Dragonboat Update - Pool Practice

I joined a Dragon boat team sometime in Fall 2013 to help me reach my fitness goals. In the fall/winter season its "off-season" training, so we focus on strengthening, endurance, flexibility and core exercises. With an extended long-winter season, many of us have been eager to hit the pool to practice our paddling technique. 

Indian Food at Madhur's

I went to a friend's house that I met through salsa for a home made Indian dinner.

Roasted Cheese Asparagus Spears

This is one of my favourite easy appetizers that I usually make with many of my seafood dishes. 

Chicken Alfredo Roll

This recipe was adapted from the Recipe Critic. This recipe turned out fantastic! Although you may want to add a little bit more alfredo sauce than I did.  I also recommend using homemade alfredo sauce! 

South Asian Wedding Reception at Berber Social

I was invited to a South Asian wedding reception recently at BerBer Social in the heart of downtown Toronto. There was an open bar, multiple speeches, a Bollywood dance performance, Belly Dancing and delicious cuisine. What I found interesting was that the wedding ceremony and reception actually took place on two different days. 

I took photos with the Canon SL1 with a 24-60mm f 2.8 lens and I loved  the effect and bokeh produced by this lens! 

Board Games & London Fogs

I've been meeting up with the same group of friends several times a month for social outings. Since moving to downtown Toronto, my friends and all these neat places have suddenly become accessible to me.

Snakes and Lattes

My iPhone camera doesn't produce the best quality photos, but nonetheless it captured a few moments we had at Snakes and Lattes is a $5 admission cafe with access to a huge library of board games in the heart of downtown Toronto. Its tucked away by Bathurst station (Honest Ed's!) and the lineups are usually very long.

The waiters are also super helpful and will explain game rules and strategies to you if your group is struggling.

It was my first time there and I was surprised at how much fun I actually had, I get a bit too competitive at board games and often take the outcomes VERY personally (unless I win... I kid, I kid).

Bloor-Yorkville's Icefest 2014

This past Saturday, my cousin Cindy and I met up to take part in "Ice Fest", where ice sculpture competitions took place. The temperature was about 3 degrees Celsius above 0, but the organizers were able to keep the sculptures cool. We took this opportunity to practice our photography skills and to catch up together.

Equipment:

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel SL1 f 18-55 mm

Edited with: Adobe Lightroom 5

I tried to keep in mind things I had learned from photography composition: specifically rule of thirds, including textures, patterns, and perspectives. I'm hoping that with more practice I can get better

001. The Theme: "Heat Wave": All of the sculptures were related to something tropical.

Lonely Hearts Valentine's Potluck

I've been feeling really sick this past week, and finally took a day off to recover (I slept the entire day, fluids, meds, etc.). As a result I had to postpone a potluck I had planned for VDay but nonetheless it went off without a hitch!

We don't take Valentine's Day too seriously, and take the "hallmark" holiday as an excuse to get together with good friends and have some good food.

I hosted an "anti-Valentine's" day potluck at my condo. I put together the facebook event and titled it "Lonely Hearts" (a homage to Marina and the Diamonds song, "Lonely Hearts Club"), the tagline was "for singles, couples and the confused".