Notes of Life

Apart from some blood tests at the beginning of the week, all in all it’s been a quiet week. Even the Wii Fit hasn’t seen me for a couple of days.

Yesterday I took a trip in the car with Dad as we needed to mark the mileage on the directions sheet for the motorbike run next weekend. We started in Montgomery, headed over the Long Mountain, up through the Stiperstones, onto the Long Mynd, down to Bishop’s Castle and across to Lydham. There are some fantastic views from the Long Mountain, Stiperstones and the Lond Mynd (as I’m sure Mountainear will agree), but unfortunately we had to time it too, so there was no time for stopping to take photographs. It was sunny over the Long Mountain, but rained for the rest of the way so some of the views were a bit “moody”. When I’ve got a free day (and maybe when the price of petrol comes down!) I’ll take a drive following the route, but stop for photos, then I can share the magnificent views. I feel lucky with all this countryside practically on the doorstep!

Other than that, I’ve been writing reviews on DooYoo. I’ve got enough DooYooMiles to redeem a 2nd £10 Amazon voucher, although I’m nearly halfway to a 3rd, so may wait to redeem £20 in one go.

Anyway, I’ll leave you with a photo of a flower from Mum’s garden (I haven’t a clue what it is). Again, it’s a white flower on a black background… although I’ve just noticed it’s off centre!

Cats like to sleep a lot… or at least my two do… and sometimes in funny places.

We have a playhouse thingy with a “hidey-hole” and scratching posts for the cats and once in a while Mika curls up inside the “hidey-hole”. How he fits most of himself inside there is anyone’s guess as he’s a biggish cat. Usually his front paws end up hanging out, but he must be getting bigger…….

No single subject today, just a mix of stuff.

Roses

As if the flowers in the garden weren’t enough, I went out and bought some flowers to photograph yesterday. I’d had this idea in my head for weeks of white flowers on a black background. A couple of weeks ago I picked up a couple of large sheets of card (around A1 size) - one white, one black. Yesterday, I finally found the flowers I was looking for - a small bunch of white roses for £3.99 from the supermarket.

I had a play around with positioning and took around 75 photos in total. I uploaded my favourites to Flickr. I’m happy with the results and Mum’s happy with her free bunch of white roses!

Birthday Meals

It was my birthday on Friday and it’s pretty much been a food-birthday. On Friday evening my parents took me out for a meal at The Stiperstones Inn. We’ve been there a couple of times before and it’s definitely a place I’d recommend. We’d booked our table in advance, which turned out to be a good idea as the pub was quite busy (it always seems to be, despite it’s location). Our table was in the little room at the back, which is nice and cosy. I decided to be naughty and ignore my food intolerances… For the starter I chose Brie Wedges with Cranberry & Port Sauce and it was delicious! For my main meal I chose Breaded Plaice with Chips & Salad. The Plaice was huge and took some eating! I didn’t have a dessert, but Dad chose Whinberry Crumble. The Whinberries are picked locally (it’s what the Stiperstones are famous for) and the crumble homemade, making for a delicious pudding. I know I ignored the intolerances for the evening, but The Stiperstones Inn does mark the menu letting you know which meals are gluten-free, dairy-free etc - something which other places should take note of.

Last night, Sarah and her fiance Paul treated me to a Chinese for my birthday. They chose to go to my favourite Chinese take-away in Churchstoke for the food as my stomach can tolerate it, where as I’m usually ill if I go to the take-aways in town. The food was delicious. Sarah & I swigged peach schnapps & lemonade, while Paul has his beer. We sat gossiping and watching The Dresden Files TV series. All in all it was a great evening. Big thanks to Sarah & Paul!

Writing Reviews and Making Money

I’m a regular visitor to the Money Saving Expert forums and at the end of May I came across a recommendation for the DooYoo review website. After being a member of DooYoo for a few weeks and writing 19 reviews, I can certainly recommend it (I think it’s mainly for UK users though).

You get dooyooMiles for writing and rating reviews (with 150 words or more). Once you get over 5,000 dooyooMiles you can donate to a charity of your choice, over 10,000 dooyooMiles (and above that amount can be redeemed in increments of 5,000) and you can redeem them for Amazon vouchers (10,000 = £10) or if you get 50,000 dooyoomiles or more you can redeem them for cash.

You get 500 dooyooMiles per review written and 15 dooyoomiles when reviews are read. You can also get bonus dooyooMiles along the way too.

I’ve been a member since the end of May and have already redeemed 10,000 dooyooMiles for a £10 Amazon voucher, as wel as being on my way to the next.

I’ve reviewed online shops, cameras, hotels, travel companies, books, DVDs and more. All it takes is a little of your spare time.

The boys are back…

Last night I went to see Boyzone at Birmingham NEC, reliving my teenage years. I last saw them live in 1996 with Lyndsey, my sister-in-law’s sister.

Boyzone had 2 support acts last night. The first of which was Laura Critchley, a female vocalist described as a “toe-tapping, head-nodding Nashville-meets-Merseyside pop nugget”. I really enjoyed her set. She has fantastic vocals and you can check out some of her songs & videos on her website. (I’m certainly going to get her album). The only thing I would say is I’m sure she would have benefited from a live band behind her.

The second support act was A.M.A.N.D.A. They weren’t my cup of tea, but were pretty good.

Then came Boyzone…

The show started off with some dancers with lightsabers, so I began to wonder if I’d walked into a Star Wars show or something! Then the show began and we slipped back into the 1990’s. They sang songs such as Picture of You, Isn’t It a Wonder, Words and No Matter What, as well as a couple of solo numbers by Ronan and Stephen. They also did a Jackson 5 medley including Bad, Billy Jean, Black or White and one or two others. They even stripped their tops off to show their buff torsos for one number!

It was great to see the boys back again, 8 years after they split, although in some ways they’ve never really been far away. Ronan had his solo career, Stephen has been in a number of stage productions (including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat), Shane has been motorracing, Keith has been acting (most noticibly as a barman in Coronation Street) and I’m not sure what Mikey has been up to!

Oh, I nearly forgot something! Boyzone also sang a new song - Can’t Stop Thinking About You - It’s quite catchy and a really nice song. Will we be getting a new album?

I’m sure you’re fed up of my garden photos, but the flowers are pretty! Later in the week, I promise to have some photos on a completely different subject, but for now…

“Serenity”

“Candy Flowers (Geranium)”

“Poppy”