he's no otter, but...

been bumming around the house lately.

saturday was a huge write-off because i was extremely exhausted and sick for no reason. i had to get up quite early to have dim sum with my uncle and his family because he was leaving town that night, but i just couldn't get out of bed! then i had the weirdest cramp throughout dim sum and was still so tired when we came home that i napped until 1pm. woke up feeling even sicker and couldn't keep food down, so spent the afternoon lying around the house doing nothing. finally at 4pm i gave in and decided there was no way i could make it to kristi's bachelorette because i wouldn't be able to eat much at the restaurant, and had no idea if my stomach would accept any of the food/drinks either. julia bought the nanny diaries and we watched it (second time for both of us) at night.

sunday morning julia had to work, but after she came home, we took a trip out to white rock to have dinner at cosmos. the greek restaurant used to be one of my favourite places, but we haven't been there in the past couple of years, so it was nice to go there again. the roasted potatoes there are fantastic! took a short walk along the boardwalk afterwards, had gelato from dolce gelato (local strawberry and creme caramel in a waffle cone). only when we were driving home did i see that there was a museum/archives-like place right there that i might've found b&w photos at! i think if i have time in the next few days i will stop by there to check it out.

today julia had to work again, but we had the car so mom and i ran a bunch of errands. we had originally planned on going to the aquarium/stanley park, but i just didn't really want to go if julia couldn't go. so we went to richmond and wandered around some of the shops, including daiso where everything is $2! i got a 6-people sushi set with plates and dishes for soy sauce. i was going to get a matching sake set or tea cups but didn't like either sets that much so for now, i will leave it. on our way out of daiso, we walked into my former flute teacher and his wife and his two little kids!!

now, he's no otter, but i was pretty darn excited to have run into him. i have a lot of respect for this man because he was able to sustain my attention in musical development for more than six months. in fact, i took lessons with him from summer 1997 to summer 2002! he was a wonderful teacher who always managed to challenge me just enough so i wouldn't be bored or disappointed with myself. he was also a great master of tonality that whenever i had a chance to play for a different audience, i would get a lot of comments on how great my "sound" was - that it was so clean and full, etc. even strangers in quebec made comments. i never really knew to appreciate the work we did on tonality but i do have a pretty critical ear when i listen to other people play.

since i moved away, i haven't seen my teacher at all. i had called him once shortly after i moved away, when i was auditioning for the orchestra at western. i needed some advice on the audition pieces and he talked me through them to make sure i was comfortable with what i was doing.
sadly, i also haven't played much since i stopped playing in the western orchestral band or whatever it was called.

anyway, it was just so nice to see my teacher again. i had picked up a gift for him in italy when we travelled through europe in 2004, but just couldn't work up the courage to stop by and say nothing except admit that i haven't opened my flute case for a long time. i really had a great time learning from this man, and he was such a huge inspiration and part of my life throughout high school that i don't think i'll ever forget all the great things he helped me achieve. now that i've seen him, and know that he has two babies now, i will definitely have to stop by and drop off the present some time this week.