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Today is my birthday. Now you know why I scheduled my trip at this time. Apart from the convincing by J, and one of my bucket list is to explore other country in Autumn, I just wanted to have a getaway and celebrate it somewhere else other than my country. By myself.
​ I started my birthday this morning with a seminar which I conducted at McGill College. As you all already know by now, I am trying to market my business, Grapholistic International, outside of Singapore. I started this company in year 2005 and the last time I organised a seminar outside of Singapore was last December at the University of Tokyo in Japan. This time I managed to do it in Montreal's McGill University. One takeaway from organizing this seminar, never give tickets for free. Turnouts is such a disappointment even though after participants had booked in advance. The reason I gave free this time is because I am targeting students from the universities in this area such that they need not spend their allowances on this seminar. There is always the first time. It shall be the first and the last.
Right after the seminar, I took a cab to L’Eguelionne bookstore. The ride was about 30 minutes. It is quite a distance. I went to submit the book which I had written for consignment, Masterpiece in Your Heart, The Platinum Edition. Before this trip, I had done some research on the target market and locations of the bookstores that fit my kind of poetry. L'Eguelionne not only serves my target market but they could accept my type of book with open arms. I had tried those in some places but they do not attend to small writers and distributor like me directly. Also, I am so surprised they are so open to buy my postcards impromptu. The staff is well-composed and speaks with respect. Thank you! And if anyone in Montreal is interested to buy the copies, you can get it there. It is located in the Village at Montreal. I will be honored if you buy it. Also, it comes with a package of 4 postcards as a gift.
A little backstory of Masterpiece in Your Heart. This book of poetry is the second edition or so I called the Platinum edition which is now available in L'Eguelionne Bookstore in Montreal and Little Sister's Bookstores in Vancouver are my first venture to sell the hard copies in bookstores. The first edition was published without any much planning. I had poems in hand, my first online distributor, Blurb is so convenient to design and sell and then the dream in my head for years to have a book publish. That is all it needs to publish a book. Then a year later, I revamped the looks and sent my book to be edited and design by professionals to improve it. And boom, there it goes.
I have been writing for years since I fall in love with reading books during my secondary school period. And then the ball started rolling from there. I kept writing long essays, poems and novels which mostly are not published. This book is mainly about the feelings I experienced with people who made a lot of difference to my life in terms of experimenting with my feelings. If one is observant and who might know me well, they will understand what I am writing about. I doubt those I wrote about knows that these poems are about them, which is good. Also, if you have no idea what I am referring to, some readers of mine considered it as how they also feel when they are with the ones they are in love with. My story is mine, and my story could be yours too. Thank you for everyone who had supported me by purchasing Masterpiece in your Heart since the beginning.
Normally, I do not cook if I travel not only because I want to try as much local food as possible but also because I stayed in hotels, not serviced apartments. This time, I just made myself a fried briyani bee hoon which I bought the ingredients yesterday near the park. Never cooked this before in my life and these are the only spices I can find in the supermarket which fits this. Most of it are sold in large jars and packets which I am not interested in. The side dish includes a juicy grilled chicken from Antep Kabab located just beside my apartment. Requested only the chicken without the pita bread. The guys are nice to entertain my special request. I wanna try their kebabs tomorrow. Their restaurant has a long queue. I know why now. The chicken is tender.
Anyway, this bee hoon is damn spicy! I cannot take it and could not finish it plus still no appetite.
Nearly 10 at night. I tried to avoid which usually I am very skillful in this, but this one is like surfing in waves, because I could foresee the end of this story.
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