Parks Day 2011





When
Saturday, July 16, 2011
12 noon - 8:30 pm (Concert begins at 4pm)

Where
Brockton Point in Stanley Park (Near the totem poles), Vancouver


Free outdoor concert featuring K'Naan (Wavin' Flag) and learn about outdoor activities to celebrate Parks Canada's 100th birthday! Similar celebrations will be held in Montreal and Toronto. Olympic Gold medalist Maelle Ricker (Snowboarder) will also be there. Bring the entire family down to learn about our parks and enjoy the music and food and cake. Did I mention there will be cake?


Vancouver's Largest Water Fight


When
Saturday, July 16, 2011
1:00pm - 4:00pm

Where
Lumbermans Arch, in Stanley Park, Vancouver

While you are down at Stanley Park for Parks Day, why not stop by the Lumbermans Arch where Vancouver's largest water fight will be taking place. This is a sort of flash mob event and I think it happens annually. Make sure you bring a change of clothing if you are planning to participate!

RVSP on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=187931704592346



Elise Estrada Concert

When
Saturday, July 16, 2011
12:00pm - 5:00pm

Where
Plaza of Nation, Vancouver

Times Telecom is again sponsoring an Elise Estrada concert. I watched her sing at a previous Times Telecom sponsored event at Metrotown and there were a LOT of people there. She's a very good singer! There will be food and drinks provided at this event and chances to win prizes like a smartphone!




The Summer Festival 


When
Saturday, July 16, 2011
2:00-11:00pm

Where
Simon Fraser University - Convocation Mall, Burnaby

If concerts and water fights aren't your thing, Altered Reality Club, SFU's gaming and anime club is hosting an outdoor summer festival at Simon Fraser University. It's a free event and there will also be opportunities to win prizes! There will be food stalls, craft booths, artists, vendors, live performances and tons of carnival-type games where you can win raffle tickets for prizes!





Wiener Dog Racing at Hastings Racecourse

When
Saturday, July 16 and Sunday July 17, 2011
First horse race is at 3:20 p.m on Saturday, 1:50 p.m. on Sunday with wiener dog racing scattered in between horse races.


Where
Hastings Racecourse, Vancouver

This should be a fun event. Again there is no admission to the racetrack and the races are free to watch. These cute dogs will race a small portion of the track in a total of 8 heats and the final race will be on Sunday.

You can watch last year's finale race here:

Many of my Asiatic lilies have bloomed now. I'm looking forward to the Oriental ones as they are the ones that smell nice! I have to start taking photos of them before the sun bleaches their colour away! Does that happen to anyone else?

Disney brings us back to the Hundred Acre Wood by expertly weaving together three stories inspired by A. A. Milne to produce a wonderfully delightful movie that brought me back to my own childhood days. Winnie the Pooh (voiced by Jim Cummings) is still on his never ending quest of searching for hunny to sedate his rumbly tumbly. It brings him to Eeyore (Bud Luckey) house where he discovers that his friend has lost his tail! The search is on to help Eeyore find a new tail. Later on, after Owl (Craig Ferguson) misinterprets a note from Christopher Robin (Jack Boulter), the gang try to capture the elusive beast called the "Backson" that they thought have kidnapped their friend. Hilarity ensues as Pooh's hungry tummy distracts him from the task at hand and gets everyone else in a pinch. But the stuffed bear will pull through in the end and demonstrates that friendship is always more important than hunny...even though hunny is pretty important.

It was great to see the familiar faces of Pooh and the gang animate the screen again. I mean, who can resist Pooh Bear's charm and innocence?! Every Winnie the Pooh fan - young and old - will enjoy this movie though it is probably more suited to the younger audience. I loved how the movie plays out in a similar manner as the first movie; the characters interact with the narrator (John Cleese) and the words on the page.The movie soundtrack was great. Zooey Deschanel lent her voice for the soundtrack and it was very pleasant to hear her rendition of the familiar 'Winnie the Pooh' song in the beginning. There were many other songs just like in the first movie.

The only complaint I have is that the movie was so short, it is hard to justify seeing it in theatre; however, Winnie the Pooh is a delightful addition to the first movie and a welcoming one for those who grew up with Pooh Bear and his friends.

Winnie the Pooh comes out in theatres this Friday, July 15th.

K won Metropolis Hot Seat tickets and she invited me Sunday night to watch the NKOTBSB concert from the Metropolis at Metrotown suite at Rogers Arena. The suite was on the 5th floor and it's the first time I've ever been so high up in that building. There were about ten people there including the Metrotown social media team. We were treated to yummy food as soon as we arrived. There was a cheese platter, veggie platter, fruit platter, popcorn, chips and drinks. We pigged out on snacks while watching Matthew Morrison sing and dance the opening act. He borrowed a lot from Glee. Even his intro had Sue Sylvester in it. Later the hot foods arrived - there was BBQ chicken wings, breaded prawns and mini-burgers. SO GOOD.

But enough about the delicious food. NKOTBSB were amazing!  Rogers Arena was packed with screaming fangirls (and fanboys). I recognized quite a few songs - more from the Backstreet Boys than from NKOTB. It certainly brings back a lot of memories. They had great audience interaction. At one point the singers pulled four lucky girls onto stage, gave them roses and sang to them! They also walked around crowd. Everyone wanted to touch them! One girl lunged at one of singers and had to be pushed back forcefully by security! Yikes! But other than that there were no other incidences. I loved the atmosphere, the energy and the excitement that permeated Rogers Arena on Sunday. It was an awesome concert and I had an amazing time. Thanks Metropolis at Metrotown!

For your chance to win tickets to the suite, visit the Customer Service booth at the mall and enter at the contest kiosk. Also follow @MetropolisMet on twitter and tweet with the hashtag #MetropolisHotSeats or like them on Facebook.

Here was the opening sequence on Sunday night:

The 3rd annual Mascot Racing was held yesterday at Hastings Racecourse. This event benefits Variety the Childrens Charity. There were a lot of mascots participating this year and several races were held between the furry characters. Every two horse race, a mascot race was held. There were three qualifying rounds and one final race to determine the winner. I didn't stay for entire thing as I had to go prepare for the NKOTBSB concert in the evening but I definitely want to stay until the end next year because it is so fun to watch! The race had two hurdles to hump over this year and many of the mascots are just not built for racing - the poor things. Many of them were fell. Poor Philbert from Purdy's Chocolate fell again and he was doing so well too.