The Month Of Canada: August 2024 Recap

by A Purple Life, posted in Blogging, Early Retirement, Early Retirement Updates, Film, Finance, Fitness, Food, Hobbies, Investing, Keto, Net Worth Update, Spending, Travel
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What do you mean 2024 is 2/3 over? Time is made up and I give up trying to understand it 🙂 . So let’s see what I got up to in August 2024.

I Lived In Montréal

I’ve been enjoying my second month living my best lady of leisure life in Montréal, Canada🇨🇦. It’s been an absolutely fantastic summer filled with festivals, friends and food – some of my favorite things 🙂 .

After hosting several friends and visiting Ottawa in July, I settled down in August and focused on relaxing and enjoying the beautiful sunny weather Montréal offers in the summer as well as all the activities that happened right outside our door.

I’m so happy we chose to return to Montréal again this summer and make it our first repeat travel destination. However, despite doing my best, there are still things I didn’t get a chance to do or eat so you bet we’ll be back at some point 🙂 .

I just love this city so much. It’s definitely my vibe from the fact that I literally have never had a disappointing restaurant meal combined with the kindness of the community, beauty of the city and general happy atmosphere, I’m hooked. Until next time Montréal! And when I return it will hopefully be with better Québécois French skills.

I Hung Out With People

This month involved some of my usual virtual meetups, such as that weekly call with my Mom and Weekly Movie Nights where we watched the below. If you’re curious about my ratings of movies, I have a Letterboxd account here.

  1. Deadpool & Wolverine
  2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
  3. Little Women
  4. Psych S1

That first movie I was able to see in an almost empty theater for 33% off shortly after it was released:

Something new I tried this month was watching and interacting in Twitch streams! I started getting into Sims YouTubers about a year ago and only discovered this month that a lot of them stream on Twitch as well.

So I’ve been joining the streams of one of my favorite Sims YouTubers PeteyPlaysIt and it’s been a fun and chill time. It’s cool to find online friends in random communities I’m interested in. Also his YouTube videos are incredibly helpful and cinematic so I’m understandably obsessed:

I Read 15 Books

Here were my favorite reads this month:

  1. I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
  2. None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
  3. White Noise by Lark Taylor

To see the other books I read this month and my ratings of them, I have a Goodreads account here. I’ve been loving how much time I have to dive into books this month and all the new authors I’ve found and now love. It’s been a great year for books and expanding my horizons.

I Wrote 4 Posts

In case you missed it, this month I published the below posts:

  1. The Month Of Montréal: July 2024 Recap
  2. Celebrating 3 Years Of Running: My Progress and Revelations
  3. Review: 33 Hours In Singapore Air Business Class – $7,734 of Flights for $75 [Part 1]
  4. Review: 33 Hours In Singapore Air Business Class – $7,734 of Flights for $75 [Part 2]

In addition to that, I also met a reader for coffee! Montréal has surprisingly been the place with my largest number of reader meetups. So random 🙂 .

I’m also excited because a few people in Zurich🇨🇭, Bologna🇮🇹 and Amsterdam🇳🇱 have reached out about scheduling coffee while I’m there in the fall. Wild!

I Did My Nails

In a surprise to no one, I’m still obsessed with Dashing Diva nail stickers. I got another use out of the “Taste The Rainbow” set I wore for June so I could be properly decked out for Montréal Pride, which happens in August.

Then I went back to my go-to turquoise because it makes me feel like I’m at the beach 24/7/365.

Physical

Sleep

My sleep this month was really good. I’ve been taking Melatonin about an hour before bed on days I want to wake up early to run and it’s been very helpful. However, on most nights when I’m not planning to run early with my Partner before he starts work, I just go to sleep naturally.

Though I have found myself using my sleep mask every night because being high up in a skyscraper means there’s nothing between the sun starting to rise at 5:30 am and my eyeballs. I’ll happily take it for these beautiful views 🙂 .

Food

Eating delicious food continues to be my favorite way to explore a new city or country. I ate keto for 80% of the month and only took 6 days off keto. I had planned on taking more days off, but I didn’t find it necessary. I also was excited to get back to keto and eat delicious things without feeling like crap, like this masterpiece:

Exercise

My main exercise this month was once again Running! My Partner and I bumped up our minimum running distance to 1.5 and then 2 miles. And similar to when we did this in Puerto Vallarta, I didn’t mind at all because of the views 🙂 .

Montréal is an island surrounded by rivers and the city has prioritized free green spaces along these waterways, which means a lot of lovely water adjacent running paths! I enjoy long runs more if they have pretty uninterrupted views like on a running path instead of a busy city street, so this was a lovely month for my running hobby.

I’m still all in on Yoga! I do a routine after every run, which has continued to help me never feel stiff from running. I’ve also been getting back to my other love: Weight Lifting! The condo we stayed in had an awesome gym that I took advantage of to pump some iron.

And finally, Meditation! I’ve still been meditating almost every day and have been really enjoying it. I learn something new almost every session and I’ve been having fun trying out different free meditation apps to see which is my favorite.

Mental

Learning

So it’s time for my favorite segment: Fun Facts Nobody Asked For! Here’s what I learned and explored this month:

Astronomy

I was surprised that I could still see some bright stars in the middle of the city, such as Alkaid, Alioth and Arcturus. I also added “watching the sunset” to my calendar because I have a great uninterrupted view of the sky, which lets me see how different the colors are every evening. I also was able to see the sun set behind Mount Royal (Montréal’s namesake), which felt really special.

Birds

My birdwatching in downtown Montréal continues to be the sparrow and pigeon show. I’m excited to get out of a metropolis and expand my ornithological pursuits 😉 . However, since I was super high up in a condo, I did have a fun new bird experience – watching huge birds of prey soaring up here with me!

Here are the birds I saw this month:

Turkey Vulture, Cooper’s Hawk, Red-Shouldered Hawk, Red-Tailed Hawk, Broad-Winged Hawk, Song Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, House Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, Mourning Dove, Rock Pigeon

Random

  • Hopefully we all know that bread is bad for birds, but this month I learned that milk is bad for cats. Cartoons are out here feeding me misinformation – shock of shocks 😉
  • It seemed like everyone and their mom were doing P90X like a decade ago and I heard about it all the time, but what I only recently learned from a reader is that P90X is a Beachbody product – as in the MLM/pyramid scheme. WHAAAT?!
  • My Mom was watching some survivalist show and taught me this mantra about bear attacks that appears to actually be correct advice “If it’s brown, lay down. If it’s black, fight back!” . I’m ready!
  • This month I also learned humans are the only animals that cry – Weird 🙂
  • And finally, and most importantly 😉 , I learned that baby crocodiles sound like lasers – but if you hear that sound in the wild, you might want to skedaddle because it’s them calling for their mama

Creativity

My creativity went full throttle this month! I’m starting to realize that really only happens when I’ve had ample time to rest and relax. I’m not sure how to fit that revelation into my upcoming Eurotrip other than possibly starting to write posts in advance, especially if I want to do PurpleMas (two posts a week in December) for the first time since 2022. I’m going to think about it more and just try to focus on doing what I feel like doing since that appears help my creative muscles come up with monster Insta posts like this:

Emotional

My emotions were good this month! I’m curious to see if this level of contentedness continues when I take away one reason I think my moods are so good in retirement: Sunshine 🙂 . I’m heading to Europe for the fall and winter so we’ll see how more darkness, rain and cold affects my mood. TBD!

Money

Maybe I need to remove the “Finance” from this blog’s description because my approach to it continues to be “whatevs” 🙂 . Apparently the market went down a little during the month, enough that people were freaked out and DMed me, so when the market quickly went back up and I once again hit an $800K net worth, I posted this:

Buy and hold for the win 😉 . On the opposite side of the equation, traveling the world continues to be less expensive than I expected:

And finally, I enjoyed my last month as a Canadian Millionaire before heading back to the reality of USD 😉 :

Conclusion

And that’s what I got up to during the month of August! Now it’s time to head back to the US to say hi to some family quickly before I embark on a Eurotrip for the rest of the year. Here I come🇮🇸🇨🇭🇮🇹🇳🇱!

If you’re interested in the other weekly and monthly retirement updates I’ve written, they’re all here:

Weekly (2020)

  1. Early Retirement Week 1: The Freak Out
  2. Early Retirement Week 2: The Vacation
  3. Early Retirement Week 3: The Whiplash
  4. Early Retirement Week 4: The Heartbeat
  5. Early Retirement Week 5: The Election
  6. Early Retirement Week 6: The Trophy
  7. Early Retirement Week 7: The Train
  8. Early Retirement Week 8: The Challenge
  9. Early Retirement Week 9: The Question
  10. Early Retirement Week 10: The Game
  11. Early Retirement Week 11: The Recharge
  12. Early Retirement Week 12: The Holiday

Monthly (2021)

  1. The Month Of Rest: Early Retirement Month 4 (January 2021)
  2. The Month Of Birds: Early Retirement Month 5 (February 2021)
  3. The Month of Change: Early Retirement Month 6 (March 2021)
  4. The Month of Atlanta: Early Retirement Month 7 (April 2021)
  5. The Month of Portland, Maine: Early Retirement Month 8 (May 2021)
  6. The Month Of New Hampshire: Early Retirement Month 9 (June 2021)
  7. The Month Of The Northeast: Early Retirement Month 10 (July 2021)
  8. The Month Of New York State: Early Retirement Month 11 (August 2021)
  9. The Month Of City Hopping: Early Retirement Month 12 (September 2021)
  10. The Month Of The Southwest USA: October 2021 Recap
  11. The Month Of Santa Fe: November 2021 Recap
  12. The Month Of Family: December 2021 Recap

Monthly (2022)

  1. The Month Of Freezing My Balls Off: January 2022 Recap
  2. The Month Of Thailand: February 2022 Recap
  3. The Month Of Spring(?): March 2022 Recap
  4. The Month Of México: April 2022 Recap
  5. The Month of Mérida: May 2022 Recap
  6. The Month of Seattle: June 2022 Recap
  7. The Month of Washington State: July 2022 Recap
  8. The Month Of New Hampshire: August 2022 Recap
  9. The Month Of Maine: September 2022 Recap
  10. The Month Of Acadia: October 2022 Recap
  11. The Month Of Argentina: November 2022 Recap
  12. The Month Of Holiday Cheer: December 2022 Recap

Monthly (2023)

  1. The Month Of Snow: January 2023
  2. The Month Of New Hampshire: February 2023
  3. The Month Of Sea: March 2023
  4. The Month Of California: April 2023
  5. The Month Of Seattle: May 2023
  6. The Month Of Chicago: June 2023
  7. The Month Of Montréal: July 2023
  8. The Month Of Troy, NY: August 2023
  9. The Month Of Australia: September 2023
  10. The Month Of New Zealand: October 2023
  11. The Month Of Puerto Vallarta: November 2023
  12. The Month Of Warmth: December 2023

Monthly (2024)

  1. The Month Of Family: January 2024 Recap
  2. The Month Of Costa Rica: February 2024 Recap
  3. The Month Of San José: March 2024 Recap
  4. The Month Of The Solar Eclipse: April 2024 Recap
  5. The Month Of Arizona: May 2024 Recap
  6. The Month Of Upstate NY: June 2024 Recap
  7. The Month Of Montréal: July 2024 Recap

What’s a fun fact you learned this month?

19 thoughts on “The Month Of Canada: August 2024 Recap”

  1. Thanks you for posting Purple! I’ve picked up some hobbies / habits over time because you wrote about it and dived into it. Stretching and yoga I never stuck with…Curious how you got into it, your routine etc

    I’m still all in on Yoga! I do a routine after every run, which has continued to help me never feel stiff from running.

    Reply

    1. That’s so cool to hear! And thank you for reading as always 🙂 . In general it’s been way easier for me to stick to routines in retirement so don’t be too hard on yourself 😉 . For me it’s easy to incorporate stretching and yoga because I do it after all my runs when I’m waiting to stop sweating before I can shower lol. It’s either sit there and sweat or do something productive so I do the latter. I also have found doing yoga super helpful on non-run days if I’m feeling stiff – it helps me instantly feel better so it’s a win/win.

      Reply

    1. Yum! And yeah – I didn’t know tartar was such a big thing there, but it was indeed delicious and on most of the menus I saw.

      Reply

  3. If you like cheap movies, many theaters in the US also have reduced price tickets on Tuesdays.

    Tickets purchased through the Regal app on Tuesdays are usually half off.

    Reply

  4. Awesome post Purple!!! I too loved Montreal and hope to be back soon, thank you for all your helpful tips on what to do, see and eat there 😊 And I also loved Jennette McCurdy’s book, though it can be triggering for children of dysfunctional families. She’s a really gifted writer and I can’t wait to read more from her. Cheers and enjoy the USA! 😊

    Reply

  5. Always learn a lot from your random facts section. Been interested in visiting Montreal since your time there last summer!

    Reply

      1. PS Hope Amsterdam treats you good this fall. Consider visiting the Efteling. If Yolanda Hadid goes there, it can’t be bad, now can it?

        Reply

    2. Haha yay! I’m glad I’m not the only one 🙂 . And yeah I can’t hype up Montréal in the summer enough – it’s lovely.

      Reply

  6. You find all the interesting places! I never thought of Montreal as a major tourist destination, but this is making me want to put it on my list.

    I heard a third part to the bear mnemonic, which is for polar bears: “If it’s white, good night.” (Not very encouraging, I realize.)

    Reply

    1. Thank you! I was surprised at how much Montréal has to offer in the summer and how different it is to the city in the winter (aka buried in snow). But I also like that’s it not completely overrun with tourists so let’s keep this our secret ok 🙂 ?

      And yeeah I left that part out for that exact reason lol.

      Reply

  7. Reading the book “I’m Glad My Mom Died” gave me a deeper understanding of some of the challenges child actors can face.

    Have you watched “Quiet on Set” on Max? it goes more into the dark side of child stars of Nickelodeon.

    Reply

    1. Truth. I haven’t heard of that show and I’m not sure I’m ready for an even darker version, but when I’m emotional prepared I’ll look into it. Thank you!

      Reply

  8. I had to head back out into the city on my bike last week. I was so glad it was autumny-sunny instead of grey, windy and raining! Definitely improves my mood. Hopefully your trip in Europe will still be lovely, but I would also plan for some rainy days to be spend inside with a good book or two and a cup of hot chocolate.

    Reply

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