The post Silent Sunday 19/05/2013 #SilentSunday #SocialPix appeared first on Always a friend.

BassBoomz Bluetooth Speaker is a big sound in a small packet! I have previously reviewed the BaseBuds in-ear noise cancelling headphones. I loved them & was pleased to review the BassBoomz bluetooth speaker.

In my opinion this is the best bluetooth speaker around. BassBoomz speaker is small in size but massive in volume.

I took it with me to the cricket club & as you can tell from the video, the sound quality was improved from listening to it on an iphone to listening on the BassBoomz speaker.

We all loved the compact size of the BassBoomz speaker and the sound quality was incredible, it’s ideal for carrying around the house with you and even better for when your travelling. Rather than have your phone on view with your music playing you can just use the BassBoomz speaker and keep your phone hidden.

The BassBommz speaker would be great at a party, come on we know some people have dubious taste in music so with the BassBoomz speaker it is so easy to get the greatest tunes from everyone’s bluetooth enabled device to get your party rocking.

• Explosive sound quality – twist and release the Bass Expansion system
• Ideal for your smartphone, MP3 players, tablets and laptops
• Compatible with all wireless devices with a Bluetooth connection
• Compatiable with any audio device that has a 3.5mm audio jack output
• Dual connectivity available – connect 2 BassBoomz together using the enclosed splitter wire for double the sound
• Portable and pocket-sized for your music on-the-go!

Experience superior sound quality through the powerful built-in speaker giving depth and clarity to your music. Designed with an innovative Bass Expansion System for an impressive volume-to-size digital amplifier giving you deep, rich bass tones. Simply twist and release to activate an enhanced entertainment experience.

All BassBoomzTM come with a built-in high performance Li-ion rechargeable battery, so you can hear your music at 70% volume for an amazing 5-6 hours. The solid aluminium construction with high grip base provides stability, reduced interference and vibration dampening when used on hard surfaces.

All this impressive design and technology is packed into a portable, pocket-sized high performance Bluetooth speaker for music on the go. The BassBoomzTM also supports all devices connection through a 3.5mm audio jack.

Disclosure:- I was sent the BassBoomz Bluetooth Speaker FOC for the purpose of this review but all the opinions are my own & honest.

The post Review:- BassBoomz, Bluetooth Speaker. appeared first on Always a friend.

Paradise at the end of the road

2007-01-15 to 2007-01-21

So I last left you in Phnom Penh. Well the Heart of Darkness did get my money for a third night and the cheer I got from the staff when I walked through the door was a little disconcerting! Next morning I was up and ready to go at 7:30am to take a cab to the border. You have to show liberal amounts of patience when you travel anywhere but it was 9am before they took me to this part of the city where I was assured my `cab` was going at 9:30am.

My cab turned out to be a Ute which had 6 people in the cabin and 16 hanging on to boxes in the back!! We didn`t leave till 11am because they wanted to get one more person crammed in! I got some dry looks because I was taking the entire front passenger seat to myself but I didn`t care, from what I saw they were handing over, I`d paid as much as all the Beverley Hillbillies hanging on for dear life on the back!

It was an amazing drive though, through quarries where they were still bombing to make roads in this part of the world and four ferry crossings (that has gone on the list of all of the various modes of transport I have taken so far on this trip. Submarine, balloon and camel to go and I get a set of steak knives!!). But my heart sank when I asked when we were getting to our destination. 5pm was the earnest response but I know now that that usually means 6:30pm. We arrived in at 6:28pm!

I got to the border with the help of a motorbike taxi that I am convinced had a death wish. I took my cap off as we sped down the road (I didn`t want to lose it) but it caught in the wind and nearly dragged me off!). I walked across the border and found myself stuck on the other side with no hope of getting to Bangkok so I had to stay in a local village. Slim Dusty once sang about “A pub with no beer” but at least he could have some shots or a nice wine,  well I`ve just stayed in “The town with no pub”!

An enforced night off the partying wasn`t a bad thing before Bangkok though. You know about the craziness of Bangkok so I won`t go into it again but suffice to say there were some large nights with Thai Tom Jones and Thai Elvis! I met up with Andy, a mate I`d last seen in Hanoi and we flew to Phuket.

We arrived into Patong Beach at 7:15pm in the rain and it wasn`t looking good for accommodation as the place was packed with tourists. But ever the optimists we persevered and got a place for the night and went out.

Patong is where Neon goes to die and on this one crazy street there was about 300 prostitute/lady boys vying for the all too available business. It was a terrible place but we found Scruffy Murphy`s bar and never one to pass an Irish bar while in foreign lands, we went in. We`d met up with Kasey from Sydney and Ryan and Brian from the States.They had this great band playing covers, so never one to shirk my responsibilities I got up and had a song! On my way home I chanced upon a guy playing guitar so I sat with him and sang a few songs but he kept breaking his strings but insisted on playing on!

I got out of Patong next day and went to Kata Beach where my pursuit of a colour other than white began in earnest. But after all my trekking and travels, the long bus journeys, the sickness and the tiredness I have reached Paradise. We got to Ko Phi Phi island yesterday and I love it here! It was literally wiped out in the Tsunami but they have rebuilt but it still has a little village feel about it because it has taken them so long to re-establish themselves. So you get this great feeling that you have found this hideaway.

The island is packed here aswell of some seriously tanned people. I know I am jealous but seriously some of these people are truly tandoori in colour and several of them would make excellent wallets or bags! I was introduced to the term “Poshpacker” by Kasey when we saw a girl wearing the finest of clothes, coming out of a lavish hotel with full make up on at midday but with a backpack! She won`t last long methinks.

Its funny the `luxuries` that you take for granted at home. We were checking into a guest house the other day and he told us that the toilet in our room flushes and we both let out a cheer! Usually you have to get a bucket of water to flush it! And another thing I have noticed in SE Asia is their insistance to get some little spelling wrong in every one of their signs! So you are often reading your `manu` and getting `french fried` with your meals assuming that its during their `openning` hours! I`m sure that they can spell perfectly but they know that us tourists like to point out the cute spelling mistakes!

So in just a few days I have gone a nice salmony colour and I stand beside people who are whiter than me to make myself feel better! But this place is amazing, the people are so kind and full of laughter which is amazing when you think of how devastated they must have been only 2 years ago. Resilient is not the word for it.

So many people have tattoos that to not have one makes me quite unique! Some of the designs are seriously elaborate and must have taken days to do. They are big into their fire shows around here and we had a great night last night, drinking buckets on the beach!

Swimming in the ridiculously clear waters around here with scores of fish around you is about as far detached from the cubicle where you are probably reading this from as I can imagine! So many times I say to myself “That I should have done this years ago” but I am so glad that I am doing it now. If any of ye are thinking about dropping everything and going travelling I can tell you seriously you won`t regret it!

Special mention for how big a night I had after the Liverpool win over Chelsea. A friend of mine mailed me to say that since I have left Australia, Liverpool have been on fire. Well I would gladly play my part and stay over here until the end of the season if they need me to! Stand by for some more photos that I will upload in the next few days. If any of ye have questioned my sexuality you will have proof complete when you see one of the pics I have!

I hope you are well and thanks again to those that have kept mailing me or posting on my message board, I really love to get them!

Next:-

The Perplexing Questions of Paradise!

The post Diary of The Travelling Seanchai :- Paradise at the end of the road appeared first on Always a friend.

Having headed off to New St station, for me it was just a short hop into Birmingham, where a group of us met , for the short walk to The Studio where Blog Summit was being held.

I was great to put real faces to the twitter, Facebook & blog’s that I follow. I knew a few from last year, but there was a lot of new friendly faces to meet. Tots100 makes it possible with Blog Summit.

The “Schedule of Wonder” was split into sessions, in session 1 I chose “The Grill Section” where not only new bloggers learnt tips on how to improve our blogs, from disclosure details to making the “About Me” clearer.

Session 2, I headed for “How to create a killer SEO strategy” this was really quite intense & a few of us felt that we were dragging ourselves through mud! It takes a lot of brain power to understand it all & there was a lot of confused faces & funny tweets being sent around!

Lunch followed with scrummy sandwiches & more soft drinks, we were very well behaved, if not noisy!

A photo booth was placed with a dressing up box! Check out more pictures here.

Insanity reigns supreme in blogging land!

Copyright: @Tom Arber Photography

After lunch I headed for the “How to be a travel blogger” session, this really interested me as I’ve covered a lot of travel on my blog, purely from our travel experiences & although I could potentially earn money from it, I think I will continue to do it the way I do & enjoy it, without the stress of “having” to write about stuff we’ve done.

Session 4 was an easy choice, “The Brand Panel” where we got to speak to PR’s & a few different brands, there is always a bit of “what should we expect from a good PR” & “what do brands expect from me”. It’s a 2 way street, we all have to be flexible, but we also have to be truthful.

Session 5 at Blog Summit was “How to be brilliant” hosted my Andy Cope, who sadly  tried to do a Brummie accent but only managed to do a Dudley accent! Lol but he’s from Derby so I wont hold that against him too much as that’s how I thought all Brummies sounded like till I moved here!  He explained that happiness is something that is our own destiny, why get up in the morning being negative, when there is so much positive in the world.

Tots100 set us a challenge to send  a guest post to another blogger, which I have done.

Thank you to everyone involved in making Blog Summit so enjoyable and helping us find out who we and our blogs are.

I have linked this post on  Blog Summit to Tots100

The post What happens when 100+ people attend Blog Summit!! appeared first on Always a friend.

Taxis, Temples and Torture

2007-01-08 to 2007-01-14

Hey all,

I`ve been a bit slack of late so apologies. I had a couple of mental nights in Bangkok, me and that city work way too well together. Then throw in the mad Aussie Mick and some towers of Chang and it was all starting to catch up with me! I took a bus to Aranya Prathet which is a dusty little town. The LP says that these are the best places to experience the real Asia but that`s rubbish. It`s off the beaten track because there is nothing there!

The next morning I went to the border with Cambodia and immediately a guy said that he would get me my visa (which usually can take a day) in about 10 mins for a fee. So I gave him my passport and he disappeared leaving me his old brick of a phone as collateral!! You have to have an element of trust in SE Asia but I did have a fleeting thought of how I was going to explain it to all of ye how I gave my passport away to some dodgy bloke at a border crossing!

When I walked across the border, which is a cool experience in its own right, I met two girls, one from Oz and one from NZ and we shared a cab to Siem Reap. Now if any of you have travelled around these parts you will know what this road is like (dubbed the worst road in SE Asia and believe me its up against some stiff opposition!). He drove like a crazy man as the girls peered between their fingers out the front as I pseudo calmly read a book and feigned Zen like trust in our driver! We hit another car and we saw a dog get hit aswell. At one point he was weaving either side of two cars ahead of us, there was no overtaking lane, just a gap that you had to go for!

We were welcomed by the street kids who could ream off the capital, approx population, languages spoken, president or prime minister and at least two lines in your native tongue. We checked in and after showering I went to the girls room to see if they were ready and comment on how good the shower was (they have just started their trip so I wanted to manage their expectations) and they said that theirs was ok but they didn`t like the fact that they had to hold it?! I looked in to their bathroom and realised that they had just washed themselves with the `butt gun`, the hose that the locals use to clean themselves off!! And neither of them had seen the great big shower in there!!

We had a big night out where we bumped into Milena (who I`d met in Sapa), Gennie (Bangkok), Steve (Chang Mai) and Zac (Luang Prabang). I then beat another Steve at pool 5-3 who is well on his way to an England cap in cricket, he`s a pro cricketer with Yorkshire and he`s only 23. We were supposed to get up at 4:30am to see the sunrise over Anghor Wat but drinking until 3am kind of scotched those plans! Nothing like missing out on one of the wonders of the world so you can have those few more beers at 2am!

Still we got there at 6:30am and it was amazing. The temple is surrounded by this huge moat which they had built for protection against hording masses who, when they reached it, had to work out how to now build a boat to cross it! The temple though is awesome and once the incredibly steep steps were overcome, it was just great to sit there and literally reflect for a while. There is a worldwide Internet poll on at the moment to decide on the new 7 wonders of the world. As much as I love it, it`s almost embarassing that the Sydney Opera House is in the shortlist along with this place, there is really no comparison.

We visited the Tomb Raider Temple where these amazing trees are literally engulfing the temples. We played with this little girl for a while who was about 4. She was so happy to throw and retrieve a little bead in the grass but she had to keep an eye out for her Mum as she would then have to say “You buy postcard?” just to keep her Mum happy that she was `working`

We came across a crash site and by the looks of the local guy on the side of the street, I wasn`t entirely sure that he was going to make it. On the way back, our guuy was crossing a street in our tuk tuk when a motorbike with two people on it came flying up and we all knew it was going to hit us. He pulled off a massive skid and hit us side on but somehow both him and his girlfriend stayed on their bikes. I thought they were going to come flying through the carriage and really do us some damage! But after a quick look at each other a few mumbled curses, both drivers just carried on, none of this “registration details please as I feel a healthy dose of whiplash and lawyer bills coming my way”!!

Another late night that night proceeded our 5:30am pick up for a speed boat to Phnom Penh where I am now. We sat on top of it and got soaked by the spray as we fell asleep. I woke up and decided I`d had enough and we went downstairs to roars of laughter by the other (drier) travellers! It was a good way to start up a conversation though!

I took a much needed siesta when I got in and we all went out with one of the girls friends who has been living here for 13 years. He said that it`s a great lifestyle where he hasn`t had to wash a plate or iron his clothes for all that time because he can pay others to do it! There were pictures of the relatively new king (not as bad as in Thailand where the King is literally everywhere!) who is causing some controversy because he hasn`t married and everyone knows that he is gay. The Cambodians would like him to take a wife to save face but I think it`s great that they`ve got a king AND queen all rolled into one!

Yesterday I set off to see S21, the school that was converted into a prison and torture chamber by the Khmer Rouge. Between 1975 and 1979, Pol Pot had over 2 million of his countrymen killed. (One picture there was of him and five of his mates, he`d had 4 of them executed later! With friends like that….) I immediately got a chill down my spine in this place, a really bad feeling. They ask that you don`t speak as you walk around but they needn`t have bothered, you are literally rendered speechless as you see the singular rooms where there is just a metal bed, some of the torture implements and a gruesome picture of a dismembered body that was found in this room.

The tortures were insane and I`m not going to go into them but it did leave me with a sick feeling in my stomach, I was walking in a room where in my lifetime, thousands of men, women and children were brutally tortured and killed. If you spoke a foreign language or wore glasses that was enough to convince them that you were intelligent and that meant you had to die. Another man was taken away from his village because he had a fat belly so it was assumed that he must be working with the CIA.

We have all read about the Holocaust but this seemed a lot more real but equally difficult to comprehend. The guest book where people could write their thoughts was full of questions like “How could we let this happen?” and “Why haven`t we learned from our mistakes of the past?” and then “Lets hope this never happens again” but I thought about Darfur and how it is happening and it`s happened in Somalia, Sarajevo etc and we do stand by and do nothing. I don`t know what the answer is, but it certainly made me depressed. Of the 40,000 people that passed through this prison, less than 12 survived.

To heighten this feeling of abject sadness, I took off to the Killing Fields, where they have found over 200 mass graves and 8000 bodies. There was a huge memorial with the skulls of the victims and so many of them were crushed in or had a bullet hole in them.

There was a grave of decapitated bodies, a grave for children and brutal pictures of how they were killed. It was just a little park, nothing more than that but it was where all these people arrived in a truck and then just walked to a grave and killed. No pause, no trial, just assured death.

My guide then offered to bring me to a shooting range (which I thought ironic in a sick way) but I`d had enough violence for one day. Instead I tried to do some good (and to try and pick up my spirits) and all you need to do to achieve happiness in Cambodia is to get a 50kg bag of rice and find an orphanage! Yay!!

The kids were amazing, not all of them were strictly orphans but their parents couldn`t support them so they were thrown out of the house. They don`t get any government assistance so they are heavily reliant on donations from backpackers. There are hundreds of orphanages in Phnom Penh so the travellers are spread thin so a visitor with a bag of rice made their day! It would have been easy to have felt smugly heroic for your good deed but you were immediately and sadly aware that this was just a drop in the ocean, it would feed the fifty kids there only about 6 meals each.

Karma was blessing me though as there was 5 gorgeous girls from Australia visiting aswell at the same time, playing football with the kids and walking around the farm. Some of the kids were really good at football, back heels, drag backs, the works and myself and a 4 foot kid played keep ups and headers (until I screwed it up much to his delight!) After the harrowing morning, I was in great form again and as I was being driven back on the motor bike I was beaming, waving at everyone and saying hello to my fellow commuters!

That good feeling carried on to watching Liverpool kill Watford and then a large group of us went out, played drinking games and then ended up in the only late night club worth going to, “The Heart of Darkness”!! (Say it in a Darth Vader voice for best affect!). The WWF name notwithstanding, it was a great club where the security padded you down going in as there have been some shootings in the past! And do you know what, 90% of the world know all the words to Ice Ice Baby!!

So I woke this morning too late to get out of this place so I am staying another night (The Heart of Darkness will probably get another chunk of my savings tonight!) before heading back to Bangkok on my way to the islands in the South of Thailand for some rest and relaxation, all this back packing can take it out of you!

Cambodia is such an amazing country though with a proud and artistic history (in Anghor Wat) and a brutal and senseless recent past. Everyone here my age and older has been affected directly about it and they try not to talk about it much. That`s understandable. They are so friendly here aswell, and the guys that run my guesthouse are all taking me out tonight for a few drinks. This may be my last entry!!

Oh and if you want to make a million dollars, set up a restaurant wherever you are reading this and hire Khmer cooks! The food here is among the best I have ever tasted and a massive meal will set you back a princely $1.50!

I hope you are all well and thanks to those that have written a message on the message board, I love to read them! And don`t worry Scotty, I`ll be back in the Bull soon enough mate and we`ll get those profits back up, just have the Coopers Red ready!!

Next :-

Paradise at the end of the road

The post Diary of The Travelling Seanchai :- Taxis, Temples and Torture appeared first on Always a friend.

I am proud to support Dementia Awareness Week.

The term ‘dementia‘ describes a set of symptoms that include loss of memory, mood changes, and problems with communication and reasoning. There are many types of dementia.

The most common are Alzheimers disease and vascular dementia. Dementia is progressive, which means the symptoms will gradually get worse. Which is why Dementia Awareness is so important.

These mugs (£5) are on sale now.

Alzheimer’s Society is a membership organisation, which works to improve the quality of life of people affected by dementia in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Many of our 20,000 members have personal experience of dementia, as carers, health professionals or people with dementia themselves, and their experiences help to inform our work.

Alzheimer’s Society is a registered charity providing support, advice, guidance and resources to both people with dementia and their carers. To find out more visit our websitehttp://www.alzheimers.org.uk

Visit the Alzheimer’s Society’s online shop for many more items to help make daily life a bit easier, plus support items, like the mugs.

Countdown to Dementia Awareness Week™

The post Dementia Awareness Week 19-25 May #talkdementia appeared first on Always a friend.

Khao San Road, summer afternoon!

2007-01-06

Hi all,

After a bus from Pai and an overnight train for 14 hours, I found myself in Bangkok again. Of all the Asian cities, I am most familiar with this one after my 3 or 4 conference presentations here in the last few years so it was a good spot for me to come nearly half way through my trip.

We (Mick “Jenga Master” Jones and Julie “34%” Hart, she got the deciding vote on everything the three of us did!) checked in and I took myself off to Khao San Road, famous to all backpackers and anyone that has seen “The Beach”

It is definitely one of my favourite places on the planet, an unabashed and unapologetic freak fest in the best way possible. I took my usual spot, brought a book so I didn`t look conspicuous and looked out at the people walking by, over a few beers of course, for a few hours.

After coming from the colder North the first thing you notice is the clothes, or lack of! T-shirts make you look over dressed as singlets rule supreme and jeans are something that accountants that are trying to look cool wear! One girl immediately realised her major faux pas as she wore high heels in a world of flip flops (thongs to the Aussies), making her far more of a spectacle than she had hoped or anticipated! Gangs of English, Irish or Scottish lads walk down the street topless and with beers in hand, fulfilling a deeply suppressed luxury rarely afforded in their own countries!

Another rarely afforded (poor phrasing possibly) pleasure is the number of white gentlemen of varying age (25 to 65) who have managed to woo a beautiful Asian girl as a girlfriend/guide. The former (in the age group above) have cast away the frustrations of small town attitude and in a world where they don`t think their mothers will ever hear of their dalliances have made full use of the number that their mates older brother gave them in the pub on the last night before they left. The latter just don`t care, have made their money, have long since discarded their hotel bibles, morals, scruples and will soon be not so subtlely separated from their wallets.

KS Road brings together the Asian markets to the Western dollar/euro/pound but it does so effortlessly, not the awkward juxtaposition of so many other cities. Us westerners are old hat here and the fusion is immediately comfortable and recognisable. There were bombs in this city 6 days ago but no-one here cares for that as parents wheel their kids down the street and couples do their best not to offend local sensibilities by giving each other a public kiss.

I`m not of the backpacker mentality that demands that you need to get off the beaten pack to `truly` experience a country, those `other bloody tourists have ruined it for us hippies` brigade. You can find truly different experiences in these countries without having to stay every night in a hut with no running water and no access to a hot shower. On occasions its good to get away from creature comforts but self inflicted purgatory smacks of masochism to me.

So that is why I love this road, there is a great familiarity which I truly believe I had the first time I came here too. With that, you sit back and almost impatiently wait for someone you know to walk by! For me it was two Israelis I`d met a few days ago in Pai and earlier, Milena from Croatia that I hadn`t seen since Sapa in Northern Thailand and whom I thought was in Laos!!

The tattoo artists and the dreadlock ladies are out in force, ready to turn you from ultra conservative to outer edge cool if you can give them a few hours. It makes the original tat freaks and rastas uneasy to see how quickly the `mainstream` are catching up as they try desperately to think of the next fad to get on board with that will take years for the rest of us to gather up the courage to do.

Fathers walk ahead of their teenage daughters and survey with zealous authority over myself and the other people watchers (like train spotters but way cooler!) He needn`t worry because this road throws up a wealth of international beauty that causes equal amounts of envy, excitement and whiplash.

An English guy sits next to me having a beer as his wife approaches with a puppy dog smile and several bags, she rushes to kiss him and he sighs as he wonders how much that kiss has just costed him. You overhear some weary travellers saying that they have lost their appetite after reading three menus a day for the last few months, the difficulty in having to choose all the time is getting to them and they yearn for the relative constriction of their under stocked fridges.

The Thai boys serve beer during the day but from 6pm, the Thai girls take over in their skimpy dresses and seductive smiles. Contrary to popular belief they are not the same people who have just had a clothes change and some shaded make up to diminish an Adam`s apple.

And with all voyeuristic of sports, there is a certain welcoming disdain for the new arrivals, the fresh meat who walk down the road with their backpacks still on, still trying to become part of the city which can only be done once they`ve found a room, discarded their bags and joined us at the bar! We have only settled an hour before but we have all felt the scalding glare of those that have arrived before us in other towns and now its our turn to bask in our booths from the side of the street!

Its a road that rewards those with imagination and teases those without. The temples, pagodas, mountains and rivers of SE Asia are amazing, but I love afternoons like today, which anyone can do in Temple Bar in Dublin, by the Opera House in Sydney, in Downtown Crossing Boston or wherever as long as you have a beer, a keen eye and a sense of humour!

Next:-

Taxis, Temples and Torture

The post Diary of The Travelling Seanchai :- Khao San Road, summer afternoon! appeared first on Always a friend.

When I was asked if I wanted to try the Boursin Soft Cheese & Mini Boursin Cheese range, I was a little apprehensive.

I may concoct some strange combination’s in my cooking but I’ve only ever used soft cheese in my pineapple cheesecake, so although I wanted to try it, I was also a little worried I’d hate it.

How wrong can 1 person be? VERY wrong!

I decided to stay semi safe so I butterflied a piece of chicken, spread sone of the black pepper Boursin over the chicken & then sprinkled it with some chopped red onion.

I wrapped it in foil & popped it in the oven for 20mins & what came out was the most succulent flavoursome piece of chicken I’ve had in years.

I totally surprised myself in just how delicious it really was. My exact words to Ian were “This is actually REALLY nice!”

There was only one thing I would’ve liked to have improved on ……………… that I’d used more of the Boursin Black Pepper Soft Cheese!

I know I played it safe but I honestly I was nervous! But I truly loved it & can’t wait to try it on more recipes & you never know I may even get Ian eating it, although I wont hold my breath!

Boursin have kindly sent me a recipe pdf file with lots of other recipes on & I will be trying them out & being a bit more adventurous.

If you would like a copy of the recipe’s then you can download it from the following link Boursin Recipe Collection 2013

You can find out more about Boursin here.

Disclosure:- I was sent the Boursin Soft Cheese & Mini Boursin Cheese’s FOC but all the opinions are my own honest opinions.

The post Review :- Boursin Soft Cheese & Mini Boursin Cheese. appeared first on Always a friend.

I don’t like to ask but I would be grateful if you could please read this & then sign the e-petition.

350 skilled engineers stand to lose their jobs if UTC Aerospace Systems Huyton Merseyside continue with this proposed closure.

Many of the jobs lost will be sent out to low cost countries within Europe & Asia.

It could potentially have a domino effect with many more jobs being put at risk.

The e-petition was created by Paul Harlock.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

To stop the closure of UTC Aerospace Systems Huyton Merseyside. This closure would be detrimental to the aerospace industry especially in the northwest as 350 highly skilled aerospace engineers jobs could be lost, not including the possible loss of jobs with other local services that rely on work out sourced by our facility. 
We need a viable manufacturing base in this country to preserve our status as a world class innovators in aerospace design and technology.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/50091

Every signature counts so please feel free to share it around & please be a voice to help save these jobs.

You never know if it will affect you in the future!

The post Stop the closure of UTC Aerospace Systems Merseyside appeared first on Always a friend.

Update on Damian! 

2007-01-05

Damian has reached mini cult status from the e-mails I have been receiving so I thought I would just send a short update! We were stopped in the street by strangers who had been in the bar that night and wanted to know if we had managed to get him home!

We met him yesterday and his head had a few tell tale bumps but not too bad. He had spent 32 hours on and off asleep, he was in the horrors so bad that at one stage he made his peace with God, he thought he was going to die!

Poor lad, I think that he will be a little wiser in the future but for you to be old and wise you must first be young and stupid!

The bar have just put a new category on their board, Most Shameful, and Damian is the sole member! I have pictures which I will upload over the weekend.

Off to Bangkok now on yet another overnight train, you get used to them.

I hope you are well, talk to you soon.

The post Diary of The Travelling Seanchai :-Update on Damian! appeared first on Always a friend.