My September Adventures: Halloween Horror Marathon & Festival du Nouveau Cinema Coming Up!!

September is now behind us. Its hard to imagine three-quarters of the year has gone by. However, it is the case. With July being hectic and then August being more of a laidback and recharging phase, September comes back with a little back to normal balance. Getting things back on track, events big and small and such were all in the plans.

Let’s check it out!

Dreamhack Montreal 2019

Dreamhack Montreal happened over the weekend of September 6 to 8 at the Olympic Stadium. It had some changes but this venue is still very suitable for this event overall. It was a bustling weekend with a lot of last minute changes that swapped my schedule around quite a bit. However, all the media coverage is over at Game Warp Blog. Everything is live now as we covered Day 1 and 2 as well as the Indie Game Zone. You can find all the posts below:

Day 1 Recap
Day 2 Recap
Indie Game Zone

IT: Chapter Two & Lambcast

We’ve really kept the theatre experience to a minimum this year except for special commitments that lead me to go. This time, it was for Lambcast recording of IT: Chapter Two that gave us the kick in our behinds to go check it out. We really did enjoy the first one so had it in our plans to see the second one anyways (just probably not on opening weekend initially). I’m not sure when we’ll be heading to the theatres again this year but it might happen again, who knows? I’m not quite on top of the theatre new releases as I should be.

You can check out the Lambcast show HERE.
You can find my written review HERE.

Moon Festival

Moon Festival happened on September 13th. Wonderful that it clashed with Friday the 13th because I have to say that it was a pretty okay day compared to the rest of the week prior to that. It was also full of sickness and a lot of cough-filled nights. Either way, I ignored my cold (which won’t go away and seems to keep morphing) and ate some moon cake as well as stood by the window and stared at the full moon for a little while, reminding myself that life is beautiful because I’m breathing and looking at those nice little moments of nature and nightscapes and such.

Friend’s Bachelorette Party – Dinner Out

One of my girl friend’s bachelorette party happened the Saturday on the second last weekend. She had it in two parts: the first was dinner and the second was an after party. Due to some other commitment (see below), I only went for the dinner party which was at Ichigo Ichie (which is the restaurant part of ramen place I like, Yokato Yokabai).

You can check out the restaurant recap HERE.

Festival du Nouveau Cinema Starting Soon

Much to my surprise, today’s announcements also include a press approval for Festival du Nouveau Cinema! Last year, I only got the 10 vouchers to go see 10 movies which had some pretty great films, with one or two that left a little to desire but didn’t fail on being artsy or creative. It will be exciting to see how many we can catch this year as well as what the movie lineup will be as that only goes live tomorrow (Oct.1). Keep an eye out for reviews during the festival from Oct.9 to 20th!

If you also are going, do tell me what movies have caught your eye so far?

Friend’s Wedding Day + Flowers Help Out

The last weekend of September was all kinds of crazy and lots of fun. Saturday was a day of hunting down flowers at various Costco. Between myself and another friend, we hit 5 Costcos in the morning. We met up in the early after to start making the “boutonnieres” for the groom and groomsmen and men of the families and then went along and made the bride and bridesmaids bouquet as well as a throwaway one. For myself, it was a learning experience since I had never done these before so it was all to help out.

 Sunday was her big day! We started out the morning to help with the door games (if you don’t know what that is, its part of Chinese weddings to pick up the bride, the groom and his groomsmen and other guys go to trials before he can pick her up). Then, we helped out with the set-up and mostly with the flowers to put together the vases. Yet again, I’m not too experienced with this so just helped out with my other friend. The picture on top is the centerpiece at our table with the flower arrangement. It was a ton of fun! I have a few more artsy pics going on Avenue of Daydreams at some point. It was a really fun night but we couldn’t stay as late as Sunday means work on Monday (aka today).

Announcement: Halloween Horror Marathon

As usual, September adventures wraps up with the official announcement of the Halloween Horror Marathon tomorrow (October 1st)! We’ll be doing double features as per the usual set up nowadays. At the same time, I’ll be trying to put in some horror TV series TV binge posts as well as horror book reviews as well. That’s the plan! While some movies have already been watched at this point (and probably/hopefully written up), I would love to hear what movies you suggest or movies you always watch for Halloween marathon and maybe I’ll see if I can add those in or push it up as higher priority on my list (if its there). All update of Halloween marathon posts will be updated on the page HERE.

On a side note, due to the festival approval, marathon might be slower in the middle of the month! I am working to get more posts done in advance but I do have other priorities as well as podcast recordings so I will do the best that I can before October 9th comes around and hopefully you will enjoy it!

Cute Kitty Pic

That’s it for the September Adventures!
Looking back, its been kind of crazy! I thinned out some less important bits.
Mostly two announcements and some recaps!
October is looking less varied but probably much busier, as always when there’s coverage to do!

My Weekly Adventures: Fun Times & Long Weekends + Upcoming July Plans

Half of 2019 is officially done! Can you believe how fast time has flown by? How is your year shaping up to so far? Our last two weeks was properly busy with work, home, seasonal things, catching up with the blog and life stuff in general just all coming at us in all directions. Something had to give and unfortunately, there were some gaps in the blog that was just inevitable. I’ve moved past the having to post daily to fulfill a quota and refuse to put something that I’m not happy with in terms of formatting and content so there were a day or two here and there with nothing but I think overall, it held up quite well when I went back to look at it just now.

Weather is looking up now and July is always my busy month so I’ll talk a bit about it to keep everyone updated as there are some changes in July. All that is at the end. For now, let’s start from  what happened over the last 2 weeks!

Pointe Claire run & New Discoveries

As usual, my friend went out for a run in the Pointe Claire races at the Pointe Claire village. Its been a tough season so despite a shorter race, I went along to make sure everything went alright. Sadly, the shop that I like at Pointe Claire village was gone but I did end up visiting a little store called Epicerie Prette which had a lot of different beers and more importantly, a good selection of kombucha. Definitely something to go check out again if I’m ever in the area.

My Best Friend’s Wedding

I did a little bit of hauls and talks about preparing for my best friend’s wedding as one of her bridesmaids. It was a great time there. A lot of our college friends were there as well and she had arranged a lot of fun stuff and hired a very fun host plus an award-winning magician. The ceremony was memorable and the weather was perfect especially for all of the bridal party to go out for pictures at the park and then the meal was very good and before we knew it, she got the speeches going and gone so I could enjoy my meal and get drinks without worrying about too much. It was a beautiful evening. I have some photo booth pictures but not sharing those here.

Hiking: Parc National de Frontenac

It was the long weekend for us as Monday the 24th was our provincial holiday St-Jean and had a day off. We headed out for a hike and decided to go to Parc National de Frontenac, which we had looked at before but it wasn’t opened completely yet before but was all good now. We ended up deciding on the Le Massif de Winslow trail. The recap for this one is coming up very soon!

Gardening Update

The garden is doing pretty good. We’ve managed to harvest some lettuce and cherry tomatoes so far. The cabbage has now settled and is growing really well (at least the ones in the pots are) especially since maybe the marigolds are really helping in the companion gardening concept. Peppers, zucchinis, strawberries and raspberries are all starting to bear harvest but not completely ready just not. The cucumbers are doing well and the bee garden is also growing quite well now also. The flower bed in the front is starting to have a nice cycle of flowers blooming giving the front yard some bursts of color here and there.

July Events

July starts tomorrow and I have a few days to get everything in order before things start up. If you have been following since last year, things are pretty much the same hectic craziness this year as I’ve gotten confirmation on all my press passes that I applied for. The first event to roll around is Montreal Comiccon on July 5th to 7th with coverage going up for both Game Warp as well as Panel recaps, Cosplay and Artist Alley highlights over here.

Starting the week after on Thursday is Fantasia Film Festival. I usually try to get about one post a day up for that one. Its a 21 day festival so its going to be a game of endurance. The schedule was just released a few days ago so I’m still working out the schedule.

All reviews will go up on both here and That Moment In. Fantasia runs all the way through to August 1st. However, no worries if movie reviews aren’t quite your thing because I should have some other posts going up (at least I’ll try).

Cute Kitty Pic  Shameless Selfie Time

That’s it for this Weekly Adventures!
How did June go for you? Lots of summer plans?
Any festivals happening around your area?

My “Weekly” Adventures: Fantasia and More Events

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

Let’s just jump right in!

Fantasia Festival

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

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

View this post on Instagram

@fantasiafestival is in town! Just saw #Nightshifter a #Brazilian #horror #film and heres a shot of the #FantasiaFest showrunner with the #director Dennison Ramalho . Review coming up very soon!

A post shared by Kim (@tranquildreams) on Jul 17, 2018 at 6:54pm PDT

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Tonight's first #FantasiaFest #film is #SouthKorean #thriller #TheVanished hosted by the #director Lee Chang-hee and #directorofphotography Lee Jong-youl . #movies #montreal #events #filmfest

A post shared by Kim (@tranquildreams) on Jul 18, 2018 at 6:28pm PDT

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Just saw #Canadian #horror #thriller #movie #Knuckleball at #FantasiaFest directed by #MikePeterson starring #LucaVillacis #MunroChambers #MichaelIronside . #montreal #mtl #filmfest #514 #film #indiefilm @ravenbannerentertainment

A post shared by Kim (@tranquildreams) on Jul 21, 2018 at 6:53pm PDT

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Just saw @pledgemovie at @fantasiafestival . 14 cast and crew showed up for this #worldpremiere #screening of this #intense #horror #thriller #film. #zacherybyrd #aarondallavilla #zackweiner #jeanlouisdroulers #ericaboozer #danielrobbins #joegallagher #mtl #mtlevents #filmfest

A post shared by Kim (@tranquildreams) on Jul 24, 2018 at 6:44pm PDT

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One of the #closingfilm of @fantasiafestival is #BigBrother. Director Ka-Wai Kam hosted thie #worldpremiere film that delivers a positive message with the #outofthebox role for @donnieyenofficial as a #teacher #youcandoit #fantasiafest #HongKongFilm #HongKong #movie #film #drama #action #education

A post shared by Kim (@tranquildreams) on Aug 1, 2018 at 6:22pm PDT

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

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

Wedding in Toronto

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

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

Brossard Festin Culturel

Mon Ami Restaurant – Korean Food

Street Monkeys – Cambodia Food

Mucho Burrito – Mexican Food

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

 

Matinee Movie Date

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

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

Tranquil Dreams on Facebook

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

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

My Weekly Adventures #44

June is here!

The last two weeks of May probably was two of the most hectic but I can already see the next two being pretty eventful as well. I’m working on some housekeeping stuff for both Game Warp and Tranquil Dreams mostly. Work has taken a slight toll on me and I’ve been taking more time to relax, watch some videos and gaming streams. You should check out Splat Panda if you haven’t. These guys are awesome fun to watch especially as they now are playing games that I personally wouldn’t attempt but like watching others play (aka currently is Dark Souls 2 and The Surge). I’ve also been watching a few other people stream Friday the 13th: The Game. I’ve learned that I’m not suitable to play those games as they stress me out too much which probably will change with more practice so maybe I’ll eventually pick up one of these multiplayer games, perhaps when Friday the 13th releases their single player campaign which I think is in the works.

Either way, back to my last two weeks and what has been going on!

Day Off: Time with Family and Friends

I had mentioned that Victoria Day weekend had passed and I took a day off on the Friday so that I could spend some time with my mom and my aunt visiting from Australia. We decided to go out for lunch and I invited Phoebe and her little bunbun. It was a challenging day to say the least as bunbun was a little irritated by her teething issue. However, we still enjoyed our meal quite a bit. We proceeded to have a much longer than expected walk back to the bus station to catch our ride back to my place and do some gardening preparation. We ended the evening with a lovely dinner and also tried to show bunbun My Neighbor Totoro, at least part of it.

High School Friend’s Wedding

One of my high school friends got married on that same weekend. They had it at a pretty convenient location and the reception was done really well. There were a few familiar faces which was cool. The food was alright. I’m pretty snobby about Chinese food in Montreal because its pretty subpar however, we’re there to celebrate a happy event and that is what matters. I also luckily won the raffle right as I was stuffing my face with fried rice. It was super elegant. 😉

The raffle gift was a little egg-shaped toothpick holder which is pretty awesome. We’re going to put it to good use. And of course, my husband making faces as I attempt a selfie. It was cool and went much better than we anticipated. We didn’t stay too late either since Sunday was going to be a hectic day also.

Kick-off Marathon for my Friend & Other Sunday Events Already Blogged About

Some of you know that I’m the backup driver and water support for my friend who has been training for half marathons. Its pretty cool because it forces me to wake up earlier and sit around reading or writing outside in some park while I wait for him to get back. Marathon environments are a lot of fun. I am planning on training for a 5 or 10km however my foot decided to join into my other issues and I haven’t been able to train yet. It is getting much better now so I should be 100% very soon (hopefully). My friend usually just jumps into the Ottawa Half Marathon but this year, he decided to do a warm-up and did a 10 km at the SSQ Longueuil marathon. He did pretty alright time-wise and it was a nice day and the site is pretty nice also.

He drove me over to meet up with Phoebe and her family as we were going to prepare for Battle of Ingredients and go to the greenhouse. You can see my gardening haul HERE and the Battle of Ingredients HERE. We had another couple join us for dinner as they always do. The evening ended with a dramatic event and some happy ones like co-op play in Broforce.

Since we’re talking about the long weekend, I might as well add in the Monday where we took it easy and headed out on date night to see Alien:Covenant. My review is right HERE.

Ottawa Marathon Weekend

As the last four years have been, I’ve gone away to Ottawa for the marathon. My friend now runs both 5K on Saturday and Half on Sunday morning. I pretty much hang about and have water when he’s done and make sure he gets to point a to b safely. Aside from that, I take it as a weekend away to relax: shop a little, eat a little and walk around to take in the city a little.

My companion PSP

My furry companion

New discovery: Butterfly Jasmine at David’s Tea

Canada 150 celebration at Byward Market

My new Animator’s Series haul

Candy haul at Squish

I dusted off my PSP for the trip and was playing through LocoRoco and just like every 30 year old should, I brought my Thumper with me. David’s Tea ran out of Dragonwell which is my tea of choice for the morning but I ended up trying out Butterfly Jasmine which was pretty smooth as well. During Saturday, there was some shopping like the Disney Story and Squish  for candy as shown above. I also picked up some hiking pants for my husband at Eddie Bauer which were 40% off, got some stuff at La Senza (40% off bras are a rarity) and my friend got me a Fuel Belt to motivate me to go out and train in the summer as a belated birthday gift. We also had a breakfast at a King Eddy’s Burger or something and I’ll be doing a separate short post for that soon since this post is getting a little crazy.

This weekend ended with the drive back so that I could make it in time to do recording for the 50th episode of MBDS hosted by Elwood, my Game Warp co-host and MBDS is his own movie podcast on obscure cinema.

New Shoes

I finally found some comfy flats suitable for work! Its taken me at least two years. I’ve been trying to extend the life of my last pair of flats and then ended up giving up and swapping between sneakers and running shoes but the fact is when the weather is really hot, it gets very suffocating to wear it and most importantly, its not very professional for the office. My office is semi-casual so these actually work really well and comfy also. I had originally ordered the whites but somehow I got these and I think that everything worked out for the better.

And that’s it! I think that was packed enough!
If you didn’t think so, I sure did because all I want to do is sleep all the time! 🙂

What have you been up to?

Vancouver & Kelowna: Family Time at a Wedding!

Day 2 of vacation was all about getting ready for heading out to my cousin’s wedding. We are settled into Kelowna and I had some jetlag issues and woke up at 4am. Somehow it doesn’t bother me too much because weddings are always fun. Most of us just can’t get over Kelowna’s beauty and peaceful little town.

We ended up having a little habit with my husband who always woke up earlier than everyone to head out by ourselves for a little. This first morning in Kelowna was when we wanted to head out to get some refreshments for the day and little snacks and ended up getting a message from my cousin that lives in Kelowna to head out to breakfast with her and her family. You all know how much we love breakfasts so we just couldn’t refuse, especially when we were on our way to hunt for food also.

Breakfast was at Curious Café. Here’s the menu. A restaurant post will be up later this week.

By the time we got back, it was a little bit of preparation and dolling up for the wedding. For me, that just meant putting on nail polish. Regardless, that was done. The first event was the tea ceremony and it was mostly for the relatives involved in this. My cousin and I just showed up to take some pictures. For the purpose of respecting my family’s privacy, there will only be pictures of my husband and I and some of the set-up and food.

Tea Ceremony

Wedding Ceremony on the Rooftop Terrace (mostly the view)

Reception Hall & Meal

The wedding ceremony and reception and everything was at Hotel El Dorado in Kelowna. It had spectacular views. One of the things I loved about this venue was the meal service. They gave everyone a chance to reconsider what they wanted with the menu they now could see and what it was matched with. Due to my dairy allergy, I didn’t miss out on much and that was a pretty sweet feeling. Everyone had a creamy soup and I had a tomato bisque with some crackers. The meal was the beef option and it was on top of rice instead of mashed potatoes (I think). And for dessert, I had fruits (which is the usual alternative)

Sunset

Just look at this sunset by the balcony at the reception where the open bar was located. The second shot is my first try at using the panoramic function on my phone. You’ll see a ton of other shots using that function because it just captures the scene so nice!!!

My Weekly Adventures: Kickstarter Rewards, Wedding and Halloween Marathon Kickoff!!

We’re back with another weekly adventures!

I’m sorry that its taken me a little longer than usual to get back.  To be fair, I did say that this would take 3 weeks instead of the normal 2, at the very least.  I really wanted to be back, you know. Like, there are things happening and I’m not just forcing up some updates for nothing.  Although, last time I really did want to get the updates and announcements out.  I’m starting to think weekly adventures are a good way to get it through. So, when it does say updates and/or announcements, this will be where I’ll do it! 🙂

Back to business, what has been going on, you ask? Well, lets see what little adventures I’ve been in the last few weeks. Let’s go!

1) Kickstarter Rewards coming in!

Kosmos -TV series was funded on December 2014.  I had signed up for the exclusive of the Episode 1 and a limited edition personalized frame from the show signed by one of the cast or crew.  Finally, after a few months, I got it in the mail.

Plus, the show is for free viewing on Youtube up to Episode 4 now. You can check it out below:

Kiss Me, Kill Me was funded on November 2014.  A part of the reward came to me in the form of a Virtual Premiere.  I almost didn’t make it but I managed to give the movie one viewing before the link expired.  No regrets at all! Here’s the trailer:

While it has a strong LGBT focus, the story of this thriller is great and the acting is rather good as well.  Consider me rather impressed.  I’ll be posting up an actual review when I get the actual movie with the final reward which I had backed for a DVD copy.

$5 Drawings by Dada was successfully funded in September 2015.  I used to go to college with Dada and she’s always been an extremely creative person.  While I didn’t have money to back a higher tier, I still loved the random work of art I received on 7 x 10 inch paper using color pencils (I chose the medium).  It was beautiful. I just need to figure out a way to frame it up or somethin and decorate my walls.  You can check out her work on Instagram @dada16808

2) I’m Married!!!

On October 11th, 2015 (the past Sunday), I got married! I know I’ve been ranting about the crazy wedding plans but trying to kind of not be too overbearing about it but things worked out fine.  There was some hiccups but with the help of some amazing friends, everyone played out really well! Everyone had a great time and I saw so many wonderful friends and family that I haven’t seen in ages and connected with others that I never knew really well but did more afterwards. I did debate doing a huge post on it but we’ll see.  For now, here are few wedding pics of decors and dresses and all that fun stuff 🙂

Cake and Cupcakes were done by Montreal Cake Guy.  Despite being hurt the day before he had to deliver the order, he still managed to get it all done and we found a way to accommodate and got one of my best friends’ boyfriend to go pick it up for me the morning of.

On a side note, I had to doll up for the wedding.  Thanks goes out to the lovely  Groupon deal for the mani-pedi from Beauty Box in Brossard.  And hair goes out to Coiffure Spa Portobello

3) Announcement: Halloween Marathon Starts TODAY!!!

I know I’ve been hinting at Halloween with Netflix A-Z having two movies and a book review of Ranger Martin.  It was an effort to keep with the theme but now that the wedding is done and I’ve had a few days to recuperate from that one very crazy but memorable day, I’m ready to get back on track here! We’re kicking off  the Halloween Marathon officially!! Later today, you’ll be getting the first review for our highlight series, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Have fun and enjoy! My line-up for filler horror movies have been changing and its probably just going to be absolutely spontaneous save for one recommendation but its happening! Have lots of fun! Enjoy this half of October full of horror reviews! 🙂

On a side note, you all know things don’t quite return to normal until the New Year with NaNoWriMo in November and Christmas related posts in Christmas.  Netflix A-Z will return in November however but everything else will be just a mixed bag of backlogged posts that I’m accumulating right now.

—> No upcoming posts this time around! You all know whats up for the next two weeks! Halloween and all that jazz!

To wrap it all up, here’s a little music to get us all relaxed and feeling all warm, happy and bubbly in a 360 video!

Happy Wednesday, my lovelies!
Have an awesome day!! 🙂 

Seasonal Segment Revival: My Weekly Adventures!

My Weekly Adventures (just like travel and vacation) will be a seasonal segment 😉 I go out a whole lot more in the summer as Montreal livens up a lot and has a ton of events.  This year, May’s been a whirlwind so to kick this off is a special month long event of May along with some upcoming things you can expect.  Reason for this is that: I know I’ve been taking it easy on here.  I really needed a break to get my thoughts together and find some energy and motivation. Between moving and house stuff, its been quite hectic.  Plus, I’ve been in and out of town during May.  I haven’t spent one weekend at home.  The fact that I’ve had even 5 posts going up scheduled (and that’s massively thanks to all those late nights doing contributions to other blogathons and segments on other awesome and amazing blogs).

Let’s check out the May insanity!!

1) Vacation to Seattle and Alaska

Our cruise ship parked offshore in Icy Point Strait

I did a post back at the end of April or early May before I headed off to vacation so some of you already know about it. My first cruise ever and after 11 days, over 2200 pictures from the trip.  I’m going to be posting about those gradually over June but not last past vacations where I do a daily recap.  That would be a massive post and I’ll only select the best of the best that represent the places I went to.  I’ll also give a cruise recap on how I felt about this cruising experience on Norwegian and I have a little fun addition that I’m putting together in memory of the new acquaintances I had on the trip.

2) Ottawa Marathon Weekend

No, no! I didn’t do a marathon.  Just like last year, I headed down with my friend who did the half marathon.  This time, we also had a friend do the 10K so we hung out, shopped, ate and all that good stuff.  It was pretty fun 🙂 We ate brunch at a place called Zak’s Diner which is rather delicious.

And due to strict budget after vacation, I went down to get some really good Rose Wines and a ridiculously expensive but I know is worth it sports bra at Victoria’s Secret.  That’s pretty much what it was all about.  I also got exposed to the 7 day TV event called 500 Questions and because I’m a nerd, I loved it. I’ll probably do a review of it since I came home and started tracking the episodes the week after.

 3) Officially training for a 10K marathon!

I haven’t posted about workouts in a while.  Ever since I talked about it a few months ago, I have gotten back into it and if the cruise was not only full of breathtaking sceneries, my downtime included a lot of working out.  Going out to the marathon weekend, the night after, I downloaded the Nike Running app and set up the coaching program to train for a 10K.  I’m not a runner so I’m ridiculously slow in pace.  I only completed my first week and it looks like that up there. I’m on my second week right now and Montreal is having really shitty weather so its not exactly motivating but then, when I have these programs, I get really competitive. If weekly adventures doesn’t have anything else, it’ll be where I’ll be updating you on my progress.

The goal right now: 5K of some sort somewhere around Montreal and then end goal is 10K in Ottawa next year with a decent time.

Bring it on!!!

4) Wedding in Toronto

As exhausting as it was, my niece (don’t ask, I have a enormous and complicated family) got married over the weekend.  I’ve never seen her before but family events are always fun, so I was my mom’s +1.  On top of that, I had to go to get some new glasses because its way more worth it even with the gas prices being ridiculously high. It actually felt good to be the one in control of my own transportation in the past month. Anyways, the wedding was held in Markham at Angus Glen Golf Club and the venue was very nice along with some very good food.  It started off up to the ceremony in a massive downpour but eventually cleared up a little before having a little drizzle again.

Other than seeing family and cousins, it really emphasized on seeing my cousin’s kids so yeah, more nephews mostly.  Haha! I’m definitely starting to feel old. Still, it was a very fun time and that’s what is most important.

5) Gardening begins!!

Iceberg & Romaine Lettuce

Leek

Stevia

Pink and White Flowers Mix

Asparagus

Ground Cherry

Cucumber

Right after I got back from Alaska, I went to the greenhouse that I frequent and bought some gardening.  Sowing seeds are not my forte so maybe that’s an adventure I’ll take some time to master.  For now, we got these ones up there along with some Sweet Basil, Rosemary and Greek Oregano which is happily inside the house. My calla lily is also very good. I’ll have pictures of those next time 😉 Also, I had to buy another Clematis and Campanula because my lack of experience murdered those last year.  This year, I’m giving a second shot at Ground Cherry and Stevia.  With a little more experience, I’m hoping it’ll be better.

We’re keeping it simple this year: The focus is on less plants and weeding and organizing/maintaining the lawn to look better so its ready for bigger and better projects next year! I think thats a solid plan. What do you think?

6) Upcoming

TV Binge, Arcade Block Unboxing, Music Obsessions, more Movie Reviews (hopefully)….I have probably 10 posts sitting around waiting for me to write up.  I just can’t get it all together and live life all at the same time while not being in town on the weekends when I normally draft the majority of my posts early mornings or late nights.   I’m trying hard to get ahead of schedule instead of scrambling together a quick post the night before.  It worked for a while where I was 2 days ahead so let’s hope I can get back on that pattern. Oh right, and that recipe I’m missing for the Disney Project is coming right up! It’ll be a lot more simple than I first planned but I just want to kickstart this one. The next one will be more epic, hopefully!

And that wraps up My Weekly Adventures segment for the May monthly issue.  For now, I’ll leave you with this cute sign I saw in Ottawa.

If you made it to the end, welcome back to Weekly Adventures and be sure to drop by again next week for more! 🙂

There’s a few festivals coming up this weekend so it’ll be a fun post! I promise!

My Friend’s Wedding Part 3!

I’m totally loving posting about my friend’s wedding! Weddings are just so happy and fun! Being part of the wedding party also means that I don’t get to hold my phone so there are chunks in between with no pictures.  You’ll see where it is (as you’ve seen in the previous sections) but when I had my phone, I tried to get in some shots, either with the DSLR in the hotel suite or with my phone during the day 🙂

5am: My alarm went off!

As I was brushing my teeth, the knock came and I let in the make up artist with my mouth full of foam and she kept asking me questions.  Talk about embarrassing. Anyways, before long I was sitting in her lighted setup with her lamp and all her equipment and having a full on makeup.  I never put on a lot of makeup and honestly, I know very little about it.  This is what I looked like after the make up session.

After make-up session

And the shameless selfies start! 😉 I’m telling you, I looked in the mirror and I was like, “Is that me?” After that I sat around while the one next up was doing hers and we got to enjoy a beautiful sunrise, or its just watching the sky go from dark to bright.

Tulips with the background

Brightening morning sky

Between this and finding time to get us some liquid fuel downstairs, such tea, coffee and juice for our  unscheduled breakfast, eventually we all woke up by the time the hairdress arrived a little after 7am. As I did make up first, I also went first for hair and that was crazy because I have A LOT of thick hair.  Plus, the bride made it a point that I shouldn’t cut my hair or thin it before the wedding, so here I was, sitting for what seemed like forever, and I’m pretty sure putting all the girls behind schedule because of my ridiculous amount of hair.

Lets go to see what I look like with my second transformation:

After hair stylist

I’m going to get sick of seeing myself after this post.  I promise, at least 3 months with no selfies..or I’ll try 😛 Oh, and excuse the pyjamas…

Before long, time was running short and we ended up telling the groom and his group to wait outside as we did the final preparations for the bargain and door games. No pictures there because I was busy setting and organizing and talking.  The rundown looked something like:

1. Bargain ($389 was the final settled amount)
2. Contract (by the request of the bride)
3. 1st part of marriage: Sweet –> Hersheys Kisses Cookies n Creme
4. Acrostic Name Game with the bride’s first name
5. 2nd part of marriage: Sour –> peeling and eating a lemon
6. Group Yoga Poses
7. 3rd part of marriage: Bitter –> Condensed Black Coffee
8. 4th part of marriage: Spicy –> Hot Korean Cup Noodles Instant Soup
9. Serenading the bride with a Cantonese Love Song (supposed to be one but the bride requested a second one)

I don’t think anything turned out too be too hard. It should have been worse and more cruel but we were REALLY tight on time. Yoga poses were a bit funny since no one could stay still for even 10 seconds.  The singing had to be the best and I think the bride will have a blast watching the video afterwards. 😉

Next up is the tea ceremony from the bride’s side which was in the hotel suite.

The bride and groom waiting for tea ceremony preparations

Such a sweet picture, right? Well, they can tell me to take it off if they think its too much.  Either way, the bride is in the traditional Chinese wedding dress. After this, we had to go down to the reception hall to proceed with the bigger groom’s side of the family’s tea ceremony.  I had to hold mine and the bride’s bouquet as she did this so no pictures.  During the tea ceremony, the older family, especially parents usually give gold and/or pearl jewellery to the bride and groom as gifts.  The more gifts they get, the more loved and cherished they are.

My maid of honor bouquet

Next part, also I have no pictures is the actual wedding ceremony. I really wanted to have a picture of the bride’s gown since her friend designed it for her so its absolutely unique. Moving on, the ceremony was great. Everything went as planned except for two reading and speech that was taken out.  Me and the best man was the witness to the wedding.  Then it was pictures with the couple and cocktail, where we got to breathe just a little before heading into the reception.  Also, the bride and groom actually sang All I Ask Of You from Phantom of the Opera and I almost burst into tears.

The reception was done beautifully and the banquet hall was in a lovely shade.  Also, the wedding was special because there was a theme of space and masquerade for their love of Spaceballs and Phantom of the Opera (hence the song for the ceremony). And we walked in to Masquerade.  Totally cool! 🙂

My gift, mask and name card

At this point in time, I’ve had exactly one cup of tea and one glass of punch in my body so we’re moving on to the banquet lunch! WOOHOO! 🙂

Pasta with Tomato sauce and something with cheese that I couldn’t eat

Salad

My main course: salmon

My boyfriend’s main course: steak

 

Dessert trio: Chocolate mouse, sorbet, something I don’t know

buffet in the back: pizza table plus everything behind

a part of the sweet table

As for the speech that I was only notified 2 days before, it ended going through this weird phase of the bride telling me that we were not doing and then after I had started drinking with some new friends (a vodka shot and this thing called Fuzzy Ripple, I think), and she came back and told me that the speech was back on, which was short and a bit weird in afterthought, but hey, you know what, it doesn’t matter.  They know that I wish them the absolute best and that they have my blessing 🙂 After that slightly embarrassing moment, I went back to drinking and had this improvised Jagerbomb (not sure if thats how you spell it) and  then it was this shot with banana liquor.  Weird, eh? I don’t usually drink so much and I was still alive afterwards.  Not bad, eh? 😉 And to top it off, I got a cranberry vodka to finish off the evening.

This was the first big event that my boyfriend and I have attended together.

I really love this picture! 🙂

My friend’s wedding was just so beautiful! It was fun. I meet a few new friends and got a few additional friends on Facebook.  Plus, I reunited with some school friends: university/college.

Overall, a beautiful morning, afternoon and weekend.  It may have been sleepless and put my schedule all over the place but it was priceless 🙂 Reminds me also that I need to reconnect with friends since I’ve been quite the hermit these days but with work, who has time,right?

I don’t know about you but this year seems to be wedding bombs all over the place.  I have two more wedding invites this year already.

How about you? Any weddings to attend this year? 

My Friend’s Wedding Part 2!

Yesterday, I showed you a bit of the bachelorette party.  Its nothing crazy, right?

Let’s continue!

After going home at some funky after midnight hour, I finally went to bed somewhere around 3:30am and caught a few hours of sleep before waking up.

Saturday was a busy day.  It included getting the material for the door games and putting on nail polish.  I never put on nail polish before this week, so I did a test run earlier in the week before doing it for my friend’s big day.  I used this Dynamite nail polish called Wine Bar.  It was a dark hue of reddish-purple.  I really like it 🙂

By the evening, I had packed up everything and headed to pick up the bride and then to the hotel as we were all staying over there to make sure we would be up at 5am for everything.  Plus, we had to be there to see the hair ceremony.  Chinese traditions start way before the wedding day, in case you didn’t know.

The hair ceremony was really thorough in this one.  Usually you just get a good luck woman to do it.  In the sense that they need to be in a happy marriage and have kids.  I think thats the general idea of the criteria. I’m not very good at this stuff but I’m really interested in it.  And I know Day’s also would be!

The bride to be has to go shower and wash her hair and change into new everything from underwear to pyjamas before the ceremony.  Plus, she gets these cute slippers with the words wife on it.

“Wife” slippers

They set up the table like this:

Hair Ceremony Setup

And then they do the hair brushing with 3 strokes and pin that little green pine leaf into the bride to be’s hair.  You need to leave the candles burning till the end and not move it.  Plus, every single item has a meaning and this wonderful woman who did this was telling her what each thing meant.

Explaining what everything means

And then it was time for some eating of the glutinous rice balls. These were made by a man there and it had three flavors: Lotus paste filling, lotus seed filling and black sesame filling.  They were super good and they had these cute napkins also with the double happiness symbol!

My *empty* bowl and the double happiness napkin

Sorry about the empty bowl. It was really good! I just didn’t think about pictures until afterwards. *blush*

Thats what the night before the wedding looks like 🙂 Behind the scenes and all! The groom to be also gets the same thing.  The details on that, I’m not sure about.  I never even knew that men had to do it until on Saturday.  We learn new things everyday, my friends!

After this, we all got ready for bed but didn’t actually go because we had to help prepare the centerpiece setup and I had to go write up the rundown for the door games and ended up going to bed at like 2am or 2:30am, plus we had the late night timing of the changing gowns process. Actual sleeping didn’t really happen till like an hour later and then the alarm rang at 5am the next morning…

And thats to be continued tomorrow with the actual BIG DAY (and its going to be a long post)!

I’ve been super tired so all these posts have been drafted so slow.  This one is late as it is but tomorrow! I’ll get some more stuff up! 🙂

How are you enjoying these Chinese wedding traditions? Did you know about this before? Have you ever attended a Chinese style wedding?

Exhibit: Le Salon du Mariage Chic!

I guess you could call a bridal show an exhibit, right?

I may not be getting married but I am the maid of honour for one of my very good friends.  We’ve been friends for pretty much 20 years now.  Talk about a long friendship, right? Sure, when she went off to university in another town and then did her master’s also out of province, we distanced for a little bit.  In the last few years, we’ve really bonded again as good friends and she’s my cat’s godmother. I didn’t know that existed but she volunteered.

She asked me to go with her and her fiance to the Salon du Mariage CHIC.  I’m not going to do the big banquet wedding but I do love to look at this stuff: centerpieces, catering, wine, jewelry and of course, wedding dresses.

There was two fashion shows set and due to lunch, we missed the 12:30pm one so we went for the afternoon one at 3:30pm.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures of the decor but I really liked this one.

Centerpiece exhibits

Right before the show started at around 3, a percussionist performed to some fast beats to liven up the mood 🙂

He was pretty good.  I like this sort of percussion music.  Rhythmic and fun!

After a little bit afterwards, the fashion show starts.  I only took pictures of the dresses I liked, there was a lot more! Oh, and yes there were suits also.  Grooms do need their suits 😉

Beautiful dress with mask (not seen in photo)

Bridesmaids dress

Front of the dress

Back with nice design along the spine

Aren’t the dresses lovely? I’m not a huge fan of mermaid dresses so I didn’t take any of those.  These are very beautiful.  The company most of these dresses are from is White Montreal (if I remember correctly). That place makes beautiful dresses.

There was also one more that I didn’t match with the gallery so I put it aside of this suit and well, this model.

This guy has the most charming smile.  I couldn’t catch a good shot of it and well, he looks fantastic in that suit also 🙂

I’ve never been to a fashion show before so I found this end of the show thing where all the models walk out in a line and face the audience was pretty grand.

Fashion shows are pretty fun and wedding ones are even more awesome.  I love big dresses and elegant clothes and all those things.

It was a fantastic experience! 🙂

Have you ever been to a bridal show or a fashion show? How was it? Did you like it?