SIM Cards for Cheaper Local Calling During Out of Town Tournaments

Traveling in Europe last year on family vacation, we picked up a cheap SIM card in England and then in France. At the time, there wasn't anything here that was comparable. Now many options have sprung up.

One thing found out recently is that, if you your phone is 'locked' to a carrier, you can unlock your phone by simply calling your carrier and asking for the unlock code. All Canadian carriers apparently must give you the unlock code.

I wrote in an earlier post about Petro-Canada's prepaid phone plans*. What's this got to do with SIM cards and unlocking phones?
When away at an out of town tournament, the cost of local calling can add up when away from the hotel. It's all long distance! Switching temporarily to a local number could save a lot of local long-distance cost, although the hassle of using a new, temporary phone number is a consideration. Since Petro-Canada is now selling SIM cards, I could unlock my regular phone, use it with my regular plan when I'm not traveling, but then get a SIM card if we have a tournament out of town, and activate it for the city that we're in.

Cost would be $15 for the SIM card, $15 for 30 days prepaid time. Let it expire, and then when we're off to another city, change the phone number on the SIM card(which they will do!) and load on another $15.



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* Disclosure: In my non-sportsmom life, this company is a client. We are also a customer, with more than one mobile device on their monthly plans.


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Can "Bunga Pads" Help Heal Skate Bite?

Do Bunga Gel pads work for skate bite?

Eight months of skate bite (earlier post) and counting. The summer's come and gone but since skating and ringette camp went on through the summer, there wasn't any real time off.


A player on my daughter's team has had the tongue replaced on her skates. The new skate tongue has an extra layer of felt. Seems to work for her.

Gel pads were suggested by the store we bought the skates at. These Bunga pads are the only ones I found.

If anyone has any experience with Bunga pads, or other gel pads, for skate bite would love to hear about your experience.

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Prepaid Cell Phones with Canada-Wide Calling & Unlimited Texting

At out of town ringette tournaments, it can be challenging staying in touch with players, coaches and other family members who want to know what's going on. Texting's the way to go but once in a while, a phone call's really needed, such as when trying to meet up at a restaurant for lunch or dinner, or co-ordinate rides.

Our kids have been on Petro-Canada Mobility's prepaid plan* for a while because of cheap texting. As of earlier this week, phone calls Canada-wide are included in the Talk & Text Monthly Cell Phone Plans. Before, the 100 minutes were local minutes only. Given that this service isn't restricted by calling 'Zones', it's a great fit for us.


So whether our players are in a tournament in Ottawa, Calgary or St. Marys, they can call long-distance across Canada. These calls are 'free' within the 100 minutes included in their monthly plan. They've got Talk & Text 100, so for $20 per month, they've got 100 Canada-wide phone minutes and unlimited texting (incoming and outgoing).

We can check to see how many of the 100 minutes have been consumed by logging into the account.

Billing is convenient. Recurring billing is set up online, and we get an email every month when the credit card charge goes through.

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* Disclosure: In my non-sportsmom life, this company is a client. We are also a customer, with more than one mobile device on their monthly plans.

My mother's on the 'Anytime' plan, which gets topped up with $25 every 4 months. Costs her $6.25 per month for an emergency cell phone. Since she doesn't use the phone much, the balance rolls over with each top-up and she's got over $100 balance if she needs to use the phone for an extended call.

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University of Calgary Ringette Tryouts

The University of Calgary Ringette Team tryout dates have been announced.
  • 22 September 2011 7:30-9:15 p.m
  • 23 September 2011 7:30-9 p.m
Location: Olympic Oval

For more information, email Murray Pettem (mopettem@shaw.ca). 

The University of Calgary Ringette Team plans in the Calgary Open League as well as 2-3 tournaments, including the University Challenge Cup. The University of Calgary Ringette Team has been highly successful at this tournament, winning last 5 Challenge Cups, including 2011, hosted by the University of Western Ontario.

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Eastern Region AAA Ringette Challenge Cup (Ottawa Area)

Eastern Region Ringette is hosting the first of three AAA Ringette Challenge Cup tournaments October 8-10, 2011 in Ottawa and surrounding areas.

The other two AAA ringette challenge cup tournaments are in St. Marys in November and Ajax in February 2012, just a few weeks before the Ontario Winter Games. Hosted by Collingwood in March 2012, we have yet to hear which locale will be hosting ringette.
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