My Haul – What did I buy in February?

I thought I would try something slightly different for this My Haul post. Instead of the usual type of haul where I show what I bought in my Saturday shop or do a roundup of what I’ve bought over the past couple of weeks, I’ve decided I’m going to do a My Haul where I share a selection of things that I have bought over the past month.

Disney Happy Places, I mentioned that I started collecting these in ‘My Haul – First Haul from Canada in 2018’. Well I kept collecting them and eventually I tracked down the Beauty and the Beast tea set which was the one I had been hoping to get.

Comics! I have bought quite a few comics this month. Two volumes of Titans, the latest DC Superhero Girls, in Toronto I bought Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, and I found the Young Justice volumes in Dollarama for just $3 each!

I don’t really collect Funko Pop figures that much. However every so often I come across one that for whatever reason I feel like I should get and that was the case with this Nightwing Pop. As you can probably guess from the comics above Nightwing/Dick Grayson has increasingly become one of my new favourite DC heroes.

A new doll has been added to my collection, the DC Superhero Girls Starfire. Knowing me is it really a surprise that I wanted the doll of the alien princess superhero! I wanted to get this specific version of Starfire since she was unveiled at SDCC 2017, but she seemed to have only been available in the US, however this month she appear on Canadian Amazon and I bought her.

To my surprise I found an Ewok plushie! Ewok’s seem to have become increasingly hard to find recently so I am happy to have one. I think he has the perfect amount of manic and cute that the Ewok’s had.

February Reading Week in Canada

For the past week it has been Reading Week, classes resume on Monday and so as the week is coming to an end I thought I would do a blog post about it.

At one point I had been considering going off for a holiday over Reading Week, however in the end I decided not to. I decided that the best use of my Reading Week would be to really push myself to get ahead on my work load. Partially because I have a lot of work due over the course of March, I am naturally organised and I always like to be ahead in my work whenever possible. I also wanted to get some of my assignments done because in March I am going to be away over a weekend to staying overnight for a Comic Con.

I was actually very surprised to see just how many people left on Friday – the last day of class before Reading Week. Usually when I’m at Uni back in the UK a few people will leave for Reading Week but the majority of people tend to stay. The university also tends to run events throughout the week so that there’s something going on. But here in Canada the campus and residence has been pretty much deserted for the entire week. To be honest it has been weird seeing the campus so empty but it also has been pretty quiet which has given me a good working environment.

I haven’t just been doing work, I did go to Toronto on Monday and I did have a good day.

Also over the course of Reading Week I have decided to give up being vegetarian. I just missed eating meat a little too much. In fairness my New Year’s Resolution was only to try being vegetarian, I never intended to make it a lifelong commitment and I did manage to be completely vegetarian for a decent amount of time. I do plan to keep on cooking veggie meals, I’m just going to be having meat every so often. My plan now is to treat meat as more of a luxury item than an everyday foodstuff.

So in conclusion, I definitely had a productive Reading Week and even if it was maybe not the busiest I still had a good time.

My Haul – Reading Week Toronto Trip

Here's the My Haul post for my Reading Week Toronto Trip, I actually didn’t actually buy that much in Toronto this time.

I did get another Itty Bitty from Hallmark, as I usually do. This time I am adding Mr Incredible to my collection. I think he’s the first of the new wave of Incredibles merchandise coming out this year to coincide with the long awaited sequel.

I mentioned in my post about what I did in Toronto that I went to the comic café and of course whilst I was there I bought a couple more comics! Titans Vol 2 and Hal Jordan & The Green Lantern Corps Vol 4, both DC Rebirth titles.

Finally, I bought a Porg Pez dispenser. Did you know I liked the Porgs in The Last Jedi? I’m only buying nice looking toys of them though and I think this Pez Porg is a nice little figure of one.

And that’s it! Really not a massive selection of stuff this time and for the first time in forever I didn’t buy anything from Disney Store!

Reading Week Toronto Trip

It’s reading week and yesterday I went to Toronto again.

As you’d probably expect, I went to the Eaton Centre when I arrived. It was more browsing than shopping this time round, as usual there will be a My Haul of everything that I bought this time in Toronto. I did have lunch whilst I was in the Eaton Centre. I had a really good burger which brought being vegetarian to an end because I’d decided that I wanted to go back to eating meat but only occasionally.

Next I went to the Textile Museum of Canada, which it turns out is literally just a block away from the Eaton Centre and yet until now I never knew that it was there. This museum is relatively small but it is worth a visit. They had this fantastic exhibition of decorative kimonos (pictured above) which were stunning to look at. Honestly the pictures really do not do them justice.

A Toronto Trip for me is not complete without a visit to The Black Canary comic café. I bought some comics, I had a BB8 to drink this time (not my usual Poison Ivy!) and I thought about what I was going to do next.

Monday was a public holiday in Canada so places were pretty busy with lots of families and tourists. It was also overcast and drizzling so not ideal conditions for wandering around and finding new places which is what I had been planning on doing.

However it did ease off on the drizzle enough that it was decent enough for me to go and explore the Chinatown area of Toronto. I didn’t realise just how close Chinatown was to the area that I usually explore. It was an interesting experience as you cross the street and suddenly everything just goes from being written in English to being in Chinese. It was definitely a fascinating area to explore.

I then made my way back to the Eaton Centre going a somewhat indirect route. If I had known it was a public holiday on Monday I probably would have gone another day. If the long range forecast had been more accurate about the weather I also would have chosen to go another day. But despite some setbacks I did have a nice day.

Disney Streaming Service Shows?

So as you might know Disney are going to be launching a major new online streaming service later this year. It was recently announced that they will be creating original series and original movies for this new platform. I thought I would share some of my predictions, speculation and wishes for what new content I would like to see.

Zootropolis – The Series

Zootropolis was a fantastic film. It really deserves a sequel but Disney don't seem to be developing one at the moment so a series could be a good alternative. Given Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are cops there’s pretty obvious potential to develop a crime/mystery series set in Zootropolis. A series could also be a good format to further explore the racial subtext of the film. Why do I want to see this series on the streaming service? Because it could be a really good binge watch series as you try to figure out the mystery at the same pace Judy and Nick are figuring it out.

Disney Princesses United

If you’re a Disnerd you probably know that in Wreck It Ralph 2 the Disney Princesses (from Ariel to Moana) are going to be appearing. Given all the excitement from the announcement that the princesses were going to be meeting each over for the first time (in forever!) I wonder if  Disney will want to build on that hype. One way to possibly do so would be through a series that featured the Disney Princesses united.

Princess and the Frog

Do I even need to say that I love Princess and the Frog anymore? Because I really love it! I have talked before on this blog about how Princess and the Frog deserves more and in that post I mentioned that a TV series could be interesting. The Disney streaming service could be an ideal platform for a series of adventures about Tiana dealing with running her restaurant. A series could also show more of Tiana’s close friendship with Lottie.

Disney Villains

On the complete flip side of the Disney Princesses we have the Disney Villains. The Disney Villains are an enduringly popular group of characters and yet Disney have not really done much with them in the past few years. A series could be a fan pleasing new outlet for characters like Maleficent, Cruella and Ursula.

Star Wars Live Action Series

There’s been reports that there will be a new Star Wars live action series on the Disney streaming service. I think this is a good idea and will probably be a big draw for many geeks to subscribe to the service. Personally I would like to see a series set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens that explored what was happening in the time between the trilogies. I’d also like to see this Star Wars series use completely new characters and not have any appearances from existing characters in order to really expand the galaxy far far away.

So that’s just a few speculative ideas, I will be interested to find out what Disney actually decide to put on their streaming service when it launches.

Valentine’s Day – A View from Across the Atlantic

Last year I wrote a post about Valentine’s Day called ‘Single Awareness Day? Seriously!’ a year on I thought it might be interesting to look back at that post, add some observations about Valentine’s Day in Canada and talk about what has changed for me.

I have never entirely understood why people complain about the commercialisation of Valentine’s Day. Sure cards and chocolates are available in every store and the price of flowers is dramatically increased, but it never seemed that excessive back in England. This year I am in Canada. I now understand just how bad it is having seen just how commercialised Valentine’s Day is in North America. In Walmart there was already a substantial amount of Valentine’s products in stock right from when I arrived back in Canada at the start of January and a lot of it looks pretty low quality.

I think in theory Valentine’s Day is a nice idea but in practise it doesn’t always work. Celebrating love is a wonderful idea. However the way in which people (both single and in relationships) perceive Valentine’s Day as something of an obligation is problematic. I don’t think it is right to begrudge people who do want to participate in Valentine’s Day, however people equally shouldn’t feel like they are being shamed into a relationship. Ultimately it comes down to doing what is right for you.

For me personally, I have realised that in the past year I have been increasingly trying to dedicate myself to my studies and push myself to do better. As a conquence I sort have don’t really have time to be searching for a relationship.

So in conclusion, as I mentioned last year, I think that The Supremes got it right back in 1966, “You can't hurry love, No you just have to wait. Love don't come easy, It's a game of give and take.”

Life Update – Mid-Terms and Snow

I know I have been a little bit too relaxed with posting regularly on my blog so far this year. To share how things are going at the moment and where I am right now in my life, I thought I would just do a quick Life Update post.

·         As of Monday I am now in the midst of Mid-Terms. This semester I have three mid-terms and I have already done the one that I was most worried about so it’s not too bad.

·         It has been snowing again. I talked more about Canadian winter in January here. To be honest at this point I am just getting a bit bored of winter, the constant cold is just getting tiring.

·         I am a vegetarian at the moment, I talked more about that in this post.

·         Academically things are going well, the classes I am taking this semester are all interesting. I have also been working on my proposal for my dissertation which should be really interesting.

·         To be honest, things have generally been a bit quieter this semester. I am still enjoying being in Canada to Study Abroad but it seems like there is not as much is happening as there was back in September and October.

Been Vegetarian for a Month

One of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2018 was to give being vegetarian a proper try. I’ve now been vegetarian for about a month and so I thought I’d write a blog post about how I’ve been finding it.

The last time I had meat was when I had a sausage and egg McMuffin for breakfast on the morning after I arrived back in Canada. I had literally no food in and so getting breakfast at McDonalds seemed like the best option.

I’ve noticed since I went vegetarian that I have been eating more cheese than I used to. It’s probably quite good for me that I’ve been getting more dairy into my diet than I used to. I have also become quite keen on using sweet potatoes and beans in my cooking.

Probably one question some people are wondering is, why did I suddenly decide to give being a vegetarian a try? Well I have been low-key contemplating it for quite a while and there’s various reasons. The main one being that I just don’t really feel comfortable eating meat and knowing about the intensity of factory farming meat production. Another reason was that I wanted to prove to myself that I actually could go vegetarian.

I thought one of the biggest challenges I was going to face was finding good veggie options when I’m eating out, I don’t eat out that often but I do usually grab lunch in the university food court a couple of times a week. However I have found eating good meals to not be a problem. And I can still have Poutine whilst I’m in Canada, I just have to ask for veggie gravy.

Generally I have found going vegetarian relatively easy. I would say that if you’ve ever considered giving being vegetarian a go as then you should give it a try as you’ll probably find it easier than you’re expecting.