Spending money on birthdays Is so last season » Special day freebies in Vancouver Morgan Hannah Life & Style Editor Brn: can be quite expensive. My last one cost well over $100 for four people to go out for tacos, a paint night package, and a gluten-free cake. As students, we carrt really afford to dole out the dollars to celebrate our special day, but we can’t really afford to miss out on it either! All that hard work and youth need to be commemorated—because one day we might not be too keen on admitting we aged another year. I’ve always known that birthday freebies exist, and if you've ever eaten out at a restaurant and the staff start suspiciously sneaking up on your table with sparklers and some dopey hat, you're also aware of those special day freebies. But sometimes these deals can be hard to find, forcing you to spend cash on the day when you deserve the most to save those hard-earned bucks. Here’s a list I’ve compiled of some places in Vancouver where you can salute another glorious year of life for free: Starbucks Starting with the obvious, Starbucks offers a My Starbucks Rewards program where youre automatically signed up to receive a free drink or treat on your birthday! You must register 30 days before your birthday to be eligible. So don't delay, join the My Starbucks Rewards bandwagon today and start your birthday with a caffeinated kick—you'll need it to get through this list of birthday freebies! Denny’s A big breakfast is another great way to welcome the day, but what’s better than a big breakfast? A free breakfast! With the presentation of valid ID, Denny’s offers a free “build your own Grand Slam” meal (or any other meal if you pay the difference in cost). Choose from a long list of delectable items including eggs, bacon, sausage links, buttermilk pancakes, oatmeal, and fruit. YYoga In various Vancouver locations, YYoga offers a free yoga class on your birthday for regular and month-to-month members. With services like Infrared Sauna, mat and towel service, a tea lounge, a retail Rememberton for Android » A review of a cute calendar app Brittney MacDonald Business Manager n my never-ending quest to become more organized I recently decided to start using my phone as an extension of my day planner. However, the longer I used my phone’s calendar, the more distracted | became with how utterly boring it looked. This is where Rememberton comes in. Rememberton is a free, simple, and really cute calendar and task manager app. You can create a monthly, weekly, or daily planner, set alarms, and make to-do lists. Each user is able to select a theme that they find visually appealing, the majority of which are pastel and feature sweet-looking reminder cartoon characters or delicious desserts. My favourite thing about the app is that it not only allows you to colour- coordinate your planner entries, but also choose icons which represent the event when in monthly view. As someone who uses the basic Android calendar, this is an improvement because the Android calendar does not have this option and often event titles are cut-off, which is aesthetically displeasing. Unfortunately, Rememberton has some big flaws in terms of its functionality. One of the largest challenges is that you can't input multi-day events. So that three-day camping trip? You need to put that in individually. Also, there is no way of telling apart all-day events. With both Apple and Android stock calendars, all-day events and reminders look different from ones with a set schedule. In Rememberton, there is no way of putting in an all-day event beyond making the time 12:00 am to 11:59 pm, so everything looks the same. There is also no way of setting up recurring events, which is frustrating. Another issue I have is the ads. Due to it being free I knew that the app would probably have ads of some kind. However, Rememberton’s ads are incredibly invasive. They pop up randomly and most are video commercials or have sound, so they can be inappropriate or disruptive depending on where you are. Now, there is a paid version of the app that I assume is ad-free —but with the functionality issues, I decided it would be best to not waste my money. In truth I have already reverted back to the standard Android calendar. The inability to set up recurring events was pretty mucha deal-breaker for me—no matter how cute the themes are. boutique, free filtered water, and showers and a patio, it’s hard to not check these guys out! River Rock Casino Most of the time, spending a day in acasino means spending a lot of money. But if it’s your birthday, River Rock Casino offers a free playing credit for slots. Go ahead, pull that slot and see if you can win big on your special day. Blenz Coffee After having spent the morning pulling slots and holding Warrior Pose, you'll need a midday coffee pick-me-up. Head on down to any Blenz location and receive a free small drink for your birthday. Cartems Not only is Cartems the best donut shops in the Lower Mainland, but they also offer a free donut on your birthday! This includes gluten-free donuts. The friendly staff will do their best to make your day sweet with their delicious desserts. Sephora Retail therapy is the best kind of therapy, and even better when it’s free! On their Vancouver » New chicken place offers huge and juicy chicken Jerrison Oracion Senior Columnist hen I visited Toronto in 2016, I went to a chicken restaurant on Yonge Street called Star King. Naturally I got the chicken, which came in a very big piece that was not sliced. When I tried it, the chicken was very delicious, crunchy, and had the right amount of seasonings that made it flavourful. I also tried the spicy version of the chicken, finding it quite hot but delicious. While Taiwan is famous for inventing bubble tea, they also have another delectable culinary invention: Fried chicken steak. A fried chicken steak is a big chicken breast, with bone, that is butterflied to make a large steak. As the name suggests, it is seasoned, deep fried, and served in one whole piece to make sure that the chicken is still juicy. While a few Chinese and Taiwanese restaurants in the Lower Mainland offer fried chicken steaks, they do not offer them quite the way Taiwan does. Recently, however, a new chicken place in Vancouver on Robson Street, called Big G, has opened up. Big G also has a location in Richmond and has appeared at Richmond’s night markets before, but this new store makes the famous chicken steak finally readily available in the Lower Mainland. Big G offers the signature fried chicken steak as well as different variations of it, such as a boneless mini version and an even bigger chunky birthday, a Sephora Beauty Insider can choose a free gift—this year, the choices are a mini set from Kat Von D Beauty or Drunk Elephant. These sets include eyeshadow, mascara, and other quality facial products. Better yet, if youre a VIB or Rouge member, your birthday gift options double as you can also choose sweet swag from IGK or 250 bonus points. What's more, the magic doesn't stop there: In addition to your free gift, Rouge members can also enjoy acomplimentary Benefit Brow Bar Wax anytime during their special month. Cypress Mountain If'a day of freebies in the city doesn’t sound like your ideal special day plans, and if you happen to be a winter child, try hitting the slopes for free! With valid ID, you can ski free on your birthday. And everyone knows that hot chocolate in the lodge after a day of fun in the snow is the perfect way to celebrate. Now that you know where you can start gathering those freebies, we at the Other Press hope you enjoy a happy birthday. Just don’t forget that ID! Another Talwanese food tradition comes to Photo by Jerrison Oracion version. The fried chicken steak can either have a traditional salt and pepper seasoning or no seasoning at all. In my opinion, it is very delicious with the seasoning. You can also choose to season the chicken with spicy powder or seaweed powder, marinate it in BBQ sauce or hot sauce, and put cheese in the chicken. I ordered the fried chicken steak with spicy powder, fries, a drink, and chili sauce, which is optional. The seasoning and the spicy powder made the chicken very delectable while still not too spicy. The meat is very juicy and while the bone is in the middle of the chicken steak, it has a lot of meat. The chili sauce makes the chicken sweeter and spicier. Acombo costs $16, however, the fried chicken steak is a huge cut of meat that, by itself, has everything you could want from a piece of chicken. Recently another Taiwanese chicken chain called Hot-Star also opened a location in Richmond, which is a hint that more chicken places are sure to appear in the Lower Mainland. Big G offers fried chicken steaks that are delicious, full of flavour, and can be customized to how you like to eat them. Plus, like good food should, the sizeable chicken steak fills you up.