Finally feels like fall

It’s official – it finally feels like fall to me.  Today I went for a great afternoon 5km run with the sun shining, but was surprised that I couldn’t warm up throughout the entire run.  I have been wearing running capris & tanks for the past few weeks but the sunny skies are deceiving – it’s quite chilly out and it’s time to bring out the running windbreaker and long tights.  I am a summer lover at heart but the change in seasons has it’s perks – the leaves are starting to turn, squashes are abundant, and Halloween candies are readily available!

 

Last weekend I had the entire weekend off – it was glorious! My parents dropped by my area of the city last Friday and we took the opportunity to visit one of my favourite Malaysian fusion restaurants, Banana Leaf.

 

I love the bright, colourful decor in the restaurant.

 

Pretty ceiling decor.

 

This restaurant is great as it allows to share plates and order your own.  I ordered a papaya, tomato, peanuts, coconuts, pineapple and spring green salad for the four of us to share.  Yum!

I ordered the tofu vegetarian lettuce wraps for my entree.  Yum! These were fun to eat and surprisingly easy to wrap up.  The filling contained tofu, Nonya spices, jicama, shitake mushroom, green bean, bell peppers, soy bean sauce, galangal, lemon grass, and chili.  The crispy shell was perfect, too!

Of course, we all had to split the Pisang Goreng four ways- crispy fried banana with vanilla ice cream topped with crushed peanut & gula melaka.  I didn’t try the ice cream but the banana was to die for!

 

On Saturday I spent the morning studying and the evening with my family at my sister’s place.  We enjoyed some Panago pizza and played Rock Band.  That game is so addicting – I’m so glad I don’t have a video gaming system at home, or I’d never get anything done.

 

Allen & my dad.

I had a slice of garden veggie pizza without cheese and a  huge serving of their (surprisingly fresh!) garden salad.

 

This week Allen has been making dinners – he made an awesome flat out pizza the other night with tons of veggies, Yves faux pepperoni slices and tons of banana & jalapeno peppers. This was spicy even for me, but delish none-the-less!

 

On Sunday, Allen I squeezed in a 10km run in 56 minutes – the fastest I have done that route in quite a while, so I was pleased.  I still suspect it is shorter than 10km, but I may be getting a birthday present next Friday that will help make things more accurate for me!

 

Hope everyone is having a lovely start to this weekend – what are your favourite things about fall?

Wedding Recap Part I: Getting Ready

I have recently received my professional wedding photos, taken by the talented Ellen Ho of Hong Photography, so I will be doing a full wedding recap in pictoral form in between regular posts. 

 

Wedding Part I: Getting Ready

June 27th, 2009 – 8:00AM

Some of my bridesmaids had spent the night, and we did our nails, chatted and snacked until it was time to pass out.  Surprisingly, I fell asleep right away and didn’t wake up until the morning – I think I was exhausted from all the running around that day.

I woke up at around 7:00 AM and noticed slightly cloudy skies.  At this point, I was so happy that I was going to be getting married today I decided to not fret about the weather and just go with it – no matter what, it was still my wedding day!

In the morning, I quickly fixed breakfast for the others and myself (oatmeal for me, of course!) and Brendan and Ya-Hsun from Beauty-A-Go-Go arrived to do our hair and makeup at my condo.  My condo was the perfect location as it was near our photography site and not too far from the ceremony & reception location.

The photographers arrived just in time to capture the last minute preparations after a leisurely morning of gossiping & getting ready.

My sister having her makeup done by Ya-Hsun.

 

My niece and lovely flower girl, Makayla, having lip gloss applied.

 

Myself and my sister, laughing over something!

 

 

A few finishing touches on the girls.  I had made PB&J, ham & cheese, and Turkey & cheese sandwiches, banana bread muffins, and chopped up veggies for snacks. 

 

I wanted to choose the least messy/least staining snacks I could think of and they were a hit – we munched on them while getting dressed and later on the car ride.  Unfortunately, there were supposed to be some for the men but they never got a hold of any – whoops!

 

 

Captain was so excited to see so many people in “his” house.

 

I was so happy he was being cooperative!

 

 

The girls with their bridesmaid gifts – Lululemon gym bags! I wish I had bought one for myself as the salesperson offered me a deal, I have a different style one for school/work but would love a second one for workout gear!

 

 

Helping my sister with her shoes.  The girls picked out matching silver heels that ended up being so uncomfortable throughout the day, unfortunately!

 

Soon it was time to put on my dress.  Don’t mind the messy bedroom – it had been tidy at the beginning of the morning but with seven women getting ready, it didn’t stand a chance!

 

Grateful for the helpers.

 

Buttoning up the back.

 

Success!

At this point, we were a little rushed to meet the men for our pre-ceremony photo shoot.  This was honestly the only high stress point of the day as we had a window of time set aside before the ceremony to do our portrait shots, but it all worked out in the end.

 

Helping with my shoes.

 

Heading out the door.

 

A final hair touch of hair spray for extra staying power – and we were off by around 12:30 PM for me to see Allen for the first time.

 

Thanks for looking – stay tuned for Part II: portraits at the beach soon!

Question of the Day: What are some of your favourite shots? Please comment – I am trying to decide which ones to enlarge or add to our collage photo frame.

Surviving the craziness

Last week I worked over ninety hours – it was craziness from Monday to Sunday so I apologize for not posting.  I have been learning a lot and this is what I ‘signed up for’, so I can’t complain too much!  Needless to say, no exercise was done!

Sunday evening Allen and I celebrated with checking out a vegetarian South Indian restaurant near our place.

I have had East Indian cuisine more in the past, so we thought this would be fun to check out!

 

We both decided on the special meal.

We ordered plain naan as well which was warm and fresh.

Our plates arrived with numerous dips and curries to eat along with rice & poori.  They also tasted amazing with the naan!

 

Yum!

It was great that everything was vegetarian too!

  

We want to come back to check out the lunchtime buffet sometime soon!

 

Yesterday I got my workout energy back and had a great elliptical workout with Gossip Girl in the background and a textbook over the digital monitor.  What can I say – I love multitasking!

Stats:

Workout: Elliptical

Time: 40:00

Distance: 8.3km

Afterwards I did some leg stretches which felt amazing!

 

Today I had my evening planned out – come home, run, make dinner, study at Esquires with Lara, come home, blog, sleep!

 

Stats:

Workout: Outdoor run

Time: 25:32

Distance: 4.7km

I was so happy to be out running and the weather was a beautiful day for late September.  I ran right through the change from summer to fall at 5:18 PM!

 

I made a quick but delicious dinner of the Sauteed Spinach and Tomato recipe from Veganomicon.  This was quick & delicious! I also had a whole wheat pita with Sabra’s hummus on the side.

Time for bed now! My new exercise mantra in this busy time in my life is go with the flow. I love planning, making schedules, etc but last week I was too physically exhausted to exercise – and that was okay with me.  I didn’t feel exercise guilt whatsoever.  Each week does not have to bring X amount of miles, a new workout, cross training, or anything really! I want exercise to remain as a stress reliever in my life, and I feel that my new mantra will help with that.