Savings while shopping online

Of late I have become really careful with my expenses. I had to as we are living off our savings and a meager scholarship. The fact that the Pound Sterling is quite high against other currencies also doesn't help much. I guess it will become better once I get a job.

In the meantime, I try to stretch my money as much as I can. I shop a lot online now and despite all the horror stories we have all heard, online shopping has been great - so far. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I stick to the well known online retailers. Another reason I shop a lot online is the fact that we can get some amazing bargains on the net. It's amazing. Sometimes I have been able to get certain products at a fraction of their retail prices. I try to take advantage of every offer available One great way to get good deals on most online shops are by using free online coupons. You usually get these codes via email when you sign up with an online retailer. There are also a number of coupon code sites out there on the net. However, I discovered one major problem with most coupon code sites, that most often than not, the codes listed on them would be outdated. I hate it even more when you click a coupon link only to be taken to some other unrelated page.

This will not happen at Deal Locker, a great place to find and share coupon codes. They list thousands of coupons for thousands of stores. They have coupons for all my favorite online stores and retailers including Amazon, Dell, and even gift cards and coupons for sale on ebay. Best of all, the coupons actually work as expired coupons are not shown. Furthermore, these coupons are rated by the users. You can search by store or by category. Take a look at my favorite category : electronics coupons.

Firefox users can use their 1-Click Coupon bookmarklet in order to find a coupon at any online store. All you have to do is click the bookmarket.

Have you got your TV Licence ?

People who had lived in the UK always used to joke, "the British tax everything". We used to laugh but when we moved here, we found that it was true. There is a council tax, a car tax, income tax of course and you also need to pay for a TV Licence.

If you have a colour TV, you need to pay £135.50 (approx. US$274.13) and a black and white license costs £45.50 (approx. US$92.05), to be renewed annually.

Not paying may result in fines - starting at £200 for a first offense. I was wondering how they would know if someone didn't pay. Probably by looking at presence of satellite dishes or antennas. One of my friends (you know who you are) told us to get a good PC with a TV tuner built in and watch TV on computer and not pay for the licence. It seems like a good idea but as the website says:

You need a TV Licence to use any television receiving equipment such as a TV set, set-top boxes, video or DVD recorders, computers or mobile phones to watch or record TV programmes as they are being shown on TV.

According to a report in the Coventry Times today, 1,386 people were caught watching TV without a licence in Coventry in the first 6 months of this year. I learnt that they are planning to use a fleet of detector vans and advanced handheld detectors to catch the defaulters.

Based on BBC's annual report, 75% of their revenue comes from TV Licence. No wonder they want you to pay up.

Move over Digg, Thoof's here

There's a new kid in town and it's fast becoming one of the best places to find all kinds of personalized news, websites, videos, and other links. I am referring to Thoof.com, where like Digg, users generate the news. Submitting a story is easy. Just click the 'Submit' button. Fill in the link url, title, summary of the story and the tags. Click submit story and you are done. However, it will only be posted after you sign up with them.

However, the similarities with Digg ends there. Unlike the former, other readers can then add or improve to your summary. Also unlike Digg which is dominated by technology related stories, the stories here are much more varied. You can literally spend hours reading the unending list of stories submitted by various users.

They have just introduced the "ThoofRank" system, whereby you can add a ThoofRank button in your blog or web page for any story you submit to them. Expressed as a percentage relative to other Thoof stories, this ranking system is a measure of how interesting a story is to other readers with similar interests. A ThoofRank of 50% and above is good as it indicates that a story is of above average interest to those readers.

Meeting Robin Hood - Episode 2

Some more pictures from our trip to Sherwood forest last Sunday.


Great story tellers




Rahil invited to join the orchestra


She's playing the tambourine


Dads with the kids


Now the mum's turn


An old oak tree int he forest


The jousting arena

We left without watching the jousting tournament as it was extremely hot and I was having a splitting headache.

We dropped by our friend Amruls' house Nottingham. He had cooked spaghetti and had baked a chocolate cake for us. Yes! It was as delicious as it looks.

Places in the UK reviewed by you and me

Was thinking of taking the wife and kids to London for a day or two while the weather is still nice and the sun still shining. We won't be able to get a better opportunity once my daughter starts her nursery in September. Not being very familiar with London, did some research on the net and did find some websites. However, most of them were just lists with some details. What I would have loved were real reviews by real customers.

Today, I finally found what I have been looking for on a great community web site called Trustedplaces. What makes this site unique is that customers share their opinions - good as well as bad, of places they frequent or have visited. You can add your own reviews as well. Whether you are looking for a London bar or a laundry or anything else, you will most likely find at least one review on the site.

Though highest number of reviews were of places in London, the site has reviews of places in other parts of the UK as well.

Meeting Robin Hood. Episode 1

WARNING: Loads of pictures ahead

Last Sunday we drove to Sherwood Forest, Edwinstowe, 20 miles north of Nottingham, on a convey along with Nana and Mozard's family and another Malaysian family.

The Robin Hood Festival is an annual event and it ran from 30th July - 5th August 2007 and we were able to visit on the last day. Fortunately we arrived early because the park was soon packed with people. A lot of people had to park by the road and walk to the park.

It was a very hot and bright day - the hottest since we arrived here in the UK. I am not sure but someone was telling me that it the highest that day was 31 degrees.
Phew!

























More pictures coming up.

StarCraft fansite

When it comes to computer games, most of my male friends prefer the first shooter games such as the Doom and Elder Scrolls series or the racing games. Personally I prefer the role playing or strategy games better known as RPGs. I sometimes spend days to complete a stage.

Out of all the strategy games out there one of the best is StarCraft, a real-time strategy computer game. Along with it's expansion pack, 'StarCraft: Brood War', which was released in 1998, it has now become the the third best-selling computer game in history.

I am really looking forward to their upcoming edition, StarCraft 2. It is currently under development by Blizzard Entertainment. The news of the upcomign sequel was first announced on May 19, 2007 and will be available for release on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Mac OS X. For more information on StarCraft or
starcraft 2 just go over to CreepColony.com. This fansite has everything you need to know about thiis popular computer game.