upward and downward at the same time

looking forward to december. that's when i can upgrade from a dumbphone to a smartphone.
should be sleeping early to make the days pass by quicker, but i'm still sleeping late, prolonging the process of night.
i think it has to do with knowing that i'll be playing with Sinfonia. the stress is kind of strong for this group.
although it's not the usual conductor, i'm still pretty tensed. it's just not the right vibes i normally get with other friendly orchestras.
maybe it's a good thing that i don't play there too often.

alright, now my body and mind is truly exhausted. time to hit the hay.

good things will come

just when i thought i needed more work...
got a call this morning from Huronia SO's board of director asking me where to drop off the music for next week's concert.
and he also asked if i'm interested to play there as principal. that's when i found out the toronto scale is going up 30% next year and that's why he's asking me if i'm willing to play under scale.
for the moment, i don't think i'll mind. even at this year's scale it's still better than London's scale =P
we'll see how that goes. Barrie is a lot closer (like half the time) than going to London, with smooth traffic.
it's also by Lake Simcoe so i can work on my water photography~
life is good when you can do the things you enjoy.
keep sending those good vibes out!

the lavender/vervain/chamomile mix in my sleeper pouch is working its magic.
so far i've been having dreams for the past 2 nights, and getting into sleep easy.
the only thing that needs improving is sleeping in normal hours. last night was around 3:30am...
gotta stop watching too many Supernatural episodes!!!

new frontiers

all of my choices for election won out. this would be so great if they were horses.
but the sad reality is that they're politicians.
wow, i just made a political joke there. that's a first.
i feel bad for my toronto friends. they'll have to live with that oversized fiasco for a few years.

anyway! not my concern!

went to Ambrosia and bought some dried organic lavender.
it's starting to smell very relaxing in my room right now with that little 1 oz bag.
i'll head downtown to look for dried vervain on queen west. apparently it's also a one-herb-does-all.
wonder where i can find another herb store like that up town.
really don't feel like heading there just to get herbs.
will keep looking... not heading there till thursday anyway.

much to get done

wow, didn't realize how out of shape i am.
yesterday i only went out to the trail for half an hour and felt so exhausted.
maybe it's because i had no food in my stomach and the wind was crazy?
anyway... much more building up is needed.
but the bike is acting well on this off road trail. thought i burst a tire, turned out the wheel snapped a twig. phew!! *wipe sweat*

now i'm semi-awake, going to hit the shower.
then i'll pick up Thea's bow at Soundpost and then do some poison pendant hunting.
hopefully i can find a nice bag for my mum's birthday as well, before i head out to London in the afternoon.

after a week of turmoil with some unmentionables, i'm definitely staying at the hotel from now on.
good thing with the hotel is that it's close to the mall.
so if i wanted to do some shopping i could do it easily.
but then it's also a distance away from the hall so i'll need to drive there =(

magic at hand

yes, Piggie, i do believe in magic!
hahaha~
i asked to get a hotel room rather late, but special forces worked for me.
now i'll be able to stay for the night without driving back and forth.
time to do some thanking.

now i'm out to that trail i spotted near my home.
wish me good riding!

more nature intended

it was a very fun filling trip.
although i was tired to my bones, i still stuck around till the last minute.
well, that's also because i was the organizer and driver.

got lots of good pictures taken.
now i'm relying others to take my pictures.
i don't really like self portraits when i'm in outdoors. i'd rather spend the space on nature than me.

we had hot pot for dinner.
Dow's Noodles Restaurant (稻香) at Commerce Gate is definitely not a good place to go.
the waiters were so slow and rude.
maybe i'll try out that one across 黃金商場 (Hipot).
it's practically the same chain, but looks much bigger inside with newer decor.
they just opened not long ago.

if i could wake up in the morning, i'll revisit Twickenham Park with my bike and camera.
see if there's any leaves left.
it's such a nice place with paved trails.
then i'll check out that trail just east of Leslie on 16th.
apparently it leads to a small pond around Mural St.

the unmentionable

has been a bad week at London.
maybe i should stop wearing the chicken pendant. i'm totally jinxing myself here.
my right ankle is now swollen from multiple bedbug bites.
there's also one on my left forearm, one on my back, and a few on my chin.
i'm already quite lucky, i guess, that i didn't bring any bugs back with me.
i did a very thorough check on all my luggages and everything.

so the story was...
a colleague and i went to the hostel.
every time i'm in the ground floor room i always use the bed closest to the door.
that night the colleague took my usual bed so i took a nap in another one.
woke up and went to rehearsal and felt fine.
later that night when i was checking emails with my macbook on the bed, getting ready to sleep, i saw something moved on my keyboard. it was a freaking nymph.
then i saw a few adult bugs crawling on the blankets.
that was when i was glad that i had previous knowledge of what the bedbugs behaviours are.
killed some bugs, took my stuff as far away from the bed as possible, shook out and cleaned everything.
and the rest is history.

the story is just too long. i really need to get to sleep and go hiking tomorrow.
gotta reduce that swell first.
finally finished washing everything in hot water.
zzzzzzzz........