Credit crunch fault of Martin Lewis ?
Many years ago when I first started saving I opened an account with my local building society, I had no idea what the interest rate was, didn’t know how competitive they were and didn’t join up with them for any other reason than they were my local building society and I felt my money was safe with them.
I dare say everyone else did the same in their locations and everyone was relatively happy with the services provided.
Then along come the money saving experts like Martin Lewis, savers are told move your account and you might get 1/4% better interest, you might save 1p every time you write a cheque, you can have a free debit card etc.
Soon everyone was looking for cheaper and cheaper, the small independents no longer had their faithful customers and the big boys moved in.
A successful business mentor once told me, You should know when your business is in trouble when your major consideration is cost rather than service provided.
This seems to have been completely ignored by the banking sector, fueled by customers taking advice from Moneysavingexperts like Martin Lewis constantly switching between suppliers. Whatever happened to loyalty and relationships?
Is it any wonder we are now feeling the effects of the credit crunch? the small independants who used to have loyal customers are all but gone because people just looked for the cheapest.
The ridiculous thing is, money saving experts get obsessed with finding a deal that may only be paying 1/4% more than where people had previously always saved, the amount of savings might be as little as £2000 so in fact by switching the customer is as little as £5 a year better off.
Will the days of having a small local bank or building society come back? with loyal customers who feel their money is safe and a manager who the comunity knows by name. If they do we may all get back to saying it’s a wonderful life and next time the bell rings at the stock exchange it may be that an angel has won his wings.
Portable Wheelchair Ramps
I finally got around to tidying up my portable wheelchair ramps website today and also added a range of lightweight ramps from what may be a new supplier.
I have been speaking to this new supplier for at least 18 months and kept promising I would give their ramps ago, but until this weekend just hadn’t found the time.
The reason I found the time today was primarily because earlier in the week they sent me a nice info pack, an up to date trade price list, but more important than anything else, they sent me a disc of nice images of portable wheelchair ramps for me to use.
It always makes things a lot easier when supliers provide nice images, and often just gives me the spur to do things that I have been putting off.
Autumn Days Lyrics
If, like me, you went to church to see the kids performing in the harvest festival this week, you’re probably sat there humming the tune to Autumn Days. Well just for you, I have found the words to Autumn days and added them below.
Autumn Days Lyrics
Autumn days, when the grass is jewelled
And the silk inside a chestnut shell
Jet planes meeting in the air to be refuelled
All these things I love so well
So I mustn’t forget
No, I mustn’t forget
To say a great big thank you
I mustn’t forget.
Clouds that look like familiar faces
And a winter’s moon with frosted rings
Smell of bacon as I fasten up my laces
And the song the milkman sings.
So I mustn’t forget
No, I mustn’t forget
To say a great big thank you
I mustn’t forget.
Whipped-up spray that is rainbow-scattered
And a swallow curving in the sky
Shoes so comfy though they’re worn out and they’re battered
And the taste of apple pie.
So I mustn’t forget
No, I mustn’t forget
To say a great big thank you
I mustn’t forget.
Scent of gardens when the rain’s been falling
And a minnow darting down a stream
Picked-up engine that’s been stuttering and stalling
And a win for my home team.
So I mustn’t forget
No, I mustn’t forget
To say a great big thank you
I mustn’t forget.
Autumn Days
by Estelle White
Nokia N96 In Stock NOW
The latest Nokia mobile phone handset in the ever popular N Series, The Nokia N96 is in stock Now on a range of different plans on the major UK networks.
With its 5MB digital camera, 16GB of internal memory and built in DVB-H turner, the new Nokia N96 looks like being the handset everyone will want towards the latter part of 2008.
West Midlands Business Directory
Every now and then I get what I call a google jammed page
A google jammed page is basically a page on a website that no matter what you do , it just doesn’t get picked up by google.
My West Midlands Business Directory page is a perfect example of this, despite changing the content, setting new links to it, and tweaking it about, it still shows a cache from way back in July and appears nowhere in the SERPs.
Tonight I set up a little experiment to test a system I used when I was selling World Cup football shirts back in 2006, will it work? I will only know if my West Midlands Business Directory gets crawled soon.
Win a SuperCar
I tidied up my win a supercar site tonight and featured what to me is one of the nicest cars Best of the Best have offered as a prize, the 420bhp 190mph beast, the Audi R8.
Not only can you win this beauty, you also receive £6,000.00 to insure it, service it, and keep it on the road plus AN EXTRA £20,000.00 ON TOP TOO.
This post reminded me of the number 1 rule of search engine optimisation;
Check spellings are correct :o( (especially in anchor text)
Let it Go - Will Young
Let It Go - Will Young
Surely the greatest compliment you can pay Will Young is that in 2008, six years on, you barely remember that he rose to fame as the winner of the very first Pop Idol. The reasons are simple: he’s actually talented. And not just in that cheeky, boy-next-door, anybody’s-mum-would-like-him way; but as a singer. A distinctive set of pipes, a firm sense of soul dynamics and now, with Let It Go, a mature way of approaching his craft.
Let It Go is filled with insights gained through heartache and self-doubt. And like say, George Michael, he uses these elements to his advantage, gilding glossy mid-paced r ‘n’ b with that distinctive warble. This is an older, stronger Will. There’s little of startling originality here (Love could be by George, while also nicking the bassline from Billie Jean) but frankly it’s so well done that nobody’s complaining. This is emotive stuff that avoids being too mushy and lingers in the brain, in a good way.
And while he may not have the Wham star’s musicological nouse, there’s a sense that he’s been on a journey and found the place where he’s happiest, producing soul pop gems filled with hook after hook. The journey’s all laid out in the opener, Changes, and from that point on this is an easy ride through top tune heaven.
The only low point comes with Disconnected where Will emulates the worst, sappiest balads of Michael jackson. He’s better than such material. Yet, overall, Let It Go may even be destined to be his classic; the album that finds its way into the hearts of a million households and confirms him as one of our premier pop statesmen. It’s generation-straddling perfection.
19 September 2008
Who is Christine Bleakley Strictly Come Dancing
Christine Bleakley is a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing 2008.
Christine Bleakley co-hosts the early evening BBC One programme One Show with Brummie Adrian Chiles.
Born in Northern Ireland in January 1980, Christine Bleakley initialy started her career as a floor manager and worked behind the scenes at BBC NI.
She then moved in front of the camera on various local N. Ireland shows, such as SkyHigh and First Stop, before landing the co-host role on the One Show when previous presenter Myleene Klass unexpectedly went in to labour.
‘Adrian and I are just good friends’ she laughed when rumours started circulating that her and Adrian Chiles were getting cosy.
Chiles recently announced the break up of his 10 year marriage to radio presener / producer Jane Garvey.
Who is Christine Bleakley Strictly Come Dancing ?
Conference Venues in Norway
I set up a new section on the conference venue site that I maintain today for Conference Venues in Norway and whilst doing this I also re-organised the Conference Venues in Europe section.
This was a result of the MD taking a trip to Haugesund and being given a showround of one Norways premier conference venues Rica Maritim Hotel.
Norway is becoming a popular destination for large corporations when holding conferences and the conference facilities offered are of a very high standard.
Morris Conferencing were one of the first UK conference agencies to see the potential in Norway and have strong ties with many Norwegian conference venues, conference centres and convention centres.
Stairlifts
When my old sim64 site was doing well I used to have 3 or 4 pages on it about Stairlifts The pages themselves were never very nice, and because I never added a statcounter to the pages I don’t really know if they received many visitors.
With this in mind, I quickly set one page up on UKSBD and this time added a counter to access whether it is worth putting more effort in to the pages.