lingering

i miss the autumn air again.
but if i plan a hiking trip now, all i'll see is brown and dead things.
maybe i'll plan one in the winter when there's snow.
at least the dead stuff are all covered in white~ XD

i lent my viola for a colleague and she brought it back yesterday with a surprise.
she noticed i like taking photos, so she gave me a nice frame for a 5x7 picture, plus a very cute thank you card.
how nice of her!
female koreans are so polite~

time to go get my rehaired violin bow.
hope they didn't destroy it down in R, or on the way to the north.
and i'm seriously thinking of replacing my sister's old bow with a carbon fibre.
oh, and cut another bridge too. it's totally warped.
but that's for another day.
now i need to save up some money for the next few weeks and xmas.

hiking day

i had a great time today road tripping!
went to Eugenia Falls first, a short detour to Eugenia Lake, then made my way back to Hoggs Falls, and lastly to Mono Cliffs Provincial Park.

Eugenia Falls was rather disappointing. the height is great, but the water volume was so small that it feels like something's stuck upstream.
if it wasn't that slippery today, i would've went on the trail around the cliffs. it's pretty awesome with the height, and i was fearing that i'd fall over and die plunging.

got myself a small souvenir from Eugenia Lake. i was surprised to find shells washed up to shore. and it was just a docking shore!
there's at least 4 different kinds of shells. the wind was not too chilly so i stayed for a bit.

Hoggs Falls is definitely worth the time. it's a small, yet handsome falls.
tremendous sound with the water roaring down. lots of water!
i wish i could get to the bottom of the falls, but it was way too slippery everywhere after raining for 2 days.
i would definitely go back during the summer time and check out the greens.

by the time i found Mono Cliff's parking lot, it's already gotten kind of dark.
but i still spent a good hour there in part of the trails.
it's another place that i'll need to visit again next summer and autumn.
all the leaves have pretty much fallen off. it'd be a great sight to see burning colours of maples.
also didn't get to the caves, i had to make my way back to the parking...
by the time i reach the entrance on the way back, 4 cyclists and a dog passed me by.
i can't imagine getting out of there in total darkness. bravo to them!
when i got out of the parking lot, i needed to turn on head lights...

it's a fulfilling day.
the pictures aren't great because the light's dim.
and i couldn't take pictures with myself in it because the timer's acting wacky.
time to get a remote!!!

October road trips

i had a great time taking pictures at Mill Pond last sunday.
and i completely forgot about the piano quartet rehearsal...
good thing i asked Kevin to give me a ride, so when i got home his car was parked right outside.
i dashed in and took my viola + music and ran to his car.
that was embarrassing. hahahaha~
good thing we still made it on time! well, it was getting dark early, so i went home "early".

even more excited for tomorrow's road trip.
first i'll lead a fellow violist to David's place in Flesherton for repairs. then i'll have lunch in town, then head a bit northeast to Hogg's Falls.
after that i'll make my way southeast to Mono Cliffs at Mono (near Orangeville).
and then head home when i'm done enjoying the great Ontario outdoors!
looking forward to tomorrow!!

contemplation

out of my time zone again.
gotta resume normality... soon...

good news though, getting my viola adjusted next wednesday!
finally - after 2 years of out of whack!!
all thanks to that fucking asshole who knocked the sound shield which landed on my bridge, luckily on the side.
i really hope the other girl wouldn't come. love to see Mono Cliffs by myself and with my camera.
then i can spend whatever amount of time there as i please... well, till i have to go back to civilization anyway.
i think i'm making a hobby out of photography now.
it's nice taking pictures of nature. nothing but me, my camera, and Earth.
right... as if i don't have enough alone time already...

turns out the arrangements that the quartet from Ohio are pretty good, at least from what i could see.
we'll find out how it sounds tomorrow, if we get a chance to read them during the gig.
love playing flamenco type music.
now i have to find time to reciprocate and send them our files, which i haven't prepared yet.
hopefully i'll have time to do that during the weekend.
and by weekend, i meant sunday.

saved by the bell

just got a call from HMV Woodbridge.
my mum's bday present finally arrived!!!!!
i better go get it before they decided to give someone else a chance to buy it.
my mum's bday is tomorrow~

disappointments

i had my hopes up a bit too high.
Durham Regional Forest wasn't as good as i have imagined.
Twickenham was actually much more beautiful and it's much closer.
not a lot of trees have turned colours yet, so it's still rather green in Durham.
i'm going back to Twickeham, hopefully coming Sunday to see if there's more colours yet.
but if i'm able to visit David Prentice on that day, then i'll take a look at the creek and trees around Orangeville!
got to call him tomorrow before i go teach.

gosh... i really don't like teaching the shy one.
no sense of tone, rhythm, nor discipline to practise...
sigh....

fall planting

time for some tulip planting!
hopefully i won't get a "frost bite". hahaha~
i was gonna go to the gym today, but didn't realize the retard rehearsal starts early tonight.
oh well, working in the yard is still some form of oxygenated exercise.

did i mention this?
my mum saw a bunch of aggressive squirrels in the backyard the other day.
weeks later, which was last week, when i wanted to "harvest" my sunflower seeds...
all of them were all on ground, all eaten.
*SOB*

thoughts written unspoken

back to that orchestra's rehearsals.
i never liked it because of the dictator conductor.
高傲卻沒能, bad combo.
o well, i'm just there for the money and meeting old friends.

i finally got paid for the rest of my work for the Hart House Orchestra.
it's very satisfying having done a big job and compensated.
this cheque will take care of 1/5 of the cost of my musafia case.

Mahsa's wedding is not until next year.
i still wanna go to a moderately hot place for the winter.
California seems to be a good idea, but who would go with me??

gonna head out to the gym now!
hope i can spend the entire 30 minutes on the treadmill today!

thanksgiving long weekend

it has been a nice relaxing weekend.
well, not that relaxing... i was cooking till 4am saturday night.
sunday's trip to the apple farm and Fork of the Credit was fun, but it was cooooold.
at the end of the trip, my dad and i actually saw very tiny little snow flakes!

today was fun too.
my parents and i went for dim sum at around 1pm.
so i had to cancel my 2pm student just in case we ran late... which we did not!
but it was a good decision because i was so tired at the end of the day.
after dim sum we went to 3 parks: Headwaters, Twickenham, Richmond Green.
they're all parks within Richmond Hill. so i guess we had a day tour around our own town!
out of the 3 we visited today, i like Twickenham the most.
if we were there around summer time, it'd be so wonderful with all the wildflowers.
but we got to see some nice leaves too at this time. would be better if we went next week because there's still a lot of green.
Richmond Green was totally red. they have so many maples in there, so the colours were just stunning!

next time i guess i'll just have to go by myself.
mum doesn't like to walk, so we only walked half way before we turned back to the car.
if i were to go on my own, i'd spend the entire day exploring all of the trails in completion.
but i did get some nice pictures even though it's only half completed!
maybe next week! i'll see if i can make a trip to David Prentice and get my viola adjusted.
should be nice at around Orangeville.

weirdness

i had one of those weird dreams last night.
so i appear to be "the chosen one" and i have to go through this process to achieve my wings.
after i've got those wings, things started to get really bad.
first, there's this big flood. but somehow the building where i went through the process where all my people are seems to be able to withstand the flood.
but the rest of the land is not.
so i had to use my wings to fly over these flooded valleys to several points to perform a rite to stop the flood.
my first point is to first use my wings to fly to point 2 - ok, easy enough to say, but it's really hard to fly over water when there's gusting wind.
when i got there, i had to find this blackish grey tabby kitten and take its brains out.
apparently it's part of the sacrificial rite.
of course, being a cat lover, i couldn't kill it on the spot. i held onto the kitten and flew to point 3.
that's when i woke up by my dad's repeated attempt to get me to fix the damn internet connection.

i guess flood land is flooded forever! >(

wow, watching Lexx does give me weird dreams...

stuff that happened and will happen

since there's no more streaming episodes of Lexx left, i'm downloading the rest of it.
hate to miss an episode and never find out what happened.
now i can watch from the start again! well... when i have more time.
i've also resumed Queer as Folk, now at season 3 episode 12.
it's slow for me since i haven't followed shows for a few months.
now that House and Heroes are back on, i can finally restart my lovely world of dramas.
kind of miss it!
i'm looking very much forward to january when Lost and Being Human come back.
it's going to be a very exciting season, with Lost being in its last season.

orchestra is picking up too.
i've got booked for Peterborough for their Christmas concerts already, so that's good.
not looking forward to the drive though.
it would be much nicer in the fall time when the roads are still clean and leaves are in nice colours.
oh well... gotta do what i gotta do!

i am looking forward to this sunday.
the whole family is taking a trip to Mississauga for some apple picking (this part i don't like) and trail walking.
i'm there for some nice fall pictures, hopefully there's a waterfall... if that's the same place i saw in my searches.
great opportunity for me to get more practising on photo taking.
this time i'll remember the tripod!

as to the new pub that i wanna check out...
that should happen soon!
i really wanna get a taste of their food before they turn into something else again.
that spot seems to change ownership and type of establishment quite often...
we'll see. maybe early next week.

gah gah

i think i'm coming down with a cold...
very stuffed, sinus blockage, head exploding...
but when i'm playing, it seems to be less annoying.
maybe it's because the trumpets are blowing in my ear so i'd feel that pain first.

it's super cold out without my wool jacket nowadays.
guess it's time for Canadian winter soon.
i should get a new down coat this year.
my old one has been in use for the past 6 years. time to retire my old friend.

the Beatles CDs are still not here yet...
i'll go and check up on them in person on monday.
can never trust people working in hmv, especially when they're still in training.

stuff i need/want to buy, but don't have the money to buy yet:
1) snow tires for my Rav 4
2) more comfortable black concert shoes (i think i'll go shop in London in November)
3) backup battery for my Nikon
4) a sturdier tripod for my Nikon
5) the next generation of iPhone - this will be my next phone when my current contract ends in a year
6) original DVDs of a few TV series