Warm and Dry

Happy Birthday Papa!

Shame that we cannot be with you to celebrate your birthday. Arthur made some biscuits in honour of your birthday. They were pretty good too!

I was able to pass on some clothes to Cathy which I got with me from Malta. I think they are such cool baby clothes. Well, ok maybe not baby but big girl clothes. I love how both Amirah and Arthur get offended at being called Baby. You see they are big boys and girls now!!

Opps. I just realised that the 100 photos are actually listed in my post for all the free photos. So sorry if I misled you. Mind you the free photos listed are over 200!!

I messed up on something I know something about, I am just glad that I was not talking about things like Yamaha rhino parts. I really am not into racing despite living in IOM!

Talking of racing… last TT we had a racing photographer stay with us. His photography was really good. My photographs of the TT… not so hot!! (They shoot by toooooooo fast!)

www.pixum.co.uk: 100 prints for free!

Happy Birthday Sweetness!!

Hope you have a wonderful day. May you be showered with loads of presents and not just golf shirts!

We arrived in Malta today. Randolph got out the cot for Arthur. Arthur has grown so much, he really no longer needs baby furniture. Thankfully it is a cot bed and we laid it out as a toddler bed. Somehow I suspect we will not be able to use it next time we go to Malta!

Guess that means it is time to steal Rodericks room too!

I have some great wedding ideas for photographs. Now if only someone wants to let me take photos of their wedding!! Meanwhile here is a photo of a wedding that I have taken.

As you know we tend to travel a lot, particularly to Malta so that we can see family, attend family occasions etc. However, as with everything it always costs money! So we always try to go with the cheapest we find. You hear of people getting flights for £25 and so on. I have never travelled that cheaply. I have never paid so little not even with Ryan Air and the likes. You can say, but I though you said you travelled for free on Ryan Air last time. Well, technically, yes! My flight was free but I still had to pay

• Taxes
• Airport charges
• Credit / Debit card charges
• Bag charges
• Preboarding charges if preboarding was required
• Food / Drinks on board*
• Insurance if required (we have annual travel insurance)
• and who knows what other charges!

So it leaves me amazed when people say they flew for peanuts. Our next flights to Malta cost us nearly £300. And you might think they are good prices… however I should point out that we do not have priority boarding, our luggage is limited, it does not include food, drinks etc, and our travel insurance was paid separately. We paid far more than that for our IOM flights!!

So the question is why did we choose Ryan Air and Flybe? I suppose the reality is they probably paid a Full Service Advertising Agency to get them to the forefront of the travel industry and they were among the top 5 we checked out prices for. The truth is you go with what you know. If you try to search every option, you would be there for days (and none the wiser). So what we do is we check the main names that come to mind eg British Airway, Air Malta, Ryan Air, Bargain Holidays and Easyjet and choose the cheapest (in the case of Malta). The question is who do we check out and why those 5 not another 5 names? Personally, I put it down to good advertising because in reality… I bought a flight with Ryan Air… and well let us say my opinion of Ryan Air and Maltese Buses are not too far apart!!

*You do end up spending because it is not just a 3 hour flight, you also have 2 hours at the airport and in our case flights from the IOM and time in IOM airport too! It is a day’s travelling!

As I know that we all love photos…. here is a code to get a fiver off your photos!

If you spend £20 or more on gifts and prints, you can get £5 off your order. This is over and above the 50 free prints you can also claim!

1. Click on the link
2. Order you photos
3. Enter the offer code SAVE5 at the checkout

Simple as 1, 2, 3! No need to call Owen for PC Support!!

Note -  The offer excludes Kids collection and Photo Fashion and is valid until midnight 31st December 2008. Standard Photobox terms and conditions apply.

It strikes me just how well Marketing Advertising works. I look at my little one and every time he sees an advert for a mechanical spirograph, he keeps asking for it. He is not yet 3 and already asking Mummy and Daddy for things which are advertised on TV. And he is not the only child asking for it. Trust me! Thousands of kids are watching the same adverts and begging their mums and dads for it. And so just in time for Christmas, all the parents will head off to the toy shops and buy their kids all their hearts desires. And their hearts desire what they watch on TV! The more appealing it is on TV, the more the kids will want it and ask for it.

It is why I like CeeBeebies…. it is advert free TV, because in my head adverts work too well! I mean seriously can you just imagine how much money they could make as a result of their advertising? Perhaps this is where I went wrong, perhaps I ought to have targeted kids watching TV. I would have sold far more balloons and tricks than I did. I wonder what it costs to advertise on TV?