I miss my old friend Juliane. It's not that I don't enjoy going to the Royal Winter Fair with Rick, it's just different. With Juli, we could get so ... female. God ! What shit we could get into. Getting rides on the golf carts because we were dressed nicely for the evening show, or making eyes at various wealthy boys with horses. I miss Juli. Period. I think, perhaps, I'll call her tomorrow after I get back home.

Anyway, the Royal was good fun. Rick and I had a tiff of sorts at the Greenhawk tack booth, but it was just me being overly sensitive, I guess, and I said, but he thought I called him insensitive, which he is definitely not. If there were ever a man sensitive to my feelings, it's Rick. Anyway, I don't know why I was so on edge, but it passed. I bought Kerri a present (hopefully she'll like it) and then Rick bought me a little goat. Not a real one, sadly, but a little toy one that had lovely detail on it. It's from a German company, but made in China, and then sold in Canada. See? Globalisation isn't just about multi-national corporations anymore.

We ate in the farm produce area, of course, eating, between us, lamb on a bun, chicken breast on a bun, cabbage rolls, and a baked potato. Of course, as tradition dictates, I had to have beer nuts, too. Beer nuts ! Yum ! I got my fill of petting horses, mostly the big-bear draught horses: belgians, clydesdales, percherons, etc. Even enormous beasts like the 18 hand percheron I visited like a good love-spot tickle. It's almost embarrassing the way they melt. We visited the goats too. Last year we attended the fair early in the week and there were sheep, but the goats come in for the second half of the event and so, today, being the second-last day, there were goats galore. I love goats ! Even Rick gave in and tickled a goat.

Finally, as the evening was wearing down, we sat by the warm-up ring (is it the hitching ring? It's the one inside the horse palace) and watched the people warming up and practicing. It's nice to see the grand prix jumpers riding along beside the junior dressage girls and the welsh ponies running amok all over the place. I took what I hope turn out to be good photographs of some show jumpers putting their animals over fences before their competition. None of the people in my photos are Canadian, Ian Millar and Jill Henselwood had already left the ring. I managed to catch a Columbian rider on a big, white mare, an American woman on a gorgeous bay gelding, and some other fellow whose flag I missed, also on a nice bay. Anyway, the Columbian's horse was being lazy and kept taking rails, and the rider looked to nervous to be able to rationalise his way out of the pattern. I wish I'd seen them ride their actual courses. Next year I will.

Anyway, tomorrow (today?), Rick and I are off to the 'Journey to Middle Earth' exhibit at Casa Loma, so that should be nice, if likely crowded. We'll also be getting up at a *reasonable* hour in order to attend a Remembrance Day ceremony going on at UofT. Part of me is feeling lazy and thinking about just listening to it on the radio, but I don't think so. This year, more importantly than in the last couple of years, I think we as a society must pay our respects and remember what ills drive nations to war. We must remember the past, so as not to ignore the present.