Dim Sum-mation

I had a very nice reunion with some former classmates from U of Windsor grad school on Sunday. I've been able to keep in touch with some people from those years, but others I've lost track of entirely. But a few weeks ago, I got a rare email from Min, who had come to Windsor from Beijing, telling me that our friend Janet was coming up from Windsor for the weekend, and would be staying with her and her husband Lui, who now live in north Toronto.

It had been over 10 years since Min and Janet and I had been in the Communications Studies program together, and other than a visit to Windsor probably 6 or 7 years ago when I popped in to visit Janet, and a chance encounter with Min and Lui at Pearson airport a couple of years ago, I hadn't seen either of them.

So we arranged to have dim sum on Sunday at a place in Scarborough that Min says is the best dim sum restaurant in the city. It must be, because even with the SARS scare, which has devastated many Chinese restaurants in the city, the place was still packed and there was a half-hour wait, which I'm told is way shorter than usual. And it was very good, and pretty cheap. I was stuffed. But I think I'll pass on the duck's feet next time.

Unfortunately a few of the other alumni who live in the area weren't able to make it. So it was just Janet and Min and Lui and me. Oh, and Sienna, Min and Lui's 2-year-old sweetheart of a daugther, who was a new addition since last time I saw them.

It was great catching up on what everyone had been up to. Both Janet and Min have carved out good careers for themselves. And Min's husband Lui is an amazing artistóa painter mostly, though he also sculpts. He had had a studio in Yorkeville, but now works out of their new house that they just moved into about a month ago. Apparently he sells a lot of his work to collectors here and in Europe. Check out his web page, and it's not hard to see why.

The portraits are amazing, but what I like about his work is the wonderful sense of humour and satire that some of them display. Check out this one and this one. Incredible!

And I loved this painting, which was hanging at the top of their stairs, just inside the door. But I think they're way out of my price range. Oh yeah.

What a talent, though. My hat's off to íim.