One of my favourite author, Terry Pratchett has said “”Personally, I’d eat the arse out of a dead mole…” Not a strange attempt at grabbing publicity for his books, but rather a (humorous) reference to the lengths he’d go to, to try and find a cure for Alzheimer’s. Although relatively young (for such a neurone-wasting type of disease) to have been struck down, he hasn’t shied away from the media, nor withdrawn into self pity, he hopes to bring further press to the cause. He has also just pledged close to a million dollars (£494,000) to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust. To read some more on this, head on over to this article.

With so many offers and new companies springing up every month, playing at an online casino can be a bewildering process, if you do not already have a favourite site. Although I’ve not played cards for money since my school days in Cheltenham, I do occasionally remember playing Bingo back in Bournemouth, and whilst the real world variant certainly (at the time at least) had it quotient of OAPs and was female-dominated, the online versions seemed to have a good mix last time I checked. (OK, so I found a £10 voucher and decided to give it a shot - I’m not ready for the retirement home just yet!). Anyway OnlineCasionBlueBook also have a section specifically for those interested in the best Bingo Introductory Offers. They obviously also have the more popular sections on ‘normal’ online casinos, as well as e-bookies. Not sure if that term exists, or if it does whether our friends across the ocean in America will understand it - feel free to leave a comment if so

If I was to pick out one aspect that could do with some more thought or possibly revision, it would be the graphical look of the blog. Perhaps I just spend too much time on so called Web 2.0 style sites, but the site looks as though it could do with a spot of modernisation. That said, this same look almost brings with it a feel of a committed online casino player offering his experience to others, rather than a highly polished, generic site that is cynically output by some multi-national non-caring company. Finally, the fact that the owner is happy for you to personally e-mail him, should you want further guidance, or a little further clarity bought to a point they raise really does instil some trust, for me at least.
Oh, and there are a couple of “are”s that should “our” - not exactly the end of the world TBH

I was speaking to a friend recently, and discovered one of their relatives had just reached the official pensioner age. The relative has chosen to continue working in their current job. Not that most people have a lot of choice… The MONTHLY pension here is just 11,000 tenge! That equates to around $85, or if you prefer £40, to live on. Although some essentials are cheaper in this country, a lot of prices are catching up, without a matching rise in wages or pensions. For those pensioners living solely on a their state pension, I simply can not imagine how they manage to pay the electricity and other utility bills, buy enough food to survive 4 weeks. That is completely ignoring such ‘luxuries’ as clothing or fuel for their transport, if they have any.
When it comes to most matters with this country, I stay fairly neutral - it is difficult to criticize any system without having lived through the multitude of changes etc., however this pension level just seems immoral.
Anyway, I’ll hop off my soap box for now, at least until someone gets me fired up about the equally scandalous level of pay doctors get paid here.

Whether the Cheap Jaguar story currently being written about by many bloggers is a true, complete account of a disgruntled wife’s method of extracting revenge on her cheating husband, or simply a clever ruse to ensure wide coverage of their site is unknown to me. However, the story makes you smile (or possibly wince if you have a guilty conscience?), as does BuyYourCar’s scheme where you pay just £4.95 for an advert to sell you car, which will continue to run until it is sold!

Anyway, check out the advert linked to above, and tell me what you think - even if you are not in the market for New or Used Cars right now, it may lighten your day. You could even try ringing the mobile number listed, though I imagine that if the woman advertising is for real, she’ll have diverted all calls to answerphone by now - I can not see a Jag failing to sell for 50% less that the normal price really. If you are not looking for a car right now, due to financial restraints, make sure you pop on over to the site’s Car Loans section - perhaps you can still afford the car of your dreams?

As many regular readers will know, I sometimes supplement my income by writing posts for companies that want some links placed, or products reviewed. The vast majority of them pay via PayPal, and in US Dollars. In the past this was not too much of a problem, but having just checked my balance today, I can see that the weaker dollar means I am earning less and less (in UK pounds or Kazakh tenge) for each post I write.
As an example, my current PayPal balance is $171.05, which just a month ago would have equated to around £85. However, if I currently withdraw that money into my nominated UK bank account, I will get just £78.98. Whilst this may not seem a lot in isolation, over the course of a month or even a year, that means losing around $800 in currency exchanges. Of course, the dollar may well bounce back, and I can start looking at an exchange rate of around $2=£1 again, but until then, I’ll just have to hope the US politicians decide they no longer want a weak dollar, though that would obviously make US exports seems less attractive.
Never thought the US economy would effect my income so directly!

(UK Relevant)

When I first visited Kazakhstan, I looked a little different to how I do now. I believe I kept most of my ear rings in at the time, and there was certainly a little more hair left at the front of my head Whilst here, I was wandering around a local mall, and found a glasses shop (as in they sold glasses, but weren’t opticians, unlike a lot of UK based shops.) In the shop, I found some great cosmetic contact lenses - atomic symbols, obviously with a hole for your pupil to see out of When I got back to Britain, I saved them for going out to clubs and parties, however they eventually dried out and cracked up. I still occasionally think about buying some more, but as my club hopping days are over, and such extravagances are not especially appreciated in this nation, I think I will just have to write them off as an interesting phase…

If you would like to see a range of lens, of both the conventional type for assisting you with your vision, as well as a range of Wild Eyes lenses then just click here. They also stock a range of related accessories, though I am not sure I could cope with using tweezers to insert and remove lens - I was nervous enough sticking my finger in my eye! If you spend £60 or more, the site will even include delivery for free, so take a moment, check the range available, and see what you think…

British Gas have released the following Press Release, and would like it to be published in as many places as possible. As they compensate those who do so, please read the following text for information regarding BG’s two new tariffs, apparently created for an ecological purpose. The following PR is published as requested, without any amendments.

9 August 2007: British Gas has announced it is launching two new green energy tariffs, Zero Carbon, which will be the greenest tariff available on the domestic market and Future Energy. British Gas has launched the tariffs, in response to the increasing demand for green energy products.

Householders signing up to the Zero Carbon tariff will:
• reduce their household energy carbon emissions to zero through Kyoto compliant offset schemes which will meet the new Defra requirements
• help fund a direct increase in investment in renewable energy generated in the UK
• contribute to the new British Gas green fund which will:
• invest in developing new renewable technologies such as wave power
• oversee a programme to help schools in the UK reduce their CO2 emissions

Gearóid Lane, Managing Director British Gas New Energy said,”Our new tariff responds to consumer demand for truly green energy solutions. It is essential that customers have confidence in green energy tariffs and that their credibility is not damaged by tariffs that claim to be green but in reality do not deliver any incremental environmental benefits. Green tariffs are moving from niche to mainstream products and we’re leading the industry by offering a tariff that will do more for the environment than any other product currently available.”

Under the government’s Renewables Obligation (RO), electricity suppliers in the UK are already required to produce an increasing percentage of their electricity through methods such as wind farms which, unlike traditional power plants, produce zero carbon emissions. For 2007/2008 this figure is set at 7.9%.

In a recent report, the National Consumer Council (NCC) raised concerns that some energy suppliers are packaging electricity which is produced under the RO scheme as “green”, yet it delivers no additional environmental benefits. The NCC called on energy suppliers to take steps beyond their legal requirements and offer green energy tariffs that provide genuine additional environmental benefits, in particular CO2 emissions reduction.

British Gas worked with Global Action Plan and The Climate Group’s “We’re in this Together” campaign to develop Zero Carbon which goes further than any other green tariff in meeting these requirements offering consumers the only zero carbon option on the market.

The tariff carries a premium of £84 per year, reflecting the higher cost of producing energy through lower carbon emission schemes.

Virginia Graham, Chair of Global Action Plan, said, “The British Gas Zero Carbon tariff delivers on all three of the essential requirements of a green tariff which are: additionality, transparency and verifiability. As such it is a very welcome new offering in the market. Consumers signing up to the tariff can be confident that they are getting 12 per cent more renewable energy than they would otherwise have got. The carbon emissions from their electricity and gas will also be offset with emissions reductions from projects accredited by the United Nations.”

Zero Carbon is one of the first initiatives launched through the ‘We’re in this Together’ campaign, which was launched in April 07 as an alliance of some of the UK’s biggest brands who are all working to help their customers reduce their impact on the climate.

Dr Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group and founder of ‘We’re in this Together’ said, “We’re committed to offering people ways to make a real impact on climate change through Together.com. We’ve worked with British Gas to ensure that Zero Carbon is a genuine step forward in delivering more environmental benefits than any other tariff currently available.”

British Gas’s second green energy tariff, Future Energy, offers an alternative green electricity tariff at a premium of just £20 per year. Customers signing up to this tariff will contribute to a green fund which will provide solar panels and other renewable energy technologies to UK schools. Money from the fund will also be invested in development of future renewable technologies and sources.

To sign up customers can call British Gas on 0845 604 0055 or visit www.britishgas.co.uk

When it comes to shopping online, nothing can beat dodging all the queues, not having to try and find somewhere to park, and getting caught up in the rush hour traffic on the way home… Or can it? How about shopping online, AND getting some money back each time you shop? Well, CashBackToYou (sometimes referred to as CBTY in this post, as otherwise my fingers will drop off ) is a good example of such a Cashback Rewards site.
With more than 1300 schemes on their books, from John Lewis to Tesco.com, and from Marks and Spencers to Pipex, all you need to do is sign up to CashBackToYou, for free, and the great offers will be open to you.

In some cases, you can even earn cash ‘back’ when you have not had to spend anything in the first place! If you join certain sites, through CashBackToYou’s special links, you can receive money simply for joining other schemes. So given all this money being paid out, just how does this site operate? Simple, each time you shop somewhere, through them, the retailer gives a commission to CBTY. The majority of this commission is used to pay into your account, however, whatever is left over is then ploughed back into the company. They have been operating for five years already, so it does not look like you need worry about their financial security.

Once you have started to earn your cashback, be it in the form of a percentage of your total bill with the selected retailer, or a simply set amount deducted, you can track your income through their site. Once you have reached the trigger level of £25, you can either be paid a cheque in the mail, or through your PayPal account, should you prefer.

Given that the lottery is a selection of random numbers, there is little you can do on your own to increase your chance of winning, other than the obvious - buying a lot of tickets. However, if you decide to join a UK Lottery Syndicate, you will find the stats are in your favour… Rather than having just one shot at a win, you get 88 sets of numbers! If you decided to go it alone instead, that would cost than £4500 a year!

For less than the cost of a pint and a few plays on a fruit machine, you get 44 numbers on Wednesday’s draw, and another set of 44 on the Saturday draw. Whats more, as the system is fully automated, once you join, that is it, no more having to remember to drive to the newsagent or super market, wait in the long queue, and place your numbers twice a week.

If you are not near a TV when the draws are made, fear not, the Virtual World Direct eLottery Syndicate will e-mail you the results, so you can check at your leisure whether this is the week you have won.

A quarter of ALL jackpots are won by syndicates in Britain, so what are you waiting for? Check the site and join up today!