If any of my American readers can be bothered, could you send me a message explaining why (apparently) platform beds are only just becoming popular in the USA? What sort of beds did you normally sleep on in the past? I’m genuinely intrigued by this one. I doubt you all have futons or bunk beds Seriously, I did a little googling, and a few sites claimed that whilst popular over here in Europe and Asia, they were only just hitting the big time in America recently?

We really need to buy some measuring of your weight equipment, not because I am on a diet or anything, but because with another flight coming, we need to try and get our baggage as light as possible, as on our return from the UK, we will probably have more with us than we left Kazakhstan with. Although I read some rumours that flights from Europe will start allowing two items of hand luggage each once more, I don’t want to rely on this.

As you may remember from my previous posts re. the HTC TyTn II, I already use a Global Positioning System device when I am in Britain. Although there are of course the usual horror stories of little old grannies mindlessly following instructions and driving their Nissan Sunny into a pond, or of being taken on 250 mile detours, I find the ability to chill out about exactly which junction I need to exit from on the motorway, or the location of speed cameras very useful. According to an article over at BBC News, Europe is planning the launch of a system to offer an alternative to America’s GPS. The table at the end of the article is the sort of thing I really like from the BBC - a neat summary of exactly what is on the table, and in this case at least, who each section will be aimed at.

The rules are pretty simple - register with Overstock’s competition by the 7th December, and you could win a prize from their site. How could it be better? How about five of your friends winning a prize at the same time (up to a total value of $1000)? If you are really lucky and win the grand draw prize, then you and your five best friends (they will soon be your best buddies even if they weren’t before ) get a $5000 pot to spend on your prizes!
So, click the link for the “All I want for Christmas Giveaway“, watch the flash presentation and start thinking which of your friends would most appreciate the gift if you win. You can enter once per day, and your friends can also enter in their own right. (Please see the rules section for exact details).

Personally, I would go for some classy diamond earrings for Irina, and maybe a new digital camera for us. Anyway, ChrisD, AlexC, Oleg, NickM and Seb (who could share with Con :)) would be my 5 nominated friends, if we all lived over in America, rather than Europe. Taking a moment to look at overstock’s inventory, I feel I would probably have difficulty in keeping to the 1K or 5K total, but then again its Christmas, so I suppose I could always dip into the bank account to top up the total budget…

To get a bit of background information for this post, head on over to this BBC News article. For those unwilling, the UK Independence Party (UKIP) are broadly anti-EU, and favour Britain isolating itself from the European Union more. In the past they have never shied away from playing on people’s fears, and blowing things out of proportion.
In this particular case, they presented a question within a Europe-wide census as asking citizens about their sexual activities. The question was referring to what is sometimes called common-law husband/wife relationships. This is when people live together but do not actually get married.
The tone used by a UKIP representative is toned down in this article, compared to the previous one that was issued before the EU decided to drop the question altogether. The UKIP member now appears to concede that the meaning they attributed to ‘consensual union’ may have been incorrect.
Anyway, I don’t know for certain, but it is unlikely that an entire party could mis-understand a term…

I think I have used the upside down exclamation mark in the right context, though I’m sure Oleg will be along to correct me shortly, if I’ve goofed Anyway, onto the main part of the post… I know from Steve’s experience that holidays in Spain can be great, so I did a little research to find out what sort of things attract it’s many visitors. Basketball is very popular there, especially compared to rest of Europe. In fact you will often find the NBA (USA) take the best Spanish players over to America.
Getting down to area specifics, Madrid with its mountains near by, and museums and galleries all over the place has a lot of culture and natural beauty. It is also a city for sun lovers. Summer is nearly always over 30°c, and occasionally over 40°c! So it is very important to find Hotels in Madrid that have air conditioning in their rooms.

Barcelona - (if you are Spanish, you may well end up searching for ‘Hoteles en Barcelona‘ rather than the English variant of ‘Hotels in Barcelona‘). Apart from being the subject of a great duet between Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe is also host to a wide plethora of interesting nightlife. You can sample the street performances laid on, or specifically go to one of the concert halls. At the end of a night full of culture, the distinctive yellow and black taxis are easy to spot, speeding you on your way to a well earned night’s rest.

One of the problems with conventional credit cards is the ease with which you can over spend, blowing your original budget out the window. Although many people are confident of their restraint when it comes to everyday activities, once you step off that plane, and you are on vacation, it can be all too easy to simply decide to stick it on the plastic, and forget about it until you get back home again. Such attitudes can cause real problems and excessive budgetary controls when you do start living your normal life again.

One approach to find a solution to this issue is to stop using traditional credit cards. Back in Britain, and main land Europe, there are debit cards such as Switch (now called Maestro), however if your country or specific bank does not already offer debits cards, don’t worry there is still hope. ePay.vg offer Visa cards that are actually debit cards, with enough other benefits that even those of you with debit cards already may want to check out the site for further details. One big bonus is that they are specifically geared towards working in many different situations online, not just in the ‘real’ world. However, the flexibility does not end with the ways you can spend the money in your account, you will also find that putting money into the account is achievable in a multitude of ways. If you run your own business, you may well have an interest in this card, as you can use it and the online systems associated with it to receive money electronically, very easily. This could mean you are opening the door to more than 270 million potential customers, all by just joining ePay.vg!
At all stages through out the online processes involved, all information is transmitted and received securely, so you and your customers can rest assured in the knowledge that any sensitive financial data is kept away from prying eyes. So, if you think you might be interested, click the link above, and why not check out the tour set up for first time users? If you have any remaining questions after that, there is a FAQ section set up especially for your needs.

For those who have already partaken of a holiday in Hawaii, please do let me know what your experiences are like. I can tell from my server logs that not only is my overall traffic increasing, but that I’ve also picked up a few more regular readers in America and Europe, so don’t be shy, let me know how you found any Hawaiian Vacations you have had…
Some people go for Hawaiian Beach Rentals for their hols, with the sand and the sea so close, who can blame them? The thought of being able to go and dive in for a swim mere minutes after waking up would be enough to make me want to investigate a little further.
Just check out their front page for a selection of properties that are either ON the beach front, or just one block away. The budget is sure to match most people’s needs & wallets - from pure luxury to high quality, low cost accommodation.
Anyway, if you have savoured the delights of that country, do let me know what you thought…

At least in terms of exclusiveness, according to MEPs (Members of the European Parliament to my American readers). They have judged that spirits made from different ingredients can still be called vodka.
Why the champagne reference? Well here in Kazakhstan, the situation is the same as it was a while ago in Europe - pretty much any fizzy wine can call itself Champagne. However, in Europe at least, the grapes have to come from a certain region, and strict rules apply to the production process before a wine is allowed the pretige of having champagne on the label.

MEPs from the Nordic and Baltic states had asked for the legal definition of vodka to be tightened even further than originally proposed, to only include spirits made from potatoes or grain. The manufacturers will need to note on the label what the drink is made from, if not spuds or wheat, but there will be no minimum font height/percentage.
Vodka producers in Western Europe (Britain, Germany and France mainly) will be very happy that spirits made from grapes, citrus fruits and sugar beets can still be called vodka.

Russia is of course the world’s largest producer of vodka, but if the Nordic definition had been applied, Britain would have been kicked out of second place.