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Monthly Archives: March 2015

Discounts and some handy things to know about Vancouver

25 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Fiona in Food, Travel

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Arrow, Bento box, Cafe Deux Soleils, cheap Sushi, cheap things to do in Vancouver, cheap travel, climb the Vancouver lookout, Creative BC, Discounts in Vancouver, film sets, filming in Vancouver, free things to do in Vancouver, Happy hour in Vancouver, Harbour Centre, Hollywood North, list of attractions in Vancouver, Once Upon a time, Open Mic Nights Vancouver, pay by donation, Poetry slam, productions filming in Vancouver, stair exercise, Supernatural, Sushi, The Flash, tips when in vancouver, top places to eat sushi in Vancouver, travel cap, Umeda Jampanese Cusine, Urban Grind, Vancouver art Gallery, Vancouver Lookout, Vegan Cafe Vancouver, working on set, Youth poetry slam

So I’ve been  here for a month now and through word of mouth and general exploring I’ve learnt a few helpful tips about things to do in Vancouver. Here’s a few of them:

Vancouver Art Gallery – Go on a Tuesday

Vancouver Art Gallery_

If you don’t fancy spending $20 admission for Vancouver Art gallery then you don’t have to. Rather just wait until Tuesday at 5pm and you can go the gallery for ‘donation only’. They advise you to donate $10 but you can get a way with 5 and if you’re lucky you might even be able to see an exhibition or a talk too.

Urban Grind

Urban-Grind-jpg

Throughout March you can climb the 593 steps of the Harbor Centre for the wonderful price of $5. However it gets even better because you get a free beer at the top and the $5 entrance fee actually goes towards a food voucher at the food court. Not only do you get your exercise in for the day but you can get your dinner too! Next Tuesday is the last day you can do this so head on down and climb the stairs to get a gorgeous view of VanCity.  You can do this any time between 4pm to 6.30pm at the Harbour Centre which is located at West Hastings Street. Continue reading →

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When it rains it pours but you can still get by in Whistler

21 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by Fiona in Food, Travel

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Amazing Granola, best ski resort, Blackcomb Mountain, Buffalo Bills, Cows Whistler, dog walking, Fireside Lodge, function junction, Gondola Whistler, Greyhound, Hi Whistler, highest cable car, Ingrid's Village Cafe, Mark Richard's Gallery, Marketplace, mountain biking, mountains, Peak to Peak Whistler, Purebread, Riverside Trail, Sam Cooke, Skiiing in Whistler, Stand by Me, suspension bridge, train wreck, Train Wreck Whistler, Valley Trail, Whistler

Whistler MountainValley TrailMountain Whistler

For those who have heard of Whistler the name conjures up images of beauty, of snow and mountains and the peak to peak gondola which this year was awarded with two world records for “highest cable car above ground” and “longest unsupported span between two cable car towers“. For me I went in the hope of seeing all this but unfortunately I didn’t check the weather forecast and somehow arrived in Whistler on the foggiest, wettest day of the year! Not to fear Whistler still had plenty of things for me to do, I just had to go in search of it and change my plans slightly.
Whistler is known as one of the best ski resorts in the world. Usually every year in October hundreds of people, mostly students, head to Whistler in the hope of working for the season. When you step off the bus and rock up in Whistler it does feel like stepping back into a mini University town filled with snow and a few kids thrown in for good jest. I went to university in Canterbury so am used to small towns but Whistler is its own little village in itself. Sports and ski rental shops populate the town as well as clubs, pubs, restaurants and some beautiful mini art galleries too. I stumbled into one that was simply beautiful called Mark Richard’s Gallery. His paintings are ones you completely lose yourself in and for myself I definitely would hang a few up in my future house.

Here's an example of one of his paintings

Here’s an example of one of his paintings

Continue reading →

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St Patrick’s day, exchange of words and wonderful parade

17 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by Fiona in Travel

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Car to go, Doolins, fiddle music, Granville st market, irish language, kalissa dander, St Patrick's Day in Vancouver, tommy lee

Irish labradorTater Graville
Happy St Patrick’s Day everyone! The festivities have been taking place in Vancouver since Friday with a section of Granville St closed off to be filled instead with stalls selling merchandise, krisy cremes and a stage for Irish dancers as well as some fiddle playing! Canadians love the Irish here and everyone’s been in really good spirits! Tommy lee has been showcasing various acts throughout he weekend. I saw Kalissa Rander, a fiddle player since the age 2 perform a few songs which was very lovely. She was fantastic at playing the violin and had a beautiful personality but she did keep making a few mistakes and then stopping and saying sorry which I kept thinking can you do this when playing professional?! Then again it was a pretty informal event so I’m not going to judge since I would probably break some windows if I picked up a violin! When played well though it is such a wonderful instrument and just seeing her play made me think, ‘Right Fiona pick up that guitar again or even go back to playing the flute!’I could be the next Michael flatly! There have been a few times while here I’ve wished I had my guitar with me to practice but I know what I’m like and it would probably sit in the corner of the room.  It looks like quite a common thing to come to a new town and want to learn an instrument. I’ve seen at least half a dozen people on international travellers in Vancouver try and sell their instruments off. So anyway that was all pretty lovely. I was slightly suffering from partying the night before in would you believe the Irish bar Dollins. It was my first proper night since getting here that I went out and had a fun night dancing until late in the morning. It does catch up with me though and I have to remember I’m not 21 anymore! Continue reading →

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Phone Contracts, Bank Accounts & Job Searching in Vancouver

15 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by Fiona in Travel

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bank account, bank discounts, Best Buy, Bowen Island, Capital Coast Savings, CIBC, cinema card, cinema tickets, Craigslist Vancouver, Go2hR, good banks Vancouver, Indeed.com, International calls, job searching, Job searching in Vancouver, Koodo, Living and working in Vancouver, monthly contract, Pacific Centre, phone contract Vancouver, recruitment agencies Vancouver, Scotiabank, St Patrick's Day Parade, TPD, Vancity, Virgin Mobile, Work BC

Job searching in VancouverSo I’ve been in Vancouver now for three weeks can you believe?! My first week flew by and despite the first two days of feeling a bit tired and worried with wondering whether I’d done the right thing, the rest of the week was great. I met some lovely people, did some sight seeing, took a ferry over to the beautiful Bowen Island and started to feel really settled. My second week, although still enjoyable, was a lot more sorting out things such as phone contract, flat, bank account and all the joys that go hand in hand with moving to a new place.

For my phone contract I set it up in a shop called Best Buy, located in the Pacific Centre (this is a lovely little shopping centre off Granville Street which does some of the tastiest smoothies I have ever had!). The customer service representative, Dale, was so efficient, friendly and super helpful (the best customer service I have ever received in a phone shop – EE/T mobile could definitely pick up some tips!) At first he tried to set me up with a Virgin contract as you get good benefits with them such as discounts off several stores and 2 for 1 cinema tickets however for some reason because I was on a working holiday visa they wanted a deposit of $500 which we both thought was a bit extreme. I therefore opted to go with Koodo. Koodo offer various different monthly plans and the good thing about them is that, yes they offer a monthly contract, which is unheard of in the UK. The data allowance isn’t wonderful but you can basically pay more for the amount of data you want. I opted for the $40 contract which offers unlimited texts, 500 minutes of calls and 500MB of data. It’s not a huge amount of data but you can get by with using wi fi in most places. To pay, they send you an email at the end of each month with the total amount you need to pay (tax is added on to this too!) and then you can simply pay the amount by debit or credit card. It won’t cost you to text internationally but it is worth checking whether it will charge the receiver. I don’t believe it does buit it would charge them to text or call you back.Pacific Centre Vancouver

Continue reading →

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24 hour Movie Marathon!

10 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by Fiona in Film, Food, Thoughts, Travel

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24 hour cinema marathon, 24 hours of cinema, 24 hr cinema marathon 2015, Alfred Hitchcock, all night movie night, anime, Army of Darkness, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Billy Zane young, Bruce Campbell, Canadian whiskey bacon donut, Cartems Donuterie, Cinematheque Vancouver, earl grey donut, French Sci Fi, Groundhog Day, High Noon, James Stewart, La Jette, Mamoru Hosoda, Memento, orlando, Peggy Sue Got Married, Primer, Rope, Run Lola Run, The Girl who Leapt through time, theme of time in cinema, Tilda Swinton, Vancouver's Best Donuts, Watch La Jette Online, Western

Cinematheque VancouverIt’s been over a week since I took part in this delightful event put on by the Cinematheque and I can easily say it took me a good few days to catch up on sleep! Introduced two years ago this is only the second time they have put on this event so I felt it was good timing I happened to be here and was meant to be! Once I heard about it I thought I just have to do it. With a line up of 15 films, that of which you are not told, the event kicked off at 10am and would run for a full 24 hrs with a few breaks in between. I had only bought my ticket the night before and didn’t realise it started at 9.30 with a talk so arrived pretty much smack on 10 and the film was already in its opening credits. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the day, just that there was a theme (again not disclosed) and we would discover this theme as we watched the films.

24 hour Movie Marathon timetable Cinematheque

My crumpled timetable

The opening film was Groundhog Day, which although I have seen countless number of times, still works its magic. I’m used to watching this film around Christmas time so felt quite strange watching it in a dark room on a sunny morning in March but what the heck I still enjoyed it! The second film of the day was a little gem, Chris Marker’s La Jette, a film which many Sci Fi films have since been based on. Only 28 minutes long the film is made up entirely of black and white still photographs with voiceover and tells the story of Scientists who decide to send a man into the past to try to prevent the nuclear war that has almost destroyed the earth and threatens to annihilate the human race. This was the only non feature  length film of the night and definitely left an impression on many people. Third up it was the wonderful Hitchcock film Rope which was probably one of my favourites of the day. Again I had seen this before back in A level Media Studies however it still felt so fresh and new and has one of my favourite actors in, James Stewart who as always was fantastic. I loved that the camera never pauses and follows the action of the whole event as if you are in the theatre watching a play. Some shots were executed wonderfully such as the shot of the door swinging open and dropping the rope into the drawer. His films are completely timeless. Continue reading →

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Chinese New Year & Vancouver Lookout

04 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Fiona in Thoughts, Travel

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Chinese New Year Parade Vancouver, Grouse Mountain, Price of Vancouver Lookout, Vancity, Vancouver Lookout, Vancouver Lookout at Sunset, Visitor Centre Vancouver, Year of the goat

Chinese New Year Vancouver Year of the goatBefore I flew out to Vancouver I read that the Chinese New Year Parade would be taking place on Sunday 22nd February which left me very excited! There had been build up events and stalls spread across town to mark the year of the goat/lamb (this didn’t seem to be clear!) Some signs said it was the year of the goat whereas others said lamb and therefore there was a big display of lambs at one of the exhibition areas and then random posters of goats at other parts. The festival kicked off at 11a.m and if there’s one word to sum it up I would say disappointing. It seemed quite badly organised and was really long that it grew quite tiresome. It didn’t seem extremely professional and at one point there was a worker walking down the parade smoking and just having a general chat on the phone. I do not mean to take this away from some of the beautiful costumes on display as well as the drums and people dressed up as dragons as this was impressive, however the whole thing together did not not flow smoothly and after 20 minutes of watching we grew bored and headed elsewhere.

Continue reading →

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Flat Hunting in Vancouver

03 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by Fiona in Thoughts, Travel

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Apartments in Downtown Vancouver, Apartments in West Vancouver, Beaver Pillow, best places to rent in Vancouver, Cinematheque Vancouver, Craigslist, Deep Cove, East Vancouver, flat hunting in Vancouver, Gastown, Granville Island Market, Granville Street, International Travellers in Vancouver, Living in Kitsilano, Lynn Canyon Park, North Vancouver, Samesun Backpackers, Tips for flat hunting in Vancouver, University of British Columbia, waterfront, West 4th Avenue Kiitsilano, Yaletown

Apartments in Vancouver So I’ve been here just over a week and can safely say I’ve found a room in a good part of town which is a nice room however I wish I had taken a little bit longer to work out prices and best places to live around Vancouver. I’d read a lot about the different places, asked friends also and had a lot of recommendations so I wanted to explore the different options. Here’s a few I looked into but there’s a good site which gives tips on prices and what you can find in each neighbourhood here. 

Kitsilano is a beautiful part of Vancouver. About 20 minutes bus ride from Downtown it has a lovely homely feel and beautiful beaches. On West 4th avenue there is a long stream of shops, restaurants, coffee shops and again a good ol’ Whole Foods Market. Kits is a little bit upmarket but it is where University of British Columbia is located so quite often you can look for a room at the University Campus.

Kitsilano Beach

West Vancouver is known as the ‘Chelsea of Vancouver’. It is very upmarket with beautiful houses, most with swimming pools and several bedrooms and is where a lot of professionals live. Again you can catch a bus ride to West Vancouver from Downtown  which takes about 15 to 20 minutes. Continue reading →

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About Me

Hi I’m Fiona, a twenty something foodie living in London who loves nothing more than cooking, eating, listening to stories and exploring. I created Tea and Takes as a way of bringing my two loves together: food and film.
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