February 14, 2008

Thursday - Happy Valentine's Day!

Cold, windy with a little snow.


Today was a pretty good day really. It shouldn't have been, but it was. I went to bed at 2 am last night after giving Fumihiko his Valentine's Day present. He got Royce Chocolate Disks. I used to bring them to him from Hokkaido during our engagement, as my omiyage. He thought that I'd run off to Sapporo during my days in Sendai! I went to bed even before hubby. He came soon after and we had a cuddle before falling asleep.

In the morning I felt quite good. As though I'd slept enough! I got up, watched the news and drank coffee, my usual. It was nice really. I had a long slow morning. I kept one eye on the weather. It looked really horrid outside for a long time.

I watched a bit of TV, then made my lunch. Today I had half an avocado for the first time in ages. Then, I girded myself for the cold trip to my school. I think I was wearing four layers on top, I had two pairs of socks on, a neck warmer, a hat and a hood. I was protected! I also did something a little unusual for me. I took my new iPod. I listened to a couple of podcasts from Canada on my way to work. I only listened with one ear, as I wanted to make sure I could hear any cars. It's funny, but when I was IN Canada I wouldn't be caught dead listening to CBC radio, but now I love the podcasts. I listened to one on Little Sisters Bookstore in Vancouver, and then one about a couple who were surrogate parents for another couple.

At the school, I dumped my backpack and then grabbed my shovel. I went out. The walkway from my apartment to the parking lot was covered in snow. Nice person that I am, I cleared the pathway, then went to my parking space. I got off lucky. There wasn't much there. I think the fact that it was so windy meant that a lot of snow just kept blowing off. I cleared the space, but by the time I finished there was a light dusting again. I vowed to come back before my class to check it again.

When I went back in I got to work. I cleaned, changed, prepared two lessons for my new Saturday student, and checked on today's lesson. I changed my mind and decided to do something on Valentine's Day. Around 6:30 I went out again to check my parking space. It wasn't bad. It took a couple of minutes to clean it and then I went back inside.

My student came and we had a good lesson. We reviewed a take home test, did some work on reading, then started talking about Valentine's Day. It went quite well.

After class, I cleaned up, checked on lessons for tomorrow and put on all of my outdoors stuff again, and left my school. It was clear outside, and very quiet. I did the one ear iPod listening again. This time I listened to a podcast about hockey. I'm not a big hockey fan, but this was really interesting. Part of it was about the "Maritime Coloured Players League". Apparently, in the Maritimes in the 1900's there was a very popular league of hockey for the descendants of runaway slaves. I had never heard of it. Sadly, racism seems to have brought an end to it, and also buried most of the information about it.

I hit the grocery store to buy a few things for tomorrow night's dinner, and also me, then went to Marumatsu for dinner. It was okay. Just after I ordered I got a call from Fumihiko. He'd finished his party and was outside our apartment. He thought I was inside! I told him I wasn't there, and where I was. He was quite inebriated! I told him that I'd be home a bit after I finished my dinner.

I walked home. It had started to blow again, so wasn't quite as nice, but it was okay. The roads were quiet because of the time of night.

I got home, and spent a quiet evening at home. Fumihiko gave me a present for Valentine's Day. I'm not sure if it really is my Valentine's Day present for real, but it was quite cool. It was a bento box style thing of melba toast and cheese. There were all sorts of cheese. There was blue cheese, camembert, and I'm sure I had some brie too. It was nice. I didn't finish it all yet.

So that's it. Tomorrow I'm cooking in my slow cooker. Wish me luck. I'm not sure whether to throw everything in and hope for the best, or follow a recipe. I'll sleep on it! Night night.