Candy Town in Yaletown 2013

Once again, Candy Town came upon Yaletown in mid November.  If you remember from last year, I volunteered for this event with the Yaletown BIA in it's inaugural season.  I had so much fun last year, I decided to do it again this year.  Besides, my friends co-ordinate the event.  Always fun to work with friends.  

My duties this year was to work the Info Booth on the corner of Mainland and Hamilton.  Right next to the horse carriage rides.  I got my friend, Nadine to volunteer with me since she also really enjoyed it last year too.  It was a very cold day but it was fun.  I, unfortunately, was feeling under the weather but put on some hand and toes warmers in my mitts and shoes and stayed warm.  It also helped that we had a heat lamp in our tent to aid in the warmth.

So I had received this name tag at our orientation session held at a pub called Killjoy.  It was dark inside and it was hard to see but I was given this badge to wear and so I wrote my name on it. I was the Candy Town Naughty/Nice List Keeper.

 This was where I worked.  The lollipop decorations were a hit with the crowds.  They kept taking one out and posing with them for the camera.  It was a really creative idea to use swim noodles to create the lollipops.  Just wish the bucket they in, would have been weighted as it kept falling over when someone walked by and bumped it.  Btw, these lollipops were not made by us or the BIA.  They were made by a group of individuals of special needs who work on creative designs in arts and crafts.  I can't remember which institute they were with but they did a great job on them!

 

This year, the BIA decided against the reindeer and skating rink.  Instead, we had Santa, sleigh rides, a Christmas tree lot and many new and different vendors from last year.  My friend, Carmen, who coordinated the event, sewed all the costumes herself.  They looked amazing.

 

This was Gabriella, Carmen's sister, visiting from the States.  She really got into it.

In this pic, you can see a Reindeer in the back.  People were taking pics with him all the time.  He was really popular, as was our dancing gingerbread men.  Yes, they actually break danced.
 

There were also stilts people, cause who doesn't like really tall people?  Am I right?

From the time I started my shift, til the end of it, I could tell that people were really enjoying themselves.  We even had several bands playing throughout.  They were amazing.  I saw the guy dressed like a peppermint candy jamming to the steel drums and having a great time. This band here was part of the festivities from last year and they are really great people and an awesome band. 

We had about 15.000 people come through our event last year but this year it looked substantially more. I would say double that.  It started at 12pm and went on until 9pm.  The cocktail drinks at selected bars were serving specialty drinks for the night.  Most people took advantage of it and it was appreciated by those bars that took part.  On my break, I had walked around a bit and was drawn to a bag of White Truffle Chips.  After sampling some, my friend Nadine, was nice enough to get me a pack since I had no cash on me.  But they were wonderful.

We had our volunteer party at the same place again this year.  Nadine and I went together on the Canada Line and walked to our destination.  It was cold and dark but it was still beautiful out. We had wine, appies, lasagna, salad and some wonderful dessert.  The YaleTown BIA (Annette, Gary, Jill and Bert)  always know how to treat their volunteers right.  After all the fun of sitting around talking and enjoying the food and company, it was almost time to go.  We were told to pick up a little tree ornament from the table.  They were all numbered on the tags.  Once the called out your number, you would come up and receive a gift in appreciation.

My number was #11.  It was a small white polar bear with a hat on and holding a present.  This little bear got me a $20 gift certificate for Honjin Sushi in Yaletown and a $10 gift certificate for DD Mau, a Vietnamese Sandwich shop also located in Yaletown.  We were also given a gift from our sponsors, Urban Thai.  They had so generously donated Urban Thai sauce mixes to everyone. Yellow, Green and Red Curry sauce mixes.  Just add the meat or fish.  So thank you, Yaletown BIA for another wonderful event and for your generosity.  Its always fun volunteering with friends and I'll be back again next year!

BC Lions Clearance Sale 2013

The BC Lions Locker Room Sale was held on November 20 at BC Place.  If you weren't there, you missed out on some great chances to score some great gear for next season!

I went out there with my friend, Leslie-Anne and Nadine.  We met up at Gate H inside around 1pm and looked around.  By then, the season's ticket holders had already picked through most of the stuff.  I went there in mind to buy a scarf, toddler jersey and whatever else might catch my eye.  Turned out, the only scarf they had was the pink one and although it went to the BC Children's charity fund, I still wanted the orange one.  So no scarf for me.  The toddler jersey's weren't on sale either.  Nor were the baby/toddler hat and mitts set. It would have been great for my little nephew.

There wasn't much in the women's selection that I really wanted and the prices I found were still kinda high.  I was hoping for more of a discount on these items.  The t-shirts and hats went for $10.  I saw two guys standing by the end table where the helmets were on and went over to have a chat.  It was JR LaRose and Keron Williams.  I asked them how much the lids were going for.  They said around $400!!  I told them that they looked sic out there with them on.  They agreed and said that they were heavy to wear though.  So, I picked one up and it was indeed heavy. Good on them for being able to wear them on their heads. I think I would have a headache after wearing one of those after a game.

Since I looked around and couldn't find anything I liked, I decided to get the stuff my friend work and from my hometown had asked me to get.  I wasn't able to find what my work friend had asked for so I looked for the stuff my other friend wanted. He was supposed to be there but came down with the flu and wasn't able to make it.  So, he arranged for me to do some shopping for him.  So, I took some pics of the items around the store and we did some virtual shopping together.

I was able to get a few items for my friend.  Other than that, I left empty handed and so did my friends.  I wish their clearance sale would be a little bit cheaper.  It's not much of a sale if stuff is still on regular price. Anyways, it's always good to go and see what they have cause you just never know.  

There must have been a lot of stuff left from this sale because two weeks later, they had a Last Chance Holiday Sale held at the BC Lions Surrey Facilities on Dec 12th.  Some of my friends went and it was basically the same thing.  Oh well, there's always next year's sale.  Go BC Lions!

Heritage Winter Classic 2014 - Canucks vs Senators

I can't tell you how excited I am about this.  This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the fans of Vancouver to experience an "outdoor" game.  I have "outdoors" in quotations because this will be the first time that it will be held under a pro-tractable roof...not including Pittsburgh many years ago.

On Dec 5th, 2013, the Vancouver Canucks were inside BC Place and finally got to see what it will look like inside the bowl come March 2nd against the Ottawa Senators.  The rink was outlined with banners in the middle of the field and the roof was open.The sun was shinning strong, not that it mattered.  It was still chilly inside.

Now, I work at BC Place and I know what it feels like when they don't turn on the heat and the roof is closed.  I've done many events in the building for other organizations and have froze many parts of my body off.  So, I know just how cold those boys were with no heat in the building and the roof wide open.  Thankfully the sun was out but the bite of the cold in the building will certainly make people happy in March that it's not completely open like the other rinks for this tournament.

Vancouver Canucks, Daniel Sedin, Ryan Kesler and Kevin Bieksa along with Fin were there for interviews and to take part in the festivities.  They looked great in their Vancouver Millionaires gear and thought it was great that Sedin was called out for drinking Bailey's on set during an interview by Bieksa.  Mind you, I can't blame Sedin.  Baileys would have been the perfect choice of drink to keep warm in there.

Bieksa was also interviewed earlier about his thoughts on the Heritage Classic in 2014.

There was a surprise for the players and the fans as a snippet of the upcoming "NHL Revealed" documentary following the Canucks and Senators teams leading up the big game was shown.  The boys watched from the sidelines here.  I can't wait for the episodes to come out.

If you missed it cause you've been living under a rock, here it is for your viewing.  A practical joke is done on Dale Weise who loses his helmet and goes searching for it.

The guys did some fancy shooting after the interviews as well.  Apparently, they were trying to beat Sydney Crosby's record.

Tickets went on sale that morning starting from $62 going upwards to $324.  If you want a ticket, you better get it fast.  BC Lions season ticket holders were able to buy up to eight tickets each before they were made public to the fans.  I will hopefully be working the game for BC Place as a Host in a tunnel.  That way I can watch the game as well.  However, if I can volunteer for it somehow, I might do that too.

This is an artist's rendition of what the day will look like inside BC Place with the roof open on a bright sunny chilly day on March 2, 2014.  Well, this is Vancouver.  It's either going to rain or it will be a very sunny and chilly day.  Either way, bundle up!!

Vancouver Whitecaps Clearance Sale 2013

I went to this sale on Dec 14th, 2014.  All volunteers were invited to come at 11:30am.  The 'Caps card holders got in earlier if they chose to use their points to get in at 11pm.  The rest of the season ticket holders were in line with us volunteers.  I got there at 11:20am thinking I could just walk in, just like last year.  No dice this year.  The Whitecaps have a huge fan base now and Dario, another volunteer, and I waited til 11:45am to get in.  Thank god it wasn't raining badly out.

As I came inside Gate H, I noticed two things.  There were lots of people and there was a very long lineup for the cashiers.  It was so hard to decide where to start as there were people EVERYWHERE!  I looked around for the cheaper bargains and looked for things that I would wear.  I looked through racks, boxes and tables to find my bargains.  My friend Nadine had texted me and told me she was going to meet me there at 12 earlier.  I was looking for her outside the window but couldn't see her.  Then one of the Whitecaps staff came up to me and told me she was in line.  So I tried to shop around until she got in.  I ended up with some great deals.

 

The Bell Sweater worn by Brad Rusin - $10, Toddler Jersey - $10, Two pairs of Socks - $5 each, Bell Shirt worn by Bilal Duckett - $10, Shorts worn by Camillo - $10.  I also got another pair of shorts worn by Kenny Miller - $10.  

I really just wanted to get a nice hoodie for my young niece but I didn't see any on the tables.  Oh well.  I'm still happy with my purchases.  I gave the shirt to my oldest nephew, the toddler jersey to my littlest nephew and I'm keeping the shorts and sweater.  I love the Whitecaps merchandise sale.  I always find something!!