6/365 days of gratitude

Today, I'm grateful for finally passing stage 36 on Soda Crush (even if I only got one star)!

I've been stuck on this stage for days and it was driving me nuts cause I'd always come so close to completing the level. So, when I finally finished it (with a few moves to spare), I was ecstatic! It really is the small things in life...

2/365 days of gratitude

Today, I'm grateful for spontaneous boba dates.

Especially when the person who's taking me out is lactose intolerant and can't even have the good stuff. Tea dates just make me feel warm and fuzzy (in both the figurative and literal sense). The free popcorn is just an added bonus.

♥ j

may the fourth be with you

With our lightsaber freezies. Nathan gave me the evil colour...

♥ j

another new year to celebrate (Songkran edition)

An amazing day was had with friends, good food, good music and water guns as we celebrated the Thai new year. Since we couldn't travel all the way to Thailand, we joined in on the party on this side of the pond with the help of Khao San Road (still one of my favourite Thai restaurants). I was pleasantly surprised with the food that was available at the festival. Junk served up some fantastic pork belly skewers - $6 for 3 which is a steal when it comes to food festivals! It was also quite an experience drinking milk tea from a clear plastic bag (a first for me).

Aside from the food, the actual water fight was a blast! At first I had my reservations about squirting random strangers with a water gun, but once I got into it, I didn't really think about it anymore. I just had one goal and that was to run around and get everyone wet! This is definitely a festival that I will revisit next year and hopefully I will win the Super Soaker raffle next time around...

♥ j

/end hiatus

Today marked Toronto's 180th birthday and to celebrate, Nathan took me out for a maple macchiato while I enjoyed some maple leaf chocolates he got me from the Old Firehall Confectionery. I guess this is more Canadian than Torontonian, but it's really hard to find blue desserts aside from blue jello and gummies. I also thought today was a good day to start back up my blog. It's been a whirlwind of a year, so to recap in a few words:

weddings

babies (not mine)
chopped hair

powerlifting

promotions

food food food

and of course,

tea

Life has been quite dandy if I do say so myself.

♥ j

best medicine in the world

I've been running non-stop like the energizer bunny for the last several weeks. As a result, my body finally said enough is enough and decided to protest with a sore throat, hot flashes, and general unpleasantness on the absolute worst day possible - Halloween. With most of my time spent working 12 hour days, last minute dress fittings and wedding shenanigans, I didn't even get to celebrate this year. Luckily! I am surrounded by the one thing that always seems to perk my spirits (aside from Nathan and his get-well packages of course): cioccolato, choklad, chocolat...chocolate. There is just something so irresistible about a smooth melty piece of chocolate that literally makes all my troubles melt away even if only for a moment.

note to self: stock up on discounted halloween chocolates some time this week...

tea time

Nothing like a hot cup of tea to slow the world down for a minute.

(at the cottage September 2012)

trains and tea

I finally had the chance to visit Snakes & Lattes a couple of weeks ago and it was everything I had hoped it would be! It had an expansive collection of games, extremely friendly service and a pretty good menu for small sips and nibbles. There is a $5 charge for just sitting down, but it is well worth the money because you can sit for as long as you want without being hassled. Plus, you get to revisit some childhood board games and hang out with nostalgia for the evening.

Just make sure to bring some hand sanitizer as some of the games are well used.

see you later venus

Like many people yesterday, Nathan and I attempted to watch Venus' transit using the pinhole method (which was literally a pinhole in a sheet of paper on top of another sheet of paper).

We failed... 

Maybe we should've invested a bit more time (and money) on this. Luckily, there were a lot of well prepared folks out there who were able to capture Venus for all to see! Time to do some more browsing...

♪ :: karmin :: broken hearted

rainy days

Taken last August of an unsuspecting couple.

(I wish that big blob wasn't on that lady's head...)

♪ :: knaan featuring nelly furtado :: is anybody out there

oh yes she did

Hello bangs! I've always wanted to try this hairstyle out, but was too chicken. Luckily, today I was procrastinating with my studying and found myself in the bathroom with a pair of scissors. I chopped it all off before I let my brain change its mind. Definitely needs some getting used to. I'm going to wash and dry my hair to see if I missed any bits.

yay to taking risks!
(regardless of the outcome)

a million words unwritten

belting it out at karaoke. visiting baby elle. birthday girl getting hungry. afternoon breaking.

à bientôt

 I am off to find sunshine and seashells and to eat until my belly can expand no more!

I hope that Toronto will be covered in a nice fluffy blanket of snow when I'm back

(none of that dirty slush nonsense)

:)

queen, men and strikers

I would like to think that I'm a good carrom player, but to be honest, I have absolutely no aim. I've played only one other time in my life and although I won both times, it was always by default. All those years spent learning geometry and physics and science-y things was for moot. If only my teachers stressed the importance of angles and forces in high school. If only they warned me about how useful and relevant these things would turn out to be in my life. I would be living a glamourous life as a professional carrom player right now. But instead, I have to find happiness in a simple life where playing a board game is exciting enough to warrant a blog post...

 Maybe it was a good thing I was never very studious in high school.

giant reindeers and holiday treats

photo credit goes to LilliChantilly who, thankfully, brought her point & shoot with her that day

 I love it when the malls start playing holiday music and everything is lit up and decorated like a giant Christmas tree! What gets me even more into the festive spirit is sipping on a hot drink in the middle of it all with a girlfriend who shares the same feeling. Christmas is definitely one of those holidays that just makes me feel happy for no good reason at all - which, in my opinion, is the best kind of happy.

I realize that it might've been a tad early to do a Christmas post, but in my defence, December is only a few days away!

Which makes it okay.


I think.

jump

Ever feel like just jumping around the house for no reason at all?

It's been one of those kinds of mornings for me.

I better go to a yoga class to calm myself down.