Bit By Bit: 12 Days of (Horsey) Christmas: Arabian artistry

In the flurry of things going on lately, I totally forgot to tell you about my newest collaboration with another blogger... who also rides as an adult! We're working together on the 12 Days of (Horsey) Christmas!

Bit By Bit: 12 Days of (Horsey) Christmas: Arabian artistry: In keeping with the season, the next 12 posts will be gifts appropriate for horsey folks on your Christmas list. (Technically, ...

Worldly Tastes Close to Home

This weekend we were lucky enough to dine on delicious Korean kalbi beef ribs, try Afghani style spiced fish, and re-connect with the tastes of Peru. The best part? All of this was within comfortable driving distance in our diverse city of Toronto.

To recap...

On Saturday night, we visited our local Korea town. Its a short little strip between the Bathurst and Christie subway stations that has an abundance of authentic Korean establishments. Here you can find restaurants that specialize in soondubu (Korean tofu stew), proper Korean barbeque (and not the unauthentic all-you-can eat style), Korean bar food (I must try the friend chicken!), little dessert houses (bite-sized redbean walnut cakes are our favourite), and even a supermarket specializing in Korean groceries! We often frequent this area when we have a hankering for some spicy Korean food.

Then on Sunday for lunch, we visited a flea market in the suburbs of Mississauga. Here we found a little food court that offered us a wide variety of flavours from around the world. In no particular order...there was*deep breath*... Chinese, Hakka Chinese, Indian, Carribean, Latin American, Fillipino, Middle Eastern cuisines and a bubble tea stand thrown in for good measure!

I ordered the pan seared fish from the Afghani counter since I had never had anything from Afghani cuisine, while Deb ordered some fried corn tortilla chicken wraps from the Latin American counter. The fish was nicely spiced with a nice hot sauce and flavourful chick peas on the side. The rice that came on the Latin America was spiced with Aji chili which was a flavour we had become very familiar with during our Peru trip. And topping all of this off was a nice refreshing...Inca Kola! Very satisfying...

I have always been told that Toronto is a very culturally diverse city, but I never really took time to think about it. While we sat in this little food court surrounded by the tastes and smells from around the world, I began to have a better appreciation of what our city has to offer. We may not have the best transportation system, the most famous arts and culture scene, or even the tallest building in the world anymore, but I can't think of another city in the world where I could sit in a small little food court with that many tastes from around the world.

ADW signing out!

Horsin' Around this Weekend

Last Thursday, I couldn't visit Bonnie. I started taking English riding lessons a few weeks ago and I am really getting into it. Ok who are we kidding, everytime I think about getting out there to ride, everything is wonderful and rainbows. Amber, Dave and AW keep telling me that it appears that I'm really getting into this and that it's great that something could make me so happy. So, this weekend, I took the plunge and went to the 51st semi-annual Greenhawk warehouse sale to get suited up. That's right, SUIT UP!

I spent 2 weeks strategizing the plan of what I need, get and how much I'd save and which one would be the best deal. Not being partial to any specific brands helps at this point. Two weekends ago, I even made a preliminary trip to Greenhawk to try things on so I'd be prepared for the big day: Saturday Oct 20th. Not only was a bunch of stuff on some serious discount, but there was a Gate Crasher deal of taking an additional 30% off any clearance item. I look at the receipt and see that the original purchase would have cost me over $600 but I've managed to spent just over $250.

What'd I get?

• Ariat Heritage Paddock III boot in chocolate
• Elation Crochet Back Gloves in cream
• Aerion Ladies Multipurpose Shell Rain Jacket in teal
• Grand Prix Hampton II Low Rise Breech x 2
• Mondega Super Suede 1/2 Chap
• Aerion Men's Tech Polo x 2

Now I'm ready for my next lesson to ride in proper schooling style!

Sunday had some more equine activities...

Greyden is super far for me to go during the week so I've been thinking about looking at schools  closer to the city. But let's face it, there is no such thing for something like this. I made arrangements to visit Meadowlarke in Mississauga first thing in the morning and how excited am I? I'm so excited that I'm up 2 hours earlier than I need to be. Unfortunately, there isn't space for additional students at Meadowlarke for the month of November so after getting some fee and lesson information, I head out.

When AW and I return to the car, we figure that since we're out this way, we could go see if Greyden is open to give him a better idea of the facility I'm going to now. The drive during the day is scenic and relaxing. Possibly also because I'm not stressed out about arriving on time for my lesson. It's too bad that when we get there, they tell us that they have a clinic and don't have time for visitors today. Oh well.

It's back home for us... after we visit some more stables in the area! I stop at one that I didn't expect to stop at and I find that I really like this place. But, we'll have to see if the trek is worth it since it's almost as far as Greyden and with the winter coming up, the drive seems like an unnecessary trip to make. I'm looking for a solid place that is reputable and somewhere I feel comfortable with the schooling, instructors and the schedule. Afterall, jumping from place to place doesn't build consistency in your learning and skills.

I'm working on completing my comparison chart of the schools and have a few more to see before I make a decision...