We needn’t have worried that being in Portugal wouldn’t feel as ‘Christmassy’ as being in cold England. The Portugese seem to go in for Christmas in an even bigger way than the Brits, probably helped by the two bank holidays at the start of December on the 1st and 8th!

Being a country populated by 98% Roman Catholics, the religious aspect is obviously more widely important than in the UK, illustrated by the huge range of nativity scenes available in shops and as part of town decorations. This said, the consumer-Christmas that we all know and love/hate (delete as applicable) is alive and well in Portugal as well.

Yesterday we set off to buy our tree – we were originally going to go to the Portugese equivalent of the UK Homebase or B&Q (Leroy Merlin,) but got caught in our first traffic jam in 4 weeks(!) on the outskirts of Faro. We happened to drive past the huge Forum shopping centre and the beautiful Christmas lights drew us in.

Shopping Centres are treated as a real day-out destination in Portugal. They are similar to centres in the UK, but probably a bit closer to the ones you would find in America. Generally though, a shopping centre is the same the world over – a load of shops on a few levels, with a big food-court at the top. In Portugal you usually find a large hypermarket at the bottom and a multiscreen cinema somewhere as well. 

The difference though, is the atmosphere. I associate shopping centres in the UK with chavvy kids and queues at Primark. Here, the atmosphere is relaxed, and there always seems to be a large outside area with pavement cafes and people drinking Uma Bica (an espresso) or Um Imperial (a small beer.) The opening hours are long – where we visited yesterday was open until midnight, and still buzzing with people when we left at 10.30pm.

There are a lot of families, some clearly on a day out with 3 or maybe even 4 generations of the family out together. Last, but not least, the food court, which,  although it has plenty of junk food outlets (including the first McDonalds we have encountered in Portugal so far,) there also seem to be some local and healthy options on offer – we had a bit of a nose at peoples plates and saw a lot of things we would like to try, rather than “shit-in-a-tray” that we would rather avoid!

As we sat under the lights of the very impressive tree, drinking some delicious coffee, which we still can’t believe is only about 60 cents per cup, we really started to understand the point of this “shopping centre as a day out” thing. Do a bit of shopping, have a decent lunch, have a beer, watch a movie, have a coffee, bit more shopping, another beer or two, perhaps a snack, then grab everything needed from the supermarket and head home. Obviously, as a fairly typical man, the fact that “have a beer” can be included in the list makes a day of shopping seem a lot more attractive, though I couldn’t see this working particularly well in binge-drinking Britain!

As Christmas gets nearer, I’m sure the pace at these places will get a lot more frantic and will probably be as hellish in the few days before the big day as they are everywhere else in the world, but as far as last night was concerned, we actually had a really good time at a shopping centre, which isn’t something I thought I would ever say.

Otherwise, it all seems very similar to Christmas back in England, and with the current cold nights, it is suitably chilly to feel right. Even the Christmas songs playing in the supermarket are the same selection which my wife adores but that start to drive me to distraction by around 15th December! We are enjoying trying different festive foods, and all the Portugese versions of the things we have at home as well. My father-in-law is arriving in a few days with a few essentials we haven’t been able to get (i.e. bread sauce mix,) the tree is going up this week, and then we can start to look forward to our first Portugese Christmas. I can’t wait.

Seasons greetings to all!

bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh.

i HATE today sooo much. its shit. can’t wait for it to end. can’t beleive I’m ILL! like, propper, sick up ill. and im soooo bored.

and as if it couldn’t get any worster, my laptops speakers have gone weirdo on me. its not fair. if i say it enough times maybe things will sort themselves out.

I had two nightmares last night, I think thats what I’m gonna blame all this shit on. the first was, i was mega huge ass saggy man boobs fat. it was horrible, i didnt even have a chin. bleh. nad the second was I was being chased through a field by a flying sheet that kept sing ”baa baa fat kid, I will eats you  now!”

So I didnt exactly sleep very well. :’(

cant wait to get my new ipod tomorrow! ahhhh im actually gonna be devestated if it doesnt come!!! please come please come please come!

wow, just got a notification that I have an email from homebase notifying me that they are currently have a sale. BLEH to that maties, I’m sick.

I plan on having a three post day today, so watch this space. or dont, im sure you actually have a life! Xx

After the last bleak posting about the joys of dealing with big companies who don’t even get close to delivering on their customer service ‘promise’, I thought I’d better balance things up with news of a recent happy retail experience. And those are three words that don’t often spring from my lips.

We’d just moved into the new place and as it was unfurnished we were busy raiding stores like IKEA to get the house looking more like a home, quickly and without great expense. I’ve become quite a fan of the blue and yellow place and its fantastic products (and assembly instructions which are simply brilliant). But this day I was heading down to our local Homebase , which is a DIY superstore in the UK, because we needed some things like lightshades  and I wanted a pile of new tools and things to hang pictures, etc. All our stuff is still out in Italy of course. I’d got a trolley full of items when I went to check out a powerdrill. I didn’t really want to spend a fortune on one – I just needed a pretty basic thing to drill some holes for fixing curtain tracks, shelves etc. All the Black & Decker and Bosch power gear seemed really expensive. And then my eyes fell upon the box containing the PB Power Base 500W hammer drill, with keyed chuck, variable speed, forward and reverse functions, adjustable front handle and depth gauge and 12 month warranty. Made in the UK. Price £9.99. Whoa. That had to be a mistake but no, I kid you not, that was its special offer price. I know that in life you only get what you pay for and this was so cheap it had to be a pile of crap, but I figured I needed some 30 holes drilling and surely it could handle that. So up I trundled to the check-out counter with my trolley full of things we already  owned a 1000 miles away. Ah well.

The total bill came to just shy of £100. Blimey. But we needed all the stuff so… Then the young girl on the till asked me if I wanted a Homebase discount card. I just thought it was one of those loyalty cards or, worse still, a store credit card and rather dismissively just said ‘er, no thanks’. But she persisted and said it simply entitled the user to a 10% discount on all goods purchased during the month of October (of which there were still 26 days left). All I had to do was bring it back to the store for use on my next purchase.  For a second I thought I couldn’t be bothered but I cheekily asked her if she’d accept it for the pile of goods I was currently buying. She pondered for a second (I knew this wasn’t really how it was meant to operate) and said ‘OK, why not?’. Wey hey, she must like the fat old bald guys.  So I got the drill effectively for nothing with the discount. What a deal eh.  For once it felt like I was up on a retailer.

There’s a post-script  to the story. When I got the drill home it worked fine for about 5 minutes then started cutting in and out. Oh f**k it. It was as if the wiring was badly connected. You knew this was coming I dare say. But you know what, a few days later I had to head back to Homebase for some more stuff. I took the drill back to the service counter and they offered me my money back or a replacement drill (they have a 28 day no quibble return policy – great!). The guy assured me it was the first unit that had been returned with a problem, so I got another! And he even put the discount back onto my discount card, which I ended up using several more times  before the month was out. I have to tell you that the second drill has been faultless; it’s a bloody belter and I’ve been drilling holes for England with it.

I’m still smiling about what a great deal that was some weeks later. If I’d had any smarts stuff I should have written about this whilst the offer was still on so that you guys could have take advantage too. Sorry folks but it must be worth checking out from time to time because the store must repeat it at some stage (maybe they do it every month?). If you can top this story I’d be very happy to hear it shoppers.

pp

Cette sirène à la voix somptueuse s’assoit avec HomeBase NYC pour discuter de musique

Well today’s school day was very, very boring however things picked up during 6th period.  Maths.  This is a shock to me because I normally never enjoy Maths, but today we (Myself, Olivia and Stephanie) were extremely hyper.  We laugh at everything, we sniggered at Mr MacAndie, especially when he screamed at us to shut up he looked like he was about to explode.  The thing that got us was we were learning about ambiguous triangles with the sine rule, and he drew a line through the triangle to make a second triangle and when started the exercise it had nothing to do with lines through a triangle, all the answers were either yes, no and why.  So for most of the lesson we discussed this “line” and it’s purpose.  We’re undecided.

RMPS was quite interesting today, we were learning about The Big Bang Theory, I guess what helped the lesson was Lucy had bought in Roses and I got my favourite, a caramel barrel, but to my surprise my mother comes from work with a tin of Roses also, I think I’ll be stealing quite a few caramel barrels tonight. 

Oh an another thing!  Yesterday I received a phone call from Homebase, and I’ve been invited to an assessment at 2pm Friday, I’m very excited and hopefully, I’ll finally have found myself a job.  Wish me luck!

Over and Out.

I’ve pretty much decided that I’m going to have a stab at homemade Christmas tree decorations this year … not that I’m not going to find style inspiration from the high street though!

If you’re still wondering what style to go for, check out this video of gorgeous Christmas decorating trends from John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and Homebase. You might find the exact style you’re looking for without even leaving the house. I think Christmas present shopping on the high street is dangerous enough, so I hope this’ll make the decoration shopping a bit easier.

The vintage-style Christmas trend has GOT to be my favourite. I just LOVE the chalky pinks and homespun hearts.

Angel MedFlight Cooks Dinner for HomeBase Youth Services

As part of Angel MedFlight’s continuing effort to give back to the community, employees put on their aprons and cooked dinner for at-risk and homeless youth.

Each day there are thousands of homeless youth living on the streets of Arizona.  Most have fled mentally and physically abusive situations.  All lack life’s most basic needs of food, clothing and shelter and are forced to survive on the streets.

HomeBase Youth Services is an Arizona-based, non-profit organization founded to address the growing need of these youth, age 21 and younger.  It provides real life solutions to the physical, mental and emotional abuse and neglect these youth have suffered.

Employees of Angel MedFlight spent an evening preparing and serving a home cooked meal to the youth living at HomeBase.

Angel MedFlight Employees Preparing Dinner at HomeBase Youth Services

“We had a great time preparing the food,” explained Kelly LoCascio, Angel MedFlight’s Chief Legal Counsel.  “It was very rewarding to interact with the youth and hear their appreciation for our efforts.  It felt great to know that they really enjoyed the food.  HomeBase is providing a life-saving service for these youth and I’m so happy to be a small part of it.”

Angel MedFlight plans to continue volunteering for and donating to HomeBase Youth Services.  To get involved with HomeBase or to learn more about the organization, visit their website.

Click Here to view more photos of Angel MedFlight employees being Chefs for a Night.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking: “Another video?” Didn’t he just drop one? Respect his grind!

“Apollo 13″ is a cut off “Tomorrow Is Today” by Fresh Daily, and is a song near and dear to my heart… Why? Cuz he referenced me in it! I’ll never forget the day it dropped and I heard my name… Double takes and all =) Fresh asked me to make a cameo in the video and I was glad to oblige, even though I’m (video) camera-shy. It seems everyone’s throwing me in front of their cameras these days, but you’ll have to wait and see what I’m talking about…

Here’s the video for “Apollo 13″, directed by Shankar, in which we follow Fresh throughout a day of recording in the studio, partying at his favorite spot and riding the train home after sunrise… A lot of my peers got their cameos on, and we had a blast partying at our favorite spot, Homebase Wednesdays @ bObs. Peep yours truly around 1:00!

Fresh Daily – Apollo 13

P.S. I wasn’t really taking photos of Fresh in my cameo…just shooting the camera to make the flash go off, which made for a nice effect. However, I did get a few photos inadvertently…check them out:

When you find something that is new to you, what do you do? Do you ignore it or do you want a definition of say a new word and so you look it up in the dictionary? If you look it up you could be labeled a smart individual because you want to know more about this new person, thing, or word. If you engage in business undertakings, you probably want to define an entrepreneur? Are you one, an entrepreneur?

According to most dictionaries a specific definition of an entrepreneur is a business person who finances or initiates emerging commercial enterprises. Basically, he or she is the person who provides for the capital of the business. However, providing capital is not enough to be called an entrepreneur. WHY IS THAT?

Some individuals prefer to invest in a certain business venture but does not necessarily handle all the business activities. A lot of the times, they will let someone else handle the business activities.

If you finance a business venture and run it, you can be called an entrepreneur. According to some economists, an entrepreneur is someone who develops a fresh and new product, a new way of producing something, or an innovative market. Usually, entrepreneurs start with a small business and if it proves to be successful, the business will slowly expand.

So why put up small businesses? You see, small businesses require smaller amount of capital while larger ones demand huge capital. Not many entrepreneurs nowadays are willing to take the risk of putting up big businesses without proper research and studies.

Some say that being an entrepreneur starts right after a child is born. The qualities are already possessed by the child from the moment of birth. The individual is already a thinker and schemer of things. These individuals will want to reach the impossible. So if you’re a born entrepreneur, you must develop your skills and qualities so that you can use it in the near future for your success.

Starting a new enterprise may sound very hard but for the entrepreneur, nothing is impossible to achieve. Innovation, creativity, leadership, being a risk-taker, and having the right inner drive or passion are some of the keys to being a successful entrepreneur. If you possess these things, nothing can stop you from being one of the biggest names in the marketplace. Nothing can stop your Dreams!

There are thousands of opportunities that you can find from emerging communications, culture, and science and technology. All you need to do is identify these business opportunities and turn them into a real business enterprise. However, choosing a good business opportunity requires careful study and market research. Even if entrepreneurs are known to be risk-takers, they still have to make sure that they are entering a good business.

If you want to know more about the definitions of an entrepreneur, you can easily search for the meaning of the word in popular search engines like Google and Yahoo.

Being an entrepreneur is exciting and a challenging task. If you have the guts, the capital, the right inner passion/ drive, appropriate qualities, and skills, don’t hesitate to introduce something new to the market.

People are always looking for new products and or services. So what are you waiting for? Study the market and see if you can enter it and become a new entrepreneur.

UK Consumer Insights 2009 are based around individual retailers and provide a highly detailed, data-rich overview of a retailer’s customers, drawing on a nationwide survey of 6,000 shoppers each year.

Reasons to Purchase

*New analysis, unique to these reports shows details about non-converting visitors including where they main shop and who they are.
*Analysis by non-standard demographics is also presented to give a comprehensive picture of a retailer’s customers.
*Key demographics include among others, sex, age, social class, television region, marital status, housing tenure, working status and ACORN group.
 
 
Table of Contents : 
“About the cDNA programme 3

Section 1: At a glance summary 4
- At a glance summary 5

Section 2: Share of shoppers 6
- Homebase share of shoppers 7
- Homebase share of shoppers by demographics 8
- Homebase share of shoppers by television region 9
- Homebase share of shoppers by household characteristics 10
- Homebase share of shoppers by other characteristics and ACORN classification 11

Section 3: Conversion and non-conversion 12
- Homebase conversion of visitors to main users 13
- Homebase conversion of visitors to main users by demographics and region 14
- Homebase conversion of visitors to main users by household characteristics 15
- Non-converting customers 16
- Profile of Homebase non-converting customers by demographics and region 17

Section 4: Shopper profiles 18
- Homebase profile of shoppers by demographics 19
- Homebase profile of shoppers by television region 20
- Homebase profile of shoppers by household characteristics 21
- Homebase profile of shoppers by other characteristics and ACORN classification 22

Section 5: Loyalty 23
- Homebase loyalty of main users 24
- Homebase loyalty of main users by demographics and region 25
- Homebase loyalty of main users by household characteristics 26
- Homebase basic drivers of loyalty and disloyalty 27
- Homebase detailed drivers of loyalty 28

Section 6: Competition 29
- Competition in DIY 30
- Cross sector competitor dynamics 31

Appendix 32
Basic Methodology 33
Detailed Methodology 34″

For More Information Kindly Visit Below Link :
http://www.aarkstore.com/reports/UK-Consumer-Insights-2009-Homebase-DIY-15650.html

Here comes the most pointless vote of the century, yes even more pointless than the rigged American election in 2000. (If you don’t know the story go waste some time on Wikipedia or something.)

So the choices are:

1. Homebase table (top),
2. Argos table (bottom),
3. Who even gives a damn about Jamie’s stupid table?

Leave any answers in the comment box because the poll-maker isn’t working. (No Rita, not that pole)

]]> http://vouchersfordiscount.co.uk/2009/09/02/diy-discount-deals/ Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:35:01 +0000 loveservices http://vouchersfordiscount.co.uk/2009/09/02/diy-discount-deals/

DIY is an all year round hobby that has been enjoyed by both men and an increasing number of women for decades.

It’s also an area in which you can save money without having do a dodgy deal with Dave’s mate from the builders down the road.  Just make use of the discounts that are being offered by the likes of Homebase, Screwfix, and Builder Superstore.

Last night, HOMEBASE, the Wednesday party at bObs of which I am a regular attendee, celebrated their first anniversary of existence with a fabulous show @ SOB’s. The lineup consisted of Nyle, Melo-X, Diz Gibran, The Kickdrums and Colin Munroe, with music by DJ Getlive.

When I got there, I was surprised to see a line out front that stretched down the block. Even though SOB’s shows are usually packed, it’s rare to see a line in front of the venue. But what surprised me even more was that there was a line outside when it had been raining cats and dogs all day; in fact, it was still coming down when we got there. This was a sign that last night’s show was going to be awesome; true fans rock!

As I waited for Jessica Estevez of IHeartDilla.com to arrive (she was my +1), I ran into Donny Goines, Blitz the Ambassador (who both have big shows coming up; post on that later) and Nikki Ntu, as well as Seed Popular of Rule4080.com. A cipher was going on further down the line (in the rain? Wow…where was Wordspit? He’s the cipher KING! Find him and many others on Friday nights in Union Square…but I digress.), and when it got to the front, Nyle popped up and instantly joined it. Such talent!

Ms. Estevez showed up soon after, and we went inside, where DJ Getlive was already going in on the tunes. We ran into Alice in Wonderland, the lady of many hats who put the show together. Together with DJ Getlive, they bring you HOMEBASE Wednesdays every week @ bObs!

After saying hello to the folks in the room, I headed downstairs, where Nyle was preparing to open up the show. Soon after, he was hamming it up with Alice and Deephunk, in his hosting debut.

Nyle set off the show in fine fashion, with a set that included tracks off his latest project, The Capstone EP. He did an great job of engaging and entertaining the audience, backed by a talented guitarist and drummer. I was ecstatic when he performed two of my favorite cuts off the EP, “X-Man” and “F.A.N.G” (F%@k a Nice Guy). In the latter, he started off by saying that he wished he could sing, but couldn’t, so he did what many people who can’t sing do – he used AUTOTUNE. I was sold; now I see why everybody uses that thing. Take that, Hov!

After Nyle’s set, I looked back at the room and it was packed. Success! Next up was Melo-X…he wowed the crowd by making beats on his MPC – live – before each song. He performed tracks off his mixtape, “Mustafa’s Renaisssance.” Dressed in black from head to tow, Melo delivered a great set that showcase some of his multiple talents.

Diz Gibran, who flew all the way from LA to perform, was next. I was really excited to see his set because I thoroughly enjoy his project with Crooks & Castles, entitled “Soon You’ll Understand.” Many thanks to Cion of Brokn.Englsh, who first put me on to Diz and was also in attendance. Diz gave a dope performance with his brand of West Coast hip hop, which suprisingly didn’t sound as such (I remember him saying that on his mixtape…), and I loved how a lot of other MC’s who were in the building knew the lyrics to his songs. That’s love! Diz even treated the crowd to a little dance =)

Following Diz Gibran was The Kickdrums… fog machine in tow, they played music reminiscent of Keys N Crates, where they meshed keys, guitars and boom-bap. It was clear that Alice was a fan, as were many others who crowded the front of the stage and sang along.

As the stage was cleared for the final artist, I walked around SOB’s and learned that a few big heads were in the building: Plain Pat, John Forte (WOW!) and the ever-happy Dame Dash. Last time I saw him, he was partying hard with Jim Jones at the latter’s album release party.

Midnight struck, which meant that it was time to wish P.So of the AOK Collective a happy Birthday!

Last but not least, Colin Munroe, freshly implanted in NYC from Canada, took the stage. He performed songs off his mixtape, “Colin Munroe is the Unsung Hero.” This dude is the multi-tasker I wish I could be; he somehow managed to play keys with his band while checking text messages from his phone, the result of him giving out his phone number to the audience and asking them to text him requests. Like, wow. I sent a text asking him to shout out P.So for his birthday, but that wasn’t a song request, so I guess that’s why he didn’t read it. =/

Overall, the Homebase Anniversary show was a great success! Shouts to Alice, DJ Getlive, Deephunk and everyone in attendance. It was beautiful to see everyone come out to support Homebase!

LINKS:

HOMEBASE: homebasenyc.blogspot.com

DJ Getlive: djgetlive.blogspot.com

Deephunk: treesforbreakfast.com

Nyle: myspace.com/nylelee

Melo-X: www.melo-x.tv

Diz Gibran: myspace.com/dizgibran

The Kickdrums: myspace.com/thekickdrums

Colin Munroe: myspace.com/colinmunroe

(UPDATE: Photos are finally up…added links to all the artists who performed)

It’s been all go here at Shark Towers over the last two months or so getting DIY and decorating shit done before the house’s eventual sale later this year.

The whole of the back elevation has been primped and preened from the ridge tiles right down to the back doorstep – every piece of woodwork has been repainted or revarnished, the dodgy pointing in some places has been sorted out and it’s looking great.

If you’d come here a month ago and stood still long enough, you’d have either got a paintbrush up your arse or some mortar slapped in your mouth hole.

But it hasn’t stopped there.

Oh no.

The dining room and kitchen have been redecorated, with new carpet laid in the former and I’ve started tiling the area around the cooker in the latter.

We had to nip out this morning to get some more tile adhesive/grout so popped into Homebase as it was fairly near Maplins where I wanted to go to get a double charge socket for the car.

As we were driving to Homebase from Maplins the sky grew blacker abd blacker, there was a terrific display of forked lightning and then it started to piss down by the bucketload.

You know when you have to put the windscreen wipers on at double-speed?

The rain was that heavy.

Anyway, we got to Homebase, waited in the car a few minutes whilst it eased off slightly and then went in the store.

As Mrs Shark is a sufferer of Meniere’s Disease and is often very unsteady on her feet we used her permit to park in a disabled space right outside the exit door which is usually used as an entrance too.

Well, we went in, bought the tile goo, paid and went to go out of the exit but our way was barred by a Homebase munchkin who told us we’d have to go out via the entrance door as the rain had driven in through the exit door and made the floor a bit wet.

‘You can’t go out that way, the floor’s wet.’

‘But we’re parked just outside there.’ (pointing)

‘Sorry, the floor’s wet and you might slip on it.’

Well, in deference to Mrs Shark, who occasionally finds my arguing with officious shitheads a bit irksome, we went out of the entrance.

However, I was then treated to a mini-rant from her in which she went on about how we were all adults, could manage to negotiate a slippery floor and that did she really need some tit looking after her welfare.

I agreed.

Not because it was wise to – we don’t operate like that, thank Christ – but because it was true.

Surely an adult can decide whether or not a wet floor represents a hazard and then choose whether to accept that risk or not?

No doubt the Homebase management had run a quick risk assessment after thinking that some over-litigious cuntbiscuit might sue if they slipped over and bumped their elbow, but it still doesn’t address the real issue – that our opportunities to think for ourselves are being rapidly diminished by an over-cautious, over-protective and over-bearing society that impinges on the personal liberties of its citizens by denying them such opportunities on an increasing basis.

Next time if it’s raining when I visit Homebase I shall take crampons with me, put them on and tell the cockend barring the exit door to fuck all the way off.