Snowy Saturday

Winter hit full force in Toronto today. It's very frosty out, and it snowed pretty much all day. If you're in Toronto or experiencing similar weather, I hope you're keeping warm and cozy!

Staples Spotlight Speaker Series with Joe Mimran

A few days ago, my good friend sent me some information on an event being held at the new Staples concept store in Toronto. The grand opening was today, and I attended the Joe Mimran keynote event. Joe Mimran is a Former Dragon on CBC's Dragon's Den, and is known for founding a number of established Canadian brands, such as Alfred Sung, Club Monaco, and Joe Fresh. The talk was incredibly entertaining, informative, and inspirational.

The new store looks amazing, and I enjoyed checking out the Staples Studio, which is a membership-based collaborative coworking space for the creative and entrepreneurial community. This was the first event in the weekly Spotlight Speaker Series. You can sign up for upcoming events here.

Note: not sponsored.

Axe Throwing Power Hour at Escape Manor

Hubby and I went axe throwing with a couple of friends yesterday, and we had an amazing time! We went to a new venue in downtown Toronto called Escape Manor, which offers both axe throwing and escape rooms (two separate experiences). There's a bar/lounge area where you can order drinks and play games either before or after your experience. We booked the Axe Throwing Power Hour experience, where we had a quick lesson and played a few mini-games with our hilarious and friendly coach, Spencer. Everyone picked up the technique pretty quickly, except for me. I had a grand ole time throwing the axe on the ground or bouncing it off the target. The axe stuck in the wood only a handful of times for me, but two of those times were in the bullseye, much to everyone's surprise and to my delight. I've had axe throwing on my list for at least a year now, so I'm very happy I finally got to try it. If you've ever wanted to try axe throwing, it's a ton of fun and I highly recommend checking out Escape Manor.

Note: not sponsored. We paid for everything ourselves.

Pick of the Litter

Hubby and I went to watch Pick of the Litter today, and it was such a feel-good family film! I welled up within the first five minutes, and you could hear the audience collectively coo, giggle, or whisper, "awwww" periodically throughout the film in an endearing (i.e., not annoying) way. If you like puppies or cute animals in general, I highly recommend it. Pick of the Litter is playing at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema until Jan 10/19.


Note: trailer courtesy of IFC Films.

Travel Bug

Hubby and I went to an ARC'TERYX event tonight, and I got a twinge of the travel bug. It's been a while since I've felt this way. It felt exciting, yet a bit foreign. I kind of want to go to Africa again, but we'll see.

What is MUJI?

My friend and I went to check out the new MUJI flagship store earlier this week. Since we were in the area, we also spent some time at the "What is MUJI?" pop-up exhibition, which showcases a small selection of MUJI products alongside a brief description of some of the design characteristics. If you find yourself at the Atrium and want to check it out, the exhibition is running daily from 10am to 7pm until December 23, 2018. Admission is free.

FITREP Event

FITREP is a new app that is essentially a virtual marketplace for personal training sessions. Hubby and I attended the CRUNCHES & COCKTAILS event this evening and had a blast!

We started off the evening with some boxed water by Flow Alkaline Spring Water. I was really thirsty and excited about all the different flavours. Throughout the course of the evening, I tried the original, strawberry + rose, and lemon + ginger. The flavoured waters were very subtle, which I enjoyed. Super refreshing. The watermelon + lime flavour was also available, so I brought one home with us. There was also boxed cold press coffee available by Point Blank, but I didn't feel like staying awake all night so I didn't partake. Hubby said it was good, so maybe I'll have a sip tomorrow morning!

There were three short workout sessions by personal trainers featured on the FITREP app. It was crowded and difficult to find room to do some of the moves, but I really enjoyed this part of the evening! The sessions included: Dynamic Warm Up & Movement Flow with Lorenzo Pagnotta, Light HIIT Workout with Celia Lopez, and Standing Yoga with Serena Virtue (my personal favourite, but you know how I feel about yoga). After the workout, guests could try two different cocktails from the bar (gin & kombucha or espresso-infused martini). Hubby and I both got the gin + kombucha (ugh, two beverages I love), but cocktails are not eat-at-home eligible so hubby drank both. I drank more water.

The savoury nibbles were catered by Calii Love. Since I'm still on the eat-at-home challenge, I didn't try anything, but hubby appeared to enjoy everything. I was really tempted by the avocado toast and chicken satay, as well as the mini muffins by Little Almond Baking.

Overall, it was a great event! I'm patting myself on the back for being able to stick to the eat-at-home challenge at not one, but two events!

Mercedes Launch Party

In one of my recent vlogs, I mentioned that hubby has been signing us up for lots of free events. I used to sign us up for stuff too, but hubby was never keen on going, so I stopped. Things are different now because his colleague tells him about these events, with a strong emphasis on the free drinks and food. And since hubby signs us up, he doesn't complain, which is a win-win in my book. Tonight, we went to a Mercedes launch party at REBEL, which featured the new 2019 A-Class Sedan and 2019 A-Class Hatchback. It was so crowded that we could barely see the cars, but we had lots of fun chasing the cater waiters! Since I'm on the eat-at-home challenge, hubby ate my share. His stomach was bursting by the end, and I was drowning in my tears. The sliders in particular looked and smelled incredibly delicious. Guess what I'm making for dinner tomorrow night. That's right, burgers.

ProFusion Expo 2018

Hubby signed me up to go to ProFusion, which is an expo for people interested in photography and videography. He actually signed us both up to go, but the expo is happening during the day, and he has to work. Even though he couldn't make it, he asked me around four or five times over the past two days if I was planning to go. I wasn't sure yet, but he seemed so eager for me to check it out that I looked at the list of presentations and found a couple I was interested in. The first presentation I attended was at the main stage. Jessica Kobeissi is a YouTuber and photographer. She gave a talk that was essentially about perseverance and not giving up on your creative dreams. Her channel looks like it's full of content I would love so I can't wait to watch some of her videos.

The second presentation was at the Canon booth. Jesse Driftwood is a videographer, who changed the trajectory of his career when he mastered the art of storytelling on Instagram using a vertical format. He was full of energy and stressed the importance of honing your craft while doing work that excites you. Both presentations were incredibly relevant and inspiring. I also liked that both speakers echo something that I fundamentally believe: that creators will feel the drive to create regardless of gear. This blog post kind of parallels that concept, as I only took photos using hubby's hand-me-down iPod. The photos were really crappy, but black-and-white makes them better, so here they are anyway.

If you are interested in checking out the ProFusion Expo 2018, it is happening for one more day (Wed Nov 14 from 10am to 5pm). Both Jessica and Jesse are speaking again, and their presentations are worth watching. Tickets are free and available here.

CityLine Audience Members

Bestie and I went to a taping of CityLine this morning and had so much fun!! Tracy Moore and the CityLine staff were all very efficient, yet personable and hilarious, which made the 2-hour taping fly by. If you want to see us clapping away in the audience, be sure to tune into next week's CityLine on Wednesday November 14 at 9am EST on Citytv. Our episode features how to maintain gut health over the holidays, how to discuss money matters, the hottest toys this holiday season, fun cookbook gift ideas, and how to network. We both found the topics very interesting, and I can't wait to see how the episode comes together. If you have a free morning during the week, you can sign up here to attend a CityLine taping!

More XR Adventures

Hubby and I met up at the Apple store again today after he finished work. Hubby had mentioned a recent iOS update, which was supposed to fix the "beauty mode" issue on the XS, and I wanted to see if there was any impact to the XR. It looks like there wasn't, so I won't post all the photos I took today. Just this one comparing the regular photo mode with portrait mode.

And this one of hubby and me in regular photo mode.

And this one of hubby and me in portrait mode, which was taken with the XS Max. The photos are not directly comparable because we were facing the other side of the store and the lighting was different.

Also, I forgot to include the XR footage in this week's vlog, so I'll include it in the next one. Based on my limited testing in-store, I'm impressed by the video (and audio) quality! I'm excited to purchase my new phone!! I'm going to wait until mid-December, as I'm heading to a retreat in early December where I will not have access to my phone... more details coming soon. :)

A Day in the Life #1

A lot of people ask me what I do all day now that I don't work. It's hard to say because every day is so different. Today was particularly hectic, but I tend to get more done when I'm "busy," which makes me feel productive and efficient. I plan to do a few post like this throughout my gap year. Today went like this:

6:30am: woke up and got ready
7:30am: ate breakfast
8:10am: left the condo
8:30am: arrived at the Design Exchange to volunteer at the Oliver El-Khatib talk
12pm: left the Design Exchange
12:30pm: came home, played with Lulu, started doing the laundry, and responded to some emails
1:10pm: went to Chinatown to pick up some groceries
2:10pm: came home, had a snack, fed Lulu, got lettuce for Truffle, vacuumed, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, listened to a podcast, finished doing the laundry, did plank, updated my finances spreadsheet, had some email/social media time, and did some research/planning/organization
5:30pm: took a nap (I actually haven't been napping much during my time off, but I was exhausted today!)
6:30pm: woke up and listened to a podcast while cooking dinner
7:40pm: chatted with hubby when he got home and finished cooking
8pm: ate dinner with hubby
9pm: edited/exported a YouTube video, pet Truffle, and wrote this blog post

The rest of the evening will likely be spent as follows:
- Reply to one more email
- Complete one more French lesson on Duolingo
- Continue editing my vlog
- Read one chapter of my book
- Watch an episode of Salt Fat Acid Heat with hubby (such a good show--I highly recommend it!

The days have been passing by unbelievably quickly! I feel like I've been in a time warp for the last two months. Let's just say, I'm extra excited to be getting an extra hour this weekend. I hope you have a good one!!

Discovering TCM

My friend has been interested in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for a number of years, and she's been telling me about various seminars and books; however, I haven't had any exposure to it myself, aside from going to a couple of acupuncture sessions in 2015. I thought these sessions did make a difference with my tension and stress, but I wasn't sold on the practitioner, so I stopped going and didn't bother to find another one. When my friend and I were at Grail Springs, we chatted more about TCM, and I thought it would be a good time to learn more about it with my newfound freedom. We went to a session tonight at the Ontario College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and it was so interesting and informative!

The session was on How to Thrive in Winter with Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the information presented made a lot of sense to me. The speaker, Aline Yon, encouraged us to think of some takeaways from the presentation that we plan to implement. I really like taking lessons from different disciplines to apply in my own life, so here are the tips I plan to try this winter:

1. Eat more black beans, try cooking millet, and look into recipes that use endive. I already eat a lot of the recommended winter foods (onions, garlic, celery, chicken, seaweed, salt, camomile tea, etc.), but there were three that really caught my attention. I love black beans but don't often cook them, I've never made millet, and I'm curious about recipes that incorporate cooked endive (another tip was to avoid eating raw foods, like salads and smoothies in the winter).

2. Work on getting back to a bedtime of 11pm, or earlier if possible. I used to be good about going to bed at 10pm, but I've fallen off of that with my new routine. I now sleep at around 1am, which is way too late, since I've espoused the benefits of being asleep during the hours of 10pm and 2am.

3. Incorporate yoga practice at least two times per week, give meditation another try, and learn more about qigong. Another item I've essentially stopped doing is strength training, and I would love to get back into doing yoga. I've talked about this a lot--now I just have to do it. I'd also like to look into meditation and qigong, as many sources recommend these tools to develop mindfulness.

4. Try wearing socks at home. Today, I learned the importance of keeping our feet warm in the winter and not walking barefoot on tile. I am not a fan of wearing anything on my feet at home, but that means my feet are often cold. I'm going to try to get used to wearing thick, warm socks in the condo.

Those were the items that the talk inspired me to try! I'd also like to look into TCM more and read a couple introductory books that were recommended at the talk. In case you're interested, the recommended books are:
- The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine by Ted J. Kaptchuk
- Between Heaven and Earth: A Guide to Chinese Medicine by Harriet Beinfield and Efrem Korngold

The speaker also referenced The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine: A New Translation of the Neijing Suwen with Commentary by Maoshing Ni, which seems more esoteric but still interesting. Also, I know it's not winter yet, but it's 11pm, and I'm a keener, so that means it's time for bed. :)

Café Tea Time

A close friend of mine was telling me recently about a little spot she just discovered, called Rustle & Still Café. We met there for tea this afternoon, and it was absolutely lovely! The café is beautiful and serene--the space is filled with natural light, wood accents, and greenery. I had the matcha pandan latté (seems I can't get enough of either flavour lately), and my friend had the sweet purple potato latté. My friend is going to be doing the eat-at-home challenge with me in November (yippee!), and we both wanted to squeeze in a little café tea time before the end of the month... happy sigh... it was such a nice way to spend the afternoon!

Japanese Problem

Ever since I received the Soulpepper Brochure summarizing the 2018-19 productions, I knew I wanted to watch Japanese Problem. The only issue was that it was completely sold out, so I decided I would try to obtain rush tickets at some point. I had planned to rush last Thursday's matinee (thinking it would be less busy), but when I was double checking the performance times online, I noticed there were a few tickets released for one of the shows today. Hubby saw me looking at the website and asked me about it. Japan is one of his favourite places to visit, and the name of the production caught his eye. I told him a bit about it and asked if he wanted to go, fully expecting him to answer with a resounding no... but he said yes! I quickly bought the tickets for today's 2pm show before he could change his mind.

Japanese Problem is an account of the internment (incarceration) of Japanese-Canadians in 1942 in Hastings Park, Vancouver, British Columbia. It is a concise production at 45 minutes with no intermission, but it is incredibly intense. The performance is powerfully immersive, creative, and intimate. It is easy to be moved to tears as the performers draw you into their thought-provoking and poignant stories. There is a short dialogue following each performance, during which the audience can delve into conversation with the performers, the director, and each other. Unfortunately, there are only two more shows in Toronto (tomorrow at 1pm and 2:30pm) before the production returns to British Columbia. A limited number of rush tickets (8-10) are available to purchase in-person on a pay-what-you-can basis at the Soulpepper Box Office--these tickets go on sale one hour before each show and are limited to 2 per person.

In-Store First Impression of the iPhone XR

I met up with hubby after work today to check out the iPhone XR. I've been eagerly awaiting this phone's release and the reviews have been overwhelmingly favourable. It seems to be selling like hotcakes at the Toronto Eaton Centre! I mainly wanted to test out the photo and video functions, and this camera--erg phone--does not disappoint. Of course, the image quality is not going to compare to a DSLR (or even my Canon G7X--RIP), but I was quite impressed by the XR's photo and video performance compared to the earlier versions of the iPhone, including hubby's 7 Plus, as well as the 8 Plus and X that we tested out when we were at the Apple store in NYC. I took a bunch of photos, and the resulting images are below. I like my photos pretty bright so I normally bump up the exposure and do some other minor adjustments for this blog; however, for the purposes of this post, I've uploaded the images SOOC (straight out of the "camera"). I also took one short video clip, which will be included in my next vlog.

The XR's colour options (coral, blue, yellow, and red) are definitely fun, but I think my favourite is still black.

I had fun playing with the portrait mode. I thought the smoothing of the skin was nice, but I'm a little older, so a too-sharp selfie is not a good look. The below images were taken using 4 of the 5 available portrait modes. From left to right: natural light, studio light, contour light, and stage light (I didn't take a photo with the stage light mono, which is a black and white option).

The quality is very nice for Instagram or other online sharing, but close up, you can definitely see some haloing and some areas that look like a rush Photoshop job (the below image was taken in the natural light portrait mode).

Here is the image close up so you can see the edges in question a bit better. You can also see some of these weird edges around my hubby's ears in the first photo of this blog post. These anomalies seem to be a result of the bokeh effect in combination with the back lighting, but more testing is clearly required. I played around with the bokeh feature, which is really neat, but again, the quality is not going to be remotely comparable to a DSLR.

There's some funky stuff going on in the stage light mode, but this is more of a fun feature, and I doubt I would use it too often. The photo is quite noisy, and part of someone's face is showing behind hubby's right shoulder.

Despite these minor (and admittedly picky) issues, my overall in-store first impression of this phone is a big thumbs up. It is very fast (especially compared to my water damaged 6S Plus), the gestures are smooth, and the screen is beautiful. I have no issues with not having the dual cameras on the phone--in fact, I like that the phone does not "zoom in" in portrait mode. I also think the XR is the perfect size. It is comfortable to hold and easy to use. Hubby and I were discussing phones a little while ago, specifically about him buying a new phone and me taking his hand-me-down (this is a common occurrence in our relationship); however, now that I've seen the XR in person...

I.
WANT.
IT.

Let It Linger

One thing I'd like to work on during my gap year is the art of lingering. This was part of The Busy Boycott Challenge, and I'm slowly getting better at it, but I used to be terrible. Being a hardcore planner, I would rush from one thing to the next, failing to enjoy the moment, because I was overly preoccupied with what happens next. I was very future focussed, and that prevented me from being fully present.

In the past month or so, I've really learned to slow down. I don't sweat the small stuff as much. I take my time, I look around, I talk to people. I am much more present now. Of course, this is a function of having more time, but I think it would have been possible for me to linger even when I was working nine-to-five. Perhaps if I worked at a job that fulfilled me. Perhaps if I wasn't stressed all the time. Perhaps if I hadn't scheduled myself so stringently. Perhaps if I didn't have so many things on my list. I rushed to experience everything, and may have glossed over some key moments as a result.

I've always wanted to linger. I often tell hubby that I wish we had time in Puerto Vallarta to relax on that secluded beach we found during our hike, or I wish we had time in London to sit and watch the parkour performance, or I wish we had time in New York to stuff our bellies with food at the Chelsea Market. The list goes on. I've never thought much about lingering in our home town, but I should, and I will.

Today was a day with almost nothing on the agenda. I took a walk in the afternoon with the intention of picking up a few things, and I lingered. I stumbled upon the World Press Photo Exhibition 2018 at Brookfield Place, and rather than passing by and heading straight for my destination, I stopped. Or rather, I passed by, paused, contemplated, and doubled back--some habits are hard to break. I ended up spending around 20 minutes looking at the photographs, reading the descriptions, and thinking about the world outside my little bubble.

In a crowd of business people, tourists, and students, I felt myself become completely absorbed into the exhibit. Some of the stories and photographs presented were disconcerting, even more so when I took the time to ruminate on them. I've seen many powerful and moving photo exhibits in the past, but my mind was usually at least partly somewhere else. This is one of the first times I've felt so present at an exhibit, and it was a humbling experience.

The World Press Photo Exhibition 2018 at Brookfield Place will be on until 6pm tomorrow (Tue Oct 23).

Filipino Supermarket Adventures

Hubby and I ventured out to the west end yesterday to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday. After a belly-bursting lunch at Congee Queen (YUM!), we took a look at the Filipino supermarket that opened last year. Seafood City Supermarket is jam-packed with delightful Asian goodies. Feast your eyes on these beautifully colourful Filipino desserts!

We went in for a specific item: nori sheets for our sushi burritos (and temaki). Success!!

I haven't had pandesal in years, so I had to pick up a package. I ended up eating two pieces last night after dinner. This lightly sweet bread, edges slightly crispy from the toaster oven, can be extraordinarily addictive to the carb-obsessed. NOM NOM. I quickly froze the rest to avoid stuffing my face even more.

Hubby is obsessed with condensed milk and went all googly-eyed when he saw these. We nearly bought them all until we read the list of ingredients. We ended up purchasing two to try (buko pandan and ube).

We wanted to try Jolibee SO BAD, but we were so full and the lines were so long. We still considered it but ultimately decided to part ways with the ever-enticing fried chicken and spaghetti--for now. We settled for a photo with the mascot to remind ourselves that we must go back one day.

We ended up buying around $23 worth of groceries and snacks, including a box of assorted mini kakanin, which we shared with our family. DELICIOUS.