Contests - Roamancing

Never Shoot A Stampede Queen – Win Vancouver Tickets

May 3, 2013 by Emme Rogers 5 Comments

I am not sure about the rest of you, but one of my favourite side effects of travelling is taking the time to read. And a favourite author of mine, that I tend to place at the tops of the holiday reads priority pile, is Mark Leiren-Young. I still have yet to read Mark’s latest book, Free Magic Secrets Revealed, that has only just hit bookstores in the past few weeks, but up until now, my favourite read of Mark’s has been Never Shoot a Stampede Queen. And I don’t think I am alone in it being a favourite, as Mark won a Leacock Medal for humour for this novel.

For those of you that have yet to read Never Shoot A Stampede Queen, it is a humourous account of Mark’s early 20′s, as a young reporter in Williams Lake. And funny it is!

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, as it happens, Mark is also a playwright, and Never Shoot a Stamped Queen is hitting the stage for the first time … well … first time in Vancouver, as it is currently making its rounds in Kamloops and Duncan, BC with a great audience response.

The playbill for the Show?

Zachary Stevenson (the Arts Club’s Buddy Holly) stars in the stage adaptation of Mark Leiren-Young’s Never Shoot A Stampede Queen — winner of the Leacock Medal for humour. This all-new solo show follows the adventures of a big city (Vancouver) boy who arrives in the crime capital of BC (Williams Lake) and discovers stranger news, quirkier characters, and better friends than he ever could have imagined. Directed and dramaturged by TJ Dawe (hot off his acclaimed solo show Medicine), and adapted for the stage by Leiren-Young (known to Arts Club audiences for Easy Money and The Year in Revue). For more info visit http://stampedequeen.ca/.

So … !!! Mark has given me a pair of tickets to giveaway to the Preview Night in Vancouver, Thursday May 9th, 2013 at 8 pm on the Granville Island Stage in Vancouver, BC.

To enter to win, simply comment below with a favourite author or genre of books that you love to read while travelling, by Sunday May 5th at midnight. I will randomly pull the name of a winner from the entries Monday morning, May 6th.

For a second, third and fourth entry into the contest, share this contest on twitter, facebook, and google+ by sharing something like:

Win tickets to Thursday’s Preview of #StampedeQueen in #Vancouver on @Roamancing ~ http://ht.ly/kGlPG

Main thing for the social media entries to be valid, you must hashtag #StampedeQueen, include the link to this post, and use our handle to link us into the conversation (so that we see your entry).

Looking forward to your responses! This should be a fun Show!

Kisses,

Emme xoxo

PS And if you don’t win our tickets, you can still catch the Show on the Granville Island Stage from May 9th – 25th. I’ll be sure to tell you all about it on my personal site, as soon as I see it.

Filed Under: All Aboard!, Around the World, BC, Canada, Contests, Emme Rogers, Events, Our Travelers, Perfect Dates, Roamancing, Theatre, Vancouver Events Tagged With: #StampedeQueen, Granville Island Stage, Mark Leiren-Young, Never Shoot a Stampede Queen, theatre, TJ Dawe, Vancouver, vancouver theatre, win tickets, Zachary Stevenson

Where in the World? Vancouver Edition 1

June 25, 2012 by Emme Rogers 8 Comments

As the summer vacation season approaches, some of us, myself included, are busier than ever with work, and alas cannot take off like that free spirit I am to enjoy the lazy days of summer. All is not lost however, as summer fun, frivolity and adventure can be found in afternoons off, evening escapades, and the odd weekend escape. To inspire, we shall be sharing a few such mini-adventures of our own.

To begin, a new instagram game, I like to call ‘Where in the World?’ Here’s Vancouver Edition 1, designed to inspire some adventures in the Lower Mainland.

How does the game work? Simply guess in the comments below, where you believe each of the photos was shot in the Lower Mainland.

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 4

Photo 5

The ‘You’da Bomb!’ Bragging Rights will go to whomever guesses each location in the correct order first. Good luck!

Kisses,

Emme xoxo

PS. If you are on instagram, I’d love to connect. You can find me at EmmeRogers.

Filed Under: All Aboard!, Around the World, BC, Canada, Contests, Emme Rogers, Our Travelers Tagged With: instagram, instagram contest, photo contest, photo guessing contest, Vancouver, Where in the World

‘Anthro… What?’ from the Road to Fayoum

April 22, 2012 by Erica Hargreave 5 Comments

*Updated with the answer. Congratulations to Giulia Cimarosti of Travel Reportage and Kathlyn Clore for figuring it out.*

Was booting down the road to Fayoum, Egypt today (love that I can say that) and I saw these structures. I was curious as to what these were, as their architecture wasn’t quite like anything I’d seen from the Egyptian homes. So we hopped out of the landrover and a closer look.

So do you know what these are, if not homes? Any guesses? We will post hints on facebook, twitter and google+, until someone guesses their actual purpose.

Your first hint? These structures go on for miles and miles.

The Answer:

So what are these communities of seemingly empty structures, sitting in the desert like a ghost town? Well, the term ‘ghost town’ is quite fitting for them, as this is Fayoum’s City of the Dead. In essence it is a great big cemetery of family plots, set up in a dense grid of tomb and mausoleum structures. Our guide was unsure if people of Muslim, Christian or Jewish decent were buried here, or if the cementery was multi-denominational, although we suspect it was.

PS. In Full Disclosure: As always, the opinions and thoughts shared here are our own and honest ones. We are bought out by no one. In the spirit of disclosure, it should be noted that on this trip, our expenses were paid by Egyptian Tourism, as a guest to the country and the UNWTO Media and Tourism Conference.

Filed Under: All Aboard!, Around the World, Contests, Egypt, Erica Hargreave, Middle East, Our Travelers Tagged With: anthro ... what?, City of the Dead, Egypt, Fayoum, Fayoum City of the Dead

Visit England’s London 2012 Fan in the Van Search

March 27, 2012 by Emme Rogers 10 Comments

After having been a part of Vancouver 2010, as a local Vancouverite, writing about the cultural side of the Olympic Games (Cultural Olympiad), I have to say it was a pretty amazing world wind of an experience, and that’s coming from somebody who was not thrilled with how we, as locals were being treated leading up to the experience. Somewhere along the way, I thought rather than fighting it to embrace it and offered a room for rent at my place (I was near one of the venues), arranged for media passes for myself, booked two-weeks off work and decided what it was that I wished to write about around the games ~ the culture, arts and entertainment. I’m glad I did, as I had an exhaustingly good time and met all sorts of wonderful people.

New friends from the Netherlands

Fond memories of La Maison de la Suisse

Roamancing is actually one of the results of those two-weeks for me. I’d been toying with the idea for some years, but the travel inspiring culture of the Games and experiences I had at Cultural Houses like Saxony House and La Maison de la Suisse, with the scrumptious food and drink, wonderful music and great people helped push the titillating dream to a reality. That and the Ursula from Swiss Tourism, who really got what I was talking about around story and gave me the nudge I needed.

The Cultural Olympiad was a tremendous amount of fun. I even hosted my own Olympic Challenge with Vancouver blogger and traveler Hummingbird604 to see who could get the most Olympic dates. I came out of the gates with a healthy lead, managing three dates my first night out …

Olympic Dates 2 & 3 (a few minutes earlier & Date 1 would have been pictured here too)

… to steal a kiss with Saxel from the wilds of Saxony (Saxony incidentally had the best beer of any house [and darn good sausages], so not surprisingly I was found there a lot) …

Saxel, a moose that stole my heart

… to receive a very real kiss during the early morning taping of NBC Today Show atop Grouse Mountain …

… and unexpectedly find myself in a very real Olympic relationship, which gave Hummingbird604 the edge he needed to pull ahead to win the Gold and leave me trailing behind to receive a Silver medal, in what was certainly a well loved match.

Hell, we even created our own House in Sleepy Little Steveston to celebrate the lone Filipino athlete in the Games …

… and I may have been seen dancing on a table or two during the Opening Night of the Filipino Bungalow!

Good times! Had I had it all to do again, I would have planned my storytelling earlier, to take advantage of the various opportunities that existed to a weaver of tales. I mention this as Tourism England (aka. Visit England / Enjoy England) has a pretty gosh, darn cool opportunity for a UK digital storyteller leading up to London 2012, in the form of the Fan in a Van Search.

Will you be the fan in the van?

Basically they are putting one lucky budding digital storyteller with a passionate love for England in an iconic Anglomobile, decked out with everything they need to get started on a 70-day, all-expenses-paid trip around their green and pleasant land, following the Olympic Torch. In return, the fans job is to entertain England with videos, photos, tales of adventure and lots of fun. Having lived the Games, I can honestly say, this would be a once in a lifetime experience.

So how do you win? It is a 3-round competition with the Round 1 deadline fast approaching. Here are the details on entering from EnjoyEngland.com:

Round One – words and pictures

To put yourself forward as an England fan, simply send us 100 words on your favourite place in England and why you love it, accompanied by a picture you’ve taken to go with it. Deadline: Midnight on Monday 9 April.

Our favourites will carry on to the next two rounds.

Round Two – roll the cameras

Send us a 60 second video clip telling us why you love where you live.

Round Three – come and say hello

Meet the team at VisitEngland HQ and tell us why you’re the best person for the role.

… and here is where to go to to apply.

Good luck and have fun with this!

Filed Under: All Aboard!, Around the World, BC, Canada, Contests, Emme Rogers, England, Europe, Events, Meeting Mr. / Ms. Right (or Right Now), Olympics, Our Travelers, Perfect Dates, Roamancing, Switzerland, Travel TV Tagged With: cultural houses, cultural olympiad, digital storytelling, digital storytelling around London 2012, digital storytelling around the Olympics, England, fan in the van, Filipino Bungalow, Games, Gross Mountain, hummingbird604, La Maison de la Suisse, London, London 2012, london 2012 torch relay, NBC Today Show, Olympic Cultural Houses, Olympic Games, olympic torch relay, Olympics, saxony house, Stevetson, UK, Vancouver, Vancouver 2010, Visit England, VisitEngland

Vancouver Theatre Giveaway: Victor Victoria at the Metro Theatre

March 15, 2012 by Emme Rogers 9 Comments

Oh to be in Vancouver this Saturday, and to be whisked away in my mind to Paris, France in the 1930′s with a prime seat for the entertainment in the Clubs, in just the right spot in the room to eavesdrop on all the shenanigans going on around me, because you know as a writer that is what we absolutely love to do (or at least what I personally absolutely love to do, and then concoct a tale of the people’s lives that I am eavesdropping upon).

Victor Victoria at Vancouver's Metro Theatre, March 17th - April 7th, 2012

So what exactly am I rambling on about? Victor Victoria at the Metro Theatre in Vancouver. Saturday night is Opening Night of the Musical in Vancouver and I often feel like when I am in the theatre, that I am being whisked away to another part of the World, eavesdropping on conversations, only where I’m validated for my speculations and where no one gives me looks of disgust when they catch me in the act of listening in. Now for those of you that are familiar with the story of Victor Victoria, you’ll know that this will be one juicy conversation to eavesdrop on, as we’ve got a woman that pretends to be a man playing a woman to land a role … now say that 5x fast … and becomes the bed ‘fellow’ of a gangster that knows she’s a woman, but must hide this from his associates, in order not to be perceived as a homosexual in a macho, gun wielding line of work. Yes, if I were actually in a Club in Paris listening to this, I am sure I’d be caught in the act of eavesdropping, as this would have just been too juicy not to want to keep edging myself closer, until I was practically sitting in someone’s lap, and then I’d probably end up getting roughed up by the gangsters, and I haven’t taken Ian Mallory’s travel defence training yet, so it’s good thing this is in a theatre, where eavesdropping is allowed.

Sadly I won’t be there, however, as I’m in Ontario this week. The theatre has kindly extended our tickets to you our readers, so we are hosting a contest here and on Being Emme, giving a pair of tickets away on each site to one lucky reader to attend the Musical on April 4th.

To make this even juicier, I haven’t mentioned who is playing the leading fellow yet, have I? None other than Jeff Hyslop, the quintessential Phantom of the Opera from the travelling Canadian Production and Jeff the mannequin in the children’s show Today’s Special, will be playing the role of Toddy, Victor/Victoria’s middle-aged gay confidant. Oh to be able to see Jeff Hyslop on stage in a musical in the intimacy of the Metro Theatre! No wonder, I’ve been looking green when I eye myself up in the bathroom mirror. Begrudging missing this one. Jeff will be complimented on stage by Sylvia Zaradic, as Victor/Victoria.

Victor/Victoria and Toddy will be played by Sylvia Zaradic and Jeff Hyslop

So how do you win the tickets? As I mentioned, we have a pair of tickets to giveaway here and a pair to giveaway on Being Emme for the April 4th Show. To enter:

Comment below with a memorable conversation you once eavesdropped on;
The Deadline to enter is Wednesday March 21st, 2012 at midnight PST.

To be entered a second, third and fourth time:

Tweet this post with @Roamancing and #VancouverTheatre somewhere in the tweet, so I see the tweet;
Share this post on facebook and include @Roamancing in the text when you post it (this should link our facebook page, so I’ll see the post); and/or
Share this post on G+ and include @Roamancing in the text when you post it (this should alert me on G+ of your post).

I shall pull the name of one lucky winner from commenters, tweeters, facebookers and G+ers, and announce the winner on Thursday March 22nd. Very much looking forward to making somebody happy!

Oh, and if sadly you don’t win, the play is running at the Metro Theatre in Vancouver from March 17^th – April 7, 2012, with performances on Wednesdays to Saturdays at 8pm and two Sunday Matinees on March 25 & April 1 at 2pm. Tickets can be purchased here.

Kisses,

Emme xoxo

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