Saturday 5 November 2011

Sep 22-Sep 25 - Toronto!

On the 22nd in the morning I had a fitting for Antoinette's Bridal Show that my agent Mary Therese Friel in Mendon, NY set up for me.


The fitting was in Canandaigua, NY so I drove there and tried on a few dresses until we found two for me to wear and then I drove back to Pittsford to pick up Mike to go to Toronto!

We got to Toronto later after dinner and drove around in the city on our way to Miranda's house to stay with her.


I was so excited to see Miranda post Singapore! We got to her place and got a tour and talked and then we headed out to a rooftop bar called Hemingway's to hang out for the night. We had a lot of fun and went back and went to bed at her place.

The next morning I got up early to get ready for a photo shoot with photographer Erwin Loewen. I brought coffee to the makeup artist Emily Dempster and then we got on the road to go to Erwin's house.  He lives in London, Ontario which is a little over two hours out of Toronto. It was raining out so we decided to find a place inside to shoot. I brought a bunch of dresses along so we went to a location that he sometimes uses and we had a really good shoot!

I should be getting some of the photos back soon but I have one that Erwin photoshopped while I was there which came out really cool!


I was going to try to do a shoot with another photographer but the shoot went longer with Erwin which was fine so we drove back and went to Miranda's house to get her and go eat dinner. We ate at Hey Lucy Cafe and I had a delicious olive wood fired pizza. 


After our nice dinner we went to get frozen custard for dessert and then went to Miranda's where Mike taught her some guitar chords that she played while he played the keyboard!


The next morning I had a meeting with my mother agent Chantale Nadeau at her house. I was so happy to see her since it had been a long time! She took some digitals of me and we talked about how Singapore went as well as what my next goal is for modeling. She invited me to be a part of a showcase in Toronto in October that some New York agencies would be attending. We decided that after the showcase and moving to NYC then I would interview with agencies there! 

Afterwards Mike and I went to a restaurant that had very tasty dishes. We got an appetizer of melted cheeses and toasted bread that was one of the best things I have ever tasted!


It was a day of nice eating out because later for dinner Miranda, Mike and I went to Lee Restaurant. Miranda and I met Susur Lee when we were in Singapore and he has told us that we should dine at his Toronto restaurant. Susur came out and thanked us for coming and we ordered some delicious tapas. The Singaporean style slaw was truly amazing as well as a vegetable tapa I had and Mike and Miranda enjoyed a ginger chicken plate.


Afterwards we went to a place that had a wide variety of cakes and cheesecakes for dessert. We ordered three different kinds and they were all scrumptious!

Later at night we got ready and went out to one of Miranda's friend's house to meet up with people she knows. We hung out on a deck outside and it was a lot of fun. Mike started craving pizza so we walked down the road and ate and when we got back everyone was getting ready to go out to a club. We took a cab to a club but when we got there we decided to look around at other places. We walked around the streets and realized we were tired so we went back to the apartment to hang out. 

The next morning we went to an Irish pub down the street for breakfast. We sat outside and had blueberry pancakes...mmm! Then Mike and I got ready to go shopping downtown. We walked around the streets near the Eaten Center and went into a bunch of stores. Then we got hungry and I was craving Pickle Barrel where I used to eat when I modeled in Toronto last year. We got fried rice balls and an order of lettuce wraps that I love! 

We went back to Miranda's house and rested and then I got ready for a celebration dinner that Mike wanted to take me out for our monthversary! I got on a Marciano dress and Mike dressed up and we walked down the road to Ristorante Sotto Sotto. 


It was beautiful inside and the service was some of the best that I have experienced. They brought out brushetta to start and we ordered minestrone soup to share. I love minestrone and this was different from any I have had but it was delicious. For our meal we shared a plate of eggplant parmesan and a plate of four cheese rigatoni. Mike and I were in awe every bite that we took! Lastly we had molten chocolate cake that was a nice ending to our celebration dinner. Dining at Sotto Sotto was one of the best meals we have ever had.  



We went back to Miranda's and said our goodbyes to her and her awesome roommate Helenaz! Miranda is so cute, she made me a virgin strawberry daiquiri for the road! It was sad saying goodbye but it was a great trip and I knew that I would see her again soon. During the car ride back to Rochester I practiced singing with chest voice and I broke through! I sang a couple of songs where I was belting and Mike was so proud. Finally, when I got home it felt good to be back :-)

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Sep 16-Sep 21

I finally decided to do a vocal lesson with Mike's vocal coach Richard Fink IV. Richard has worked with some great artists including Carrie Underwood. We drove out to his house which is a castle and I did a one hour lesson where we did different exercises to practice pitch and using chest voice. I was kind of shy but at the end I got louder and overall it was pretty successful. 


Another night Mike, his Dad Scott and I went to the Rock Allegiance tour to see the band Red play. They had a short set but it was worth going and we had fun!


After the concert Mike's family and I went out to eat at Max which is an amazing restaurant in Rochester. The next day Mike and I met up with Liz to go to St. John Fisher College's Courage Bowl football game against the University of Rochester. The sky was beautiful as the sun was setting that night.


At night Liz, Mike and I went to A-Pub Live bar downtown to watch the artist Johnny Cummings who Mike works with play cover songs. The band was really good and we had so much fun singing along with the songs. At one point they started playing Mariah Carey "Hero" because they knew I love her and they handed the mic to me and I "sang" some of the song in front of everyone! 

The next day we went to Mendon Ponds Park because my Dad wanted to go on a trail there. Growing up I have gone there to feed the Chickadee birds because they actually land on your hand there! I had not been on the whole trail in a while and it was very peaceful. 


The next day I had another modeling job with Kodak which I was thankful for because that is the only work I am doing while home in Rochester right now.

Throughout this week Mike and I also did a marathon of the Harry Potter movies because I had not seen them all. So far we have watched number one through five and we will watch the rest soon!

On the 21st I had to get ready for my trip to Toronto the next day!