November 2009 Wins

13th Nov: A set of facial products arrived, I don’t know from where

18th Nov: I received an e-mail saying:

Congratulations! You are a winner of the VisitLiverpool.com Nowhere Boy competition! You have won :- Two tickets to the Charity Premier of Nowhere Boy at the Liverpool ONE Odeon with attendance of stars such as David Morrissey and Director Sam Taylor- Wood on Monday 23rd November 2009.

In addition to the tickets you have won an overnight accommodation in Liverpool at the Crowne Plaza Liverpool on the 23rd November and a meal at one of our amazing restaurants.

We had a nice room at the Crowne Plaza, overlooking the River Mersey.

We were met at the Odeon at Liverpool ONE by Janine from the VisitLiverpool who gave us the tickets. We walked up the red carpet and to the screen where the Premier was to take place. We were shown to our seats and awaited the start of the film.

After short speeches by David Morrissey and Sam Taylor-Wood the film began. It was a film about the early life of John Lennon. It was very enjoyable and the portrayal of Lennon by Aaron Johnson was excellent.

Following the film we were taken by taxi to the Il Forno Italian restaurant where we had a lovely meal. Dale had braised chicken livers, followed by rack of lamb with a ice cream desert to finish. I had a ravioli dish to start, followed by a platter of various grilled fish, this was all finished with a panocotta dessert. After finishing off a bottle of very nice wine and our coffees we climbed into a taxi and returned to our hotel.

25th Nov: I received a letter from Lancashire Telegraph telling me I had won a £200 Christmas hamper in conjunction with Parcels2Go.

October 2009 Wins

6th Oct: A book about wildlife arrived from DK. It appears to be a children’s book so will make a nice Christmas present for someone.

9th Oct: After entering a competition on the web I was informed that I’d won some cinema tickets, after looking a little deeper it appears we also get a goodie bag on the night and also entered into a draw to win a trip to New York.

12th Oct: Whilst sitting down to tea I missed a telephone call on my mobile. Luckily the lady who attempted to call me left a message. We’d won tickets to the musical ‘Chicago’ at the Palace Theatre staring Gary Wilmot. The production was excellent though Gary Wilmot was quite weak.

20th Oct: I received an e-mail to say I’d won tickets to see Phil Nichol at the Comedy Store, Manchester. It was an interesting venue. Unfortunately the act mistook being crude for being the same as being funny, the crowd did not agree. A number of people walked out in the middle of the performance, a further number of us did that British thing of staying put, applauding politely then moaning afterwards.

25th Oct: A coin celebrating the 50th anniversary of the mini arrived from the Royal Mint.

26th Oct: A bag of Taylors coffee arrived

27th Oct: I received an e-mail to say I’d won a signed Paolo Nutini CD and a Tunetribe t-shirt

28th Oct: Successfully applied for some preview screening ticket to see Harry Brown .

September 2009 wins

7th Sept: I received an e-mail which read:-

"I am pleased to inform you that you are the winner of our "Win a Holiday to Florida" competition, which we ran last month.

The prize is for a holiday for: Return flights for two adults and two children under 12 at the time of travel to Orlando, 7 nights accommodation in a family apartment on a self-catering basis, 8 days car hire. The prize is valid for 12 months.

Could I ask that you contact during business hours to confirm you eligibility for the prize and to talk you through what happens next.

Again, my congratulations on your win. I shall confirm this email to you with a letter sent by registered post".

We wrote back asking if we could extend the holiday by a further week at our own expense and if possible, if we could fly from Manchester. We received the following response:-

I have fantastic news for you!
　
I have booked this for you and as a gesture of good will (sic), we are going to cover the cost for an extra 7 days for you.
　
I will send out a letter in the post to you tonight so that you will receive it tomorrow.　 The basic run down is:
　
Flying out from Manchester, staying at the Renaissance at SeaWorld on International Drive and 15 days car hire.　

I will put flight times etc in the letter.
　
If you could tell me the date you would like to do your Dolphin swim I will also have this arranged.

What a fantastic response. Turn out the prize also includes tickets to Seaworld, Busch Gardens, Discovery Cove and Aquatica

Also on browsing the internet I found that I had won £40 of Amazon vouchers from a site call Allworkandnoplay, which will be very handy for Christmas.

9th Sept: I received an e-mail that informed me that I won a hamper of Italian and Greek food and wine from Vickery.TV. Two large boxes arrived filled with mainly Italian goods – some interesting meals look likely to follow.

August 2009 Wins

3rd August: I received an e-mail from RBS to say I’d won a copy of Jackie Stewart’s biography – "Winning is not Enough".

13th Aug: Another box of Clipper tea arrived.

20th Aug: A tube of Nixwax leather cream arrived

27th Aug: A signed limited edition book called ‘The Six’ arrived not too sure from where

28th Aug: Another book arrived today obviously from the same source as above. This book is a detective story called ‘Hypothermia’.

30th Aug: I received an e-mail from Manchester Evening News to say I’d won tickets to the play ‘Prick Up Your Ears’ at the Lowry Theatre. This is a play about the dramatist Joe Orton and starred Matt Lucas.

July 2009 wins

1st July: - When driving home my phone rang, it was a very nice lady from the Lancashire Telegraph to say I’d won a pair of tickets to see Lancashire play Hampshire in the semi-final of the Friends Provident Trophy. It was a lovely day with some great fielding, unfortunately Lancashire’s batting wasn’t up to the task and they lost convincingly.

3rd July: - Unusually a package arrived for me at work containing a win; it was a mini-stapler from Rexel.

4th July: - I won a MP3 download from Papermate

8th July: - I received a letter from Smooth Radio informing me that I’d won a ‘Manly Meal’ for two at The Monroe in Liverpool. The meal was to consist of a pie, a pint and a pudding. The Monroe is a nicely updated pub near the centre of Liverpool. We were informed that the pie promotion to which the competition referred was the previous month, however, the chef had made us a chicken pie specially. The chicken pie turned out to be chicken and apricot, served with chunky chips and red wine gravy and was delicious. We followed this up with bread and butter pudding and coffee. A very nice experience.

9th July: - I won a book from ‘liberalengland’ called ‘A Useful Fiction’.

13th July: - I took a call from ‘Scuzz Magazine’ to say I’d won a pair of tickets to see ‘Nine Inch Nails’. This was very pleasing as they are one of my daughter’s favourite bands. They were supported by Jane’s Addiction. Both bands seemed a bit tuneless to my ears but as most of the others there seemed to be enjoying it I have to concede that it may be me that was out of step.

15th July: - I received an e-mail saying that I’d won 5 iTune downloads. Also a box of Clipper tea arrived.

17th July: - I took a phone call from a lady at Real Radio to say I’d won a couple of tickets to the Amir Khan WBA Light Welterweight World Title Fight at the MEN. After picking up the tickets I negotiated with a ticket tout and picked up £100 for the tickets. We decided to go for a meal at Café Istanbul in Manchester, after a lovely meal with a few drinks I still had money left over so a good prize all round.

18th July: - A pair of Flyfit earplugs arrived. These earplugs relieve pressure and cut down ambient noise when flying. They were well used, especially at take off, on our trip to America