Pool and Barbecue

Yesterday, June 23rd, we had agreed that we would have a barbecue at Damien's house in Ajax. Why? because he has a pool! We had actually wanted to do this barbecue for a while, but it didn't happen until yesterday. I had work until around 2:00 p.m. so Meli came to my work and Damien picked us up. We went then to the supermarket to buy ingredients; steak, chicken, burgers, salmon and some veggies. If you are wondering how many of us were at the barbecue, the answer is three. We would have been four if it wasn't because Os went to a "diaper party"... which honestly it's just a baby shower, but he thought diaper party sounded better (it doesn't). So we get to Damien's house and his mom was there, raiding the fridge to take food up to the cottage. Damien's parents were up north working at a cottage, and they only came back to empty the fridge since it's so inconvenient to get food up there and they were back to get some materials anyway. Damien's mom is really cool and says that Damien was adopted (well she is definitely prettier!). We got to meet Damien's birds as well who were flying all round the place, which got him a bit upset, yet his mom caught them and put them back in the cage really easily (it takes him a lifetime to do it usually).

We had been complaining to Damien about him promising us he would make roti, so his mom very kindly prepared the mix for us to just knead and shape and cook later. Meli and I agreed that he was just waiting for his mom to make it and then take the credit himself.

After we prepped the food to be grilled, we opened up some young coconuts and drank that refreshing juice while sitting with our feet soaking in the pool. Damien called grill master, so Meli and I just relaxed. To start we had some grilled peppers and eggplant and a burger each.

Damien as grill master

We decided to leave the sirloin steaks, salmon and chicken for dinner. After we had our burgers, we decided it was time to prepare the curry chicken for the roti, and so we did... although I got very frustrated at the fact that none of Damien's knives were sharp. I ended up having a hard time even de-boning the chicken... But after an arduous fight with the chicken, everything was done and Damien made the curry, so we had roti with curry chicken in the patio as a snack before we made dinner.

Later on that night, Derek and Gia decided to join us after they went to the Rib Fest in Oakville. We sat at the patio chatting and listening to the radio while we watched Gia failing at opening a wine bottle. We ended the night watching TV and having sirloin steak, grilled salmon and cheese cake. We had to go back inside because the mosquitoes at the patio were feeding on us. Really fun, relaxing and exhausting day I would say!

Too bad we didn't swim since we didn't have our bathing suits, but maybe next time!

- Rin

June  24th, 2012

Rin's adventure in Stratford

Morning every one!! I know it's not morning, but it saves me the time to think about what greeting to use. In any case, as mentioned on my previous entry, I went off into my own little adventure on Thursday morning to Stratford.


Let's begin by answering, why Stratford? For those who have never heard of the place, it's a town in Ontario roughly a bit over two hours away on train from Toronto. The place is also known as Shakespeare Town, inspired in the original located in England. So, five years ago, Colton and I met at an Anime convention (Anime North)... well more than really meeting, we just had a picture together. Few days later, I meet his friend on facebook who decides to tag him and etc etc... Now we are friends! Normally, Colton would come to Toronto to visit, but I had said before that I wanted to visit Stratford sometime. So for our fifth year anniversary I suppose (that'll be my excuse) I decided to finally go.

VIA railway @ Union Station

I left the house around 9:00 a.m. on June 21st to get to the VIA train station in downtown Toronto for departure at 10:55 a.m.  It takes a bit over an hour to get to Union Station, which is where the VIA rails are located, so I made it in time to purchase my tickets and wait for the train for a few minutes. I arrived at Stratford around 1:20 p.m. and walked out to look for Colton who was picking me up. Suddenly I head a voice behind me saying, "looking for someone?"; I turn around and there he was! From the station to his house is a 5-10 minute walk, as Colton would say, you can walk to town in half an hour. We got to his house and I greeted his dad, who is a really nice person.

Stratford City Hall

It was raining Thursday afternoon, so we decided to stay in while Colton's dad actually went out to the race tracks (he even went golfing the next day... what a nice life).On the other hand, we watched "Police Academy 1" (very funny movie! watch it!) and played a game of League of Legends. Also watched some more shows and we had shrimp pasta for dinner, which Colton made. My first impression walking into his room was "I don't feel so bad about my messy room anymore", and as I saw the wall that had a few anime posters and drawings, I noticed a set of sticker pictures on the wall. I thought that was cute and later on when I got close enough to look at them, I realized it was the one we took together two years ago! (so sweet~). We went to bed fairly early that night, since he couldn't find a party on Final Fantasy to get to level 50 and I was already passed out.

Downtown Stratford

On Friday, I wanted to go walk around, so a few hours after our strawberry pie and ice cream breakfast, we went "downtown". Those who live in Toronto know how busy and crowded downtown can get. But in Stratford, downtown is... small enough to walk through the whole thing in 20 - 30 minutes! Downtown is actually around four streets from Colton's house... does that mean uptown is around four streets the opposite direction? In any case, we had lunch at Bentley's and took a walk along the river. We rested a bit on the island they had on the river and then headed back home. To finish the day, we watched "Police Academy 2" and shortly after it was time for me to return home. Colton went with me to the station and the train departed Stratford at 8:55 p.m. and I got back home around 1:00 a.m.


All in all, it was simple and fun. I'll probably go back another time specially because I forgot my glasses and my umbrella at Colton's place. I wrote this blog the night I got home, but didn't get time to publish it until now! Sorry! So that's all for now~ Thanks for reading and have a good day!

- Rin

June 24th, 2012

Cosplay Idol & Mental Scoop Propaganda

Hey everybody! It's a bit over 3:40 a.m. right now, but I thought I'd blog before going to bed since I can't seem to fall asleep D=

So anyway, I received a confirmation that my cosplay entry had been accepted into a competition that I wanted to try applying for just for the sake of it! Now, as my post for Diablo III had stated, a friend of mine also entered this competition and she thanks all for the support she is getting. I am doing it for the sake of it, seems absolutely fun. As per facebook, my picture went up around 14 hours ago and has gotten over 150 likes already, which made me very excited! If you like my cosplay, please vote for me and check out the facebook post! I won't post the photo up on the blog just so you can click on the links (mwahahahaha).

Also, something exciting! Make sure you check out Os' guest post on Paul's blog "Scoop Mental Propaganda". Paul is an amazingly cool and chill guy who goes around snapping pictures and blogging about it. And he asked Os for a guest post due to SMP's one year anniversary, congrats Paul!

That's all for now, I should get some sleep before my adventure in a few hours, of which I will tell you on my next blog! Have a good day!

- Rin

June 21st, 2012

Random

  I was going though some photo"s on my Blackberry and i found some good ones to show all of you. This is on the bus that I take to get to work.

The next one is a type of superhero I am still trying to figure that one out. 

I love the TTC sometimes :)

  So on Monday I was playing D 3 with Rin, and two guy friends. My sister had gone out before that, about 3 hours later I check my phone I see my sister left me a msg telling me she is gonna sleep over a friends house. OK no problem! I get up put the chain on the door and later fall asleep. My alarm goes off the next morning. I reach over thinking I just gonna hit the snooze botten. Luckily  I took a good look at my screen I had 12 missed calls all from my sister. She had pinged me several times on bmm as well. Turns out she came home around 7 am pinged me and called me, no answer. She then tryed to open the door to our apartment and I had the chain on. So she spent the next 10 mins just opening the door just as far as the chain would like her calling out my name. She was not too loud because people were sleeping. Our neighbours heard came out to see what was going on she explained . Then our landlord came around to do her morning cleaning and asked her what she is doing talking between the cracks of our door. My sister explained the situation she laughed at her and said " Maybe your sister doesn't want you here anymore". My sister waited downstairs then she decided to head to the nearest Timms to got herself coffee and a snack. So finely I awake around 8:30. Called her she explained what happened and I laughed. I unlock the door, headed back to laying on my bed because I was still sleepy , she let herself in. She proceed to enter my room and I took one look at her and said " Where's my coffee?" She did not look impressed. I just smiled at her.

Meli

Diablo III

On May 15th, 2012, Blizzard Entertainment officially released Diablo III. Now, for those who have never heard of this game, I invite you to use "google" it (google is not a verb!! >_<). Giving a briefing of the storyline would not do justice to the game, so I also invite you to play it! But let's be serious and loyal to the reason why this blog was made, that is, why am I even mentioning it?

Well you see, a bit over two weeks back I decided to purchase the game for certain reasons (aside from the fact that I had been avoiding it to not fall into sleepless nights which are now explained to you). On that same day, I invited Meli over to my house since we always hang out on Thursday for our routine tea time. Little did she know she was walking into a trap! A trap called "Welcome to the world of Diablo III". While we were waiting for more people to arrive, we installed Diablo III on my computer and I gave her a trial key so she could try the game at home since she found it interesting. Game play wise it's fairly comparable to "Guild Wars" or "Forsaken World", etc... you mainly run through dungeons to complete missions and kill Diablo. Meli tried the game at home and she seemed to like it, so Gia (a random character in our lives lol) and I decided to buy it for her for her birthday... little did we know though; as we picked her up to go for dinner, she had already bought the game online!!! (and there went her surprise present).

Fast forwarding to two days back, after Os came back from his lovely trip to Scotland, we welcomed him to Hell with us. And although he refused to play the game saying he had quit gaming, we have taken him into the world of Diablo, as he purchased it the same night when we got home! Now we have our adventures in game too, except Damien still has not gotten around to getting the game, shame on him! So here ends my rambling for today and back to my sleepless nights since I just entered Nightmare. Good day all and for those who play, let me know! I will see you in Hell!!

Drawing by Bianca L. (Kitsurie Yuki)

Photo credit goes to Kitsurie Yuki who is an amazing artist and cosplayer! Please find her on facebook and give her lots of thumbs up. Also support her at the "Otaku House Cosplay Contest", greatly appreciate it! 

- Rin

June 16th, 2012

By the way, I found this as I was looking through things on my computer~ It's the secret level that replaces the cow level from Diablo II! I was taken here when I was a level 2, let's just say I did more dying than anything else there lol. And yes, you decapitate unicorns and stab teddy bears and step all over flowers!!

key

                                                                                                                                              DAMIEN                              

My turn!

 Hi, I'm Meli! 

  I'm a 35ish year old woman who was born in Greece.  I came to Canada in a young age and been living here ever since. I'm an art and history student, who love's to travel. My passions are drawing, painting and photography. I do like to poke fun at my friends and sometimes say ridiculous things. I'm a bit of a nut in general.

  My life is well.....lets just say "things only happen to me' . I give you a great example! Picture this: I'm walking behind my work just last week at a community centre through the park area. Around 3ish a sunny day with a cool wind blowing through my hair. As I am walking by a patch of trees and bushes, I feel something tug through my hair! It was for a moment and I felt it brush along my head I turned my head to see what the hell it was.... and it was a black bird who was still around my head but out of my hair yelling at me! I was like what the fuck!!!... So yea I got attacked by a small bird. This type of stuff happens to me and I feel the need to share them with everyone. By the way Os and Rin don't know this story so it should be interesting for them!

  We wanted to make this site so we can all share our thoughts on everything in life. To share our skills (Os's is talking ppl to death) and experiences. I hope you have an enjoyable read and please come again!

P.S

   I do not have pink hair it was a cosplay from Mirai Nikki

Well you caught me. I am not 35ish but Os says I should say an age way above mine. Silly Os....I am however the oldest of our group and I do look young for my age in general. Well that's all folks! 

Love, Meli 

Meli's Birthday

I had mentioned before that June 13th was Meli's birthday, and as tradition (since last year) we decided to go to the United States for lunch. Why? Because we can have lunch in Canada any time, thus to make it more interesting, we go to USA. We started the day with Damien picking me up at 10:00 a.m. and then proceeded to get Os and Meli. Then as usual, we ordered Starbucks drinks (Grande Soy no foam no whip White Mocha~ yum). As we were at the gas station to fill the tank to make our way to the border, the day started with a good laugh. An elderly man was driving a car with the license plate NVRBL8 (never be late for those who don't get it), yet he took his sweet time walking. Very cute in my opinion.

License plate @ Petro Canada

Normally it would take us an hour and a half to two hours to get to our destination, however, we got to Chili's (which is where we decided to have lunch) at around 3:00 p.m.! We got caught up for a bit at the border since Meli had to go into the office to get a permit to cross the border and as Os, Damien and I were waiting in the reception area, turns out she was having a conversation of a lifetime with the immigration officer! (she will give ALL the details later). Yes, after many detours and our VERY reliable GPS "Higa" taking us to unknown places, we finally made it.

Chili's @ New York State

Excited about lunch, we got the menus and as usual, Damien wanted to order about everything there was. Os and Damien had "mango ice tea" (oh United States, you always come up with these things). Meli had a root beer and I ordered a Sprite. While having our drinks, we finally came to the conclusion as to what we would order. The food was quite enjoyable and the conversation as well. We always talk about the most random things and get lost in it. Lunch was going great until the manager approached us and said a customer had complained that we were "loud", and so very politely he asked us to lower our voices. This made us a bit upset considering we were actually using a very moderate volume of voice (even if Os is a loud mouth at times) and that the waitresses were yelling and making a lot more noise. Not to be disrespectful to any one out there, but if you want quiet, go to a library - we were at a bar grill house, and in Toronto, that equals loud.

Top left - Shrimp Tacos
Top right and bottom left - Three style fajita platter
Bottom right - Triple thick bacon smokehouse burger

Damien having a double special -
back ribs and a 6oz. steak with mashed potatoes and broccoli

The upsetting part wasn't being told to lower our voices, but the fact that the "customer" who complained had to ask the manager to tell us. We would gladly lower our voice if that person came to us and asked us to do so; putting the manager in such a position even made him uncomfortable. So we ended our lunch in an almost sour note... not as sour as the cream that splashed all over Damien!

Cheesecake Factory

We headed to our usual last stop before coming back to Canada, Cheesecake Factory! We went to Forever 21 and did some shopping before going into Cheesecake Factory. We usually get three pieces of cake each, but this time we were good children and only ordered an average of two per person.

Os happily carrying his three pieces of cake

Damien and more cake!

Happy at the end of our little trip~ We head back to Canada with enough cake for... maybe a few hours. We wanted to go for sushi originally fr dinner, however, lunch was still sitting there... so we decided to go for bubbletea! We got back to Toronto at around 8:30 p.m. and went to Green Grove to end our day with three honey green teas and a passion fruit green tea while playing Monopoly Deal! Meli and Os will give you more details... maybe~ I am out now, I've been running on three hours of sleep in the last few days - So... thanks for reading! Have a good day!

- Rin
June 14th, 2012

Well, Rin, not sure I can add much onto that since you were pretty thorough about everything.  


I guess the only thing she didn't really explain is the sour cream fiasco haha.  At the end of our meal at Chili's, a waitress walking by dropped a small bowl of sour cream.  It exploded, leaving Damien covered, me with a few spots, and sour cream more than 6 feet up the wall behind us.  Damien went off to the restroom to clean up and the poor waitress was half-traumatized, her co-worker apologizing to us at LEAST 10 times, worrying that Damien might not be alright.  We told them it was all ok, in between gasps from laughing so hard.  Personally, I'd recommend the Chili's we went to, if I actually knew where Higa ended up taking us...


That's another thing.  Higa is our GPS, like Rin said.  Always creating... interesting routes for us to take when going places.  To me, Higa is like family, always there to give us some laughs.  Whether she's telling us to turn into a fenced off area of grass, or to travel in 4 directions at once, we know we can depend on her to be undependable, and I love it haha  Meli however insists on replacing her for Christmas this year :(
That's about all I can add, other than it was a great day with my best friends.


Happy Birthday Meli!

- Os

June 14th, 2012

Os, "a Guy"

Hi everybody!

As Rin has so helpfully pointed out, I am a bit of an attention seeker, with a habit of rambling.  I apologize in advance for being over talkative haha.


I'm called Os, born and raised Canadian, and, in fact, half Newfie.  You'll find I'm friendly and nerdy, and pretty outspoken about things.  I spend my time gaming, working security, volunteering, reading and hanging out with friends.  I travel as much as possible, to as many destinations as I can get to.  I'll probably post pictures of my exploits from time to time.  While I work security, my dream is to work in voice acting, a goal I am working towards achieving, hopefully by the end of 2012 I'll start my first job.


I'm going to try to keep this short and simple to start, so if there's anything else you'd like to know, feel free to leave a message =D  I don't bite.  Hard.

- Os

June 13th, 2012

This is Rin!

I know I wrote a general post to introduce ourselves as a group, but we have decided (yes, while at the bubbletea shop) to write a post for each of us (mostly because Os is an attention whore~).

I am Rindana, just call me Rin! Most of my friends do. I was born in China, but currently live in Toronto, Canada. My hobbies include gaming, drawing, and bugging other people. I enjoy talking to people all around the world, so leave me a message anytime! And... for some reason I ran out of things to say, but keep reading on to get to know me~ Although, beware, I might scare you =P

-Rin

June 13th, 2012

Good Day!!!

Hey every one!!
We are two Girls, a Guy & Damien!
We are a group of friends who hang out and have fun, sometimes do stupid and crazy things and we just have random adventures... well if you consider going to another country just for lunch an adventure.
So, pretty self explanatory we are two girls, Rindana (Rin) and Melisoula (Meli), a guy Ostento (Os) and... well, Damien. No, Damien is not a pet nor an animal, but considering how technologically challenged he is, he will only be in charge of providing random photos once in a while. Never the less, we have to mention him!
We live in Toronto, well... most of us, Damien prefers being away in Ajax and we're still trying to figure out why considering he spends most of his time out of that place. Once a police officer stopped him and he admitted to be lost right around the corner of where he lives...

Right now, I am writing from a bubbletea shop we frequent, the Green Grove at Market Village, right next to Pacific Mall. For those who live around the area, you know exactly what type of place this is. For those who do not know what bubbletea is... no, it does not involve bubbles in the tea, well, sort of. If you want to find out, come check this place out right at the back of Market Village! Anyway, long story short, hope you guys follow us in our daily lives!

By the way, today's Meli's birthday, so I'll give you all the details later!

Have a good day!


Green Grove @ Market Village

-Rin

June 13th, 2012