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Another Win for Maktaaq!

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Another win!  This time it’s two movie tickets for Unknown from the Georgia Straight.  It sounded like a plot-twister of a movie and I rarely even have a chance to read up about movies these days, never mind actually seeing them.  Aside from The King’s Speech, which my coworker saw and recommended, I didn’t recognize any of the nominated movies.  I discover movies these days from the trailers on the DVDs I borrow from the library.  Thus, my wonderful husband and I will be off to see this psychological thriller. 

I hope. 

I never did get my winning tickets in the mail from the first contest.

Meanwhile, the contest entries continue:

January 31

  • During lunch, I scour Urbanspoon for my favourite local restaurants and add them to my Burnaby Now entry into their $2000 contest – shopping sprees at Lougheed, Brentwood and Metrotown Malls.

February 4

  • Valentine’s Day dinner at The Teahouse, via Raul’s Hummingbird 604.

February 8

  • Entered to win an iPad (four entries actually).
  • Entered to win another $500 grocery gift card.
  • An iPod Nano (because I am sure someone in my circle of friends can use it – it’s a music thing I assume).
  • A Tide gift basket because I am into doing laundry a lot.  At $125, that’s like a few years’ supply of laundry detergent.
  • Tickets to the ballet for two orchestra seats to the February 19 performance of Volo.
  • Tickets to the musical Falsettos.

February 9

  • Entered a Surrey Public Library contest for four movie tickets.

February 10

  • Entered to win two tickets to the Spirit of Africa Festival opening night concert.
  • Another iPad entry.
  • Tickets to a Vancouver Cantata Singers concert later this month.
  • Tickets to the Gnomeo and Juliet movie, which, thanks to the skill-testing question, I remembered I had a nascent crush on James McAvoy.

February 11

  • Entered the Leonidas Chocolate contest.

February 13

  • A vacation in Richmond: two nights at a Richmond hotel, dinner at a good Chinese restaurant and more.  I can fit all this into my unusual work schedule!  I really hope I win this one!

February 20

  • The True Grit novel – apparently it’s now some sort of Oscar-nominated film.  I like books, especially nonfiction ones, but there aren’t many book contests, so this is as close as I can get to entering a book I want contest.
  • Entered for tickets to the Vancouver International Dance Festival.
  • Tickets for Bach’s St. John Passion.
  • Tickets to Hard Times Hit Parade, a play about a dance marathon.
  • Tickets to a string orchestra.
  • A double movie pass to Biutiful.
  • An espresso coffee maker.
  • A Carnival cruise, because I could use a trip anywhere and because cruises basically mean I will be reading a lot and getting ahead on my to-read list. 
  • A holiday at a Mexican resort.
  • A trip for four to Jasper, because I only ever went to Banff when I lived in Alberta.  Heck, it would be nice to go anywhere in the Rockies.  There are some really nice places I have good memories of over there.
  • A trip to Tokyo because I love visiting Japan.  It’s been three years almost since I’ve been to Japan and I think I am past due for my biannual onsen visit.
  • A diamond bracelet, earrings or ring, which I would give to my mom.  Seriously.  She would love this.
  • A contest for a kitchen makeover.
  • A trip for two to London or else a Nintendo gadget, because I could use the trip and I am sure Matt would find some use for another electronic doodad.

March 1

  • A contest from Pacific Cinematheque for two tickets to a South African music documentary.
  • Tickets to a flamenco performance on Saturday (which I would give to my parents).
  • Tickets to the movie Unknown.  (This is what I won.)

                Trying for a win in March

                Uncategorized,

                So, sadly, no wins in February. Hoping to win something, anything in March! I’ve got a case of the winter blues I need to get rid of.

                These are my latest attempts:

                Feb. 20th
                -Win a copy of the novel True Grit  (I really enjoyed the original movie I’m sure the novel will be just as good or better.)

                 

                -Win tickets to see Angle Dubeau & La Piet in concert (I love classical music and I’m always happy to see female performers.)

                 

                -Chutzpah! Festival 2011 closing party tickets (Sounds like an awesome evening and would be my first time at the Commodore Ballroom.)

                 

                -Entered to win a $50 gift card to Waves (I need my morning tea more than ever.)

                 

                -entered an in-store contest at Ruben’s Chocolates for their monthly prize (Chocolate is so tasty!)

                 

                Feb. 25th (all online)

                 

                -Win A Trip For 2 To Amsterdam To Visit The Picasso Exhibit! (One of my favorite places on earth to see one of my favourite artists)
                -Win A Rough Guides Adventure Library Valued At $150! (This will be great if I win a trip somewhere.)
                -Win A 4-night trip For 2 To Toronto Valued At $5,000! (Would love to see my friends Sandy and Eddie and the Juno Awards.)
                -A $1,000 Gift Card From Tom Lee Music! (Would still like to buy my Dad a guitar.)

                 

                Feb. 26th

                -Win tickets to see Unknown (I haven’t been to a movie in some time…)

                 

                -Win tickets to the Red Riding Hood Premiere (Again, it’s movie time.)

                -Win A Logitech Speaker System Valued At $180! (Would like some speakers for my home office.)

                -Win An Ultimate PC Prize Pack Of A Computer And More Valued At $2,604.85! (My husband tells me I need my own computer.)

                 

                -Win 4 Tickets To See Billy Elliot In Toronto! (Sandy, if I win, these are yours!)

                 

                -Win a Canucks prize pack (I think this is an inflatable chair and beer, but I like the chair.) (in store)

                 

                March 2nd

                 

                Two BCAA contests:

                 

                -a $50 gift certificate to The Best Western (I’m thinking brunch!)
                -Vancouver Stay n’ Play  This involves a stay at the Vancouver Waterfront Hotel, so I’m definitely up for that.

                Contesting Normal

                Uncategorized,
                As I scan rain-splattered windows for “enter to win” and surf the net for the keyword “contest,” I’m really searching for more than prizes and money. It’s the cure for the common life I’m after.

                 

                This is not to say that I wake up each day bemoaning my existence. Yet, the surprise and unexpectedness of life seems to wane as childhood and youth slip away and you well and truly become an adult. Thus, being a proactive person, I have found that entering contests is an appropriate substitute for the anticipatory thrill that comes before a fifth birthday, first roller coaster ride, and blind date.

                 

                Then, there’s the winning. The delight that follows the realization: you’ve beaten the odds. Someone else hasn’t won, you have. Suddenly, you’re the prettiest girl in the room, the top of the dean’s list, and the most popular person on Facebook. Just for that moment, you’re exceptional. Very few of these moments occur spontaneously, at least for me. You’ve got to make them happen.

                 

                So, the next time I post a win, know I’m clapping my hands, grinning from ear to ear, and spinning around. Because, for a short time, I get to be five-years-old again.

                The next round of contest entries

                Uncategorized,

                Feb 3rd

                -tickets to the Pacific Cinémathèque (some great international films showing and I had my first date with my husband here, aww.)

                Feb. 4th (all online)

                -Win A 9-night Trip For 2 To Santiago, Chile! (Wine is involved, too! I enjoy alcohol and exotic locations)

                -Win A $5,000 Getaway To Cancun, Mexico! (I really need to get away.)

                -Win A $500 Jewellery Gift Card! (I love shiny things!)

                Feb. 5th

                -Pet Habitat $60 gift certificate (I want to buy my fish a castle J) (in store)

                -trip to China (I really want to fly away.) (at the Tinseltown Chinatown celebration)

                Feb. 6th

                -Win 3 sterling-silver Pandora Rings Valued At $305! (I think we’ve established that I like jewellery.) (online)

                Feb. 7th

                -Two tickets for Valentine’s at the Waldorf (The place where this blog was born. Ah, memories!) (both entered on Facebook)

                -Four tickets for Valentine’s at the Waldorf (I didn’t win, but had a great Valentine’s Day, nonetheless.)

                Feb. 8th

                -Win A 3-night Stay In Kamloops, Valued At $900! (They had me at spa package.)

                -Win A Eureka FilterAir Vacuum Prize Package Valued At $500! (I am doing it for the free maid service!)

                Feb. 12th

                -Win A 14k White Diamond Ring Valued At $1,299! (Diamonds are a girl’s best friend)

                -Win A 3-night Stay At The Summerland Resort Hotel In Summerland, BC! (This sounds like an amazing relaxation package.)

                -Win A 4-night Trip For 2 To Berlin, Germany Valued At $5,000! (You get to watch a high fashion show. I would really love that!)

                -Win 1 Of 59 Prizes Of A Trip For 2, Up To A $2,000 Value! (I would go to Hawaii!!)

                Feb. 14th

                -shopping spree at Nestor’s market (an in-store draw that promises many delectable returns!)

                Feb. 15th

                -Win A Selection Of Hair And Beauty Products From Ecrinal Valued At $85! (Again, I will always enter for girly prizes.)

                -Win A 3-night Trip For 2 To Toronto Valued At $10,000! (Yes, I could use a wardrobe makeover and money to shop at Holt Renfrew.)

                -Win A 2-night Trip For 2 To Victoria, BC! (Rogers Chocolate is also involved, yummy!)

                Feb. 16th

                Win An $82 Tide Laundry Prize Package! (I like cleanliness.)

                Win A 1-week Trip For 2 Adults To Barbados! (trips to anywhere are good)

                The contest entries continue…

                Uncategorized,

                Having now tasted victory, I am eager for more! Here are my latest entries:

                January 26th (online)

                -Win A $500 Purdys Chocolate Gift Card! (mmm…chocolate)

                 

                January 29th (online)

                 

                -Win a queen-sized bed from The Bay and Gluckstein Home! (It’d be nice to have a bed that doesn’t have dog and cat scratches on it.)

                 

                -Win a Smart Pop gift basket! (Okay, so I don’t exactly know what’s in the basket, but I like popcorn, so I figure that’s enough of an extrinsic motivator.)

                 

                -Enter to win 4 prizes: (from Flare magazine)
                A Prevage Deluxe Skin-care Set worth $306 from Elizabeth Arden
                A Gift Card worth $250 from Triumph
                A Love, Chloe gift worth $320 from Coty
                A Gift Card worth $250 from Dynamite
                (Yes, I enter any contest that offers girly prizes.)

                 

                -Win $5,000 Cash! (Money is good and this Nutella money!)
                -Win A 2-night Stay In Montreal And A Kobo eReader! (J’aime Montréal!)
                -Win A $1,500 Travel Voucher! (I want to go to Hawaii!)
                -Win A 2-night Stay For 2 On Vancouver Island Valued At $790! (If not Hawaii, I love Victoria!)

                 

                Jan. 30th

                 

                -Win Box Seats For You And 13 Friends To A Hockey Game Valued At $5,000! (This sounds awesome! It also reminds me that I am indeed a winner because I have thirteen friends and family members who I would gladly bring with me!)

                 

                -Win A $1,000 HBC Gift Card! (I always find I get good deals at The Bay, so I’ll put this to good use.)

                 

                -Win An Ultimate Winter Getaway In The Canadian Rockies! (I have never been to the Rockies. This fact shocks most Vancouverites. So, I’d like to go at least once.)

                 

                -Win a Pair of 14k Gold Earrings (I can never have enough pairs of earrings!)

                 

                -Win a 1oz Gold Coin (Ever since I visited the Mint in Ottawa, I’ve been kind of coin-obsessed.)

                 

                February 1st (online):

                 

                -Win A Replica Sword Courtesy Of Museum Replicas Valued At $250! (My sister-in-law loves swords and has a birthday coming up!)

                 

                -Win A Fjallraven Prize Pack Valued At $2,500! (I’m sure I need Scandinavian clothing?!)

                 

                Feb 2nd

                 

                -a year’s supply of Americano from Blenz coffee (I don’t drink coffee, but my Mom was very excited by this contest, so I entered) (in store)

                 

                -tickets to an international film festival in Toronto, Utah, or Venice or 1000 SCENE points (a free movie ticket) (I’m really hoping for Venice!)

                 

                -Win A 2-night Trip For 2 To An NHL Playoff Game Valued At $10,000! (I like hockey and money!) (online)

                First Win for Maktaaq!

                Uncategorized,

                Two tickets to the Earlybird RV Show and Sale through the Fraser Valley Pulse website!  I am really excited to have won my first contest! 

                As I said in my entry, I hope to one day drive across Canada to Newfoundland, then back across North America through the US, then up the Dempster Highway to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories.  Certainly that will be when I retire as I have no time now, but I can start planning now with the RV show.  (Check out the snazzy models.)

                My winnings come to $16 so far, below R’s $64.50.  Yet I think my luck is finally showing its face.  Like a hedgehog that’s finally removed the toilet paper roll off its head.  The RV show is just the start.

                Thank you very much to the Fraser Valley Pulse!

                And I hope my worthy opponent had a lovely evening with her prize of tickets to the Talking Stick Festival opening!

                 

                Vacation Contests

                Uncategorized,

                One of my worries with this contest contest R and I are doing is that I will end up winning so many trips that I may have to quit my job to go on them all.  Luckily, my coworkers still have me around for a little while.  But soon I will be going to the following places:

                • The Cook Islands, through the Fashion Magazine website
                • Hawaii, on the Mazda website
                • A Caribbean cruise, on the Maritime Travel website
                • New York, through the Kit website
                • Anywhere hockey during the 2011 NHL Playoffs
                • Anywhere close by, thanks to a contest for a $50 Petro Canada gift card (luckily my car has excellent mileage)
                • PEI, on Canadian Prizes (a rather dodgy website)

                I also entered contests for:

                • $500 worth of groceries from Kellog’s
                • A Kobo e-reader (for my dad)
                • Makeup, on the Kit website
                • A Starbucks coffee maker, on the Prize Today website (Matt really wants this)
                • Some Canadian Tire organizational stuff, on the Women’s Post website
                • The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest DVD, on the Saveland website (Matt and his sister want to watch these)
                • The Withnail and I DVD, also on the Saveland website – I started watching this movie when it came out over a decade ago and I keep meaning to watch the rest of it
                • The Let Me In DVD (ditto for contest location), because I heard that the remake of Let the Right One In is actually good
                • An Annabelle gift basket, on their website
                • An Airbus A-320 resin model, on the My Aviation School website, for my friend Lee
                • An iPad on the Daily Squeeze website, because my dad could sure use one (and my sister would thank me for it)
                • Another iPad or $600 on Prize Today
                • A $500 Chapters gift card (I love books)
                • Wii Sports stuff, on Prizes Canada (we love Wii bowling in this household)
                • Tickets to the 2011 Earlybird RV Show, on the Fraser Valley Pulse website
                • Cargo Noir, a new boardgame, entered on Boardgame Geek (Matt and I love boardgames)

                Phew!  23 contests in one day and I had a busy day of errands and social activities cut short because the play tonight was sold out by the time I got to the box office. 

                  Bird Cam & More

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                  Congratulations to R on the first winning!

                  Now that we clarified the rule that the contests we enter must be for prizes we want for ourselves or to give away to people we know would appreciate them, I almost wish I could retract some of the contests I entered.  Hence, from now on, I will only enter for contests that will enrich my life.  Thus:

                  Friday January 21:

                  • Entered a contest at my alma mater for an autumn cruise from Athens to Istanbul this fall – inspired by Michael Palin’s Around the World in 80 Days perhaps, by fall I am pretty certain I will need a vacation.  Before any vacation, I plunge into a schedule of reading up on the place.  Istanbul (and Constantinople) have been places about which I have been collecting book titles for my to-read list, so a vacation there would also cure a self-education itch.

                  Sunday January 23:

                  • Entered to win $5000 cash from Reader’s Digest because who doesn’t need more money?  (And, yes, I would give some away to my favourite charity lest you think I am consumed with greed.)
                  • Entered to win a BirdWatch Cam.  Birds coming to a feeder or bath trigger the camera to take time stamped photos.  I was inspired by Rurality’s game cam, her last post with pictures from it had a beaver, a bobcat and a very plump opossum.
                  • Entered the Elle Canada February contest for beauty products and clothes.  Because, um, I could use some beautification.
                  • And another Elle Canada contest, this time for a four-day trip to the West Indies, which my parents could sure use.
                  • Finally, also entered to win a one-year supply of toilet paper, because I do not have an unlimited supply of moss or whatever Paleolithic people used.

                  Tuesday January 25:

                  • Entered a Warner Bros contest for a Blu-Ray.  I think Matt said something about wanting this.  
                  • Entered the Ferrero Rocher contest for Valentine’s trips to Paris, Santorini or Tuscany.  The contest entry field for sex was defaulted to female (even though it was the second choice).  Guess they know their target market, but not sure why they didn’t have the sexes in alphabetical order.  I guess because men always come first.  Yeah.
                  • I also entered the Hictoric England contest for a trip to London, having answered the question “When will the Olympics be held in London?” right next to the clue-ful London Olympics logo.

                  Saturday January 29:

                  • Entered to win a $250 gift certificate at Urban Fare.

                      As for winnings, so far I have nothing to report except frequent calls from a persistent automated telemarketing answering machine.

                        The Contest Entries Continue

                        Uncategorized,
                        It has been a very busy week, but I was still able to make time for some contest entries.

                         

                        January 19th (online)

                        -Vote now at http://www.straight.com/goldenplates. (Eating out is awesome and so is money.)

                         

                        January 20th (online)

                        -Tetley tea at http://colourtherapycontest.ca/p/colourtherapy/entries/new (Yes, I would like to go to the Mayan Riviera or win an iPod Nano!)

                        January 22nd (online)

                         

                        -Yes, I entered the KLM contest, too.

                        -Win 1 Of 5 Hockey Gold 2010 Commerative Sets Valued At $70 Each!  (My Dad would love this!)

                        -Win An OSiS Style Package!  (Some days I need all the hair products I can get!)
                        -Win A Kobo eReader!  (I like books, but I’d give it a shot.)
                        -Win A Bedol Water Powered Clock!  (No batteries and water powered?  I’m in!)

                         

                        January 23rd (online)

                         

                        -entered to win passes to the opening of the talking stick festival and passes to the festival itself: http://hummingbird604.com/2011/01/21/the-10th-annual-talking-stick-festival-feb-1-13-win-festival-passes/comment-page-1/#comment-14113

                         

                        January 25th (online)

                         

                        -Win $3,000, Towards A Healthy New Lifestyle!  ($3000 will make me feel a lot healthier.)

                        -Win 2 Tickets To A SouthEast Asian Destinaton Of Your Choice, Worth Over $2,000!  (I will take a trip to almost anywhere!)
                        -Win A Clear Crystals, Beads And Heavy Chain Valued At $100!  (I love jewellery!)
                        -Win A 6-night Trip For 2 To St. Martin Valued At $5,000!  (Again, I’ll go anywhere!)
                        -Win A Bourjois Paris Cosmetics Prize Pack Valued At $200!  (I can never get enough make up.)