Our first time...

Yusuf and I have dated for 8 years and we discovered that there is something we haven't done together all these years. Can you guess what it is? (It's really silly once you find out)

All this time, we haven't gone skating together! Thanks to my grade 1 classmate, he invited us to skate tonight at the Markham Community Centre. So, I brought my courage and my used-2-times-only skates from 10+ years ago to the rink. My previous time skating was 3 years ago on my cruise to the West Caribbean. When I was skating, there was a medical emergency and a helicopter was trying to land on the ship, causing the ship to rock back and forth....let's just say I had a "souvenir bruise" for 3 months from this incident.

I wasn't exactly thrilled to skate again honestly. Our wedding is 4 months away and I don't really need a bruise again. Because of this, Yusuf actually gave me his knee pads to wear for protection! I looked pretty ridiculous in my opinion, but I really didn't care! As long as I felt safe and protected...haha!

I'm a total "boarder" - a person who hangs on to the board for my dear life. By the end of the night, I was able to get a stride going...but still hanging on every few strides. It was really fun to go do something different with Yusuf. You might ask, "What's Yusuf doing while you are skating?" Well, the answer is, I didn't want him close to me because he might make me fall! He was learning the "hockey stop" by himself..hehe...

Please Sponsor me for the CN Tower Climb

Global Warming, also called climate change is the single biggest environmental threat facing our world today! In order to help WWF-Canada fight global warming on behalf of people like you and me, I've decided to climb the 1,776 steps of the CN Tower. While I will do the climbing, I need you to help me raise needed funds. Remember, for every pledge of $20 or more you will get a tax receipt.

This is my 2nd year doing this and I'm REALLY hoping to beat my 47 minutes record from last year! (I'm terribly out of shape)

As always, I would appreciate any support you would like to give me, in any form; whether it be financial, emotional, or physical (i.e. foot massages, piggy backs after the event).

Thanks!!!!!

Please sponsor me here :)

Part II: 8 Years and Counting...

On March 22, our official 8 year anniversary, we originally planned to visit by going to Carnival. Carnival is a Brazilian restaurant in Richmond Hill (Sheraton Parkway) and we have always wanted to go there to eat.

Unfortunately, Yusuf fell ill the night before so we decided not to go to eat a meat buffet. Instead, we settled for congee at a nearby strip mall. I was a little disappointed, needless to say, because we have always wanted to try Carnival but never found the time nor the occasion. Oh well, we'll go back when we are well.

Although our celebration seemed somewhat less than exciting, Yusuf secretly planned a little "highlight" to the evening. He booked us for a massage after dinner! It was very thoughtful of him to do that because I have been very stressed and tired from all the choir practises. This was perfect timing!

We had a great evening even though our plans were altered. Thank you for a very special and suitable anniversary celebration!

Part I: 8 Years and Counting...

Yup. It's been 8 years since we dated. 8 year since I was in first year of university, ahh...youth!

To celebrate our "last dating anniversary" before we move onto a different stage in life, I've decided to give him a little surprise. I bought tickets to The Most Races Show on Earth at the Panasonic Theatre tonight.

This show is a multi-cultural standup comedy show (if you like Russell Peters, you'll like this too). Part of the proceeds from the ticket sales goes towards eradicating racism.

http://www.themostracesshowonearth.com/new/index.shtml

The show was pretty funny, except for some parts that were a bit over the edge. But all in all, it was a good show and we really enjoyed it.

After the show, we went to a Vietnamese restaurant called Ginger (beside Spring Rolls). It was a "food-court" style restaurant and the food was awesome! The price was very economical and there were many choices. If you are ever in the area and looking for some good Vietnamese food at great prices, you should really try them out!

HOCC tickets for sale

Anyone interested in seeing HOCC on April 10th in TO? A friend of mine is selling his tickets (2 in total). Original price was $148 for 2 and now he is willing to sell it for $130.

Let me know if you are interested! I saw this show in HK and it was amazing!!! Check out my blog entry:

http://june-yusuf.blogspot.com/2007/01/hocc-live-in-unity-2007.html

Practise Practise Practise

This week will be a crazy week. The Brahm's concert is 2 weeks away (eek!) and we are holding practises every other night.

I'm pretty excited about it because a lot of good friends are coming to the concert to cheer me on! I'm very grateful for their support. I'll try to relax and enjoy it as much as possible...althought it'll be very hard since I'm starting to get nervous already!!!

If you want really good breakfast

Yusuf's colleague and his wife invited us for a Saturday brunch this past weekend. Since they live in Etobicoke, they suggested to go to a all day breakfast restaurant called Dr. Generosity. This restaurant is located in the Bloor West village.

http://www.toronto.com/restaurants/listing/204248

The service was friendly and this place was very kid-friendly. They have a nursing room for mothers at the back of the restaurant. The only thing I would suggest is going there before 10:30am to get a good table. After that, there'll be a huge lineup waiting for you.

I ordered the eggs benedict and it was one of the best that I've had. The jalapeno cornbread was just unbelievable and the eggs were poached just right (a little runny of course). The Hollandaise sauce was amazing!!! It was a great experience.

If you do plan to go, for those of you who don't live near there, I would highly recommend taking some time to take a stroll around the area. The street is filled with unique shops, delis, bakeries; it is such a delight to relax and see things that are not from the big box stores!

Oh yes, if you are driving from Markham, Richmond Hill, North York or Scarborough. Here are the directions:

DVP --> Gardiner Expressway --> Exit at South Kingway (N) --> Right on Bloor --> Look for No Frills on your right (East of Runnymede)

Park in the No Frills parking. You can either pay for parking ($2 first hour, $0.75 each hour after), or you can buy something from No Frills and enjoy 1.5 hour of free parking.

Scrapbooking

One of the things we didn't buy from Hong Kong was a guestbook for the ceremony. I got an idea from a friend to create a scrapbook of our photos to have the guests sign. We thought it was a great idea because this brings a more personal touch to the wedding.

Today, I started to shop around for the album and the accessories for our guestbook. After spending 2 hours, I still have no idea about how to start...

Like what I do with everything else, I googled for more ideas.

http://www.mycraftbook.com/Scrapbooking.asp
http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_scrapbooking/0,2024,DIY_13776,00.html

If you have done scrapbooking before or have any suggestions, please help!!!!

Florist shopping

Tonight, with the help of a friend, we paid our first visit to a florist. Before going, we had no idea what we needed to know and we just brought some pictures of bouquets we liked. The florist was very approachable and very helpful and made a lot of good suggestions.

We first described some of the details of our wedding day. That is, bridal party, family, ceremony venue, reception details, etc. We then talked about what flowers we like and the colour themes for our wedding. During this time, she also made suggestions and showed us samples of what she has done in the past, what is practical and what can be made different to make the floral arrangements more special. After all this consultation, she then roughly created an estimate for us to review.

It certainly feels good to get started on florist shopping. Even though we haven't booked yet, it still got us to start thinking about this piece of the puzzle! Thanks for setting this meeting up Cath! ;)

Happy Birthday Lesley!

Friday was the first time I was invited to a birthday party with alcohol in my lute bag! Thanks for inviting me, I had a great time!

The party was really fun, I got to meet a lot of different people and of course, I also learned a lot of new recipes! Especially the sundried tomato pesto covered boccaccini cheese and cherry tomato mini kabobs, they were my favourite! The highlight of the evening was of course the delicious chocolate fountain! It was so cool! Everyone had a wonderful time.

Once again, happy birthday and hope you enjoyed being a princess for the day (with tiara and all)!

You are Cordially Invited...

It's that time again! Our choir (http://alata.ca) is giving out a concert on March 24 at 8pm at Chinese Cultural Centre (Sheppard Ave. and Markham Road). You are cordially invited to come and enjoy a musical evening. We are singing A German Requiem by Brahms and I have the honour to sing a soprano solo.

Tickets are $20 each. I have reserved some tickets (good seats!) if you are interested!

餅咭

Pretty lazy about wedding planning these few weeks. Finally, with the help of some brides-to-be friends, we have started shopping around for 餅咭.

Within our group of friends, we have about 6-7 brides-to-be who needs to get tons of 餅咭. So we have decided to consolidate all our volume in hope to be able to negotiate a better price! Well, of course, it's always good not to reinvent the wheel too!

Thanks very much to a "new best friend's" mom (haha....) who is the coordinator and the big negotiator for us!!!

I think this is a great idea to consolidate the volume and negotiate with the bakeries. You should totally consider this option as well!

Wii had a Wii-ly fun afternoon

On the first day of the year of the pig, a bunch of friends gathered at a friend's house and Wii played Wii!

I've never really been into video games, mainly because with video games, there is not much action involved. Why do I want to play tennis with my fingers? Why don't I play tennis for real? I just don't get it.

Wii is totally different. I was getting a total body workout! Especially the boxing game, I was so intense and into the game that I looked hilarious enough for friends (it was actually Yusuf) to videotape me and put it on their blog!!! (No, I will NOT disclose the link here, are you crazy???) I just hope that it won't become one of the big hitters on youtube.

But seriously, I'm really considering buying a Wii myself as well. Now the question is, where can I find one? hmmmm...the search continues...

An acupuncture experience

I hate needles. Not that I cry or anything, but I would go to extreme measures to avoid them.

Some of you may know that the choir that I sing in, Alata Harmonia Chorus of Canada, will be giving out a concert on Saturday, March 24. We will be singing Brahm's Requeim. I have the opportunity to sing a solo for one of the songs.

So you may ask yourself, "What does this have to do with acupuncture?"

Since my trip back from Hong Kong, I am still recovering from bronchitis. The bronchitis is gone now, but leaving me with a lingering cough (it's call "hundred-day cough" in Chinese medical term). My voice has been slowly getting back to normal, but it's not recovering as fast as I would like it to...

To speed up the healing process, my vocal teacher suggest that I pay a visit to our choir member (also an acupuncture specialist) to get treatment. Honestly, in my head, I was thinking, "Are you kidding me???"

I have never had acupuncture all my life - and wasn't planning to start trying either. Don't get me wrong. I'm a true believer of Chinese medicine. I can also say that I'm proud of the long history of research that Chinese has put into such practical use. But just offering to have needles poke into me in a voluntary basis is just a little too out of character...

My fellow choir member is an acupuncture specialist. Last time my choir conductor had a flu, the acupuncture specialist was able to cure her in just a few days! So, I've decided to go to him for acupuncture therapy as well. It was a little scary at first, but I think it helped because I knew him from choir before.

The whole session took around 25-30 minutes, starting with a reading of the pulse to determine the condition. Then I had to lie on the bed (like going to the doctor) and he would determine which pressure points need needles. I had total of 7 needles in me. After the needles are flicked into my skin (sorry to make you shiver), I had to lie on the bed for 15-20 minutes. Then, the specialist would pull out the needles and the session is complete.

I think you all want to ask one question: "Did it hurt?"
The answer is - Yes, a little bit. But nothing more than taking a needle. There are some parts of your body more sensitive than others, but it's definitely something that you can bear. The most important thing is, I feel much better! It cleared my congestion a lot and I don't have to gasp for air that much after coughing.

He is a registered acupuncturist, so most of us can claim this with our benefits.