Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Floorball

By accident, we heard about a Finnish/Canadian couple living in Toronto, already when we were still in Finland. We contacted them and it turned out that the hubby, Juha Mikkola, is the founder of FloorballPro. Since 2002 he has been promoting floorball in Canada and the States and it has been growing very quickly. Yesterday we were invited to an Open House for the Intermediate League. We were surprised to see how much people showed up. They got four teams, each with around ten players. After a quick introduction into the game and the rules it was time to play. We all played 3 games of ten minutes and we must say it was quite hard to run again after not having done it for a while. I was even having a cold and wasn't supposed to play at all, but I just couldn't resist.
It was fun and fast. Not everyone had played before, but still the level was good. After talking a bit with some people, we found out that most of the people had some Finnish or Scandinavian background.

Pic by Juha Mikkola

However, Juha Mikkola is doing a great job in promoting the sports around North America, trying to make it an off-season training method for NHL/ hockey players and bringing it into high school sports.

Next Tuesday the Intermediate League will start and we found a team to play with. We will play four on four, with official boards and two referees. If you would like to read more about it, visit www.floorballpro.com

Besides floorball, Juha is busy with school and I have been working part-time at two different Pediatric offices. I did floor work, which means I measure and weight the children/babies and when necessary, also do eye tests and some administration. However, at the moment they don't really need help, just a few days here and there, which is not really enough for me. So, I still continue looking for jobs, which is already a job on itself :) Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Monday, September 19, 2011

DIY

When we were on our holidays in the Dominican two years ago, we bought a painting, but we never had the chance to hang it on the wall. We brought the painting with us to Canada and now we decided that it would fit perfectly on the wall above our bed. On Saturday we went to Home Depot, a huge hard ware store. First we just thought buying the wood for the frame, but we had already talked about painting the living room walls as well, so since we were in the store, we decided to have a look at the paint as well. We ended up buying one can of white paint as well, just to try one small wall. The end result is much better and next weekend we will paint the rest of the walls as well. When we finished, we rewarded ourselves with a pizza in Little Italy. Little Italy is a district in Toronto and known for its Italian restaurants. We were so hungry, that we stepped into the first restaurant we saw. The pizza's were good, but nor really Italian. The restaurant might have had some Indian influences, which you could taste as well.





Before: the ugly brown wall






After: White and light wall


Next weekend we will paint this wall white as well.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The Beaches

Last weekend we checked out a neighborhood area called "The Beaches". It is located on the East side of Toronto half an hour by street car from Queen station. Although the shoreline is continuous, it is divided into four different beaches: Balmy Beach, Scarboro Beach, Kew Beach and Woodbine Beach. Although Lake Ontario is a lake, it is one of the Great Lakes in North America, with a length of more than 300 km, which means that the lake looks like a sea. The water is also very cold and we didn't dare to swim.










At the same time there was a Beach Celtic festival taking place, with live music and all.



On Friday night our street, Keewatin Avenue, had organised a movie night. They had put on a screen and everyone brought their own chairs, food and drinks. The movie was meant for the children, called the Incredibles. We came a bit later and were not really into that movie, so we decided not to stay, but it was a fun idea.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Chinatown

While Juha was at school, I went to Chinatown one day to buy fresh vegetables, fruits and spices. Downtown there is one block full with tiny Chinese stores and they sell everything you can think of for really good prices. Especially the food is much cheaper over there than in normal grocery shops. Since I like cooking the Asian style, I thought I do my groceries in Chinatown.
I found one shop which was in a basement and the shelves just continued and continued. They had everything related to food, even stuff I had never seen before. They even had a separate fish and meat counter, with fresh fish and pig feet. The smell was awful, so I didn't buy any fish or meat, but I think it might be worth trying another time. I left with a huge bag full of different vegetables, good spices and 2 kilos of Chinese rice.. and that for less than 20 dollars! I think I know where I will do my groceries from now on :)




Yesterday I cooked a noodle wok with beef with the fresh ingredients I bought in Chinatown. I thought I share the recipe with you. This is what you need to prepare it:
- Beef in slices
- Noodles
- Tauge
- Red pepper
- Red chili 
- Red union
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Broccoli 
- Carrots
- Lime 
(you can use whatever vegetables you like, this is just a suggestion)

First you start with cooking the noodles. After you have chopped all the other ingredients you put the garlic, unions, ginger and chili with some oil in a wok pan. 



Then you add the broccoli, carrots and pepper. You can cook the carrots and broccoli first if you want them to be soft before you add them. 


In the end you add the beef, tauge and the noodles. I also added the half of a lime in the end. 


And voila, ready :) Enjoy!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Toronto Islands

Saturday was a beautiful day, it was about 30 degrees, so we decided to go to the Toronto Islands. It is a chain of islands in front of the city and you can get there by ferry. The crossover takes only about 10 minutes and then you arrive in a totally different atmosphere. It has parks, beaches and even a children's amusement park. People can rent bikes, canoes and quadracycles, but we preferred walking. From the island you have an amazing view on downtown Toronto, with the CN tower and all its skyscrapers. On the islands there is a small community of about 260 homes and they even have their own school. A funny thing about the selling and buying of the houses is that the prices are set and are governed by provincial law.
So whenever you are in Toronto, we recommend you to visit the islands!







The city airport











Fighter plane giving a show, because of Labour Day



Disc golf course