University of Bedfordshire Clearing Process 2007

Starting from the 16th of August until 21st of September the University of Bedfordshire is recruiting new undergraduate students to take up courses under its vacancy lists through University of Bedfordshire - Clearing 2007.

If you are interested and would like to know more about studying there, you can call them directly at 0800 013 0925. The university also offers various funding options for UK and EU students.

Car boot at Lea Marston

Yesterday we drove to Birmingham to Mozard and Nana's place who then took us to their favourite car boot at Lea Marston in North Birmingham. Check out the North Birmingham markets and car boots site here for more details.


I have to say that of all the car boot sales I have been to, this is probably the best so far. Lot of choices and real bargains. Take a look at some of the stuff we bought there:


After the bargaining, we were really hungry. So off we went to Mozard and Nana's house where they quickly cooked up a few delicious dishes for us. We also learnt how to drink (and appreciate) tea the Chinese way.


Here's Mozard playing his new toy and my son was totally impressed (well, his daddy too actually).

New hope for people suffering from Myopia

I have been wearing glasses for a long long time since I was in high school. I suffer from myopia or Nearsightedness, which means that I can see nearby objects clearly but distant objects are blurred. Wore contact lenses while I was in University but after stopped using them after I developed some complications.

I have thought of going for LASIK treatment after seeing a lot of my friend enjoying a life free from glasses. However, there might be a cure without going for laser treatment. According to this AP report, we might be able to get a 20-20 vision by wearing special contact lenses to bed.

Jeans e-boutique

Was recently chatting online with some of my younger relatives and they mentioned a brand of jeans that I had heard somewhere but was not really familiar with. I guess that just shows that I am not really keeping up to date with what's been happening in the fashion world. According to them, this brand called 'True Religion' was seen on a number of celebrities including Halle Berry, Jessica Simpson, and Cameron Diaz among others.

I was naturally curious about this company and found out that it is an American premium denim company, which was established in December of 2002. On their website they have an animated image of a laughing Buddha playing a guitar. Their jeans are distinguished by their amazing embroidery and the unique hand-sanded vintage washes.

One thing that really caught my attention was their unique way of naming their products. Unlike Levis which have a number system for their jeans, True Religion jeans have names like 'Billy Straight Leg Jean in The Boss', 'Johnny Stretch in Dark Vintage' and 'Joey Big T - Dark Dusty Trail', etc.

If you are looking to buy True Religion Jeans online, go on over to the Kultic.com e-boutique. Besides the "True Religion" Brand , they carry other popular designer jeans brands as well, including Hudson, 7 for all mankind, Citizens of Humanity and lots more. Right now they are having a sale with discount of upto 75% on certain products.

The CIA, Al-Qaeda and 12 foot aliens

I was reading this rather boring post on the Times Online blog, about two image processing experts who disagree on whether Al-Qaeda had altered a video or not. Read the post "Mousetrap technology" here.

Reading the comments really made me laugh out aloud.

A guy called Simon Arbuthnot says:

KR is correct.

Everybody knows that Al-Quaeda are a creation of the CIA, that the twin towers were blown up by George W. to cover up his fathers involvement in The Philadelphia experiment with time, causing earth to be invaded by 12 foot high space aliens 40 years before the experiment took place. The space aliens are now building an inter-galactic craft in the bermuda triangle to get back home to their own planet.

The whole clash of civilisations thing is just a conspiracy to stop us finding out about it. The only people who know the truth are The Queen, Geroge W and George snr, Margaret Thatcher and David Ike.

I found the comments more interesting than the post.

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.