My friend and I decided that we needed to get together, go for a ride, and hit the Lebanese market and bakery since she's rather new to the city and has never been to best little store on earth.

With that red jacket I could see her coming from a mile away and it was nice to see quite a few other people riding on a day that gave us a high of 1 C and winds that were gusting a around 20-25 mph.

Amazingly...we really haven't had any real snow yet.

http://members.shaw.ca/feynn/biking/Sunday/Sunday1.jpg

This young lady (and one of my best friends) helps me turn wrenches at the shop, is working on a masters degree, and is also a killer rider who has 4 other bikes.

We built up the Peugeot as her utility / winter bike / light tourer.

http://members.shaw.ca/feynn/biking/Sunday/Sunday2.jpg

So we rode into those nasty headwinds for 5 or 6 miles to get to the market and the girl must have bought her weight in lentils, olives, feta cheese, and sweets but the real sweets are kept next door at the Paradiso bakery.

These folks are master bakers.

http://members.shaw.ca/feynn/biking/Sunday/Sundaysweets1.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/feynn/biking/Sunday/Sundaysweets2.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/feynn/biking/Sunday/Sundaysweets3.jpg

And my old Kuwahara pulled off two trips today as after carrying home a good 40 pounds of groceries from the market I had to make another trip and get what I estimated to be 40 pounds of groceries...those 70 litre paniers rock and you barely know they're there as the bike (an old touring mtb) handles the weight so very well.

It's also a fixed gear.

http://members.shaw.ca/feynn/biking/Sunday/Sundaykuwie2.jpg

So with that I am now gonna kick back and enjoy some basini cookies and baclava and hope you all enjoy the pics.

Yummy. :)

That's as good a reason for a bike ride as any!

Half the fun of a bike ride is the refueling afterward :) Mmmmm, baklava....

Tonight we worked at the shop and after braving some -17 C / 1 F weather (we were riding) we re-fuelled with chai, samosas, and curried chick peas and watched the snow falling down.

When it goes below -15C I flatly refuse to leave my house! Which is kind of a problem given where I live...

The time last winter that it hit -35 BEFORE factoring in windchill was the worst. I tried to call in frozen to work. Apparently that's not allowed.