The Madiera Balloon - Athena Cruise

The Madiera Balloon - New Years Eve - 2006

Hugging and Kissing with Lions

I couldnt believe it! Lions are meant to be big, snarly type things - and heres one a hugging and a kissing like a pussy cat. You`ve got to take a look at this link. Its so sweet!

Lion Hugging

The Athena - some photos

Our ship - The Athena

Norman Wisdom on the Athena - December 2006

As we ascended slowly in the lift of the Athena, an elderly man and his companion got in with us, and we chatted amicably as the man tickled our daughter, Evies chin.
On reaching the floor we wanted, we said "after you" to the pleasant couple, but the old chap said, "no, after you!" And out we got.
As soon as the couple were out of earshot, Tony looked at me, face glowing with amazement. "Do you know who that man was? I think it was Norman Wisdom."
Now, Tony is one of Norman Wisdom`s biggest fans - often doing a mean Norman impersonation. MR GRIMSDALE!
Well sure enough, it was Norman Wisdom, travelling with his lady companion - reputedly a friend and also carer. In the course of the 2 week cruise, we got to see a lot more of Norman. At almost 92, he is remarkably fit, still doing his laps around the deck of a morning - always on the front row of the caberet - always pleasant and funny, stopping for a joke and a smile with everyone. What a great man. We saw many of his films which were shown daily on our in cabin
televisions - and once on the cinema.
One day, he even did a chat show, with the cruise director prompting him to tell us about his life. He finished off with a few songs, including, dont laugh at me cos I`m a fool. Finally, he patiently sat and posed for photos with his fans - and we were amongst them having ours taken. What do you think?

How to make serious money from Blogging

Blogging is the new way to make serious money online.“Every second, somewhere in the world a new blog(online diary) is created. The total number published doubles every 6 months. And by January 2007 therewill be 100 million of them...

Today I’m looking for a select group of volunteers to help set up and run their own profitable BLOGGING BUSINESS while I shoulder ALL the risk for the
next 90 days.

I haven’t a clue how much you could make. It could be £100 a week for 15 minutes work a day, thousands a month or even turn into a million pound home-based business...

Dear Friend,

If my calculations are right, this could be huge... bigger than ebooks, affiliate websites – even eBay!

But I’m not going to make any ridiculous promises on how much you could make from this opportunity. To be brutally honest, you will be pioneering a plan that is completely experimental!

But in return, I am prepared to take ALL the risk if you are willing to take up the challenge...

You will need a PC and a minimum 15 minutes a day to take part. There are absolutely no set up costs. If you have a hobby or subject you are passionate about, then even better. If you are already in business then this could generate more sales and increase your margins.

What Makes Nick Laight so Well Qualified to Help You Make Money Online?

“I’ve been in the publishing business for 14 years in the UK and US and have experience of launching both online and offline titles. I worked as copywriter, editorial director and publisher on titles ranging from finance and investment to business opportunities and health including The Fleet Street Letter, Red Hot Penny Shares, The Zurich Club, The Guild of Wealth, Personal & Finance Confidential and Health Sciences Institute.

In 2000 I launched an electronic publishing division that pioneered the use of free e-letters in the UK. Within 2 years the division was generating over £2.5 million in sales per year.

Since then I have started my own business, publishing consumer newsletters including What Really Makes Money – an independent review of business opportunities and money making ideas and eBay Confidential.

Starting on a shoestring 3 years ago, my business has already grossed more than £2 million so far this year. "

But I’m not after just casual biz opp junkies. I only want people who are willing to give this a real go. I want you coming into this with your eyes wide open. This is an online business and yes you will have to do a bit of writing (though nothing more than you would do in a couple of emails to friends or work colleagues). And I will explain exactly what’s involved in this proposal.

Still with me? Good, let’s press on...

What I’m talking about is BLOGGING. I investigated the money-making potential of these online diaries in the August 2005 and the May 2006 editions of my newsletter What Really Makes Money and set out some simple ideas for exploiting them. Since then I have been flooded with requests for more info.

And that’s why I have spent the last 6 months working with a team to putting something very special together to fast track you to creating your own profitable blog business from home.

I can assure you that this business really is simple to set up. In fact, it’s so easy to run that you could start this today and never have to learn any fancy marketing techniques or have any technical knowledge about the Internet whatsoever.

And yet, it could turn out to be the ultimate Internet business we’ve all been waiting for! But more important than that...

...IT’S FREE! That’s right - you don’t need any cash to start. And once you know the right way to get started (yes, there is a correct way to do this or you probably won’t make a penny) you could fire up your PC, spend the next five minutes tapping a few keys and writing a few sentences and you’re in business!

What’s the big deal about blogs and why
you should take them VERY seriously?

Right, let’s get the definitions out of the way first.

A blog is a simple personal webpage that includes commentary or news on a particular subject, such as hobbies, politics, local news or even just a diary of your day-to-day life. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. You will see examples of blogs throughout this letter.

Blogs as we know them today first appeared with the launch of blogger.com in August 1999.
Now take a look at the graph to the right. This shows the growth of blogs over the past 3 years. Notice that the number is DOUBLING every 6 months.

By January 2007 it is predicted that the numbers will pass 100 million!

This means that anyone with Internet access can create and publish online at zero cost and potentially gains an audiences of millions. Type in any subject into Google and chances are at least one blog will appear in the top ten searches (The fact is VERY important for your success, as you will see in a moment.)

Now it doesn’t take a genius to realise that if you can get people visiting your simple one page blog website – people who share an interest in the subject matter – then it is only a very small step to turning those visitors into paying customers. You can do it through affiliate links, joint ventures, Google adsense, links to your eBay listing and many other ways I’ll show you.

And today I would like to take a small ‘experimental group’ of eager volunteers to follow a new and completely risk-free plan to create their own simple yet highly profitable blog.

But before we get to the meat of this
opportunity, let’s drool over the benefits

Make money from your hobby or interest – there are unlimited subjects you could create a blog around – pets, travel, health, films, collectibles, art, cars, sports, DIY, interior design, gardening, family history and yes - making money! As long as there is a proven interest in a particular area (I can show you exactly how to do this in minutes)


Minimal work – you can get your blog set up in less than 20 minutes and tweak it for 15 minutes each day (on a subject you know and love) Hardly hard work is it?


Zero set up costs – hosting, uploading and broadcasting a blog is free, and as you’ll see gaining top search engine rankings is free too!


Use other people’s hard work to create content – you don’t have to be a writer to benefit from blogs – you could easily fill your blog with other people’s copy quite legally. (Don’t worry, I can show you how)


Leapfrog established websites and get to the top of the search engines faster, without complicated Search Engine Optimisation techniques, expensive consultants or continuous tweaking.


Build a valuable database to sell, rent or simply sell more products to


Are you a business owner? Blogs were made for you! They offer a cheap, quick and easy way to find new clients, add value to existing customers, build powerful relationships and sell more!


Create communities – if you run a club, society or association you can bring together like-minded people to chat, share ideas on a local or global basis and raise money or awareness


Create multiple, predictable and repeatable income streams – you don’t have to stop at one blog – there are thousands of niche subject areas you can build blogs around. Get your first one right and you can roll out...


Have fun! What better way to make money than sharing your passion for a specific subject or pet hate! What’s more, you could enjoy recognition as an expert in your area and people will come back to you again and again.

So why isn’t everyone making big money from blogs?

Two reasons:

First, the vast majority of blogs are created purely for fun – they were never designed with making money in mind. Of course that’s fine and is what makes blogs such an exciting online tool.

But we are in it for the money and there are specific steps you need to take if you want to ensure your blog is attracting the ‘right’ kind of visitor and can turn them into a sale.

Second: when it comes to online business opportunities, blogs are still ‘the new kid on the block’.

I mean it took 7 years for people to figure out how to make money from ezines (free email letters)! I first got involved in e-letter publishing back in 1999 (emails were first widely used in around 1992) and was lucky enough to work for a company that figured out how to turn them into a major profit centre.

Other people in the industry mocked us when they heard that we were giving away top quality editorial content for free via email. Yet, within a year or so, this breakthrough was generating tens of millions of pounds in revenues worldwide.

And I can see the exact same thing happening with blogs today... they offer you the chance to publish niche market information to a huge audience quickly, at zero cost and with the opportunity to generate income through affiliate links or sales of your own product.

By complete coincidence, blogs have also been around for 7 years... and the time is ripe forsomeone to figure it out and make money. But unlike e-letters you don’t need a broadcasting system, big database, writing skills, your own products or money to get started.

And I am confident that in the next year, a whole bunch of people are going to figure out the right strategy and will start harvesting mountains of cash. Based upon the figures I’ve seen, even working a blog part-time in a niche area could generate at least £100 a week (and probably a lot more).

And now there’s nothing stopping you staking your
claim from the coming blog gold rush!

As I’ll repeat until you’re bored stiff, you don’t need any technical knowledge, start up cash, copywriting skills. Just a passion for a subject, a PC with Internet connection and a bit of spare time.

With the new blogging programme I have put together, you will have everything you could possibly need to get started, have fun and hopefully make a lot of money!

Look, I’ll admit I want the glory! I want to be the one who helpedyou to become one of the pioneers of profitable blogs. That’s why I’ve got the best possible advice and plans I could get my hands on to help you out.

I know that you have the good judgement to see the potential of blogs. I also suspect you are prepared to step into the unknown and try something new as long as you don’t have to take any risks. So instead of letting you guess how this all works let me show you…

Could this be the perfect home-based business opportunity?
Now you can turn your hobbies, passions and pet hates
into multiple online income streams!

OK, so most people who start a blog (and there are 86,400 new ones every day) do so because it’s fun and they want to share their thoughts and opinions on their hobbies with other enthusiasts. They have no real interest in making money.

But you’re going to be different...

You’re going to know how to turn your hobby or passion into a profitable online publishing business. From the start, we’re going to focus on the money. Yes, it will still be fun, but everything you do is focused on building a blog that attracts qualified visitors and then cross-sells them other people’s products.

Despite the massive market, there is surprisingly very little info out there on turning a blog into cash. In fact I couldn’t find any! So I asked trusted online super sleuth Jonathan Street to do an in-depth investigation of the blogging industry and find out everything he could about turning these simple free websites into a ongoing profit stream.

What he came back with was incredible... we have now created a complete blogging start-up kit that includes everything you need to exploit this opportunity quickly.

We’ll help you to identify the key area that has enough potential traffic to make your blog profitable BUT not so many that you’ll be competing with the big boys.

But how are people going to find your blog among the millions of other blogs and websites out there? Well, here’s where you have a massive advantage over traditional websites . . .

Why search engines LOVE blogs and how you can
shoot yours up the rankings, generate a flood of
qualified visitors and turn them into cash

We all know that the best way of getting traffic is to get ranked in the search engines like Google. Think about it, if someone types in a keyword like “fishing rod” and your web site that sells fishing rods is near or at the top of the search engines, you’re going to sell a lot of rods!

The problem is, or should I say was, that to get ranked on the search engines you needed to become a search engine optimisation expert or have enough money to hire one (and trust me they don’t come cheap).

Thankfully that’s all changed. I won’t get all technical on you here, but here are the 3 main reasons why certain websites get to the top of search engines:

1. They have relevant and fresh content related to a certain niche/keyword

2. This content is updated regularly AND

3. There are a number of links going to and from that web site to other web sites in that niche area.

And guess what your blog will contain? Yep, you guessed it - ALL of the above! In other words, blogs are a search engines dream.

And it gets better... with normal web sites it can take months for search engines to find them. However as blogs are viewed as content-rich and non-commercial, search engines find them and start to index them in weeks, often days (it also helps that Google owns one of the main blogging sites!).

So for a little work (and I do mean little) you can get yourself ranked in the search engines in special profitable markets in very little time, and without any search engine optimisation experience whatsoever!

Ok Nick, this all sounds fantastic, but there
must be some hard work? I mean, how else will I make money?

How? Simple. I’m going to help you to find ready-made products to promote, shoot your blog up the search engines (hopefully into the top ten placements) in certain niches, and then sell these products for a commission. Of course, if you already have products to sell, then you’re all set up. As I said before, if you have an existing business a blog is perfect for you.

Does that sound simple enough? And here’s how you can make this a complete no-brainer. You can try out the whole blogging business for the next 90 days with me carrying ALL the risk. Try out my new Blogging Business Blueprint Programme and see for yourself. If it isn’t for you just let me know and I’ll sort out a full refund.

How to fill your blog with great content
without writing a single word!

I love writing, but I know many people who shudder at the very thought. And you might think that blogs would require a lot of writing.

Well the good news is they don’t!

You see, one of the greatest things about blogging is that it is an “online community”. In other words people want to share their thoughts and opinions on subjects with other people.

This is great news for the entrepreneurial blogger who doesn’t feel comfortable writing. That’s why I can show you how to create content for your blog without writing anything. Ok, you may have to type the odd sentence here and there, but I’m sure you’d be willing to do that for fifteen minutes a day if it meant you were going to make an extra £100+ a week (and potentially a whole lot more!).

Are you starting to see why this offer is so unique? This is a genuine business opportunity that will allow you to turn your hobby into a business that won’t cost you anything to start and can make you easy money using the power of other peoples hard work.

But I’m not going to make big promises. I want to take a few people and offer them a risk-free chance to learn everything there is about blogs – get one set up – create all the income channels and see what happens . . . If they make big money – great. If they don’t, then they have lost nothing apart from a few hours spent on a subject that they already love anyway!

So here’s the deal - ace Internet sleuth Jonathan Street and I have put together the most comprehensive package on the subject available in the UK today. Its aimed specifically at the UK market and is the most bang up to date blogging information you’re going to be able to find anywhere. We’ve loaded the programme up with a manual, CDRoms and ebooks...

Here’s a small sampling of what the hefty report reveals in simple steps you can copy:

• How to shortlist the hobbies and passions that you can profit from within hours
  
  
• The one website that will confirm if your niche is profitable and generates a steady flow of qualified traffic and sales
  
  
• How to set up your blog for free in less than 20 minutes
  
  
• The easy way to select affiliate products that will generate ongoing automatic income from your blog from day one!
  
  
• How to make search engines love your blog and get it listed ten times faster than the average web site.
  
  
• How to ping your blog up the rankings with a single click of your mouse
  
  
• The fastest way to add Google adsense revenue to your blog
  
  
• Tips and tricks that will help you get traffic from other peoples hard work

Once you’ve read through the start-up guide you’ll be all set to start making money online. I don’t presume you have any previous knowledge of blogs or even any online business for that matter. With this alone you can have your blog primed for profits by the end of your first day!

But we haven’t stopped there. Jonathan is a bit of a nut when it comes to adding value. That’s why you’ll also get extra special free video training CDRoms that will show you some underground techniques and strategies that you can use to generate an avalanche of visitors to your blog. You’ll learn...

• The source that will switch on hundreds of visitors to your blog a day free!
  
  
• How to get dozens if not hundreds of other blogs linking to you and sending you rocketing up the search engines…and a whole load of visitors at the same time!
  
  
• A certain type of blog post that can get you thousands of visitors overnight
  
  
• How you can get your blog mentioned in national media resulting in a ton of free publicity
  
  
• The power of RSS and News Aggregators (again, don’t be put off by the jargon – all you need to know is that these can turn a blog into an e-letter that gets broadcast directly to your audience rather than relying on them to come visit you)
  
  
• What videologs are and why they’re the next big thing online (again, if you have a video on your mobile phone or digital video camera, this is a breeze!)

If you’re exciting by the challenge and potential of blogs, then you can reserve your place on our Blog programme today by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page. You can then get an instant download of the start-up manual. I will then send out a hard copy plus the CDRoms.

How to boost your profits by selling your own information products (that you don’t even have to create!)

Promoting other peoples niche products from your blog is a great way to start making money online... without having to create any of your own products or do anything remotely technical.

However once you start seeing how much money you can make you’ll be eager to start selling your own products in order to keep all your online profits.

In order to do this I’ve persuaded Jonathan to include his own two and a half hour “Niche Success Training Programme”. The feedback on this is incredible and if you’ve ever struggled to understand how ebook publishers make their fortune online this will open your eyes to just how easily you can target a niche with an order-pulling product.

You’ll learn:

• How to use free and low cost tools to find a niche and make 100% sure that there is minimal competition and that your market can be reached quickly, easily and cheaply.
  
  
• A free way to find out exactly which products your customers will buy from you.
  
  
• Getting someone else to create the exact product people want to buy
  
  
• Setting up multiple streams of autopilot income that can make you £100 - £250+ a week pretty much straight away!
  
  
• How to build a website and set up an autoresponder that will market your site for you 24/7
  
  
• How to create a viral marketing campaign that will market your site for 365 days a year
  
  
• Underground niche marketing strategies that are 100% free and that WILL get you a ton of traffic on demand
  
  
• How to recruit the top 500 affiliates in your niche that will promote your site for you like an army of super-hero’s at the click of a button

But wait (yes, you guessed it) there’s more!

Jonathan and I want to make sure you have everything you need to get your blog started fast and making money...

That’s why you’ll also get your hands on:

The Bloggers Business Toolkit: This collection of ebooks will blast your blogging knowledge into the stratosphere and really give you the edge when it comes to making money online from some of the best blogging experts from around the world.


Two “How To” Videos On Advanced Blogging Methods: The videos in this set total over two hours worth of live training footage. They cover two important aspects of blogging – updated content and getting great links to your web site. Whilst these are not primarily aimed at the blogger, they are a massive part of the bloggers arsenal that will increase your chances of success tremendously!


Adsense Empire Manual: Imagine search engine giants Google paying you for them to advertise on your blog. Google’s adsense advertising program allows advertisers to place their ads on your blog that are relevant to whatever the content of your blog is on. And you get paid every time someone clicks on the link!

How To Turn Simple Podcasts Into Profit: I’ve already told you that blogs can make you famous, and there’s another special area of blogging that can make you a worldwide famous broadcaster too – podcasting! It’s like having your very own radio station! And you can use your podcast to turn your dedicated listeners into dedicated customers with the information held within this manual.

We’ve put everything together – all it needs now is for
you to follow the simple instructions

Ok, let’s sum up what’s going on here...

Blogs are huge: their numbers are doubling every 6 months and will surpass 100 million by January 2007. In the US, 36 million people (18% of the population) regularly search and read blogs. My guess is the numbers will be similar for the UK.

Blogs offer you a free, quick and easy way to publish a personal, business or community website online on any subject.

What’s more, search engines love blogs and will list them higher and faster than traditional websites, saving you time and money.

The nearest parallel to blogs is e-letters and they have now become a proven business model for online publishers to generate huge incomes at very low cost. In the last 4 months I have generated over £700,000 in sales through my e-letter business.

But I really don’t know how much you could make doing this. I reckon, based on what I’ve seen you could make around £100+ a week minimum from 15 minutes a day updating your blog.

If, as I suspect, the money could be big, then I could easily price this package at around £365 (trust me in a year or so I probably will!).

But I can’t justify that without hard facts on how much you could make...

That’s why I’m prepared to give away a hefty instruction manual packed with the most up-to-date info on blogging available today plus 3 CDRoms PLUS bonus material at a price that will not put anyone off who seriously wants to put this into practice.

With that in mind the price of our “Blog It” programme is just £79 plus £4.95 p&p. Why so cheap? Well I’m a firm believer in people having a genuine chance of making money whilst having fun. And blogging really is the greatest opportunity to do this that I’ve seen in my 15 years in the industry.

But just to put your mind completely at rest…

Take me up on my 90-day risk-free blog profit
explosion challenge?

Right. This is experimental. I am convinced that blogs have the same potential as ezines did back in 1999. They went on to make people millions. (Since July 1st 2006 I have grossed more than £700,000 from my e-letters alone.)

But I haven’t a clue how much you could make from your blog.

It could be £100 a week for around 15 minutes effort a day. It could be several thousand pounds a month in affiliate sales... or it could generate tens, even hundreds of thousands of pounds and take over your life!

So here’s what I propose. I want you to take up my risk-free blog challenge for the next 90 days. You can order your ‘Blog-it’ programme now and get an instant download of the manual (I’ll send everything else by first class mail).

Within your first day you could have identified your profitable niche area and got your first blog registered and published. Within a week you could have tons of content on the site (other people) and have your blog listed by the major search engines. Within a month or so, you could be attracting hundreds if not thousands of visitors per week/day

BUT, if you do not thoroughly enjoy your blogging experience, don’t make any money or whatever reason, send back the set within those 90 days and I’ll give you a full refund. To be honest I know you are going to have so much fun with your blog you’ll be more than happy to keep it. But the risk free trial is there so you have no excuse not to at least give it a try.

My guess is that 2007 will see people realise just how much could be made from blogs. Then you’ll get all the usual suspects cranking out high-priced CDRom sets and seminars showing you how to make money out of them.

But you can get in at the very beginning, at a very competitive price and without any risk, start up capital or actually much effort!

To get your instant download of the manual (followed by the hard copy and all the other stuff) just click here and go through to the secure order page.

I look forward to being part of your blogging success story!

Best regards,

Nick Laight
Canonbury Publishing Ltd

PS: My new Blog-it profit programme is yours to preview without risking a single penny for the next 90 days. If it's not the most fun and income-producing investment you make, or if you're not completely satisfied for any reason, all you have to do is contact me any time within 90 days, and your entire investment will be refunded - no questions asked. No hard feelings.

To take up my risk free challenge, just click on the link below:

ORDER NOW

Contact Us | Terms & Conditions | Our Guarantee

©Cano

Our christmas cruise on mv Athena - A Travelscope cruise

Well we`re back, and well and truly exhausted! The cruise was lovely - although pretty tiring with the kids. We went on the mv Athena - a newly refurbished ship recently purchased by Travelscope. Its a beautiful ship - small and very modern, although it actuall 60 years old and has had many different names.
Anyway, we got off to quite a bad start - Mum forgot the passports and I had to make a mad dash home to get them at 2.45 in the morning. Luckily, we got on the coach just on time. The journey down to Falmouth was horrendous and took eleven and a half hours - loads of pickups on the way, so we were shattered when we got onbooard about two thirty the next afternoon.
We had two cabins between us - me Tony and Evie in one and Mum, Phil and Ellie in the other. The cabins were gorgeous, nice and spacious with good bathrooms and plenty of warbrobe space. After a rest, we unpacked and settled in and went for evening meal and braced ourselves for going through the Bay of Biscay. Suprisingly, it wasnt too bad, although we had a bit of choppy weather on the way home.
Christmas was fantastic - the night before, there was a carol service and midnight mass, and on christmas morning we got loads of champagne while we watched Father christmas give presents to all the kids - even the teenagers like Phil. - much to his mortification. The we all sang christmas songs and had a good laugh.
After lunch, we moored in Gibralta, and had an afternoon there, browsing round the shops, although a lot of the shops were closed cos it was christmas day. The whole day was lovely - as was New Year.
New Years Eve we were in beautiful Maderia - I think this was the best port of all - and we had a lovely afternoon here. So hot too. Then later, after evening meal and
the nightly show, we all went onto the deck with endless glasses of champagne and watched the most incredible firework display. Apparently, its going in next years guiness book of records as the biggest firework diplay ever - costing over 1 and a half million. I`ve never seen anything like it. As the fireworks went off, we sang Auld Lange Syne and we all cheered and hugged and kissed each other. Even the Captain came round to chat with all the passengers and the atmosphere was fantastic. Then there was a disco till the early hours - although we didnt stay up too late cos of the kids.
We also went to Casablanca (quite scary) Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Lanzerote and Vigo. Vigo wasnt so warm but the canaries were lovely and warm - around 29 degrees, although we only spent one day on the beach as there was so much else to do. The kids had a great time and the girls got a fuss made of them. There wasnt many kids and teens of the ship, being mostly older people, but the staff were lovely and made sure they had a great time. There was only around a ten teens on the ship and less little ones. Phil moaned a bit, but disappeared every night with the other teeneagers who all got friendly, and he`s keeping in touch with some lads he met on the ship. Oh, and the specail guest on the ship was Norman Wisdom who is now nearly 92, but what a lovely man. We all got our photos took with him and he`s still as lively and funny as ever.
Theres so much more to say about the holiday, but I dont want to ramble too much more, but I will post some photos later hopefully.

See this dog walking on two legs!

See this amazing dog walking on only two legs.

WIshing you all a belated Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone. We just got back from our hols on Friday and I`m desparately trying to get organised. What a mess the house is! Cases everywhere - washing - christmas deccys to get down - school uniforms to sort for tomorrow. I`m be glad to get back to normal now. I`ll be back later to tell you about our hols and stick a few photos up. Its been such a bust few weeks, I could write a book about it - but dont worry - I wont!
And lets hope 2007 is going to be a good year - its Liverpools 700th birthday this year too, so I hope its going to be a special year.

Photoshop - christmas candle

Oops. forgot to say - do you like my christmas candle? This is one of my first efforts at creating a bit of digital art using the photoshop programme. What do you think?
Not perfect, I know, but I`m proud of my little effort all the same. LOL. Hopefully, I`ll get better with practice. Bruce the Mafia Mutt is created by my son Phil. I love his rougish little face.
I DO LOVE THE INTERNET!

Merry Christmas and Best wishes for 2007

Well folks, I`m posting this early as I`m going away for christmas. We`re off on a cruise of the Canary Islands on the 22nd - the day after tomorrow - so wont be around until early Janaury. Hopefully, I`ll have loads of photos to post though.
So, the cruise - we start of at Falmouth - and then go to Vigo, Gibralta (for christmas day), Casablanca, Tenerife and Lanzerote. Hope theres no stormy weather brewing.
So, see you in the 2007. have lots of fun over Christmas and New Year.
Love and Best wishes
Marianne
xxx

Happy Christmas from Bruce the Mafia Mutt

Sailing Away

I`m posting an early Happy Christmas as we`re off on holiday in a few days. We`re going on a cruise of the Canaries, and we`ve been hectically busy, trying to get the christmas presents wrapped and get packed up too. so have a luscious christmas everyone - and I`ll see you in the New Year.

Angels and Donkeys

Major Trauma!


Kids Christmas plays are a minefield at the best of time. Who gets what part can be a matter of Life and Death to a six year old, and on Sunday, Molly wasn`t happy! 


The Production - the Sunday School Christmas Play! The casting of Dolly -  (Molly`s twin) - an Angel, Sara - an Angel, Eve B - an Angel,  Molly - A DONKEY!
She came home with a glum little face, mumbling about not really wanting to be a donkey, which worked up to a crescendo of crying and wailing for a full hour. "TELL THE LADY I DONT WANT TO BE A DONKEY! I WANNA BE AN ANGEL!"

Hmmm? What to do? I tried to explain that the Donkey role was a better one than the angels, as she had a line to speak - which the angels didn`t, but that didn`t wash. She`s sticking to her guns. ANGEL OR NOTHING! Little Dolly gamely intimated that she`d be the donkey instead, but I dont think that`d work as Dolly cant speak very well (due to her cleft palate) and the donkey has to say in a loud voice "WELL - THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT!"
But I might ask next week, just in case if we can have a swop. Couldnt stand another week of tears. I`m sure even Hollywood casting agents dont have all this hassle.

Happy Halloween

New Liverpool Website

Have you heard about the new website for the Merseyside area Liverpool.Com.?
Its well worth a look if you`ve got the time.
http://liverpool.com
Theres even some competetions.

Max Appeal Conference for VCFS/DiGeorge

We were off to Leicester at the weekend to the annual Max Appeal Conference. This is the support group for DiGeorge Syndrome/VCFS - the condition which my little daughter, Evie, suffers from. It was based in the National Space Centre, which was wonderful. We slept in a Travel Lodge a few miles away but travelled up the morning of the conference, which meant a 6.00am start. There`s some nice countryside round there though and I would have liked to look round a bit more.

The MaxAppeal conference was well organised as always, right down to Parking Permits to food and drinks supplied all day. In the lunch break, a man dressed as an astronaught brought presents for all the kids - although Evie was terrified of him, she loved her present ( a toy sewing machine that really sews). Usually, Father Christmas comes, but the meeting is usually held in December. She`s terrified of him too! LOL.
Anyway - theres were doctors and a variety of experts in DiGeorge Syndrome giving lectures and advice. All very helpful - and it was good to meet other families going through the same sort of thing as ourselves. We even had a little dance at the end of the day at the party with the kids. Yawn! Shattered now though. Cant wait to get into my lovely bed - the Travel Lodge bed felt like I was sleeping on a giant shredded wheat.

The twins have reviews

Well, the main news is that both of my twin girls have had reviews of sorts. Dolly had her review with the Plastic Surgeon at Alder Hey, which wasnt much in the way of good news. The surgeon basically told us that Dolly has a paralysed palate which is why her palate operations aren`t successful; then told us to come back in a year. 
Luckily, the speech therapsit who was also present, suggested to him that 6 months might be more appropriate. Oh well. Looks like we`re in for more speech therapy which probably wont do much good.

Molly, on the other hand, had a good review with the educational psycologist. He said that she was very bright and more than likely wasnt dyslexic. Yey! It was like a weight off my mind. He said it was probably a maturity thing - she was 10 weeks premature after all, and everthing would click into place sooner or later. I so hope this is right!

Other news - we went to wales at the weekend. Colwyn Bay. It was lovely, and we collected loads of nuts and pine cones for the kids and had a gorgeous lunch of roast lamb. MMMmmmmm. Delish!

Next weekend we go to Leicester for the DiGeorge Conference. shoould be interesting. We`ve got a room booked in a local Travel Lodge, and after the conference, theres going to be a party that evening. Looking forward to this.
Tomorrow, I find out what my project is going to be in my Web Design Class. Should be interesting.
I probaby wont be able to get back on here before next week, so see you next week.

My Web Design Class

Wednesday - the day for my web design class in a local woman`s technology college. 

Today we did inserting images which was a bit tricky - most of us had a bit of a problem with it, but think I got the hang of it eventually. Cant wait to get the hang of HTML properly.

So, kids in bed at last. Feet up and telly on. Waiting to watch "Who do you think you are" Its David Dickinson tonight. And, we`re watching on our new LCD television that just arrived yesterday. Its lovely, but takes a bit of getting used to as we`re not used to the wide screen format. Not complaining though

!
Just doing a few competitions - ever optimistic, just done one for £10,000 with Panosonic. Fingers crossed

Our Make-Over

Me and my mother went for a make-over in Manchester. Took a couple of our own pictures too - so here`s a few to show you. It was a bit rubbish really and I wouldnt advise it. The nail technition was awful and smudged all our nails. The make-up artist was mediocre - we probably could have done as well ourselves. The hair stylists were good though and I had a cut while my mother had a colour done. But on the whole, I would say - not to be recommended!

The Hope Street Festival

We decided to visit the latest festival to hit the Liverpool scene, the Hope Street Festival. Its a very different sort of festival than the likes of the Matthew Street one; lots of craft type stalls and street performance. My twinnies were very intriqued with the African dancing, performed to three drummers. Molly tried her best to join in, but couldn`t match the athletic dancer who cartwheeled and walked on his hands. 


Blackburne House was hosting a craft fair, so we went in for a look. There was some unusual stuff, but my mum thought that we throw away better stuff. Needless to say, we didn`t buy anything. After this we decided to visit the Blackburne House cafe bar for a quick drink. Half an hour later, we finally got served. Our beautifully presented hot chocolate was lovingly prepared in elegant, tall glasses and looked delish - but unfortuantely was only luke warm. Not good. The kids were bored now after such a long wait and started running round, much to the annoyance of the disgruntled diners, so I had to get them out quickly away from the bad-tempered faces.

After this, we had a quick look round the stalls outside and had a free sample of beer. for some reason, the beer man didnt like me and only gave me a tiny quarter glass sample - everyone else got a brimming glass. Oh well. I must have one of those faces I suppose.

The Funeral

It was a sad day on Friday. It was Tony`s funeral (Tony`s nephew Tony). As you can imagine it was an emotionally charged day. Funerals are always traumatic but when its someone only 22, the whole thing is tinged with a sense of outrage and incredulation about the whole waste of a young life. The whole thing is even more poignant when the person has taken their own life. What can you say?
Anyway, the service was relatively short and thankfully, a sunny day. His parents made a huge wreath in the shape of a dumbell as he liked to lift the weights. Very moving. After the service we went the function room of a local pub - the same one we went to his sister`s 21st a few years earlier, and had a few drinks and a plate of sandwiches.
Back home, we walked Tony`s mother`s two westies which we were minding while the funeral was on and for a few extra days. Two boisterous mutts, three times the size of our little Yorkie. They went back this morning, and as lovely as they are, we`ll be glad to get back to normal. Life goes on doesnt it. I dont think Tony`s parents, girl friend and brothers and sisters will ever get over such a tragic event, but eventually, some vestige of normality returns, and yes, life does go on.

Tragic News

We`ve just had some shocking news that Tony`s young nephew
has committed suicide this evening. Although he has suffered mentally for years it is still a terrible shock and so upsetting as he was only 22. What a tragic thing to happen to a young man.
The poor boy had mental health problems and had ended up in Walton prison as Tonys sister and her husband couldnt keep him out of trouble. While in jail he was being bullied by other inmates and had scaulding water poured in his face and was threatening to kill himself as he couldnt stand it. His mum was trying desparetely to get him transferred to somewhere more appropriate where he could get treatment for his schizophrenia or severe depressive illness - he was never properly diagnosed. Obviously, it was too much for him to cope with because he hung himself yesterday afternoon.
We went to pay our respects this afternoon to his family and it was heartbreaking to see them as they are so devastated. Dont know what I`d do if it was one of my kids. I dont think I`d ever get over it.
The funeral is this Friday. It will be a sad day.

Back from St. Ives - But the A30 !!!!

A few holiday snaps from Cornwall

Ellie and Evie at Lands End - August 2006

Phil, Ellie and Evie playing in the sea - St Ives

Me, Tony, Phil and Evie in Penzance

Our little holiday cabin

Got back from Cornwall last week. We had a good holiday althought the weather wasnt aqs good as we`d hoped. Still - it was wasnt too bad all considering. Pretty warm most days - we even got on the beach a few times, and went in the site pool most days which the twins loved. We also managed to get to St. Ives, Newquay, Lands End and Penzance all places I havent been to for over 25 years ago when I used to work in St. Ives. St Ives was still beautiful but the amount of traffic going into it was horrendous - far too much for a small villages and it was very difficult to park. Lands End was lovely and had changed beyond recognition. There is a complex there now with loads of exhibitions and things to do for kids. I`ll try to pop some photos up later on.

But the worst thing was the traffic on the motorway. We were stuck in terrible jams both ways - it took 8 and a half hours there and back. The A30 which goes from the M5 right down to Lands End was a nightmare it was so congested. The M5 wasnt much better and it took us 3 and a half hours just getting from St Ives to the M5 - this is only just over a hundred miles. It took another few hours getting to Bristol. After we lost the London traffic past Bristol things got easier and we started moving properly. But in future, I`d think twice about going so far south in August..........................
Some Photos. above....................

Summer Holidays in St Ives

Well -we`re off for our summer hols tomorrow - to St. Ives, Cornwall, a place I love very much. Not looking forward to the journey very much, but we`re quite relieved we`re not flying anywhere. what with the extra airport security at the moment. It really is quite horrific that terrorists planned to blow up several aircraft carrying families, obviously including children - and the security checks are vital. I feel sorry for the people stuck in horrendous queues in the airports but I`m sure most people probably understand the severity of the situation. Oh, well. I expect we`ll have to brave the terrible traffic jams were the M5 meet the M6 instead, plus whatever other jams there may be. But it`ll be worth it to see beautiful St. Ives again............

My New Competiton Blog - Take a look

I`ve recently took up an old hobby of mine again. Comping. I`ve decided to record my efforts at competition winning in a separate blog dedicated to just this. If you`d like to read about my comping and whether I`m having any luck, take a peek at this blog. I`m determined to win!


http://carolthewinner.blogspot.com/

Holiday to St Ives

what to do for a holiday this summer? Going abroad in August just doesn`t appeal to me at all - its often too hot for the kids and everywhere is so crowded. But when you have kids you`ve often got no ther option than to go in July or August. But on the other hand - if you stay in Britain, the weather is just so unreliable. Memories of last summer come flooding back - trudging round Scarborough and Bridlington (both lovely places however) in our macs and huddled under umbrellas. Not good with small kids in tow, I can tell you!
But looking at the weather forecast for August, it seems the weather may well be good, so I`m taking a chance on a holiday in beautiful Cornwall. Having spent three glorious summers working in St, Ives when I was young, it`ll be good to revisit the place with my family. So its all booked now and I`m keeping everything crossed this old British weather aint going to let me down.

Still nothing doing on the house front. We`ve had no perspective viewers for ages. Somethings not right and our estate agents are rubbish. When we come back from hols, its time to review the situation. I think we need a new plan of acion.

Beautiful sky over Aintree

Did anyone see the beautiful sky last night? I couldnt resist rushing out with my camera and taking a few snaps it was so lovely.

Palate Surgery

We just got back from Alder hey Hospital yesterday after Dolly`s latest palate surgery. As you probably may know, Dolly, one of my 6 year old twins, has VCFS, (DiGeorge Syndrome) and has very little speech due to a very short palate, which also has a repaired cleft.

 Unfortunately, I don't think the operation has been a great success. When the plastic surgeon was operation, he found Dolly`s tonsils were huge - which meant he couldn't do the work he wanted to do. He did extend the palate a bit, which he said would be good ground work for future operations. FUTURE OPERATIONS! I had hoped that would be that after this operation!!!!!!Oh well. We`ll just have to wait and see. Perhaps in a few weeks there`ll be more improvement than I first thought.
I`ll keep up posted.

Two House viewings

Just as I was telling eveyone how utterly USELESS my state agents are - well blow me - didnt I get a call to say I had two interested parties wanting to see the house Thursday. So off I go again in a deranged frenzy of house cleaning, decluttering, polishing and so forth. And again, the house looked pretty presentable, if I say so myself.
So...............two lovely couples turned up.....very friendly and nice and so complemenary about the house (again). The agency phoned on saturday morning to say one couple thought it was a lovely property - but not for them (why the hell not?) and the others hadnt been heard from since. This is a despondent business. after all that effort, nothing came of it again. Mind if I have a quick scream!!!!!!!

New Homes and Services Advertisement website

Well, this house selling lark isnt much fun. No luck from the last viewing - and nothing since. Not a sniff. Not even anyone for a nose. Its a bit miserable. SO - I`ve decided to start my own property and services advertising site.
Its going to be called UK Homes and Services.co.uk - I`ve ordered the site and will start working on it as soon as it gets activated. I also started two new MSN sites to help support the website. Wish me luck.
I also started a Family History course today. Looks like its going to be interesting. I always wanted to start a family tree, and now I will definately do it.