Awards for Everyone

Popularity: 13%

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So I think a little research and shopping expedition is in order now, to try and obtain a quality wrinkle cream that may help reduce them somewhat, or maybe just stop them getting any worse. In other words, time to join the ‘grown-up’ generation of my mother, who creams and cleans and tonics and whatever else she does. Do not really want to ask her for advice though, as I know I will get an ‘I told you so’ reaction.

Popularity: 10%

The wedding planning and catering industry is a multi-billion dollar business. If you could find a special and unique way to cater to some part of the wedding or maybe even the whole wedding, I think you could make good money. There are companies like the Orange County Catering company called the Bashful Butler who specialize in larger events and weddings. Competition in sections of a wedding is competitive, but with a little thinking, I believe it would be easy to make money out of people getting married.

Maybe you could combine a couple of things that would make planning easier with you, instead of hiring several different people to do it. You have a baker for the cake and you have the rehearsal dinner, right? Now those are two separate things that 2 people or businesses get to take advantage of. Now if you make food and could serve it for a large group of people, you might as well learn how to make a few cakes too. I wouldn’t stop with just these two portions of a wedding. Maybe adding in a 3rd service, like a band, dj, music, or entertainment area? You have a restaurant, what’s the harm in adding a stage or sound system? Let your customers listen to music while they enjoy their dinners. You could find a way to put your music sound system on wheels and be there for the bride and groom for their party after the ceremony. Now you have a company that can bring in the music, supply food, and bake the cake as well. So you could have your cake and eat it too, if you were in the wedding business!

Popularity: 3%

There are several weight loss supplement reviews.

I have to admit that I am still having a bit of a problem with the whole issue of supplements, because I still feel that a lot of ‘overweightness’ is not really being overweight but just not being skinny, but she will not be happy until she has lost a few pounds and she says that cutting down on food and increasing exercise is not doing it.

Sooo, the search continues

Popularity: 5%

The friend with the camera shop is now planning on having a proper opening bash, and has asked that I look into organizing invitations for 100 people to be there. So, as usual, went on-line and did a bit of searching, and have found the perfect invitations for his event. They should be here at the beginning of next week, which will give us just under two weeks to get them sent out. He is panicking about that, thinking he has left it too late.  I think it is exactly the right amount of time. If you send out invitations too early, people forget and don’t turn up. A week to 10 days before the party is just about right.

Whilst searching for his invitations, I came upon some lovely Halloween invitations. Now we do not celebrate Halloween here (well, the younger generation is just about beginning to) but I wish we did now. Firmly bookmarked the site for other occasions I may want to send out invitations.

Popularity: 6%

I once was the proud owner of a Mazda MX5, mark 1. The car was red with two broad white stripes going back to front, a black convertible roof, red steering wheel, red gear lever sleeve and a small spoiler. In addition the suspension had been lowered, there was a huge cold air inlet, racing exhausts, low profile tyres and Lambo doors. That little car was my pride and joy.

Until the advent of what in UK was called ‘sleeping policemen’, a sort of bump in the road that is meant to slow traffic down. My little car could normally handle those ok, though you had to be careful. Then I took a trip to Cambridge one day. Instead of driving into Cambridge and paying the exorbitant parking fees, I parked in the Park and Ride and took the free bus in.

On the way out of the Park and Ride was a particularly broad and high sleeping policeman, which scraped the underside of the car. I managed to drive back to where I needed to be. The next day I could not drive the car, apparently there is a slave cylinder underneath the car which was completely destroyed. That was a very expensive way to avoid car parking fees.

I had the car repaired and then sold it, since it was getting too expensive to maintain. Now I have another Mazda of a more sedate kind, but I still miss my little MX5.

Popularity: 6%

Our search on the computer continues. We must have seen hundreds of sites that sell dietary supplements. Still looking for that top diet pill. Still, there area  few sites that compare a lot of different products, rather than just trying to sell or two products, and it is also nice that some sites actually invite you to try a supplement and then encourage you to write a review of the product so that others can benefit from your experience.

I will be searching the sites soon for something to help me put on some weight, and wonder if there are as many sites dealing with that issue as there are dealing with issues of being overweight. I will undoubtedly write about them if and when I find them.

Popularity: 7%

I wrote a couple of days ago about our visitors from England, and our search for diet supplements that will help my friend shift those stubborn pounds. Despite the fact that it is very hot here at the moment, and we do not have air conditioning, we have been spending quite a few hours indoors, comparing safety profiles, prices, consumer reviews etc etc about possible supplements that will help her in her quest.

She does not want to come to the beach, because she does not feel attractive with the few extra pounds she is carrying. I have tried to tell her that there are people with a much larger problem than her that do go to the beach, but that is not helping her. Let’s hope we can help her soon, so that what they come back again in 4 weeks she will be happy to join me on the beach.

At the moment we will just have to use our own swimming pool, but there is nothing that compares to swimming in the warm sea.

Popularity: 7%

I once bought a GameBoy, and played SuperMario on it. I remember it very well, because at the time I was the night sister at the University Health Centre, and had a lot of time after doing my administration work, to sit around and watch television. If no patients came, we were even allowed to go to sleep, which is what I did before I acquired the GameBoy. I became a complete addict, I wanted to beat my best score, get to the next level, free the princess etc etc. I thought I was doing well, until the five-year old child of some friends of mine showed me how it should really be done! He was fantastic, he knew where all the secret bonuses were, he was much quicker than I and he managed to beat my best score by miles.

Eventually I took a different job, and did not have time to play anymore, and now I have no time generally. Last night however, we were invited to a friend’s house for dinner and the children were playing on their PS3.  I have heard of PS3 before obviously, but never seen one in action! What advances, what graphics, colours, sounds – absolutely thrilling. I was allowed to have a little go too, but what they had made look so easy was in fact quite difficult for an old person like me, and I think the kids found it really amusing to be able to beat me so easily. Apparently, their father often does not come to bed till late at night, and is found playing on their console.

I know that we brought my GameBoy with us when we moved, but at the moment just cannot find it, probably just as well for now, as I will probably be playing the night away again when I do.

Popularity: 7%

That time of the year again. Need to re-insure the car, and again shocked at how much it has gone up this year, despite the fact that we have not made any claims on our insurance and we have maximum no claims bonus.

Last year we were in a hurry to insure the car and that has cost us a bit of money. This year we have done some research into auto insurance, and have found a much better policy that at the same time saves us money, and provides a courtesy car if we should need one.

I guess my mum was right, and you should always get multiple quotes for everything you want to buy, because though that may take a bit longer (and actually with the internet generally it does not take any longer) it will save you money.

Popularity: 5%

Before I moved to this country, I lived in many houses in different countries, but we always took our furniture with us. Then we moved here, where it is normal to rent a house or apartment that is fully furnished. In fact, getting a property for rent that is unfurnished is almost unheard of here.

This has certain advantages. It means we did not have to pay a huge bill to have all our furniture moved across the water. It also meant that we had ‘new’ furniture to look at. That proved to be a double-edged sword. We sold some of our old furniture and gave the rest away, but when we arrived in our first apartment the furniture that was in place was, to say the least, dire. It had obviously been put together at a garage sale and showed signs of not being clean. Bit of a nightmare that. Luckily, we soon found a house that was more to our liking and we moved in here. The house is lovely and big, and the furniture, although not what we would have chosen ourselves, is clean and big.

We have just been given a four year rent on the house (which in this country is pretty rare, as it gives a lot of protection to the tenant and most landlords prefer a yearly renewable contract) and so now the time has come to start acquiring some pieces of furniture of our own. If we are going to be here long-term then there are certain things I want to be mine, such as a bed and a comfortable settee. I can feel a shopping attack coming on!

Popularity: 8%

Apparently having to speak in public is more traumatic to most people than getting a divorce! The thought of having to get up in front of other people (whether just a few or a few hundred) makes their palms sweat, their mouth dry and their heart beat in their throats. Butterflies appear to be living in their stomach and they are absolutely sure that they will make a fool of themselves and forget everything they were going to say.

There are a few things that can help us be prepared for having to speak in public. Know what you are going to say, write a few small cards with the main points of your speech so that you have a framework in front of you that you can refer to when you are hopelessly lost. Rehearse the speech in front of people you already know and ask them for comments. Remember that the people in the audience are there to be informed or amused by you, and are on your side. The internet is full of helpful advice for those trying to overcome their reluctance and anxiety when faced with an occasion that calls for them to speak in public.

If all of the help available is not enough, people sometimes turn to their physicians for help, requesting either a Beta blocker or a tranquilizer, which in themselves unfortunately can cause a dry mouth and mimic the effects of anxiety that they are trying to conquer. It is therefore refreshing to see that there now is a herbal remedy that helps with speech anxiety. I think it may we worth exploring for those who become very anxious and who despite trying to calm their nerves find that the butterflies steadfastly refuse to leave their stomach.

Popularity: 8%

Having spent the last year living in a little world of my own, frantically surfing most days away on the internet, I have now finally woken up again and realized there is more to life than the Internet. I read a little ad that said ‘Stop Spam, Read a Book’ and that more or less typifies how I feel now.

I am currently spending my days looking after patients,  reading books, swimming and having a nice time with my friends. I had forgotten about books, being too busy reading everything on the internet instead, and now I am suddenly  acutely aware of the almost sensual pleasure of handling a book, smelling the paper, and sitting under the parasol reading.

My friends are very pleased I now have a social life again and so is my dog. He has had some very long walks recently and is getting more attached to me once more. I guess I have no-one else to blame but me for my previous obsessive behaviour on the internet, but I will definitely guard against that happening again. So Stop Spam, Read a Book is my motto from now on.

Popularity: 8%

I surf on a team with several people. One of them is going to be a grandmother again this August, and this time she will be having her first granddaughter. She spends a lot of time looking after her grandchildren, so that both parents can return to work, and she says that the experience of looking after grandchildren is much nicer than when she had her own children, because she feels more relaxed about them as she has more experience and she can also hand them back at the end of the day, so no sleepless nights!

We spent a lovely session surfing thinking about baby shower ideas, names for the baby, baby clothes and general baby talk. Funny how talk of babies makes everyone on the team interested, even the chaps wanted to chip in.

Her daughter in law is not having a particularly good time whilst pregnant, with lots of minor health problems, and no-one can wait now until August for the baby to be born. A good thing we do not remember all the problems once our children are born, or all families would end up with only one child.

Popularity: 9%

I wrote a few days ago but our nearly new kitchen which is taking shape nicely. The tiles are in, the walls are painted and last night when I came home from my evening patient round, there was a surprise for me which had been ‘cooked up’ by the family together with Jackie.  There is now an LCD mount in the kitchen above the breakfast bar! A brand new small LCD television sits snugly there, and as I ate my breakfast this morning I just had to watch it, even though normally I do not watch telly before going to work.

It has freed up more space on the worktop in the kitchen, and you can never have enough space for all the utensils we seem to collect. Great idea Jackie, it looks great and I feel I now just want to sit in the kitchen to watch t.v. – time to get an LCD for the sitting room as well now, otherwise you will find me in the kitchen!

Popularity: 10%