Had an incredible catch up conversation with my forever bestie, Shelley. It was a very much needed discussion...by the end of our two hour convo, my phone battery had gone down to 36% (we had started at over 90%)! 

Our chat touched upon the sad reality of our times, of the fact that we'd most likely never be able to take part in aspects of our lives that we had gone through together such as st. mike's partying days (aka the clubbing aspects-not that we really need to go back to that...), hangouts with groups of friends and going out for food with no care in the world (THAT, we do!). 

On the bright side, it had also definitely brought back memories of much of the good times (Not Just Noodles-eggplant dish we loved to split, yogurt smoothies we loved to get at the organic juice store-that's now gone due to condo developments, in between all our studies at her apartment off of Grenville Street, we used to tv binge on Gilmore Girls & One Tree Hill) we had from back during our uni days!!!

BESTIES!!! *heart heart!!!*

Civic holiday weekend

After visiting Ames and Mr. Trudeau earlier in the day, came home and watched 'A Few Good Men' as it was the tv movie that was playing Saturday night.
Considering I had not seen the 1992 movie previously (even though I knew Tom Cruise is in it), I was surprised at how many celebrity names were ALSO in the movie (other than Cruise, there was also Demi Moore, Kiefer Sutherland, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Pollak and James Marshall) that I recognized.
Then the four of us spent yesterday shopping at Outlet Collection at Niagara amidst the rain clouds.

While Ames went hunting for steals and deals with mom,
dad and I hung out at the Aroma where I had the mocha!
During this great time (that I had to kill), Fayewood happened to give me a shout to chat about a Podcast/Instagram proposal that she's looking to start as a fun side project aimed to give high school/college/university students/new/mid-career/retirees direction in exploring career paths. We had a really nice discussion and we've got ideas on how to make this work!

As today is Monday, I was able to go for my morning walk as well as join in the Boss Family Workout that still occurs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on Instagram in the early afternoon (Maddox joined a bit too!).

Watched Hitch featuring Will Smith, (Eva Mendes and Kevin James to name a few other faces I recognize) as it was being played on television earlier. I vaguely recalled my interest in the movie when it first came out as I enjoy anything that involves Will (tv-The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air/movies-MIB’s;Independence Day/family-RedTableTalk) and hadn’t seen anything with him in a while... what a good idea!

A really nice feel-good movie!

Mon Sheong Fun Run and Walk 2020

Sincere thanks to all my family and friends who sponsored me for the Mon Sheong Fun Run and Walk 2020!!! The team did well but I’m going toot my horn by pointing out that I was the overly ambitious one! *wink wink*

Although today's the last day of this fundraising adventure, it does NOT mean my own fun walk is done and over...my endeavour to this health and fitness cause remains a top priority!

Cherry on the top is that the last sponsor’s from my foremost bestie, the end!

Half a world apart catchup between a couple of us (K squared, Fayewood and I) tonight!

Absent from the convo was Dr. T (unfortunately MIA) and Maija who's been reuniting with her three little ones but no matter, we'll all catch up again soon!

Now I've just finished up watching a Budweiser Stage at Home performance featuring City and Colour with Leon Bridges (that was occurring during our chat).

Safe social distancing get-together 😎

After work yesterday, Winnie came by my 'hood for a visit. We went neighbourhood walking and stopped for a drink along the way.
I can now safely say that Winnie's no longer a bbtea virgin!!! 😉

Outside of TenRen's!

Willowdale
park
selfie!!! 🤩

Winnie doesn't realize that she's sharing the spotlight with my hand...thumbs up!!!👍

PEACE!!!✌️

WATCH OUT for the attack of the right hand!!!
ps. She's a-ok!!! 😎

Life of Pi

I had bought the novel written by Yann Martel when it was first published almost twenty years ago (2001) and was intrigued and excited to see how Ang Lee brought the story to life when it came out on film ten years later. However, I never got around to seeing it in theaters...which is ok because I FINALLY saw it last night on television!!!

Even though it's been some time since I read the novel (that has gone the route of 'who knows where' since moving a couple years ago), it was read pretty easily even though this it explored the issues of spirituality and metaphysics. The film brought back novel flashbacks of how Pi's name came to be, his life before, during and after his survival of the life-changing misadventure. I adore how Richard Parker's name came into being as well (I've actually google searched the name and there's quite the list for Richard Parker!!!) as it's so logical and practical.

It also showcased questions about the nature of reality, how it is perceived and told ESPECIALLY as isolation (something that doesn't seem very possible in this day and age unless it was arranged...but even then, it's a life choice to choose to be antisocial nowadays) was a main factor to Pi's life in the film. Although as I reflect about the concept of isolation now, I don't think this is imaginable for me. It's a fantastical idea now.

Yesterday, after a full day of work in a nice cool office environment, I was delighted to catch up with Jordan after dinner! As we live so close to one another, he came by my place and we walked over for ice-cream dessert at Sweet Jesus!!! As 'Hella Hazelnut' was all out, I was lucky to fall back on another favorite, 'Red Rapture' (which is vanilla ice cream, red velvet cake, cream cheese icing, raspberry sauce and meringue crumble)!!!

After purchasing our dessert in cups, we mosy-ed over to a parkette where we devoured our sweet treats...ideally better to have it melt in our stomachs than in the heat...DELISH treat with great companionship!!!

Then this morning mom and I stopped over at the North York Farmer's Market.

We got some goodies including jam, pastries and Timmies!!!

DELECTABLE!!!!!

A nice view of the back...

Chilling view from the front...

ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA about becoming my dinner sustenance 😱
YUM! 😋

Brunch and Baby Shower!!!

As we had planned to visit Ames and Mr. Trudeau earlier in the day, Ames booked a lunch seating at the Hot House Café. Normally, when we stop by the Hot House for their Sunday brunch buffet; because this is not possible now, we make do with patio dining on their normal menu! I had ordered the funghi pizza made up of bechamel, forest mushroom duxelle, rosemary, truffle oil, mozzarella and asiago cheese...YAAAASSSS!!
However, I was only able to have one slice of my fabulous meal as Dad had ordered a Reuben so I split the other half of the sandwich him. Totally fine as this leaves leftovers for work lunch this upcoming week!

Afterwards, I stopped by Henry and Laurianna's drive-by baby shower up in Thornhill park. I literally dropped by to wish them a happy shower, took some photos of the awesome spread before taking off with a popcorn gift!

Below are a couple of photos of the gift I'm proud of decorating!

Happy Canada Day!!! 🇨🇦

Began the day with a fabulous homemade brekkie!!!

Then visited Ames, where we, as a family
all dined at the Bier Market...
first time out at a reso since back
in March when the city was shut down!
Toooootally WORTH IT!!!

May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears

- Nelson Mandela

Now that the city is in stage 2 (so that nail and
hair salons can re-open), I’ve been able to get
a pedicure and a much needed haircut at pacific
mall yesterday, resulting in bangs again, thanks
to Karen, yay!

I waited at least a week so that once the salons
were fully open and operational, hopefully
worked out bugs before I tried to step foot in!

This choice was WORTH the hopes, not fears!

The Good Lovelies

Watched 'The Good Lovelies' perform this evening from 7-8pm on fb!

Made up of three amazing singers, Caroline Brooks: Lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitars; Kerri Ough: Lead vocals, keyboard, banjo, acoustic guitar, omnichord; and Susan Passmore: Lead vocals, percussion, acoustic guitar, synth. They've created nine critically acclaimed releases, a #1 single, a JUNO Award to name a few...The Good Lovelies are considered to be amongst Canada’s brightest musical lights.

Of the three ladies in the group, I only know Caroline (the singer in the center with her guitar) as we were on student council (SMCSU) together during my first year of undergrad! What amazing memories!!!

@goodlovelies #usmc #kellycorner #socialdistantperformance

Happy Father’s Day!!!

Enjoyed a delicious takeout meal of Filet Mignon's, Ceaser Salad's and Escargot's from The Keg at Ames'!
Finished off with splitting a decadent cherry cheesecake!!!

Internationalism

Was the theme to last night's Yonge-Eglinton Toastmasters meeting.
I was invited to join the online TM as it was fashioned slightly differently from normal; in the sense that instead of the normal format of a meeting with three speakers, evaluations for each speech, table topics, evaluation revision and wrap up...this one was purely 5 speakers and Table Topic responses speaking in their native language (hence Internationalis-tic.)

AJ was the 1st speaker who spoke 'On diversity' in Arabic; followed by Jenny who presented 'L'importance du francais' in French; Winnie introduced 'Fun Facts About Kenya' in Swahili (with a fantastic slide presentation that were colorful, full of explanation and information which was especially useful in getting the jist of her speech); Sangeeta speaking on 'Hindi' dressed in the beautifully colorful garb as well as an appearance by her son; with Edmar wrapping up with 'I am an African Child' in 4 dialects (Isizulu/Isidebele/Setswana/Ikalanga) with very expressive and amazing facial expressions, whoooooa...impressive!!!!

Kwanta chaired the Table Topics - International Events/International Foods/Wonders of the World with a game of 'spin the wheel' with these participants:
Ruth speaking on the Calgary Stampede in Spanish; Mani on 'Spring Rolls' in Farsi; Emily on the 'Leaning Tower of Pisa' in French; Aleks on delicious 'Lobster Rolls' in Polish; Rosa on the decadent 'Poutine' in Cantonese; Anand on 'The Great Barrier Reef' in French; Cathy on the 'Great Wall of China' in Korean and Karen's thoughts on 'Churros and Choc' in Italian!
Ruth wrapped up the meeting with thank you's!

As well, I was finally able to see the zoom recording of Wongie's reading at an 'Emerging Writers' Reading Series' presentation, an excerpt from her current work in progress that delves into the coves of Kensington Market area in China town (which also had some Cantonese characters in the reading) I had missed last Monday (June 8th) due to technological issues, not to mention she was the first speaker and of course I caught everyone else's...she's such a fabulous reader, I was completely enthralled and following along so that when she was finished, it totally left me hanging!!! Ah well, something to look forward to see when the pandemic has passed!

Soooo....on my morning walks in the neighbourhood, I have discovered that at a particular area in the park that I pass by...that I must be extra attentive and vigilant as I get warning calls from a black bird as it veers by my head...perhaps because I am treading on it's turf!

Regardless, because I make several rounds on certain days...I now need to act a little more menacing (eg wave my arms around more, lol) and go by quickly! This is the section where I put in an extra burst of energy (which is great for calorie burning!) and zoom by!!! Extra motivation!!!

It helps with waking up in the morning! :)

Just watched Ava DuVernay’s 2016 movie, 13th. After seeing DuVernay promote the film on a daytime talk show and assuming it was new and relevant in this time, I took advantage of the free site off of Netflix this arvo.
Considering I’d hadn’t known (or researched until AFTERWARDS) of the film, I’d no idea that it’s about the exploration of the ‘intersection of race, justice and mass incarceration in the United States’ and how it’s titled after the 13th amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1865 which abolished slavery throughout the United States and ended involuntary servitude except as a punishment for conviction of a crime.

WOW!

The amount of American history I’ve never learned about in school. Whoa...

I have to say I’ve much more understanding and respect for the black race that I’ve not known that I’ve been missing. It DEFINITELY gives much more meaning and relevance to protesting with #blackouttuesday & #blacklivesmatter. #RESPECT

Second shot

I'm sincerely hoping that the world will rise to a second shot as the earth is revolting seemingly twofold (environmental and societal)...feeling like the world is trying to implode. It's difficult to compare as it's like trying to fit a circle into a square hole.

What with the outrage and systemic change that is trying to occur within so much conflict, hope for a second shot is what I am mentally psyching myself for. *fingers crossed*

Even worse is the fact that religion can't escape this chaos as church-goers are also forced online due to the social distancing. What's the HARDEST for me to adjust and eventually overcome is the diminished physical interaction with others besides family and work...mainly mes ami(e)s.

HOPE...we'll walk hand in hand, one day...we shall overcome with a second shot.

Video game flashbacks

Since the whole covid-19 pandemic began and social distancing became the norm, due to the fact that the building's gym facilities are still closed, the neighbourhood is where I spend the time walking around in the mornings as the sun's coming up. I find that now when I'm strolling along the laneway that leads through a park (that's now closed due to the pandemic) if I see another person (there's normally very few to none in the mornings) in my pathway, I can see that we immediately are strategizing our moves to either not pass one another or pass with the greatest amount of distance between us.

Two distinct types of video games flash in my head EVERY. SINGLE. TIME...pac-man and Super Mario Brothers. ;p

Mainly Pac-Man...this character that's supposed to be an image of a pizza with a slice removed that was also supposed to be derived from a character's hockey-puck shape, who must eat all the dots inside an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. Here, I am equating other people to the 'ghosts' in the game.
As the park has a circular path, I like to make several rounds before heading back home. If I see there are people on the pathway, there are other paths to walk around to avoid crossing...or if crossing is impossible to avoid, we cross with the farthest distance between as possible.

The reason Super Mario Brothers, especially Super Mario World because I used to play that game when we (Ames, Jules and Grace) were younger is because when walking outside, unlike walking on a treadmill in the gym, there are environmental factors to take into consideration. Such as puddles and sticks etc...

Therefore walking along the path is also a bit of a game for me, why not? What a way to enjoy nature and make exercise fun, lol.

Scenic Safari at the Toronto Zoo

Thanks to Ames for getting the fam tickets to the zoo in a 'Scenic Safari Drive' on Friday! Even though we were lucky to miss the rain the time that we went, I think because of the weather, the animals actually DID come out for a bit. Also, I can only guess that considering all the visitors are in cars (so that there's technically less disturbance) the animals didn't feel as intimidated (as opposed to when people are causing much distraction when we're not in vehicles).

Hello, these flamingos were sooooo beautiful to look at!!!

Hello Mr. Chimp!

The zebras were out and the stripes were striking!

Unsure what little mammal this is out catching the rain!

The yellow post may be taking away from the gorgeous giraffe in the background...

The tiger's out catching some vitamin D!

Hello rhino's! This was the best weather for them!!!

All in all, this was a fantastic zoo viewing as we didn't have to trek throughout the zoo enclosures so we weren't too tired to catch everything! It was a great weekend activity before spending time catching up with Ames and Mr. Trudeau for a weekend takeout dinner from Buca (including a Tiramisu dessert)!

‘Our world hangs like a magnificent jewel in the vastness of space. Every one of us is a part of that jewel‘

- Fred Rogers

Bestie’s birthday!!! 🎁

It’s not how you fall, it’s about how you get back up!

- Pitbull - I believe that we will win

Occupying my time...
Never a moment to be wasted, this weekend's original plan of visiting the dentist and having a games party at my place had to be rearranged/rescheduled therefore the weekend time was spent watching Michelle Obama's Netflix 'Becoming' as well as continuing on the cleanup of recorded shows, the oldest was Jan 19, 2020's 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards.

Tots 💕Eugene & Dan Levy’s opening & closing show routines, they represent the Canadians so well!
It was during the SAG Awards cleanup that Leonardo DiCaprio presented Robert DeNiro the Life Achievement Award.

'There's a right and there's a wrong.
And there's common sense and there's abuse of power.
And as a citizen, I have as much right as anybody, an actor, an athlete, a musician.
Anybody else to voice my opinion, and if I have a bigger voice because of my situation, I'm going to use it whenever I see a blatant abuse of power.'

It was through hearing about the motion picture parasite as the first foreign language film in the history of SAG to win this award that motivated us to go and see the film at the closest theatre by Ames' place! At the time, I had no idea about the premise of the film. Afterwards though, I fully understood how this could be a possibility and it's scary that it IS a possibility!

I've also been watching Celebrity IOU with the Property Brothers and have seen the episodes where Brad Pitt and Michael Buble have helped to give back to their most loved ones. Heart-warming!

Closing out the weekend, I watched the last taped episode of KidsSaytheDarndestThings with TiffanyHaddish, the funniest moments of the season (the closer). It was a fun show but I've heard that it is one of the shows that will NOT be renewed. So that is that.

Also, the Canadian Screen Awards have begun! (check it all out at https://www.academy.ca/)
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, in partnership with CBC and CTV and with the support of Telefilm Canada and the Canada Media Fund, are live-streaming virtual presentations on the Canadian Academy Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube channels taking place Monday, May 25, 2020 through Thursday, May 28, 2020.
Narrators will include Eric McCormack, Herbie Kuhn, and Lloyd Robertson.