During 2003 I was working towards my Bachelors degree in Psychology at SFU and I wanted to gain some volunteer experience by helping those in my community. At that time I had already met my boyfriend (now husband of eight years) and I felt pretty comfortable with expressing my own sexuality. As such, I wanted to make a difference in the lives of others who had gone through similar hardships as me. This is where my search for a volunteer opportunity led me to The Centre - now known as QMUNITY . I was young and somewhat inexperienced but I still felt empowered to share my own experiences with others and therefore I got the wonderful opportunity to co-facilitate a men's drop in group with one of my best friends. During this weekly group meetings my friend and I would encourage discussion around a specific topic by asking the participants to answer targeted questions. The group started small but after a few months it grew to twelve regular attendees. It was empowering to see ...

As most of you know by now I am one of the four organizers for the first ever Canadian BlytheCon to be held in Vancouver at the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel on Sunday August 9, 2015. We are all extremely excited to welcome all of you to our beautiful city. Here's a video of our venue: Our theme will be "Always The Bridesmaid Never The Bride" and we have lots of surprises, workshops, contests and giveaways planned to make of your visit a truly unforgettable one. Let's just say that a little bird told me that we have over twenty custom dolls to give away the day of the event - and we are not talking about unknown customisers either - we are talking about some of the most respected customisers in the industry. Our featured doll will be Nicky Lad (RBL) and you can see her featured as our ‘main girl’ in our illustrations made by the amazingly talented Chun Fu (puppy52). We’re very excited to invite everyone to bring their Nicky Lads to BlytheCon Vancouver for a c...

There are very few things in this life that I enjoy more than listening to music on a sunny Saturday morning (like today). Music has been a crucial part of my life for as long as I can remember. When I look back at my life it's almost like listening to a movie's soundtrack - memories blended with their musical counterparts. Every era defined by my ever-changing musical palate... Even though I grew up in Mexico I have always had an inherent attraction to music in Portuguese. In my opinion, Bossa Nova is the sexiest music known to man. I love Brazil in general and for that reason when I heard that they would be performing at Vancouver's Celebration of Light this year I knew I had to be there to experience it live. I must say I was not disappointed. Bossa Nova and Samba rocked the airwaves that night as the sky was filled with amazing fireworks - a truly unique experience! That same night I heard a version of " Mas Que Nada " I was not familiar with. At first I ...

Ok fellow Real Housewives ' fans... Let's dish it out shall we? First of all I'd like to say that I feel extremely privileged to live in such a beautiful and diverse city as Vancouver – it certainly looks great on screen and I’m proud to say that I have been to almost all of the spots the housewives went to on the first two episodes – like most foodies I love exploring the city’s hot spots and trendy shops. In terms of the ladies, here are my first impressions: Jody – WOW – this woman gives the concept of verbal abuse a whole new meaning. I thought I liked her when she started talking to people at the market in their native language but I quickly changed my mind when she took out her claws and attacked Mary and Christina for no apparent reason.  She seems sweet at first but trust me she is full of nasty! Also, what's up with the gigantic earrings and jewelry? Reiko – My favourite Vancouver housewife by far! She knows how to enjoy her money...

I was very excited to be invited to the first ever Vancouver Men's Fashion Week by my good friend Jorge Ramos . Both Jorge and his colleague Jun Ramos have worked in the fashion industry for some years now and their vision was to promote Vancouver's own designers via a fashion week focusing exclusively on men's design. Through Jun's company Ramos & Fortier , Jorge and Jun's team decided to build a fashion week from the ground up by recruiting volunteers, local and worldwide designers, models, photographers, bloggers and other fashion industry professionals. The fashion week not only helped to spotlight designers but it also acted as an opportunity for fashion students and professionals to get some real-life experience in the field. Vancouver Men's Fashion Week - commonly known as VMFW - consisted of conferences and a fashion show at a Gastown nightclub called The PostModern . I will focus on the latter on this article. Here are some pictures of us at ...

I must say that I have never had as much fun during gay pride events as I did this year. It all started on Friday night with an awesome street party on Davie - a Vancouver street known for supporting gay people and businesses. On Saturday I headed to the closing ceremony for the Vancouver Out Games headlined by Dragonette and the one and only Ace Of Base . I still cannot believe I got to watch AOB perform live in concert! And not only that... my friend and I were lucky enough to be able to stand right in front of the stage. A dream come true for me. Both Dragonette and AOB were AMAZING live. Today the fun continued with the now classic Pride Parade in Vancouver's West End. There were lots of cool people around and festivities going on all day long. Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. This was truly an unforgettable one!

Last night my friend Natalie, my husband and I decided to go out for some tapas at a local Japanese restaurant called Zakkushi. The restaurant is located in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood and the vibe is very modern and fun. As soon as you walk in you get greeted by the cheerful staff who yell out something in Japanese to welcome you. The menu selection is quite large as the restaurant offers sushi rolls, skewers, fried rice, noodles and dessert. Here are some photos we took last night. As you can see, the food is nicely presented and the taste is great too. Let me know what you think if you decide to give it a try! www.zakkushi.com

I had heard many great things about East Is East before but I had never actually ventured out to try it. The food is a fusion of Indian and Afghani cuisine . The restaurant's vibe is very laid back and the decor very unique (with low wooden tables, banquets, and tapestries on the walls). We ordered the "Feast" for two (below) - a combination of salad, appetizer, and two main dishes. The "Feast" is refillable as many times as you want and at a price of $19 per person it is very reasonable. My favourites were the Lamb Kebab and the Alu Gobi . The Himalayan High milkshake was excellent too - a mixture of mango, pistachio, rosewater and cardamom! Yum! Once we were done with our individual platters we decided to give desert a try. We ended up ordering the Easter Ecstasy (below) - very tasty! To add to an already great dinner we were also entertained by a belly dancer performer!  Overall, I would recommend giving East Is East a try as...

I have now visited Provence twice in the last month and both times I have been really impressed by the service, location and of course the food on their menu. I am in love with their shrimp and crab cakes eggs benedict . They are to die for! Next time you are on the hunt for a great place to eat brunch give Provence a try. Happy eating! http://www.provencevancouver.com/marinaside/

I had been meaning to get my act together for a while now when it comes to becoming a more active person. I work an office job that requires me to sit for almost eight hours a day and therefore my body is definitely lacking the physical activity I was once used to. I don't really tend to enjoy going to the gym by myself as I find it is very hard to keep motivated and to push myself. I have always preferred "social" workouts or classes in which people can interact with each other and feed off each other's energy. I heard about Zumba at the beginning of the year from my cousin who recently moved to Vancouver from Mexico . Zumba is apparently all the rage in the U.S. and Latin America right now as it basically gets you in shape by dancing to merengue, cumbia, salsa, calypso and other high-energy types of music. I had visited the Zumba Vancouver website to learn more about it but until last night I hadn't actually ventured to try it. According to Wikipedi...