Tag Archives: fun

The Fair @ the PNE

*this is for summer of 2014 (sorry for the delay…one year that is…)
This summer two friends and I got the chance to go to the PNE!
Admission to get into the Fair is $16, though you get a $3 discount if you purchase online for $13. This admission does NOT include the Ride pass ($42.75/$39.75).
The reason that we went to PNE was because one friend really wanted to go see his favourite singer perform. Unfortunately, we came too late – as in before showtime, but the arena was completely full by the time we got there, and were cutting off the long lineup. My friend was super disappointed.

I think one of the biggest attractions was the Game of Thrones exhibition. Since I don’t watch the series, I couldn’t really relate to the many artifacts and costumes on display, but the work that goes into the show can be seen. We lined up for the final part – the 3D Oculus Rift experience where you go up in an elevator and stand on top of a icy cliff. It feels almost real with the headgear, real wind and vibrating ground despite the somewhat pixelated virtual reality. One friend was so wrapped up in it, I could hear him being really shocked and taken in. Lol. It was a really long line-up, but worth the wait for a 1-2 minute experience.

Unfortunately, I don’t know the name of the stand that sells phos, but here, I tried out a chicken pho instead of beef. It was pretty tasty, and good portion. There was a huge slice of lemon in it though. I thought pho came with lime? and not thrown in the soup.

Also, we now a new friend! Introducing Domo-kun!! Yeah, he can be a bit intimidating sometimes, but he means no harm We played some games, but we only got really small prizes. I had my eyes on the Domo-kun, so I was pretty excited when I saw a small stand that had an old guy either guess one’s weight, age or birth month. I chose the weight, and he got it really off. I have a gut feeling that he doesn’t guess correctly to give the prize to customers – to lure more customers in. I paid $5 for game, and surely, the prizes are mass produced which costs them almost nothing. However, if I were to buy a Domo-kun from Japan, or a character store, it would have cost more to purchase, so I was happy.

Entertaining: Cost for Admission/Food:

Atmosphere: Location:

Freeing Canada

Meet Locals with Similar Interests through Meetup.com

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Have you just moved to a new city? Want to meet the locals and make some friends trough a safe and friendly groups? Well, then try out Meetup.com It’s possibly the world’s largest network of local groups. Meetup.com makes it super easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one according to their interest. The site has 10.8 million monthly visitors, and 11.1 million members (though this number is somewhat biased since many are inactive), but with 2 million RSVPs, the website mission to connect the locals through social groups is working.

Check out if your city is part of Meetup.com – there are apparently 45,000 cities that host these Meetup events. For example, if you just moved to Montreal and want to improve your French, you might decide to join the French Meetup. You don’t have to be a newbie in a city to join a group. If you want to improve your photography skills, or have started taken interest in hiking, you can find those too. Regions do play a role in how many members or how active a group is. The Japanese Meetup in Vancouver has over 1000 members and have 2 regular events every month for the last 5 years with each one with 20 people or more. Go to Calgary, and there is less than 300 members with about 5 members sign up for each event – not a sufficient number to make good connections.

With so many things today being online, and connections only through the web, we’ve deprived ourselves from real socialization. This is a perfect opportunity to interact with real human beings once again – whether it’s to make new friends or for business purposes.

A lot of the Meetup groups are free to attend (unless specified for a special event, or if they charge a attendance fee per event – usually $1) This request for the small fee is usually to cover material costs and to have the Meetup.com group. The cost to run the groups on Meetup.com vary depending on the plan you choose: (all fees are in US Dollars)

$12/month for 6 months (a single $72 charge)
$15/month for 3 months (a single $45 charge)
$19/month for the month-to-month billing option

With any of the above plans, organizers can run up to 3 Meetup Groups without any further costs.

Again, for Meetup members to attend, it doesn’t cost anything unless the organizers ask for any, so start joining! As far as I know, there aren’t any limits to how many groups you can join, so let the fun begin!