I thought this may help sales, but no, it seems to have had the opposite effect.

I did a quick check of all the networks I am linking to and was disappointed to see every one now displays telephone numbers so people can order by phone rather than buying online.

What this means is we are potentially sending them free traffic, as if people buy by phone we don’t make our commission.

Time to dump all the mobile phone networks and start looking for a good store instead maybe!

The wife has been nagging for weeks to start the Christmas shopping and my excuse has always been Christmas doesn’t start until December and neither does my shopping!

It’s now the 21st December and the nagging has raised a notch

I have numerous websites, spend approx 16 hours a day online (probably about 15 and a half of those just dithering around), but just can’t seem to raise any enthusiasm to do my Christmas shopping online.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas and always have, this Christmas is going to be even better than usual, both my kids are the perfect age now, we’re staying at home and money isn’t an issue.

Why is it then I just don’t feel like doing my shopping online this Christmas?

Maybe It’s because I’m just old fashioned, a bit of a dreamer and think Christmas shopping should be like you see at the movies.

I love the thought of everyone enjoying shopping for the ideal gift for their loved ones, having good old fashioned Christmas music playing in the background, everybody being in a jolly mood, seeing kids excited about the countdown to Christmas, enjoying a hot chocolate with twirly cream and a flake in it whilst I take a rest.

I love to take the kids to see a jolly, fat, red faced santa with a real (or real looking) white beard and a nice heavy (like old curtains) bright red costume. I like him to sit the kids on his knee, whisper in their ear and then delve in to the bottom of his sack and bring out a wrapped present (diffferent size and different wrapper for each kid)

I even enjoyed Christmas before I was married and had kids, my day dream then was to accidentally grab a book at the same time as a beautiful girl, as it was the last one on the shelf let her have it and receive a lovely smile as a thank you. Later on bump in to that same girl at the cafe and share a hot chocolate (with twirly cream), laugh at each other for twirly cream moustaches and arange to meet on Christmas eve for a night out. (I think the deNiro, Streep film Falling in Love has a lot to answer for).

It’s the same when I go to a fair. The fairs I always imagine are like something from a Famous 5 book, all the stall keepers are jolly old souls, smartly dressed, but ruddy faced, They laugh and smile with you, wish you luck and commiserate with you if you don’t win (and give the kids a sweety). There are stalls with freshly made sandwiches, home made cakes, home made lemonade and big jugs of homemade ginger beer. The rides all sparkle, the music is jolly and everyone feels safe and relaxed.

Back to Christmas shopping. I’m going to put up with the nagging until the last minute, not do any online shopping but put my Sunday best on and nip in to Castle Quay at Banbury. If it’s anything like my perfect christmas shopping experience I will make a full day of it and get all my presents bought, if (as is more likely) it’s not like it is in my mind, I dare say I will be browsing at Amazon on Wednesday

We found all this out the other day when we booked ourselves in for an afternoon tea. High tea at the Park Lane Hotel is taken in the Palm Court, which is a delightful art deco style restaurant in the heart of the hotel.

The Art Deco styling has been religiously preserved by the owners, something that I’m sure property mogul and former Arsenal director Bracewell Smith, who built the hotel in 1920, would approve of.

Indeed, you just sink satisfyingly into the gold velour armchairs, with coffee tables at just the right height so you can eat your afternoon tea goodies in comfort. Most impressive is the original art deco bar. It’s bright, highly styled and very eye-catching.

Even if you’re not really a fan of all things art deco we can still recommend afternoon tea here as the tea, pastries, scones and finger sandwiches were delicious!

I’ve written out the lyrics to Sing Hosanna and will probably be driving the whole family mad as I learn the words.

Give me joy in my heart
keep me praising
give me joy in my heart, I pray
give me joy in my heart
keep me praising
keep me praising till the break of day.

 
Sing hosanna, sing hosanna
sing hosanna to the King of kings.
Sing hosanna, sing hosanna
sing hosanna to the King.

 
Give me peace in my heart
keep me resting
give me peace in my heart, I pray
give me peace in my heart
keep me resting
keep me resting till the break of day.

 
Sing hosanna, sing hosanna
sing hosanna to the King of kings.
Sing hosanna, sing hosanna
sing hosanna to the King.

 
Give me love in my heart
keep me serving
give me love in heart, I pray
give me love in my heart
keep me serving
keep me serving till the break of day.

 
Sing hosanna, sing hosanna
sing hosanna to the King of kings.
Sing hosanna, sing hosanna
sing hosanna to the King.

Swimming isn‘t one of our favourite sports but something involving water and if possible a bit extreme would be great. It was then we came across aqua sphereing!

Now clambering inside a big plastic ball called a Zorb might not sound the best place to be on a hot summer’s day, but when you quite literally through in a load of water into the mix and call it aqua sphereing it looks like it could be just the thing we’re looking for!

Here goes hurtling down a hill in a big plastic ball with a load of water. That’s aqua zorbing! Hands up, who feels dizzy all of a sudden!

Because if I can’t find one the Vuvuzela will ruin the World Cup for me.

Had a nice day out with granny and the kids today to Stratford Butterfly Farm.

It was the first time T had been and although he was initialy ay about the butterflyies flying around him in the buttefly flight area, he soon became more confident and started enjoying himself.

We spent about 10 minutes strolling through the flight area and then walked through the caterpillar room where there were loads of different caterpillars and an emerging cage where all the chrysalis from abroad are hanging with the butterflies waiting to emerge.

Next was insect city and arachnoland where we saw some nice big stick insects and some even bigger spiders, including  a Mexican Red Knee Tarantula  and a Goliath Bird Eating Tarantula which can have  leg span of 25cm.

Day out at Stratford Butterfly Farm – Stratford-upon-Avon

This is the reason why my main directory has too many categories as I initially allowed people to create their own and as a result I ended up with to many very similar categories.

To solve this problem I will soon be implementing a system that groups similar categories together or suggests similar categories when people search.

More about my old wheelchair ramps site over at podline

I’ve got no idea why that sticks in my mind so many years (30 in fact!) later. Maybe it’s the idea that the age of steam trains was a real golden age that people who remember it look back on with nostalgia. Maybe my Dad was actually right and that modern trains aren’t as comfortable?

Either way, it was a pleasure to then be able to invite my Dad (still not keen on taking ‘modern’ trains to this day), back to the Great Central railway in Leicester for his 70^th birthday. This time it wasn’t just a ride in a railway carriage, but a whole day out learning how to drive a steam train.

As you can imagine, he was beside himself with shock and delight at the present and the train driving day was everything we had expected and more. Not only did Dad get to drive the train on the full 30 mile round trip, he was also shown around the workshops and had plenty of time to reminisce and pose questions about the golden age of steam.

And of course, we had a great time too as we bought tickets on the day to ride on the actual train he was driving, making for a truly superb day out for all the family. A word of advice though, drive a steam train days are really, really popular on activity gift voucher websites, so make sure you book up well ahead (up to six months) if you want a specific date.