Halloween in London

Last year, I didn't really celebrate Halloween here. In all honestly, I escaped back to Toronto for a quick pit stop visit to settle my house and missed out on Halloween altogether, in both cities.

I was determined to do some fun Halloween-ish activities this year that didn't involve dressing up in a skimpy outfit or spend a ridiculous amount of money on a costume (ahem, fancy dress here in the UK) or going out on the town and dealing with other drunken yahoos in terrible outfits.

So I picked something obscure and something super touristy. On the southeast coast of England, is the sleepy seaside town of Margate. It used to be a vacation destination during the Victorian era, and now, there are parts of it stuck in the past including the boardwalk full of arcades and fish and chip shops. Margate is also home to a weird little secret - a shell grotto discovered in 1835 and opened to the public to see since 1838. No one knows who built it, no one knows when it was made and no one knows why it was made. Containing over 4.6 million shells from oysters to cockles, historians theorise that this was the work of pagans or druids who used the symbolism of flowers and other simple shapes like stars and hearts to pay tribute to nature and their gods. Me thinks it might have been a hoarder who had too much time on their hands. The tour lasts all of 20 mins, two very small chambers and while it might seem like traveling an hour and a half outside of London wasn't worth it, it was surprisingly breathtaking and one does appreciate the level of OCD detail that went into each of the 20+ panels of mural work.

The dome leading up to a small opening to the sky.  

Shelled heart. 

The winding tunnels of the grotto.

Following a Sunday on the coast, I decided to do a tour with friends on the sickening and scandalous case of Jack the Ripper, the notorious serial killer who terrorised East London in the late 1880s. As we decided to do the tour two days before Halloween, the Ripper Vision tour was very much in demand. Well over 200 people showed up and we were lucky enough to score Jamie as our tour guide - his East London accent along with his acerbic wit and biting humour added a nice touch of authenticity to the terrible stories of the murders and the sad fate of Jack the Ripper's victims.

To add to the authenticity, the evening was rainy, dark and damp, and this tour, touted as the only tour with projectors, showed the then/now sites of the murders, the gorey autopsy photos and finally sketches of who the real killer could be. It was a nice laugh at times, incredibly educational of a dark part of London's history and a nice loop of Whitechapel. If you ever go on the tour, make sure to grab a well deserved pint at the Ten Bells as a reward for all the walking on the hour and a half tour.

The poorly lit alleyways of East London provide the perfect playground for Jack the Ripper to strike without being found.

 Our great guide Jamie who kept our attention at every stop.

The famous pub, The Ten Bells, where a few of the victims of Jack the Ripper had a pint of gin before they died. Yes, I said a pint of gin.

And after all of that, I did decide to be a joiner and head out for Halloween, even after promising myself a quiet night in. But what does one do for a last minute costume? Well, thankfully, I have an uncanny resemblance to a beloved cartoon character and just so happened to have a red striped shirt and toque lying around.

Where's Terence? Instead of Waldo, here in the UK, he's known as Wally.

Happy end of October everyone!

The ad I'm the most proud of my career.

When I started my job at Gravity Thinking in December 2014, the first project I was briefed in on made me go "Wow." It has been a long time since my days on Gillette that a feeling about a project like that has happened.

I was shown a video about the science of cymatics, in which sound waves affect the shape and patterns of thin layers of solid and liquid matter. A petri dish with dark liquid danced and performed intricate shapes while resting on an active sound speaker. I've never seen anything quite like that before and the creative team working on this turned to me and said, "So, what do you think?"

To be honest, it was both exciting and frightening as it was a project scope I have never encountered in my life. The concept was simple - show how the Glenfiddich 21 Year Old whisky, which is matured in oak barrels for 21 years and finished in Caribbean rum casks to give it its sweet flavour. Cymatics and musicians performing a song would help show that idea of the whisky being raised in Scotland and roused by the Caribbean in a metaphorical sense. It was the "how are we going to do this" that was the mountain to climb ahead.

There was a song to consider, talent to recruit, a location to find and a cymatics instillation to build and at first, four months before production to do it all. Surprisingly, the latter wasn't the issue - having found a creative technologist team through our production company, Ten Hertz, took on the task of conceptual design to final build like they've done this before. When I first saw the devices being tested, I felt like a kid at the science museum with my nose pressed up against the glass.

Our original sneak peek of the cymatics at work. 

What ended up being the most difficult was landing a song. I do not envy producers who have to scroll through lists of music and listen to clips just to find the "perfect" fit. Then, it's trying to sell in a cover and new arrangement that both the Clients and the artist licensing the song rights would both enjoy. Seriously, I don't think I want to go through another discography list again having done about four rounds of music selection.

Thankfully, we pushed back the film production so there was more time for us to do it right - two days and 30 hours on set, it was all coming together. Sitting off set with the patch into what was happening on screen was just like that moment I had when testing the cymatics. Unlike other shoots, I wasn't bored or just hanging out around the craft services table.

So after 11 months of hard work and difficult conversations, I'm proud to share with you what I helped to create. I'm even more proud of this work as it'll likely be one of the last I'll work on in the advertising world and it's not a bad one to leave the industry with.

To have a behind the scenes view of how the film came together, take a look here:

Phew...now for that dram. Sláinte!

A whirlwind weekend.

I'm not usually one to celebrate birthdays, but there are one or two memorable years where everything aligns and my friends go all out to throw me an amazing bash. When I was 20, my roommates at University threw me a surprise party, when I was 25, my friends had 25 drinks waiting for me to ring in the day (surprisingly, I didn't die of alcohol poisoning.)

And this birthday certainly joined those epic celebrations as one of the most memorable. First, on Thursday, a dream came true as I was able to attend a taping of the Graham Norton Show here in London. I've been trying to get tickets for a year now from the production company and attending other show tapings to try to get access to a priority ticket and a few weeks ago, I was told I had them. But I had no idea that we would have such amazing luck as the usher pulled my friends and I aside from the lineup and told us if we were really well behaved and didn't take any photos, she'd sit us in the VIP section right by the stage. We were 8 feet away from Graham and his guests Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Dawn French, Chris O'Dowd and Rod Stewart. My friends and I felt like we were in some weird dream - an hour and a half taping went by so quickly as the guests were hilarious and chatty - I didn't want it to end. London Bucket List item checked off my list - and in such an incredible way!

We were right in front of the stage - where that silver cylinder is which is the lever for the Red Chair. (Inner girl scream.)

The celebrations then continued Friday. Having never been to the Royal Academy of Art in London, I thought why not #TreatYoSelf and my friends to a guided tour around the stunning gallery. Having not read up on anything about the tour, I thought it would have been your standard walk around, but we lucked out with one of the museum's most experienced guides, Nigel (having done tours for over 11 years) and he gave us special access to rooms you would never see as a regular visitor to the gallery. One of the most impressive rooms was a lecture hall in which Charles Darwin read his Theory of the Origin of Species for the first time in public in the 1800s. We also saw an original incomplete Michaelangelo, which was acquired by the museum for £1.50 in the 1800s, which is perhaps the cheapest anyone has ever paid for that master's artwork. For an hour tour that stretched into an hour and a half and free entrance into a paid exhibit, it has become one of my favourite galleries in the city, mostly thanks to the talented and knowledgable Nigel Crenshaw. I tip my hat to you Nige.

Friday was a nice reunion of sorts for me as I hung out with people I worked with back in Canada. I wrote in my last post that I'm hopefully transitioning out of the advertising industry, but if anything would keep me in it, it would be the great people that I've made friends with and continue to be friends with even though it has been ages since we've worked together. I think I've met up with at least 5 - 6 former colleagues here in London and have always been excited to show them around. And hey, a five minute wait at Patty & Bun here in London was just the cherry on top of that cake! (A five minute wait NEVER happens).

And finally, Saturday completed the three days of boozing one should have for any birthday. My best friends here in London decided they were going to plan a day and surprise me with a bottomless champagne brunch at the Villandry Grand Café and a tour of the Meantime Brewery in Greenwich. Surprisingly, with that much alcohol, my liver and my stomach strangely was able to keep up with the level of consumption and we were able to have a great tasting and educational stroll around the roaring machines in the brewery.

I'll take one of everything.

For someone who is looking to get into possibly doing something in travel and tourism, I was impressed by the professionalism of our tour guide Dan and the team at Meantime. Sadly, there were some rowdy lads that were really ruining the experience for all those who paid for a tour. They dealt with the situation really well and I thanked them during the tour for doing the best they can. And with that, we were able to get some nice product at the end of the tour. Yes - "samples."

I'll be keeping my birthday weekend memories close for a while, perhaps for the next few years when I have low key birthdays. I'm grateful for friends and colleagues who spoilt me rotten this weekend and spent time planning these past couple of days for me.

Hey, it's been a while.

As the title states, I've been a pretty lazy trying to update this blog. Life moves quickly and being exhausted after work most days and trying to make the most out of my life left very little time to sit down and collect my thoughts. Yes, I hear the excuses too, and here's to hoping I turn over a new leaf as I hope to turn writing into a living rather than just some hobby to be cast aside when it becomes inconvenient.

Quite a lot has happened since my last update in 2013 (tugs at collar and thinks 'God, two years since my last entry?") Tomorrow is a milestone day for me. One year, count that, twelve months to the day that I boarded a plane from Toronto and set off for two year stint in London. Nope, not the little one in Ontario, the one across the pond. 

365 days goes by in a blink. During that time, I've seen the beauty of the UK countryside, traveled to new European destinations, worked in a boutique agency and on brands that pique my interest and have met many new wonderful friends. It's not all sunshine and roses though, London does smack you with a dose of reality that a place like Toronto will never expose you to. Through all of that, I've come to appreciate three important truths:

1) Never take friendship for granted as it can be incredibly lonely in a big city.

I was skeptical of what my social life would be like over here. Having talked to a few people who have lived here, they voiced the challenge of meeting new and interesting people. Connections through friends and dating apps are very hit and miss. You're forced into the former at times because your well meaning friends think you'll have a lot in common but more often than not, those people have their own lives to lead and were also just meeting you out of common courtesy to their friend. The latter is even worse as there are so many frogs to kiss before you find someone who isn't a narcissist or completely lacking in personality. 

I was lucky to have had my two best friends already living here when I landed. Their kindness extended a roof over my head and food in my belly as I pounded the pavement for work. They, along with one of their siblings, were my therapists while I questioned if London was the right choice in a series of weeks of self-doubt while on the job hunt. Even after I found a job and a place to live in the city, they are still a source of support and thankfully good home-cooked meals everytime we meet up. 

And my luck seemed to have continued in the months following my entry into the UK. Through the apps, I soon met three people I can count as my other BFFs here. They have changed my life here, made me appreciate this city by hearing their experiences, and changed my perceptions of what it means to have good gay role models in your life. Amazing friends are hard to both find and keep around you. Invest in those that make the effort to always be on your team.

2) Be a #TouristEveryday.

One thing I promised myself to do when I moved to London was to act as if I was a tourist with a limited amount of time. Everyday after an interview in the city, I would check out a new museum or a new neighbourhood. I took on the challenge of capturing all 58 Paddington bears on The Paddington Trail while it was on for four weeks around the city of London which made me learn all of the fun landmarks and navigate this notoriously confusing city. 

My coworker once remarked that she has lived in London all of her life and hasn't done half the things that I have. In this city, that is such a shame considering most museums are free entry and that around every borough, there's art, music, food, and culture that's waiting to be explored. 

I share this advice with those friends of mine who have moved to the city and even random people I've met off by chance this approach hoping it'll inspire them to look at this amazing city in a different light. Otherwise, you'll end up as disenchanted as one of the millions of worker drones that buzzes to and from home to work on the (shudder) trains everyday. 

3) Sometimes saying goodbye is the best thing to do.

From the beginning of my career in advertising, I always knew I wanted to move to one of the hubs of advertising and really sink my teeth into the industry there. A Managing Director of mine back at Proximity gave me the best piece of advice - wait until you're established enough to move to a New York or London, otherwise, you're never going to adjust to the standard of living. 

The move to London was in planning stages since that piece of advice back in 2011. It took three more years of planning, saving and hard work to get here. However, the excitement for advertising that I used to feel was cleverly disguising itself as just excitement in moving to London. As I started to work here in London and working on some of the most exciting projects I've ever had a chance to in my career, the excitement started to die. I thought to myself, 'there are people out there who would kill to have the job and the projects you're working on, why are you not more excited?' and I just couldn't muster the energy like I used to.

So I made the tough decision to part with advertising in September. Thankfully, the conversation with my agency's management has been a mature and open discussion. I clearly haven't charted out fully what I'm planning to do next, but I can't continue in a career in which I'm not getting any satisfaction out of. It'll take some time for me to transition into my dream career as a travel writer, and during the time being, I'll have to fill the bank account with some freelance work in advertising (which is thankfully abundant here), but saying goodbye to the industry is the best thing to do, for both my sanity and my stress level.

This isn't my most well thought out post, however, it's just good to sit down and hash out your thoughts unfiltered. I'm glad and grateful I've made this journey and figured out some more self-truths this year. Here's to another year of excitement ahead, particularly because I have no idea what the hell I'm doing.

London in the evening is majestic. A great time to stroll and reflect by the beautiful Thames embankments.

One thing I do miss about home is not being able to jump on the Blue Jays bandwagon now that they are good again. WTF BJs, the one year I decide to leave...

Olympics "I Believe" Song on repeat

I remember the first time I knew anything about the Olympics was in 1992.  I was in the 2nd grade and our gym teacher had us run around the gym pretending we were Olympic athletes.  Being the precious kid that I was, I decided being a spectator was my contribution to the "games."  

Even as a young child, I wasn't much into doing anything really physical.  I couldn't even dig in the sand without distain.

Then Lillehammer 1994 happened and I paid more attention to these games as Canada actually medals in the Winter games.  This was the year that Elvis Stojko unleashed the dragon and made figure skating two shades less feminine than it really is.  And my grandfather was very much into hockey, so I watched the tournament with him, and even though Canada won Silver, it was one of my favourite memories of childhood as I was able to spend so much time with my grandpa.


Through the years, Atlanta, Nagano, Sydney, Salt Lake, Athens, Turin, and Beijing were always fun to follow, but I never really LOVED the games until Vancouver 2010.  This time Canada was the focus of the games, and I was determined to go and experience the fun.  I was lucky enough to get tickets to the Gold Medal Men's hockey game, gambling on the fact that Canada would be in the finals.  The country was slow on the medal count, but the games finished like a fairy tale ending.  An overtime goal by Sidney Crosby to capture Men's Gold, the Canadian Olympic Team set an all time gold medal record by a host country at 14 gold medals, and some incredible tales of triumph from athletes like Joannie Rochette, who lost her mom before she was to skate, made you tear up like a 40 year old single woman watching Titanic for the fourteenth time on a Friday night with her cats.

Going buckwild after Canada wins in overtime.  One of my best moments of life ever.

I'll admit, for a time after Vancouver 2010, I was in a funk.  I wanted to turn on the TV to watch ANY sport that involved three medals at the end.  It could have been Olympic speed knitting and I would have watched.  I was so obsessed with the Olympics, I had the Nikki Yanokovski "I Believe" song playing on repeat on my iPod as I walked to work and pretended to move in slow motion like the people in the montages on CTV.  It made for a slow walk to work.

Just in case you haven't had enough of it...

So, when London 2012 crept closer, and I realized that I would be in Europe for the summer, there was no question that I would stop by this city to enjoy the games.  Thankfully, my friends Alex and Sandy have conveniently moved to this city, so free accommodations mean cheap Terence can spend more money on booze.  (And trust me, I have).


The Opening Ceremonies
After a day of walking around the city with Sandy and our friend Laura, we went to Canada House in Trafalgar Square to see what it had planned for the athletes.  We were disappointed to find that all they had for us were pins (we took them nonetheless) and they directed us to the Maple Leaf bar in Covent Garden.  We were joined by Alex, Phil (another friend from uni) and Phil's friend Jamie and we celebrated the Opening Ceremonies with at least 400 other Canadians crammed into the bar.  There were several moments of SHHHH! to try to listen to what was happening.  Other moments of laughter at the British sense of humour including:


- Free health care promotion (an obvious F you to Mitt Romney who was visiting and made some rather silly comments about the Olympic games)
- the Queen jumping from a helicopter with James Bond
- Three dozen Mary Poppins flying into the stadium


And of course, cheering for the countries as they marched into the stadium.  We cheered the loudest for Canada and Team GB, but as we got drunker and drunkier, we started clinking our glasses for Team Swaziland and Uzbekistan...haha...who comes up with these names?


Speaking of drunk, one of the highlights of the bar, was this couple from the West Coast.  The wife got hammered and started hitting on Phil and Jamie.  She tried with Alex, but Sandy shot her some Asian cuteye and she backed off.  They still stole our seats that we had occupied since 5pm.  Lesson learned, don't be nice.


However, we were unceremoniously all kicked out right before Sir Paul performed and people were losing their minds.  Very unCanadian like behaviour was displayed and we all went home with a bitter taste in our mouths - or perhaps that was from the vomit after nine pints of Strongbow.


Day 2 - 3m Women's Syncronized Springboard Diving
Our only ticket to the games was to the diving event at the aquatics centre on Sunday.  We were lucky enough to get seats to this event - little did we know that we'd be watching Canada get it's first medal.  It started with Canada doing really well, and in true Canadian style, we lost the lead and China, being the powerhouse they are, won Gold.  We were sitting in the nosebleeds but I truly believe our cheers reached all the way to the platforms 4,000m below us.

This is with 55mm zoom.  We were still super far.

Alex, Sandy and I wandered around the Olympic Park afterwards and it's massive and quite impressive.  The weather was bipolar, so we got waves of sunshine followed by a lightning show and a downpour back to happy sunny skies within a matter of an hour.  Mother Nature must have been watching the Joannie Rochette story with her cats.


The Olympic Park is located in London's East end, notorious for being the shady part of the city, has been refurbished to be the most sustainable Olympic Park ever.  The stadium, Aquatics centre, Velodrome, football and hockey fields are all located in this park.  A big wildflower field also serves as a live TV venue for those coming in and out of other events.  Alex wore his Union Jack and I wore the Maple Leaf flag.  The spirit of the games made the Olympic Park into a grown up version of Disneyland where everyone was smiling and greeting people with "hello, how are you?" or a "woot!  Canada!!!"  The Olympic volunteers were so happy, I think they inhaled a bag of happy gas before starting their shifts.  Here are some selects from the Olympic grounds:

Wildflowers are present all around the park.

The orbit - telecom tower and observation deck.

Very Polka Dot Door.

The Velodrome.

One Eyed Monster Mascot.

The Stadium.

Jump for the Olympics!

We don't have any more tickets to any of the other events, but with the controversy of the empty seats at the venues, we might get another chance to go!  If not, anyone up for Sochi 2014?

Taking the time to have a meal outside

A guy I used to work with used to love eating his lunches outside during the summer time.  There was once I joined him at his favourite spot near Yonge and Bloor, where we used to work.  It was in a small parkette near a firehall and a condo, a quaint little square that obviously had caught the attention of others as it was packed.  During my entire time there, I wondered, how was he able to do this everyday?  And more importantly, why am I not doing this everyday?


It wasn't until I quit my job back in February that I was able to truly appreciate eating a meal outside.  Granted, I didn't do this while I was still in Toronto - it was still pretty fucking cold outside, but I did more of that in Taiwan, where it was 25 - 30 degrees Celsius everyday.  I sat on a Starbucks patio, or a bench in my local park, or just a busy walkway in downtown Taipei - it was just good to eat, reflect and people watch.  


So apparently, this has been the best day in London for a while - it's been raining like mad lately, so with the sun out, I decided it was a perfect day to walk around and eat breakfast outside.  

What it looked like outside my hotel window this morning.

I indulged my inner nerd this morning and decided to go to the British Natural History Museum.  Well, it was also a cost effective move as the admission is free.  Grabbing a croissant and a lemonade to go, I headed to the museum which is only a 10 minute walk away from my hotel.  This was my first time at the museum as the last time I was here, we didn't have a chance to go inside and look around.  When I turned the corner and saw the building, I was just mesmerized.   Everything about it was impressive - the gates, the colours of the facade and especially the lush green lawn that surrounded the compound.  

A perfect place for breakfast.  

Sitting there for an hour was a bit of a challenge and something I still need to work on, which is slowing down.  I inhaled my food (likely because I was hungry) rather than savouring each bite.  I did think to myself after 15 minutes, so what now?  All the other times I had sat outside for lunch, I was either eating with someone, reading something or surfing online.  With none of these options available, I had to start training myself to sit back, observe, and enjoy the surroundings like these fine people below. 

A small part of me wonders why I didn't do this more often when I was working...

I encourage everyone to take some time out of their day to sit outside and have a meal.  Don't make the excuse that you can't do lunch because of work, well, there's always dinner.  Have a picnic, sit on your balcony or find a park bench or any bench for that matter and feed your stomach, your senses and your soul.  Trust me, it really gives you perspective on what really matters out of your day.

Looking towards the next two months in Europe and the Future.

Fifteen days.  The perfect amount of time for rests between my two big trips this year.  With China, Tibet, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia knocked off my travel bucket list, I look forward to my next two months in Europe.  

I had some epiphanies on my trip to Asia, of which my need to work on my procrastination was identified and then ceremoniously set aside for a later time (my lack of movement on my Asia blog posts is evidence of that).  One of the more important epiphanies is my sense of optimism and how it has changed over the last decade.

When we were young, we spent an overwhelming amount of time thinking about what we'll do when we get older.  When I was five, I wanted to be a singer.  When I was thirteen, I wanted to be a medical examiner (I had a weird obsession with the show Quincy M.E. before CSI became uber popular).  When I was eighteen, I was overwhelmed with the choices of what I wanted to be and do when I became an income earning adult.  This focus on the future filled me with hope, optimism and happiness - more than my 140lb body could contain.  

I'm not sure at what point which I stopped looking forward and started looking back.  I guess, I can't pinpoint a time, but perhaps a period in which this happened.  When I was 22, I wanted to be eighteen and have university to start all over again.  When I was 25, I wished I was ten years old and had no bills to pay, no responsibilities to attend to.  When I turned 28, I wished I was seven again, with my family all happy and together.  Needless to say, the latter thought was pivotal in my decision to quit and depart on this adventure.

What happened to make us this way?  When do we stop looking less towards the future and start dwelling on the past?  We become preoccupied with the niggles of the present and start drowning in the regrets of what we coulda, woulda, shoulda done.  This shift in the scales between past and future prevent us from truly reaching our potential - with each shift of the weight back to the past, our hopes and dreams seem to sink with it.

These past four months of being off have provided me with some perspective of what I need to change about myself.    I have to stop regretting decisions of the past and realize everything has led me to a point, this point, in which I have an opportunity to make some great life changes.  I look forward to my months in Europe where I can live a carefree life, eat amazing food like it's my job and overwhelm my visual cortex with the sights of Europe.  I look forward to the new experiences with friends and new friendships I'll forge along the way.  I look forward to finding inspiration for some short stories or perhaps a novel.  And I appreciate the fact that I'm one lucky son of a bitch for being able to take this trip.  I really do.

For those of you curious of where I'll be, here's my itinerary - which is pretty much set:

Hong Kong - June 8 - 11

London - June 12 - 13

Lisbon - June 14 - 18

Porto - June 18 - 19

Faro / Lisbon - June 20 - 21

Madrid - June 22 - 24

South of Spain - June 25 - June 30

Barcelona - July 1 - 3

Zagreb - July 4 - 6

Split - Dubrovnik Cruise - July 7 - 13

Paris - July 14 - 22

London - July 23 - Aug 2 (OLYMPICS BABY!)

Edinburgh - Aug 2 - 11

London - Aug 12 - 15

Taipei - Aug 16 - ...

So here's to looking forward...and never looking back. 

Always look forward.  Looking back is a waste of time.