I will be taking a mini break from blogging as we are heading off with friends to go skiing in Switzerland for a week. I am looking forward to it but am not the best skier. To put it in perspective, below is the trail map for where I learned to ski – it was called Glen Eden (that’s Canadian for snowy golf course)
and this is the trail map for where we are going (click to enlarge)….
At least I should still be able to type with two broken legs!
Having never created a gadget myself I can only guess that most gadgets are created because some person who gets easily annoyed (like me perhaps?) finds a little something in their life so annoying that they must create something to make the annoyance go away. Like having to match socks or the inconvenience of skiing with a ghetto blaster.
This one makes me laugh though as I am not sure who would find it a) so annoying or b) carry pizza boxes often enough that they had to run home and start making a prototype. To clarify, this is actually a special pizza carrying bag, the guys at pizza express did not just cut off the corners of a carrier bag for me (although they could have…..and I still would have probably blogged about it).
Thoughts? I love it cause I didn’t realise how annoying it was to carry pizza boxes and now when I do it without a bag I find it really awkward, I might have to start carrying one of these around for emergency pizza takeaway situations.
Not since Tim Horton’s Roll up the Rim to win cup have I seen such fancy cup technology!! (yes, this is another post about McDonald’s)
This cup below is basically the most moron proof loyalty programme I have ever seen…need a sticker for your loyalty card?…its stuck to your cup (at the end of the giant arrow marked sticker)….need a card to stick to the cup as well?…yup its attached to your cup too.
Need someone to carry around the loyalty card so you don’t lose it on your next 5 visits to McDonald’s so you can get your free one?…sorry can’t help you with that
Further to my previous post about odd documentary type shows on British TV, one of the BBC comedy sketch shows has come up with this hilarious ‘mockumentary’ titled The boy with an arse for a face.
Warning, contains nudity…kind of
I am a big fan of all things gossip so tend to be the type of person who believes everything she reads….I am struggling with this one though. Apparently after the Brit Awards on Wednesday night, someone bought Kylie Minogue a £35,000 cocktail. Could this really be true? Could someone have really spent £35,000 ($69,937.72 Canadian dollars) on a drink?
Want to know what was in this thing?
- Louis XII cognac,
- half a bottle of Cristal Rose champagne,
- brown sugar,
- Angostura bitters,
- pieces of 24-carat edible gold leaf
AND, wait for it….
an 11-carat diamond ring in the bottom of the glass
That’s not a drink, that’s a marriage proposal! AND after a half a bottle of champagne the suitor probably had a pretty good chance of getting a yes (but it wasn’t a marriage proposal and she didn’t say yes, I don’t want to be accused of spreading nasty gossip I’m just sayin’)
I am a shining example that neither cooking or sewing skills are genetic as my Mom is fab at both however I can barely thread a needle and would rather spend hours on the internet finding the best food delivery website than actually cook. But, I was thinking of my gadget obsession today and actually laughed out loud when I remembered a particular gadget my parents had….it was called the Bone Fone (thanks to Mom for remembering the name) it was brilliantly orange (wasn’t everything in the late 70’s) and promised to revolutionise the way you listened to music. All I remembered is that it had arm straps so I could loop it over my neck run around the house singing (genetic as well, got it from Dad) with it on and it didnt’ fall off.
As this hilarious advertorial tells you (click on the ad to read it full screen)…..
“The Bone Fone was invented by an engineer who liked to ski. Every time he took a long lift ride, he noticed other skiers carrying transistor radios and cassette players and wondered if there was a better way to keep your hands free and listen to stereo music”
Seriously? people skied with transistor radios and cassette players? Can you imagine wiping out on the slopes and not only having to collect your skis, poles, hat and gloves strewn all over the piste but having to look for your double A batteries and tape player before the guy behind you skied over your Wham Make it Big cassette? I am sure we can’t even imagine how many skiers were saved by this gadget!
I think I have mentioned my love of gadgets before…whether it’s a sock clip, fake tattoo sleeves, a thing that stacks beer in your fridge or something highly more technical I feel the need to have it. As a result, none of you should be surprised when I read about this gadget and decided I needed it.
Its called chumby and its basically an alarm clock turned wireless device that allows you to check your email, facebook, ebay, weather, stock quotes, entertainment updates (gossip), listen to music, display photos…virtually anything you can do on a PC but streamed to your alarm clock (oh yeah, it can also wake you up).
Currently I to wake up at 6:37 (cause 6:35 is too early and 6:40 is too late) get out of bed, turn on my computer, connect to the internet (yes connect, our service is so crap its not on all the time) then check my mail, google reader and facebook all before hopping in the shower. With chumby however, I could do all of that without having to get out of bed…I might even get to sleep in til 6:40 as I wouldn’t have to wait for it to boot up like I do with my laptop!
…My 30th birthday is only 298 days away so I thought I should start throwing out ideas.
Source: Chumby site
Being in marketing my entire working life I am quite conscious of how brands deal with their loyal customers. I believe that customer service can be one of the most effective marketing tools that will either work for or against…that is why I am always pleased to see when companies get the customer service bit right (although I admit it hasn’t happened much over here…pretty sure I could fill a blog on bad customer service but will try to refrain)
A few Sundays ago after my hubby’s 30th birthday we were a little hungover and had to figure out where we could get lunch delivered from as we couldn’t fathom leaving the flat to pick something up. We didn’t feel like pizza necessarily but chose Pizza Hut as you could get a bunch of sides with your pizza….nachos, cheezy potato wedges, chicken fingers, wings and 2 litre drinks (please note, that was not a list of all the things you could get…it was our actual order).
I was also happy to see that you could place your entire order online through their fairly user friendly website – they even gave you an option to have different toppings on each half of the pizza and at the check out, it told me what meal deal I could choose which ended up saving me £3.
Anyway, long story longer we placed our order and waited an hour…with our stomachs just about to digest themselves we got a call from the Pizza Hut that received our online order informing me that the order came through to the wrong store and that they couldn’t deliver to our area!!! Almost in tears of disbelief and hunger I took down the number for head office as not only could he not deliver but he couldn’t refund my online payment. I quickly re-ordered from the correct Pizza Hut but probably would have chosen another restaurant had my heart not been craving the nachos so badly.
I was disappointed about the whole online debacle as there are load of people that are hesitant of using the internet for things like pizza dleivery and if they have an experience like mine will probably be weary of online transactions in general – which isn’t good for the industry as a whole. When i called customer service I did express my disappointment at the glitch as the rest of the process was so easy that this really put she agreed to look into it, apologised and refunded my money for the incorrect order.
The best bit is that I came home the other night to a letter of apology and a £10 gift certificates for our next order. Very well done as you have now virtually guaranteed another order from me, someone who was definitely iffy on your brand based on the last experience….I do however think that I will order over the phone as I am not 100% convinced the post code glitch will be fixed.
Okay so the story with the reptile package (see post below) is this…the guy in the office upstairs bought his tortoise, called Jack, a fancy new house with heat lamps etc (which was in the box – NOT the tortoise itself) but sadly, Jack died yesterday before his new flat got delivered…RIP Jack.
Anyway back to my normal ramblings. I have been wanting to blog about this site but keep forgetting – the site is called http://www.futreme.org/ and is essentially a new spin on the time capsule activity that we did in grade school. You remember that exercise, you write a letter to yourself 10 years in the future (at the ripe old age of 19 when you are all growned up). Then you bury all the letters on the playground of the school along with a thermos full of (Tim Hortons) coffee to see if it stays warm for a decade (it won’t – sorry kids). This is the same concept however you write yourself (or someone else) an email then specify a delivery date in the future.
So come on, in the spirit of Valentines Day why don’t you write yourself a Valentine to be delivered this time next year and see how 2008 treated you – it guarantees you will receive a Valentine next year and is much easier than burying a card in your garden .
