LIVE! Answering Your Nanaimo Infusion Questions!

No.

Hello.

Yeah, I know. Can you just be nice? This is Otis. There's food. His 7 o'clock food thing just went off, so he has nothing to do with— he wants nothing to do with any of us. Welcome. If you are here Monday at 7 o'clock PM Pacific, then it is live. If it is not that time, then you are watching a replay, which is fine. We will do our best to get through the questions in an entertaining and expedient manner. If you are with us live, please say in the comments where you are from. Please type into the comments where you're from. And if you have any questions, now is the time to start. We already have a question and it is— Where is Jocelyn? Jocelyn is behind me. She's just feeding the dog. Alright, thank you. That actually also helps to make sure that the mic is real. So, okay, first question: are there any opportunities before the Saturday picture to network? So there's only one official event, and that is the Saturday— hey, Kelly! And that is the Saturday group photo. And so the— that's at noon in the park. I'm not sure what you mean by network, but remember that everyone who is participating in this will be wearing a red lanyard. Well, we hope everyone will wear a red lanyard. And so those are people you can go up to and chat with at the park. People will— locals will have name tags with interests of theirs, so you can chat with them about it. Bruce Avenue! You know, Peter is like in Nanaimo. All right, so questions. We are 5 days away. No, 4 days away, really, if you count. All right, well, it's pretty— oh, Humboldt, Saskatchewan. Oh, nice. Yeah. Um, all right, so we are happy to answer any questions. Um, the weather forecast looks great, by the way. Oh, you know what, I'm gonna try and turn up the volume on the microphone. It looks like it's a little low, so watch your volumes just in case this somehow goes louder and louder than I mean it to. Um, all right, I'm gonna crank it up to there. Hopefully that's a little bit better for you guys. I don't know why, but Macs always lower the volume. I'm watching it lower the volume right now automatically. Why? Why, bro? They do. They think they're smarter than me. It's like, where's the 'I used to be a radio producer' settings? So it doesn't jerk around with my settings. Um, so yeah, the weather looks great. Uh, it looks like 20 degrees Celsius, which I think— which I think is about 68 degrees in freedom degrees.

Um, I am very superstitious about weather, so—

oh, okay. Sound is much better. I know. And then it just freaking like lowered the volume. It literally— I watched it lower the volume on me. I'm so mad. Um, uh, so what else? Questions? Had no questions so far. Any questions? Probably said I couldn't get a visa in time. You don't necessarily need a visa to visit, um, you can just come across the border as long as you haven't had like a felony in the US or anything like that.

But if you are, um, from a country originally, like what depends on the passport, right? If your passport is from, I don't know, um, Tanzania, or, um, what's it called, that little Emirates, you might need a visa.

Um, we were getting the tables ready for you folks. We were talking to a special secret guest. Um, from where do you draw your inspiration from humor? I don't know.

Um, I don't know. You have some easy answers to that. Do I?

I like the absurd things, like, um, I'm a big Fawlty Towers fan. I don't know, I like absurdity and subtlety. Uh, we are arriving on sea air from Vancouver Harbor. Is there a phone number for a taxi company? Or let's, let's deal with that one first. We have 2 taxi companies and 1 rideshare in Nanaimo. We have AC Taxi and we have Yellow Cab. Both of them have mobile apps. Our version of Uber is in Canada is called Uride. There's a bunch of them, but the one that Nanaimo uses is—

is there more outside of Nanaimo?

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's called Uride. So you can look in the App Store for the app called Uride Passenger. Um, second question: if we walk over to the number 20 bus, can we use a credit card to tap, or do we need cash?

Yes, no cash. They don't take cash.

They take credit card taps.

Yeah, and there's a card you can get as well. Um, you go to BC— Google BC Transit and Nanaimo, and it'll give you the information site for our transit system. And, um, as far as I know, they accept credit card taps. Um, but there are also fare cards you can get. I think it's called— it's like— oh, it's Omo. Omo is the name of our fare card. Um, and you can buy them all around, like London Drugs and convenience stores and gift shops and stuff. And Sea Air, if I remember correctly, is right beside the departure bay— or yeah, Departure Bay Ferry Terminal, which is in town, which is in town, right? Like in town. Is not right beside the downtown. For locals, one is a little bit further out.

For locals looking to show up, is there a gathering point where ID tags might be sorted out, and about what time will this happen? Just so we're clear, you do not need an ID tag of any kind to show up. You can show up completely— don't show up completely nude, I retract that comment. You can show up completely without ID. Um, you— although it is legal to be mostly nude in Canada, so, you know, Bob's your uncle. We ask people to wear red lanyards. You don't have to have anything on the bottom of the lanyard like a pass or an ID, although people are making their own passes for fun. So, so that's also— get your own one if you're— and like, Canadian Tire has them. Kelly— I mean, Peter, your local— the Nanaimo Hospital gift store, not the thrift store, but the gift store in the hospital has got a bunch as well.

So also, I should say that there is a lovely bunch of volunteers led by Henry and Barbara who will have a table on, um, Friday in the same park in Maffeo Sutton Park downtown by the harbor, um, on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And they're an information place. You can get a map. If, um, I would be willing to bet they'll have some lanyards as well. Last time a bunch of people bought like 20 lanyards from TeamU or something and they were leaving them at the table to give to others who needed them.

So I've heard of like, there was someone in the, in the Discord today that accidentally bought 12 when they meant to buy 2. So they're going to leave some there as well. If you're local, we'll have little name tags that you can write like an interest of yours and maybe people will spark that conversation there. Um, Thank you, Renee. Looking to how far Amtrak goes up north. Amtrak will take you to Vancouver, um, and right across. And it's a beautiful train ride, by the way. Um, right, it goes to Vancouver, right? Yeah, I'm sure it does. Amtrak.

Uh, yeah, yeah, we've ridden it from Vancouver to Portland.

That's right. So you, um, you then from the Amtrak station, from, from the— it's called the Pacific Station, uh, You will walk, you'll basically leave the front doors and there will be a SkyTrain station right there. SkyTrain is our mostly above-ground subway. It's basically in the front yard of the train station. You will not be able to miss it. You're going to get on that and you're going to go to the airport and take a seaplane. That's one option.

Or you get float plane, same thing, or float plane.

Um, or you get on SkyTrain and you go downtown and you get on the Hello. And if you use the code INFUSION15, they are giving you a discount.

I have to issue a correction. Here's my correction. Um, I just checked on the, uh, it's called BC Transit is the name of all the transit companies outside of Vancouver. And, um, for BC Transit's Nanaimo service, they have, um, you cannot pay with a credit card tap. So here's how it works. If you have exact change, you can buy a day pass or a single ride pass on the bus, but they do not issue change. There's like a fare box, you can just insert it. You can buy day passes or ride passes at a whole bunch of retailers, but if you go to Umo, Umo is the fare card, You can— hang on, there's a URL here somewhere. You can buy an Umo card online. You can pay for it there. So just have a look. Google BC Transit and Nanaimo and just go to the tab that says how to pay and just check out before you come. People are super friendly. I'm sure someone will help you when you get there, but pays to have a quick look first and be ready.

Red Shasta and Marion, welcome! Thank you both for being members of the channel. That does help. Um, how is the Wyndham Inn in Nanaimo? Does anyone know? I guess we'll have to ask the chat room if, um, if anyone in the chat right now can comment. I don't think we've stayed there. Um, it strikes me that your style of humor, Todd, can be best described as Canadian Gen X points out reality. Yeah, probably.

Yeah, with, with a, a thick layer of absurdity. Yeah, which is also Gen X.

When are people showing up at the park on Saturday? The official event starts at 12, um, at the park on Saturday. Last year people showed up like an hour early. There were people there. The park will be full from the morning on because we are sharing the space with the Qigong group. It's Qigong Tai Chi World Day, and they have a big thing that they're inviting members of the public to come and watch or participate in. So they have the park that morning. So the parking lot, by the way, is going to be a gong show, as we say here in Canada. It'll be a disaster. So don't plan to drive your car, and you will not have— you will not get parking. What is that?

I can— I can clarify about the Wyndham. If you mean the Days Inn Wyndham, I is Days Inn by Wyndham.

Oh, that's nice.

Um, it's, uh, um, we have eaten at that, uh, their diner or like restaurant many times. We used to go for breakfast there like every weekend. Um, it has a nice view. Uh, it is by a pretty busy road, and it is the only, uh, hotel on that road I would, um, endorse you staying at because there's a little bit closer into town for about 3 blocks, that like the Harbor Light Inn, those are not tourist hotels. Um, and so I have had friends stay there and say it was fine.

Yeah, the restaurant's really good. We've had brunch there a couple of times.

I think it's a Smitty's or something.

Yeah, it's like one of those, one of those things.

Yeah, it's really good.

Do you recommend we have cash for restaurants and groceries? I didn't even think about it. My cards will work. Your cards will work. We take Visa and MasterCard. Every store takes them. In fact, it's easier for them to take that than than cash. You will find in Canada that it's actually easier than it is in the US. In the US, often you have to swipe, or you have to sign a piece of paper, or they take the machine— or you take your card away and do something with it. None of that happens in Canada. They will bring a little terminal to your table, you tap your card, and it's done. You don't have to sign anything. Your card stays in your possession all the time. Um, it's almost as if, as if civilization came to credit cards.

It is the norm outside of America. That's how they tend to work. But if you might find you're expecting debit card usage, I suggest use your credit card here because I think you get better rates that way. But primarily, can I just say thanks, Dulcimer?

Is it medical persons? Do you think there may be some skilled trades? It's not, it's not just medical people who are welcome. Everyone is welcome. There's an unfortunate naming because of the way this whole thing came about. It's just been one big accident and thing, so we named it dumb. People confuse it with the healthcare infusion, which is sort of related but not really. So anyway, the short answer is everyone is welcome. You don't have to be in healthcare. You don't have to be American. There are people from Vancouver that are coming over that are not in healthcare. Canada needs everyone. So as long as your work required some sort of post-secondary there is probably a path for you here. Um, certainly there's a lot of attention on Vancouver Island right now and BC around healthcare workers because we need them so badly. Um, not just us, everywhere in the world.

Um, here's something to keep in mind: we really need skilled trades here.

Yeah.

Um, they're under the Provincial Nominee Program, which is a special fast track. Um, you really can only get it for two types of jobs: healthcare and skilled trades, but the skilled trade part is really complicated. So if you have a skilled trade, like you are a carpenter or electrician or something like that, um, one way to do it is if you're a union member, check with your union. If it's international, you may be able to get a visa that way and get a provincial nominee or be a nominee. Um, the, the one main thing is with trades there aren't like a few, uh, employers the way there is with healthcare in BC. Like, we have 5 geographically based, um, health authorities, and those are the employers for most of the healthcare workers that we're, you know, encouraging to come. So that's where all the, you know, they're doing all the visas. Whereas if you're in, in like carpentry or electrician or like whatever. Anyway, um, if you're in a skilled trade, there's a million different types of employers, and it can be a little bit harder for a single person to persuade an employer to do the paperwork. So try your union, um, reach out to larger construction companies and look and see if they are supporting nomination, provincial nominees. Um, and reach out to like the BC Construction Trades Council if you fit under that umbrella. They might be able to give you some more information. And, uh, talk to an RCIC, which is a Registered Canadian Immigration Consultant, and make sure you look up and verify that that person's an RCIC because there's a lot of fraud, sadly.

Okay, lightning round. Don't the businesses get dinged 3% with credit card use? Yes, that is how credit cards work. I don't think it's quite 3%, but, um, Uh, but yes, the credit— the company— the restaurants do, um, pay a fee to, to process a charge by credit card.

Hi Karen, welcome from Denmark.

Uh, will your merch be available on site? I think so. We're not 100% sure. Um, if they do, they're— if, if they do it— like, this is one of the merch, by the way. Um, if they do, it'll be—

this is one of their merch.

They won't have many, um, because they make them they make them like custom, right? Every, every time someone orders it, they go and they screen it and everything like that.

It's very manual.

It's very manual. So they don't tend to like— like, there's no warehouse full of, of them that are pre-made. So there will probably be a few. They will probably sell out pretty quick. So either get there when the tables open, which we'll talk about the tables next, um, at 11 AM, or, uh, or order online. And that's the most reliable way, is if you order online which is shop.todmaffin.com, um, and in the comment section, like, tell them you want to pick it up at the store, and in the comments say you want to pick it up at the infusion, and they will bring it there. Um, tell us more about the information tables. We will have a number of information tables there, um, for people who are considering moving to Vancouver Island and to BC. If you are local, please do not bring your own table. We've had lots of people excited about their— they want to bring a table because they're— the curling club wants a table and the bird watchers want a table. We do not have that room, and if we have more than the tables we've told the city we're going to, it may invalidate our permit and our insurance and so on. However, what are the tables that are going to be there? There will be tables to answer questions about immigration. There'll be two registered immigration consultants there. There There'll be housing with two real— with one realtor, one real estate lawyer. There'll be questions to answer about the schools. I'd be very careful about typing in there because it sometimes gets very—

okay, I'll use my phone.

Yeah, if I were you, um, it will, um, so we, so we'll have housing. Uh, sorry, I got all messed up there. Uh, immigration, housing, schools, the queer community, and healthcare jobs. There'll also be a table called Adopt a Visitor where you can look for a local to, to adopt you and maybe take you hiking or go for lunch, or just someone to say hello to, or drop you off at the ferry, or whatever. There'll be a table called Americans in Nanaimo, which is a Facebook group, I think, of Americans who are in Nanaimo. Some have been here for many years. One of the people who's going to be at that table, um, is a nurse named— oh, I wish I had nothing.

She's up here.

Oh God, that's what I'm telling you. Yeah, it gets all messy. Is a nurse named Rachel who last year came to the infusion just to check out Canada and now lives here.

She was our inspiration.

Yeah, so those are the tables. The tables will open at the park Saturday at 11 AM and they'll be there until 2. Um, they're mostly meant for visitors, but of course anyone can, can come.

Um, can I say just Greg, uh, Lincoln, if you don't have a degree, it will be very difficult to get a work visa in Canada just because all of the work visas are focused on skilled labor, skilled, skilled professions and skilled labor. So most of that involves having an apprenticeship or having post-secondary education.

Um, William, I see your questions. Thank you for your questions. We're trying to keep the focus on the Nanaimo Infusion, but if you want Uh, if you go to discord.todmaffin.com, you can go into my community and ask me those questions there. Um, if we decide to walk from Sierra to town, is there a walkway or a path? Can you double-check exactly?

I would not, you know, especially if you're carrying— I, I was supposed to go and do an accessibility audit on their things, so I'm pretty sure. Um, I, I— it would be a nice walk, but it's gonna be like 25 minutes, which with your luggage. So, um, I'm just double checking that I know where it is. But, um, Sierra, do you guys like kids?

Would you like a bonus niece? She's 6, super smart, a magic witchy wonder, and has purple hair.

She sounds great. If she's coming, she needs to find me so we can get a photo together.

She sounds like our kind of people. Can you walk to the park from the Coast Bastion? Yes.

Oh yeah, easily, easily, very easy.

So downtown You can walk from downtown. This is what we would recommend to the harbour, which is about a 2-minute walk, like to the waterfront, and then along the waterfront to the park is about a 5-minute walk. So easily, easily walk there. In fact, if you— I should have had that playlist up. There's a video on my YouTube channel. If you go to my YouTube channel, which you're on, I guess, click on the playlists tab and then the Tod's Nanaimo Infusion tab, or it might be in the Nanaimo playlist by itself. There's something called the Downtown Tour or the Waterfront Tour. It's actually the Waterfront Tour, and that will show you that path.

And can I tell you who wanted to walk from Sierre? 39 minutes.

Oh yeah, hell no.

It's, it's beautiful. You might do it like one morning with a coffee and, and a stop on the pier for a, a snack or something. I would not recommend you do it with your luggage. It's just get— call a cab. You could get the bus if you really wanted to. It's not a long drive.

Randy says, I couldn't find an order comment section, but I just emailed them and they said no problem. They are great, by the way, the merch shop people. It's shop.todmuffin.com for the merch like these. There's ones that say I stand with Canada, and there's one for Mirror Falls, which is my podcast. Um, they're great. They're real people. They're up in Parksville, which is about a half hour drive from here. It's a family-owned business. Um, it's not drop shipping, it's not based in some other country, it's all made in Canada.

And all of their other shirts— this is one of their other shirts, it's like mountain biking, um, they design themselves like the art and everything.

Super comfy. Uh, Best Western is a nice place to stay. Yes.

Yep.

What percentage of folks in Nanaimo have a GP? Not as many as there should be, and that's why we're doing this. Uh, geocachers, come find me! Oh, so here's what you're gonna do, Explore with Keats. On the name tags, it will be there at the, uh, at the thing. Write geocaching on it. The name tags are there for your interest, not for your name. You can put your name if you want, and then I'll bet you, you will find people there. Um, so no rental car needed?

Well, if you want to leave Nanaimo, yes. Yeah, it's not a— it's a long stretched out town, but a lot of what's awesome about Nanaimo is the beauty around the city, so it it would be easier, but you could get a car share, um, which are like called Modo or Evo, um, or scooter share, or, um, there's not a lot of bus outside the town. Just keep that in mind.

Yeah. Um, for highly skilled visa, what if you have 5+ years work experience but second degree isn't related to your job? Curie, Jocelyn and I are not immigration consultants, so I— we're happy answering general questions, But when it comes to something specific like that, you should talk to a registered Canadian immigration consultant or an immigration lawyer.

Or Google Express Entry Canada.

Yeah, or Google Express Entry. What is the washroom situation at Faye Sutton? They are there and they are free and they are clean and they're good and they're accessible.

They're not huge. There's, I think, 3 stalls in each, maybe 4 on the men's side. There's an accessible washroom in each. Male and female. I just was on the committee that approved the design for the new washroom hut, and it's really cool. And I'm sorry it won't be done by the time we were there.

Hut?

Well, not hut, it's a— what they call it, a field house. And the new one will have over, like, extra bathrooms for big events like this, and the whole middle of it will open up with single-room washrooms for anybody, male, female, or other.

And, um, only Nanaimo could do washroom glamping.

It's— I don't know if it's glamping. It's, it's a clean and private space to do your business. That's really all you need.

Is there a bicycling infrastructure? Are there safe routes to get around town? Are you right in the road with traffic? There are lots of really good bike lanes all over the place. There are bike routes. You can Google Nanaimo bike lanes, and I think there's a city's got a map for them.

It's on the visiting guide to Nanaimo. I filled it all in with the cycling maps and stuff.

There you go. So go to guide.nanaimoinfusion.ca. Um, that's guide.nanaimoinfusion.ca. And yes, we have bike— bike— Vancouver Island is full of, uh, of hippies in various ages, so you will get— you will get a lot of, uh, biking things. We have moved to Vancouver Island, don't know where we'll settle. Oh wow, that's great!

Awesome.

Um, There are some improved bike lanes. There are still some gaps. Yeah, for sure. There's, there's many streets that don't have any bike lanes, but I mean, that's in every city, right? So you, so you'll want to learn or figure out which streets have got the bike lanes, but those ones got are pretty thoroughfare, thorough, thoroughfare-y. Where's the fan?

Oh, can I put it on? Or you can— yeah, you're taller than me.

A tiki bar.

Do you want me to turn it on? I gotta go. The dog bar— bury her up. Hang on, I gotta put the barrier up anyway.

There. I just didn't want people to see that I'm wearing Canadian red plaid pajama bottoms.

That's the cutest part. Come on now.

There you go. Um, yeah, that is better. Any other questions? Um, oh, what— sorry, I missed this one. What is the park— the walk like from the park to Long Lake? Well, it'll be along a highway. It's a pretty long walk. It's a pretty long walk. It's not impossible.

Tell them about the directions on Google where you can choose walking and it'll tell you how long.

Yeah, so Google Maps is probably the best option, sadly. If you just draw, like, do directions and then click the walking, that's pretty accurate. It's one straight road. Like, there's no— it's not complicated. Um, but it's a walk and it's along a highway. But Long Lake is beautiful.

Can I tell you that, um, from the port— from the park basically where the event's going to be, um, there's something called the E&N Trail. It follows where the railroad used to be. E and N, Esquimalt and Nanaimo. It's the old railroad there. That route will take you past like Long Lake. So if you really wanted to walk it, or you, um, the Modo— I can't remember if it's Modo or Evo. Those are two rideshare car share organizations. One of them has, um, bike shares and scooter shares in Nanaimo, so you can borrow— you can pay to borrow one of those electric bikes, and that would be a great trail to try. And also, we have a visitor who's unwilling to be upside down. She's a terrier. They get scared.

Evo.

Red Shasta spoke it out. It's Evo bikes. They're blue and black and they're all over downtown and major intersections. You can borrow them. You just tap with a credit card. I think you might have to open an app on your phone.

Park is walkable. Park is walkable to park from Quality Inn.

Yep. Yep, yep, yep. Um, Quality Inn is in what we call the Old City Center, Old City— anyway, Old City Quarter, which— Old City Quarter. And that's basically 10 minutes walk from downtown. Um, and that's a nice spot to be in. There's White Rabbit Coffee across the street. There's a really— we're like one block away, and there's a really nice breakfast restaurant in that hotel. And, um, and you could very easily walk down and then like scooter back, or if you— if walking uphill is too hard or just walk. It's 10-15 minutes at the most.

What are going up? What are the best natural wonders that are close by with nature? Vancouver Island, the whole thing.

The—

I swear to you, the whole— people don't believe me when I say it, but everywhere here. So every park is majestic and beautiful. There's some like Cathedral Grove that are international award-winning. Um, there's—

there's Cathedral Grove is an old-growth forest. It's absolutely gorgeous. It's about 40 minutes north of Nanaimo, easy to get to, beautiful on even a warm day because the, the, they shelter you. The, the easiest close one is Westwood Lake Park, which is up on the kind of on the rise up behind Nanaimo where Mount Benson is, who's our closest mountain. And, um, it's, it's so worth going to. It's a, I think it's like a 4-kilometer trail around Westwood Lake, um, which is mostly like big tall trees. The lake is beautiful.

There—

it's all new infrastructure there. And if you are a mountain biker, there is a mountain bike trail around the lake. Um, someone asked about hiking trails. If you're a like real deal hiker, the Witchcraft Lake hike goes up to the top of Mount Benson, which is probably the best view around. I've been wanting to do that one.

What's the best restaurant in Nanaimo? If you go to our guide, you go to guide.nanaimoinfusion.ca, I believe there's a restaurant, um, map, and you can sort by the kind of, uh, cuisine you're interested in. Um, we have some favorites.

Jalapeños.

We really like Jalapeños, which is a Mexican, like authentic Mexican, homestyle Mexican. Oh, it's so good. It's, um, it's by the— it's probably our favorite restaurant. It's very simple. It's inexpensive. It's just good, really well-seasoned food. Um, and it's in the parking lot of a gas station across from the university, which, you know, means quality. Only those places are. And it's, it's a, it's great. Jalapeños in Nanaimo. But there's lots of, there's lots of, there's very fancy restaurants. What's that Greek restaurant? It's so good in the old city quarter.

Asteras?

Asteras, yeah.

Um, it's a, I was about to say it's a Greek name.

We have, we have Korean barbecue. We've got lots of sushi restaurants here. Um, Sushi Wa on 10th is one of our favorites.

Yeah, Asterisk Creek Taverna Nanaimo, it's in the Old City Quarter. Um, and there's an amazing pasta restaurant in the Old City Quarter right across from Window Seat Books, also totally worth a visit. Tr— Trist— I want to say Tristella, but that sounds like a different brand.

That's a cheese brand.

Yeah, I know. Um, I'll just have to write— anyway, amazing. Like, I was kind of blown away by it. And there's some good, good ones downtown. Gabriel's is a good brunch place down on Commercial Street in downtown. Um, there's one I haven't been to which is, I think, called The Nest downtown, or The Roost. The view is really good too. The—

when is it not just a bit warm in BC? Yeah, it's, it's like almost hot today. It's warm, warm, warm. It's 24 degrees in Chilliwack. Um, so yeah, it— and the, the weather looks great for the weekend. I'm excited to go to Malahat even though I'm afraid of heights.

There's stuff to do there even if you don't want to go up the structure.

And I am also afraid of heights to the point that I would not go up to the very, very top, but it's a very slow, very slight incline around and around and around. It kind of is a big to be one of those. So you can do what I did, which is get like to your height of comfort and then just stop and wait for your party to come back.

A height of comfort— Tod's height of comfort was the ground.

The ground, yeah.

Um, there's a fun little like ice cream and sort of sweets shop at the structure itself. It's got one of the best gift shops I've ever seen, plus coffee and, um, like pastries. And the whole place is like designed to just enjoy being outdoors. There's an area with like a campfire and Adirondack chairs and stuff. So even if like, if you've got people in your party who are scared of heights, there's some nice stuff for them to do. Lots of really beautiful photo ops too.

Um, Milo says, I know you'll be— and thank you for being a member, Milo. Uh, I know you'll be really busy. Will we have a chance to meet you? Yes, absolutely. Um, everyone who wants to meet us will be able to meet us. We might be taking some breaks, uh, Jocelyn less so because she's a normal person, but I'm kind of an indoor cat, as Jocelyn would call me. So quite introverted by— I mean, I'm comfortable doing this because I'm an attention whore, but you know, you guys are not in our house. So I might be taking some breaks, but I expect to stay as long as people want to meet. We do want to go to the meetup though at White Sails as well.

We have to bail out for that. Um, Kirsten, Kirsten, I think you're from Denmark. Yeah, um, we are not far enough north to have ice sheets. You would have to be considerably further north. Um, we're right— our island is long, skinny, or not really even that skinny. Would take probably 2 and a half hours to drive from one end, one side to the other, and the top to bottom is like probably 14 12 to 14. I could be wrong. And, um, the, uh, uh, but it is in the middle, in, in part of the Pacific Ocean, so we're— it's not that cold where we are. But even on the very tip of the island, it starts to get much colder. And then, um, the tip of Alaska is not much further beyond. So ice sheets, you would see more on the tip of Alaska or a little bit more inland in BC like, uh, Terrace? No, I don't know. I'm, I'm not great with the, the, uh, geography in the northwest of BC.

So the best way to reach— to meet us, if you want to avoid the crowds, will actually probably be earlier than later. Um, we will probably be there just after 10. Um, we'll be doing some setup though, so we won't necessarily be fully—

sorry, Kristen.

Sorry. Wow. So we won't be like, we'll be doing some things, but we'll also be there as well. The meetup we mentioned is there's a queer meetup for LGBTQ happening really close to the park. And if you want to see all of the events that are happening in town, by the way, you just go to events.nanaimoinfusion.ca. Kelly, check your, your text message, please. Um, so yeah, events.nanaimoinfusion— in fact, I'll just— oh, I better not type it in there.

Yeah, she is.

Events. I'm on fusion.ca.

Um, Kristen, I can tell you there are a couple of hockey arenas. The main one is in a park called Beban, um, and it will probably be open. Nothing— no one's like— I don't think anyone would be competing on a Thursday afternoon, or sorry, Saturday midday, but later in the evening maybe. Our team's called the Victoria Oh my God, I'm really struggling. I'm sorry, very menopause. Um, uh, the Clippers, the Nanaimo Clippers is our minor hockey league, minor league hockey.

I also love that the Elder event is sold out, and I'm a little mad that it is because I really wanted to go do it. So I'll go do it the next time that they, um, they do it. And by the way, I've, I've seen a couple of people, a couple of people have said, um, wow, They're the Nanaimo Infusion. The whole— they're, they're so— the whole community is doing a whole bunch of events for the Nanaimo Infusion. No, there's only one event for the Nanaimo Infusion. Everything you see on the events page is just shit that was already happening. Stuff that's— stuff that was already happening. That's— if you doubt whether or not living on an island or living in a community like this is like you'll be bored of things to do, go look at the events page and remember that of those like 100 things, those are just the things that I found in one afternoon, by the way. That's not a complete list by any stretch of the imagination. That's just stuff, stuff that, that was happening anyway. Um, come Monday, do you start planning for next year? No, we are not going to coordinate this next year. Um, we will You have to remember that this is not our job. Like, we have day jobs and this is not it. And we are doing this on evenings and weekends, um, and it's exhausting.

And on top of the healthcare infusion, which is a whole other thing. Yeah, this— yeah, we're looking at—

and Miraculous, someone else, and my other video stuff and our day job.

So I really mean it this year though.

Yes, I know. I'm sorry. So, um, So we will be meeting with some groups around town. I don't know if the tourism people are interested or the city's interested or the business district is interested. We'll, we'll be talking to a few groups and we will be passing it off to them. We will stay involved. Obviously, I have a large social media presence. I will continue to promote it, but it'll go from Tod's Nanaimo Infusion to the Nanaimo Infusion, and the community will do it, which would be great.

Thank you, Kelly.

Please everyone screen grab that, or that clip that of Tod saying he won't do it again.

He won't do it again because right around early October we're gonna need you all to post those on your favorite social media and tag Tod.

It's, it's January where I get itchy.

No, but you posted the announcement in October. Sorry, I was like, what is your national news to follow?

We have a number of national news organizations Global, CTV, and CBC are the most common. CBC is the one I recommend, partially because I used to work there, but also it's the public broadcaster, so it does not have, you know, it's not beholden to shareholders and so on. I mean, it is, but we are all the shareholders of it, essentially. So cbc.ca/news is the one that we recommend. Um, Marilee, someone will do it next year, I hope. Uncertain. I'm certain the city would not let it go.

Sorry, Marilee, it's not gonna be us.

But it's not gonna be us next year.

I'm just gonna keep repeating it.

CBC is like a combination— but imagine your PBS and NPR together. Now take all of the budget they have and slash it to 1%. That's the CBC.

And, and CBC is not funded by big foundations like PBS is. That's right. Like, amazing, the philanthropy that America has. But I think because it's a— it's an independent news agency funded by the government, it's a weird arrangement. It is not, generally speaking, funded by private donations.

I heard you on KUOW today. Oh, did that run today? That's great. That was— was that All Things Considered that you heard it on? I did that interview last week. Yeah, we know PBS got gutted.

We're sad too. PBS is such great quality.

Hope everyone heading north has a wonderful time. Bring some of that relentless decency back south. Yes, definitely.

Thanks, Maya.

Um, so any questions?

If, um, if anyone missed any, if, if we— if you posted a question we didn't answer, you can repost it now.

Uh, have you spent a lot of time in the States? Not since Trump was elected, because I don't think either of us would get in. They certainly would not let me in based on my social media anymore. Um, yeah, we spent some time in the US prior to prior to him trying to annex our country.

My dad and before she died my mom lived in Washington State. My dad still lives there with his current wife, um, who are lovely, and they live in kind of Skagit Valley in Washington State. And, um, but one thing for Americans to know is that when you're the biggest kid on the playground, all of the littler kids learn about you, but you might not learn as much about us. And that's kind kind of how it is in Canada. We get so much of your media that we— like, I used to joke with Tod when we first dated that, um, the show NCIS followed me around, that any, any hour of any day, somewhere on television, there would be a marathon of NCIS because it was just like so American culture and, uh, content is so ubiquitous everywhere. So we learn through those shows. We learn because your, your media is ever-present in our country as well.

We did— we've done a lot of West Coast, uh, Portland we love, Seattle, uh, we've been to LA more as a transit hopover, um, we've been on cruises, so we've been to Florida, um, we were in Austin, had a great time in Austin.

I've been to Pennsylvania. Is there anything— and New York State. New York City.

Is there anything to eat on the ferry? Yes, the ferry— please understand that BC Ferries is a floating cruise— is a floating cruise.

It's not really a cruise.

It's not a cruise ship. It's like a— it's like a scaled-down cruise ship though. It's got— it's got a cafeteria, a full cafeteria, licensed. It's got a separate snack bar. It's got a coffee bar. It's got a place for kids to hang out. It's got a place for your dog to relieve itself. Um, there's a sun deck. There's lots of seating. There's a gift shop that's great. Yeah, it's— you, you'll be fine. There's plenty to do on the ferry.

It's, um, it's very comfy. The only thing you can't do is there's no like staterooms, um, anymore. The, the— we would strongly urge anybody who's taking the BC Ferries to make sure you have a reservation and wherever possible take the Tsawwassen to Duke Point line because the Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay is having a little trouble lately. So um, just a lot of mechanical issues, cancellations. So the one closest to the border is Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal. Take that one to Duke Point. Um, and it's one of the best—

our shirts in the gift shop.

Well, maybe they will. Um, it's a— it's one of the best gift shops. The bookstore book selection is really, really good. Great BC authors, Canadian authors, just good books. And, um, uh, really lovely views. You'll see lots of whales. Um, and Hello Ferries does not have a lot of food, it's got some snacks. Um, but it's a shorter ride.

It's a, it's a very— yeah, it's a commuter ferry essentially. Um, Canadian Nurse is right, if you go out, if you— if it's— if the weather is good, go outside, walk around. It's very fun to be outside on DC Ferries. However, when they say the ship's whistle will blow and it's loud and you're outside and you're outside, they are not fucking around.

Cover your ears.

Absolutely mean it's loud.

So cover your noise cancellation is nothing in that situation.

Can I bring you anything from Portland? Yes, you can. Powell's.

Just that.

Just bring us Powell's. Voodoo Donuts and Voodoo Donuts. Although we got good donuts.

We have good donut. There's a donut like bespoke custom donut truck in Nanaimo. I never seem to be where it is, but you might see it this weekend, um, because there'll be, we think, 2 to 4 food trucks there that day, maybe more.

I heard a rumor that they're trying to rally some more.

Yeah, we're— we don't know for sure, but the food trucks kind of manage themselves and they want to be there.

So I'm not worried about getting to Canada, I'm concerned about being allowed back home. Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't blame you, to be perfectly honest. Um, the border guards last year, uh, knew that this event was occurring. And so after the first, first few of them went, people went through, um, they were saying, what are you coming here for? And someone would say, we're going to— or where are you going? You're going to Nanaimo. And they're like, oh, are you going to that infusion thing? And they just blast you through. The border guards are very nice here. They're serious, you know, like they're professional, but they're not mean here. They're not They don't yell at you. They're not mean. They're generally pretty nice.

They're all like summer students.

Is it okay to bring your own snacks across the border? If it's sealed and wrapped, you're probably okay.

The Ramada is at the— Wait, wait, wait.

I'm not done yet. But if it's like nuts or fruit packages or sandwiches, like anything that's opened is probably going to be a no. Honestly, just— it's better, like, unless it's like a chocolate bar or something. What do they call them in the US? Not chocolate bars, candy bars. Candy bar. Candy bar. If you've got a candy bar, um, that'll be fine. But anything with nuts, yeah, I just— yeah, I would.

Here's what the way I look at it: if you have lots of time on your way to the ferry terminal when you're crossing the border to just sit around and be inspected by, um, your favorite Border Patrol, sure, bring whatever food you want.

Yeah, um, and we don't think shame if you're into that.

If you don't want to be— if you don't want to waste your time having being referred to secondary inspection and having them like shame you with your undeclared oranges, don't. Just don't. Like, eat— if you could have packaged food, if it's open they might give you hell about it, but it's, it's mostly fruit and soil and guns. They will take all guns and they may not let you in if you have guns or ammo. Yeah, they'll take them in your vehicle.

Um, and don't even bother. And weed, by the way, even though it's legal on Washington state side and legal in British Columbia side, it is illegal to cross an international border and you will be arrested and put in Canadian prison. So do not bring weed across. Besides, our weed is better quality anyway, just buy it here. We have government stores here, they'll sell it to you. How's the Ramada area? It's, it's fine, it's good. Um, do you think I can plan an infusion for Toronto? So two things, um, thank you for asking, Brian. If you're talking about the Healthcare Infusion, which is a recruitment program to get healthcare workers into the Toronto area, we would love a Toronto chapter. Um, we have 41 chapters across the country now. Toronto is missing one. So if you go to healthcareinfusion.org and scroll to the bottom, there's a section that says, "I'm Canadian, I want to start a chapter." All your information is there. If you are, on the other hand, asking about this tourism infusion event, like the thing that's coming up this weekend in Nanaimo, Jocelyn and I will be— well, mostly me— in next month, once we've had a nap, we'll be templatizing this system. I will make some videos. We'll have all of the material that we used to promote it with recommendations on how it was set up technically. All of the planning materials, essentially a kit for any community in Canada to create their own Tourism Infusion event as well. So that will be coming. Just watch my YouTube channel, which you're already on.

Um, I totally agree. Is it Merrilee? Sounds like a T-Rex. Agreed, 100%.

Yeah, the, the border is loud. Victoria— ships whistle a lot. I mean, oh, didn't know about the Victoria border. Didn't know about it when we crossed Um, I'm coming from Portland. Nice. Yeah, no produce for sure. Oh, you do say chocolate bar too? Okay, I didn't know that. What about ferry? The other ferry to Port Angeles? There is a ferry to Port Angeles. All of this information on how you get here we've put onto a single web page, and it is at gettinghere.nanaimoinfusion.ca, and it has all the links that you'll need. And I— the map you will see, I made one night, and I'm very proud of it. It has a mistake, and that's because the cat stepped on my fingers as I was typing, and I was too tired to fix it, and it's still unfixed. So see if you can find the mistake. But gettinghere.nanaimoinfusion.ca.

So mean. You're like, I put an error on the map I gave all my tourist friends, and then I just forgot.

You have no guns or ammo. They exist here, but it's illegal to have, to have, or, or sell, or move across the border with, or import a handgun or an assault rifle. So or weed.

Yeah, you can't bring them across the border. Um, there are like— there, there are guns in Canada, and— but I, I was looking this up the other day, it's like 129, uh, guns in the U.S. per 100 people, and like 12 in Canada. So mostly for hunting, or mostly for hunting. Um, assault rifles, nothing like that is But all weapons—

Kelly is right, and so is Randy— um, brass knuckles will be confiscated as well.

So just, um, don't bring them across.

Government weed— well, government stores, um, so we have, we have private stores that will sell you weed, and we have government stores that'll sell you weed. Government stores are nicer generally, uh, they're fancier, they're a little bit more expensive, I think, um, but all of this, all of the stores are— they're, they're like I want to say this in the nicest way possible. They are staffed by stoners, and I, and I mean that respectfully. Like, these people know their shit. So, um, and it's really good quality. I'm not a connoisseur, but that's what I hear. It is cheap. Yeah, it is. It is more expensive. Well, I don't know, with the exchange rate it might not be. Um, he got the jammers on. I do. Clipper to Seattle as passenger, we're coming back home. Yeah. Yes, so Coho is— oh, sorry, I didn't realize you guys were talking that much. Holy moly. Um, yeah, we have government liquor stores as well and private ones as well. So, so getting here, I'm going to type it in. The, the address for all of this is gettinghere.nanaimoinfusion.ca. There you go.

Isn't it guide?

No. Well, The guide has that page in it.

Oh, okay.

But that page has its own separate URL.

Oh, the dog needs to go out. Okay. See how much I love you, dog?

All right, folks, Jocelyn is leaving to walk the dog, so now is your chance to ask me all the questions you wouldn't ask me when Jocelyn's not here.

You can tell them if they ask.

All right, folks, it's you and me. Uh, hello, Idaho Canadian History AX. He has— oh, I'll look for that. Do you know Fluent Pet? I do not know that.

Um, I've seen that on TikTok.

Oh, those are the dog buttons. Oh, I don't believe that. I think that— I don't think that's real.

I think it's kind of silly. Maybe one or two, but not a whole bunch.

What is the status of your sister wife situation? Ask Canadian Nurse, because she's—

how in the world is it that well known?

Ask Canadian Nurse. She still hasn't signed up papers. All right, just until— just so that this doesn't get out of hand and become a meme on its own, we do not have sister wives. Uh, it is a joke between, uh, us and our friend Kelly. Who is in the chat right now as Canadian Nurse. Um, she's one of our closest best friends. We love her and we half joke that she should just become a sister wife. And yeah, she would. Um, but I mean, if she were to be like, you know what, fuck it, it's, it's on, I'm moving. We would love that. Like we genuinely would love that. So we were sitting in the, sitting in the living room here, reading our, you know, on TikTok or whatever yesterday. And like 2 or 3 times we were both like, yeah, I wish we could just show this to Kelly if she were just here, but we didn't want to bug her because, you know, she works for a living. So we do not actually have Sister Wives. Um, but yeah, you know, I said on my— I said on one of my videos, I said, uh, oh, one of the questions there's— you know when you Google autocomplete, it's, is Tod Maffin and then like those things. I did one, I'll do another one pretty soon, and one of them is like, is, is Tod Maffin single? And I said no, but my wife is very understanding, and like comments lit up with that. So read into that what you will. Um, what else is happening here? Yeah, I'll check out that podcast, that's cool. Is there a way to find a French class? That's an interesting question. I don't know if there is. Um, I don't know if you'll get a one-off French class that you could only take on the weekend, like continuing education might have them, or the Nanaimo Parks and Recreation might have them. Oh, Jocelyn left her phone here and now her dad is calling. Um, but those would be like 10-week courses that happen every Tuesday at 7:00, you know what I mean, at the ice rink or something. So yeah, that might be harder, a harder challenge for you to find those for just for the weekend. Someone asked if you had specific pages for Canadian history that you like. Um, not really. I've got— so if you go to history.todmuffin.com, you'll get, uh, you'll get— you'll go to a YouTube playlist of all of my history videos that I've done. Um, but I don't have one set up. It's a good idea actually. Of like resources that I like. Um, most of my videos I make kind of on the fly, you know. Like the one that's going viral right now is about the little statue about Isaac Brock and the history behind that. Um, I didn't know that day that I would be making that video that day. It wasn't until, uh, Prime Minister Carney gave an address to the nation and held that little figure up. I'm like, who the hell is that little figure? And then I started to do some research and that it. So they kind of show up like that. How many people are estimated to come this year? We don't know for sure because you don't have to register. It's not like a conference or an event where you have to like sign up and give us your information. You can just come. We do have a voluntary RSVP form and those numbers are past 600 last time I checked. And those are people who A) have voluntarily filled out the form. So that'll be a smaller number than actually are coming. And B) are not locals. So if that number is indeed 600, um, is there a way I can check now? I think there is. Let me check right now because I just sent out a thing earlier asking people to RSVP, uh, let us know if you're coming. All right, we have had to that form— sorry, your dad was calling. 306 submissions to that form, and it won't let me— it won't let me add. It's this dumb thing about, about that forms thing. So anyway, there's an average of 2.5 people per group. So 300— and what did I say? 304, 2.5. So like conservatively 700 visitors, not including Vancouver Island people. So maybe 1,000 people at the park, which would be about triple what we had last year. Am I terrified? Absolutely. You could do an online French course. That's a great idea. Thank you, Marilee, one of, one of our members and moderators. You could be a digital ambassador and write things off on your taxes.

He doesn't need any more jobs. Stop giving him more jobs.

Back wife. Um, if someone wants to learn about Canadian history, go to Historica Canada and check out Heritage Minutes. Yeah, those are very cool. Oh, you know what? If you want to go to learn Canadian history, go to YouTube and look for Canada: A People's History. It was a CBC documentary series that was on TV many years ago, but it is top notch.

And if you, um, that— if, if you're thinking of like what's a primer on Canadian history and culture that I could just do a course for myself. That is probably what I would suggest. Um, or you could look for Strange Brew, which is a movie from the '80s, '70s.

Yeah.

Um, there's a— if you like TikTok, there's a Canadian history teacher. Um, I'm trying— his name is Mr. E. And his— he does a series called Mysteries Histories, and he's a Canadian history teacher, so you could search him up. He is so good. Do we have a type of Ken Burns? Uh, his name is Pierre Berton Burton, and he writes a lot of books. He's dead now.

And I thought Ken Burns was a movie maker.

He is, I know, but, um, uh, Avi Lewis, kind of. Um, not— I can't think of a documentary you know, star that is out there. But in terms of that type of history, there are books by Pierre Berton— Burton, I don't know how to say it. Um, he, he like big doorstopper books about Canada.

Um, but yeah, Canada: A People's History is also really good. Um, all right, Ken Burns is also Uh, the guy behind the pan. There's a thing in video editors called the Ken Burns effect. Yeah, and it goes like this.

Oh, the pan, like, yeah, it's like that.

They call that the Ken Burns.

It's like, like the slow— even in iMovie, old iMovie, it had Ken Burns effects.

They, they license it from— they license his name. What's his name?

Really?

Yeah, Steve Jobs.

Oh, Trevor Poutine, right? Mr.— I think he's called Mr. Poutine or Professor Poutine on TikTok. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you totally should try that.

Any other questions that we can answer about Nanaimo or about the infusion coming up this weekend? It's okay, Mary Lee, we're closing in on an hour, so we may want to end it pretty soon.

Ken Jennings. Ken Jennings. Oh, is he the one who went— oh yeah, no, they're talking about the one guy who won Jeopardy.

He's both of those. He was like the big— the biggest winner in history, and now he's the host.

I know, but someone— Mr. Kinburn. Yeah. Um, don't bring sprays. Yeah, that's important.

Um, so we're at about an hour, coming up to an hour. So, um, this is your last call if you have any questions for us about Nanaimo or about, uh, Vancouver Island or BC or Canada, but mostly Nanaimo area.

I have some reminders for you.

Yeah, do some more driving.

Um, strongly recommend you go to the guide.nimoinfusion.ca and look for the parking map. I think it's under parking. It is imperative that if you are driving and need to park and you could walk 10 minutes, um, park in one of the city lots that are marked on that, um, parking map. And there's one right beside the Harbor Walkway, which gives you like gorgeous less than 10-minute walk into the park rather than the park's own, um, parking area. Uh, strongly recommend, um, they are all good places to park. Just we're trying to encourage people to leave the parking at the park for people who can't park anywhere else. Um, I come early, especially if you're gonna try and park in the park. Yeah, that's a lot of park words. Um, yes, make sure to make ferry reservations. Stay away from, uh, Horseshoe Bay, uh, terminal if you can. It's struggling a little bit right now, um, and you don't want to end up like sitting there in the terminal watching everything online.

Yeah.

Um, what, what else do we— oh, there are bathrooms at the park. Um, the— we're doing our best to make sure the talking part of the session is as brief as possible, um, because there's no, there's no like seats to sit in for that part. It's just like a brief, maybe 10 minutes at the most, and then we take a picture, and then the park is there for everyone to chit-chat, get to know each other, Learn more at the tables. Um, and what else? Um, um, spend your money at the local businesses.

Does Horseshoe Bay, uh, issues extend to foot passengers?

No. Um, well, yes, because if you don't— if, if the ferries are not functioning, nobody is getting here.

Yeah, true.

Um, and that's just Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay. That's the northern route that comes Nanaimo. The southern route, Tsawwassen to Duke Point, runs the larger ferries, really big. And the Hello ferries are not affected by the troubles that are happening in Horseshoe Bay.

And all of that information is up in the chat there where it says gettinghere.nanaimoinfusion.ca. Um, will you still be doing lives? Will you end the lives after the infusion is over? Sort of, yeah. So, um, let's see take a break. Live, we'll take a break. And the live, um, lives that I do, mostly me, um, are benefits to members. So part of how we fund the Nanaimo infusion this year is we're just covering the costs, although the Hospital Foundation is covering a big chunk of it as well, which is very helpful, and we're grateful to them. Um, but there's insurance and park rental and table rentals and all that kind of stuff. And so members of the channel, if you're a member of the YouTube channel or of my newsletter or Facebook page, or really a member anywhere, I would supporting member, um, you get invited once a month to a special, um, a special Google Meet with just me and other members. So it's kind of like a board of directors meeting, I guess. So those are lives that we do for members. Um, yes.

Um, someone asked if— Richard asked if there's anything to do along the Waterfront Walkway. I'm so tempted to say just walk it and you'll find out, but there is a really good souvenir shop there's two ice cream stores. There's one of them is a cafe, which is one of the places on the Nanaimo Bar Trail that the— what's it called? Tourism Nanaimo has a Nanaimo Bar Trail, which is a fun way to see the city. Because a lot of the downtown restaurants and even some further out have Nanaimo bars to try. There's whale watching. As someone else asked, what, what can we do with eat and play? Whale watching in the harbor. Um, probably best to group up with other people because it's, it's expensive for just two. Um, but that is, I think it's called Prince of Wales, if I remember, like W-H-A-L-E-S. Um, and then, sorry, what time is the group photo?

Saturday at 12 o'clock. Is the, uh, is the group photo at Maffeo Sutton Park? Um, yeah.

Um, if you— we have put out videos from previous years, from the previous year, um, and I'll repost one, or Tod, maybe Tod will reshare it. I talked about like stuff to do downtown. Um, Commercial Street and Chapel Street are kind of the main roads downtown. There's a bunch of restaurants. You look— you could look for Gina's Mexican. It's a big purple house right on the edge of downtown. Totally worth it. You could walk less than 10 minutes up, I think it's Bastion Street, toward the Old City Quarter. You just Google Old City Quarter, and that's a cute little area with like gift shops and cupcakes and a bunch of other stuff. That's where one of the real— the two of the really good restaurants are up there, Asterisk, and the other one is, I think, I don't want to say Tre Stella, but it's like some kind of three-star-like name. It's a pasta restaurant. And there's a kind of a well-known dress shop, and there's a cat cafe. Yeah, there's a lot. Those are the two main neighborhoods I would suggest that you start with: downtown and the Old City Quarter.

Relentless Decency shirt, hoodie, merch, are you selling on your website? I just posted the link in chat. Yes, so shop.todmaffin.com. Um, most of the money goes to the people that make it. Um, it's a, it's a family-owned, Canadian-owned, um, it's just a, it's a young couple, their parents, um, in Parksville. They run a store that does amazingly comfortable shirts, sweaters, um, stickers. Yeah, so anyway, shop.todmaffin.com. And if you order and then you say pick up at the store and email them and say you want to pick it up at the Infusion, they will do that because it's just a handful of people running it and, and they are local.

Vancouver Island Whale Watch is the Nanaimo location, not Prince of Wales. Um, I just want to remind everyone Tourism Nanaimo's website has lots of information on stuff to do, itineraries like in the area. Sure, you could go to Coombs, which is like the Goats on a Roof area. Um, the— there's also the guide to visiting Nanaimo, highly recommend. And the thing that started it all, it's the Nanaimo Infusion, uh, Discord server. I know some of you are allergic to Discord, but it's worth it because there's a channel for every one of these questions. Lots and lots of information. I did a whole fiber tour, art tour list. There's people paddling and hiking and cycling, highly— oh, and like thrift and books and stuff. Please, please, please give it a try. There's lots of information on it. And Tod created the guide to visiting Nanaimo based on the suggestions of everyone in the Discord. So if you really truly can't do Discord, look at the guide. It's really the best place you should go.

Hello Fairy is great. Is there any Uber in Nanaimo? We don't use Uber because it's an American company, but there is Uride, which is Canadian owned, and there are also two great cab companies. And that's it. I think we're going to leave it there. Here is the website, 2026.nanaimoinfusion.ca. Everything you've heard us talk about is linked on that page. The Discord, the events page, the parking information, the how to get here, all of that stuff is on that page, 2026.nanaimoinfusion.ca. We do have CPAP companies. We've got 5 or 6 in town. Coastal Sleep is one of them. Yeah, there's storefronts so you can walk in and get what you need. All right, thank you all so much. And, um, and we'll probably do one more of these at some point, maybe Thursday, um, maybe Wednesday. Um, we'll do something soon. And, uh, and if not, just, just check the Discord. Jocelyn is right. That's your name, right?

Um, Discord does not require an age verification for this, these servers, because they're not—

no, sometimes Really?

Yeah, aren't they?

Discord is a whole— Discord is a whole—

sometimes does.

No, I know, don't get it.

That sucks.

Never mind. All right, thanks. Bye-bye, everyone. Feel free to keep chatting with each other in the, in the chat room though if you want. I think you—

yeah.

Okay, bye. Oh, and thank you to the mods, Dee and, and, uh, all the other mods in here, and Kelly, and Kelly, and, and, and to the members as well. All right, bye-bye.