A Recap Of My Other Great Weekends

I just published a new post then I realized the title made no sense because it said another great weekend. I realized I haven't talked about the two other great weekends I had before this one.

Two weekends ago was the BC Day long weekend. It was a pretty big deal weekend especially since this year BC is celebrating its 150th birthday. There were all kinds of festivities going around everywhere, especially downtown, and especially in my neighborhood since I'm sort of neighbors with the parliament building. It was crowded everywhere with people and cars, it took me fifteen minutes to get out of the driveway because cars wouldn't stop pouring into the street trying to find a decent parking.

With so much left to do at home, I couldn't really make myself go out and take part in all of festivities. I mean I went out, but I ran errands, brought my errands home, and then got to work. But there was definitely one activity that weekend that I wasn't going to miss and that was the Symphony Splash. 40,000 people huddled around the harbor to see the Victoria Symphony perform in the middle of the water. Most of the people were of course on land, but the cool part was that there were actually a ton of people who went to see the concert on their boats, kayaks, and canoes. Maybe one day I'll actually develop outdoor recreation skills that actually justify owning my own canoe or kayak. Ha! Yeah right.

Last weekend was pretty eventful. It started Thursday when I saw an ad that this community theatre in Sidney was giving away three pianos. That's right, free pianos. The fact that they were giving it away, I wan't expecting much, but I still had to go check it out. It turned out that the pianos were, of course old, but still sounded great. But out of all of them there was only one that I could make room for in my place, but unfortunately there was a catch. Its front legs were broken. Still determined to make it work I did my research on how it would cost to get it fixed, tuned, and delivered, and in the end, it wasn't worth all the trouble. One day, I'd be able to save enough to buy my own and then I would be able to teach and show both my kids how wonderful and fun it is to play a musical instrument.

The trip to look at the pianos was a lot more worth it than I thought because I discovered Sidney. It's this really cute and quaint little town beside the sea, full of cute and quaint little shops, cafes, restaurants, and an abundance of used bookstores. Thursday was also the perfect evening to be there because it was when they have their weekly street market in the summer. It was where I found out about the Filipino restaurant because they had a whole tent there with a huge line of people waiting to buy Filipino food. It was just nice to see other nationalities appreciating Filipino food and not because they're married or related to a pinoy.

That Friday after work, I found a place where I can practice the piano for free. Apparently there's one practice room at the university that's designated for non-students and you just have to sign up ahead of time to book the room. But since it's in between semesters right now nobody's really using the practice rooms, so I was free to pick whichever room I wanted. I was only able to practice for a couple of hours and during that whole period, I was only able to concentrate on relearning one of my Chopin pieces. Since it has been over three years since I last played, trust me it was not without consequences, especially since I was too excited to start playing that I did not bother warming up. So naturally, did I really think that I would be able to play Chopin properly without doing scales first and not hurt?

After that, I attended another recital at that little chapel I discovered, in this really cute neighborhood, once again beside the sea. It's the first time they've tried having a summer recital series and it was a perfect hour to spend on a Friday evening. The first one I went to was a classical guitar recital and then this time it was a flute recital. Two instruments that I have missed so much over the years. The next performance I believe is a choral one, so that should be interesting to go see, especially in such an intimate a space.

On Saturday, I went to the dog show but I missed the event where they had Bernese Mountain Dogs participate so I was a little disappointed. But walking around and listening to the conversations between competitors, it was so much like that Best In Show movie. Then since I was already in that neighborhood I went and spent the rest of the day in Sidney, getting lost inside all of the used bookstores, chatting with the most helpful and smart people ever, who were so knowledgeable about all the publications I was inquiring about. It was so refreshing that they were so nice and smart. And the two attendants were playing a game of backgammon while I was browsing, I wanted to stay and watch -- ok, no I actually wanted to stay and play.

Then I went home, made dinner and sliced my finger (two fingers actually) because I'm a stupid idiot who can't use a knife. I have to keep reminding myself that I actually own decent knives now, and not dollar store ones. God I hate situations that require first aid treatment. As you can probably tell, it's not on my top list of expertise, it's not even at the bottom of the list. First aid knowledge is an Eduardo thing. I panic, turn pale, and eventually faint at the sight of blood. This is a known fact since I was four. It's ok now, it took a whole week for the wound to close, but as long as it doesn't look as gross as it did, I can deal with it.

So Sunday I had to pretty much chill and do nothing because my weekend was eventful enough as it was. Time to rest.