Socialholic

OK, so we’ve only moved servers but nonetheless, we’ve moved and, with the move comes the opportunity to think and ponder and decide on the direction of this blog.

I’ve got some ideas up m’sleeve and I’ll be sharing them in due course. For now, I am going back to a big bit of paper and some crayons to work out exactly how it’s all gonna fit together!

See you soon! Here!

If you’re looking for a lovely last-minute present, you could do a lot worse than a Moleskine notebook or diary. Amazon have some fab deals on at the moment on these and there’s still time to get free delivery for Christmas (if you’re quick!).

Here are some of the highlights by discount…

Moleskine Passion Books Journal £11.16 – 37% off

Moleskine Passion Film Journal £11.33 – 36% off

Moleskine Passion Wellness Journal £11.35 – 36% off

Travel (+) (Moleskine Passion Journal) £11.71 – 33% off

Yes, I am annoyed. Yes, I was annoyed when I wrote it. No, it’s not entirely constructive. Yes, it was toned down, quite a bit. And I like the BBC, really quite a lot.

To: david.robey@bbc.co.uk

Dear Mr Robey

Re Danny Baker

What a ridiculous decision. I would give you a complete email explaining why it’s a bad idea and how good Danny Baker is but, let’s be honest, you don’t care what I (or any of the listeners) think – provided that I pay my licence fee, I’m nothing more than a minor irritation. So what’s the point, eh?

I look forward to hearing whichever poor sap is ordered to come out and explain why the listenership figures have dived in a few months time, telling everyone that it all has to do with different ways that people consume radio and nothing to do with you ditching a multi-award-winning and much loved broadcaster.

If your secret mission is to close the station to save money, grow some and close it. I’m sure they’ll put up a statute to you somewhere. Go on, bung it on eBay – if you’re really smart, you could do it on a ‘free listing’ weekend and save another couple of quid.

If it’s just to save some money, could I respectfully suggest that you take a pay cut? A big one?

Yours, someone that appreciates the difference between value and cost,

JMB

Who doesn’t like a DVD or box set at Christmas? How about a box set with over 7 hours of the superb Emmy and Golden Globe winning US comedy 30 Rock? How about all that for just £3.75?!

Series 3 of 30 Rock for just £3.75 has to be one of the Christmas stocking bargains of the year! So much so that I’ve just ordered it myself!

I’m still trying to get my head around what Sheryl Crow and Elvis Costello could be doing in the series finale though…!

Be quick – this will sell out and is over twice the price on most other sites.

Memory card prices fluctuate like crazy – especially the slower Class  4 and below cards – and at Christmas, you can’t have too many empty SD cards to hand to capture the misery… joy of everyone!

The Sandisk Ultra card is a good quality, fast and reliable range. The 16GB Sandisk Ultra SD card is currently available at £7.70 (check the page and look to the ‘More Buying Choices’ section at the right – as I type this, MyMemory has them at £7.70 delivered) making them cheaper than two standard, slower (Class 4) Sandisk 8GB cards.

It looks like Amazon have come up trumps again with another Lego bargain – this time the Lego Mobile Police Unit down from £41.99 to £22.99.

This set contains 3 minifigures (2 police officers and a robber), a Mobile Police Unit, a red sports car, a police motorcycle, handcuffs, flashlight, magnifying glass and gold brick.

These ‘big’ sets work great as main presents and, at almost half price, leave a chunk of money left over for some Christmas cheer!

As you’ll know, Lego Minifigures are about £2 each so, if you’d like to include some more police and criminals into your Lego Police themed Christmas pressies, the Lego City Police Minifigure Collection (at £5.98 down from £8.49) is great value. It contains a cash machine, two robber Minifigures, a police buggy, a policeman Minifigure, a police dog, a police dog handler minifigure, handcuffs, torch, swag bag and crowbar!

In the interest of transparency, this is the Freedom of Information request that I have today submitted to Newton Abbot Town Council. The Council is proposing to develop a small patch of land to include some trees and benches but, in its consultation, does not mention the cost. I believe that this is wrong and that the public has a right to know how much they will have to pay for this. Especially as the figures being put around are in excess of £500,000 over 40 years – representing a very significant chunk of the Town Council’s budget year on year and a very long term debt on local taxpayers.

I will post the response when it appears.

—-

Dear Mr Rowe

I email with a series of requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The requests relate to the development at Victoria Gardens (“the Development”).

1- please confirm the amount budgeted by the Town Council for repayment of capital debt and interest of the Development in each of the financial years 2012-13 through to 2053-54. If there are years where there is no projected budget for this, please confirm the dates where this is the case.

2- please confirm the capital sum to be borrowed in respect of the Development.

3- please confirm whether the council is considering (or has agreed) a fixed interest debt instrument (or loan) or whether it is considering (or has agreed) a variable interest debt instrument (or loan).

4- please confirm the interest rates under consideration for the debt instrument (or loan) that is under consideration or that will be used for the Development.

5- please confirm the duration of the loan that is under consideration or that will be used for the Development.

6- please confirm the total projected to be repaid under the debt instrument (or loan) that is under consideration or that will be used for the Development.

7- please confirm whether any of the documents used for the public consultation on the Development had included the budget or cost for the Development.

8- please confirm the surface area of the Development site.

You will appreciate that FOI requests may be made by email and I am content for you to reply in the same way to *********. If you wish to reply by post, my address is **********.

I look forward to hearing from you within the designated timescale.

Yours sincerely

James Barisic

If I mention the words, I know there will be a rush and I’ll get trampled in the stampede but there’s no way around it. So here goes…

Doctor Who stuff half price!

There – I’ve said it!

So, here are the details. Each of the links below will take you to the named Doctor Who Figure and Audio CD set. The RRP is £9.95 but John Lewis have them in Clearance for £4.98! Standard Delivery is £3 or you can order and collect in store at most John Lewis and Waitrose stores.

Doctor Who: Doctor Who Figure and Audio CD

Doctor Who: Roman Auton Figure and Audio CD

Doctor Who: Cyberman Figure and Audio CD

Doctor Who: Angel Bob Figure and Audio CD

Doctor Who: Silurian Warrior Figure and Audio CD

Enjoy!

Not a Christmas deal but rather a ‘grab it quick’!

Amazon is launching its Cloud Player and to mark the launch, they are offering one of hundreds of different mp3 album downloads for 99p!

To get yours:

Click here and the page showing the available albums will open in a new page.

Choose an album from the selection, then click “Redeem a gift card or promotion code & view balance” under the “Buy MP3 album with 1-click” button on the album page.

Type in the code CLOUD99P

Checkout in the normal way.

The highlights for me are

Hugh Laurie’s incredible album, ‘Let them talk’

Van Morrison, Still On Top – The Greatest Hits (a double album with 37 tracks!)

The Smiths, The Sound of the Smiths

There are also hundreds of others ranging from Pixie Lott to Queen, from Paloma Faith to Christina Aguilera to The Cure.

The offer runs until 30 September – so grab one quickly!

I have been an advocate of using cashback sites for years. Cashback sites are a really simple way of making the most of the bargains that you can find online.

How Cashback Sites Work

The idea is simple enough – you sign up to a cashback site and, when making a purchase at your favourite online retailer, instead of going straight to their site, you log in to the cashback site and click through from their directory. When you make your purchase, you receive cashback (normally a percentage of your order).

Which Cashback Site?

The normal answer is ‘check them all’. However, over the past year, I have moved wholeheartedly from Quidco (my previous favourite) to TopCashBack.

The reasons are simple:

1 – Quidco charges £5 per year (which is taken from your cashback earnings). TopCashBack charges nothing.

2 – TopCashBack guarantees that they pay the highest commission – so if you find higher rates elsewhere, TopCashBack will match it.

3 – Cashback can be paid by various methods (including PayPal and bank transfer), however, if you want Love2Shop vouchers or Amazon vouchers, TopCashBack will give you a ‘bonus’ on top of your cashback. You get 5% extra with Amazon vouchers and 4% extra with Love2Shop vouchers.

Isn’t It Just Pennies?

It can be – you can earn pennies just for using search and comparison sites without buying anything. But it can also be pounds – and many of them!

Mobile and utility companies regularly offer cashback deals of over £100.

For instance, on TopCashBack as I write this:

- Vodaphone are offering 5 different cashbacks of between £101 and £141 for mobile contracts.

- Sky and Virgin have cashbacks between £76.76 and £252.50 for various TV, phone and broadband deals.

- Thinking of a Tesco Kitchen or Bathroom? Cashback of £404 is available.

You can even get cashback on free trials! For example, both NetFlix and LoveFilm give £12.12 for free trial sign ups – literally money for nothing!

There is some serious money to be saved through cashback and, if you don’t take it, you are just paying over the odds for exactly the same goods and services.

It’s Free to Sign Up

It makes sense to sign up now so that you can take a look and get used to the idea – then train yourself to always check before buying! Signing up is free and you don’t have to use it – but you can if you want to get your hands on that cashback!

For more details of TopCashBack, click here.