Friday, September 12, 2014

My Canadian Bucket List: The Fair at the PNE aka Game of Thrones exhibition


This entry should be about The Fair at the PNE and *also* the Game of Thrones exhibition. When I think about a fair, I think rides, candy floss, bad burgers and stalls. The fair over here is all that except for the exhibition, a market place where they sell all that shit from TV and you have to pay extra for the rides. So since my main motivation was the GoT thang, that was all I aimed for.

To begin, I started working full time when the exhibition started. In retail, that means working erratic hours and impossible to plan shit. So I had the very last two days to actually go and see the exhibition. On the second to last day, I was told it was sold out. Not that there was an additional cost but because there were time tickets and there were too many people. Which meant I had to queue up an hour before the gates actually opened on the last day of the fair which also coincided with a national holiday. It was fun.

Luckily my determination too see the exhibition and sit on the iron throne was at an all-time high so I queued with families, screaming babies and other nerds. We were let in early and because they limit the amount of people, you could enjoy the exhibition without being rushed.


Naturally I made a beeline for the iron throne. And I like to be believe I look like a boss who could control Westeros.




Afterwards I went into the line for the 4D simulation thing. In this 'ride' you get locked up in a cage, get earphones and weird goggles and believe that you are really ascending the wall. There's cold weather and everything, you shiver. Then when you get to the top, you get attacked with a fire arrow and fall down. Down the wall. It scares the bejesus out of you. People shout out loud. I was strong enough to keep my screams in or rather the staff were too polite to tell me I didn't scream.


 Then I finally got a chance to see the rest of the exhibition. Even if you're not a die-hard fan, this shit is amazing. The costumes for one are next level. It will not believe the details up close. You're not allowed to touch them obviously but you don't need to appreciate the craftmanship.








The weapons and artifacts are also amaze. It's all about the little things. A lot of stuff you may miss in the series but remember from the books have been included. They're subtle little gifts to the fans and they're great.






As a book nerd, I really enjoyed seeing the sigils for all the houses. I'm House Martell till I die so happy they included some of the houses you wouldn't notice or recognise from the TV show.






The other fabulous thing was the remembrance wall. It was a vigil to all the fallen characters which included a very funny video actually.



The only bleh moment was the gift shop. As it was the last day I expected the dregs but what was left was really crappy. Not to mention ka-ching. Now all of Canada is ka-ching but these were pretty ridiculous. Not all geeks are software developers with spare money.



 This was a major item on my bucket list and I'm super happy I got to experience it.

Ex-Oh! Ex-Oh!

My Canadian Bucket List: Pumpkin Spice Lattes

I think unless you're living under a rock where pop culture and white girl culture are non-existent, that is the only way you won't know about Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes.

They are the epitome of fall over here and in the US, they have their own Twitter account, they take over Instagram feeds and they're so popular and although seasonal, they keep coming out earlier and earlier to appease the masses.



They've always been something I wanted to try and finally I got the chance. Not gonna lie I was also apprehensive. It's pumpkin spice in a coffee. How does that work? I have recently started to add nutmeg to my pumpkin and butternet savoury dishes...this was gonna be a whole other world.

But 100 million white girls can't be wrong. So I ordered one and got super excited, took a pic, uploaded it to my social media accounts and then finally took a sip. And then I fell in love.



The first thing I loved about it? The smell, it reminds me of baked goods. The second was the cream; cream is a bad word to me. Not because I don't like it but because I love it and I'd like to add it to everything. But because I have a teeny bit of will power, I hardly ever allow myself to have it. Until now.

The latte is amazing. I don't care if that makes me mainstream. It's delicious and it gives you warm fuzzies. The only problem I had is that it's very sweet. Something I learnt can be rectified by my white girl friends. You just ask for it half sweet and voila! No diabetes!

Ex-Oh! Ex-Oh!

Image from here.