There were 502 entries to the Vintage Christmas giveaway, and the winner chosen by a random number generator was number 416 - Pamela Logan of Braintree, Massachusetts, USA.
Congratulations Pamela - your Vintage Christmas cards will be winging their way to you shortly!
Thank you to everyone who entered, especially to all of you who made such lovely comments about the site in your emails. There will be another giveaway in the New Year, so watch this space!
Showing posts with label Giveaway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Giveaway. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Another Week Begins
Just a reminder that the Vintage Christmas Giveaway closes today at midnight UK time. If you would like to be in with a chance to win the vintage design Christmas postcards from Fortnum and Mason, just send me an email to april@21stcenturyhousewife.com with the words “Vintage Christmas” in the subject line before midnight tonight. There have been a large number of entries already, but there is always room for a few more! Each entry has been assigned a number as it arrives and I will use a random number generator to choose the winner. (There are far too many entries to just pull one out of a hat this time!)
It’s a busy start to the week with personal training and yoga today. Plus, we are off to Athens on Wednesday. I’ve got family coming to stay in our home while we are away so I’ve been rushing round getting everything ready for visitors as well as washing, ironing and packing. We always have friends or family come to stay when we go away. We are close enough to London that it is a nice break for them, and we know our home is never empty so that is nice for us!
I’m very excited about Athens as it is a place I have wanted to go ever since I first learned about it back in primary school. I’ve dreamed of seeing the Acropolis, the Roman Forum, the temples and all the other historic ruins I learned about as a child. In fact,up until I was about twelve and found out it involved a lot of camping, dust and far more bones than I was comfortable with, I really wanted to be an archaeologist. I guess that is where our son gets his interest in Ancient History from! I should have lots of interesting things to blog about from Athens - provided the internet connection in the hotel works well!
Actually, I have never been to Greece at all before, so I am looking forward to learning more about Greek food and traditions, and going to some nice restaurants, which I will blog about here and also on Recipes from the 21st Century Housewife’s© Kitchen.
Tomorrow my son and I are off to visit an old friend back where we used to live near Burton-on-Trent. We have not seen her since June, so it has been far too long! We are going to one of our favourite garden centres for lunch. It might sound odd, but they have a fantastic restaurant. Often garden centres in England do. This one also always has spectacular Christmas decorations all throughout their very large shop. I’m looking forward to spending some time with our friend, and also getting some inspiration for our Christmas decorating! Also, I always enjoy long drives with my son as it is a chance for us to really talk away from all the distractions of day to day life. I’m really looking forward to that as well.
Our clocks “fell” back an hour Sunday night here in England so as I sit here typing at 5pm it is pitch dark outside. I’m quite looking forward to seeing some sunshine in Greece! It really is a busy time here as we will only be back from Athens for three days before we are heading off to Paris for a long weekend. I do love travelling and am definitely at my happiest when we are doing lots of it - so I am very happy (and so very grateful!) at the moment.
 
Thursday, October 08, 2009
A Busy Week, A New Page, A New Recipe and the Giveaway
Where is the week going? Talk about flying by at lightening speed! We have been out every night except Tuesday so far, and we are out tonight and tomorrow as well.
Last night we were in London at a talk by Richard Bandler, the co-founder of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). It was a fascinating seminar and I learned an awful lot. There were 350 people there!
Of course, you never agree with everything any speaker says, but it was very interesting indeed. I am using some of the techniques he discussed today and they are very effective!
I had met my husband earlier in the evening in a very rainy Regent Street so that we could head over to the West Brompton hotel where the seminar was being held together. I’m fascinated by London in the rain - and how busy London streets turn into a sea of umbrellas. Coming up the stairs from the tube station, there is a huge human traffic jam as people stop on the top step to open theirs. It’s a challenging task as the street in front of them is full of people trudging by with their own brollies, and you have to find a tiny space in which to open yours, hopefully without impaling anyone or poking them in the eye. This generally involves having to stand on tiptoe and attempting to open your brolly as high above the heads travelling past you as you can. It’s a dangerous thing, as if the brolly gets caught you will be dragged along with the crowd, who are generally (through some weird twist of fate) all heading in the opposite direction from that in which you want to go. Finding a space big enough to hold both you and your umbrella, which allows you to join the crowd and move along your desired path can take some time. All the while you are being jostled by the crowd behind, who quite rightly want to get up to street level as well! Once you are out in the sea of people, navigating along the pavement is a seriously challenging task as people dart here and there clutching their umbrellas, never seeming to follow a straight path. Just as you have gotten used to this strange dynamic, you will see an umbrella approaching that is twice the size of the person holding it - usually a golf umbrella - heading dangerously towards you at what seems like great speed. It’s like a weird game of dodge ‘ems or bumper cars played by people holding umbrellas of all sizes and shapes on some of the busiest streets in the world. Ah, London....
Tonight and tomorrow night see us at The Reading Comedy Festival, which has been held annually for the last six years. This year there are over sixty performances during a two week period, from big names like Alistair McGowan and Jimmy Carr to young performers looking for their first big break. There are also comedy workshops and even plays, like Victoria Wood’s “Dinner Ladies”. It’s a wonderful festival, and well worth a visit if you live anywhere nearby.
By the way, lots of you have emailed me to ask about tips for surviving (and hopefully thriving!) during the recession so now there is a new page on 21stcenturyhousewife.com to check out - Recession Busting. If you have any tips you think I have missed, do be sure to email me on the usual address - april@21stcenturyhousewife.com
And don’t forget to enter this month’s Giveaway. I’ve had lots of entries already, so be sure to get yours in before the closing date - Monday 26th October. Remember you don’t have to live in the UK to enter - the last giveaway winner was from Portugal.
Oh, and check out a really yummy new recipe I developed this week - Maple Pecan and Apple Loaf. It’s a delicious, not too sweet Autumn loaf that is somewhere between a “bread” and a “cake” - plus its low sugar content and the addition of whole wheat flour mean it is good for you too! It’s on my Food Blog - to see it, click here.
Got to go now - see you later in the week!
Last night we were in London at a talk by Richard Bandler, the co-founder of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). It was a fascinating seminar and I learned an awful lot. There were 350 people there!
Of course, you never agree with everything any speaker says, but it was very interesting indeed. I am using some of the techniques he discussed today and they are very effective!
I had met my husband earlier in the evening in a very rainy Regent Street so that we could head over to the West Brompton hotel where the seminar was being held together. I’m fascinated by London in the rain - and how busy London streets turn into a sea of umbrellas. Coming up the stairs from the tube station, there is a huge human traffic jam as people stop on the top step to open theirs. It’s a challenging task as the street in front of them is full of people trudging by with their own brollies, and you have to find a tiny space in which to open yours, hopefully without impaling anyone or poking them in the eye. This generally involves having to stand on tiptoe and attempting to open your brolly as high above the heads travelling past you as you can. It’s a dangerous thing, as if the brolly gets caught you will be dragged along with the crowd, who are generally (through some weird twist of fate) all heading in the opposite direction from that in which you want to go. Finding a space big enough to hold both you and your umbrella, which allows you to join the crowd and move along your desired path can take some time. All the while you are being jostled by the crowd behind, who quite rightly want to get up to street level as well! Once you are out in the sea of people, navigating along the pavement is a seriously challenging task as people dart here and there clutching their umbrellas, never seeming to follow a straight path. Just as you have gotten used to this strange dynamic, you will see an umbrella approaching that is twice the size of the person holding it - usually a golf umbrella - heading dangerously towards you at what seems like great speed. It’s like a weird game of dodge ‘ems or bumper cars played by people holding umbrellas of all sizes and shapes on some of the busiest streets in the world. Ah, London....
Tonight and tomorrow night see us at The Reading Comedy Festival, which has been held annually for the last six years. This year there are over sixty performances during a two week period, from big names like Alistair McGowan and Jimmy Carr to young performers looking for their first big break. There are also comedy workshops and even plays, like Victoria Wood’s “Dinner Ladies”. It’s a wonderful festival, and well worth a visit if you live anywhere nearby.
By the way, lots of you have emailed me to ask about tips for surviving (and hopefully thriving!) during the recession so now there is a new page on 21stcenturyhousewife.com to check out - Recession Busting. If you have any tips you think I have missed, do be sure to email me on the usual address - april@21stcenturyhousewife.com
And don’t forget to enter this month’s Giveaway. I’ve had lots of entries already, so be sure to get yours in before the closing date - Monday 26th October. Remember you don’t have to live in the UK to enter - the last giveaway winner was from Portugal.
Oh, and check out a really yummy new recipe I developed this week - Maple Pecan and Apple Loaf. It’s a delicious, not too sweet Autumn loaf that is somewhere between a “bread” and a “cake” - plus its low sugar content and the addition of whole wheat flour mean it is good for you too! It’s on my Food Blog - to see it, click here.
Got to go now - see you later in the week!
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