The times I enjoy most are the times that never change.

Yesterday wasn't the sunniest day, but still a relatively warm day. I was able to have lunch and coffee with an old friend of mine whom I went to both high school and university with, but had gone on an exchange program to Sweden to study there for a year. We saw each other over the Christmas holiday, but it has been six months since then and that is ample time to create many more new stories to be told.

I had a lovely time catching up with her over our meal, followed by coffee and cake. And to my delight, she gave me a "little" gift that she had brought home with her from Sweden! Well, if this was to be considered "just a little gift" as she had told me while handing me the package, the world would be a frightfully luxurious place then, too much for someone like me who delights in merely finding a dandelion along the side of a road.

She gave me a little polka dot vest, handmade and straight from Europe. It is so cute! Handmade things are amazing, and so I'm very sorry for the following pictures that don't do it justice (because I must admit, although the vest is adorable in person, it's not the most photogenic thing out there). And you must excuse my pink, Minnie Mouse bed covers.

Miyavi concert.

This is a bit late, but I went to a concert on Thursday night. As you may or may not be familiar with, there is a Japanese singer-guitarist called Miyavi, or as the kanji 雅 reads, miyabi, which means elegance. Just like the majority of the Japanese rock scene, Miyavi's music style is difficult to pinpoint-- not to mention that his style specifically is constantly changing-- and so I will merely describe him as an amazing guitarist who likes to develop his own sense of how to play music.

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend his concert-- actually, that is an understatement. To be exact, I lined up for a total of close to 7 hours to attain my spot in the front row of Miyavi's concert (and if you must know, yes, I did touch him). If I have to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of Miyavi, so you might say that someone else probably deserved that spot in front of the stage much more than I did. And maybe that's true. But to be fair, if I can line up for 7 hours to be in the front row of your favourite idol's concert in place of you, then maybe that shows how much of a fan you are.

But despite not being his biggest fan, I am an admirer of his superior guitar skills. This guy is talented. I was very much looking forward to a performance with his acoustic slap guitar, but alas... he only stuck with electric guitars, which he switched up after every two songs. But nonetheless, he gave an amazing show and I had such a fabulous time fist-pumping, headbanging, and cheering with many other fans (98% of which are girls, I might add) that the muscles in my arm and neck ached painfully the next day, in addition to my short loss of voice after the concert and the ringing in my ears that still persist.

There was a no photography policy, so I respected that... halfway. I didn't take any pictures during the show, but I did take a sneak picture of the stage, with Miyavi's logo as the backdrop. Oh, don't be so stingy, the quality of photos without flash (as they were sneak pictures) isn't that great anyway.

My kind of day, my kind of season.

Oh dear, it's been a while! I stopped blogging in April due to exams, and May had been a busy month of traveling and touring different places. I'm finally back in my hometown, Richmond, where it's peaceful as always with only the slightest changes (even with the Olympics back in February).

'Twas a sunny day today. A cup of coffee, a shared cup of yogurt, and a new flavour of KitKat... these are the things that mark my kind of summer.

An oasis in the middle of the desert that is my ENGL 361 review.

The Widow's Lament in the Springtime

Sorrow is my own yard

where the new grass

flames as it has flamed

often before but not

with the cold fire

that closes round me this year.

Thirtyfive years

I lived with my husband.

The plumtree is white today

with masses of flowers.

Masses of flowers

load the cherry branches

and color some bushes

yellow and some red

but the grief in my heart

is stronger than they

for though they were my joy

formerly, today I notice them

and turned away forgetting.

Today my son told me

that in the meadows,

at the edge of the heavy woods

in the distance, he saw

trees of white flowers.

I feel that I would like

to go there

and fall into those flowers

and sink into the marsh near them.

William Carlos Williams (1921)

Chocolate all year round.

Image borrowed from Paula J. Becker

There's a girl in my Japanese class who's been in my class for the past three years. She's a little loud-spoken, but on any kind of holiday occasion, she would never fail to bring in chocolate to hand out in class. Just yesterday, I was exiting the East Asian Studies building after class when I bumped into her just outside it. She was in class that day and had left before me, but was rushing back because she "forgot to give out chocolate Easter eggs to everyone." She then hurried to unzip her backpack, opened her pack of chocolates, and proceeded to give me and my friend (who had graduated already) one chocolate egg each before hurrying inside to catch anyone else who hadn't left yet.

I think it's so, so sweet of her :) She's a good girl.