Stuff that happened

On Wednesday October 31st, Kylea and I finalized the purchase of our first ever home. We’d been looking since May and we were ecstatic to finally settle on one 😁

Needless to say I was nervous as hell. It was by far the biggest purchase I’d ever made, and I couldn’t help doubting my decision and asking myself questions like “is this really worth it? What sort of things could go wrong? What if Hurricane Neddy swoops down and wrecks the house?”.

These doubts were soon squashed with the excitement of having a place to call our own. Adios, neighbours who walk way too fucking loud!  

We don’t move in until late December so we’ve got some time to prepare. I’m going to miss living in the Mile End; most of all, I’ll miss the Brazilian jiu jitsu (BJJ) gym where I’ve been training for the past two years. I’ve made some really good friends there and the head instructor is the best. Fortunately our new home has another BJJ gym under the same affiliation really close to it, so I’ll be training there after we move. I’ll definitely miss  my training partners though 😭.

Near the middle of November, Kylea and I attended a cooking class at Ateliers et Saveurs in the Old Port. We worked together with another group to make some delicious butter chicken along with some sides and dessert.

Our instructor was awesome and we were grouped with a fun and friendly bunch. I also learned some nice knife techniques which I started applying at home. I definitely recommend the cooking classes at Ateliers et Saveurs, whether it be for a team event at work or for a date. 

November also marked the second month of my journey into meditation. I was introduced to it by my cousin Jun (he introduces me to a lot of cool stuff, such as Magic the Gathering, floating tanks, and more). 

I started my meditation journey using the Headspace app, which I’ve been finding extremely helpful. My main goal with meditation was to get better at focusing at work and avoid being tempted by distractions. Frankly I haven’t had much success on this yet, but I’m not expecting immediate results. I’m just going to keep meditating on the daily and see where it takes me.

I’m super curious to hear about what kind of impact meditation has had on others. If you’re into meditation, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

What I read

This month I read Name of the Wind, the first of a fantasy series by Patrick Rothfuss. 

Name of the Wind follows the story of Kvothe, a seemingly ordinary innkeeper with a mysterious and intriguing past. As Kvothe recounts his upbringing to a scribe known as Chronicler, we slowly discover that he is no ordinary man.

I really liked the universe that Rothfuss creates in the book, as it reminded me a lot of The Witcher 3 video game (though far less violent). I was so enthralled with this book that I even put playing Red Dead Redemption 2 on hold (I’m still at the darn snow level!).

The only thing I didn’t like about Name of the Wind was how it ended with so many loose ends. I felt a little salty about this but I suppose the author succeeded in making me want to read the sequels. 

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That’s all for this month. Time to start packin’! 📦