Win wine! hic....

Not one to pass up on the chance of some free booze, I've quickly completed a survey on good old Mumsnet that I came across this evening.  If you'd like to be in with a chance of winning to, simple get on mumsnet and answer their survey about wine tasting! dead easy and someone has to win :-)  A case of wine is up from grabs 'Mont Tauch' from France apparently.  Good Luck!

Gadget Show

Well the lovely Gadget Show sent me another text to win some of their lovely prizes, so hey, I did it, after all my mini winning challenge blog is only up till Xmas anyway, so what's £1.50 to enter once every few weeks between now and then? what! do I hear you cry, that's a loaf of bread and some change, or 3 pints of milk, yessss I know, but what about all those lovely gadgets I may very vaguely stand a chance of winning......well a girls gotta do something whilst waiting for a delivery of boxes to box the house into (and believe you me, I'd rather be at work doing the accounts, you wouldn't believe how far behind I am on that! and end of month and year is looming with associated VAT returns to do.....gah.....) total irony that I can't even use the time to box the house, as I'm waiting for them to be delivered......

Moving House, so lets try to win a new TV!

Yikes, gibber etc, we're moving house next Monday, so if the blog does go a little AWOL for a few days/weeks you'll know why (no internet when we 1st move!)
Anyway as our TV is about 10 years old and the sounds packed up last week....but revived itself again, I figured trying to win a 32" TV wouldn't go amiss.
If you wanna join me, it's lurking on the Daybreak Competition site! courtesy of Plenty (the kitchen towel people)

Wanna win some wellies???

Ok, sorry I'm not doing good at blogging this week, I thought I'd blogged on Thurs and not Fri, but appears I blogged last on Wed, which is not good!
The reason for my failings are to do with us trying to sort out moving house, you'll be pleased to know as we are too that it's all slowly coming together, but I'll have proper confirmation of what's happening on Monday!

Meanwhile I've found a lovely competition to enter on Clover - yep that's the buttery/margarine stuff, that's churned like butter - but half the fat!! They're giving away a family set of hunter wellies, and seeing as we're moving to what could be construed as Hunter Wellies territory (a village! although it's barely in the countryside anymore if the city next door get's its way that green belt will be gone....) I thought we'd better try and win some! so if you fancy joining me, you need the pack code from the front of your pack of clover and http://www.cloverfamily.co.uk/.  The draw is happening every sunday until end of Nov, and then anothe final draw in Feb! go for it (if it snows this winter you may need them where ever you are!)

White Stuff Vouchers

I've done a quick mumsnet competition tonight, well actually it's a questionaire on the display of 'mens' magazines with the random winner being picked from all those who complete the survey to get £150.00 worth of vouchers for The White Stuff, and as I love their clothes, though don't actually own any, due to lack of time and money to shop at the moment! So hey 'waves' let me win!! I need to SHOP!!!

Gadget show competition

So a very quick and easy one today, it's this weeks Gadget Show competition, which they kindly texted me with, as I'd entered before and seeing as I'm doing this blog and haven't had time to research anything at all today, due to being busy at work, I thought hey, go on then, so their targeting of their audience (SUCKER) has worked nicly in this case! still I may be surprised and sitting amidst a pile of gadgets by this time next week, you never know :-)

Channel 4 Competitions

http://www.channel4.com/4homes/play-win/competitions/

So whilst I scoff the last chocolate cake from our tin (I know you think I'm evil for doing this, but I am cooking another batch of plain sponge as I type) let me tell you about todays competition offering.  Those of you who know me, will know I like to tinker with house design ideas, even though I never have the time or money to put them into practice, so todays competition will just help me dream a little more! it's to win the grand designs 3d software package :-) so I can plan extensions and re models galore, whilst not actually costing myself or my beloved a penny!!  You never know, this design tool could come in useful for friends and family too, as seeing what things look like in 3D can spur you onto make those house change decisions that you'd otherwise ignore, and you get a better place to live in whilst your at it too :-) (although it may cost you a bit in the short term, lalalala, not listening in fantasy land!)

I also found on that webiste the True Blood competition which closes on the 18th! they're looking for photos of people as Vampires! (moi do a thing like that) they want you and your fangs, so if you fancy going for it, get UPLOADING your photos fast!

Oooh it's a late one

A quick squeeze in here for todays competition!

I've hit the mumsnet competition pages today and come up with a few!

Win some mukluks (kinda like uggs, but in a fitflop stylie! fitflops for winter if you like!)
plus, win £200 to spend at Sainsb's or Toys r us and another which was Win £100 to spend with an online clothing company.

Well you never know, can't beat quick and easy competitions eh!

Naughty Me!

Yikes forgot to post yesterday, 'muppet' dunno what I was busy doing though? anyway on with the blog!

Todays competition is Sainsburys Magazines monthly jolly for a total of 6 items this month, pots n pans, jewllery, smellies, glasses and a stay at Riber Hall (it's only down the road as well!)
text SB12 followed by a space, your name, address and tel no to 85088 and it could all be yours!!
I'll post a double competition tomorrow to make up for missing yesterday, which incidently I didn't as far as competitions go, I have entered one, I'm just out of time to tell you about it now, as have a friend popping in! hurrah for an evening of company other than just the internet, or the dulcet sounds of poor A snoring as he's shattered and inevitably fallen asleep on the sofa.

Gadget time

Well it appears that if you enter the Gadget Show competition just the once, they bother you again and again via text to enter the next one, so of course I did, just imagine what I could do with a pile of gadgets???!!!  (no doubt have lots of fun and get mightily confused on the odd occasion, but hey FREE STUFF, well bar the quid or so it costs to enter.)  So that's my competition for today :-)

Mondays Competition

Here's a nice quick one for monday and may just help out with the Xmas shopping

www.houseoffraser.co.uk/wonderland

House of Fraser are giving away a £500 gift card on 22nd Dec, for those last minute spending purchases that you JUST have to grab!   Go on, enter and spoil yourselves!

Fridays Competition

Well I'm sat listening at a variety of whizz, bang, crashes from outside, whilst inside both kids keep yelling that they can't get to sleep because of the noise, sigh, the joys of fireworks! It's a shame we can see half of what we can hear, or it'd be a lovely night in! with a cracking view! eh well.
Todays competition comes courtesy of our local newspaper, I logged on earlier to check out the news and got a survey offering me £50 in Amazon vouchers, so of course I said yes, I'll take your survey! simple really and you never know eh!

Win a Family Holiday in New York!

http://www.klmfamilyfun.co.uk/win  follow this link and give it a go guys, it's for a 5 day, pre xmas holiday in New York, I have no idea why I've entered (bar the fact I LOVE New York) as we may well be having to move house in the weeks leading upto Xmas! but hey I'm sure I can fit in a trip to good old NYC around the solicitors and the removals guys and work....that we can't actually leave! oh what the heck, maybe I can leave dh to work and take a mum friend!  Theres also an instant win chance for a Disney Store toy linked in, but I didn't win on that, bah!

Ipad and a sorta win?

Well today I've entered a McVities competition that I found on the 'Daybreak' ITV site, to win an IPAD, I like those, I've played on my friends one 'adopts stalker pose' and thus I'd like a free one of my own :-)

Meanwhile back at Chez Friz, I had an email with a sort of mini win on it, well it would be if I could use it!
Walkers said, hey you, have a free win a tenner play on us, so I logged onto do it, only to find out that all the plays for the 4th Nov have been taken, bah! gotta wait until tomorrow am for the next set to be available.....I shall try again!

It's November!

Well hope you all had a good night out trick or treating yesterday? Here we are 1st November, my beautiful 1st daughters birthday :-) she's a whopping 7 today! where does the time go?  I spent yesterday partying with her, so hopefully she's had a lovely time.

Soooo what competitions does November hold for us?

http://www.olivesfromspain.co.uk/about-olives/

Yep, it's time to forget the dreary English Weather and try and win some Spanish Sunshine, courtesy of Olives from Spain! failing that there's a cookery class up for grabs too.  If you fancy your chances, follow the link, you've gotta be in it, to win it.

Gadget Show Comp/Lazy day

I've just done a quick entry today, to the gadget show competition, as I've been busy battling with work and tired children and some days, it's just too much hassle to do anything else you know, so yes I've been lazy, from lazy tea for us all (oven chips, frankfurters and frozen broccoli, you know Jamie Oliver would freak!) to lazy quick competition! £21,000 worth of gadgets though, and seeing as we have virtually none, they'd all be of great use :-)

I Phone 4

Well the lovely people at Philidelphia (the cream cheese people - Kraft foods, the peeps who took over Cadburys recently, much to the disgust of the UK Media) are offering to give away an I Phone 4, so of course I've entered, just in case I can relieve them of it, after all what better way for me to update my blog, than via a new I Phone 4? surely? :-)
http://www.philadelphia.co.uk/ if you fancy joining my endevours?  I skipped the holiday to Chile they're also offering, as should we win any holidays for two, I seriously doubt we'd be able to afford the time off to go :-( but that's not stopping my Vegas efforts!)

Viva Las Vegas!

Well it will be should I win my next competition! yes, you've guessed it, todays comp is win a holiday to Las Vegas for 2 people (hope Gran can have the kids!) it's for people who are on Orange contract phones only! so that cuts the competition to a mere oh I dunno 30 million I guess......hmmmmm better odds than the national lottery then! www.orange.co.uk/vegas is the destination you need if you happen to be with Orange Mobiles too, there's also 10 Xboxes up for grabs, no idea if it's the latest models or not as the Comp doesn't say?

Omg! no post since last Wed!!

Total fail on the blog every day thing then....eh well, what can I say....the facts here I'm afraid speak for themselves.....we lost our lovely black cat with the question mark tail, Loki to car last week, we found out on Thursday morning, so you could say my mind was elsewhere for the remainder of the week :-(  We've buried the poor mite, under a bush in the back garden and popped a few bulbs in around him, he's sorely missed.
I also had Harvest Festival to contend with, which involved quite a bit of cake baking and icing, as Apryl was away, so I felt I had to do my bit!
Thus the competitions have been a bit lax for the two days at the end of last week, I hope you can forgive my mind being elsewhere.
I've kicked off this week, with a silly one and two really, I stand no chance what so ever and to be honest, I shouldn't  have even have bothered with either of them!  I did the National Lottery for the 1st time in at least a year on Saturday night, with the spectacular fail of not one single number coming up!!! so I pushed the boat out last night (Sunday) and did the X-Factory competition as well (why did I just throw money at ITV/Cowell, like he's not got enough cash?) so I hope that covers the two competitions I missed at the end of last week and so onto today.....I've entered a comp to win £500 in Co-Op Vouchers, all for telling Co-Op what I think of and what I do and don't know about some of their services.  Wish me luck!

Wednesdays Competiton

Todays competition entry is courtesy of Channel 4

http://www.channel4.com/4homes/play-win/

I'm attempting to win a nights stay at Celtic Manor in Wales, with a visit to Made by Hand Wales, which is a rather large craft fair, thrown in and apparently a swanky necklace too! fingers x'd eh!

In other news our cat has gone missing :-( not good....he went out after breakfast yesterday and we've not seen him since.......we're missing him very much.......hope he turns up soon..........and is just shut in someones shed somewhere.......

Daybreak Competitions

Today I've been busy with boring old work, followed by my friends son's 7th Birthday Party, which was a yummy feast of pizza and (coffee for the adults) and red cake! so it's been a quick fix for the competition entry tonight, using the old Daybreak competitions page, today for a Sony 32" TV, well you never know?! and we could do with a new one!  and whilst I was at it, I also entered the win £350 vouchers of arcadia shopping vouchers, I need a new wardrobe I think, after all which girl doesn't :-)

Ecover Competition

Todays entry won't be drawn until way into next year, but hey, I'll have forgotten all about it by then, so a win would be a lovely surprise!
I foudn a lovely set of vouchers for money off attached to the Ecover washing up liquid, and as I'm particulary fond of their Multi Surface Cleaner, this seemed like a bargin to buy the washing up liquid, enter the comp and get 3 x vouchers to use against product at the same time.  I particularly like Ecover as a brand, as their factory is totally green too :-)
The competition, in case your wondering is win a years supply of all of their cleaning products! if you fancy it go to www.tryecover.com/yearsupply and give them your details, what could be more simple?

Ford Donnington Day

So Friday morning my dad and I went off to Donnington for a day out with Ford, getting to trial and test their latest range of cars.

We arrived to a lovely bacon sarnie and coffee, what better way to start the day, the people in the room were divided up into four groups and off we went.

First up we got to test drive two of the new range, as I'd already had the Galaxy previously, we went for the S-Max and then the Kuga (4x4 Chelsea Tractor wannabe).  The S-Max was a lovely drive, both cars were automatic (why no stick shift I have no idea) but we got to whizz upto the local services and back without any bother, it picked up nicely, had lots of space inside (7 seats) and boot space, which always helps if you have a ton of family in tow.  Alas the radio, sat nav etc weren't loaded, so we couldn't test any of these, but for a good size family car, this would do the job nicely.  Next up was the Kuga, which had funky adjustable electric seating (it's the small things that amuse me) and the double hatch boot, just in case you couldn't be bothered to open the whole thing to put your shopping in.  I did feel this car was aimed at the Chelsea Tractor market, I somehow can't see it doing much off roading (particularly as we tried out the automatic...) but it drove well and as we later found out, has Fords new EPS technology on it http://forums.motortrend.com/70/6662823/the-general-forum/ford-eps-improves-product-lineup-electronic-power/index.html  these guys go into it in more detail if your interested, but basically it stops the car skidding or spinning, by anticipating and reacting to what the driver is doing.  More on that in a bit.

After the car test, we did the boring bit of the day, which involved safety talks and the sales guys trying to get us to buy their new range of cars.  So that's the New S-Max, Galaxy and C-Max Grande, of which the latter impressed me the most, having sliding back doors, an additional two pop up seats in the boot (5 seats or 7 madam) and a nifty trick middle seat, which could be whipped out of the way in a jiffy so you can get between the two back seat rows from the inside (but you still have to get out of the front and into the back door, as the middle console is in the way at the front) I'd like a test drive in one of those when they become available though, as it could be a serious contender for our next family car.  (I love the way I'm writing this like we're going to have a none family car as well! hahahaha)

After lunch (sarnies, cold chips or luke warm soup, coffee and biscuits, I think they got out of sync with the caterers somewhat)  it was off to the 4 x 4 track for some serious fun in a Ford Ranger (twincab van for those of you who don't know) :-).  Dad drove 1st and didn't do too bad a job, so I had no excuses when it was my turn, we did the same 1st part of the 4 x 4 course, muddy water, ramps, steps and then stopped to get the engine jet washed, then it was off onto the dryer part of the course, where I managed to get us to 30 degrees twice! on either side of the van, we did some serious hillage too, all lots of fun and I didn't get stuck once (unlike some of our fellow drivers) so hurrah for me! :-) 

Onto the final bit of our day and I made the mistake of warming up with a hot chocolate, with hindsight I'd have left this until last, but hey, I was getting cold and thirsty and it seemed like a good idea at the time, whilst I was queing to test drive the Kuga round the course that had been set up for us.  This is where we got to test the EPS technology, by trying to roll the Kuga basically, we were asked to drive at a set of cones, (to start with at 30, but this quickly descended into as fast as each person in each car could or wanted to!) swerve to the right, then immediate left again, the idea being to demonstrate how the technology compensates on the opposite side of the car to prevent it falling over, so of course this became a competition to see who in the group could get which wheels of the car off the ground :-)  I didn't do as well as the two boys in our group (who got two wheels off briefly), but I gave it a damn good go!  So basically the course went, swerve, down the hill, racing line through the cones, next set of cones weave, hard right and feel the car compensate for your oversteering and not spin out, then back up the hill, racing line through cones, next set swerve the other way.  I managed it all fairly fast, to the point Sarah our instructor was hanging onto the door handle yelling 'don't forget to weave', which I wasn't, I'd just left it till the last minute to break :-) they wanted the car testing after all!   Dad however fluffed it on all 4 occasions he tried it, I'm guessing at his age, being in the back whilst I threw him around was enough for him! he said he needed arrows on the ground to tell him where he was going, but I think he just didn't want to swerve at speed just in case he crashed??

The final bit of the day and the 'piece de resistance' was the Hot Lap in the RS Turbo, we got our helmets on and this is where I wished I'd have left the hot chocolate a bit, as I ended up in the back (one lap only and I figured at his age (68) my dad might not be doing a hot lap again, so he got the front (they only just let him do this one...) so off we went, very blooming fast! it was all over in about 2 minutes, we followed the initial Kuga course, then headed off on a track to the left, right, straight on, right, right, down to 60/40 through a chicane and back to the start, it was sooooo fast, very good fun :-) and I so wanted to do it again, but bah, it was a one time lap.....and to be honest after I got out I started to feel rather quesy (which I reckon I wouldn't have in the front?).  I'm waiting to see the video of this bit for the rest of the speeds, as I can't remember, but the driver was shouting them out all the time!

So a cracking day was had, Dad has been happily making his mates jealous with his RS Turbo ride by all accounts and we got a great goodie bag at the end too, with an MP3 player in it, which daughter no1 has her eye on, pens, paper, mousemats and a Tomy MegaSketcher!! (that's the mumsnet bit, where the competition was located)  I want to go again, maybe BMW or Audi next time, whaddya reckon my chances are?

Too Tired - Fabulous Day!

I'm going to post properly on this on Sunday as I've just got back from work via Donnington Park from the fabulous day out with Ford, that I won in the Mumsnet Competition and as it's 9:44 pm and I've not yet had my tea, I'm really not functioning well.  It's been great though, and I'll tell you all about it on Sunday, when I'm resting up after a hard weeks graft, colds and eventually having lots of fun today :-)
So please excuse me for no competition entry today, as I have been rather busy reaping the rewards! (and I'm blagging a day off tomorrow too, as I'll be at work all day)

A Helping Hand

I've had a helping hand with Today's competition, a lovely young lady who I work with, insisted that as I'm snotty and busy, I should have the wordsearch competition that she'd done whilst having her lunch! so yes, I've cheated really, but a competition has been completed and sent off in my name! It's for a £25 voucher for Scented Willow, who are on Oxford Street, Ripley, Derbyshire.  They do lots of lovely smelly things, candles, soaps, jewllery etc, in face I was just in there the other day eyeing things up for Xmas! as this comp was is the local free magazine 'All Things Local' I doubt I have much of a chance of winning, as their will be a lot of entrants, but you never know eh!

Snot and everything after

So now I'm upto my eyeballs in snot, or so it seems, when I really should be getting on with some quality competition entering! however dear blog followers I have failed.
Illness got the better of one of our managers yesterday, so I had to go and cover her shift, which kinda worked and kinda didn't as I couldn't get childcare for the whole night, so I ended up cancelling some of the work related events and closing the store earlier that we would have liked, so I could go and get the kids - the perils of self employment.....so no blogging or competitions for me yesterday.

Today however I did manage a comp! an easy one really, the new sainsburys mag is out, so I've entered their SB11 one, to win all the groovy stuff on the back page, whilst also giving to their nominated charity of the month :-)  Who this month are Phab, a social inclusion and tolerance group for young adults with mixed abilities over in Birmingham .  As usual if you fancy entering text SB11 followed by a space, your name, address and tel no to 85088.

More comps, shame about the illness

Well I did enter a few comps on Friday, but I forgot to enter them on here! 'fail' but now that I'm poorly and stuck on the sofa feeling very sorry for myself, I can at least let you lot know what I've been upto.

Competition wise, I entered a pile of stuff on Friday, I've gone for Win a Spa weekend for two (meals included) somewhere in Surry.   Win a set of paints, brushes and rollers! (well you never know when you need to decorate right?)  Win a swimming week in cornwall for 2 adults and 2 kids, to be taken between Dec and March (freezing right?) but it would give the kids a week of quality swimming lessons, with us parents getting a blessed week away from it all, so surely worth a go (even if we can't actually go due to work committments, maybe we could beg someone to look after work?)  So I reckon that covered the 3 days Fri-Sun that I've not blogged for, at least I managed to do the comps eh!

Todays comp will be another walkers crisps £10 if it rains, as I have that sat in the kitchen, ready to rock, fingers x'd that I feel better soon, so I can get on with stuff, cause I hate being ill!

Win a Honda Civic Mugen - Concept Car

Oppse missed a day yesterday, I'm blaming the fact I had to stay at work yesterday evening, so by the time I got home and got the girls into bed at 9pm on a school night (ahem) it was virtually time for me to go to bed myself, which I duely did after I'd made tea.

I should really do two competitions today to make up for missing one yesterday, but instead I'm just going for this one! it closes on the 15th, one entry per person, so if you fancy your chances, get in fast! Good Luck.
http://www.honda.co.uk/cars/btcc/winacivicmugen/

I'm actually wondering with it being a concept car up for grabs, if when it breaks, you'll ever be able to get parts for it......on the other hand, someone out there might pay a lot of money to get their hands on it/not expect to see it used for the school run (note to self, you should keep embarrasing thoughts like that in your head) well it's either that or it'll turn into the car A and I flog to work and back in! oooh go on, everyone knows we need a new car, come on Karma deliver me one for the win eh!

IPOD Touch anyone?

Todays attempted for the win is an IPOD Touch! gotta be in it to win it right?
http://www.itv.com/daybreak/onlinecompetitions
to be honest, there's enough competitions on here to keep me going for a few days, though I think I'll skip attempting to win the flight with the scientologist......

Weekend off/Todays competition

As weekends are a cross between work and family time (when we can grab it) I've decided not to blog on them! (also it gives me two days off trying to win things! I'm coping out already eh?) as it is we worked all day Saturday, then retrieved the kids from Grans and spent Sunday chilling out, recovering from a bonkers week, only for it all to start again today! (of course it bucketed it down with rain all day Sunday, so imagine my surprise when Walkers Crisps informed me that I'd not won £10, as it hadn't rained on my square in Wales - travesty!)
Todays competition is a local one courtesy of our county council! I have taken my used batteries into our local library and filled out a voucher (and had to borrow an item, which involved me registering to use the library too!) but it's meant that I'm now entered into the competition to win some AA Batteries and a Charger for them, which surely will be useful :-)

It's a WIN!! Ford Test Drive Day

I'm having my fair share of good luck at the moment, as I've won my 2nd competition with Ford this year! courtesy of mumsnet competitions again! so I can highly recommend that site for a good win ratio! (so that's one win in Sept and one win in Oct, not a bad average for me eh?)

I get to play at Donnington Race Track for a day :-)  yeeeeee haaaaaaa!
There's a list of what's included in the day below:

~ Ford Ranger off road - an instructor will teach you the skills to handle off road driving, with the chance to drive a Ford Ranger 4x4
~ Safety and technology update - you'll be shown all about Ford cars, including how to safely fit car seats, details on driving technology and using convenience features
~ Electronic Stability Programme (ESP) demonstration - you can test the effectiveness of our braking systems whilst tackling different road trials
~ Hot laps - a professional instructor will take you on a high speed lap in a Focus RS (Europe's fastest production car) - helmets are provided!!
~ Road test - see what you think about the new S-MAX, new Galaxy and latest Mondeo by putting them through their paces on the roads surrounding Donington Park

I think the highlight will be the lap in the Focus RS to be honest, I can't wait to get my hands on that! in a STIG stylie! (what's the betting I'm crap!) Apparently it's all being filmed for Ford use too 'gwer' could be interesting!

I do get to take a partner on this one, but sadly my other half and I both work together, and only one of us can afford to be off work at a time at the moment, so I may be taking my dad instead (who is very excited at the idea, I'm just waiting to find out if he's young enough to be allowed to go, at 68....) TBA, I'll have a very happy dad if he can come!

It's a late one!

A rather late post from me today, but I think I've just about managed to post on Thursday!
I've found the Oasis drinks competition today! I'd kind of noticed the adverts for it on TV, but to be honest hadn't paid much attention.  Today however as I've been stuck at work all day, I've been in need of a drink or two, thus Oasis was the beverage of choice and that was when I noticed the competition! It was a text one, so has probably cost me a £1 or so to enter, the winner (s) (per day apparently) get to do something funky for lunch, like go tightrope walking, or tank driving! apparently today was the last day to enter this part of the prize, if I'm reading the small print correctly, however there's a bonus draw get £100 to spend on lunch for the winner and a friend which is drawn way later in the year, looks like there may even be a further additional prize too, but to be honest the small print is hurting my eyes (it's that small) so hey, I've entered and if nothing else I may win a bottle of juice.

Post office competition

Found another quick competition, to enter when I went into the Post Office yesterday!
They do a gift card there, which is a one card for a million stores card, (OK possibly slight exageration there) but you get the idea, anyway, for a mere text (at the normal price of about a £1.00 for these things) you needed to text GIFT, your name and email to 51500 and be in with the chance of winning a £1000.00 spending spree, well how could a girl pass up that possibility :-)

Just a quick one

This is the worlds quickest post, as I'm shovelling the last of husbands birthday cake down my mouth! (I have to, I need the cake tray to put the next batch onto!) and before I run into work.

mumsnet.com are responsible for this one, there's an anti-bullying survey on their site, in conjunction with kidscape, simply pop on and answer the questions and you too could win tickets to Disney on Ice in Brum (for a family of four) plus an overnight hotel stay!  

Busy weekend but here I am!

Totally mad busy weekend with work galore in the stores, too much on in fact, so HUGE thanks to Richard H, Richard S, Amy and the rest of the Crew for running /sorting out the LARP for us up at Murton Park this weekend.  Thus I didn't blog for two days :-( but at least I'm here briefly today!

Todays competition is also courtesy of Sainsburys, this time it's their in store Magazine though, with a mega give away on the back page, which includes Wine, Kettles, Toasters, Hotel Stays,  Smelly Stuff, Jewllery etc.  All profits go to Charity, so worth entering for the good cause and a bonus if I win anything :-)
To enter call 0901 292 5268 (tis a £1 from BT landlines) or text SB10 followed by a space, your name, address and tel to 85055, or you can postcard them on Sainsburys Magazine, Winner Takes it All Prize Draw, 20 Upper Ground, London, SE1 9PD.

This week will be a total challenge for me to keep up this blog, as we have staff on holiday, so I'm working double shifts, but try I will! the week will tell you all how I get on :-z

Friday 24th September, Lots of Entries!

So Sainsburys Finance Magazine arrived this morning (I guess they send it to all credit card holders?)
anyway, it had 4 competitions in it, yes, a whopping 4.
So I've just attempted to win the following:

A Luxury Break in the Cotswolds (now that would be nice, although no idea when we'd be able to take it, what with two stores to run and our current minimal staffing)

A Pack of Bulbs (gift packs apparenlty)  Xmas prezzie for someone?

A Home Baking Kit, The kids would love us to get that, we'd have hours of cooking fun.

A 'stylish' Espresso Maker, really fancy this one, DeLonghi Icona Pump Espresso Maker, oooooh just think of the coffee I could get!

Anyway if you want to join me in entering any of these you need to email to the following email addresses the following info.

Your Name and Address, Telephone and Nectar Card Number.

Send your entries to:

cotswolds@sainsburysfinancemagazine.co.uk
bulbs@sainsburysfinancemagazine.co.uk
baking@sainsburysfinancemagazine.co.uk
coffee@sainsburysfinancemagazine.co.uk

Here's hoping for some good luck!

23rd September Competition Entry is - Walkers Crisps Win £10 Every day it rains!

This seems an appropriate competition for me to enter today, as it's just belted it down outside along with a good bit of thunder and lightening too http://www.isleofwightweather.co.uk/live_storm_data.htm is great if you fancy yourself as a bit of a storm chaser! but back to the competition.

To enter this one, simply buy a Walkers Crisps Multipack (on offer in Sainsburys at the moment! so that's double win) go to http://www.walkers.co.uk/ sign yourself up and then you get to choose a grid reference somewhere in the UK, X days in the future and if it rains on that exact spot, then Walkers gift you £10.00.  What could be simpler?  after all this is the UK, so it should rain, lets face it most of the time! or do Walkers know something we don't for this Autumn?  I'll let you know how I get on!

The First Win - Ford Galaxy Trial

This prize was the inspiration for me to start this blog, let's hope my luck continues!  I hope you enjoy reading my trials and tribulations.

Imagine my happy surprise/delight when I found out I'd won, (courtesy of http://www.mumsnet.com/)  not only outdoor cinema tickets to see Toy Story at Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire (we didn't go it rained torrentially) but also a nibbly food hamper and then to top it all a 3 day trial of a Ford Galaxy!! WOOT (says the owner of a rather old and cronky Citroen, which to give it a big up, has done over 100,000 miles now and is still working!)


The lovely Ford Galaxy

The car was delivered on Thursday, with a full tank of gas (as our American friends say, but actually it was Diesel)  the lovely people at Ford, said we only needed to leave a quarter of a tank in when we handed it back! so the fuel came free too, WIN. 

The tec spec says it's a Ford Galaxy 2.0 TDCI (IV) Zetec 6SP 140PS.  Alas in my excitement I've not written down all the spec type stuff, as I didn't really think about blogging my luck until after the event.  I can say that it did 41mpg whilst we had it, and was only £155 to tax (as opposed to my 1.8 petrol Citroen, which is £180 per year) .   The colour was a kind of greeny brown, it seemed to depend on the light as to which colour?! My husband and I were both insured to drive it, so naturally I got first go on the delivery day, when I took it for a trip to my friend Meridians, where we loaded it up with her family and mine and went for a whizz!  7 seats are GREAT!

This was prior to loosing sight of it for two days, as my dearly beloved decided it was best to test the car going to and from work.  You'll be pleased to know he reported it fine in traffic around town and great on nippy country lanes on the way there too.  I found out it had gadgets, when I got it back to test myself on the Sunday, Husband had been making full use of the voice controls whilst he had it, and thus he merrily kept leaning over, pressing the button and asking for temperature and radio channel changes (which as the driver I quickly grew wary of, but I can see their use, when you don't have an over excited male in the car.)

The driving seat

As you can see from the photos, the piloting seat is much the same as most other cars.  For me it was odd not having a digital speed reading, as I've gotten used to that in the Citroen.  The handbrake reminded me of something from an aircraft, but was easy enough to use and wooo 6 speeds on the gears, I only managed to go fast enough to get into 6th twice!  The car handled brilliantly, the power steering was lovely and light (Please take note Citroen) and boy did the car accelerate nice and quickly (no, I didn't thrash it! I'm saving that for my next hoped for win from Ford! a day at Donnington, you know you want me to have that guys!).  I quite liked the amount of compartments on the central divide, (once I'd gotten used to having no where to put my handbag!) in face the storage was well thought out on the whole car, with further compartments on the central dash, and lots of places to put drinks through out the whole car.  Also included are interior lights everywhere you need them, mirrors (lipstick girls) and the obligatory sunglasses holder.

The kids loved the space in the rear, taking up residence on the back two seats for the duration of the Galaxys stay.  The grandparents were impressed by the car too, having a C-Max themselves, they could compare and contrast the models and were impressed with what they saw.  The car was great for our larger numbers and saved us £3.00 in parking charges on the Sunday trip out, as we were all in the one vehicle!

The 2nd row back

Alas you can't see a picture of the final row of seats, as blogger is for reasons only known to itself, not happy with my photo? but you get the gist of the space available in the car from what you can see.
There is space behind the final two seats for two large suitcases and they're all really easy to collapse, should you wish to use the vehicle for moving larger items than the kids. (Ikea furniture anyone).

All in all a fantastic car, I've recently driven (in the last two years) comparable cars, the Renault Espace, my Citroen Xsara Picasso and the Toyota Corolla Verso.  If I was looking to buy a reasonably priced 5/7 seat car, it'd be between the Galaxy and the Toyota, although the Galaxy could just take it, on the minimum spec gadgets.  I have to say, when Ford came to collect it on the Monday, it was hard to give it back......

Thanks to Ford and Mumsnet for providing this fantastic competition and prize.

Here we go!

This blog is dedicated to my little bid to change my own corner of the world, it's my little spot of positivity, or one could also call it stupidity in the face of adversity? depends if your glass is half full or half empty I guess?  So am I going to bother you all with my attempts at positive thinking? well I may, but I've decided the best and cheapest way to cheer myself up is by trying to win things! because let's face it, we all like to recieve goodies and surprise ones at that!
I've decided that I'm going to attempt to enter a competition a day for the rest of the year! and who knows I may just WIN something!  if I don't at least I can say I tried and who knows, I may just provide some of you out there with the impetus to enter a few competitions for the win as well. 
My aim is to list the competitions I've entered on here, so you can all join in if you wish.  If anyone out there sees a good one for me to enter I'd appreciate it if you'd leave me some comments.  If I win, of course I'll be letting you guys know all about the goodies.
I'm going to post about my first bit of good luck, after this post, I hope you enjoy reading about it.