Ottawa

My Time at CBC/Radio-Canada in February – S12E12

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Just to coincide with their blog makeover as my Twitter slightly lit up with notifications from it.

Back in February, I had the opportunity to work at CBC/Radio-Canada (the corporate side) and help with migrating their blog to a new one. To keep it short, you can read my experience over on their blog by clicking HERE. 

All I can say that it was an opportunity to meet the great people at Enterprise Communications and surprising the ones from CBC Ottawa.

In the meantime, you can check out more photos that I didn’t provide to the CBC/Radio-Canada blog. It’s a mix of the Polaroids and iPhone photos posted here.

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Red Bull Crashed Ice in Ottawa – S12E11

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On the weekend, Ottawa played host to the 2017 Red Bull Crashed Ice. Crashed Ice is a fast sport consisting of skates and frozen ice sloping down in curves and bumps.

Riders from females and males compete for the fastest speed going down the ice. There were lots of bumps, trips, stumbles and slip during the whole competition.

The event was part of the continuing celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday and in the Nation’s Capital. It was located on the Rideau Canal between Fairmont Chateau Laurier and Parliament Hill.

The weather on Saturday was hovering around -20 degrees Celsius, quite the bone chilling temperatures. At least people braved the cold temperatures at the event.

I stood with other photographers from around 4pm to 10pm. It was about a 6+ hours standing in the frigid cold. Overall, it was a fun event to watch ice cross downhill.

You can check the photos below.

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Ottawa Ice Dragon Boat Festival – S12E10

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The first ever Ice Dragon Boat Festival in North America happened on Saturday morning. It was held at Dow’s Lake in Ottawa.

The unexpected mild temperature was pretty ideal to begin the opening ceremony. The lion dance troupe led the VIPs and politicians to the Rideau Canal Skateway. The Minister of Canadian Heritage, Melanie Joly and Minister of the Environment, Catherine McKenna were on hand for the event. As usual, the mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson and other local politicans were there for the event.

Boats on ice don’t seem in common compared to the usual boats on the water. The Ice Dragon Boat race have been a big hit in Hungary and China so far. Teams from Canada, China, Europe and USA have applied for the first inaugural race in Ottawa. I didn’t get to stay to check the race as I was there for the lion dance performance.

There was a good turnout for the Ice Dragon Boat Festival as it’s part of the 2017 edition of Winterlude as one of the new attractions. It is also part of the continuing celebration for Canada’s 150th anniversary and Ottawa 2017.

Check out the photos from the opening ceremony below.

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Yoga with a High School Friend – S12S09

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I decided to surprise a high school friend by showing up for his yoga class. I haven’t seen my friend, Arbin for over a decade, the last time I saw him was at Carleton University. 

Aside from the surprise, the reason for taking the yoga session was keep myself in health. For those who don’t know, I’ve been using the Apple Watch and trying to keep myself in shape with exercising. Most recently, I haven’t been doing some exercising as I’ve been doing some work at CBC Radio-Canada in the corporate communications side of things. I’ve only been able to do the Seven app and not get a chance to jog on the treadmill.

Back to yoga, Arbin has been teaching for several Sunday mornings. It’s for everyone whether you’re a beginner, novice or advance. He focuses on strengthening your core body, breathing practices and meditation. For Ottawa readers, the location is at 175 Richmond Road, in the Westboro area of Ottawa. There would be more yoga sessions planned during the week for those who can’t do Sunday mornings.

It was nice to see another high schooler take part in the yoga lessons as I haven’t seen him in a long time. It was also nice to see Karen aka VaVa&Vintage as she’s known Arbin for awhile. Got to love connections from people I know. How could I never forget to take some photos and use the Polaroid camera with The Impossible Project film.

Overall, I had a good time learning yoga and going through the moves. It’s pretty intensive and it will take me awhile to be flexible.
You can check out the photos from below and a Polaroid photo.

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Starting Off 2017 with Hip Hop Brunch – S12E07

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Happy New Year!

What a way to begin 2017 with some Hip-Hop vibes. For those who know me use an Apple Watch to exercise and workout. Starting off my usual indoor jog, I tune into CBC Radio One and they had a New Year’s Day special programming in the morning. At 8am, they aired Marvin’s Room from CBC Radio 2 on Friday nights, it’s a program that delves into the world of R&B, Hip-Hop and whatever’s in between. They had their top 10 of 2016. It was great distraction while jogging.

At noon time, I went to Kinki Lounge & Kitchen for Aunt Thelma’s & Chico’s Hip Hop Brunch. The event runs on the first Sunday of the month. It’s collaboration with Caroline “Chico” Chichelly and Sean Daigle of Aunt Thelma’s where they bring out the hyped up Brunch names derived from Hip-Hop/Rap songs and artists. They bring the love of Hip Hop and food as well as having DJs spinning on the deck with the 1990s and early 2000s Hip-Hop tracks. House of Paint is a sponsor of the monthly event.

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Just Days Before Christmas, I Finally Got The NES Classic Edition – S12E06

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The NES Classic Edition is one of the hot sellers of 2016 and a must get for Christmas. I was able to get it at EB Games on December 22nd and they had a minimum of 4 per store. It goes to show how crazy buyers and video games fans are trying to scoop up this retro video game system.

I wasn’t trying hard enough to finding it when it was released in late November but I was convinced by my brother to get it. It was quite the hunt to finding the product around stores. A nice way to get it before Christmas.

Changes to the Blog
Just to let everyone know that WildWorks.ca shifted to a web hosting service. The reason for it being that I bought web hosting for the lion dance website and with the shared hosting, I can also use up to 3 websites. I might as well move my blog as WordPress.com has given me limited ability to style the pages and having some complications. It will be powered by WordPress.org, which gives me more freedom with using plugins.
At the moment, some of the older entries are missing photos and other content. The migration will take awhile and I will probably have a new theme layout sometime in 2017.

Wanting to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
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Siberian Cat Café in Chelsea, Quebec – S12E03

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On Thanksgiving Monday (Canadian holiday), I had the opportunity to check out the Café Chat Siberien, the French name or the English name, Siberian Cat Café over in Chelsea, Quebec. Cat cafes have become pretty popular throughout the world. I’ve been wanting to check it out as I enjoy seeing adorable cats.

The Siberian Cat Café has opened for over a year and it’s become a fun destination when heading down to Gatineau Park. Being a holiday, there was traffic for people going to Gatineau Park. Luckily for Google Maps, it gave us another route to avoiding the car pileup.

Getting inside to the café and to see the cats, you need to order either a drink (tea, coffee and cola) and grill cheese sandwich or some small sweet bites. They also had the Montreal cola, 1642 Cola. I heard good things about it. It’s a cola with maple syrup in it.

Heading inside the cat room, there were some cats hanging around and some sleeping. The cats were friendly and they didn’t bite or scratch patrons and myself. There were also art installations throughout the building.

Overall, it was a quaint and relaxing Thanksgiving holiday going to the cat cafe. You can check out the photos below.

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving holiday!

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Summer Happenings

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It’s a summer entry as I won’t be posting regularly and it’s considered the off-season.

The biggest craze to hit parts of the world is Pokémon Go. Canadians have been waiting for the release, which came out on July 17th and made the game’s server crash. I haven’t played like crazy with the worry of the phone’s battery life. I’ve noticed seeing people play around my neighbourhood as there’s several Pokéstops located and a competitive gym to clash with.

On Tuesday afternoon, there was a Pokémon Go event in Ottawa called the Confederation Park Lure Party. There were lots of people convening at the park and catch whatever Pokémon are available.

Even the Mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson came out and joined in the fun to trying out Pokémon Go.
You can check the photos from below.

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Sunday at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival – S11E34

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ODBF 2016 Sunday Main-1

It was quite a weekend to be at the Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. I wasn’t planning to go to Sunday’s event but decided to go because one of my lion dance member was participating in the race and also support Loon Choir play live.

Despite being another scorcher, there were some winds helping cool things slightly. It was fun to hop on the raft to check out the races as mentioned that my lion dance member taking part in it. The schedule for the races were delayed and I was able to catch it while on the raft. It’s just the thrill to seeing the races on the waters. Photos are posted below.

The concert series ended with Loon Choir, Young Empires (from Toronto) and Ottawa’s own A Tribe Called Red. Winds were blowing during Loon Choir’s performance while the loud tone from Young Empires rocked through. Lastly, A Tribe Called Red brought loud, strong beats and getting to crowd to dance it out with excitement. Don’t forget to check out the photos below.

Overall, an excellent 2016 edition of the Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival and the organizers and volunteers have done a great job holding the festival. It’s become the best in North America. Dragon boat racing, various activities and live music in the hot Summer, you can’t beat it in Ottawa.

This wraps up season 11 of the blog. It’s been fun filled ride with the music and lifestyle events covered in Ottawa. See you in the Fall.

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Saturday at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival and the Percy Station Opening – S11E33

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ODBF 2016 Saturday Main

There were a lot of events happening in Ottawa. From the Ottawa International Jazz Festival to Escapade to House Of Paint’s Community Jam and the Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival.

My afternoon started in Chinatown as there was a popup structure on Somerset and Percy. There was a fire that destroyed businesses in 2015 and the city decided to create a pilot project to transform the streetside parking to space of activity and renewing the urban space. Local businesses from Jackpine and Atelier Ruderal help made the creation possible. On hand at the opening were Somerset Ward Councillor, Catherine McKenney, the Somerset BIA and Awesome Ottawa. Photos from the event are posted below.

After that was off to Mooney’s Bay Park for Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival again. I never had a chance to take photos of the actual race, I have participated in dragon boat race back in the mid/late 1990s but it was the first time to hop on the boat and just have fun shooting the races.

The concert lineup for Saturday night was a good one. It started with Ottawa’s Pony Girl, then Halifax’s Nap Eyes (they’re on the 2016 Polaris Music Prize Long List) and topping it off was Alvvays. All three bands were excellent. I originally planned to leave after the third song of Alvvays but I saw a few friends I know that were in the crowd. I decided to dropped by for a bit. The crowd was quite the spontaneity with the crazy jumping, dancing and bumping around.

You can view the photos below.
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