinese Language Series. I’ve already started doing that in 2022 and even changed a little bit how I approached the TV binges in general. All the Chinese Language Series will be moved to the podcast when it launches. I’m actually working on some series from the past few years that I haven’t had a chance to write about but I really love. Chinese Language Series means anything from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China. Maybe the random Singapore ones if it catches my eye. The main focus will be on the bigger North American streaming platforms like what is acquired by Netflix but will also look at notable ones from Chinese International streaming apps.

Last year I did also talk about the Sunday Lists being moved to the podcast also. Its still in my plans but I’m going to get it relaunched first before going further with this. I love the segment a ton so I do hope that I get around to working it back into the blog one way or another.

Monthly Segments

Monthly Segments remain the same with Music Obsessions happening the first weekend of the month and Adventures & What’s Up as a month-end wrap-up.

Retiring Photography Segment, Housekeeping and Where It Goes

I mentioned on the Adventures post for December 2022 that I had retired all the photography posts on the blog. With that said, I do still want to get back to photography. I’m mostly using my phone lately but still, it should be fun. I’ve always wanted to do the 365 challenge so I’m going to attempt to do it this year over on Avenue of Daydreams which was constructed for all things creative so photography is moving over there and honestly just continuing since I did weekly photo posts before I took a hiatus.

PERSONAL GOALS

WORK OUT REGULARLY: I’ve given myself a good deal of time to recover from the operation and while taking care and amusing my 6 month old is a lot of exercise, I do want to start doing some actual working out. I’m looking at getting in some yoga, bodyweights and light weights just to see how it goes. It will be a slow progression but I’m rather heavy right now and I’m starting to worry that its not doing any favors for my knees. Plus, we plan to get back to hiking in the summer carrying the little one on our backs so I do want to start training a bit more endurance in preparation for it.

STREAMING: Last year I set this goal and did not do it at all. Its still on my mind to get this launched. I have a lot of games to play on back catalogue and why not try to build something in the process. This will probably happen after I get into a rhythm after the podcast launch.

FINAL NOTE

Last year I talked about slowing down and to be honest, its pretty clear that I’m not picking up blogging any time soon. My baby is taking a lot of my time during the day and in the evenings, between making sure the house isn’t a complete mess and trying to move up my sleeping schedule, its been really hard to focus on writing a lot. I basically write posts for the things that inspire me the most at the moment. Anything that lands in the average doesn’t get prioritized. You can always follow me on Letterboxd to see what I’ve watched and the ratings, if you like. I only use it for my diary to track the movies I’ve watched throughout the year.

To be fair, I’m shifting more towards my co-host projects so while I’ve mentioned Movies and Tea Podcast. I am going to also put more effort into Game Warp to try to get more reviews out and gaming done. It will go hand in hand with the streaming plans.

2023 has some ambitious plans but I’m hoping to get through it!
Wishing you all a fantastic 2023!

Update & Announcement: Welcoming a Baby!

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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!

My October Adventures!

Posted in My Weekly Adventures by

Welcome to October Adventures! I’m going to say this right now…October was an adventure in some ways but nothing that I can really talk about here yet. Its some real life stuff that I’m working through right now which did cause some hiccups in the original blogging plans and well, the many festivals that happened to pop up with their last minute accreditation approvals so it was a little wild in general. Call this an update on the original commitments as a lot of stuff didn’t go as planned, but here we go!

Halloween/Horror Marathon – Extended

First things first, the main focus of October was the Halloween Marathon. Suffice to say, I stopped about halfway through the month and then switched gears into other commitments. Some did match the theme more than others but overall, I will talk about some little things happening potentially next month. Right now, I’m still working through it. However, because Halloween Marathon aka Horror Marathon is a big part of my year and I don’t want to cheat my way out of it as I haven’t even completed the main feature franchise film reviews, I’m going to be extending it for another 2 weeks or so to make up for the second half of the month. I still have some other reviews to wrap up which I will talk about in other sections of this update but it will be potentially going on simultaneously as I get rid of all the backlog in terms of movie reviews and festival coverage.

50th edition – Festival du Nouveau Cinema Overview

The first festival coverage to give me accreditation the day that it started was FNC 2021. Now, I’ve covered Festival du Nouveau Cinema a few years already and they have some great movies most of the time. Very arthouse and different from my normal wheelhouse including some Oscar nominated films even, however, the last minute thing threw me for a loop. Its not exactly anyone’s fault but my own since I lost track of what festivals I had applied for so didn’t realize that everything was clashing together. With that said, I truly did want to get more done for this festival however, due to work and life reasons, this festival was the one that suffered the most. It also occurred to me that this festival might truly be above my capabilities anymore as a lot of films while intriguing, its a sea of so many unknowns that in the process of decision-making, its a fear of choosing something that I didn’t like that worried me the most, causing less films being chosen as well.

However, I am still sitting on a few films that I haven’t reviewed yet. You can check out the films I have reviewed to this point. I did pick some pretty fun ones.

Compartment No.6
Bound
The Noise of Engines
Wood and Water
Days

I still have a short films compilation as well as two reviews coming up soon.

Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2021

Toronto After Dark ran for a swift 5 days event. This is the first year that I got the full media accreditation and not only short films (which is what I got in 2019). In all my festival coverage time, I do feel that TADFF has the best press support team. I had issues with the virtual platform and they helped me out immediately that evening. Plus, the press coordinator was pretty cool and did check on likes and dislikes from the festival which I hadn’t got in other festivals before. A really lovely experience overall. The technical issues did set my coverage plans a little behind but I did end up catching everything that I intended on watching. With this being horror film focus during October, it did have priority during those few days and there were some fantastic discoveries.

You can check out the reviews below:

Canadian Shorts After Dark
Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It
Post Mortem
Nightshooters
Ditched
The Free Fall

Blood in the Snow Film Festival

The final film festival to come in is Blood in the Snow Film Festival! Now, this one is a little unique as it has its virtual platform at as a three day event at the end of October. Suffice to say, no reviews have been posted considering the delay on my reviews over this weekend however, they will be coming up soon. There are a few films that I’ve reviewed previously so there’s only a few movies for this part.

However, this festival does have its on location festival (of course, I’m covering remotely as I’m not in Toronto) during November 18 to 23 which I will have reviews up for that line-up probably around mid-November. It might be the final wrap-up for the extended Halloween marathon as it seems to fit. If you are in Toronto, you can see if you want to go check it out. The line-up is on the website: bloodinthesnow.ca

Tranquil Dreams Podcast – Hiatus

As a final update, due to just everything going on, I’ve decided to put the Tranquil Dreams podcast on hiatus for now. I have other projects going on and coverage and its just too much at the moment. Plus, I’m not too happy with the What’s Up structure that I’ve been doing. I want to really focus on creating some shows that highlight my initial idea of why I wanted to start the podcast in the first place. Its going on hiatus so that I can get it back on the drawing board. Get some ideas and structure set and bring it back with content that I think will be more fun to record and more interesting in general.

ON THE SIDE NOTE: If you are looking for podcasts, I’m still co-hosting Movies and Tea and Game Warp with Elwood so you can still find them on most platforms where you can listen to podcasts. Movies and Tea is in its female directors season so you can check out which directors and their respective films made it on our list for this season.

A Little Life Update
(one of the reasons for the slowdown this month)

So…the last two updates I’ve talked about not feeling too good overall and its been truly taking a toll on me. As much as I want to keep the blog running as it did, I’m slowing down to focus on myself a little bit. Most of it is restructuring my lifestyle a little and getting back to some form of routine. Its working for the most part as you can see that I’ve been posting a little more frequently lately. However, I have decided to change my sleeping routine (aka sleep earlier) and get back to some healthy lifestyle with more workouts and healthier eating. This stuff all takes more prep time and dedication so more time there means less time for the blog. I am finding my routine over this month so its been going rather on track. That’s all I’m going to say for now but that is one of the main reasons.

I’m hoping that November will have some more normalcy in posting. The goal is to get a post up every other day. I’m definitely not lacking in content to write, but I just need to find time to do it.

That’s it for this October “Adventures”!
Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!
I sure hope everyone’s month has been much more exciting and healthier and feel good!

My August 2021 Adventures!

Posted in My Weekly Adventures by

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

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

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!

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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

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!

My June Adventures!

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Half of 2021 has gone by! I honestly can’t believe it! I don’t really know what happened other than a lot of work…like my real job. Nothing else seemed too eventful. But then, its inevitable when a good few months of 2021 was still under pandemic restrictions and as we end June, we are now moved to the green zone which means a minimum set of restrictions or as everyone likes to call it deconfinement. Deconfinement for us just means being able to go hiking more and being more active as the warm weather hit. I mean, downright heat wave right now but overall, we did have some mild weather before this week.

Either way, let’s see what happened in June!

Workout

June 5th Walk 4.70km 49mins
June 6th Walk 4.88km 50mins
June 12th Walk 3.43km 37mins
June 13th Hike 6.38km 1hr29mins
June 19th Walk 4.06km 44mins
June 20th Walk 1.61 km 20 mins
June 24th Walk 4.87km 58 mins
June 26th Hike 3.04km 52mins
June 27th Walk 1.38km 16mins

Tallying up the deliberate walking and hiking (excluding all my work errands and to and from bus terminals and workplace), I had a notch higher than May, which is already pretty good. I’m overall going for longer walks whenever I can and mostly in the morning on the weekends to just relax. Its definitely been pretty good although I’m thinking of planning out a longer route than what I’ve been doing the past month. I think that all the walking did prepare me for the 2 hikes that we did throughout the month. I do plan to get back to running and biking at some point this summer..hopefully soon!

Hiking: Mont Hereford

As Quebec and Montreal starts deconfining, the restrictions lifted on crossing regions and then we got our first dose of vaccinations so finally managed to go to hiking again. The first hike of the year was a relatively light one but it still was considered an intermediate trail. It had a decent amount of viewpoints (7 maybe) although some of them were a little obstructed by the wilderness. We did have a hilarious encounter with some bird that looked like a smaller turkey that came bursting through the brush in fury. It was definitely a memory.

New Glasses

Picked up my new glasses this month as well! I’m a little too self-conscious lately to do selfies so this will do. My normal frames are bigger than my last ones so it took a little time to get used to. However, I’m liking them quite a bit and going to use the sunglasses for hiking as it has anti-slip on the nose part which I’m hoping will be helpful during hiking.

Hiking: Mount Scotch Cap

The second hike was to probably one of the furthest points in terms of day trips in the Eastern Townships near Mont- Megantic (which we have gone before). Yet, it was a little further from there in Piopolis. This one is an easy one which was pretty good as it wasn’t hot but the humidity was making the air very heavy. The hike is a constant upward climb. Its definitely a popular one in the area also as we went across a good few groups of people. The views are pretty good though.

Sunday Outing: Uniqlo, Yinji Rice Noodle Rolls & Chef Lee

I went out for a Sunday morning downtown run to pick up some clothes from Uniqlo and then go some lunch takeout at some new restaurants. Uniqlo in Montreal opened during the pandemic so I never bothered to go until now. The control is done well though as someone monitors that you disinfect hands, checks our temperature and keeps up with the counter so that the capacity is respected. I don’t have a whole lot to share about what I bought there as it was more undergarments, discount hoodie and some lounge shorts and a sports bra. Their new line of sports bra are awesome so check it out if you ever are looking, I’m actually thinking of going back to get 2 more.

The original plan was to get takeout from Yin Ji Chang Fen which are all about the rice noodle rolls, basically Chinese breakfast/lunch food. On the way, we saw across the street had Chef Lee, which is also relatively new and they sell pan-fried pork buns (which I love). We got an order of that as well. Both of these restaurants are pretty good. At Yin Ji, it was mostly for the dough stick rice noodle rolls which were pretty good and probably would have been best eating on location but still, it still tasted good after the trip home. I would want to check out other stuff from of them. I also got the veggie rice noodle rolls which was good that it was pretty plain overall as its supposed to be eaten with soy sauce so that balances it out.

For Chef Lee, it was a taste testing buy if anything which was pretty good. I think the pricing is a little expensive for the amount you get but the flavors are there so I probably will still go back to get some more at one point or another.

Cute Kitty Pic

That’s it for this June Adventures!
What have you been up to?

My April 2021 Adventures!

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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?

My March Adventures!

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Welcome to the next Adventures! On a real life level, March is usually a temporary break month where there’s less deadlines but a lot of catch-up happens left over from the previous 2 months of craziness. Much like the trend of the past year, this month was much busier than expected. I’m going to say right now that not much happened so this should be a fairly short post.

The pandemic in Montreal seemingly seems to be better as a lot of stuff is opening up but yet, while the daily case increase was on a downward trend in the beginning month, its starting to go up again so I’m still not sure about this rather aggressive reopening plan. I feel like the impatience sometimes is what makes this even harder to overcome.

Plus, its my 35th birthday today! Let’s go!

Bathing Our Cat

Probably one of the most adventurous things for the month was giving my cat a bath. She’s been having some skin problems and we’ve been going through different home methods to try to figure out what’s the problem. We ended up giving her a bath with some cat shampoo to moisturize dry skin which definitely helped. We say its adventurous but actually it turned out to be a rather calm experience since she actually didn’t mind it too much except for the rinsing part when she didn’t really like more water on her. Overall, it ended up being much more pleasant than how we anticipated it would turn out. My cat is an odd one to say the least. She doesn’t like accidental water drops but apparently, wetting her completely is fine.

Streaming!!

I believe that I had mentioned in the beginning of 2021 that one of my plans is to start streaming! After a lot of thinking and trying to find time, I finally did one stream to kick things off. Currently, as this post goes up, I’m streaming Sea of Solitude. You can check out my Twitch channel here.

Plus, some good news on two other streamers. The first being my husband, who got Twitch Affiliate recently. You can check out his channel if you are interested HERE.

As for my friend and streamer who I do horror streams with, he also got Twitch Affiliate recently. It used to be on Mondays that we streamed together but its going to be moved to Friday for horror streams soon. You can check it out HERE.

Birthday Month

Its been a birthday month in our family, not just the husband and I but for the family. Its the second year for us March babies that we’ve been living through the pandemic. Still, we’ve found our ways to make things happen. My husband reached a birthday milestone (at least the family did feel that way). We didn’t really do much but he did get a few gifts this year that he wanted. As for myself, I got a plant delivered to me, which was quite cool. The plant above is apparently is rather pricey (according to my husband) called Monstera (aka Swiss Cheese Plant). I joked that its more suitable for my husband considering I’m lactose intolerant and can’t have cheese. This plant is temporarily set there for now as I look for a plant stand so that it can stay out of the reach of my cat as its toxic for dogs and cats. I do say that its a cool- looking plant overall. Any tips for Monstera if any of you have this plant?

Tranquil Dreams Podcast

Aside from that, Tranquil Dreams Podcast is moving along in a rather changed format as I try to catch up with the weeks that I missed. While its on some funky release schedule as I can’t seem to find time to record and edit on time however I am slowly feeling like I’m getting back in the groove. However, each time that I say that my work suddenly goes nuts and then I don’t have time again so picture me, knocking on wood right after I write that so that I don’t jinx myself. 😉

You can check out the latest podcast episode HERE.

That’s it for this March adventures!
No cute kitty as already have a fluffy cute cat pic above 😉

What have you been up to?