Like a network TV show cliffhanger, I left you all in suspense a while back. And just like a network TV show, enough time has past that you don’t even recall what the cliffhanger was. Here is a recap to refresh your memory:
In my post about my Summerland, BC getaway with friends this summer, I wrote, “When in wine country, you must set aside a night where you return to your accommodations and have your own charcuterie and cheese “dinner” as you crack open a few bottles of your labours from your wine exploration day. Doing this may also bring some unexpected surprises…one we got that weekend.”
Ah, yes! You remember now, right?! What could possibly be the unexpected surprise? Many a nights you tossed and turned trying to think of what it could possibly be. Well, the time has come for you to find out. Grab your bowl of popcorn, a glass of wine, and read on.
It was Canada Day. A morning winery stop was a given before we spent the afternoon at the Summerland Canada Day festivities. It’s all about adult and kid activity balance. Sitting on the street curb, we watched the parade where we raked in a good lot of candy, freezies and even a mini pine tree to plant, thrown from the parade floats. Of course after the kids were blinged out in Canada Day tattoos and T-shirts they designed themselves, we dragged them to another winery before we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some snacks to enjoy with our wines at our Airbnb that evening, as we continued the Canada Day celebrations.
My friend Rachna and I started to prep our charcuterie board while our husbands cracked open a bottle of wine. Meats, cheese, fresh Okanagan fruit. Yum! Now, who grabbed the Boursin cheese at the store, it is unclear. And who opened the box is a blur. Who saw the contest sticker on the box? Rachna? Myself? It could be debated. What was not debated was the fact that if we won, we would share the winnings.
It was Boursin’s summer contest, where we could win 1 of 25 grand prize “chic picnic sets” valued each at $400. I can’t remember who grabbed their phone and who pulled off the contest sticker for the code but we pulled up Boursin’s website, plugged in our code and up popped a box saying that we were winners.
What? What! Rachna and I stared at each other. First in shock. We kept exchanging puzzled looks. No, that can’t be true. Then, we moved into near full-mode celebration as we cheered and perhaps did some questionable dance moves. The unusual thing is that our husbands sat nearby, sipping wine, chatting (or perhaps playing video games?) and appeared to be oblivious at what was happening. Did that mean that they were masters of tuning out their wives? Or do Rachna and myself always make such a ruckus when we are together that they were unfazed by our celebrations?
We entered our information on Boursin’s website and hit enter. An error page popped up. We tried again. Same results. And again. Nothing. Do people really win at these contests anyways? We comforted ourselves by saying that we had probably just won “the chance to win” and the win was just a chance to get our name entered into a draw for the prizes. Clearly there was a catch. We shrugged it off, convincing ourselves that we didn’t need a picnic basket anyways and grabbed our wine glasses and “cheered” to almost winning.
Fast forward a few weeks later and Rachna told me she got a call from Boursin, saying that they experienced a computer glitch with their summer contest, that we had in fact won one of the grand prizes and that they required some additional information from Rachna to verify her information before they sent us the prize pack. Rachna, although knowing about our possible win, somehow thought that this phone call was a scam so after much back-and-forth to verify the call was legit and providing the required information, a large box arrived a few weeks later.
I headed over to Rachna’s house where we opened the box together. The big unveiling! We had won a picnic bag, picnic blanket, cheese board, 4 wine glasses, corkscrew, grocery store gift cards, 5 coupons for free Boursin cheese and a Marley wireless speaker. Those contests are real, after all! People really do win! And we had won a $400 prize!
We have plans to have a grand picnic however, it may need to be indoors with this West Coast rainy weather now in the picture. Either way, this win was a confirmation that these contests are real and rather than the actual win, I feel lucky to have such good friends where we can amicably have joint custody of our Marley speaker. Marley takes turns living between our two households. That is true friendship and I am lucky to have that…and free Boursin cheese!
westcoastprairiegirl 