August - September Wins 2014

AUGUST

4^th Aug - Whilst holidaying in Northumberland I received an e-mail informing me that I’d won a family day pass to any National Trust property.  Ironically we’d visited two National Trust properties the previous two days.  However, I’m sure they’ll come in hand for a nice day out over the next few months.

8th Aug – From a draw at work I have won a pair of tickets to a Blackburn Blackhawks ice-hockey game.

SEPTEMBER 

8th Sept - I received an e-mail from Lancashire Tourism to say I’d won some tickets to the Blackburn Heritage Festival which included ride tickets.  I was a little underwhelmed by the festival, but my granddaughter really enjoyed the rides, so a worthwhile afternoon out.

11th Sept -  A children's book about Pirates arrived I think it was from the book tokens site.

15th Sept -       Best win for some time. An e-mail arrived from the Guardian to say that I’d won £1,000 to spend at IKEA in their recent kitchen competition.  Only the previous evening we were saying how our kitchen units were looking a bit shabby and how we’d have to save up and replace them, well now we have a great start.  We are already planning how to spend our vouchers.       

26th Sept -  An e-mail arrived from Disney to say I’d won a Snow White DVD.  That’ll be one happy granddaughter then.

                                                 

July 2014 wins

3^rd - I was notified by Smooth Radio that I had won ticket to the North home show taking place in Manchester

17^th – I received an e-mail from Creative Tourist informing me that I had won a Photography Course with North West Photography. 

Taken 26^th July- I arrived at the Pack Horse Inn at Birtle near Rawtenstall where the course was to take place and was greeted by one of the course instructors.  Gradually the other participants and another instructor arrived and introductions and explanation of the course took place over coffee and biscuits.

The course was billed as being for people who enjoy their photography but rarely use anything other than their automatic settings.  We had a brief explanation of how to best use aperture settings and shutter speeds.  We also had a chat about changing the ISO settings and adjusting the autofocus settings.

We then set off for a walk in the countryside with a chance to put the theory into practice.  My close up work using a narrower depth of field seems to have improved, let’s see if I can keep it up.

24^th – I also won two hours of Wi-Fi when travelling Cross Country Rail. Not sure this will get used.

June 2014 Wins

11^th June - I received an e-mail from nudgemenow.com which read  “Thank you for entering our online competition to win a copy of The Adjacent by Christopher Priest & The Disestablishment of Paradise by Phillip Mann.  We had a fantastic response and it is with great happiness that I can say you are A WINNER! Many congratulations!”

13^th June - I received a book without warning through the post. It was a lovely book called ‘World War One in 100 objects’ from Battlefield Tours.  It explains the significance of 100 objects and the part they played in World War One.

16^th June - Whilst on holiday I received an e-mail to say I’d won a retro style football shirt from Campo Retro in a manchesterconfidential.com competition, all I needed to do was select the shirt I fancied.  I chose a vintage 1966 England away shirt with the number 6 on the back.

20^th June - Again while on holiday I received an e-mail.  This time from the Halle Orchestra to say I had won tickets to one of their concerts featuring violinist Viktoria Mullova playing Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No.1 and Daphnis et Chloé by Ravel at the Bridgewater Hall.

20^th June -  Yet again I received an e-mail whilst on holiday, this time to say I’d won a biscuit hamper from Jules Destrooper the Belgian biscuit company.  The parcel consisted of 6 small packets of differing kinds and a large variety box. Delicious!

May 2014 Wins

6^{th May} – I received an e-mail to say I'd won  a Brandt's Travel Guide to Alaska from the Geographical magazine.

9^{th May} – I received an e-mail  from letsgowiththekids to say I'd won a Muppets Most Wanted bundle which turned out to be a watch, a cap, a key-ring and stickers.

21st May - An e-mail arrived to say I'd won a pair of tickets to the Ideal Home Show in Manchester

April 2014 wins

 7^th April – All in all a good day.

Firstly I received an e-mail from ‘The Travel Chanel’ saying that one of my pictures (see left) had been chosen as the daily winner in their ‘Around the World in 80 Days’.  This meant I won some travel scales, a Palin's 'Around the World in 80 Days' mug, a worry ball and bag.  All very nice but the really exciting bits are the extras.

The first extra is that my submitted photograph will feature on TV on the Travel Chanel.  So that’s a first.

The second extra is that all 80 of the daily winners then go forward into a final competition with one of the daily winners being chosen to win round the world flight tickets.  The route is Dubai, Bangkok, Sydney,  Santiago (Chile) and Buenos Aires. Fingers crossed.

Later in the day things got even better with an e-mail informing me that I had won a £100 in Morrisons vouchers in their Saturday night takeaway competition.

22^nd – I received an e-mail from Jet2 to say I’d won two tickets to a Viennese Evening  at the Concorde Conference Center at Manchester airport.  It is an evening of Viennese music and dance all in a large room where the aeroplane Concorde is kept.  Also and most importantly, we get to do a quick tour of Concorde.

 

We arrived to a red carpet entrance into the building, where one we cleared reception we were greeted by our first glimpse of Concorde.  We decided to join the queue to go aboard Concorde before the concert, mercifully the queue was quite short at that stage.  From the outside the plane is a thing of beauty, inside it feels very small compared to modern planes.

The rest of the evening was composed of classical Viennese  music, song and ballroom dancing all sat under the wings of the plane.  A slightly surreal but nevertheless enjoyable experience.

March 2014 wins

3^rd March – won London Warehouse Gig tickets – unfortunately I entered for the first prize a trip to Berlin, so the tickets won’t get used.

19^th March – I received an e-mail from 50Connect to say I’d won a year’s subscription to ‘The Weekly’ magazine, a weekly topical magazine.

20^th March - I received a signed for delivery from Capital Radio, inside was a £100 H&M card.  Very useful!

February 2014 wins

4th Feb - I won an autobiography of Nicolas Roeg from film69.

10^th Feb – I won a FA cup pint glass from Budweiser.

28^th Feb – I won a bottle of Silicol Gel from Health Magazine – apparently it’s for indigestion.

January 2014 wins

2^nd Jan - I won a personalised razor from Gillette might be worth putting in the suitcase for one of our weekends away.

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23^rd Jan – I won a lovely upholstered Footstool from Simple Things magazine.  Both the colour and style really fit in with our living room so really pleased with this.

30^th Jan – I had an e-mail from ‘Cultural Tourist’ to say that I’d won a calendar – it turned out to be a single sheet of paper with a few events printed on.  Not really my idea of a win.

November and December 2013 wins

29^th November – Won a signed film post from the new Romeo and Juliet film. As I’d never heard of the leading man who had signed it, it didn't mean an awful lot.   

The year ends with yet another month with no wins.

October 2013 wins

9^th October – I received an e-mail from Smooth Radio to say I’d won a pair of top priced tickets to see Jesus Christ Superstar at the Phones4U arena.  The production starred Melanie Chisholme, Tim Minchin, Chris Moyles and Ben Forster.  It may have had the big names in the big arena but it wasn’t half as good as the small intimate theatre production I’d seen years before.

26^th October – An umbrella arrived from Lambreni

September 2013 wins

11^th September – I received an e-mail from the Guardian saying I'd won a years membership to the Tate.  This enables myself and a guest to attend exhibitions at  any Tate Gallery, it also entails receiving a bi-monthly magazine and a canvas bag.

13^th September – An e-mail arrived from 50Connect to say I’d won a

Crock-Pot Rice Cooker.

July and August 2013 wins

12^th July – A pleasant ‘Country life T-Shirt’ arrived from Country Life.

25^th July – I won some tickets to ‘Boycott and Aggers’ at the Lowry from Cricket World. Geoff Boycott and Jonathan Agnew provided a very pleasant evening of cricket conversation.

Back to the disastrous year in August, no wins again.

May and June 2013 wins

May was another disappointing month.

3^rd May – won a pair of tickets to see the Chinese subtitled film Dragon from seefilmfirst.  The film was visually stunning but basically just the standard kung fu type film.

27^th May –  A box of  ‘All Bran red Berries’ arrived from Kellogg’s.

June was even worse than May, no wins at all

April 2013 wins

April was a quiet month for wins again.

17^th April – a bottle of ‘Citrus Magic’ liquid soap arrived from ‘Yours’ magazine. Nice stuff but not that exciting.

22^nd April – won a pair of tickets to see ‘Little Voice’ at the Opera House, Manchester, starring Beverley Callard, Jess Robinson and Ray Quinn. The girl who took the lead role had a good voice, but overall the production felt a bit crude – though lots of young women laughed heartily and whooped all the way through, so perhaps it’s just me.  I know the film dealt with seediness but it did not go for the cheap laughs that this production aimed for.

March 2013 Wins & Dumfries Break

1st March 2013:  I received an e-mail to say I'd won tickets to see the illusionist Pete Firman in Blackburn.  Unfortunately we can't make it so the tickets will go to friends.

The third part of our trip exchanged for our theater weekend win, was to the Friars Carse Hotel near Dumfries.

Rather than driving directly to our destination we detoured to the market town of Moffat.  Not over impressed but enjoyed my first haggis of the break in a pub where Robbie Burns had visited.

We arrived at Friars Carse mid afternoon to find a lovely period property.  All the rooms had tree names rather than numbers, ours being Aspen, with lovely views across the fields.

We rapidly unpacked and set off for a walk along the river, the hotel having its own salmon fishing rights along the river.

Our evening was spent in the town of Dumfries strolling the streets, enjoying an Indian meal and ending with a stoll along the river bank.  Cold but enjoyable.

The following day we decided to follow the 'Red Kite Trail' with the intention of spotting the majestic birds and enjoying the spectacular scenery.

We started the day with a walk at the RSPB reserve at Ken Dee Marshes.  We spotted our first Red Kite before we had even reached the car park.

We saw red kites, red squirrels,, willow tit, nuthatch and lots of wildfowl.  A lovely morning.

We continued along the 'Red Kite Trail' spotting lots of the birds. We enjoyed a pleasant lunch in the Smithy Tearoom in New Galloway along the trail.  In the afternoon we visited a red kite feeding station.  Amazingly we saw over 70 of these magnificent birds.

We enjoyed a lovely meal in the hotel that night and slept well.  We awoke, however, to blizzard conditions so set off immediately after breakfast for home.  The journey which should have taken around two and a quarter hours actually took around five and a half hours because of the conditions.  Never mind we've lots of great memories.

February 2013 Wins

February 1st : February started well with a lovely prize from Phones-4-U of a Motorola RAZR i smart phone, a bit of a step up from my old very basic phone.

February 4th: I received an e-mail to from Gfk surveys to say I'd won a £2 Highstreet voucher

February 8th: My first phone call on my lovely new phone turned out to be a phone call from a lady at Manchester Confidential to say I'd won a three course meal for two with a bottle of wine at Livebait in Manchester.

I started with a crab cocktail and Mrs D had tempura prawns.  I followed this with a Goan fish curry and Mrs D had line caught sea bream.  We both opted for the trio of deserts.  We also enjoyed a lovely bottle of white wine.  All in all a lovely evening.

February 20th: A copy of the children's magazine arrived from an online competition and was much enjoyed by my granddaughter. 

February 26th: Following a Google search I found I'd won an Audrey Hepburn documentary DVD from Mature Times.

January 2013 Wins

2^nd Jan: Great start to the New Year it’s only the second and over £500 worth of F. Hinds jewellery courtesy of the Trafford Centre.  The Folded Heart Collection by Sian Hughes – created in 9ct gold, a three layer heart pendant set with a diamond and strung from a 18” fine chain plus matching 12mm earrings strung from a hook wire, creating a drop of 22mm.  Each piece is numbered and signed.   Also the Fan Collection by Rosie Velk, also in 9ct gold – a 20mm fan set with a diamond and strung from an 18” fine box chain plus matching 15mm fan earrings also set with a diamond.  Again each piece is individually numbered and signed.

3^rd Jan: I received an e-mail from Gfk surveys to say I’d won a £2 high street voucher.  The small print kindly informed me that I need not spend it all in one go – would have hated to blow it all at once.

Ironbridge Break

This is the second of the three breaks which we had exchanged for a luxury London Theatre break.

We started our trip with a look around Shrewsbury.  Lots of history and nice tea rooms.

Whilst poking around the backstreets I worked out that Butchers Row would have been the meat market, Fish St would have been the fishmongers.  But what do you suppose went on here?

Our hotel was the Madeley Court Hotel near Telford, which is a Grade 1 listed building.  Even though we had a nice room in a more modern extension it was still a lovely atmospheric place.

We spent the first evening at the lovely ‘Restaurant Severn’ on the main road through Ironbridge.  Unfortunately movement around Ironbridge was restricted as the River Severn was close to bursting it’s banks and flood barriers were in place.  This did not spoil our enjoyment  and the  ‘Restaurant Severn’ provided one of the nicest meals I’ve had.

Day two was spent at some of the Ironbridge Gorge Museums. Following a nice English breakfast we drove the 10mins drive to the Blist Hill Victorian Village.  A very enjoyable morning was spent looking around the Victorian village, looking in the period shops and workplaces.

Good old days?

The afternoon was spent at the Coalport museum.  I found most of the pottery displays a bit boring but walking in the huge kilns with interactive displays made up for it.  The glass blowing was also very interesting.

We then walked along the river to the Jackman Tile Museum.  I know this sounds very boring and much of it was.

On returning to the car we decided to drive back into Ironbridge as we had not seen the famous old bridge in the daylight.  Again we were prevented from driving into Ironbridge because of the high water levels, but we managed to park across the river and walk back across the bridge.  It was amazing to think that this was the first iron bridge in the world and that this area because of its innovative ways of creating and using iron in its various forms kick-started the Industrial Revolution.

We spent a lovely evening at the ‘Da Vinci’ restaurant a few doors away from the previous nights ‘Restaurant Severn’.  Hard to believe but the food was nearly as good as the night before. Who’d have thought that Ironbridge would turn out to be a gourmet’s delight.

The third and final day started with a trip to Coalbrookdale.  This brought to life the area that I’d read about in my school history, many years ago.  I came away with a sense of just how unpleasant life would have been back then.

We returned home via Llangollen after another lovely break.

December 2012 wins

3^rd Dec: I received an e-mail from Classic FM to say I’d won 50 iTunes downloads.  This is a lovely prize, but I can never decide what to buy – given the short timescale for redeeming the voucher I’ll need to decide quickly.

5^th Dec:  Having been out for the day for my birthday meal I returned home to an e-mail from Rude Health which informed me that I had won a Merchant Gourmet hamper and a selection of Oatys products 

10^th Dec:  I received an e-mail from Tesco Books Blog to say I’d won a boxed set of ‘Meerkat Tales’.  A boxed set of six books which I’m sure my granddaughter will love.

14^th Dec: A very pleasant box of Christmas crackers arrived from Lurpak.

19^th Dec: A long white envelope arrived with a letter saying I’d won a bottle of Capella and containing a voucher.  I’ll try not to let it change my life. 

24th Dec: Christmas Eve, not a day when you expect too many wins, but my wife’s copy of the Sunday Times Travel magazine arrived.   Flicking through I found that I had won second prize in their photography competition of a nice camera with a x10 zoom.  This was the photo that won it for me.