Blue Reflections

Taken once upon a spring day.

{Jones Lake, 2015}

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One Autumn Afternoon | Vibrant Colors of Fall

 Vibrant colors and golden hues
~ Autumn is a very beautiful time of year. 
Please walk with me down Jones Lake, Moncton

 One of the many delights in coming to Canada is seeing the magnificent colors of Autumn.  Back home in the Philippines, we can only admire this from books, movies or post cards and we dream of seeing it in the future, in person.  Yes, I often wondered how it would be like to see this for myself...  And what a delight it is!  Sometimes, I enjoy just letting the leaves rain on me on a very windy day.  Or I just take some time to sit and admire the view. I became very camera-happy and I snapped some decent photos.  Please come and join me on this beautiful Autumn afternoon and enjoy the colors and the views...

Cafe C'est La Vie

Cafe C'est La Vie is one of my favorite cafes in the downtown Moncton.  It's the perfect spot to fuel my imagination (my own tea house);  or a corner inviting quiet time after a long walk with my elderly friend;  they also have outdoor sitting perfect for mindless people-watching... (is that rude?).  Support for local artists is shown in the cafe; artwork around the cafe changes very frequently to help showcase talent from the city.  Musical bands and reading groups frequently perform there as well.

I like how they prepare their homemade ginger tea.  Some may not agree but I like seeing those little pieces of ginger in my cup.  This cafe, despite the French name (great coffee and coffee products I heard), is owned by a Korean family.  That means, there's also traditional Korean food available to order besides French specialty coffees and desserts;  of course, there's loose-leaf tea - that is always a winner for me. 

Cafe C'est La Vie is located in Main Street, downtown Moncton.

What is your favorite beverage?

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Post linked to:  Tea Time Tuesdays  |

My First Live Sports Game | FIFA Women's World Cup

This summer, (first week of July) Moncton was privileged to host some of the preliminary games for the FIFA Women's Worldcup.  Here are some photos I took during one of the games.  

This was my first wordcup game, wahoo!  We watched Costa Rica versus Brazil.

The Moncton Street Car Show and Concerts 2015

Fondly called Car Show, The Atlantic Nationals Automotive Extravanganza, was held in Moncton from July 9-12, this last weekend.  Once a year, the downtown core of Moncton becomes alive with car enthusiasts not only from Atlantic Canada, but from as far as Manitoba and British Columbia.  There are many spectators, too, who doesn't know a bit about cars, but who enjoy the live entertainment, food and the chance to mingle with a crowd of people.  Visitors to the Car Show are from all walks of life and all ages.  Who wouldn't want to look at fancy cars and enjoy some exciting music and exhilarating company, right?

Watch Out For That Tree | Tree Go Adventure

How did you get up there???

Would you like to try this?

A good friend of mine was visiting from Toronto this past long weekend.  As you can imagine, we showed her around. We had a lot of adventures in a short time. For now, I'll show you about Treego. Treego is located at the Centennial Park in Moncton, NB.  It's composed of obstacle courses, swinging logs, zip-lining, tight-rope walking, Tarzan swinging and others.  There are four courses: Green, Blue, Red and Black.  Each one is more difficult than the last.  All of these are amidst trees in a forest-like environment.
A harness is belted around the body and it is attached through carabiners in a tight rope overhead.  It keeps us safe and alive.  The guides in the park are very strict and they make sure that these are always used and connected properly.  If they spot you above ground with both carabiners on hand, they take you down and you are done for the day... Hey, you're safety's at stake, you know?  Then you can set out for the adventure...  Ahhh?  Is this extreme sports?!? :D

Training and orientation ~ how to use the equipment, et al.

Some obstacle courses are similar to this ~ Swinging Logs
This adventure is not for the weak willed and those afraid of heights.
(I'm sticking my tongue and looking at you with silly face, hihi :p )

Now the real thing...
This is the first and the shortest ladder in the whole course.

Tight rope walking with some obstacles.
This part is preeeetty easy :)

Hanging planks.
It starts with the comfortable distance of a step,
then the planks go further from each other as you reach the center.
I think this is one of the easiest.

More Tight Ropes.
This one's easy too :)
Most really use the tight rope overhead as a support and
most of the body weight is centered on the arms.
That's what I did the first time and it left me very sore.
On the successive tried, I learned to trust my harness more,
giving-up some of my weight to it. ;)

Dear Kimchi says, "I'm scared, I want my mommy..." lol... This is really hard and scary, true.  But it's also quite fun.  You need a lot of upper body strength and you must not be scared of heights.  I conquered a lot of fear doing this.  Kimchi and I were among the last group of tree-climbers that day.  We were the last of that last group.  So when she stopped after the third course, I debated continuing on.  Should I leave my tourist friend waiting for me on the ground?  Am I brave enough to do it alone?  It's quite a strenuous course. I knew that the third course have those really cool zip-lines though.  And my friend offered to take pictures.  The conflict was quickly resolved.  I decided to go on and finish the third course and leave the black course (the hardest one) for next time.... Don't feel bad dear, 1/3 of all the visitors give up after the second course as well. And that's 300-400 visitors a day in the summer! The height is quite scary at the beginning.  But the adventure and the view makes it all worth it.  

As I stand on one of the highest platforms, all I could hear are the leaves moving with the wind, birds and some animals.  It was almost eerie.  I noticed that there wasn't the usual fear I feel though.  Either I yell out "Guide, guide, guide" and I'm done... yup, they come to rescue me and lower me down from any point of the course or.... I keep going.  I felt some sort of determination to finish in that time of solitude.  As I looked at the Tarzan rope, my nemesis, I took a deep breath, checked my life-lines one more time and jumped!  That was easy :)  I used to count 1,2,3 many times before I finally jump... After I finished the second zip-line, I heard a noise from the first zip-line.  Ngee, I was almost scared 'till I saw the guide flying through, "It's just me" he yelled... "It's good to have company,"  I said... No more eerie feeling.  See, it's truly safe... I finished three courses... will save the black course for next time... maybe when hubby can join.  There's a 'spider web' there that's really hard for me :)  well, you can cheat and walk the rope instead, but where's the fun in that? hahaha...

I think that I did this course about 3 or 4 times in total now.  That doesn't make it any easier and the adventure doesn't diminish.  After all, there's about a year gap in between each time I did it.  I can say, you really conquer a lot of fear when you finish this course.  Your hands will be sore from climbing and holding on the tight rope very tightly  but it may give you the motivation you needed to start that long schemed diet and fitness routine.  Thinking, "maybe next time I do this, I'd have better endurance and lesser weight..." Okay, that's me thinking out loud (wink).  I conclude that Autumn is the best time to do it.  The weather's cool and comfortable.  There are no bugs!  And how about the great, vibrant view of the trees?  Yes, the body will be sore the next day.  Two days after and I'm still sore.  But it was still quite fun!  It's a something enjoyable to do when you come to Moncton :)
 

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A Lesson from the Rocks

Last year, volunteers from Toronto and Montreal came to New Brunswick to help us in our important work of reaching ones who are interested in studying the Bible from the Filipino-speaking community.  For a break, Hubby and I played tour-guide and took them to the Fundy National Park.  As we were enjoying the beautiful scenery, one of our brothers noticed some of us comparing rocks - some smooth, others rough.  We found different shapes - egglike, flat, heart, round.  He picked up two rocks himself and...

"See these two rocks?  Can you tell the difference? One is very fine, very smooth... the other, rough with sharp edges.  What made the difference?  This (fine) rock, was closer to the shore.  The water comes and goes with the tides and smoothens it's surface.  Not only that, the rocks rob, collide, hit on each other every time the water comes through, polishing their surfaces.  The rough rocks were untouched, left alone for a long long time.

The lesson?  We know that God's word the Bible is like water.  Regularly being wet by it: reading it daily, studying and meditating on it will polish us - smooth out our rough edges.  And what else?  Our dear brothers and sisters whom we get in contact with regularly can collide with us.  Often, we may rub each other in the wrong way.  But we also lift each other up, carry each others' load.  When we take these as lessons to learn from and apply them, continuing to love each other and helping one another out despite our differences - we become as fine stones honed by adversity rather than broken by it."

What a delight it is truly to be sharpened by one another.

"I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples—if you have love among yourselves." ~ John 13:34,35

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