I recently visited the National Arts Centre (NAC). It wasn't to take in any performance at this…read morevenue. I was downtown for Canada Day. I wanted a place to park. Its parkade was where my car was for a few hours. My original plan was to park at CF Rideau Centre and walk over to where the festivities were. I did it four years ago and it worked out nicely. Afterwards, I'd simply walk around the mall. However, I was curious to check this parking lot out. It's a part of NAC that I was not familiar with. The parkade is a 24-hour one. If you enter it before 4 pm, it's $3 for each half hour, to a maximum of $20. That's actually not bad if you consider that it would be an arm and a leg in other Canadian cities. It's automated. You do get a parking attendant when there's a performance or some activity happening at NAC. I don't know how all that works. I just know that for this national holiday, the parking attendant got a break. I inserted my credit card to enter the parkade. I used to same one leaving. It was pretty straightforward. I parked on level P1. I took the stairs to get to street level. It was perfect. I have only seen one concert at NAC. It was years ago when I lived in Winnipeg and travelled to Ottawa for vacation. It was a meaningful concert that holds a lot of fond memories. I saw my first Jann Arden concert here. Back then, I bought a ticket over the phone. The box office was a block away from my hotel on Slater Street. I walked over to fetch my ticket. On the night of the concert, I walked over to the NAC. It was November. There was snow on the ground. It was pretty, but a bit nippy. The female usher was so great showing me where my seat was. My seat was the last row of the orchestra section, the first seat on the left by the aisle. I was extremely happy. This concert set up countless Jann Arden concerts that I have attended all over the place. She is a wonderful performer and singer. Opening up for Jann Arden back then was Melanie Doane. This show alone sparked me to also see Melanie whenever she was playing over the years. What is cool is that when Jann recent played a couple of shows in Toronto, she had a bit of a reunion with Melanie. The latter has a ukelele school and students came down the aisles playing their ukes with Melanie leading the way to Jann. Such a cool moment! I got a Jann Arden t-shirt at the merchandise table. It said Happy? on it, to mark her newly released album back then. It's crazy to think that this album is nearly 26 years old. Yikes! I didn't grab any refreshments or snacks that night. I only remember happily walking back to the hotel and the sound my boots made walking on the snow. I had a great time then. I also had a decent parking experience on Canada Day just over two weeks ago. The NAC has changed since I last stepped foot. It looks like for the better. The digital leaves blowing around that you see above the NAC's main entrance was a nice touch. (240)

Beautiful space and always a pleasure to attend shows there…read more The ushers are always helpful and washrooms are easy to find. But the seats are a bit small and uncomfortable. I think they might need to update the seat or at least change the couchions - my left leg kept falling asleep and my back got noticeably sore at the end of the last show.

In my opinion - I'm not a fan for a number of reasons, which I will try to document as tactfully as…read moreI can: The stable is sitting on a perfect piece of land, located just off the south end of Bank St, in the Greenbelt, minutes from downtown Ottawa. Unfortunately, facilities are, to my eye, run down. The arena is on the small side. It's fairly expensive to have lessons there - in part because of how they break up jump vs. flat, charging a premium for jump lessons. (It's not something I've seen before - and honestly, I don't like it - you need flat work for jumping - so... I think there's a better way to handle this.) Many aspects of the place show a lack of care (for example, tack room in the old barn needs a good cleaning). One positive aspect: I believe the owner has a knack for picking horses - so they have some wonderful school horses. This is one of the more relaxed stables as far as things go - which can result in some great experiences that you may not get at other stables. With these experiences come some increased danger. Personally I am ok with that. (It's a dangerous sport, even in the most controlled environment.) But if, as a parent, you are faint of heart, you may wish to find another stable for your darling to ride at. Would I recommend: Likely not. Would I return: Never say never - though it's unlikely at this time.

My son had a week at Greenbelt this summer. While there, he had unsupervised access to an air…read morerifle! Someone brought it to the farm, and my son saw it and asked why the person had a gun. The person denied he had one, and went into a barn and came out without it. My son went in looking for it (he is 6). There was no one in the barn and my son and his friend saw the air rifle placed vertically on the floor, against the wall of an empty horse stall. My son picked it up and was excited to be holding a gun, showing it to his friend. There was no one in the barn when he was doing this. At some point someone did come into the barn and take it away from him. When I asked the owner about this the next day, he did not apologize, but told me that my son had gone looking for it. Of course he did - he is 6 and saw something interesting! The owner told me it was not a gun but an air rifle, laughed when I asked whether it could still do damage to a child ("of course it could" he said) and told me he took care of the situation. For anyone wondering, summer camps are unregulated in Ontario (I now know this). While their horses were wonderful creatures, and the people at the farm are great with the horses, they are not great with kids. And they run a camp for 5 year olds and up. While there were many other concerns I had with the camp (swearing in front of the kids, laughing when the kids are crying, etc.), the air rifle incident was the most egregious. My son did learn to ride, and loved the camp, and the horses, but guns at a camp and unpaid volunteers acting as counsellors with little (or no?) training on how to care for children mean that I cannot recommend this camp.

I've been going here for the last year for massages. I have been to a few students and all were…read morereally good. For a deep tissue massage I recommend asking for a senior student. The student will go over your health and any concerns/pain you have before starting the massage. The instructor will come in during the massage to ensure all is well and see what the student is working on. They offer massages tuesday and wednesday nights and the cost is $35 as the students aren't RMTs yet. You can book the appointment online and they will also send you a text message reminder which is cool. I know they also do acupuncture appointments by I haven't tried it yet. I highly recommend this place, especially if you don't have health benefits that covers massage therapy.

I would put 0 stars for this school, choose a different school if you don't want to hate your life…read morefor 18 month or get sick in this outdated moldy facilities. This is not worth the nerves and your health.