Tuesday, September 9, 2025
So wedding, one of the biggest events of my life I didn't document yet. I already did the engagement, so naturally, the next step was actually getting married.
I've seen my fair share of wedding prep from peers and stories I've read online. It's usually messy and stressful. I wanted to avoid all that, and the waifu agreed. If it was going to make us stressed, we wanted no part of it. It should be simple, happy and enjoyable. So to avoid all that, might as well just sign the papers right? Yeah, that's what we initially thought of doing. Several of my peers in Malaysia have done just that. Avoided the traditional, expensive wedding where you invited your close friends and family, and were forced to invite all your extended relatives and family friends because they're people you're expected to invite. They just went to sign their ROM at a government institution. Considering the extreme costs of every aspect of a wedding, who can blame them? We thought of doing the same, except it was a bit more confusing because we weren't familiar with the local marriage laws. We genuinely thought just showing up at City Hall and signing papers was it. We needed two witnesses, it was several hundred and the booking process was a complicated mess. Considering that, we looked up who else could legally officiate weddings. Well, I'm in a church with a minister, so I checked with my minister at the time, Rev. Karen Dale, on whether she could do it, as we were unsure. And turns out, she could! Turns out that any officially ordained minister of a religious group could be an officiant, legally wed and send in our marriage license to be legally married. Karen said she'd be happy to marry us, and asked for some specifics and details. We initially planned to just go to Karen's office, have out witnesses there, sign the papers and done! And then she told us since I was a church member, we could use the sanctuary for free, and she would waive her minister's fees. We'd only need to pay the general miscellaneous fee of $200 and an extra bit for the musician, which would be Barry Peters, our organist. In light of that, we thought why not? Cost was the biggest factor as to why we didn't want anything fancy. If the cost was this low, then we thought we could go ahead with a traditional church wedding. Of course, we'd still make an effort to keep costs low, and to reduce the overall stress.
First, late June we tried to get the photography settled. I checked online for a ton of photographers, getting into contact with many of them, discussing rates, hours and all. Lots were very friendly, understanding and engaging, but nearly all of them were way out of budget for us. I understand the value of art. You charge what you think you're worth and the arts have been criminally underpaid for a long time. At the same time I didn't want to bargain and cheap out on them and their talents. Anyway, Onion had also found a few, and we quite liked one of them, Ming Yung, who had done others' wedding photography work at RHUC before. We contacted him, made the deposit and we'd see him on the wedding date after discussing what we'd like, availability and all.
The makeup artist was messier, lol. Also in late June we were considering between some professionals, Sephora freelancers and others, and eventually settled on my ex-colleague Vivian. Part of it was a lot of the reasonable freelancers we contacted weren't free on the date of the wedding, and those who were were charging exorbitant prices. Luckily, Vivian agreed, although surprised. We knew she had decent makeup skills and thought it would be a way to make it easier on everyone. We planned to go to her place for a makeup test in early August. On the same day she notified us that she would be visiting Sri Lanka with her husband, Shane's, side of the family during our wedding. Lmao. Great. She profusely apologized and tried to offer payment to us to get a Sephora staff to do it, but we said no worries. We still went to her place, just to test makeup styles and see what she'd like. The girls did their makeup while I chilled with Shane. We drank a lot of alcohol and I vaped some of his e-cigs. Had some pretty good conversation with him while waiting for the girls. Once they were done, I offered my own opinions on Onion's makeup, which I thought looked pretty nice, if a bit heavy (Vivian's style). Onion continued to look up more potential makeup artists who could help.
The next day, August 5, we went to Exclusively Yours Jewelry, a business by Sako Guldag, who, I mentioned previously, had passed away recently. But in 2023 he was still alive and well, and we went to his store to check out some wedding bands. We wanted good quality bands that would last and wouldn't corrode. Also, for the waifu's tiny fingers, we needed to resize the ring as we never found any rings that fit her without resizing. We wanted something practical but nice, nothing fancy or was full of gems that could get loose. Silver corroded, and we both didn't like the yellow colour of regular gold. After an hour we finally picked out two simple wedding bands, made of white gold. Not crazy thick, not pencil thin. Just a nice thickness that fit our fingers, respectively. Also the ones we picked out didn't have sharp edges, which added to the comfort and snug fit on our fingers. Obviously, Onion's ring needed resizing, while mine didn't, it was a perfect fit from the start. We paid and later collected it on the 19th, admiring our rings and putting them in the ringbox for the wedding.
On August 16th, we met up with the makeup artist, Jennie, that Onion had found via Instagram. Jennie was a freelance makeup artist who had a style Onion liked, and was a reasonable cost. We drove to her place near York University, and I petted her 2 cats (very cute and chonky!). The makeup was really nice, and we were happy with the results. We ate at Fox & Fiddle afterwards and took lots of pictures of her in makeup and soft, low lighting just to show off how pretty Onion was =D.
And of course, the guest list. This was probably the biggest issue. We didn't want to invite everyone under the sun, but we also didn't want to restrict it to only family, which was our initial plan. Plus both of our parents were not in a condition to fly over, not to mention the ridiculous costs, just to come here for a wedding, stay, and go back. We made a very simple and basic guest list, so as to not stress, as we made it pretty much our mantra. If we weren't sure, then no. We ended up with about 30 people, which we felt was just nice as we didn't want to overburden ourselves regarding food and drink later.
Speaking of which, food was another headache. The cost of catering was crazy expensive. We were initially very keen on a grazing platter, but just to account for the food for roughly 30 people was in the several hundreds, either through catering or grazing platters. Plus some had very inflexible schedules you needed to account for. I hope I'm not sounding too entitled, but why would a wedding need to account more for the caterer, than the other way around? Anyway, after debating on what food to bring, we ended up deciding on pastry tarts and fruits, with juice. Keep it simple. Our wedding wasn't meant to be super fancy, and the food was would another bout of stress. Considering we would only have the guests for less than 2 hours, a huge amount of food wasn't necessary. And from my own personal experience, a lot of people don't eat that much, there's always so much left over. We initially planned for a significant number of tarts from Whole Foods, and we even taste-tested the best flavours ourselves. Only to find a week before the wedding that due to some changing things behind the scenes, they would not have our choice of flavours for the week. Seriously? We ended up getting tarts from McEwan's instead. Not as good as our choices at Whole Foods, but still pretty tasty and decent.
Our wedding outfits were much simpler. Seeing how we didn't want to spend several hundreds on outfits we'd probably only wear once, we got them from affordable places. We went to a traditional wedding gown store inside Woodside Square, where there was a very helpful and friendly attendant, and and overbearing boss who kept trying to upsell and pressure us to buy on the spot. The costs ranged from a few hundred to the thousands. Way more than we wanted for a one-day dress that would probably stay hidden for the rest of our lives. We tried on about 3-4, but wanted more time to think through. The assistant was understanding (and she did all the tying up of the gowns), while the boss kept trying to pressure us to buy it on the spot, or pick another dress we could buy right then and there. Onion ended up getting it from Malaysia. One thing was the size. My now-wife is a tiny, petite Asian woman. Most wedding dresses here fit the larger women. She looked up some that could ship here and eventually found one elegant, beautiful dress in white that looked sleek and yet almost casual that would be suitable for the wedding.
For my suit and pants, I got them from Value Village. Yeah, lol. We spent quite a lot of time there and eventually found a suit and pant set that fit me perfectly (only the pants needed a bit of shortening). It was like 60 bucks? Very thick, good quality material. I found a pair of formal shoes that were less than 20. And I already owned a formal, white shirt. So less than $100 for my wedding outfit. Onion found a pair of silver sandals that fit her dress perfectly. For $20. Yeah, you wouldn't be able to tell, seriously.
By the end of August we had pretty much settled everything. We had discussed the details with Karen and the church office admin, Deb. We picked out our vows, got the general outlined and had picked the music for Barry, our church organist. We were flexible with the music during the guest arrivals, having provided Barry the sheet music, but also telling him he would pick whatever he thought was suitable. We chose a piano cover of Ed Sheeran's "Perfect" as our processional, and "To Zanarkand" from Final Fantasy X as our recessional. Yes, it's that good. Probably one of the best pieces of music from the entire franchise ever.
And then a week before the wedding, our condo's A/C broke down, just as a massive heat wave was starting. Holy shit, it was bad. It literally felt like suffocating in the unit, and Toshi, who normally liked the warmth, was sluggish and laying on her side on the hardwood floor all day. Even at night, when I came home, it was unbearable. The condo management said it was too late and would be too costly to repair it when summer was ending soon, and told us to just deal with it. Yeah, basically told us to bugger off. Easy for them to say when they weren't burning. We were considering changing venues for the makeup from our place to Jennie's, as we didn't want Onion sweating all the makeup away before the wedding. Lucky for us, a day before the wedding, the weather cooled down significantly, enough to be bearable, and Jennie came over on the morning of the wedding date.
Also, during this time, Onion had been speaking to her friend from Seattle, Amy about coming over to our wedding. They have been online friends for almost 20 years, moving from platform to platform but keeping in contact all this while. They've shared a lot over the years and on a whim, Onion mentioned we were getting married and that if within her means, we'd love for her to attend. We didn't expect her to literally come over! She flew in 2 days before the wedding. We picked her up from the airport, and Onion was the one who met her at the arrivals. They finally met in person for the first time! It was really cool. We drove to a Petite Potato to have a late night dinner, chatting; me getting to know her, and Onion catching up with her longtime friend. The next day, we went for a short hike at Rouge Urban National Park. Onion and I had hiked this trail a year or two ago and really liked it. The fall colours were beautiful and it was a very accessible, easy hike. Amy loves birdwatching and we were hoping to see some birds at the park along our hike. Unfortunately, not much, with maybe a few visible. Still, it was good getting some fresh air and chatting with her. I heard a lot about their prior conversations and how they got to know each other. We went back to our place and played board games! We played Lizard Wizard and Obsession, two games that Amy really wanted to try, and while I don't remember who won, I do recall all of us enjoying the games a lot. We made a ton of jokes during Obsession, inventing scenarios and voicing the pompous British elites, and the activities we were making them do.
The night before the wedding, we needed to prepare our vows to each other. This was probably the only thing that stressed Onion out tremendously, lol. Even though it was relatively simple. I thought about funny and significant things I wanted to promise to Onion, and wrote mine after some thought, while Onion was really stressed and started laughing crazily because she didn't know where to start. How to encompass practically everything you want with a person? What to focus on, emphasize, leave out? Without sounding too sappy or overly serious. I helped her out, giving an outline that she could add on, and she eventually finished it. I would spend the next morning, on the wedding day itself, getting it printed at Staples.
The next morning, I woke up super early to set things up at the church. I was originally going to grab the tarts from McEwan and get to church, but my cousin Chloe offered to get it since it was nearer. She also offered to help me set up in the morning. I got to church around 8 and started arranging the decor in the sanctuary as we had discussed, with our short rehearsal a few weeks back the only sort of practice we did. Onion did the floral decorations of the altar herself, buying fake flowers from Dollarama and Ikea, learning how to best arrange the plants and cover up the metal tray we used as a base. It was honestly really impressive! And lots of church members praised it. We took out some candleholders normally used for Christmas as a decor we were including. Onion and I spent an afternoon a few weeks back scraping away the dripped wax so it looked nicer. Chloe and I put the tarts in the fridge and arranged the tables in the Garden Room, where the "reception" would be after the wedding ceremony. After 2 hours, we were finally done! I had to quickly rush back home to shower and get changed, and also, as mentioned above, get our vows printed from a nearby Staples. Jennie was in the midst of putting on makeup for Onion, and I cleaned myself up before getting changed into the wedding outfit and spiking my hair. Yes. We were discussing whether I should, considering how significant this day was, and Onion said she didn't mind either way, but since it was a trademark of mine, intentionally not spiking it for the big day would be doing it for the sake of the wedding.
Once she was done and I was all good, I drove us to the church, including Toshi, who we bought a cute cat-sized wedding dress for. Frustratingly, it felt like everything was against us getting there on time. First, during this period of time, on the weekends they had narrowed 401 East to a single lane for summer construction, which made it painfully slow. I found that out a few weeks back. It made my 20 minute drive into almost an hour. So I drove up Yonge St instead all the way to Richmond Hill. I hit practically every single red light going up. I'm not exaggerating. Maybe one or two were green when I got there. It was maddening. And then while driving up there, on 3 separate occasions, ambulances with sirens drove past us, requiring me to stop at the side to let them pass. We got to church later than expected due to all this, and our photographer, Ming Yung, was already there and waiting for us. We planned to do about an hour of photoshooting with just us, before the ceremony. It would save us time and money instead of doing it on a separate day. Plus we would be all dolled up. Thank God that Chloe and I had set up everything in the morning. If not, it would be very messy and chaotic. We quickly made sure we were in shape and got to doing the photos. Ming Yung was very professional. He knew how to direct us and do the poses he wanted us to do himself, so we had a frame of reference. The hour passed by very fast and some of the early guest arrivals were started to sit down, watching us pose and get our photos taken around the church sanctuary. Towards the end, we took Toshi out and took several photos with her too! Absolutely adorable. We joked that she was the actual bride. Everyone adored her. Even Barry, while waiting to play music, was enamoured with her and kept petting her.
Once it was almost time and we cleaned up all of Toshi's fur from us, we started prepping and getting to our places. There was a slight bit of panic as Naisaragi, one of our witnesses, was late and came in like 5 minutes before the wedding. Once Karen began speaking to the guests, Barry slowed down on the guest arrival music as I walked up to the altar and Barry played the music. I've never been a fan of being in a spotlight, but for a wedding, you literally can't help it. Everyone was watching me. Then as Barry began playing "Perfect" my cousins Lilian and Chloe walked down the aisle first, as her bridesmaids. And then my fiancee came down. It's hard to describe what I felt at that moment. We had been together for 8 years at that point, gone through a lot of ups and downs together. We had discussed our marriage and engagement for years, and yet as she walked down, I felt very overwhelmed with emotion. I could feel myself choke and was almost on the verge of tears. Very strange! I'm not saying I'm emotionless, but I've never felt this way in any other situation before. Crying during sad movies, during trying times and all that, yeah, sure. But almost tearing up when seeing your soon-to-be wife walking down the aisle was never something I thought I'd do. I thought I'd be more happy and proud, which I was, but not this overwhelmed with emotion. She took her place beside me.
As Karen introduced herself to the guests, she asked us a question of intent, which interestingly, she had to legally do. We said yes. And then she asked the crowd if there was anyone who would object, and naturally, no one said anything. She said that if for some reason anyone objected, she had to verify and find out why, it was more than just tradition. She made a prayer before reading several verses of Scripture on love and union. Then, we were instructed to take our respective candles and light them together in the unity candle, which was something I really wanted to do after seeing it from several Christian weddings I've attended. After which we proceeded with our vows. The very thing that drove Onion mad the previous night. We had them on nicely printed paper, attached to thick cardboard. I'll copy and paste what we wrote, and said to each other:
Howe's:
The last 8 years have been a wonderful time getting to know and grow together with you. Reaching across from the other side of the world, we began as colleagues, to friends, to lovers, to fiancees, and now to be husband and wife.
I look forward to building a life with you in this next stage of our relationship. Whether it's making stupid jokes, squishing Toshi, warming the bed before you sleep, or discussing the merits of board games, I anticipate an eternity of that, and more, with you.
In the presence of God, family and our friends, I, Howe, take you, Onion, to be my wife, to laugh with you in joy, to grieve with you in sorrow, to grow with you in love. Where you go, I will go, and where you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, your history, my history, your future, my future. I trust you to care for our family, and I give you my faith and my love, as long as we both shall live.
Onion's:
Howe, we both know how indecisive I can be but one thing that I know with complete certainty is that you are the person that I want to spend the rest of my life with. I love that beneath your spiky exterior is a warm and gentle heart, beneath your stern expression is a romantic and passionate soul. I love that you make me laugh, challenge me, support me and above all, you accept me unconditionally, showering me with love and tenderness that no one ever has. You are the candle that lights my way and the fire that keeps me warm (literally and figuratively). I can’t promise I can measure up to you but I promise I will love you, as I always have, and always will, even if it means I have to listen to you ramble about theological debates and the concept of free will for the rest of my life.
And here, in the presence of our friends and family, I, Onion pledge to you a life of love and understanding. I shall be with you in sorrow and in joy and will be faithful to you alone as long as we both shall live, and forevermore.
I wrote my vows based on several things. First, we've always found it amusing how despite being on the other side of the world, we came to meet and get together, and I wanted to highlight that, as well as the growing nature of our relationship. I added in a few personal things that we share as things I would like to always do with her. And then I took an adapted version of the Bible verse in Ruth and applied it to her. To share our grief and joys, and wherever she would be, so would I. A shared future with my faith and love. We both actually broke down and cried during this part, lol. When I said I was overwhelmed with emotions as Onion was walking down, I wasn't kidding. But to start choking and crying when reciting my vows was completely unexpected. I was offered tissue to wipe away the tears, lmao, thanks to Chloe. I managed to finish my vows. The same thing happened to Onion. She also began to cry as she said her vows, which made me tear up watching her cry. All a buncha crybabies, lol.
After that we proceeded to present our rings and put them on our fingers. Nothing dropped, thankfully! I'd read of cases there that happened, and we didn't want to join that statistic. The rings fit perfect for each of us, thank you, Sako! Again, with our respective words:
Onion, I give you this ring as a symbol of my love for you, and my commitment to you. Today, tomorrow and all the years to come.
Howe, I give you this ring as a sign of our covenant. With all that I am, and all that I have, I honour you, cherish you and love you for all time.
With the sharing of vows and exchange of rings, Karen then announced us as married, and to kiss the bride! And so we did. I've been to a lot of weddings and the kiss is always one of the more interesting parts. Some are awkward as hell and you can tell they have no experience. Some are really passionate. And most are in between somewhere. Ours was probably what I'd consider in between. We've kissed a lot over the years already.
Then as Barry began playing Joe Hisaishi's "Summer", our witnesses were invited to come up and sign the marriage license. We had my cousin Chloe and Naisaragi, Onion's former colleague to sign the papers. We signed our respective sections and then received a blessing from Karen. She further made a blessing for the guests who had come, and then asked all to stand as she pronounced us husband and wife! We walked off for the recessional as Barry changed the music to Final Fantasy X's "To Zanarkand" and we walked off to the entrance of the church as everyone applauded and cheered. We went all the way to the door before turning around and Karen announced that the reception would be prepared soon after we took photos. We didn't feel it was necessary to have photos with distinct groups, apart from my family, as some were individuals, and we didn't want everyone to be waiting around for their turn, which I've experienced a lot in other weddings. We took one large group photo, which I specifically brought Toshi for, and one smaller with one the family as mentioned. When I put Toshi down on the pew so I could take the photos with the family, everyone remarked how beautiful and well-behaved she was, lol. Then the waifu and I quickly rushed to the Garden Room to begin setting up, while Karen would guide them over there. We opened the fridge, took out the trays of tarts and fruits previously assembled at home and in the morning, and placed them as we had discussed, took out the drink dispensers and filled them up. Tables, chairs and tablecloths were already arranged in the morning with Chloe.
As everyone started to arrive, we offered our guests plates and told then to help themselves. For the most part, it was mostly socializing and chatting with our guests, as well as a few individual photos with those who requested it. I was running around talking to whoever approached us, thanking them for coming, to enjoy the food and conversation, and at times apologizing for needing to speak to another person. Anne Leyton-Brown, a longtime church member commented about how lovely and intimate it was to have everyone comfortably in a smaller room for a reception, unlike the very impersonal large-scale weddings she's attended. Brandon Moore, Nicole Moore and Karen mentioned they needed to head off earlier to attend to Brandon's dad, Brian, as he was hospitalized. I understood of course, and wished him well. Unfortunately, he would pass away a week later. Illia and Claire brought flowers for us, which we kept for a very, very long time at home, and we shared about our respective trips to Banff. Victoria, who actually had a wedding on the same date, managed to squeeze in some time between the matrimony ceremony and the reception afterwards, and lucky us, which happened to be the time she was available. She brought along a friend who complimented and congratulated us, and I thanked them as well. Also of note was Serg and Luna's daughter, Maggie, who Onion and I agreed was amazingly cute and pretty for a toddler. She was left alone at times and she poured her cup to the very brim with juice before holding it above her head and unsteadily waddling back to her parents. Luna, ever the Chinese parent, quickly ran over so the cup wouldn't spill and settled it on the table. Only to have Maggie, now with her hands free, to quickly run and refill another cup to the brim and repeat. It was hilarious! Ming Yung took several photos of us with some guests, and ourselves with Toshi, some of the nicest ones were taken here. We told him he could help himself to the food and drink as he liked, but he was still diligently taking the photos of the reception, lol.
After about 45 minutes, we started to say our goodbye and thanks to the guests who had joined us. We didn't make it a formal thing in some weddings where the bride and groom waited at the door to thank and shake hands with everyone. It was more informal and we just thanked people as they told us they were heading off. As the crowd thinned, we began packing up and storing the leftover food and drink in the fridge, and my family helped us fold the tables and wipe the tablecloths. Whew. Finally, it was over! It was surprisingly exhausting, even though we simplified everything and kept everything to a minimal level of stress. We thanked Ming Yung again for his services and after everything was cleaned up, we headed over to my grandma's place. My grandma was initially supposed to come for the wedding, and we even made sure that she could use the lift for her mobility issues. But a few days before the wedding she said her legs were feeling really bad and she wouldn't be able to make it. Hm, fine. We drove the less than 10 minute drive to her place and did the traditional Chinese tea ceremony to the elders. We first offered joss sticks and offered to the tea to my deceased grandfather, in front of the small altar to him. Then we offered the tea to my grandma, who nagged that we should have changed out of the wedding outfits before offering the tea. Fortunately, everyone told her to not bother with such small matters. I mean, I don't get the vast majority of outdated Chinese traditions, but I'll respect the sensible ones. However not doing the tea ceremony with the wedding outfits was not on my bingo card. We further offered tea to my Uncle Thomas and his wife, Auntie Pui, and then to my Aunt Elkie. All this while, Amy was chilling in the car, as she had social anxiety and didn't want to be in a tight, crowded space for a ceremony that was meant primarily for family. Everyone was okay with her being there, but she said she'd accompany and spend time with Toshi instead. After that was done we chatted a bit and received some trinkets from my grandmother. Then once all was said and done, we proceeded to go back home and drop everything before dinner at Chowon, a Korean BBQ place at Finch. The waifu and I went home and quickly dropped what we could, letting Toshi out of the carrier and changing into regular clothes before rushing off.
Uncle Thomas and family, plus Chloe and Onion and I ate at Chowon. There were again, congratulations given and Uncle Thomas welcoming Onion into the family. Once we got home and showered, we collapsed. Like I said, exhausting! I can't imagine how it is for the multi-day, multi-venue types. Back in Singapore, in 2007 (during a church event) I joked that I would get married in 5 years. 11 years late from that target, but yeah. But we were now officially married! Best part, I'm actually posting this on September 9, the actual date of the wedding. Hard to believe it's already been 2 years.
Chronicled
9:52 PM
Friday, August 8, 2025
Okay, so I mentioned that Onion and I got married. Buuuut, we got engaged first, naturally. Guess I'll take this time to write about that! I guess since our engagement was tied to our Banff trip, I'll just write it all together.
Okay, so Onion had already been bugging me about getting engaged for some time. And she knew I was going to do it. But I wanted to do it somewhere special, and she knew that. Part of why she was so patient, lol. Eventually after the chaos of travelling with COVID-19, being in a stable position and feeling the time was right, we booked a trip to Banff. I wanted to propose in front of Lake Louise. Yes, one of Reddit's lakes, haha. I've long seen pictures of Lake Louise and Lake Moraine; I thought them to be absolutely beautiful and gorgeous, and wanted to propose to Onion there. I spent quite a bit of time thinking about what sort of engagement ring to get. I felt like diamond, while traditional (thanks, De Beers) was really boring and overpriced. I wanted something more unique. So I ended up getting sapphire, with a silver ring. I thought it looked much more interesting and beautiful, and it wasn't a standard diamond. The design of the ring itself was also really nice and unique. It also had some smaller diamonds on the sides.
As you know, my mom passed away in August 2023, a month before our trip to Banff. We genuinely thought of cancelling the trip due to the circumstances and mourning, but thought it would be a good chance to just take a break from everything. Plus considering how late it was, no guarantee of cancelling and getting our money back. Now since Onion was stuck in Malaysia for a week, it meant her flight back to Canada was the after our original flight from Toronto to Calgary. I had to cancel her ticket but keep mine, and we arranged for her to fly in from the west side; from Vancouver to Calgary, where I'd pick her up. It was a very impromptu change that worked well for us, lol. I took an Uber to Pearson Airport and got on a relatively small plane. After reaching Calgary, I took an Uber to the home of the car renter via Turo. Interestingly, he was from Toronto too, but moved to Calgary due to the lower cost of living. Showed me a bit of the car, took a picture of the kilometres travelled and then passed me the keys. It was old-school, no remote or anything; had to turn the key at the door to lock it. I drove from Calgary to Canmore, which took about an hour. Driving through all the mountains was gorgeous. I made a few stops on the highway just to take pictures, and I noticed some others doing the same. Every moment was beautiful, it was as if the mountains never ended, and each moment was pretty picture perfect and would've been great on a postcard. A few times I was a bit distracted by the beauty of the landscape. Anyway, it was my first time ever driving on the famous Trans-Canaday Highway, an engineering feat. I checked into our place, Mountain View Inn Hotel, which was surrounded by a bunch of bunnies for some reason, and chilled a bit before taking a walk around Canmore. Mostly the surrounding area and the downtown core. Lots of convenience stores, but quite a bit of interesting businesses too, considering there's less and less of that I see in Toronto. I stopped by Black Dog Cafe and had some delicious carrot cake (the server/waitress said I wouldn't regret picking that one, and it was a favourite of customers). I walked by some other places, just soaking in the sights, and noticed what I later found out was called the Three Sisters mountains. Very prominent, even with all the cliffs and mountains surrounding the town. I eventually stopped by Elevation Place, a rock climbing gym, and noticed their land acknowledgement, different from the ones in Ontario. There was a public wifi I used and had to deal with nasty messages from my Uncle Vincent regarding some aspects after my mom's funeral. In turn, I sent back some extremely harsh words that shut him up and shamed him. I was also preparing to pick up Onion from Calgary airport in a while. As it was getting dark, I went back to the hotel and rested a bit before driving back to Calgary to pick up Onion. I waited until she dropped me a message and finally got her. It was a lonely week without her, so it was nice to finally see her after all the chaos in Malaysia and her getting stopped from flying with me. I drove us back to Canmore, where we freshened up and crashed, exhausted from our respective days.
The next day (September 10) we drove to Banff itself, making a stop at Lake Louise to scout the area. The parking was packed to the brim and we saw a ton of people walking up the path to get to Lake Louise and Lake Moraine. We parked at a place and took the shuttle bus over. We got off at the Lake Louise stop, walking the short distance from the bus stop to the lake itself. The moment I saw the lake, I was stunned. It is beyond awe-inspiring and beautiful. I've seen pictures of Lake Louise for over 20 years, and while it always looks great in pictures, seeing it in real life was a treat for the eyes. Seriously. It was like seeing a postcard in real life (a terrible analogy, because that's pretty much what it is). Seeing what I saw in pictures in actuality was almost overwhelming. I couldn't help but just take in the massive scale of the surrounding mountains and the gorgeous blue colour of the lake.
We took some pictures and just enjoyed the sights. It was pretty crowded, and I read later on it's become really popular in recent years as a tourist spot. I found a good spot I could propose and take pictures of and tested the tripod at that spot, happy with the results. We looked around and decided, spontaneously, to take the trail past the Big Beehive (where we saw the tiny Mirror Lake) and walked up a surprisingly tiring trek up to Lake Agnes. It was less crowded than at Lake Louise, but still quite a lot of people doing it. At some parts the human trail coincided with the horse trail, so we came across horse poop and a group of people riding horses to go up the trail. Pfft, lol. We joked about taking their horses to go up and save ourselves the grief. But man, the view was worth it. After we finally took the last (steep) wooden staircase, we finally reached Lake Agnes and the view was magnificent. Not as grand and massive as Lake Louise, but still beautiful and quaint. We just sat there, resting after the hour long trek, and admired the gorgeous view. It looked much cozier, and due to the smaller crowd was quieter and slower paced too. The sun was shining directly over the lake, so the reflections were also dazzling.
Lake Agnes feels like an undiluted hidden gem.
We bought some tea from the teahouse on top, and to keep the pristine nature, were required to bring our cups down ourselves. Apparently volunteers need to bring supplies up and trash down regularly the path. After reading up more, taking pictures and admiring the view, we proceeded back to Lake Louise, taking more shots before getting back to our car and driving to the town of Banff itself. We made a quick stop at Vermilion Lakes, taking some gorgeous sunset shots of the lake, mountains and sky and walking along the small pier. Seriously, the whole mountain/lake/sky shots look amazing, and even though we'd seen so many, every single one was beautiful. Having been in Canmore already, Banff was much bigger and crowded. It really looked like a super quaint resort, just with a ton of people. Took a while to get parking, but it also had a very walkable areas. Lots of cafes and restaurants, and a ton of gift shops. We ate at some Cajun restaurant before heading back to Canmore. Onion was still suffering from jetlag, and although I'd been back for a week, I was still at the tail end of jetlag too. We were exhausted.
The next morning we repeated our journey to Lake Louise for the proposal. At this point, Onion had pretty much known everything, but we still wanted to do it. I set up the tripod at the chosen spot at Lake Louise and got down on my knee, asking if Onion would marry me. Not going to lie, I was a little nervous, even though we were both aware what this was for. But the tradition of following it still made it feel like I wasn't sure of the answer. She nodded, said yes and I stood up to put the ring on her finger. Yes! I had a fiancee now.
Getting down on one knee at Lake Louise has been my goal for a long time.
Engaged!
She admired the ring, and I explained it was sapphire. We chatted a bit about how it was like to finally get engaged after so long and our feelings about it. For one, I was happy seeing her wear the engagement ring. I thought it looked great on her, and I was lucky to get one that while still a bit bigger, could almost fit her tiny finger (we'd resize it later on). Also made me very happy to have a formal start to our marriage. Especially seeing how she was there every step of the way as I grieved my mom.
As I said, diamonds are boring. Sapphires look gorgeous.
As it was pretty early, it wasn't too crowded, so we proceeded to Lake Moraine. Again, another gorgeous lake, equally as beautiful as Lake Louise, and the official reddit lake, lmao. Also, surprisingly less crowded than Lake Louise despite being pretty much as famous, and a stop on the shuttle bus. Again, amazingly beautiful, with the mountains and lake massive in scale, with the blue shade another beauty. There was a lot more space to walk around, and we took a short trek along the lake, walking along the trail, admiring Lake Moraine from different angles. We took some more pictures standing on some fallen logs, and I was a Disney princess there. Yeah, seriously. Lots of curious chipmunks running around, and some were particularly friendly and came to me. One even crawled up my thigh and just chilled there a bit. Eat that, Snow White! We eventually went off to the Cascade of Time Garden, admiring the greenery and flowers before heading back to Banff to explore the town more, and getting our Beaver Tails. We went on the Hoodoos trail to get a look at the summit, which, I'm been saying repeatedly, was beautiful to see, with the river, lake and trees, and that interesting circular island of sorts. We went back to Canmore and crashed for the evening, before walking to get a midnight snack from the Circle K.
Immense and gorgeous Lake Moraine.
The next day was our last at the Banff area before our final night at Calgary. We drove up to Peyto Lake, and we noticed the air quality was starting to get worse due to the wildfires. We even saw a signboard that indicated wildfire smoke air quality, and it was on the lower end. At some points, the mountains were hazy to see, and the sky was a little yellowish/orange sometimes. While Peyto Lake itself was clear, the mountains surrounding it were harder to see. Still a gorgeous sight. We proceeded to Bow Lake, where we walked along the shore taking photos. Due to how close we were to the mountains there, the views were much clearer and it felt like the smog wasn't as much of an issue here. It was a very nice location. Seeing the gentle waves crash and the many mountains in front of the lake was a visual treat. Back in Banff, we noticed a lot of First Nations museums, at least 3 we could easily see. We wanted to explore at least one so we picked the one that looked good and ended up in the Buffalo Nations Museum. We paid the entry fee and walked in, seeing recreations of Indigenous settlements, tents, and life-size figures wearing traditional garb. It was very cool and very informative. We even saw the original blankets of the Hudson Bay company, with its traditional 4 colour stripes. I know that history is dodgy and not all butterflies and rainbows, but as a historical artifact, it was cool to see. We also saw photographs, other artifacts and miniatures of driving buffalo off cliffs and villages. As a history enthusiast, it was very cool. Later on at a First Nations shop, we saw the fur and skins of several animals, from local tanners. Some very very soft to the touch and I could see how they served a practical purpose of warmth and comfort back then. It was very unique seeing the variety of animal furs. Near the entrance, beads, bracelets and dreamcatchers were sold, and I wanted to get something too. I ended up getting 2 wristbands, similar to my heavy metal wristbands. The one Justin gave me as I was leaving Malaysia was rusting pretty bad and starting to wear out, while the one he got me from Florence, Italy was already ripping in half and green from corrosion, due to how often I wore it. These new ones were a dark brown instead of black, and had a bronze metal instead of the (fake) silver spikes, with some unique designs on them. Wearing metal stuff while supporting a First Nations business? Win-win.
I drove us back to Calgary to check in to our homestay, which was really cozy. At this point with all the hiking, treks and exploration, we were dead tired. We wanted to look around Calgary to get a sense of the city and housing, as with the housing crisis in Toronto, it was an option we were considering. But because of how tired we were, we pretty much collapsed. Onion's jetlag was still bad, and even though she said to "wake her up in 30 minutes" every hour, towards midnight we just slept the rest of the night.
I returned the car back to the guy from Turo, where his father examined the car and took a picture of the updated mileage, and we Uber'ed our way to the airport, flying back to Toronto, back to Toshi, who missed us severely. She hadn't seen Onion in a month, basically. Onion, upon reaching home, dropped everything and furiously hugged and kissed Toshi. Awww.
Chronicled
12:54 PM
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
July's the waifu's birthday month, so I'm always on the lookout to see what to do or bring her to. Last year, we did the murder mystery dinner. This year, I kept it simple with a fancy restaurant, Scaramouche. I didn't know they were located at the first floor of a condo, so when I entered the condo lobby, there was a valet to take the car. After passing him the car and keys, we were like... what if he's just a very suave thief and we just gave him our car, lol. Ambience at the restaurant was very cozy. People looked rich, but not filthy, freaking rich types. Dinner was lovely, and I got to enjoy my date with the waifu. Our server was very friendly and recommended stuff, some of which we tried. He also offered to take us outside where we could get pictures with downtown in the background. Very nice!
I've been playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 the last few weeks, as it's what's everyone been harping about, and our BPS friend Celine in Malaysia is also playing it at the same time. So we bought it at full price. I rarely play games at launch due to the poor optimization and parasitic implementations of many games. I normally wait until prices drop, since I'm in no rush, and my backlog of unplayed games is huge anyway. So far I've been really enjoying it, and parrying is a bitch to learn when enemy fake outs are common. I'm dying at some of the memes about the game. The music is amazing and there are so many bangers. And the cutscenes, as Carbot Animation says, is "Absho-lute cinema!"
We're also in the midst of watching Jewel in the Palace (Dae Jang Geum). Yes, that old, classic Korean drama, lol. Some context. 20 years back, I was at Jonathan Lim's house, back when the show was playing on Singaporean TV, on Channel 8. The constant crying and cooking never interested me, so I didn't care much, and I hated the stupid "Onara" ending theme, and made this known to anyone who cared. Jonathan laughed and told me to give the show the chance. So we watched a bit, and at one point, the two women on the screen were crying, because she (and this is what I falsely remembered) put prawns in her soup. I laughed! I said it was even stupider than I thought and he said it's just one scene and it gets better. I didn't bother, and I continued to make fun of it whenever the show was brought up. Jonathan would tease me occasionally by singing "prawns in her soup" with the tune of Onara. Well 20 years later, Onion heard about it and asked me what episode it was. I had no idea, and I wasn't going to watch 54 episodes to find a woman crying about prawns in soup. But she asked me repeatedly, so I kept looking to no avail. We looked it up on ChatGPT and it gave several contradictory answers. We looked through 4 episodes it mentioned that might match on YouTube and eventually found it on the 4th one, episode 13. I misremembered it a bit. It was putting prawn in the broth, and they were crying because Jang Geum lost her sense of taste but she managed to overcome it with her skill and used something so unique. So yeah. 20 years later I actually get context. We've been binging episodes since, and so far it's alright, I enjoy it. Getting near the end of the series now. Something bad always has to happen.
We also met up for our tri-annual meetup with Victoria. We were supposed to meet for board games a few weeks earlier, but her grandmother, who's been in poor health for a while, passed away. The time for grieving, going to a chalet with her family and just resting delayed it until July. We were also meeting her new boyfriend, Liam, for the first time. He was nice, friendly and was very open about asking for how to play the games better and what strategies to use. We played her copy of Finspan, then DroPolter, Here to Slay, Pompeii and then grabbed our as of now, traditional dinner of Thai food from UberEats. Then after a bit of chitchatting we played Parks to end the night, as playing Critter Kitchen would drag way too long.
The next day I was at church, and we were in our temporary location, the parlour. Due to ongoing roof and ceiling repairs, it wasn't safe for congregants, and for the next few months, we'd be here. That meant a complete change in the tech for Zoom. Since everything was hooked up in the Sanctuary, we made do with an EMEET speaker as a mic and a laptop for us to use. Sound quality was... subpar to say the least. We're still learning and experimenting.
Also on the 19th, I was the driver for Onion and her mates from pole dancing, Charmaine and Harmony. They've been talking a lot for several months now after getting to know each other in class. Charmaine, a Filipino, spent 10 years in Malaysia and basically considers it her home. She danced at the same pole studio as Onion, so they really got to bond over their shared time there, despite not knowing each other when they were still in Malaysia. Anyway, they arranged a winery trip to the Niagara region, but needed a driver. So, of course, I ended up being the driver. I picked the girls up and due to a massive jam, took 2 hours to reach our first stop, Two Sisters. Victoria recommended them and said she goes there every year to stock up on their wines. We went there as it was the furthest away; Onion and I planned to start further and go further back so the drive back would be shorter. Anyway, gorgeous environment! They had a big dining area and a massive fountain next to a place where you could get some wine and very expensive chips. After chilling a bit, we didn't buy any icewine there because it was pretty pricey, but we went away with a decently priced Riesling. We proceeded to AMO, a new winery that just opened up. While most established wineries have old-school rich, mansion aesthetics, AMO was industrial and modern. Very sleek and sharp, with lots of insta-worthy decor. We drank a flight of wines and ate some really nice pizza. We proceeded to the last stop of Vineland, but on the way, encountered Château des Charmes. We joked that it was Charmaine's business and popped by since it was so near. The staff at their boutique were wonderfully friendly and engaging, and we took lots of pictures in and outside. Got some wines and went to Vineland. The waifu and I were last here several years ago with Chloe, her boyfriend at the time, Stanley, and the couple Dan and Vika, whom we last saw in 2018 during the New Year's Party Chloe invited us to. We loved the environment and we were considering it as a wedding venue before finding out the exorbitant costs. They had rearranged the tables and chairs quite a bit. It could fit much more people, but it looked a lot less cozy and idyllic. We got a seat upstairs all to ourselves where the girls posed on the very comfy recliner. At this point only I was still drinking, as the girls had enough alcohol from all the wine flights from the other three wineries. After it closed at 6pm, we proceeded to head off. We also supported a local farmer's market selling lots of corn and fruit on the way. On the way back, traffic was much better. A whole lot of good conversation throughout the whole day at the wineries and in the car. We spoke a lot about politics, racial and religious issues in Malaysia and relationships.
It's getting to be a tradition at this point, but I discovered my friend Jackson Choong passed away in Malaysia. He was a fellow schoolmate at Marsiling Secondary, and one of the students who commuted from Malaysia to Singapore every day for school, like me. He was very friendly, and a jokester who everyone really liked. Played basketball with him a few times back in the day and although we didn't talk much after graduation, I followed his band on Facebook and he was active in the Johor Bahru music scene. I don't know what happened, but it was extremely sudden and came out of nowhere. Aye, saw a ton of Marsiling alumni offer their condolences and respects on the post on his passing.
And I can't talk about that without mentioning Ozzy Osbourne and Hulk Hogan. Two massive legends from their respective industries. My love for metal stems from progenitors Black Sabbath and all its evolution into the sound now. Great respect for the Prince of Darkness. And for Hulk Hogan, he's a mixed character. His racism, being a union scab and his Trumpist politics afterwards are contrasted with his immense influence for wrestling as a whole. He's still an icon, but there's a lot of baggage there.
Chronicled
3:42 PM
Monday, June 30, 2025
Okay, so May and June were pretty eventful. And quite the months of gigs!
First, my birthday. The waifu was stressing over where to take me, having thought up 40 potential restaurants for my birthday. I was like... Babe, take it easy. The point is to spend time with you. Doesn't matter where we go. Even if we end up in a McDonald's due to bad circumstances, enjoying the time and meal with her is the priority. I myself have a list of potential places for our big days, and I pick one out whenever the dates draw near. She ended up bringing me to David Duncan House, a very fancy steakhouse that had great food and ambience. The building was a very nice, old-school kinda place. Very nice, classic architecture. Thanks my love, I had a lovely evening.
My birthday present was a ticket to the Chaos & Carnage 2025 tour, courtesy of the waifu! I was primarily there to catch Fleshgod Apocalypse, Ne Obliviscaris, and Cradle Of Filth. But Dying Fetus was a band I wanted to catch too. Due to due large number of bands, it started before my work ended, so I was a bit late and reached a little into Ne Obliviscaris' set. They're still as amazing as ever, and I've always watched every one of their shows since 2018. Fleshgod Apocalypse was also great, and had a ton of energy. They ended with a cover of Effiel 65's "Blue", which was hilarious hearing it in metal. Cradle of Filth mostly covered their new material in The Screaming of the Valkyries, and I got to hear the new keyboardist and guitarist, who did very well. Zoe Marie Federoff was sick so she had a friend do her vocals, which was interesting. As for Dying Fetus, they were heavy and and tight, and I enjoyed my first exposure to them.
My next gig after that was Deafheaven. Similar to Spiritbox last month, they weren't huge on my radar before. I only had one song from them, The Pecan Tree. Then my friend in Malaysia, Terence Aaron, posted about their latest album, saying it was one of his top albums of the year. I was curious, so I listened to the whole Lonely People With Power album. It was phenomenal. So thanks to him, I saw below the YouTube video they were performing in Toronto and I got the tickets. They were fantastic! Basically picked out the best songs from the album, plus a bit of their older stuff. Amazing vocals and musicianship from everyone. Hearing it live was a complete eargasm and treat.
On Victoria Day, the waifu and I took the time to go to Port Dover. We went to Hagersville last year to catch the solar eclipse, which was one of the most cosmic, surreal experiences I've ever had in my life. We drove over to Port Dover after and discovered their Friday the 13th tradition, and a very friendly, cozy beachside town. Plus their Santa Claus on a tugboat. We wanted to drop by again, so I drove us over and we had ice cream and looked around the small businesses, as well as walking along the beach and pier with the lighthouse. It was basically a nice, romantic stroll! After that we went off to Hamilton to eat dinner, and I randomly picked Saltlick Smokehouse, which had amazing barbecued food, and an enthusiastic waiter who I had a good chat with.
Last year we received 2 tickets to a rock climbing gym in Markham, because we took part in the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, representing Toronto Cat Rescue for our charity. The tickets were expiring in June so after almost a year we finally went and went rock climbing, haha. I haven't rock climbed in almost 20 years. The last time I did was at Batu Caves, on a real cliff, in the blazing hot sun. And the last time before that was when I was at University Settlement back in Toronto. Onion and I went through a short tutorial on how the auto-belays worked (not something I ever used) and the colour-coded routes. That was something very new to me. All the times I rock climbed, it was always random coloured "rocks" screwed in. The idea of a route being one colour, while sharing the same space as another coloured route was smart. It saves space, allows more variety and if you wanted to "cheat", you could use the other colour rock as support. The waifu and I stuck to the basic ones, and as we got bolder to try the slightly tougher routes, we also started to get tired. Our grips were weaker and we noticed we were failing more. That pretty much cued us to stop and grab dinner. For 2 weeks after, cracking my knuckles hurt, lol.
Towards the end of May, we did Doors Open Toronto, where they would allow the public to access places that normally weren't open, to discover various architectural marvels and places of interest. It wasn't even planned, lol. The waifu woke me up and said we're doing it. Great. No plan, no schedule or routes. I quickly looked at the places and did a very rough outline of the places to go. Mostly downtown, since they were within walking distance. Yeah, no. It was crazy packed everywhere we went. We started at the ZoomerPlex, home of Zoomer Radio, where we got some ice cream, listened to a live performance by Payadora Tango Ensemble (fantastic performances and vibe! Loved the song the couple sang to each other with hilarious lyrics). We also toured the area inside the complex, looking around at very old TVs in their museum, as well as the history of broadcasting the model of Felix the Cat, which they had on display. We overheard a guide explain to another group that as one of the earliest things broadcast from Earth, if Aliens ever pick up the broadcast, a plaster cast Felix the Cat will be one of the first things they receive, lmao. Very cool to see the evolution of the television over the decades. We proceeded on to HMCS York, where we just missed the last group to get on one of their ships. Damn. We looked around and spoke to some navy... cadets I think? They were young, and shared their experiences. Not very senior in terms of rank, but I don't know the official title. Also a very small museum with uniforms and pictures. After that we failed to get to any other locations, lol. Spin Master had a line up so long it stretched outside the building, and told us not to bother. Old and new City Hall were packed to the brim and they also told everyone not to bother, despite there being plenty of time. So we dropped by Indigo at Eaton Centre and looked up books on the maritimes, as we plan to visit Cape Breton and Halifax. And we also ate at the Caledonian, finally. We've been wanting to try it ever since our first exposure to the Robbie Burns Spiel, and trying haggis for the first time.
Another gig we attended was Bear McCreary, the composer for Battlestar Galactica, the Norse Saga of the God of War games, Highlander and so many others. The waifu wanted to watch him the moment I informed her I saw his ad, lol. He performed with his brother and other musicians he's worked with before. All very talented, and great energy! I was most interested in catching Blood Upon the Snow, having finished God of War: Ragnarok a few months back, and man, it was worth every second. Emotional and amazing. The waifu was mostly there for Battlestar Galactica (I even helped recreate a "What The Frak" t-shirt she used to have, and she wore it that day). Prelude to War was fantastically arranged with the drums and the other instruments. Very epic sounding when heard live.
A while later I watched Three Days Grace and Volbeat at Budweiser Stage. Three Days Grace was huge in my late teens. I don't know how I discovered them, but I had a ton of their songs and they were one of the few bands I never removed from my ever-changing playlists. Volbeat, I listened to when Slipknot came a few years back, when I missed Behemoth and Gojira, as they played super early. I wasn't quite a fan of their stuff, but it's grown, and I appreciate them a bit more. Three Days Grace started out with Animal I Have Become, and man, what a way to open. It was basically a hard rock karaoke there, and I could see everyone was tremendously enjoying themselves. I didn't know that the original vocalist left, rejoined a decade later and they now have two vocalists. But it worked very well. Reliving my teenhood was great, and I, along with everyone was belting out the lyrics for almost every song.
Oh, remember us watching The Lion King's stage production? I remember finding out from the booklet that there were 3 young Simbas acting, depending on date and time. We watched one, and found out from Victoria her friend's child was another Simba, the Chinese one. We actually encountered the last Simba actor in-person. We were eating at Lakay Kuisina, a Filipino restaurant that has amazing food, and we've gotten to know one of the owners very well, we're on very good terms with him. We drop by once in a while and this time, the restaurant was crowded with no space for us to sit. Apparently it was the birthday of a child there, and we found out he was the 3rd actor for Simba. His dad paid for about 25 people's meals, at over $600. We even got a performance as he sang after their meal. Very talented!
Chronicled
11:54 AM
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Well, March was dramatic. Our friend, Garrett, died for 2 minutes before being resuscitated. Okay, let me backtrack a bit. I mentioned before that we've been active in the Heavy Boardgamers community, but things slowed down after the passing of my mother. We still attended here and there, but definitely not weekly as before. The slots expanded, as too many people were attending the original Saturday slot. It expanded to Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with a different person leading each day, and with an unofficial focus on each day (lighter games, heavy games, a mix of game weight and Magic: The Gathering). The waifu had become friends with Edmund, a University professor who led the Friday session, and with whom she had played board games with before. We looked into the Friday sessions and saw a guy named Garrett who asked if people would be interested in a session of Vagrantsong, a campaign-style board game with combat, item collection and stuff. Onion wanted to try it out as it had the rubber-hose aesthetic and interesting premise of fighting ghosts and becoming one if you died. We contacted him and arranged to play our first session at 17 Tiles. It was a good start, and we enjoyed the game enough that we made plans to continue the campaign at our place instead, so we wouldn't need to pay the entry fee and buy food/drinks every time. That was over a year ago.
Since then we've ended up being good friends. Along with the regular sessions of Vagrantsong, some of which were extremely frustrating and difficult missions (and we finally finished the entire game and expansions), we also played other board games and even helped him move to his current rental place. Playing Nintendo Switch games, a shared love of Renaissance-era Disney (between him and my waifu at least), and giving each other gifts during Christmas and birthdays led to a good friendship. So we decided to get him a ticket for The Lion King live show as a Christmas gift last year. It was for March. A few weeks before the show, after saying he was really tired from his early morning shifts at Jersey Mikes, he fell sick and we hadn't gamed together in a while. Considering he had started a new job, it was still a transitional period, so we thought to give him some time before we met up again. And then complete silence for several weeks. Now, there've been times when he's replied several days late. We're all busy, it happens. But absolutely nothing, and he hadn't been seen online on WhatsApp since the last conversation we had, it was weird. We followed up but it was never delivered. So we googled him and found out he was hospitalized. He had a cardiac arrest and died for 2 minutes, but luckily his sister was at home and her boyfriend resuscitated him. His family set up a GoFundMe to help with expenses.
We met his sister before, when we helped him move in with her, but we never chatted. I found her social media accounts and she filled us in on what happened. We arranged for a visit at Toronto Western Hospital and got to catch up with him on his birthday. We bought him a nice card with a cat in it to remind him of Toshi, who he said he really missed. He was a bit slow on responding, and his tracheostomy was visible. His dad, mom, sister and her boyfriend eventually showed up, and we got to chat with them too. It was good to finally see how he was doing, but sad to see him in that state. But we were also glad he was making good progress on recovering and had begun eating very small amounts of solid food after being tube-fed for months.
We had to head off after an hour as Onion had a French assessment at YMCA. After our trip to Montreal October last year, we had fallen in love with the city, but couldn't communicate well, despite most people switching to English for us. We made an effort to start learning French on Duolingo, and she managed to get an assessment for French lessons at the YMCA from her status. I chilled at a cafe waiting for her and she came back to share her results, which were not bad. Her classes start in September.
We did watch The Lion King later in March. It was way too late to refund it, so we offered the ticket to Garrett's sister first, but she couldn't take the time off on that day, and my friend Victoria was having a bad illness. So I got my cousin Chloe to claim them. The show was fantastic. It's been showing for over 20 years, and I finally got to see what it was about. Very nice seeing how they used the props to represent the animals. The prosthetics, hand puppets and massive pieces for some were brilliant. Having the main characters represented by humans with headpieces was an interesting choice. Mufasa with swords looks cool. They basically covered the movie, with some new pieces, and an intro with traditional African dialogue and singing. All in all, very glad to have seen it.
Another thing I watched was Spiritbox! In late April, they were performing at the Great Canadian Casino Resort, a new venue I'd not been to before. They were out of my radar for quite a long time. In fact, I didn't even know I attended a show that they performed at. Last year, I watched Korn and Gojira. Spiritbox was actually playing as the first band, but I came late after work and missed them. At the same time, being unfamiliar with their work, I didn't really care too much at the time. Then I saw an Instatory by Lindsay Schoolcraft, former keyboardist and female vocals of Cradle of Filth, who I follow, where she shared a Spotify screenshot of her listening to Spiritbox's The Mara Effect pt. 3. I was curious, so I listened and really liked it. I picked out a few songs and viewed the highest viewed ones and after a few listens, grew to really like them. The ethereal voice mixed with the growls was really well done and I was shocked by how I ignored them prior. So when I saw they were headlining a gig, I got the tickets and man, what a treat. Loathe, whom I discovered that night, also opened for them. A fantastic show, and Spiritbox shared a bit about how they got started in accounting work for a hospital before joining Iwrestledabearonce, which was another surprise because I had no idea the former vocalist left and she took over. I really only listened to them when I was still a part of AsNaiveKiller, and Joseph Stanley was obsessed with trying to copy their unique style. Either way, Spiritbox's show was great, I enjoyed myself and parking was free! And to think less than half a year ago I didn't care for them, until I saw a random Instastory from a celebrity.
Right before the month ended, I needed to organize a forum for the church. As a board member, my specific position is Facilitator for Worship, Music & Spiritual Formation. So my job is to organize occasional forums related to those topics. Richmond Hill United Church is in the midst of a very big transitional period, and our repairs to the historic building aren't cheap. I wanted to get a feel of what people were thinking, and potential opportunities, so I hosted it on Zoom and listened to what people were thinking. At the end of it, I found people stick with what they like, and don't necessarily object to change, but want it to be done organically. not for the sake of trying something new. It was good to get the perspectives from the various members who attended.
And as always, more passings. I suppose the big one is Pope Francis, the progressive voice of the Catholic church, and the pope who I followed closely as I became more politically aware. On a personal level, my grandaunt, who I call "yee por", has passed away. I've known her ever since I was a child, and she's lived in the same place all these years. She basically adopted my mom when my grandfather wanted to abandon her, and raised her as her own. Even after adulthood, my mom was still very close to her and we visited very often when in Malaysia. After we moved to Kuala Lumpur, my mom pretty much had dinner at her place with her family weekly, and I joined quite a bit. They used to own Angel Cakes in KL back in the 90s. She was also very kind and supportive when my mom passed, and despite her own weak legs and mobility issues, made the effort to personally come down to the funeral parlour and pay respects to my mom. As mentioned back then, I dropped by their place for dinner after the funeral aspects were handled. Her son, Uncle Robin, messaged me to inform me about it, and that she had passed peacefully. It was quite a surprise as she's been so long-lived, and one of the oldest relatives I still had. And on the younger side, a friend from City Harvest Church Singapore, Jasmine Cheang. She was in the same zone as me, and our cellgroups interacted frequently. I saw a lot of zone members attend her funeral, based on the Facebook pictures, reminiscing of her kindness and personality. It's also the 1 year anniversary of Jun Jie, Onion's cousin, and my RHUC church member, Linda Clark, who I helped her family handle the digital aspects of her funeral.
Chronicled
8:45 PM
Monday, February 17, 2025
The month of love.
Well, I guess for the US, more like extreme hatred. Seriously, the shitshow from the south of us is a daily nightmare. The constant threats of tariffs, annexation, and general incompetence. And one third of the US voted that idiot in. Another third didn't care enough. Zzz.
Okay, anyhoo, we had early Chinese New Year celebrations last month. My cousin Chloe was going to Italy to see her boyfriend, and her flight was clashing with the actual date of CNY, so the family decided to celebrate earlier. The waifu and I offered my now famous roast pork (siuyuk), and she would cook the Buddha's delight (luo han zhai). We spent quite a bit of time looking for nice snake-themed red packets and for some reason most stores didn't have them. Seriously. It was like a snake boycott or something. We always saw every zodiac animal in their year, and of course tons for the dragon last year, but none for the snake! And it's my year! We managed to find some eventually, and took some time considering if we wanted cutesy snakes or fancy, sophisticated ones. We took the fancy ones, lol.
I had a diversity training session at the church before the CNY dinner, so I was preoccupied and had to rush home right after the session. The training session was generally decent. I feel like there was a lot said that we all already knew, but I suppose it was also good to discuss it, and have some specific things brought up that affected people, with regards to communication, welcome, cultures and all. Mostly the church board and a few notable church members attended. I think discussion would've been fruitful, but things started late and several people needed to head off by 4pm, including me.
I had to rush back and help the waifu; my roast pork was already prepared the night before and just needed to be set in the air fryer before we went over to my grandma's. The dinner was generally nice. Everyone brought their own food, and our dishes were praised significantly by the rest of the family, which was nice. We gambled a bit with Texas Hold'em and eventually had to head off since it was Sunday and most of us needed to work or go to school.
For Valentine's, I arranged the dinner at Tapagria, a fancy Spanish restaurant, and I intentionally picked the 15th, since it was a Saturday, and we wouldn't need to rush after work, nor deal with the majority of people celebrating on the 14th itself. Well, I also forgot that it was the day of a big snowstorm, so... lol. I drove us through heavy snow and I had to trudge through snow to walk to the restaurant. We picked a seafood paella, but upon seeing some very appetizing pork belly, we added that too. Good choice from the waifu, because it was absolutely delicious.
We also watched Peabo Bryson, the male singer of the studio versions of "A Whole New World" and "Beauty and the Beast". Onion saw the ads for it, and decided we needed to watch it immediately, buying tickets on the spot. We figured that Niagara Falls was a bit far, and we probably wouldn't make it back early after the show, so we booked a hotel room for the night. We grabbed dinner at the Flying Saucer Restaurant and went over. It was amusing to see the crowd. It was basically 90% old, white people and Filipinos. There were some Blacks, and like, 4 Chinese, 2 of which were the waifu and I. Lmao. And 4 of us just so happened to sit in a row. Hilarious! Regardless, it was a treat watching him perform with his musicians. All fantastically professional and very tight. You could tell there was a lot of chemistry with them. In between his songs, Peabo would have a very casual chat with the audience, sharing funny stories about his life and career. Him "falling in love" with all the female singers he's worked with, offering Celine Dion's parents his seat at the Grammy's, and her funny reaction to that, plus him having a child with his newest lover. Plus he shared relationship advice to all the guys. Told us all if we argue with our partner, to just shut up! Haha! Anyway, like I was saying, the performance was great. Peabo, despite being over 70 years old had an amazing, powerful voice. Onion and I had listened to his music on YouTube and while he didn't sound identical to his tracks, he still managed to have crazy good renditions and adaptations of his songs. Honestly, good call from the waifu to watch him.
At one point, he was singing a cover of Bill Withers' "Lovely Day", and he proceeded to walk among the audience, interacting with the crowd, shaking hands, fist bumping and pointing at individuals. Now, the waifu and I sat right at the very edge of the front facing seats. Basically to my left, it was the side-facing seats already (this was the Avalon Theatre at Fallsview Casino). So we definitely would not be able to shake his hands if he walked past us. But he did walk past us, and as he continued singing the chorus of Lovely Day, which was basically repeating "Lovely day" over and over, he pointed directly at me, and sang "Love your hair, love your hair" before switching back to the song. LOL. Hell yeah! I didn't want to hold my phone up and record as I just wanted to enjoy and take in the moment, but damn, in hindsight I should have! I didn't know what to do when a famous celebrity praised my hair, so I flashed the devil horns at him and he smiled with approval before continuing to walk to another section. Bragging rights! Towards the end of the show he offered roses, and tons of ladies rushed to the front to collect theirs. Onion didn't go, but she said next time, she'd be first in line. She cried at some parts, finally able to hear her childhood. Peabo ended with a cover of "Ain't Nobody", and his musicians did a great job performing and ending the show with it.
We explored the casino a bit, but it was crazy crowded and the line up to exchange chips and tokens was ridiculously long, so we didn't even try any games. Got back to an ice-covered car, went back to the hotel, took a good shower and slept very happily. The next day we went to Niagara Falls, and the closer we got to Horsehoe Falls, the wetter it got. The waifu decided to bail while I proceeded. Half the American Falls were frozen, and the entire lake was frozen too. I was bloody hell soaked by the time I reached Horseshoe Falls. I quickly took some pictures and went to a shop to find the waifu, who was shocked upon seeing me. She told me to look in a mirror and my hair was basically frosted. White specks and spikes of ice. If you didn't know, you'd think I got sprayed with a fine mist. It was all ice, lol.
Chronicled
7:36 PM
Friday, January 17, 2025
Okay, so 2025. Hard to believe COVID is half a decade past at this point. And I remember lots of people saying certain protocols were "new normal(s)".
Last month, Onion and I celebrated our 9th anniversary together. After having a lot of nice places we want to visit, as well as nice places we want to revisit, we have decided that we'll seek new places on our wedding anniversary, while enjoying old haunts on our relationship anniversary. We ended up with Copacabana. We haven't been to that Brazilian steakhouse in quite a while, so it was nice to get stuffed there with all the rotating meats.
Oh, we also did curling! Yeah, we basically paid money to sweep the floor. Lmao. We had long made fun of curling 'cause it seemed so hilarious. Throwing big blocks of marble and sweeping the ice to help control the rock's speed. So we thought why not actually try it out? We signed up for a Learn to Curl clinic at East York Curling Club. After a brief introduction about the game, we were sorted into different groups to learn. We had an Asian guy, and I'm so sorry but I can't remember his name! But he was a friendly dude, and was very patient. We grabbed our brooms, grippers, sliders and went on the ice. We learned that the condition of the ice was very important, and as I learned quite some time ago, the ice is textured, and it's the friction of the sweeping that affects the rock's speed. We learned how to sweep, how to throw the rock, our posture, turning the handle to control the movement and making visual points to guide the person sliding the rock, and of course, scoring. There was a short break before we continued again. This time our group was split into two and we competed. It was friendly of course. The waifu and I had a hard time gauging our strength. Either too strong or too weak. Our team didn't score very well, lol, sorry! All in all it was pretty fun and I signed up for the Saturday Scramble to continue for casual fun.
We also got stuffed in our respective company Christmas dinners. Dragon Pearl for hers, and Mandarin for mine. We met our partners respective colleagues and generally had a nice time. Along with a ton of food that we weren't sure we would finish, because we got greedy, lol.
Towards the end of the year, we had our family Christmas gathering. This time round we used the Secret Santa system, so people could actually get what they wanted. The waifu and I spent a few days to get the gifts of everyone specifically as they wanted, like the drawing tablet for my cousin Colin, and the makeup box for my other cousin, Lilian. Not just a "close-enough" gift. Anyhoo, as has been the case lately, it was a potluck and because it was easy, I offered mashed potatoes again, following the recipe from Tasty's YouTube video. Lots of good stuff to eat. Then we proceeded to have a gingerbread house-making competition of sorts. Chloe, Onion and I did the example on the box, while Lilian, Colin and Uncle Thomas did theirs with some original concepts. Just want to say what a pain the icing is to apply, lmao. But I got better towards the end. And instead of gambling and board games as we've done most family gatherings, most of us ended up playing some random cup-grabbing games, cup-flipping tic tac toe and stuff.
Two days later I went for a NYE social event, held by Social Creatures. They posted on reddit and I spontaneously decided to go for it. It was held at LOCAL Public Eatery, and when I walked in, there were only a few individuals there. We were given some papers for a short icebreaking activity, and I took the effort to speak to different people to get answers, and that established a good starter. More and more people began to arrive and eventually some people started to switch groups to have conversations. When we walked in, one of the things we needed to to was write an interesting fact about us, write our name and later on, people would need to guess who was who. When it was my turn to guess, I had the fact "Been playing soccer since I was 8". There were 4 guys and a girl (Jany) lined up, and I guessed one of the guys. It was Jany. Aye, unintentional sexism there, lol. During my turn (I wrote I bite cans to open them), they picked me as a guy who did martial arts, haha! So I'll take my compliments. The organized stuff faded off and it was just a good evening of getting to know a ton of people over beers, pizza and French fries, from all walks of life. Lenny from Germany (who I bumped into another time), Jass, who broke his femur in a major car accident, Lilian and Vivian, Vietnamese girls who were looking to upgrade their computers, Dhruv, who wanted to start a PC part business and many more. Kudos to DiAndre for organizing this.
Days later I got sick. Zzz. The waifu and I took it easy 'cause she got sick shortly after and we mostly bummed around at home, playing a ton of Breath of the Wild (finished the main quest and all the shrines), and I finished up Ori and the Will of the Wisps, after procrastinating for a while. Oh, back in November I bought a new laptop. When I was playing Black Myth: Wukong (more on that another time I think?), my old Asus TUF (RTX 2060) struggled at some parts, like the sandy parts and snowy parts. Plus the battle against Erlang and the Four Heavenly Kings was laggy like hell. Everything else was fine but I saw a good deal on Staples for an Asus Strix (RTX 4070), and I went for it. Everything I've played on has been super smooth, and rendering my church's weekly services has gone from half an hour to less than 5 minutes. Sweet.
Speaking of church, my minister, Karen Dale, has decided to retire in 6 months. I was part of the search committee to select her, and we did a great job in vetting candidates if I do say so myself. A lot of the uncertainties in the church on the redevelopment have only piled on, and the congregational meeting we had last week gave a bit of optimism with the plans. But I shan't say too much here.
Chronicled
9:53 PM
Friday, November 8, 2024
Okay, well. I guess I should try to at least get back into the routine of blogging again? I made it a point of posting once a month, then with the whole issue of my mom's passing, I just ignored it again. Typing out the details in the previous post was mentally taxing but also cathartic in a way. I still do want to document my life not too far from when events happen, but I suppose I'll also give myself a little leeway with frequency. Like my wedding post for example. And getting engaged. Yeah, I definitely need to write those too. For documentation and looking back on it. Speaking of another thing I need to document, Onion and I went to Montreal for a much-needed holiday last month, and it was fantastic. I think I'll dedicate a full post to that trip.
Anyway, it's November now. Almost the end of the year. The waifu and I have been officially married for just over a year. And it's been almost a year since I wrote my last blog post. I wonder if looking towards the end of the year makes me melancholic or something. Or, like, it's about time that we start looking back on the year and how it was.
So, 2024. Let's see...
Had my first Chinese New Year where the waifu and I gave out red packets. First time. Ouch to our wallet. And apparently there's some sort of tradition observed by some Chinese that the first year, you need to give two red packets? None of us believed in that, but we did it anyway just to be nice. And because we weren't giving that many out in Canada, as opposed to Malaysia. Kudos to all the other married relatives who gave red packets all my life until we got married. Lmao. I understand their financial pain.
We've also gotten tighter with my cousins Lilian and Colin, kids of my uncle Thomas, youngest brother of my dad. Having been away since 2001, and only reconnecting in 2018 when we moved back, it took some time to warm up, and COVID didn't help. But with my waifu bringing board games to family gatherings and interacting more, we've gotten a lot closer in general. We've been invited twice to Lilian's birthday celebration, last year at Snakes and Latte followed by Mexican food, and this year at a sushi buffet.
Also got to check out the April 8th total solar eclipse. Words cannot describe the absolute cosmic beauty and experience of seeing that. Seriously. One of the most epic experiences of our lives. I dragged the waifu out, and she was pretty meh about it initially. Drove all the way through a crazy jam-packed 407 to Hagersville and parked at a Tim Hortons to check it out. Let's just say the waifu appreciated me dragging her out, haha. We went to explore Port Dover after, checking out the town and supporting some small businesses.
For Onion's birthday, I wanted something a little special instead of just fancy dinners. I looked up some interesting concepts and ideas and found murder mystery dinners were very much our thing, with the whole escape room aspect. Ended up with The Wedding Party, organized by Secret City. While parking, we encountered another couple who was a little late, and the moment we arrived, the cast immediately interacted with us in character, and I myself had to improvise on the spot. The dinner was delicious, the cast were funny and acted great, and the puzzles were a great balance of challenging and fun without being ridiculously hard. Our table of 6 was us, the couple we met while parking (Lisa and Remy), and another couple, Andrew and Brujetta (no idea how to spell it, but that's how it's pronounced). We clicked immediately and had a wonderful time. When Lisa and I were told about the "truth" of the game, it was epic! At one point, we were wondering where to find the next clues to solve, and Remy saw some boxes, and hilariously went "The gift boxes! The *ucking boxes!" LOL. And all of us rushed over. We solved the entire mystery with a minute to spare. Some of the cast personally thanked us for being so engaging and making their job easier. We ended up not going our own ways after but chatted for another 2 hours at the Old Mill, getting to know each other. Every couple was basically made up of the guy being born in Canada, and the girl born elsewhere. Lisa was from China, Brujetta from Indonesia and of course my wife from Malaysia. Brujetta and my wife shared their birthday, and we found out that Remy and Lisa lived in the exact same building as us! Lisa said I looked familiar and she had sworn she'd seen me before. All of us chatted about a ton of stuff, from electric vehicles, Malaysia, China, art, and as we were heading off, Pokemon. All the guys turned into 10 year old kids when we spoke about our starters. Pikachu and Cyndaquil for me!
Onion and I also went downtown a lot more this year, just to explore, get around, check out shops and some meals. Like at certain points we'd be hanging around somewhere, and since the weather was pleasant and we were stupid, we thought why not just walk along Yonge St back up to near our place? We did it a few times. Walking from Bloor and Yonge to Lawrence, or Eglinton. It was a nice change of pace. We got to really stop by and check out many shops we hadn't seen, and got to really know the area and local businesses better. A slower pace to just absorb that strip of the city. We also watched the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth concert, conducted by Arnie Roth. I still don't have a PS5 yet, so we pretty much got spoiled as to what happened in the game. I mean... of all the ways to be spoiled, an official orchestra is the next best way apart from playing the game right? One thing I definitely noticed, whether be it nostalgia or something, was that the arrangements of the original FFVII pieces sounded much nicer than the new, original pieces made for the game. Cosmo Canyon was fantastically impressive, an opinion the waifu shared.
We also paid money to torture ourselves. We joined the Toronto Waterfront Marathon 2024. For cats. Yeah, lol. It was a charity run basically. As we adopted Toshi from the Toronto Cat Rescue, we've been kept up to date with what's been going on, as the waifu also volunteered for SEO and other ad-related things for TCR. We woke up early and got our bibs at Nathan Phillips Square. Walked all the back to our heat, and saw thousands upon thousands of people waiting to run. When it was our turn, off we went! We took it easy for our 5k run. General jogs, and moments of walking a bit, as Onion needed to rest here and there. My treadmill running in the gym paid off as I felt I could handle it decently. Overall, pretty cool to run on the closed-off streets downtown and take part in it.
For Halloween, the waifu said she'd not seen the activity in our community, so I told her that we could go for a stroll around and check out the trick or treating, with all the kids in costumes and the candy being given out. We made a last minute decision to take Toshi out, and everyone loved her. So many people were stopped by to ask to pet her, and tons of people wanted to take pictures of her. Full on celebrity! It was pretty warm weather (thanks, climate change), so it was pretty comfortable. It was nice seeing the kids in their creative costumes, and we got to see plenty ringing on doorbells and getting candy. Overall it just felt really nice to see the community all taking part in it. A big difference from our first year back, as all the kids in our area of Richmond Hill had all grown up and left or stopped.
On sadder news, several deaths. Brian Moore, one of my church members and father of Brandon Moore, passed away last year, and I had forgotten to mention it. He got ill around the time of my wedding and passed soon after. He was always thoughtful and friendly, very engaging in conversation with me and Onion, and we missed him quite a bit. We honoured his memory at The Curtain Club Theatre in Richmond Hill after the funeral in the church, where I handled the Zoom duties. Lots of people shared funny stories of him and his family, like one time falling asleep for real when he was lying on a prop bed
I learned that Dale B. Martin passed away. A famous scholar, his Yale New Testament series on YouTube is unparalleled and a great introductory course for anyone interested in biblical scholarship. I watched his debates with Mike Licona and always liked his idea of the 3 Jesuses. One historical, one of the faithful, and one in our heads, with how we each interpret the first century apocalyptic preacher.
Onion's cousin, Jun Jie passed away suddenly due to a car accident. He was riding on his motorcycle and an irresponsible car driver ran a red light. The messiness of the accident happening in Singapore while the family was in Malaysia caused issues. Jun Jie was always nice to me, and always funny and generous. When I first met Onion's family, he was engaging and friendly from the start, and treated me well, and from what I could tell, was very chill with the extended family. He was always tight with the waifu, and she took his sudden passing very hard, having grown up with him, and the two being the first to enter the workforce. He was always responsible, and it felt like a robbery of such a nice person from this world.
We also saw news that Sako Gokdag, of Exclusively Yours Jewellery, had passed away from cancer. He was the one who resized Onion's engagement ring I bought for her, and we bought our wedding bands from him. He was recommended to us by Nicole Moore from church, and he always did a fantastic job. Yes, our interaction with him was transactional of course, but it's still sad. He was nice to us, friendly and gave generous discounts.
Also, Bean the cat. A few months ago, we saw a Facebook post on our condo's Facebook group asking for someone to take care of their cat as they were going on a trip. Onion responded and we ended up being the ones to handle him. Basically he had a form of anemia and needed daily pills, cut into half, to control it. We learned how to do it, got to know the couple, Laura and Joseph, and when the time came we did our duty for the weekend. Woke up at 7am, cut his pills, played with him and made sure he was well, along with another check through the evening. Laura and Joseph were really happy with us and asked if we could take care of him again at a future time, and of course we agreed. We were happy to help out for free, just to be nice and help out fellow cat lovers, but they wanted to compensate us. Later on, Bean developed a severe infection in his eyes and after a costly surgery, had his eyelids sewn shut for a while. It was a trying time for them, and the vet fees were very expensive. Here and there, Onion went to check up on him when they couldn't be around, and took care of him as needed. Eventually he recovered and they had a friend, Sarah, who offered to look after him while they were away. We introduced ourselves to her, and helped her out one morning to put eyedrops on him. One time, Bean accidentally bit Onion when she put a treat on her hand, and she ended up going to the ER for treatment when it started swelling. We learned that it wasn't something to mess around with? Anyway, when the waifu and I went to Montreal, Laura and Joseph were very happy to return the favour and take care of Toshi, for which we were very grateful. We caught up after the trip, exchanged some stories about Montreal and our lives in general and how we met our respective partners, plus we saw that Bean seemed very healthy and they told us he was more energetic than before. Laura messaged us a few weeks later, telling us that Bean had passed away. To say we were devastated is an understatement. We really got to adore him in our brief moments together, and we're so sorry for Laura and Joseph too. It was just bad news and rough times over and over. When we first took care of him, we played with him, tossing his toys here and there, and he played like a volleyball player. So cute. He was only 3 years old. I trust he's playing volleyball on the rainbow bridge now.
And the last thing to be sad about? USA elected Trump. Again. What a moral failure. Seriously, what the hell.
Chronicled
12:25 PM