janet kwan | blog

Every year when the Perseids or the Leonids or this year’s Aurora Borealis come around, bad weather or the light-polluted night sky of Toronto makes it almost impossible to see any cosmic light show. This year, we got lucky because the sky was clear, the temperature was just right and the air was crisp.

A couple friends and I drove out to the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill to see if we catch the meteor shower.

We were told that we could see about 1 meteor per minute, but it was more like 1 every 15 minutes. There were a couple good ones though! One was really bright and had an orange tint to it. I saw it out of the corner of my eye because it was so bright. I kept wondering what the difference was between a meteor and a shooting star. Any astronomy experts out there?

The big telescope

Telescope from the outside

The Show…

I call it the show because it was entertaining to watch a baseball game where there was more than the usual action.

Two exciting events happened during the Jays game against the Yankees. Wait, make that 3 events.

1) Jays won. This is exciting itself because I don’t remember the last time I’ve watched a game live where they won. They lost the home opener this year which was not the most exciting way to start the season haha

2) Bautista got a pitch thrown near his head. Tension mounted and both benches+bullpens ran out. Nothing else happened but it made the game more fun to watch and definitely got the crowd riled up

3) Towards the end of the game, someone got past security and ran onto the field. Left field, to be exact..where we were sitting in the restaurant above. It took a few security guards/policemen to pin him down and arrest him. The guy looked really young…maybe in his late teens or early 20s. He was smiling as they took him away.

[Edited August 21: See below for Richard's 'stache]

As promised, here are some shots from another makeup session with Misa This time, it was Assunta’s turn. Everyone had a great time with the lashes aka “falsies”…especially Richard. I’ll have to post that picture up…if he’ll let me

Got some cool news to share. About a month ago, I took some portraits for my friend, Eugene, who is running to be a candidate for his ward (24).

Yesterday, the Town Crier, a site that focuses on community news, published a story on Eugene’s campaign and one of the photos I took was submitted and printed! Cool : )

Check it out!

On a hot summer Saturday, wedding hairstylist Ming invited me to join him at Liberty Grand to do a hair change for Vinci. That day was the craziest day to drive downtown due to road closures, construction, Jays game, TFC game, etc., but we made it and Vinci made it so all was well on that front.

The bridal suite was tucked away upstairs near these windows where sunlight streamed in nicely. There was a classic red velvet couch which was perfect for some couture shots.

On the Monday of Civic Holiday, our small group got together for a “Bring Your Own Wings BBQ” aka BYOWBBQ. Not to be confused with ROFLCOPTEROMGBBQ…or however you say it. Basically, everyone brings a different flavour of wings. Ok I’ll admit I bought my wings I WAS going to attempt to make Creole wings that I love from Puck ‘n Wings but I just picked them up on the way. Oh well, maybe I’ll try next time

Misa wanted to do a makeup trial that night in preparation for an upcoming wedding where she would be the makeup artist. So she practiced on Queenie. The end result was a natural, pretty, clean and fresh look…like a Neutrogena ad : ) If you need a makeup artist, let me know : )

Stay tuned for part 2!

Voila!

About a month ago, I blogged about Dreams. No, friends, not related the movie Inception. Ok, kind of but I don’t want to get into it in case I spoil it for anyone.

Anyway, I was privileged to be asked to take some photos for the members and staff. It was really sunny and hot outside but good thing there was a shaded area with trees nearby.

Here’s one of my favourite shots of the day. This is the founder of the Centre for Dreams, Elaine and her son John : )

After a day trip to Buffalo, I definitely needed to recover. What better way to enjoy the beautiful weather than to spend the day by the water in Port Credit having ice cream : )

We went to Dairy Cream, a little ice cream shop that’s been around since the ’50s. I should’ve taken a picture of my “small” mint chocolate chip in a waffle cone. It must have been 3 scoops and then some! I originally wanted a funnel cake but I wouldn’t have been able to finish it all by myself lol

Karen went with a vanilla/chocolate combo in a sugar cone.

While we were looking for a place to park, we saw a lady with 2 cute puppies. After we found a spot, Ben wanted to find the puppies and luckily for us, they were still at the same corner. Their owner was talking to a candidate who was probably running for councillor…or maybe he was just a guy who worked for a candidate. Anyway, when we got there he asked us, “Do you guys live in this area?” As soon as we said no, he left pretty quickly

This is Bean. He was quite the energetic pug. He was so excited that we wanted to play with him : ) We were pretty excited to play with him too…especially Ben lol

This is Ralph. According to the owner, he’s a terrier. He seemed like a mix of a terrier and a pug or bulldog but I’m not sure. He was calm and pretty chill while we rubbed his belly : )

The great thing about a long weekend, on top of the actual long weekend part, is the short week that follows!